ThinkAgain

Pukkelpop drama 2011: critical questions

2011-08-24T20:55:00.003+02:00

As a Flemish person, I want to say something to the other countries surrounding us about the way this terrible disaster is handled in Belgium.

I know this is a very delicate case and please I hope so much that no-one will judge me as some-one that wants to take advantage of the disaster by writing about it on her blog, hoping that it will attract people and that the blog visitors amount will grow. I have seen many people getting and been giving this judgement to other people e.g. starting up facebook groups about the event to support all damaged, hurted families, victims, etc...

Picture of when they were building Pukkelpop 2011, last week

before the festival would take off, taken from HBVL.be

This persons were blamed as taking profit from another one's death's or misery to gain attention themselves, but on the other hand: people that started up groups to thank Chokri and the organisation for their great work were also set up. No-one was there to judge these people for doing that ... while if you start to consider everything that way, we can better all stop to express ourselves cause maybe we just do it to get attention.
While I in contrary think that it is very important that people, after a disaster like this in which many families, colleagues, friends, people you know, ... (Limburg is not a big community and after all it's a small world, 60 000 people were there, meaning more or less 120 000 parents, maybe 240 000 grand parents, causins, uncles, aunts, colleagues, class mates, ... so everyone knew somebody that had been on pukkelpop or could imagine what terrible feelings must go to another one having his beloved child, sister, brother, or partner there ... can express what they think about it. Is it live to each other, to facebook, or to another channel ... We should talk and ventilate our thoughts and feelings about it. In this way we can mourn and process the events. And after all, after so much powerlessness we all felt the first moments and hours (and maybe even days), it was the damn only thing we could do ...

So, this is the disclaimer, now what I think and feel about this disaster and especially some remarks and questions about how it is being handled by the media (all media including newspapers and social media like facebook):

Even though I wasn't there. I live within a small half an hour (driving, direct distance is shorter) of the fields were Pukkelpop has been organised since '85 by Chokri Mahassine.

For more then half a decade, i have been visiting the festival myself with my friends and I really had great times there. On that moment I have gone trough a great rise of the ticket price and the amount of people being permitted on the fields were at that time 120 000, spread over 3 days. So like 40 000 visitors in a day. Nowadays 60 000 persons were on the field. I don't know if the site has made bigger. I suppose it is and all this is according standards to guarantuee this crowd safetiness. Though, we all know such big crowds contain certain risks ... one of them is stampede which even can come without a cause as we have seen regretfully at the Love Parade in Duisburg.

For me seeing the storm that day left a deep impact on me. When hearing the news to look how much the storm had devastated, we realised Pukkelpop was in it's first day. 60 000, especially young people, on an open field, with only some tents to protect themselves... in this storm. When we realised what could have happened we started to panic. For none of us it was difficult to imagine what disaster might have passed there and how terrible all parents having their children their, must have feelt in this moments. My sister wasn't home at the moment when the storm came up and it was clear to me that it wasn't a normal storm. So I immediately contacted her to say her: where-ever you are: stay inside. Don't go outside. Too dangerous. We were paniced because of her and she wasn't even on Pukkelpop so you can imagine ... On 18.07h (or 6.07pm) plus minus we tried to sent her a message, but by that time already there was no connection possible. You could only call emergency numbers...

For me terrible hours were going to come cause I had lots of friends and people I know being on the festival. All people I know seemed to be okay but needless to say all of them have been horrified because they feart death and some might have been traumatised for whole their lives. What would have been one of the climaxes of the holiday for most young people, ended up in the worst disaster movie they could imagine and they were live on the scene... and saw things children/young adults aren't supposed to see (even adults aren't supposed to see them), felt things this young people aren't supposed to feel ... and so on. Many people also blog about this (in dutch, on blogs, fora, ...).
Also needless to say I watched the media close in the hours from the disaster and the hours to come.

I want to say to the people from other countries, what has happened after this disaster in Belgium minds and in Belgium media, is for me very disappointing and even gives me great doubs about justice and logical thinking in our country.

Chokri has been worshipped as a hero by youngsters and all generations that could take benefits of the fact that he organised this great festivals (after Pukkelpop, he also organised Rimpelrock: a festival for elderly, the meaning of rimpel is "wrinkle", so quiet similar with his first festival "pukkel", wich is the flemish name to point to the acne spots young people in puberty have oftenly on their faces).

Hours after the disaster, Chokri Mahassine gathered the press to give an official statement (in dutch). He was very quick to say "we couldn't have foreseen this" "this is a terrible disaster", "no-one knew this was coming on" "I have been in many many countries, seen tropical storms but this was nothing like this. This I have never ever seen in my live". "We didn't know it was going to happen".

The press was very quickly to took over this statement and very sudden after that facebook groups appeared thanking Chokri and supporting him for his great loss and the tragedy ... stating "no one is guilty and no one could have foreseen this disaster".

But the question is: is it true what he said? Did the organisation of the festival (the factory, officially a non-profit organisation) indeed nothing about what was going to come or to happen there?

Chokri was asked by a suspicous and critical journalist of the VRT (the only Flemish public channel) if they even kept the weather into account organising this kind of big events in open air, with 10 000s of people and no where to go or hide except a tent ... "Yes of course, we check this, by way of saying, every half an hour" ... This answer of Chokri was rather painful. But no information about how they checked it, did they have a responsible person for this, was the forecast giver making a big mistake? Or where they just hoping the storm wouldn't pass them?

Because ... in contrary to what Chokri says, this storm HAS BEEN PREDICTED. Already days beforehand we knew in Flanders locally heavy storms might arise. The national weather institute (KMI, that gave a special detailled information about what happened there at these particular evening) gave a warning code orange (second highest) for a big part of Belgium. In this part on the very same evening there would be 60 000 mainly young people being gathered together, with only tents to hide, in an open field, with lots of trees and other stuff much lighter then trees that could easily being catched by the wind (equipment for light, music, electricity, sanitary services (showers, toilets), fences, ...

What does code orange actually mean? From the website of the national Belgian weather institute (see above) (the reference point most people look at if they want information about the weather) copied ...

Hevige en verspreide onweders worden verwacht in één of meer regio’s. Dit weersverschijnsel kan gepaard gaan met intense buien, hagelbuien en/of hevige rukwinden. Dit weersverschijnsel kan gepaard gaan met grote schade aan gebouwen, ontwortelde bomen, blikseminslagen en plaatselijke wateroverlast. Zulke situaties kunnen ook levensbedreigend zijn bij het nemen van al te grote risico’s. Wees op uw hoede.
(sorry in dutch)

And translated:

"Very heavy and spreaded thunderstorms are being expected in one or more regions. This weather phenomenon can carry heavy rainfalls, hail and very fast moving air currents (winds). This weather phenomenon can cause large damage on buildings, derooted trees, lightning crashes and local flooding. This situation can also be life threatening if you take big risks so please be careful."

Damage on buildings, derooted trees, ... possible...

Fallen tree at Pukkelpop 2011

Damage on buildings and trees being rupted out of the ground says enough I think. On Pukkelpop indeed trees collapsed, to hit people and tents, that collapsed too, by the trees, by the wind or by the rain. Obviously tents are much less strong then buildings. So if you know even a building can get harmed, you know what is going to happen with tents...

Suppose the organisation knew about this weather prediction but was doubting if this was a right prediction, and a possible scenario for his festival. Then there were many alternative possibilities: he could have checked many other weather sites to (dis)confirm the prediction:

Estofex e.g., the site you can check if you are doubting if a storm will come or not. Estofex predictions for that day were very clear:

a storm would hurt the festival, maybe very badly, given the damage it already had caused on the places where it was passed.

Even on Estofex, they predicted already days beforehand a big storm for exactly those parts of Belgian where it has arrived with the possible formation of some supercells. They said even tornadoes where possible...

This is exactly what they said (see Estofex, archive):

A level 2 was issued for parts of N France, W Germany, and the SE Benelux countries, primarily for large hail and severe wind gusts, and to a lesser extent for tornadoes.

(...)

Concluding, it appears that a few supercells will move eastward across the level 2 area with a large hail threat and locally severe winds. An isolated tornado cannot be ruled out, most likely near or just north of the front,

(...)

The storms will probably cluster over time, and we expect them to evelolve into bowing structures moving eastward across SE Benelux into adjacent Germany.

If that even let Chokri or the organisation doubt about the possible storm, then he could also check: Buienradar.be, on this website you can see radar images about clouds and storms gathering above Belgium. It was clear to see something was coming up. More then one hour before the disaster happened at the Pukkelpop scene in Kiewit (Hasselt), Brussels and Flemish Brabant got a very big storm as predicted by the KMI. There was damage everywhere. This was already being told on diverse news websites. And you could see the gigantic storm (one of the biggest ever seen in Belgium) passing further over our country, right to the direction of Limburg, where the festival was organised ... On that moment it was 1 hour ago and there was very few doubt a very strong and severe strom would pass over Limburg, where Hasselt en Pukkelpop were going on...

Also, some people that visited the festival stated they have been told by cooperators of the festival that a great storm was going to come up ...

In Limburg (the province where Hasselt is the capital of) that something was coming up and that it could be very strong, we in fact already knew it days beforehand.

Even before this happening in Brussels, farmers harvested their hay already because they knew it would be lost ... Since the morning in Flanders indeed, people that saw the weather forecast were already warning each other to be inside in the evening, park their cars inside or cover them, ... because something big was predicted (code orange) to come up by the KMI.

As an argument to defend Chokri or who knows who people were even saying: this was unpredictabled and no-one could have helped this. Even buildings were ruined.
Yes ... but is that not just an argument that should be used by the other camp, being the persons asking critical questions about the organisation. Indeed, if a storm is predicted to be so harsh that even buildings will be damaged, what do you think will happen with a tent or trees? And do you think it is smart to gather 60 000 people unter and around then then?

