Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9067332/Alcoholic-drinks-to-get-weaker-says-minister.html

Alcoholic drinks should be made weaker under in Britain under Government plans to tackle the "deadly problem” of binge-drinking, a health minister has said. ."In the strategy, ministers are expected to unveil measures to increase the price of alcoholic drinks according to how strong they are. This could be done through higher taxation per unit, minimum pricing per unit or simply higher levels of duty for strong drinks. Ministers will also encourage companies to produce weaker alcoholic drinks.

Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106684

More than a decade ago, solar electricity changed the lives of several mountain communities in Cuba. Now this and other renewable power sources are emerging as the best options available to develop sustainable energy across the island.If the world's clean energy potential exceeds our consumption needs, why do we insist on using the polluting kind?"

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/jobs-f06.shtml

The year 2012 has opened with an acceleration of job losses across Australia’s manufacturing, retail, mining and finance sectors, as corporate restructuring and cost-cutting that began last year with the destruction of thousands of jobs. The retail and services industries, which employ by far the biggest numbers of workers, especially young people, are experiencing a devastating slump

Link: http://enenews.com/highest-level-radioactive-cesium-san-francisco-area-milk-august-2011-150-epas-maximum-contaminant-limit-chart

A new milk sample has been measured, this one with a best-by date of 2/16/2012. The results are posted to the milk sample page. Low levels of both Cs-134 and Cs-137 were still detected in the sample.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/06-0

Patenting seeds has led to a farming and food crisis - and huge profits for US biotechnology corporations.Corporations defined a problem - and for them the problem was farmers saving seeds. They offered a solution, and the solution was to make it illegal for farmers to save seed - by introducing patents and intellectual property rights [PDF] on those very seeds. As a result, acreage under GM corn, soya, canola, cotton has increased dramatically.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/world/middleeast/white-house-moves-to-tighten-sanctions-on-iran.html?_r=1

The White House moved to enforce tightened sanctions against Iran on Monday because of the country’s suspect nuclear program, freezing all property of the Central Bank of Iran, other Iranian financial institutions and the Iranian government in the United States. The administration has been trying to persuade Iran’s oil customers to shift to other suppliers,China and India,to keep buying Iranian oil.

Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106635

- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's visit to Cuba served to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, leverage the South American giant's investments in the Caribbean island, and deepen political ties. In what was her first trip to Cuba, Rousseff judged as wrong "a blockade that denies a people access to food," in reference to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, and said her government would be granting 350 million dollars in credit for food purchases from Brazil. On Feb. 1, Rousseff travelled to Haiti, where she was set to meet with government officials to discuss a number of issues, According to official press accounts, during her stay in the capital she signed several agreements with Cuba, but no details of their content were released. "We also agreed to finance the purchase of equipment, machinery, small tractors, and harvesters, with a 200 million (dollar) credit to boost food production in Cuba," Rousseff said, and insisted on a partnership between the two nations that will help the island's development and ensure better living conditions for its people.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29033

China's near-exclusive access to terbium and yttrium sent prices soaring in 2011, potentially hobbling clean energy industry. Shortages of a handful of rare minerals could slow the future growth of the burgeoning renewable energy industries, and affect countries' chances of limiting greenhouse gas emissions, business leaders were told at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. Last year, prices of many scarce minerals exploded, rising as much as 10 times over 2010 levels before dropping back, said PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).Terbium, yttrium, dysprosium, europium and neodymium are widely used in the manufacture of wind turbines, solar panels, electric car batteries and energy-efficient lightbulbs. But because these "rare earths" are mined almost exclusively in China, it is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to source them in the required quantities. In a survey of some of the largest clean energy manufacturers, 78% told PwC said they were already experiencing instability of supply of rare metals, and most said they did not expect shortages to ease for at least five years. Currently, 95% of the rare earth minerals needed by clean tech industries come from China which has set strict export quotas. Last year China reserved most for its own for its domestic wind, solar and battery industries, shifting costs to the US and Europe which do not mine any of the minerals.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/

SOME 10,000 nurses at four of the largest New York City hospitals recently settled contracts that include modest raises and increased staffing. The deals also include lump-sum payments that partially offset a recent arbitration decision requiring private-sector nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) to contribute to their health care fund for the first time.

Link: http://www.agrimoney.com/news/russia-wheat-export-fears-send-prices-soaring--4105.html

Wheat prices ended at a four-month high in Chicago, and in Paris at their highest since June, boosted by concerns over Black Sea supplies fostered by a double whammy of frost and export curb concerns.

Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2012/01/29/why-are-the-chinese-buying-record-quantities-of-gold/

Analysts believe China bought as much as 490 tons of gold in 2011, double the estimated 245 tons in 2010. “The thing that’s caught people’s minds is the massive increase in Chinese buying,” remarked Ross Norman of Sharps Pixley, a London gold brokerage, this month.So who in China is buying all this gold?The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, has been hinting that it is purchasing. “No asset is safe now,” said the PBOC’s Zhang Jianhua at the end of last month. —China is the world’s largest gold producer.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/29-2

It could be much more difficult than we thought to feed everyone in a warmer world.A study released Sunday afternoon finds that wheat crop yields could plunge due, in part, to climate change. Extreme temperatures are already cutting wheat yields in India (Narinder Nanu/AFP) The study, published in Nature Climate Change, researchers warn that current projections underestimate the extent to which hotter weather in the future will accelerate this process. Extreme heat causes wheat crops to age faster and reduce yields, the Stanford University-led study shows, underscoring the challenge of feeding a rapidly growing population as the world continues to warm.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/food/153568/weve_lost_nearly_all_of_our_wild_foods__what_happened_and_what_are_we_missing

Once upon a time, wild foods were a regular and beloved part of the American diet. Today, the American epicure might dine on foraged mushrooms and ramps, but for many of us, fish are the last wild food we eat. What happened? And what are we missing?

Link: http://www.alternet.org/food/153831/Sugar_High%3A_The_Dark_History_and_Nasty_Methods_Used_to_Feed_Our_Sweet_Tooth/

Sugar is now 20 percent of the American diet, but it's not just our health that suffers from its pervasiveness. Today, sugar productionstill uses exploitative labor practices and can cause serious environmental problems .

Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/nuclear-power-after-chernobyl-and-fukushima-4593/

It is one of the marvels of our time that the nuclear industry managed to resurrect itself from its ruins at the end of the last century, when it crumbled under its costs, inefficiencies, and mega-accidents. Chernobyl released hundreds of times the radioactivity of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined, contaminating more than 40% of Europe and the entire Northern Hemisphere.1

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-26/wheat-climbs-as-russia-may-slow-shipments-amid-waning-supplies.html

Wheat advanced to a three-week high in Chicago as Russia may slow shipments of the grain with supplies for exports down. Corn and soybeans gained. Wheat stockpiles held by farmers in Russia’s main exporting regions in the south have dropped below last year’s levels, declining as much as 50 percent in some areas, SovEcon, a Moscow-based agricultural researcher, said yesterday. The country banned exports in August 2010 after its worst drought in half a century. The ban was lifted in July. “Russia could potentially put some export curbs in place, but nothing is for certain.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30304.htm

Virtually all of the social upheaval, inequality, and environmental problems of today in some way ensue from capitalism, including overpopulation and armed aggression. Capitalism requires continuous economic expansion and a burgeoning market for consumers. This is simply not possible on a finite planet.Through lifelong indoctrination, Americans are persuaded that self-interested greed is in their best interest.The illusion of democracy, including voting in the absence of meaningful choice, is a poor substitute for direct action and anarchy. Democracy cannot flourish in the sterile soil that capitalism leaves in its wake. Either we have democracy or we have capitalism, or we create something entirely different.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/sun-shoots-a-fastball-at-earth-but-minimal-impact-expected-on-satellites-power-grid/2012/01/20/gIQA5KiBEQ_story.html

A huge sunspot unleashed a blob of charged plasma Thursday that space weather watchers predict will blast past the Earth on Sunday. Satellite operators and power companies are keeping a close eye on the incoming cloud, which could distort the Earth’s magnetic field and disrupt radio communications, especially at higher latitudes.

Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106503

Alexander, a 24-year-old law student dines almost exclusively on the food that other Germans – grocery stores, restaurants and supermarkets – throw away. supermarkets and grocery stores 'sort out' potatoes that are too large, cucumbers that are "too bent" for dumping The stores’ management eliminate foodstuffs considered ‘unattractive’, even if they are still edible. As a result, thousands of tonnes of apples, bananas, milk, coffee, yoghurt, sugar and cheese rot in enourmous garbage containers .In response to what the food retail industry has dubbed ‘looting’, supermarkets and grocery stores are now locking up their garbage containers. Many companies have even hired security personnel to keep away the looters from containers all over the country , a bakery chain used to toss up to 12 tons of bread every month. "Now, we burn the old bread as (fuel) for our backing ovens.

