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	<title>Science &#38; Space &#187; Krista Mahr &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Science &#38; Space &#187; Krista Mahr &#124; TIME.com</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com</link>
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		<item>
		<title>Irradiated Baby Food Formula Highlights Ongoing Problems in Fukushima</title>
		<link>http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/12/07/irradiated-baby-food-spotlights-ongoing-woes-for-japans-food-sector/</link>
		<comments>http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/12/07/irradiated-baby-food-spotlights-ongoing-woes-for-japans-food-sector/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:44:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fukushima]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[radioactivity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=7376</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[New tests show traces of radioactive elements in Japanese baby food, forcing the recall of more than 400,000 cans of infant formula. The news underscores the challenges still facing Japan&#8217;s food sector nine months after the Fukushima disaster—challenges that have as much to do with popular perception as science. Read more on Global Spin.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=7376&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/12/07/irradiated-baby-food-spotlights-ongoing-woes-for-japans-food-sector/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Ecocentric</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/ecocentric/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/a2011-12-04t165117z_6051798711.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Tokyo</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>In Fukushima City, Decontamination Begins. But What to Do with the Radioactive Waste?</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/08/09/in-fukushima-city-decontamination-begins-but-what-to-do-with-the-radioactive-waste/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/08/09/in-fukushima-city-decontamination-begins-but-what-to-do-with-the-radioactive-waste/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:21:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fukushima]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear contamination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear power]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=6475</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Keizo Ishii grabs a dosimeter from a table and strides over to a lump of uprooted grass. It’s a blazing August day in Fukushima City. The professor of nuclear engineering, an with the aura of a mad scientist as sweat drips from his brow and gray hair wisps out from under his baseball cap, has come from Tohoku University in Sendai to help officials here think creatively about radioactive waste. Ishii dangles the microphone-like extension that measures radiation over the grass. The needle edges past 4 microsieverts per hour. “Very high activity,” he pronounces. He moves the instrument sideways to the bare soil from which the grass has been peeled back. “See?” he says, watching the needle sink below 1. “See? 0.8… no! 0.6!” Nearly five months after March 11, the physical process of cleaning up the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl has begun. Untold numbers of buildings, sidewalks, trees, gardens, parks, streets, school yards and gutters were dusted in radioactive particles after the earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Though a circle within a 20-km radius of the plant and some other high-radiation spots remain evacuated, a much larger area is still home to tens of thousands of people who want those particles out of their lives as soon as possible. The cities of Fukushima, Date and Minami-soma have announced ambitious plans to decontaminate their cities, starting with schools and other parts of town frequented by kids. More municipalities are expected to follow. Though iodine, one of the elements released after the explosions at the plant, only has a half-life of eight days and has already decayed, cesium 134 and 137 stay radioactive for 4 and 30 years, respectively. “It’s long,” says Ishii. “Fukushima cannot wait for it.” The decontamination taking place around Fukushima City is surprisingly low tech. Armed with shovels, long-handled brushes and high-pressure water guns, some 3700 city employees and resident volunteers are scrubbing parks, roads, schools, walkways, gutters and grates. Officials are openly frustrated that this is a process they<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=6475&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Waste</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/waste/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Do I Dare to Eat a Peach? Fukushima Citizens and Farmers Struggle with Food Safety</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/08/08/do-i-dare-to-eat-a-peach-fukushima-citizens-and-farmers-struggle-with-food-safety/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/08/08/do-i-dare-to-eat-a-peach-fukushima-citizens-and-farmers-struggle-with-food-safety/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Aug 2011 05:50:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[earthquake]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fukushima]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[March 11]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tsunami]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=6435</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Call it slipper security. To get clearance into the food radiation testing center at Fukushima Agricultural Technology Center, you have to change shoes three times. The first time, you get a black pair. The second time, after your heels are scanned by a Geiger counter and deemed radiation-free, you change into a pair of plastic house shoes emblazoned with a yellow nuclear symbol. And finally, before entering the testing lab itself, the indoor footwear urgency rating is kicked up