I have my doubts ... In the meantime everywhere on the media (from official media to faceook to twitter to fora and blogs everyone is admiring the organisation of Pukkelpop, Chokri in particular as if they are the one with the biggest los ... But I think about it differently and I am quiet shocked no-one seems to ask the question about who is responsible. Or some people do, but they answer very quickly: the weather is responsible. So the debate is closed and eh... the storm is over (by coïncidence to say that a very heavy debate is closed).

Still I think there might have been a chance that this drama didn't have so many people involved, knowing what I know.

Or did the organisation really not know anything about the weather? Then maybe they should ask theirselves questions about the meteorogical service they use, or they should start to use one (if they don't, what is not what Chokri stated officially).

Maybe they did expect a storm but didn't expect it was so heavy. Even then I ask myself many questions. But this post is already to long so, maybe to be continued.

What is resting me is to express my deepest condoleances and feeling of sorrow and sadness to all the people that have been directly or indirectly hurt badly by this tragedy. I'm thinking on the direct victims (five lives have been taken :-s, also still more then 10 people are laying in the hospital heavily injured), hundreds of injured people and the many many many people that have been hurt psychologically by this experience, what they have gone trough that evening and night, what they have seen, ...

Many thanks and respect on the other hand to all the people that were the official volunteers and cooperators of Pukkelpop, to the spontaneous people volunteering for help that had followed a medical education (student nurses or nurses, student doctors or doctors or just people without education that wanted to help) and knew they could use their help without any personal importance, and all other people, including neighbours, people living close to the festival or even people living in Limburg that spontaniously tried to do everything within their possibilities to help the affected and injured people as much as possible and even safed lifes! And not to forget of course the official "helpmen": firemen, policemen, ambulance people, first aid workers, doctors, nurses, surgeons, logistic people, ... many thanks to help all the ones we love so much!! You have created miracles and tried to create a piece of heaven, on a place where hell has just been.
Thank you very much!!
Big support with processing all the events for all who need it and please seek for help if you think it is necesarry, because it is not abnormal to have difficulties after a shaking event like this.

Health hazards in Mexican gulf due oil spill

2010-07-18T20:52:00.006+02:00

Crude oil may not flow in the Gulf anymore right now, but a lot of chemicals escaped in the last three months from the Mexican Gulf and may still escape e.g. from travelling from water into the air. This chemicals may as wel origin from the crude oil itself as from gases escaping with the oil as well as from the dispersants.
A lot of these chemicals are able to affect the functioning of the body, at diverse levels. In doing so, dependent of the level of which an organism / human has been exposed to these chemicals, they may cause light, moderate or possibly severe health concerns.

For worrying locals looking for information, on this site from sciencecorps, an overview of health hazards have been given. The site is scientifically and has trustable sources that are published too at the bottom of each part to verify the given information.
So for more information, please see here: http://www.sciencecorps.org/crudeoilhazards.htm

Without meaning to elicit panic, I want to say to everyone who is living in areas that close to the borders of the Gulf Spill, please try to follow EPA reports of hazardous chemicals in the air, water or soil.
Even if you live far from the oil spill or didn't noticed anything, be aware that not all chemicals (or levels of chemicals) can be sensed by humans (by smelling or feeling it by causing physical symptoms) so not noticing anything doesn't mean that safety barriers aren't exceeded.

Gulf leak closed, temporarily!!

2010-07-16T00:16:00.007+02:00

Finally, after almost 3 months of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, it has now stopped leaking!

BP designed a custom-made 75 tons heavy cap to contain the oil from flowing in the open sea. I'm very excited about this and I don't want to destroy this moment what must be a moment of happines, especially for all directly and indirectly (we all) involved people. For me, it's a moment of joy too. But ... we must remember that the present closing of the leak is aimed to be temporarily and it is mainly a test (called the '(well) integrity test') to explore the strength of the well... and if you ask me, it will be a test of the strength of the casing too!

The pressure will be monitored closely. Each 6 hours, a decision of continuation or cancellation will be made based on the provided pressure data.
If pressure remains high for the upcoming 48 hours, meaning that the oil has no other way out and there are no other (yet invisible) leaks in the well or casing (or worse: ocean floor...), this will mean a condition for a permanent stopping of the oil leak due to the use of the two relieve wells has been established. This permanent solution will be tested on late August. In the meantime (and if the pressure on the present cap sustains,) there may be decided to keep this cap onto the oil leak, meaning it will be completely shutted down for the upcoming weeks, which is good news to (ocean) life.

The pressure dropping will be a bad sign meaning that solutions to permanently close the leak will need to be revised. In this case, the test will be stopped after 6 hours, removing the cap from the leak to prevent possibly further rupturing of a new leak (in the well, casing or ocean floor) which may be far more difficult to stop.

This tests certainly holds dangers, because some sources reported already visible ruptures in the ocean floor and in the casing (e.g. on YouTube, you can see a film of an ex Shell employee stating that there's no chance the case isn't ruptured after such a big explosion, of course, it is likely that Shell will not hurry to spread good news about its concurrent). This will mean that there's no known way to stop the oil from flowing, except maybe bombing it ... which will hold evident risks and an uncertain outcome.

Photos of the Gulf you don't want to see.

2010-07-12T23:42:00.004+02:00

What BP is trying to hide from the world, and I understand why...

!!! Warning: shocking pictures!!!

In my quest for how things really were in the Gulf, reported by locals and uncensored by some 'big forces', I remember I came across a blog of someone crossing trough an affected areas... This person stated that he (or she) stopped by the seashore to take a look at the damage the oil leak and 'preventing' it's damage (by means of Corexit...) caused. Large groups of fishes swimming upside down very close to the waters surface and gasping for air were reported. Now there's more then this person's text...

This is not a way, but water as you can see... with tiny dead fishes in it ...

Here they are too, but washed ashore....

As you can see on their size, they must have been on nearly the bottom of our food chain. And they are millions ... I mean were. :-s

Most of these pictures date from May / begin June ..........................................................

Thanks too Washington's blog and Jonathan Elinoff for these and more pictures of the oil spill disaster that may not be seen.
For more pictures and other news, see: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/you-are-not-authorized-to-see-these.html

Hiding the extent of the disaster from the public

2010-07-04T16:15:00.015+02:00

The BP way to hide the extent of the disaster:

1. Forbid the press to enter the affected areas and do the same to the public. Use the excuse that the affected places are now you're work area and the clean-up may be hindered or dangerous situations may be created for the clean-up workers...(?!) Threat curious journalists with imprisoning and large fines.

2. If one area seems to be unaffected superficially (meaning: no visible tar balls nor crude oil on the beach because it is covered with a new fresh layer of sand obviously from somewhere else (see other unconfirmed blogs stating this here), nor affected water because Corexit broke the big oil layers into small droplets spreading everywhere in the water) invite the press so they can spread the news of the 'clean' beaches and water. If a politician or alike will visit the beaches, invite 100s of temporary workers to clean them at an unseen speed and send them home after the politician and cameras have left.

3. Buy popular terms on search engines to control the information availability of the public. Costs: only $50 000 000.

4. Make sure clean-up workers are being photographed cleaning the beaches, but let them do as less as possible as no outsider is around.

5. Prohibit clean-up workers to wear respiratory protection or any other necessary health protection gear because they are bad for your reputation even though the product's factsheet you are spraying in the air says you need to ware respiratory protection.

Where concentrations in air may exceed the limits given in this section, the use of a half face filter mask or air
supplied breathing apparatus is recommended.

as well as gloves, regular protection clothing and protecting goggles...

According to CNN, 128 clean-up workers got sick.

6. Forbid clean-up workers to spread anything by way of talking, writing, taking pictures or filming what they see on the disaster sites. Let them sign a contract.

7. Don't mind if the Corexit mixture is up to 4 times more poisonous for people and marine life then the crude oil itself (see for extra information about toxicity of Corexit here) and the mixture can never be retrieved while crude oil on the surface can be skimmed off easily: just use that Corexit in order to prevent that satelites may be able to make pictures of the full extent of the disaster from the skies. The use of Corexit will make the oil sink and as a consequence: invisible to the public as it will fall apart into small droplets beneath the surface (see picture left).
Don't mind that the ecosystem will need maybe more then half a century to recover (at least 3 decades, see Exxon Valdez where Corexit treated areas are still not recovered!) while other solutions such as bacteries can restore the ecosystem in 3 years!!

That this will damage crops and water supplies is just colateral damage. See here everything about Corexit inclusive the letter from EPA to BP where it asks to use more effective and less toxic dispersants: http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/dispersants.html

8. Threat everyone whose trying to break up the huge efforts being taken for censoring the full extent of the disaster you created.
Local photographer Lance Rosenfield says:

He said I could show him the pictures or he could handle this another way, including calling Homeland Security and taking me in. I agreed to show him the pictures on the back of my camera, while he took my driver's license. Meanwhile, the truck that had been following me showed up, driven by a security guard with a BP patch on his uniform.

Read more here: http://www.propublica.org/article/photographer -tells-of-being-followed-by-bp-security-and-then-detained

BP's economist admitted they would never have enough money to restore the environment completely. As we all know, e.g. thanks to Kindra Arnesen for this, BP does everything to minimise clean up costs. Astonishing less clean-up workers and equipment are used, and they aren't used effective... But BP seems to have money to pay these men in blue shirts (see right). Who they are? BP security guards. To prevent whistleblowers...

Is this the beloved American freedom?

Toxic air in Gulf Coast imminent? What symptoms and how could this be?

