Latest report on problem bears in Churchill, Manitoba, from the town’s Facebook page. See previous post herefor map and background.

19 polar bears handled to date this year; 12 bears in the holding facility.

Photo above: A bear is transported to Churchill’s polar bear holding facility (from a 2011 Huffington Post article, “Polar Bear Prison”).

Activity report for 7-14 September 2015 copied below (click to enlarge):

Comment deadline within hours for US Polar Bear Plan (11.59 pm Saturday, 19 Sept. Eastern Time). See summary points and comment link below the WWF press release.

USFWS Photo in “Circumpolar Action Plan”

The new Arctic Nations International Polar Bear “Circumpolar Action Plan” speaks generically about pollution risks, but does not specifically mention radioactive pollution, even though AMAP, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program has recently stated: “The Arctic is vulnerable to radioactive pollution transported from distant sources, whether by ocean currents or via the atmosphere. These sources include the atmospheric nuclear tests conducted in the 1950s and 1960s, nuclear fuel reprocessing, historical dumping and, more recently, accidents such as those at nuclear power plants in Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011./ New potential sources of radioactive contamination in the Arctic include the decommissioning of nuclear power plants in Europe, which may lead to temporary increases in radioactive discharges…

HAZARDS OF LOW LEVEL RADIOACTIVITY, Nuclear Reader, ………OZONE BREAKDOWN The protective layer of ozone around the Earth filters out solar and cosmic rays and prevents them from reaching our planet. Ozone surrounds the Earth in a layer between six and thirty miles above sea level. It is formed when light rays strike molecules of oxygen, which is 02, and causes them to break into two separate oxygen atoms, or an 0 and 0. An atom of oxygen then combines with a molecule of oxygen and forms ozone which is 03. It breaks down again and then recombines again. And so on; unless it is interfered with.  Radiation interrupts the process of ozone formation.

1957 – Walter Russell published his book Atomic Suicide, whose principle message was that the development of the nuclear weaponry and nuclear industry, if it continued, would eventually destroy the planet’s oxygen.

“The element of surprise which could…

Polar Bear Comment Deadline this Saturday Night (North America) Sunday in many places. See more below

This Ongoing Saga post is usually updated daily. Most recent updates are on top, after images, and comment info, so that daily readers will not have to scroll-down far. Time is UTC-GMT. This is a continuation of:

The Ongoing Saga 60: News, Updates, Tidbits & Trivia

Call-up to Clean-up Nuclear Sites
These images or something similar will probably stay on top until a) pro-nuclear people volunteer to work at nuclear waste sites (WIPP, Fukushima, Hanford, etc.) in droves, and b) the nuclear industry is shut down. Then, after b), there will still be the problem of a) the nuclear waste to be secured. We live on borrowed time. Let’s shut the nuclear industry down now! There’s 3 months left to do it this year.

Take advantage of the US NRC comment extension about cancer for…

USFWS Polar Bear Draft Plan Comment Deadline is soon – almost midnight Saturday night (11.59) on the US East Coast. See more here: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/polar-bear-plan-must-include-impact-of-radionuclides-comment-deadline-sat-19-sept-1159-pm-et-dc-ny-us-fisheries-wildlife-service/

Around Half of the Radioactive iodine 129, half-life 15.7 million years, emitted by the nuclear facilities of Sellafield (UK) and La Hague (France), is estimated to end up in the Arctic. Now you see how. (See more at the bottom of the post). Nuclear power emits deadly radionuclides during the entire fuel chain. Nuclear reactors legally leak radiation. When they have accidents, they leak even more. Much nuclear waste is also allowed to leak. Some will end up in the Arctic.

“Year: 2005
From collection: Barentswatch Atlas
Author: GRID-Arendal
Description:
The pollution from industrialized nations are affecting the environment in the Arctic region. The main areas of industrial activity in the northern hemisphere are spreading to specific areas in the Arctic though air currents“…

US Fisheries and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
“polar bears and every other living thing are all part of Earth’s living system. If that system changes so that it is no longer friendly to polar bears, then it may not be friendly to many other species, including humans. So we need to look at the polar bears’ problems as a warning for ourselves.” http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/projects/wherepolarbears.pdf
http://www.fws.gov/alaska/PDFs/PBRT%20Recovery%20Plan%20Book.pdf

The US Fisheries and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has a draft Polar Bear Conservation plan. There are only an estimated 22 to 25 thousand polar bears alive, worldwide, compared to 7.3 billion people. While the plan discusses some other toxins found in arctic water, it fails to discuss the impact of radionuclides on polar bears, even though radionuclides are present in the arctic (see below), and continue to accumulate from routine and accidental releases from nuclear reactors, nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities, etc. Radionuclides are…