a notch with a red nuclear label. No precaution is too small when the eyes of the nation are on you. Since June 20, local government officials have been trying to make sure every kind of food grown, slaughtered or caught on a line in Fukushima prefecture has been brought to this laboratory to be tested for iodine 131 and cesium 137 and 134. All three radioactive elements were spewed into the atmosphere after the explosions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in March, settling across the bucolic countryside surrounding the plant in a tasteless, odorless and potentially toxic dust. The exact amount and degree of the contamination is still unknown, but the radiation has shown up in local foods like shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, fish, beef, and spinach, among others. Every day at the lab, government employees fan out to Fukushima farms to gather samples from the fields. In a clean, white room that smells like fresh cucumber and onion, workers in grey jumpsuits and latex gloves use long razor blades to mince everything from apples to beef to rice into a fine roux. The specimens are then ferried in small plastic containers into the lead bellies of the four-foot-tall analysis machines, where, after 33 minutes, the verdict comes in on an adjacent computer screen. Since June, as many as 5000 samples have been analyzed before shipping out to consumers around Japan. Most have been well below the legal limit of 500 becquerels of radiation per kilogram. But is ‘most’ enough? In July, reports surfaced that beef shipped out<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=6435&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/08/08/do-i-dare-to-eat-a-peach-fukushima-citizens-and-farmers-struggle-with-food-safety/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/health/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Lethal Levels of Radiation Detected at Fukushima</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/08/03/lethal-levels-of-radiation-detected-at-fukushima/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/08/03/lethal-levels-of-radiation-detected-at-fukushima/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:12:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=6379</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In many ways, it looks like daily life in Fukushima is slipping back into its familiar routines. In Koriyama, a town south of Fukushima City, a group of taiko drummers set up in front of the train station to perform in an annual summer festival. Girls cruise by on bicycles in their plaid skirts and white socks in the unusually mild August, and customers stop to browse at boxes of fresh peaches — a seasonal specialty of the prefecture, and, thanks to government testing, guaranteed to be mostly iodine- and cesium free. The rhythm of the seasons in this rural swath of Japan may be regaining some sense of normalcy, but a reminder that things are still anything but is never far away. As if to prove that point, on Tuesday Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that workers at their Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant had discovered a second highly radioactive location at the plant in two days. Radiation on the floor inside reactor No. 1 was measured to be 5000 millisieverts per hour, just one day after the employees found another &#8220;hot spot&#8221; of 10,000 millisieverts per hour at the base of a structure between reactors No. 1 and No. 2. (That was also as high as the Geiger counters could read; in reality, the levels could be higher.) As it is, both levels are many times higher than anything previously measured on the site; if a worker was exposed to 10,ooo millisieverts per hour for one hour, he or she could die within weeks. TEPCO says that no workers were exposed to either area, and that it has cordoned off both to determine their source. The radiation between reactors 1 and 2 was likely deposited during the initial phases of the disaster when TEPCO attempted to vent the reactors and released large amounts of radioactive material into the air, according to an expert cited by CNN. Though they do not necessarily indicate that radiation levels at the plant are increasing, the back-to-back finds are reminders that things at<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=6379&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Uncategorized</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/uncategorized/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Document: 1600 Fukushima Workers Thought to Be Exposed to High Radiation</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/07/27/document-1600-fukushima-workers-thought-to-be-exposed-to-high-radiation/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/07/27/document-1600-fukushima-workers-thought-to-be-exposed-to-high-radiation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:06:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=6168</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A newly released document says the Japanese government estimated in April that some 1600 workers will be exposed to high levels of radiation in the course of handling the reactor meltdowns at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. The figure was released in a document from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), which is in charge of regulating Japan&#8217;s nuclear industry, after the Japan Occupational Safety and Health Resource Center requested the information be made public, according an article published on Thursday in the Mainichi Daily News. The government defines high exposure levels for workers as over 50 millisieverts per year. Under normal Japanese law, it is illegal for nuclear workers to be exposed to more than 100 millisieverts per year, but in the wake of the March 11 crises, the government raised the exposure limit to 250. The April 25 document, however, expresses concern for the safety of its dozens of other reactors: if this many of nuclear workers face such high exposure, they may be not be able to legally work at other nuclear plants in the coming year. The number, it should be noted, is only an estimate. To