2010-07-03T17:42:00.009+02:00

Gases such as Hydrogen Sulfide, Benzene, Methylene Chloride (or chloromethane), and other toxic gases pose a greater risk to human health than the presence of crude oil in the Gulf ara. The allowable levels of Hydrogen Sulfide and Benzene according to the EPA are 5-10 parts per billion and 0 respectively.The EPA reported the level detected in the Gulf at almost 1,200 PPB for hydrogen sulfide and 3400 PPB for Benzene during the month of May. The amounts pose a serious health risk to people and animals.

Methylene Chloride is known to cause birth defects and cancer in the lung, kidney and stomach of animals. It also causes kidney, liver and lung damage.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/BP-Gulf-oil-blowout-still-by-Chris-Landau-100706-671.html

Symptoms being caused by overexposion of Methylene Chloride

See here for more information of Methylene Chloride here: http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/c/chemical_poisoning_methylene_chloride/symptoms.htm
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical asphyxiant, similar to carbon monoxide and cyanide gases. It causes "biochemical suffocation" by inhibiting cellular respiration and the uptake of oxygen.
Breathing high levels of hydrogren sulfide can cause the following symptoms:

Frostbite on contact with liquid
Eye irritation
Eye burns
Eye redness
Eye pain
Permanent vision impairment
Cough
Sore throat
Headache
Dizziness
Labored breathing
Nausea
Vomiting
Dementia
Breathing difficulty
Extrapyramidal symptoms
Increased blood pressure
Impaired sense of smell
Hypothermia
Tearing eyes
Myoglobinuria
Paresthesia
Rotten egg odor on breath
Seizures
more information...»

More information here.

Hydrogen sulfide is considered a broad-spectrum poison, meaning that it can poison several different systems in the body at the same time. As mentioned previously, hydrogen sulfide is a chemical asphyxiant. It is similar to carbon monoxide and cyanide gases. It can be extremely deadly at high concentrations.

Source: http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/benzene-and-hydrogen-sulfide-the-real-dangers-from-the-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill

Breathing high levels of Benzene can cause the following symptoms:
Ataxia
Blistered skin
Aspiration
Cough
Dizziness
Lethargy
Headache
Blood in urine
Hoarseness
Dilated pupils
Leukopenia
Eye symptoms
Paresthesia
Ringing in ears
Tremors
Rapid heart rate
Red skin
Vomiting
Dementia
Seizures
more information...»
More information here.
Long-term exposure to Benzene can do a ton of damage to the human body. Benzene actually enters cells and damages DNA material. In addition, benzene is known to cause harmful effects on bone marrow and it can cause a decrease in red blood cells, leading to anemia.

For women, long-term exposure to benzene can result in irregular menstrual periods and a decrease in the size of their ovaries.

In addition, as mentioned previously, benzene is a known cancer-causing agent. In fact, the Department of Health and Human Services tells us that exposure to benzene is known to cause leukemia.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/benzene-and-hydrogen-sulfide-the-real-dangers-from-the-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill

Ingredients in Corexit are known to cause cause the following symptoms: central nervous system depression, nausea, unconsciousness, on long term: liver, kidney and red blood cell damage (e.g. hemolysis). See safety data sheet of the product itself.

See here for a better physical explanation of these gases, how they are being formed in the Gulf and how they can get trapped in the air too): http://www.opednews.com/articles/BP-Gulf-oil-blowout-still-by-Chris-Landau-100706-671.html

Check the EPA data base daily to see how these chemicals might be building up in your area.
See full EPA reports here: http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/air.html

Although it is not unlikely that especially clean up workers will experience this symptoms: please note that some of these symptoms also occur when exposed to high levels of psychological or fysiological stress which the Gulf citizens and everyone who cares about the environment will experience on this moment for sure...

Knowing that the spreading of especially Corexit (which is heavily polluting and only serves to mask the massiveness of the oil spill to keep up BP's reputation - I wrote about it here) and oil will continu for at least 3 more months since measurements started and airborne pollutants can accumulate in the environment as well as spread further inland and to other continents, this seems like the ideal recipe for an apocalyptical scenario... If I didn't know better, I would say this was the biggest terroristic attack ever on the world's population...

See videos reporting on this issue here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGxGVGiD3yk and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjUIvaZK7no

Needless to say that fish and animals who are residents of this waters being filled with these oxygen depleting gases could have a more bright looking future...

I'm not a believer of conspiracy theories, nor can I believe this is really truth but ... taken the health information of this gases into account I can somewhere imagine that it is possible that people may being killed by this gases. Was it maybe then true that, as many conspiracy sites state, Obama said to his counterparts during the last G8 that millions would die this year due to the unfolding oil disaster?

Again I want to insist that please people of the U.S. especially and of all nations worldwide we need to take global action for this. It is already been very clear that money still has the highest priority and no sufficient action is being taken to prevent the damage this oil leak can have on all inhabitants of our actually tiny and vulnerable Earth ... If according to you it's not yet time to organise widely protests with millions of people, I don't know when it's going to be time to protest then... We need to protest in front of those buildings where decisions of the future of all life on Earth are being taken, not tomorrow, but now already...

! Please see this site from sciencecorps for a scientifically based overview of all possible health hazards and how to protect yourself.

What BP doesn't want you to see: unconfirmed local reports and other footage

2010-07-03T17:28:00.008+02:00

These are non-official messages, pictures and other footage put on the internet by ordinary local people (or "small" people according to BP) which are covering what they see, hear, feel, experience, ... I gathered them from different social media sources: facebook, twitter, forum, blogs, diverse websites, ...

We all know how BP is in charge of the media (internet, newspapers, search engines, ... -> Apparently with money you can buy just everyting, from censorship till the ocean and the right on a clean future) so I am afraid they may give a far more accurate picture of what is really going on in the Gulf and other affected regios then the official mainstream news channels do.

Take a look with me on what they tell us about the spill:

!! WARNING: Content may be shocking!!

* Source: Nick, he covers the disaster in pieces called 'the Black Death", see his website: itsjustlight.com

Black Death, part I:

I noticed the first unusual smell. It wasn’t unpleasant and smelled sweet, almost like custard. According to most reports, the oil flowing from the leaking well is light sweet crude oil, which contains a very low sulfur content and small amounts of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide.

Black death, part IV:

Picture shows a BP Clean-up worker with his equipment: a shovel for toddlers....

Black death, part V:

This piece is from Black Death (part VI)

The scent hit me before I could see it, a thick, invisible wave of nauseating petroleum vapors rising off the ocean and evaporating from the oil drenched sand. A small crew of workers scooped shovel-loads of oily sand into garbage bags in a losing David vs. Goliath battle that saw a nearly infinite tide of oil washing ashore for every drop that was scooped away. From my vantage point only a dozen feet above the workers, I could hear their mutterings as they cursed the obvious futility of their labor.

Decaying redfish (Sciaenops ocellatus) dotted the sand, most of them appearing almost mummified by the blazing sun. Their bodies lay belly up, internal organs missing and scaly skin hardened like a medieval suit of armor. Their mouths were frozen open in wide, ghastly frowns, their eye sockets empty and dark.

Before long, my senses were overwhelmed by the unmistakable scent of death. I began to notice bones and bodies on and between the rocks, those of birds and fish. On a large rock, two young seagull chicks were baked into a pile of decaying skin and feathers. They were recent victims, perhaps only dead for a day. A few feet away, the large bones of a brown pelican and its oil stained feathers lay between rocks spotted with oil. Brown pelicans were just taken off the US federal endangered and threatened species list in November of last year. Just beyond the rocks, the beach began to open up, formed by sand that washes through the pass and collects along the rocks. This beach was completely drenched with crude oil and it looked as if a cleanup crew had never set foot there.

(...) As I neared the northern side of the island and Barataria Bay, more bones dotted the sand. Bigger ones. As I approached them, the stench grew worse and worse and soon I could see the carcasses of what were clearly more dolphins. (...)

When the photographer went back to his car, BP security contractors asked him:

Why are you coming from the staging area? You don’t have any business being in this area.”

For more information, see: http://itsjustlight.com/?p=1146

* Death baby whale that BP was inable to pick up or burn before it was photographed (source: Facebook group boycott BP)

"BP offers settlements to Gulf coastal residents of no more than $5,000 if they give up their right to sue." (J.M., Facebook)

What food will be left?

2010-07-03T14:36:00.005+02:00

As BP continues with spraying the higly poisonous toxic Corexit in the Gulf zone. Russian scientists have already warned that this may destroy possibly the entire eastern half of North-America because the dispersant will phase transition into gas and come onto land as toxic rain, destroying crops, food-, water supplies and eventually killing animals and people...
After Louisiana, reports of crop damage in Missisipi pop up too.
Can BP and Obama please think about what food then will be left to eat? Of course, one must not be a clairvoyant to realise that fish and other seafood will be the first to decrease in the Gulf Region. Not only they will decrease, but a lot of them will be poisoned with crude oil, Corexit or it's mixture. Fears that they will eventually end up in our foodchain or in or dishes are not paranoid.

dispersion doesn't make the oil disappear: the droplets collect on the seabed, where they may be consumed by the microorganisms that form the basis of the ocean's food chain. These tiny animals are then eaten by shrimp, oysters and other seafood, many of which could later find their way to the dinner table. Unlike the current crop of tainted fish, which are covered in crude, these fish will carry oil -- and its attendant toxins and carcinogens -- in their flesh.

(...)

The future looks dark for Gulf fisheries: unless the FDA can train people to smell oil on the cellular level, chances are that much of the Gulf will be closed to fishing for decades to come.

