water

Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherd Institute,

“What’s past is prologue.” ? William Shakespeare, The Tempest

What a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year this has been.

Endless wars. Toxic politics. Violence. Hunger. Police shootings. Mass shootings. Economic downturns. Political circuses. Senseless tragedies. Loss. Heartache. Intolerance. Prejudice. Hatred. Apathy. Meanness. Cruelty. Poverty. Inhumanity. Greed.

Here’s just a small sampling of what we’ve suffered through in 2016.

The devastating fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster continues to creep around the world, with radioactive samples discovered in the United States food chain for the first time. Despite assurances the radioactive fallout would be contained, the entire Pacific Ocean is now contaminated. Cesium-134, the so-called fingerprint of Fukushima, was measured in seawater samples taken from Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach in Oregon, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are reporting.

Dangerously high levels of lead has been discovered in the water at three state-run centers for the disabled in Texas. Authorities said that people were exposed to potential poisoning at the Texas State Supported Living Centers that house 590 disabled residents. The director of the Brenham center wrote a letter to families and guardians of its 272 residents, telling them that bottled water was being used for drinking, cooking and teeth brushing.

Submitted by Dale Steinreich via The Mises Institute,

In the wake of numerous cases of lead poisoning through Flint, Michigan’s government-managed water supply, some commentators immediately began looking for ways to blame the private sector. Shortly thereafter, David Brodwin of U.S. News and World Report wrote “Flint: The Big Cost of Small Government.”

Radiation is leaking from the Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City into the Hudson River at an uncontrollable rate, according to Joseph Mangano, Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project.  Mangano says that cancers amongst workers and members of the public in the area are soaring at a disturbing rate, and has warned that the Indian Point leak may prove worse than the Fukushima disaster.