date, only six workers have been recorded as exposed to more than 250 millisieverts per year, and less than 420 workers have been recorded as having been exposed to 50. Meanwhile, on Monday, IAEA head honcho Yukiya Amano donned his own protective gear to get a look at the grounds of the crippled plant with members of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). (You can tell which one Amano is because, well, his name is written all over his white suit.) Radioactive emissions from the site have dropped to a fraction of what they were in early days of the accident. A person standing at the edge of the plant today could expect to be exposed to about 1.7 millisieverts per year, compared to the worldwide average of 2.4 millisieverts per year of background radiation, according to the World Nuclear News. That&#8217;s the good news. The<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=6168&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Uncategorized</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/uncategorized/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/fukushima.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Yukiya Amano</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why Indonesia Still Can&#8217;t Say No to Palm Oil</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/07/26/why-indonesia-still-cant-say-no-to-palm-oil/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/07/26/why-indonesia-still-cant-say-no-to-palm-oil/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jul 2011 06:28:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biofuels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carbon Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Climate Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmentalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Green Products]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indonesia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palm oil]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=6130</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;re eating a food that came in a wrapper while reading this, you probably eating palm oil — at least there&#8217;s a 50/50 chance you are. About half the packaged food found in a supermarket contains palm oil, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and a lot of that product comes from the lush archipelago of Indonesia. In 2007, I took a very, very long (and very very hot) journey by plane, car, and riverboat to a remote palm oil plantation in the province of Riau on Indonesia&#8217;s Sumatra island. Greenpeace had recently set up a camp at the edge of a new plantation, helping journalists like me see firsthand the environmental impact that the growing industry was having on tropical forests across the nation. At that time, Indonesia&#8217;s palm oil industry was in the throes of a big boom to meet the rising global demand for biodiesel. Between 1995 and 2005, the amount of Indonesian land being used to grow oil palms increased by some 8.6 million acres (3.5 million hectares), more than doubling total plantation area, according to a  Credit Suisse report published at the time. The scene was grim. A smoky haze hung over miles of what had recently been a towering peatland forest. The charred land had been burned to make way for the tiny green plants that would eventually yield this important global commodity. Tropical forests naturally help filter carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and clearing of Indonesia&#8217;s tropical forests has helped make this non-industrialized nation the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Clearing peatland forests, which contains decades if not centuries of that filtered carbon, releases even more of these gases into the atmosphere. And yet at the same time, the thriving industry was a crucial source of income in Riau, both for local farmers and for migrant workers who came from the island&#8217;s north to plant trees. Four years later, the challenge to find the right balance between palm oil companies, the environment and local livelihoods continues. My colleague Jacob Templin recently<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=6130&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Wildlife</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/wildlife/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/palm.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Palm Fruit Plantation And Palm Oil Production</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Famine in Somalia: When Does the World Decide to Use the ‘F’ Word?</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/07/22/famine-in-somalia-when-does-the-world-decide-to-use-the-%e2%80%98f%e2%80%99-word/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/07/22/famine-in-somalia-when-does-the-world-decide-to-use-the-%e2%80%98f%e2%80%99-word/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:14:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Weather]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[famine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Somalia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World Food Program]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=6074</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The word ‘famine’ may be a familiar one, but it is not thrown around lightly by the people who decide when there is one. The fact that most of us today probably associate the term with the 1984 crisis in Ethiopia is testament to its exceedingly careful dispensation; to use it too often would dilute its power to command the attention of the press and governments around the world. Famines don’t happen overnight, but when the United Nations declares one, those governments are expected to pay attention – and help pay to get the situation under control. On Wednesday, the U.N. declared two regions in southern Somalia as being in the midst of a famine. It’s the first time the word has been used in that country in nearly 20 years and the first time it’s been employed anywhere in the 21st century. The famine comes after months of the worst drought in East Africa in more