See more: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/for-food-business-bp-oil-spill-is-a-recipe-for-disaster/19508084/

Scientific research already pointed out the disturbing fact that crab larvae of the Gulf are cleary affected by oil botches.

about 40 percent of the area where the crab larvae were found has been affected by oil gushing from the broken deepwater well. The orange spots have been detected in crabs across the northern Gulf coast, from southwestern Louisiana to Pensacola, Fla.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38068334/ns/technology_and_science-science/

So, at least the seafood of the Gulf will be contaminated for decades to come. But will the Corexit-Oil mixture limit itself to the Gulf? We already know that if these disaster and Corexit spreading will go on, they'll turn out to be in the Atlantic Ocean.

The huge oil slick that has spread across the Gulf of Mexico could soon extend its reach, traveling around the tip of Florida and entering Atlantic waters, a computer model suggests.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0603/BP-oil-spill-could-spread-to-Atlantic-Ocean

This means not only the inhabitants of the Gulf waters will be affected ...

A couple weeks ago, I found an article stating that food shortages might soon appear due the shortage of fish and seafood supplies, which form for some nations a giant part of their available food. This was stated by an american government organisation. I think I re-put it somewhere on the internet myself (on facebook or maybe even on this blog) but even though i googled it nearly a half hour, I don't seem able to find it anymore... Although I remember the article was from the very beginning of the oil leak. I think it was like the first half of May, at that time the proportion of the disaster was thought to be far less big ...

The fact that this article seems to be missing (it doesn't prompt up on the search engines like it did a couple weeks ago) is another prove of what we already knew: BP controls the news people get of the "oil spill". and the US government doesn't seem to have any problems with that ...

So, the fish and seafood in the world will drastically decline. As the crops will, which are directly food to humans but also to domesticated animals slaughtered by people to eat them ... So, what will be left then? Insects maybe? Because of their short life cycle they will nearly be affected by the BP oil spill and Corexit use? I think so ...

Please people, let this make clear that worldwide protests are needed urgently!!!

To be continued, I'm afraid...

Facebook group to get Gulf Coast citizens connected with non-Gulf citizens that want to offer a stay !

2010-06-26T22:54:00.006+02:00

Because of the growing rumours that the oil-affected coastlines will become unhabitable in short time:
This facebookgroup is just been started:

CONNECTING PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LEAVE THE

GULF AREA WITH PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=114661128579934&v=wall&ref=mf

People of the inland are reaching their hands to the one that live at the shores and try to offer their some place to stay.

If you need a place to stay, I unfortunately live in Belgium nor have I extra beds but I wish you really good luck finding something!!! Though I hope you don't need it!

But before doing this, please protest as much as you can and index your finger at BP and the Gulf Coast. They are responsible for this and should help you all out in the first place! Or better: they have to prevent that you have to leave your area because of being poisoned by them!!

My heart is really with you guys!

Update: MASS EVACUATION DUE TO GULF OIL SPILL?

2010-06-25T22:52:00.008+02:00

(Picture taken by NASA's earthobservatory centre at the 22nd of June 2010)

In the meantime there emerged more news about a possible mass evacuation of the BP Oil affected states at the Mexican Gulf Coast.
Surprisingly (or not??) much of this articles have already been deleted! So you need to look into the google cache to be able to read them. The sources spreading the news are starting to get more mainstream so it doesn't have the state of gossiping on forums, blogs and conspiracy sites anymore. (Themarketfinancial.com was one of the sources but has already removed the article).
The source of the news is said to be 'government insiders (FEMA)' who say to get ready for the dead zone.

As already was been feared and I stated out here and in other places of this blog: especially the Corexit forms a direct danger to the habitat. It is a heavily poison of which it's molecules can transist into gases and evaporate, form clouds and come onto land together with rain fall.
When fluid, this heavy posion is invisible, making it even more dangerous. You may not notice it is being around, while it is poisoning the ground, the water, ... and everything which is living on it.

"The oil dispersant used by BP, Corexit 9500, is seen by FEMA sources as mixing with evaporated water from the Gulf and absorbed by rain clouds producing toxic precipitation that threatens to continue killing marine and land animals, plant life, and humans within a 200-mile radius of the Deepwater Horizon disaster site ...in the Gulf.
Plans are being put in place for the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mandeville, Hammond, Houma, Belle Chase, Chalmette, Slidell, Biloxi, Gulfport, Pensacola, Hattiesburg, Mobile, Bay Minette, Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, Crestview, and Pascagoula."

"The toxic rain from the Gulf is expected to poison fresh water reservoirs and lakes, streams, and rivers, which will also have a disastrous impact on agriculture and livestock, as well as drinking water, in the affected region."

"Adding to the worries of FEMA and the Corps of Engineers is the large amounts of methane that are escaping from the cavernous grotto of oil underneath the Macondo drilling area of Gulf of Mexico."

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Government-Insiders-Get-R-by-OilGuy-100624-488.html

http://oilprice.com/Environment/Oil-Spills/Government-Insiders-Get-Ready-for-the-Gulf-Dead-Zone.html (Here someone's speaks about the same article)

Reuters, A mainstream newssource confirms the problematic presence of methane gas:

"Texas A&M University oceanography pofessor John Kessler, just back from a 10-day research expedition near the BP Plc oil spill in the gulf, says methane gas levels in some areas are "astonishingly high."
Kessler's crew took measurements of both surface and deep water within a 5-mile (8 kilometer) radius of BP's broken wellhead.
"There is an incredible amount of methane in there," Kessler told reporters in a telephone briefing.
In some areas, the crew of 12 scientists found concentrations that were 100,000 times higher than normal."

The possibly developing of the first storm Alex in the Gulf is not good news either and an extra reason to suspect toxic rains getting into land.

But please don't panic! I'm not having any medical background but I can hardly imagine people drop dead directly after being exposed to this toxic rain and gasses as the articles state.
At the other hand health effects are almost certain after exposure to this highly poisoned mixture (see the clean up workers health risks).
Especially for some at risk groups (I can think of lung patiens, heart patients, kids and elderly) inhaling this stuff may harm them immediately so please, be careful!
I can only advise people living at these places to, if possible and you have family, relatives, friends,... somewhere else in the U.S. to go over there...

Please remember that the people living in unaffected areas and even more then 1000 miles away or on other continents are feeling very much for you and have compassion because no-one would have his landscape seen killed by this and I think anyone can imagine that we all can get the victim of heavily pollution sooner or later...

Because it is very clear that this is only the beginning!! If BP keeps spreading Corexit it will soon be the end ... cause it will then not only stay at the South-East Coast of North-America so we need to ORGANISE BIG PROTESTS WORLDWIDE that must be held at least EVERY DAY (each big city can have it's own protest one day so that it are everyday other people, mostly) IN THE BIG STREETS OF THE STATES, IN FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE, IN FRONT OF LOCAL AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES AND IN FRONT OF BP's OFFICES TO NOTE THEM THAT THE PUBLIC DOES CARE AND WANTS THIS SURREAL MADNESS TO STOP!!!!

How money still comes first.

2010-06-24T21:19:00.005+02:00

For a disaster of this proportion, you expect ALL AVALAIBLE equipment, materials, experts, ingeniors, booms, oil vessels, sweep arms, skimmers, dredging systems,workmen ... are being used to try to prevent as much as environmental damage possible.

Unfortunately, that is not even resembling reality.
There are a lot of problems occuring:

One is the fact that BP is in charge of this whole operation itself. BP is the one too that will need to pay for this disaster as well so ... BP is too the one which determines who it wants too work for them and who may not! Obviously, BP is - like usual - not giving environmental impact of the oil a priority.

In many cases, this equipment is being provided by private companies -- at BP's expense. And like other elements of the joint response, decision-making has been complicated because federal officials must consult with the oil giant before signing off on any offer.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/14/politics/washingtonpost/main6581011.shtml

Second, the U.S. administration system is not prepared enough to deal with a disaster of this extent. While decisions need to be taken as quickly as possible and waiting can prove fatal to the world as a whole, the administration is holding up offers of companies and governments wanting to help cause they simply don't know how to decide or the files end up on someone's desk...

"We're clearly behind the curve because BP did not have the game plan to deal with this spill," said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), who visited Louisiana on Friday. "I don't know if the federal government has the capacity it needs at this point."

Anthony H. Cordesman, a national security and energy analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the administration has been hampered because the spill is "a rare case"

(...)

when a Dutch official was seeking to broker an aid agreement last month, "it was for a long time unclear on where he should go to and who should take the decision."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/14/politics/washingtonpost/main6581011.shtml

Third, because of the US federal government, the state government ànd BP have to agree on what they want to accept and what not. The decision is being postponed to. And obviously priority is given to these companies offering help that are American or friends with BP or having contacts with BP or one of it's governments. Just like there's not enough work for everybody in this case. :-/ No, American companies wants to do it all of their own, because of the money!! No they are sure that they have work for like maybe a decade to come...

A plan by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) to create sand berms to keep oil from reaching the coastline originally came from the marine contractor Van Oord and the research institute Deltares, both in the Netherlands. BP pledged $360 million for the plan, but U.S. dredging companies -- which have less than one-fifth of the capacity of Dutch dredging firms -- have objected to foreign companies' participation.

Garret Graves, who chairs Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, wrote in an e-mail that state officials "have made it clear to our contractors from the beginning that we want to use American dredges to complete this sand berm as quickly as possible . . . Ultimately, any effort to expedite these berms will be fully considered, but we remain committed to our American companies."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/14/politics/washingtonpost/main6581011.shtml

Note that the Belgian companies (Flemish actually so Dutch-speaking too) de Nul and DEME have the best equipment in the world to do this. Material of them is laying unused in Antwerp, Dunkerqe and other places while it can remove the current quantity of oil without using dispersants in 3 to 4months!! It also asked to help making a sand barrier to protect Louisiana's wetlands begin May!! They could do it cheaper then the American companies!! If their offer had not been rejected, Louisiana's wetland may have been saved from the oil disaster!!
De Nul and DEME are currently negotiating, please let them help to clean up and contain the leak!!!