Link: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/After%2BFukushima%2Bfish%2Btales/5994237/story.html#ixzz1jqQpnFBz

Dewar, the executive director of Physicians for Global Survival, a Canadian anti-nuclear group, says the Canadian government has downplayed the radiation risks from Fukushima and is doing little to monitor them. “We suspect we’re going to see more cancers, decreased fetal viability, decreased fertility, increased metabolic defects – and we expect them to be generational,” she said. And evidence has emerged that the impacts of the disaster on the Pacific Ocean are worse than expected.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085351/Toilet-tap-Panel-recommends-Americans-drink-waste-water-combat-future-shortages.html#ixzz1jCcebjMb

'Wastewater is a drought-proof supply and a very viable option compared to imported water and other options' Next time you pour a glass of water from the tap try not to think about this - you might be about to drink what you once flushed away. Rising numbers of Americans are consuming wastewater, or 'toilet on tap', without even realising it, according to an official report. Even though it once contained human waste, food scraps and bath scum, the National Research Council claims that it could actually be better for you than fresh water.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/04-1

The year 2012 has opened with news that Fukushima's radioactive cloud may already have killed some 14,000 Americans, according to a major study just published in the International Journal of Health Services. Some 100 million tons of tsunami trash---much of it radiated by Fukushima fallout---has begun contaminating the beaches of our west coast. Germany and Japan, the world's third and fourth largest economies, along with numerous others countries, have definitively turned away from the "Peaceful Atom."

Link: http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/153554/how_right-wing_conspiracy_theories_may_pose_a_genuine_threat_to_humanity/

The paranoia infecting a broad swath of the American right-wing can be comical at times -- think about Orly Taitz and her fellow Birthers. But we laugh at our own peril, because what Richard Hofstadter famously characterized as "the paranoid style in American politics" poses a serious threat to our future: the right's snowballing conspiracy theories could ultimately lead to disaster.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article21510

Canada has announced its intention to withdraw from the Kyoto treaty on greenhouse gas emissions (GGE), sandbagging the other signatories to the convention. The Kyoto protocol, initially adopted in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, was designed to combat global warming with the agreement allowing countries like China and India take voluntary, but non-binding steps to reduce their greenhouse gas carbon emissions.

Link: http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/over-462-trillion-becquerels-fukushima-strontium-pacific-ocean-seafood-risk?CID=examiner_alerts_article

After Japanese Prime Minister declared the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe under control Friday, Japan's The Asahi Shimbun newspaper released calculations Monday showing at least 462 trillion becquerels of radioactive strontium have leaked into the Pacific Ocean since Fukushima's No. 1 nuclear power plant catastrophe began, making it one of the world's most severe marine pollution cases in history. According to Greenpeace independent research, Government and retailors are not adequately protecting the public from dangerous radioactive contaminated Pacific seafood, still sold unlabeled in Japan and on the international market, including to the United States due to a secret pact between Secretary Clinton and the Japanese Prime Minister.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/18-3

They bailed out the banks in days. But even deciding to bail out the planet is taking decades. Nicholas Stern estimated that capping climate change would cost around 1% of global GDP, while sitting back and letting it hit us would cost between 5 and 20%. One per cent of GDP is, at the moment, $630bn. By March 2009, Bloomberg has revealed, the US Federal Reserve had committed $7.77 trillion to the banks. That is just one government's contribution: yet it amounts to 12 times the annual global climate change bill. Add the bailouts in other countries, and it rises several more times.

Link: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medical-journal-article--14000-us-deaths-tied-to-fukushima-reactor-disaster-fallout-135859288.html

Impact Seen As Roughly Comparable to Radiation-Related Deaths After Chernobyl; Infants Are Hardest Hit, With Continuing Research Showing Even Higher Possible Death Count. WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/food/153475/why_is_the_fda_saying_it%27s_ok_to_eat_seafood_10%2C000_times_over_the_safe_limit_for_dangerous_carcinogens/

FDA not only downplayed the risk of contamination, but ignored staff members who proposed higher levels of contamination protection. Ever since the largest offshore oil spill in history spewed into the Gulf of Mexico last year, independent public health experts have questioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's efforts to effectively protect Americans from consuming contaminated seafood.

Link: http://naturalsociety.com/highly-toxic-mercury-present-in-processed-foods-yet-fda-does-nothing/

Why has the FDA ignored the fact that mercury, an element that is highly toxic in all forms, was found in a large number of brand-name processed foods? Specifically, the mercury content was found to be contained in high-fructose corn syrup, which also reportedly contains genetically modified ingredients. Instead of addressing this major public health concern, the FDA is focusing their time on crushing beneficial supplements through ridiculous NDI regulations that threaten the entire infrastructure of the nutraceuticals industry.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/16-4

If you want to know why the middle class disappeared and where they went, look no further than your local Walmart. People walked in for the low prices, and walked out with a pile of cheap stuff, but in a figurative sense, they left their wages, jobs, and dignity on the cutting room floor of the House of Cheap.