than half a century, and is affecting about 3.5 million people around the country, most of whom are in the south. Over 165,000 Somalis have already fled to Kenya to get access to food and water; every day, over 1000 refugees are arriving in Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, pushing conditions there to the limit. (PHOTOS: Haven and Hell: The World&#8217;s Largest Refugee Camp) But when did an emergency morph into a full-blown famine? For the U.N., there is a precise and technical set of criteria used to determine when a famine is occurring. At least 20% of the population must be consuming less than 2100 kilocalories a day, 30% of children must be suffering from acute malnutrition, and two adults or four children out of every 10,000 people must be dying of hunger each day. Those numbers are gathered from field assessments that several UN groups and NGOs jointly evaluate before establishing the world has a famine on their hands. “It has such a huge connotation,” says Arif Husain, deputy chief of the World Food Program’s Food Security Analysis Service. “It’s<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=6074&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/07/22/famine-in-somalia-when-does-the-world-decide-to-use-the-%e2%80%98f%e2%80%99-word/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Weather</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/weather/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Is This Mike On? Another YouTube SOS from Fukushima</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/07/21/is-this-mike-on-another-youtube-sos-from-fukushima/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/07/21/is-this-mike-on-another-youtube-sos-from-fukushima/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Jul 2011 06:34:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[earthquake]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fukushima]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[minamisoma]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[radiation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tsunami]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=6044</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Another disgruntled Japanese official has taken to the interwebs to air his grievances about the inadequate attention being paid to the welfare of residents of Minamisoma, a town about 25 kilometers away from the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Minamisoma last grabbed international headlines when the town&#8217;s mayor posted an earnest appeal for help on YouTube two weeks after the March 11 disasters, bringing him worldwide attention and a nomination as one of the most influential people of the year from TIME. In a bit of social media jiujitsu, Koichi Ohyama, a city council member, uses the same tactic to take Sakurai to task for asking residents who voluntarily evacuated to come back home. Ohyama says the mayor and the central government have been rushing to repopulate the town, putting economic interests ahead of residents&#8217; best interests.  Selective spots in the 20-30 km band around the plant found to have high radiation levels were evacuated in the spring, but the mandatory order was never applied to Minamisoma. Ohyama says he has been fielding concerns from residents who are scared to move back, worried about their drinking water and the schools, and says that there has never been a satisfactory answer from Tokyo as to where the large amounts of radioactive materials that the IAEA says were emitted in the first days of the Fukushima meltdown landed. Ohyama&#8217;s point is clear: however inconvenient it might be, this crisis is not over, especially not until residents have all the answers they deserve. Recent events do lend the sentiment credibility: Last week, consumers balked at a breakdown in the safety system designed to protect them from unwittingly buying irradiated food as officials announced that beef contaminated with radioactive cesium made it onto supermarket shelves around the country. And on Thursday, just three days after Ohyama posted the video, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the government was due to announce more &#8220;hot spots&#8221; in Fukuhsima that are newly recommended for evacuation where radiation levels are persistently high. Political wrangling aside, Ohyama&#8217;s questions are<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=6044&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/07/21/is-this-mike-on-another-youtube-sos-from-fukushima/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Ecocentric</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/ecocentric/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Could Japan&#8217;s Radioactive Beef Be a Good Thing?</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/07/14/radioactive-beef-makes-its-way-to-market-in-japan/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/07/14/radioactive-beef-makes-its-way-to-market-in-japan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Jul 2011 08:40:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[earthquake]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fukushima]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear contamination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tsunami]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5866</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over 950 pounds of beef contaminated with radioactive cesium above the legal limit has been distributed and eaten in at least eight prefectures across Japan, Tokyo city authorities have announced. The beef, which came from cows raised on a farm in Minamisoma in Fukushima prefecture, contained cesium at a level of 3,240 becquerels per kilogram — 6.5 times the legal limit set by the government. How&#8217;d that happen? Pretty easily. Minamisoma is a small city located in the 20-30 kilometer agricultural belt around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. According to Japanese media, the farm that shipped the beef had been prohibited from selling meat immediately after the disaster, but restrictions eased up once it was determined