The Belgian dredgers say that the entire operation could have been executed much more rapidly using the sophisticated vessels that they have. Jan De Nul and DEME proposed to BP that their fall pipe vessels be used, which are unique ships equipped with a two kilometre long fall pipe that are normally used to dump rock at great depths when laying pipelines on the seabed. ‘The diameter of the pipe on such a ship is much broader than the funnel BP is now using (my add: it is double in diameter) to suck up the oil,’ says Noel Pille of Jan De Nul. ‘That means we can collect more oil, which can be pumped underwater into an oil tanker. Moreover, at the bottom of the fall pipe there is a type of unmanned submarine, which can perform tasks at great depths. With our assistance the entire process could have been speeded up greatly.’

(...)
construct sand and stone barriers using their giant dredging vessels in order to protect the coastal wetlands from the encroaching oil. 'We could do that in half the time and at a lower price,' says Pille. Both Jan De Nul and DEME also own vessels that can suck up oil slicks at a depth of 500 feet, as well as vessels that can skim oil off the surface.

http://www.mediargus.be/flanderstoday.admin.en/rss/27675886.html?via=rss&language=en

So we have the technology to clean up much more rapidly, it only needs to be used to prevent more harm due to this this terrible disaster!!!

(Notice the boat upper left...)

Toxic rain containing Corexit oil mixture for years to come !

2010-06-24T20:17:00.004+02:00

BP is still using Corexit widely. They pump it directly into the leak to hide the extent of the oil leak that is now forcely streaming into the Mexican Gulf for more then 2 months!

The main active ingredient of Corexit is 2-butoxyethanol of which you can read the health effects here.

Corexit helps to solute oil into water, making the oil - Corexit mixture sink into the water of the ocean instead of staying on the surface. In the water, it will be impossible to ever retrieve this highly deadly combination. Millions of animals and plants will not survive this, including phyotplankton which is the main source for Oxygen in the world. Read about "gassed in the gulf" here.

Corexit is also being sprayed on the surface oil "spots" to let them sink.

Unfortunately, the oil Corexit mixture can transit into gas molecules when temperatures are high enough - like in the Gulf of Mexico. These gases can go into the air, travelling miles to fall down somewhere as toxic rain and destructing everything which is on their way as Russian scientists already reported weeks ago!

The first reports of oil falling down in Louisiana are already days old... while this is just the start of the disaster.

NORTH AMERICA MAY BE DESTROYED by this deadly combination! Probably panic will only rise when these deadly rain is falling in the gardens of the White House and on the president and his family too! As the deadly mixture is being spread by natures main forces, other continents will face the same. Our water and food supplies will be poisoned. Our harvests will be killed. And eating fish or seafood will totally be out of question.

Reports of crop damage are already been made! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPgrKrLTnbE

Please people, we have to STAND UP AND PROTEST WORLDWIDE IMMEDIATELY!!!!

Oil spill suicide: captain couldn't cope with what he saw

2010-06-23T22:08:00.004+02:00

A very sad but expected story is coming down from the Mexican gulf.
Condolences to the family, relatives, friends, ... of this man who was a hero, like everyone is who tried to fight the biggest disaster human mankind has ever faced.

Newsstories say

A captain of one of the boats cleaning up in the Gulf, has commited suicide. He couldn't cope with the destroyed environment he saw.

But he said it's not surprising the oil spill had weighed heavily on his mind, as it has on many local fishermen no longer able to support themselves with deep-sea sport fishing trips for marlin and the like, Vinson said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/06/gulf-oil-spill-boat-captain-despondent-over-spill-commits-suicide.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+

This man has seen things that are been hided by BP from the public by censoring the press which isn't obliged to enter these areas!

I feel so for this man, his family and everyone who is a victim of the oil leak directly or indirectly... And after all we will all be.

Although I can understand why this man has done this. We really must avoid to make irreversible decisions like that.
This way, BP takes benefit of it in my opinion because this man who was so emotioned by this (who would not??? and we don't know what he has been going trough so we can't judge) is no death. Normally emotions can be an incentive to make people act. But if you commit suicide... you can't act anymore. So anyone who thinks this is a solution: it is not!! It only helps the responsibles for the disaster they created, because now a potential enemy of them is not existing anymore.
What we need to do is, having those feelings and using them to act, act and act. We need to organise ourselves as quickly as possible to stop this madness at the Gulf!!! Now!!!

Please let's collect on whatever website or place alltogether, so that we can coordinate our actions, before any more victim falls!!!!

(And sorry for this chaotic message but I am shocked myself a bit.)

Containment cap removed ... Oil spill dramatically.

2010-06-23T18:35:00.004+02:00

BP needed to remove the cap that captured a proportion of the flowing oil from the coastal guard.

Now we see how bad it is: the oil is speeding dramatically out the so called "leak" (See here)!!

Still Corexit is being used. This while Obama and BP rejected a lot of foreign help because of their Jones Act!
The people who are responsible for this need to be punished immediately and we need some experts to clean this mess up as quickly as possible! The oil is already heading outwards the Gulf of Mexico to pollute the rest of the ocean included all the life and beaches it will meet on it's way!

Let's organise ourselves in the fight to safe our oceans from the oil spill!!

2010-06-22T22:51:00.004+02:00

I'm looking for people who want to organise actions against BP, the U.S. government and the way they are handling this catastroph.
Or people who have organised something yet, or are willing to cooperate if something (like a protest) is being organised.

If there already exists a website who's handling and coordinating the public actions against this, please let me know.

If you feel nauseas from the way everything is being handled, please let me know something, in which country you live and in which city you want to organise something then we can try to create something together.
Don't take it won't make a difference. If we don't try it, it won't. If we try, it may!

So:

- I'm from Belgium. Brussels seems the best place for a protest to me.
Every one who wants to cooperate on this or help organising it, or know someone who might, please let me and them know!

(In Dutch:

Ik ben Belgische en ik ben het beu om vervuld met afschuw naar het nieuws over deze olievlek in de golf te kijken terwijl we allen niets ondernemen. Dit is de ergste catastrofe ooit, maar de publieke opinie, noch de overheid noch non-profitorganisaties laten van zich horen. Ik vind dat het hoog tijd wordt dat we deze oorverdovende stilte doorbreken en ons, het volk, organiseren tegen de almacht, pretentie en onkunde die BP en de U.S. overheid aan de dag hebben gesteld!

Ik stel voor dat we een protestmars organiseren in onze hoofdstad, Brussel.
Indien er geïnteresseerden zijn om mee te protesteren, of er al mensen bezig zijn met de organisatie van acties, er mensen kunnen meehelpen met de organisatie en het verspreiden van het nieuws, ... gelieve zeker en liefst zo snel mogelijk iets te laten weten !!

Samen kunnen we het verschil maken!

En français

Je suis originaire de Belgique et je voudrais organiser un action de protest à Bruxelles. Je en ai marre de voire chaque jour comment BP et le gouvernement de U.S. opérer de catastrophe huile à golf de Mexico.

Si vous voulez accompagner le protest, veuillez vous me contacter s'il vous plaît.

Ensemble on peut choisir une date, une place, ... et pourtant: on peut faire une différence! Le monde nous a besoin maintenant!!

Are BP & the Government doing their best?

2010-06-21T22:54:00.004+02:00

That is a question we need to pose ourselves now, because our whole Earth is at stake at this moment...

So are they doing the best they could? Is coping with this disaster well coördinated? Are they using the best available infrastructure and equipment, are the best scientists there? Is the budget big enough to do everything? Are they using every possible mean to avoid further disaster?

I have some serious reasons to assume they aren't!

My following posts will list what goes totally wrong:

1. Belgium companies De nul en DEME (known from the palm Islands of Dubai) have equipment that is bigger and more efficient and effective then the one the US government and BP have working on this moment but because of the Jones Act these Belgium equipment is neglected and forbidden to help clean up and prevent the damage of this world-disaster!!

The Belgian dredgers say that the entire operation could have been executed much more rapidly using the sophisticated vessels that they have. Jan De Nul and DEME proposed to BP that their fall pipe vessels be used, which are unique ships equipped with a two kilometre long fall pipe that are normally used to dump rock at great depths when laying pipelines on the seabed. ‘The diameter of the pipe on such a ship is much broader than the funnel BP is now using to suck up the oil,’ says Noel Pille of Jan De Nul.

‘That means we can collect more oil, which can be pumped underwater into an oil tanker. Moreover, at the bottom of the fall pipe there is a type of unmanned submarine, which can perform tasks at great depths. With our assistance the entire process could have been speeded up greatly.’ Both dredging companies also proposed to the US authorities to construct sand and stone barriers using their giant dredging vessels in order to protect the coastal wetlands from the encroaching oil. ‘We could do that in half the time and at a lower price,’ says Pille. Both Jan De Nul and DEME also own vessels that can suck up oil slicks at a depth of 500 feet, as well as vessels that can skim oil off the surface.

http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2010/06/11/bps-ignorant-attitude-surprises-belgians/

Who else can help?
See here for a list of the biggest dredging companies in the world:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE62Q09K20100329

So who-ever reads this quote realises a lot of the things we see today didn't even need to happen!! The Lousianian wetlands may have been safed!
The Belgian firms may even be able to prevent the doom bleed out scenario!! But America and BP just dont want to accept this help to prevent disaster!