Link: http://www.alt-market.com/articles/414-the-poor-mans-guide-to-survival-gear

Some knives deserve the amount of attention and the high price tag they have garnered, but many are just….well….regular knives with a fancy name engraved in the blade. You are buying a knife for its functionality, not its sex appeal. Gerber, SOG, and Kershaw make plenty of knives which work just as well for $80 or less than any $400 cord wrapped Strider knife. Being able to prioritize gear and understand what is truly useful versus what is a waste of space is as important a skill as being able to shoot or navigate a map. It does not take a lot of money to build a solid base kit for emergencies….unless you buy one that somebody made for you .Guns and survival go hand in hand, especially during an economic or social collapse. To bring up guns in a prepping article almost always draws criticism of militancy and extremism from suburban basted over-privileged adolescent hippies who have read “Into The Wild” way too many times and think survival is about “communing with nature”. Sorry kids, but as much as I love nature, as soon as you turn your back on it, you end up a pre-digested meal spread like almond butter across 30 acres of grizzly valley.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/12-0

Farmers have been through this before — our lives and livelihoods falling under corporate control. It has been an ongoing process: consolidation of markets; consolidation of seed companies; an ever-widening gap between our costs of production and the prices we receive. Some of us are catching on, getting the picture of the real enemy.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/05/fukushima-leak-radioactive-water

Radioactive water might have found its way into the Pacific ocean and experts believe it could contain strontium... "Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse. And everything in the sea died." Revelation 16:3

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/153312/the_greatest_water_crisis_in_the_history_of_civilization%3A_coming_to_the_american_west_/

Think of the coming Age of Thirst in the American Southwest and West as a three-act tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions. Consider it a taste of the future: the fire, smoke, drought, dust, and heat that have made life unpleasant, if not dangerous, from Louisiana to Los Angeles. New records tell the tale: biggest wildfire ever recorded in Arizona (538,049 acres), biggest fire ever in New Mexico (156,600 acres), all-time worst fire year in Texas history

Link: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28071

AGUAN VALLEY, HONDURAS– At 3,000 square miles, the Aguan River Valley in northeastern Honduras is about the same size as California’s Death Valley. But despite being green and fertile, the Aguan basin is becoming famous as a “valley of death.” Since January 2010, at least 45 displaced peasants have been killed in clashes over land rights in Aguan, and “the actual number of killings is probably much higher,” according to Annie Bird, co-director of the human rights advocacy group Rights Action (RA), who visited Honduras in September.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/11/29-0

Barack Obama has been just as zealous as George Bush in stripping away environmental, health and safety protection at the behest of industry, it turns out. Report shows Obama has been just as zealous as his predecessor at thwarting the EPA. (Photo: Kent Nishimura / POOL/EPA) Some environmental organizations were beginning to suspect this, after Obama over-ruled his scientific advisers and blocked stronger ozone standards. Now, a new report [pdf] from the Center for Progressive Reform has dug up some key data revealing that the White House in the age of Obama has been just as receptive to the pleadings of industry lobbyists as it was in the Bush era. And it goes far beyond ozone.

Link: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/fukushima-china-syndrome-is-inevitable-huge-steam-explosions-massive-hydrovolcanic-explosion-or-a-nuclear-bomb-type-explosion-may-occur.html

Mainichi Dailly News notes: As a radiation meteorology and nuclear safety expert at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute, Hiroaki Koide [says]: The nuclear disaster is ongoing. At present, I believe that there is a possibility that massive amounts of radioactive materials will be released into the environment again. At the No. 1 reactor, there’s a chance that melted fuel has burned through the bottom of the pressure vessel, the containment vessel and the floor of the reactor building, and has sunk into the ground. From there, radioactive materials may be seeping into the ocean and groundwater.

Link: http://www.truthout.com/radiation-reporting-blind-idiotic-corrupt-or-all-three/1320952140

The ongoing radiation catastrophe stemming from three out-of-control nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan, has taken a back seat to far graver news events of late: Michael Jackson's doctor, fund-raising by presidential hopefuls, the World Series and Netflix stock.

Link: http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1359/061/7_Elephants_Now_Thrashing_Your_Living_Room.html?currentSplittedPage=0

Estimated to have already far surpassed Chernobyl in dangerous radioactive emissions that are not abating in the least and expected to get worse, we hear nothing about this in the mainstream news. In fact, the level of denial is outright Orwellian.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/11/white_house_could_cast_decisive_vote

This week the Delaware River Basin Commission released draft regulations to allow for the natural gas drilling technique hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, in the river’s watershed, which provides water to 15.6 million people in New York City, Philadelphia and New Jersey. The proposed plan would allow for some 20,000 gas wells to be developed in the watershed. A vote on the regulations is set for Nov. 21 and could prompt a battle between activists and the White House, which holds a seat on the commission and may cast the deciding vote. We speak with Josh Fox, whose documentary about fracking, "Gasland," was nominated for an Academy Award, and play an excerpt of his new video about the possible impacts natural gas fracking could have in the Delaware River Basin. [includes rush transcript]