that it was safe for residents of the city to stay. The prefectural government tested the outside of cattle in the area for radiation exposure, and the cows, too, were determined to be safe. The problem arose when the farm reportedly fed the cows irradiated straw that had been stored outside. The agriculture ministry said it had expressly told farmers not to do so; whether the farm in question simply didn&#8217;t get the memo or  had no choice has not been determined, and perhaps never will be. By now, anyway, it&#8217;s a moot point. Since the contaminated beef was first detected in Tokyo earlier this month, authorities have been scrambling to track down where the meat has been sold and bought. So far, according to the Daily Yomiuri, the beef has been traced to retail locations Tokyo, Hokkaido, Kanagawa, Chiba, and other prefectures. In some spots, the beef is still at its distributors or has been returned; in others, it has already been sold and eaten. Because the legal limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram is based on eating a given food every day over a period of two years, experts have said that the meat in question does not pose a health threat to the people who ate it. &#8220;The level detected this time exceeds the legal limit, but eating a little<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5866&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/07/14/radioactive-beef-makes-its-way-to-market-in-japan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Regulation</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/regulation/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/japan_radioactive_meat1.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">japan_radioactive_meat</media:title>
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		<title>With Power Shortage Looming, Japan Hustles to Prove Nuclear Reactors Are Safe</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/07/12/in-summers-sizzle-japan-tries-to-get-nuclear-reactors-back-online/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/07/12/in-summers-sizzle-japan-tries-to-get-nuclear-reactors-back-online/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:24:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fukushima]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[March 11]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[METI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NISA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NSC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tokyo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tsunami]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5782</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nobody likes a 40-year heat wave, but a 40-year heat wave in the midst of national drive to conserve energy seems particularly cruel. Last month, residents of Tokyo and other parts of Japan, where electricity is in short supply after March 11, endured highs of 95 degrees — and pangs of guilt when they reached to turn the temperature gauge down a notch in their homes and offices. In the grip of power-saving patriotism, the government said that nearly 7000 people — three times more than last year — were hospitalized around the country with heatstroke in June. But with a shortage that looks doomed to get worse before it gets better, Japan faces many more months of living without creature comforts of a cool home or a heated toilet seat. Right now, only 19 of the nation&#8217;s 54 nuclear reactors are producing power. The rest have either been shut down due to safety concerns after Fukushima or for routine maintenance, and still more are expected to go offline for repairs in coming months. On Monday, the Japanese government announced a muddled plan aimed at getting some of the reactors back up to stave off a major power shortage. The plan involves two phases of &#8220;stress tests&#8221; to evaluate reactors&#8217; ability to withstand disasters and accidents on the scale of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The first phase would test plants that have been shut down for routine maintenance, presumably to get those back online as quickly as possible, and the second phase would be a wider test of all of the nation&#8217;s nuclear power plants, including those that are currently operational. (Read TIME&#8217;s full coverage of the March 11 disasters.) The Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC), an independent body, will conduct and compare the new safety tests against the previous safety assessments of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA). NISA, which falls under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), has come under fire since the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, in part because of<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5782&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/07/12/in-summers-sizzle-japan-tries-to-get-nuclear-reactors-back-online/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Uncategorized</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/uncategorized/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/ap110521138231.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Japan Earthquake</media:title>