While BP just keeps going with firing the oil and using the highly toxic dispersant Corexit, one of the most toxic products which is ever been designed!!

So, don't think that the best means are used to cope with this disaster! Something is going seriously wrong at every level of the organisation that needs to cope with this catastroph!

So please people, we need to act know!! WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?? We are losing precious time we can't get back and we'll regret this later!

The least we can do is contact the responsible people for this clean-up and ask hem to urgently get in touch with the companies named above.

Finally something is starting to move

2010-06-21T21:52:00.005+02:00

On the 21st June 2010, more then two months after the start of the biggest environmental disaster we ever faced, people with a so called "model-function" are finally starting to move!!

The band Korn, famous from hits like "freak on a leash", released the plan to boycot British Petrol. The company who was leasing the Deepwater Horizon oil platform from Transocean and is responsible for the catastroph (official US government page) which is currently treating the South-East coast of the United States and heads to Cuba too... (This is going to be the first non-U.S. country on a long list which will experience devastated coastlines and marine-life due to BP's oil spill and the lack of handling it right)
They did also place a request for other bands and artists to do the same. Creed, Flogging Molly, Slightly Stoopid, Rob Zombie, Megadeth, Anthrax and even the nowadays very popular pop star Lady Gaga have already say to follow Korn's request to stop use any oil products stemming from BP.

Many other stars including Justin Bieber , Cameron Diaz, Lenny Kravitz, Randy Jackson, Ted Danson, Jenny McCarthy, Tim McGraw, Alyssa Milano, Robert Redford, Ian Somerhalder, Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Victoria Principal, Pete Wentz and Sting will be viewable tonight in "Telethlon", a special edition of "Larry King Live" broadcoasted by CNN to collect money for the people that became victims of the disaster yet because they lost their jobs.

Congratulations for this artists to raise their voices, use the media they have an easy entree to and to use their power and money to try to change something into a positive way! I hope many more artists, bands and also the public will follow soon and starts to have more and more critics on the ridiculous way BP and the U.S.'government tries to cope with it, again giving priority to economical importants at the expense of the environment which is now in very acute and critical condition!!!

I hope more artists will follow soon!!

In the meantime CrowdStar, active in gaming trough internet, also started an action. When you play their facebookgames, you can buy animals alike the one that need help in the golf. The money from the sellings will go completely to the National Wildlife Federation.

This is great but there's still so much more left to do and the biggest problem is: no matter how much money you collect.
If this money isn't spent the right way, e.g. because the management of this oil spill acts fault on every possible level and manner, it makes no sense...

Mass evacuation in Gulf due to oil spill?

2010-06-20T18:03:00.002+02:00

As we all know, crude oil exists out of a lot of components that are highly toxic (benzene, lead, ...). Some of these toxics aren't even out of the product when we buy it as energy source.

You wouldn't want to inhale this too much or get this stuff onto your skin where it can go to the pores of it and get into your bloodtraffic.

Even a lot more toxic than crude oil, is Corexit(pdf). A product which has been used in masses by British Petrol to "solute the oil". They say the goal of using this product was solute the oil into the water so that it's just gone. But ... it's believed that they used this highly toxic product to prevent that the oil stayed on the water surface, so that the oil spot seemed less big... Interestingly, Corexit is a product that didn't sell for obvious reasons (safety hazards), made by a company, Nalco of which BP has a lot of shares ... So BP makes money because of it's oil spill!
Other shareholders may sound familiar to, they are said to be Warren Buffet and Goldman sachs...

Now unfortunately, this mixture of Corexit and oil may be 11 times more poisonous then crude oil itself.
This means of course that probably all sea and marine life coming in touch with these will be killed. This we know for sure.

Everyone can see - I think - that this is "not good" for the sea life, but, why and how will it harm people when it is safely in the water? No-one will get into the water as long as this deadly mixture is present.

This will quickly will clear if you get onto the Gulf beaches or speak with the helpers ... of whom some have been brought to hospital with serious respiritory difficulties and other problems.

Okay, but you didn't plan to go to the beaches now probably so this deadly water mixture will not come close to your body.

Wrong ... hurricane season is coming up. But even hurricanes are unnecessary, a severe storm or just an ordinary rainfall will do the trick ....
It will pick up the poisonous mixture of the Mexican Golf and bring it into land ... Maybe as far as 200 miles inside.
The consequences of this are extraordinary and the biggest catastroph scenario we possibly can think of:
if a human gets into contact with these poisonous mixture that can be air borne (gasses), is invisible, and is even damaging when it is onto your skin because it can be absorbed by the body and brought into the bloodstream, let alone what happens when you have to swim in it because of a flood and swallow a bit of this ...
that person will be in serious trouble.

Corexit is mutagenetic (meaning that your dna will transform causing all kinds of defects and if your reproduction cells will be affected to we will see generations of children that have all kinds of disabilities), it can cause accute and permanent blood (anemia), kidney, liver, respiratory,... damage. It contains all kinds of carcinogens, neurotoxics, heavy metals, ... It may even be worsers then we now, according to this article a lot has been censored.

So there are reasons why the "Family survival news" newsletter has put this paper online for free with tips for everyone who still lives near (within 200 miles) the affected coastlines.

Some sources picked up the news of an operation going on that is code named "Swift Fox". This is the name of the mass evacuation that has been planned to relocate the people living within 200 miles of the affected areas because of the serious health problems that are linked to the above mentioned poisonous gasses!
There are no mainstream sources of this yet. If you google "evacuation gulf coast", "swift fox evacuation" of "operation deadly tide" you'll notice though that some people say to have information that the military service is preparing this and camps are being built as well as hotel rooms are being rented (unter the Martial law). This evacuation is not started yet!! I'm just saying these plans are made for in case ...
Indeed, if the wind and rain brings Corexit and oil components into the South and East regions of America, that will ruin this whole parts of the country, making the food crops that are growing on it useless (poisoned), as the land, as all animals, lakes, rivers, ... everything will be destroyed

So people, we need to organise ourselves and act now in order to help the government taking the right decisions that are good for all of us and not only for the portfeuilles of some.

Gulf Oil Spill

2010-06-20T06:58:00.008+02:00

Dear Earth-inhabitants,

Today we face a massive problem on an unseen scale. The consequences are bigger than we can and will ever be able to imagine.
This will undoubtly affect all life on Earth.

I will speak of the consequences of this and try to update the news about this in a time but since there's no time left I first want to do a begging call for something else which is even more mind-boggling then the disaster that is unfolding itself!!

The industry, together with the U.S. authorties and U.S. government is dealing with this catastroph the wrong way!!!
We, civilians, (because we are the only specie that is available too but all species will be affected even if they can't raise their voices), need to act and organise ourselves now to stop this!!!

I'm not saying that all of us are equally responsible for this. That is not true. But we all have the choice to do something, (instead of only feeling miserable and ashamed to be a human after watching the news, ,) and in the degree we have the choice to act the way we want too, we are responsible!!

The least we can do is protesting, forcing and urging the authorities to handle this leak properly in order to prevent further damage and to make this clean-up work as efficiently as possible.
So please, let all of us unite and force our governments (to force the company) to handle it with the best available equipment, technologies, infrastructure, scientists and other dedicated people who only do things based on all the information that is available, and do only things that are science or very common sense based!!!

It is shocking, to say at least, that we give the future of our fragile ecosystem which is determining the future of all life on earth, to a company which is hiding news-facts, hiding information, lieing, worsening the leak, using the poisonous Corexit (!!!!!) for it's own profit, and so on ...

If u want to try to organise something, do something or unite as quickly as possible, please leave a quick note unter this message then i'll contact u trough the given mailadress (if i can get that?) or if I wont be able to see your mailadress just keep following this blog (I have to make sure that my messages are reaching and motivating people to chose for their future!).

I hope for a massive response. (If not I'll have to look for something else to reach a lot of people that are motivated, tips welcome!! (making my completely own website may take too long...!!)

The illusion of health

2009-12-14T23:10:00.002+01:00

Dear readers of this blog,

This blog will - hopefully temporary - probably not be updated anymore soon because I suffer from medical problems.

Thank you for visiting,

Yours sincerely,

me

Drought

2009-09-29T20:24:00.002+02:00

Does this still need any explanation?

I don't think so.

The only question is when... the certainy is that it will hit us between this very day and like 30 years further...

(coming soon in a following blogpost)

R.I.P. Yasmine

2009-06-25T17:49:00.003+02:00

I just heart the news that Yasmine, a great Flemish (Belgium) singer/presentator just died and can hardly believe she did. Rumours say that she was not in a good health last months. She had a harsh time coping with her recent divorce with the woman Marianne Dupon (winner from tv program 'Who is The Mol?), which whom she had a child.
She was only 37 years old. She made some incredible songs, presented some programs and was known a great person.

This is a great loss for the Flemish world of music and tv.

I was touched by it, cause she is one of the singers I grew up with and I really appreciated her. That's why I chose to share this internationally.

Here you can listen to one of her songs (in dutch). (I cannot find more songs on youtube because it dates from the nineties ...)
I hope she may rest in peace now...

Condolences to her relatives and friends...

Iran begging desperately for honesty!

2009-06-25T01:19:00.006+02:00

I never got the goosebumps so many times in my life on a row as when I read the news about Iranian protesters.... I've got it even more when I read they were being attacked by the police and army. The one that should care for them in all situations...
This while I'm absolutely astonished by the pictures showing the amount of people on the streets.

I have one very important call for the people of Iran who are demonstrating on the streets:

Please make clear where you stand for!! (cause in the western world, most people don't know for sure)...)

I'm not saying my own opinion here, but feedback about what I have gathered of information from average western people and media services.

