“The elephant in the room is Fukushima radiation” & CND’s Role In The Disaster

Excerpts from column by Cynthia McKinney, former member of Congress who served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives,

Oct. 19, 2015:

• In the aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power meltdown… the international community has totally failed in keeping the public properly informed and protected from the fallout. Scientists and environmental officials continue to express concern, even now, at the unusual events and wonder about the causes. At the same time, the media present the facts, but fail to make any connection whatsoever to the ongoing state of affairs stemming from the tragic 2011 events at Fukushima. Here are a few recent examples… A September 2015 audio report from Robin Corcoran, biologist from the Kodiak Wildlife National Refuge, confirms local reports that “emaciated” bird carcasses are washing up on Kodiak Island shores… The program concluded by stating that multiple species of birds have declined in number in other Alaska regions… A few days before the Kodiak reports… Josh Saranpaa of the Wildlife Center of the North Coast was quoted as saying, “Every bird we’re seeing is starving to death. It’s pretty bad.” Saranpaa added, “When you see so many starving, something is not quite right out there.”… Julia Reis of the Half Moon Bay Review writes with understatement, “There have been noticeable changes in the Pacific Ocean that have caused difficulties for marine life of late.” Gerry McChesney of the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge says that the die-off has him all the more “baffled” because of the strip of cold water in his area full of food for these birds. In my mind’s eye, I can see McChesney scratching his head as I read that he considers poisoning, starvation, and El Nino as possible causes for the die-off. The article ends with the following comment by McChesney, “We might have to see some other problem in the ocean before we understand what’s causing the die-off.”

• ENENews.com points to the problem of the massive die-off happening from San Diego to Alaska—all along the West Coast of the U.S. It highlights in various reports words like “strange,” “unprecedented,” “crazy,” “worst,” with this iconic quote from The Sacramento Bee: “Our gut tells us there is something going on in the marine environment.”

• [T]he media provide coverage of marine anomalies mentioning global warming, even El Nino and toxic algae, while the elephant in the room is Fukushima radiation. It is this silence that is deafening!… I do want to know why in the face of what appear to be Pacific Ocean die-offs, El Nino is mentioned and not the Fukushima-related elevated levels of radiation. As long as there is a palpable lack of transparency in the mainstream media’s ordinary coverage of extraordinary environmental events, that includes what one senses as a reticence to discuss the obvious, I predict that there will be a proliferation of citizen journalists and citizen scientists seizing upon each piece of new data trying to make sense out of a government-approved narrative that just doesn’t make sense… We should not rely on government officials to tell us the truth about the full extent of Fukushima’s fallout.

See the ENENews report mentioned by McKinney here

Published: October 15th, 2015

International Bird Rescue, Sep 22, 2015: An unprecedented number of exhausted, hungry seabirds continue to flood International Bird Rescue’s San Francisco Bay Center… The sight of so many starving seabirds has raised red flags among seabird scientists…San Francisco Chronicle, Oct 15, 2015 (emphasis added): [T]housands of common murres… have been found dead… “all signs point to starvation from a lack of forage fish,” [Marine ecologist Kirsten Lindquist] said, adding that the same problem has been documented along the Oregon, Washington and Alaska coastlines… many endemic marine birds and mammals are suffering.

Santa Cruz Sentinel, Sep 25, 2015: A troubling number of starved and weak seabirds are washing ashore on beaches from the Monterey Bay to Alaska… “There’s been die-offs in the past, but this is one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen,” said Lupin Egan, an animal technician… “it’s been really crazy,” said spokesman Russ Curtis. “They’re really sick — just feather and bone.”… “At Waddell and Greyhound (Rock) beaches, I saw the most murres I’ve ever seen in 10 years,” said Cori Gibble, seabird health coordinator with the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center in Santa Cruz. “You see them on the tide line. They’re kind of strewn all over the beaches… It’s been a really strange year“…

ABC San Francisco, Sep 22, 2015: The number of birds being delivered to the rescue center daily is the number that usually comes over the entirety of a month, center officials said. “The sheer number of birds we’re seeing is pretty mind-blowing“… Curtis said. “This is unprecedented. Sometimes we get spikes and it dissipates. But it has not stopped.”

Sacramento Bee, Sep 24, 2015: Rescue center overwhelmed with starving seabirds… Fairfield rescue center has seen 25 times more common murres than normal… Across Northern California… malnourished seabirds have been appearing in alarming numbers, some shrunken to little more than feather and bone… The murres’ presence is significant to scientists because they’re considered a marker species, whose movements and numbers signal changes in the ocean’s food supply… “Our gut tells us there is something going on in the marine environment.”… Some of the birds that are being brought into the center are showing symptoms of catastrophic molting, where large patches of their bodies are missing feathers, said Kelly Berry, wildlife manager with the center. The cause is unknown…

Santa Cruz Sentinel, Sep 2, 2015: A huge influx of weak, starving seabirds have been overwhelming a Fairfield bird rescue center… “They’re like the canaries in the coal mines,” Curtis said… “the first ones to tell us if… there’s something wrong with our environment.”

KTVU, Sep 25 2015: Up and down the West Coast, thousands of starving sea birds are washing up… [The murres] resemble penguins, but can fly… “They are washing up extremely skinny… They’re starving to death,” lead rehabilitation technician Isabel Luevano told KTVU… “they’re basically withering away“… More heron and egret hatchlings have needed care this summer as well…

Half Moon Bay Review, Sep 30, 2015: [T]he magnitude of and reason for this die-off isperplexing to experts… [Gerry McChesney, of the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge said] “we’ve had a strip of cold water near the coast (of Half Moon Bay), concentrating anchovies and mackerel. With what seems to be all this food up against the coast, why these murres are dying, I’m still baffled by.”

Daily Astorian, Aug 25, 2015: “There’s a pretty raging debate among seabird biologists at the moment,” [Julia Parish of the U. of Washington] added…“Every bird we’re seeing is starving to death,” [Josh Saranpaa, of the Wildlife Center of the North Coast] said. “It’s pretty bad.” Many are adults… The high number of starving adults along the North Coast, even experienced scavenger birds, indicates a “serious sign of a stressed ecosystem,” Parish said… “When you see so many starving, something is not quite right out there,” Saranpaa said… It’s also “been a really odd year,” Parish said, with multiple regional scale events…

KMXT (Alaska), Sep 16, 2015: Massive seabird die-off hits Kodiak… [National Wildlife Refuge bird biologist Robin Corcoran] said she doesn’t know what could have caused the deaths.

KMXT, Sep 15, 2015: “It does look like the birds are emaciated, which means they don’t have any fat on their bodies, and they don’t have any food in their digestive systems“… [Corcoran] says it could be connected to the whale die-offs, and they’ll be consideringenvironmental factors… Corcoran says the Refuge’s survey data has also indicated thatseveral other bird species’ numbers have declined…

Watch video from International Bird Rescue here