In the western world we all know that you want the voices to be recounted. But I hear that some people think that the votings results might be right. Some media claim researches showed most people of the more rural Iranian areas will have voted for Ahmadinejad. (Extra source). Claiming that only a minority of the people, especially those living in the cities and higher-educated, are actually wanting the leadership of Mousavi. So, the victory of Ahmadinejad may be democratic, according to them.

But for western norms, nor the victory of Ahmadinejad nor Mousavi or any other candidate is fully democratic. This is because the Iranian system is totally different from the western view on what democracy has to be like, cause in Iran religion and politics are interwoven largely. Here, democracies are all seculate. People do not believe that presidential candidates that have to be approved first by the religion counsil in order to actualy become a candidate, can ever be democratic...

There are people here that fear a choice for Mousavi is the lesser of two evils. They think the possible policy of Mousavi won't make live better for an average Iranian citizen. This is corelated with the above argument, namely that real leadership actually is by the religious leaders.

Western people also remember he started the nuclear program of Iran while being Prime Minister for the country. Indicating the foreign policy certainly will not change. So egoistic as we are ...

And this might be exactly the reason(s) why the western society does not react heavily on the protests in Iran, taking a point against the government. I'm quiet sure the western world will react a lot more and heavier while hearing that you, Iranian civians, are want the whole Iranian theocracy to be reformed... I'm sorry to say to and I regret that this means that we have some values that are more important than others. Or otherwise said: our governments won't hesitate if they see a chance to force their own opinion about how a state should be organised ... (and especially to install a free market or a 'foot on ground in the oil-richt Iran'. This is how harsh the world is...

But let this shocking and maybe pessimistic news not rise any doubts about the fact that:
1) we all incredibly admire the courage of the people that are even unarmed and trying to make a better world for themselves, even if this means risking their lives!!
2) Under no circumstances, the western world will ever accept governments who are cheating their own population, let stand alone encouraging or understanding governments who make protests illegal or shoot their own population!!

In the meantime I heart the horrifying news that:
- internet and mobile phone connection are being shut down by the government
- Mousavi's new agency is being shut down ... (source: All Jazeera)
- protesters are giving up in fear because of the heavily violent actions of the armed army and police... (source: All Jazeera)

Can someone please (dis)confirm this rumours?

For the Iranian civilians now, being out there on the streets and making theirself an easy target for the government... I read about a way you could protect yourself and be more powerfull:
all the people joining the protests have to interlock themselves with their arms and no-one might let go, unter no circumstance!!!! When a group stays together, they are a lot stronger. When they separate the people, they may feel victory is on their side...

I cross my fingers for all you people. And please, remember one thing: never give up where your ideals stand for, than your voices will be heart in your own country and even at the other side of the globe!

Dollar collapsing?

2009-03-24T18:54:00.008+01:00

It's time to bring something totally different than Belgium politics now:

I'm going to introduce you into some knowledge I noticed by chance. I can still barely believe it is real because it's really mind-boggling. So if someone has information that contradicts anything I'm going to write now (or anything what is in this blog at all), please give me a sign. :)

In Holland there is a docu-serie called 'Tegenlicht'. In November 2005, they broadcasted this informationserie about the real value of the American Dollar, titled 'the day the dollar drops'. In this docu was claimed: (I translate literally): Every second, the United States borrows 18 000 dollar. In total, it makes three billian dollar a day. This money is been borrowed especially from Asia, in particular China and probably also India. This way US get money to spend and buy stuff from ... China... and China builds up a (n invisible) reserve. So if China doesn't borrow money, it doesn't sell anything anymore in the US cause they simpley are out of money. This way, the two worldpowers hold each other in a constricting grip.

As long China is wanting to be a world bank for the US, everything goes well. But from the moment they realise that this money borrowed by the US won't come back, because it's just an amazing amount (in total, it's according to this site + 11 trillion dollars!).
This means there is like a bomb ticking beneath the US that may one day explode. That day the worth of the dollar will be far beneath any other coin in the world. This makes it even more problematic for 'worlds most powerful country' to pay ever back with they lend China. How this is going to be soluted and how this will affect world's economy, we might knew soon.

Today I read in "the Time" (De Tijd, a Belgian economical newspaper) this for me astonishing and shocking article. Astonishing because of the implications it may have for the welfare of the world and I'm not able to make a realistic estimation of the possible consequences of this:

De Chinese centrale bank heeft dinsdag opgeroepen om de Amerikaanse dollar te vervangen als internationale reservemunt en het internationaal monetair systeem te hervormen.

Literally translated, it says: "the Central Bank of China tuesday has called for a replacement of the American Dollar as the coin for international reserves (and to reform the international monetary system.)

As I stated before, I don't know where that will lead. And I don't know if I want to...

Will be continued, at least if the world economic doesn't slows so much on 24 hours (as predicted by some experts in the docu above) that I won't be able to pay for my internet anymore. :)

Smart persons among us already noticed that the US government has the same attitude as wat it's population is been blamed: buying everything on credit, and what now is the cause of the worldwide financial crisis. But there is more to come...

Are we pointing to the right man?

2009-03-23T20:42:00.003+01:00

At the end, you can imagine Yves Leterme got al the blame for gettting no agreement to form a government to lead the country. But did he deserve that?
What only few people realise is that the base note of the pin points of the union reformation was made by no one less than ... Guy Verhofstadt. At that time looking for a free position in the European Union. Guess who might have collected all the blessings if the note would have been backed up by everyone.... (an impossible scenario). It may also be clear who got the humiliations if the note was not back-uped by everyone.

Leterme was actually gifted with another surprise from the previous politicians (government). Verhofstadt did not find it necessary to, despite all the calls of intellectuals and economical teachers to provide some savings for the future, prepare for the grey golf which comes closer day by day and may be a great danger for ouir welfare. Instead, he claimed measurements to save were not necessary because the economy was doing well. But, though the economy was doing well he had to do all kinds of trics to keep his government budget in balance. So he took all kind of short-term-importance measurements without thinking about the consequences. Why should he? This were worries for the future.. if the population would chose him again as a Prime Minister... now this chances had to be as high as possible, even by making choices that were impairable with good long-term management. (But you can't blame any politician for doing that. Almost any human being with a good job will do everything to keep his ass safe.)
Among these measurements were the selling of buildings from the government (and renting them immediately back ........) and the paying of the vacation salary at the huge adminstration corpse. This way, Verhofdstadt got his budget in balance at the end of the year. But he left his successor with a very difficult task: keep his budget in balance, in a financial crisis, without losing the demographic factors

So Verhodstadt was a real liberal...

The raise of votings for CD&V (continuation of the previous post: roots of the political crisis)

2009-03-21T17:39:00.007+01:00

CD&V mainly took over some points of the Vlaams Belang and attenuated them, so they made them more interesting for a more diverse public and less extremistic. They promised a 'union reformation'. The structures of our state would be changed thorougly, leading to a greater independency of Flanders and Walloon and also resolving some territorial issues.
Front leader of the party at that moment had become Yves Leterme, a man from West Flanders who already was the Prime Minister of the Flandern government on that moment.

With his new and revolutionary program he promised to resolve all issues who were frightening every Belgium politician and were pending for years and years between Flanders and Walloon.
Leterme got chosen by the population and became the Prime Minister of Belgium. This implies he had the task to form a government. This didn't seem to be a cup of tea. As expected, especially the Walloon politicians blocked the negotiations on all possible ways. The four Walloon political parties demanded to not separate BHV, to appoint the chosen Frenchspeaking politicians as city managers of Dutchspeaking communes (which is against the main law, it only allows that French/Dutchspeaking persons govern in French/Dutchspeaking communes) and to stop using the argument that Dutchspeaking (Flemish) people are the majority of the country's population.
(This argument is being used by Dutchspeaking people to point out that the French community gets more money to spend par person, then the Dutch community does...). The Flemish politicians didn't agree with this argument cause this will lead to an expansion of the French community (and so a loss of the Flemish territorium) and an expansion of the French-spoken region while French-speaking people are already moving to Dutch communes, suppressing the Dutch language in this communes because most of them are unilingual, making it hard for Flemish people who also are unilingual to live their because their entry to certain facilities is hindered.

This made it impossible for the government to form a consensus, subsequently Leterme was leaven no choice: betraying the people that voted for him by giving the Walloon people what they wanted, even if this importance was totally contrary to Flemish importances and making the most important things he wanted to ask subsequently impossible (because he would be inable to use the argument of the fact that the Flemish people are in the majority), or ... just stop with the negotiatons and resign...
He chose to stand up for the rights of the people he defended, and resigned honourably...

From the beginning it was clear: nevertheless the fact that Leterme was chosen by the majority of the people to govern the country and his very brave intentions, somewhere behind the scenes he was being totally sabotaged. Leterme could impossibly succeed. And no-one with this demands at the Walloon people would ...

Political crisis, possible roots

2009-02-02T15:42:00.006+01:00

I will try to give a summary of the situation and my opinion about it.

For years we have issues on our political diary that are dealing with the fundamental structures of the country, but they have been postponed till today because no politicians were able to form a satisfying agreement for all groups of interests.
This themes were essentially about tensions between the regions belgium exists about. The fact that they were postponed for such a long time leaded to dissatisfaction of an Someone found an original solution for the crisis.
non-ignorable and growing Buyers were advised to buy the land in pieces.
proportion of the population.

The two, at least in my opinion, main issues are: although in Flanders there is a bigger population, the Belgium parliament gives a bigger amount of the national money to Walloon. Futhermore, according to a study there is an enduring stream of money from the north of the country (Flanders), to the south (Walloon). This creates tensions in the population.

The other issue is the fact that a voting district, Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, forms an inunderstandable exception in the belgium country structure because it constitutes of two regions and communities: the officially bilingual Brussels one, and a part of the Flanders one, where Dutch is spoken. Some inhabitants of Flanders even went to court with this problem and the judge declared they were right. Politicians got the time till 2007 to change this, otherwise subsequent votings would be illegal.

Especially the civilians of Flanders were fed up with this situation, leading to an increase of votes for the party "Vlaams Belang" (earlier called "Vlaams Blok") with frontleader Filip De Winter. This party advocates strongly Flemish cultural traditions. More concretely, it insists that immigrants should adapt our culture and, more importantly for my account, that Flanders should go independent.

Separation of Flanders (represented with a lion) & Walloon (cock).

In answer, other politicical parties formed a cordon sanitaire, preventing the Vlaams Belang from being part of a governmental coalition for ethical reasons. But the votes for the party only raised. So some other parties investigated the cause of the success of this party and adopted some viewpoints of this, making it more moderately right. This also led to the origin of new parties such as LDD (Lijst De Decker) (Dutch) and "Nee" (Dutch) and to a different approach in CD&V, the Christen Democratic Party.

How is Belgium governed ?

2009-01-28T21:32:00.006+01:00

I will try to give a view of the present Belgian political crisis. In order to do that, I will give a bit background about the way Belgium is governed.

In Belgium, there are three national languages: in order of the quantity of the population speaking it: Dutch (mainly spoken in Flanders and somehow differing from the Dutch spoken in Holland), French (mainly spoken in Walloon) and German (spoken in the eastern-Walloon site of Belgium).

Belgium divided by the three languages

speaking, which are the basis for the three

communities. (Orange: dutch-speaking,

red: french-speaking, green: german-

speaking.)

We have six separated governments [these are: the federal government (national level), the Walloon regional one, Walloon community one, the Flemish one (where community and regional are put together), the regional Brussels government and the government of the German community. They are being controlled by parliaments, of which we have seven: the chamber of representants and the senate, the Flemish - and the Walloon parliament, the parliament of the Brussels region, the parliament of the German-speaking community, the parliament of the French-speaking community. The communities have the task to defend the interests of language-related aspects of the community they govern. The regional governments are charged with more economical aspects of the regions they govern.

So, every level of policy has his own elements to regulate, making it somehow a mess for the population to understand how their own country functions, let alone for outsiders…

Above some typical Belgian products: chocolates, 'Brusselse wafel' and beer.

famine due to climate change

2009-01-27T23:17:00.008+01:00

CLIMATE CHANGE CONSEQUENCES

Only a few people, without the theoretical background relevant to climate science, realise that on the long-term we bring ourselves in danger because we are with 6 billion people needing food and fresh (sweet) water to survive.
When the climate will change further, the glaciers up the mountains providing our rivers with fresh water will melt. Consequently in the short term there will be floods at the fertil river side, destroying the harvests. On the long run, the consequences are even worser: the river's water level is going to shrink and one day it shall be dry which is devastating for the harvests.

Furthermore we lose fertile landscapes by the increasing sea level, which also increases the amount of salt in the bottom, making it unable to grow most food species.

Of course only the change of the climate itself is enough to do the trick...

So climate change will undoubtly raise pressures on our available food supply while our population is still raising.

In an interview to new scientists, James Lovelock states:

"

I think it's wrong to assume we'll survive 2 °C of warming: there are already too many people on Earth. At 4 °C we could not survive with even one-tenth of our current population. The reason is we would not find enough food, unless we synthesised it. Because of this, the cull during this century is going to be huge, up to 90 per cent. The number of people remaining at the end of the century will probably be a billion or less. It has happened before: between the ice ages there were bottlenecks when there were only 2000 people left. It's happening again."

Further in the article he gives, thank god, solutions to prevent the worst from happening.

But, I think this foodproblems can be solved partly by the vertical way of farming I wrote about in my previous post.

And as 67% (!) of the world fresh water amount was used by agriculture in 2005, vertical farming may be a solution here too.

Change the way we produce food

2009-01-26T20:33:00.004+01:00

Since the moment people adapted a sedentary lifestyle, the way we produce food isn't dramatically altered. We have better machines, better techniques, and crops with better characteristics to survive plagues, extreme weather events and we were able to refine the tastes to our needs due selection. But fundamentally, the way we produce food is the same as it has always been in history.

Despite this, today our society is totally different. We have a far more greater population which is still raising almost exponentially and most people live concentrated in the big cities of our world. But this cities aren't suitable places for growing food because of loads of reasons: first, you need space to grow food and land is exactly the thing that is very scarce in the city. Second, there is a lot of pollution which is nefast for the growing of food and other green, thirdly, there also is a pressure on resources like for instance clean water, ... Ironically, these urban cities and metropoles are the places where food is most needed (speaking in terms of quantity). Most people live there and they of course don't have the space nor the time to grow food on their own. So the food has to come from the peripherial and other parts of the country with unbuilt land and other circumstances more suitable to grow food. This means that all this food, from everywhere over the world, has to be transported massively to all these cities, everyday or weekly over and over again... The quantities of energy we are just spilling by transporting all these food, are immense.

Happily, some people invented a solution for this and other problems and challenges associated with our agriculturing arises. The concept is called vertical farming.

The idea is that you built a skycraper with diverse stores that instead of using for housing and organisations, can now be used to grow food! The advantages of this idea are enormous. First of all, this buildings can easily be integrated in the city without leading to a discomforting view of agricultural in the cities, because they won't pop-out between all skycrapres. Secondly, you may not have a lot of space, but you can multiply the amount of space you have because you built your farm in storages. Thirdly, the traffic for food transport from all over the world to the cities is no more necesarry since our vertical farm in the middle of the city can provide all the inhabitants, restaurants, hotels, magazines, markets, ... with food. Energy use and transport emissions can be reduced substantially this way.

Figure: Possible outside view of a vertical farm, showing how benefits from a
triangle piece of ground can be exponentially increased.

Another advantage is undoubly the fact that our vertical farm can be hermetically closed from the outside influences, meaning that there is no chance of outside pollutions, organisms and other that can affect our destroy the harvest. Because the harvest is now unentrancable to viruses, bacterias and animals that can potentially have dramatic effects on the harvest, there is no more need to use agressive and toxic pesticides now! Which may drastically increase the health of the population and the environment.

Figure: Inside, it may look like this.

Even more important is that the ecologically negative consequences of our monocultural agriculture we use today can be disminished. I'm thinking of the salination of masses of land so they become unusable for most plants, the drying effect of the land by agriculture, the pesticides and other toxins coming into the water and polluting it, ... Because of course, when you have a totally hermetical farm, no drop of water has to get lost cause everything, energy and water can be recuperated and used again. This vertical farm can of course gets his energy from solar panels, making it green in all manners of speaking. Ultimately interesting, is that this way of agriculturing will make us, finally and for the first time since the existence of mankind, totally independent from the climatic and geographical circumstances for our food production. Meaning that every skycraper can ass well be planted in a country with water shortages and dry land such as is common in most African developing countries as in a country with a climate that's more suitable for food production. This implicates that this way of farming can be a giant step forwarth in finally banning food famine from the world.

Global change (climate change)

2009-01-26T20:30:00.002+01:00

Scientific conclusions unmistakably point out that we are in an anthropogenic climate change which has negative effects on the diversity of the world's fauna and flora. Subsequently, they suggest preventing the world from further increases or even possible accelerations of climate change is not a too crazy idea.

Sadly enough, the debate about climate change has become the victim of pollution itself because there are many peoples or organisations who gain benefits if they can dempen or even contradict the conclusions of climate science. How this debate is being polluted you can read on this blog: http://jules-klimaat.blogspot.com .

Unwanting to discuss hard empircally based conclusions of the scientifical world but also avoiding a dogmatic vision, I would be gratified if people who deny the truthness of climate change provide me (and the academical world) with a peer-reviewed paper (*), which contradicts the present conclusions of climate science.

(*) Evidently, not funded by or related in any way to people or organisations that have proven to try frauding science or have particulair interests in changing the way the public and policemakers think about global change.

Introduction

2009-01-26T20:27:00.002+01:00

Welcome on board!

I am honoured with your visit and hope to be able to provide you with some information that may be covering one or more of your interests.

In future, this will be a place where you can find some critical notes about the way our society lives, handles problems (or doesn't) and the way national and international politics react (not) and interact.

What I finally want to reach with this blog, is mirorred in the site-adress.
The way I want to do that, is step by step and my first goals aren't to high: just make a difference, that is positive in nature, for at least some people. :)

How this blog fits in this broader goal-defintion:
In order to make the world a better place, it is necesarry to get, create and spread knowledge all over the world about things that essentialy are going wrong. (A philosophical debate about what is wrong and what is right will be adressed later on in this blog. Now I'll stick to the why-question)
Without knowing what is wrong, you don't know what is in need of improvement. So giving constructive critics and ring the alarmbell on every topic that you notice society seems to handle wrong, is I think a first and very fundamental step to the possibility of executing positive changes.
But the problem is that as people we have limited resources of time and capacities and we can't be everywhere or see anything on our own, that's why it's important to have different peoples, with different history's, backgrounds, educational levels, life domains they are focusing on and different environments they are living in, perspectives. In this way, a problem where most politicians are unaware of may capture some attention which will enhance the chance that the way to handle this issue (at home, or in a country or even the world) will be changed .

[All these statements above may sound very naive and simplistic, but the broader theoretical foundation I did ent my assumptions (or conclusions?) on I will discuss later on in this blog, as noted earlier.]

P.S.: No day more appropiate to start this blog then the day Obama becomes president of the United States!