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		<title>ConocoPhillips May Have to Pay Up in China Spill</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/07/06/conocophillips-may-have-to-pay-up-in-china-spill/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/07/06/conocophillips-may-have-to-pay-up-in-china-spill/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:09:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ConocoPhillips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5638</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[China&#8217;s State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said this week that a large oil spill off the coast of Shandong province, near Beijing, is worse than previously stated, and that the government may seek compensation from ConocoPhillips, the U.S. oil company with a 49% stake in the oilfield. On Tuesday the agency said that two separate spills on June 4 and 17 contaminated an 840-square-kilometer area of the Bohai Sea — more than four times the original 200 square-km that the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the majority stakeholder in the field, first said were affected. The leak may have been caused by pressure build-up after water was injected in the drilling well. The environmental impact of the spill, now seemingly contained, is being evaluated. One green group has said oil is still visible on the water&#8217;s surface, and a division of the SOA has said the water they have measured in the area has gotten the worst marks on its pollution index. More unsettling has been the way the oil firms and the SOA withheld information about the incident for nearly a month before going public with a first low estimate last week. The state-backed press came out with uncharacteristically critical coverage of the affair today after the new estimates surfaced, likely in an effort to beef up China&#8217;s green street cred. Still, it&#8217;s something. As a Global Times editorial read: &#8220;We cannot help but wonder: Is the SOA a serious watchdog that exists to prevent bigger incidents from happening, or a loving parent who is over-protective of his own child?&#8221;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5638&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/07/06/conocophillips-may-have-to-pay-up-in-china-spill/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Oil</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/energy/oil/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Is Siberia Becoming China’s One-Stop Energy Shop?</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/07/06/is-siberia-becoming-chinas-one-stop-energy-shop/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/07/06/is-siberia-becoming-chinas-one-stop-energy-shop/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:09:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Coal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Natural Gas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hydroelectric power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Siberia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5627</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[“In summer, intolerable closeness; in winter, unendurable cold.” So Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote of his years of hard labor in 19th century Siberia, after a jittery Tsar Nicholas I banished the famed writer to the lonely Far East. For centuries, the massive swath of land east of Moscow and north of China has been a place of political and cultural exile, but more for its geographic isolation than its lack of provisions. In fact, other exiles in the 1800s made special note that their hosts seemed to have plenty of everything, and by the turn of the century, industrial towns were popping up across the region as tens of thousands of free Russians headed east to take advantage of Siberia’s deep troves of natural resources. A hundred years later, Beijing is getting in on the action, striking deals to import everything Siberia has on offer – from oil to gas to iron to timber — to help feed China&#8217;s growth and appetite for non-coal energy sources. In 2009, China pushed Germany aside to become Russia’s largest trading partner. Russia and China have already signed a binding (though troubled) agreement that Russia will become China’s largest supplier of natural gas from fields in western and eastern Siberia; in June, the two governments held the latest in a series of ongoing talks over that deal. Despite their failure to reach an agreement on gas pricing, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said last month the utility is &#8220;completely ready to begin pipeline construction.&#8221; Meanwhile, as of June 1, over six million tons of crude have flowed from Russia to China via the recently completed East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, and plenty of plans to increase Siberian hydropower for Chinese consumption are in the works. Today, a fourth major hydroelectric dam is being completed on Siberia’s Angara River, a 1,105-mile long river that flows out of pristine Lake Baikal, the world’s largest lake. The Boguchanskaya dam is expected to start producing electricity by next spring, and Oleg Deripaska, one of the wealthiest men in Russia and<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5627&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/07/06/is-siberia-becoming-chinas-one-stop-energy-shop/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Oil</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/energy/oil/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Retro Environmentalism: Is Plastic the Next Carbon?</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/06/17/retro-environmentalism-is-plastic-the-next-carbon/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/06/17/retro-environmentalism-is-plastic-the-next-carbon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:30:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[California]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carbon Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oceans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Waste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Water]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[carbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[garbage patch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gyre]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plastic Disclosure Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plastics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Kaisei]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5219</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Back in the day, before Al Gore informed us about a certain inconvenient truth, before we started to calculate our commutes in carbon, and before people in the South Pacific had to start heading for higher land, there were beach clean ups. People walked along the sand — maybe sometimes only on Earth Day, like once-a-year churchgoers — but nonetheless they walked, fishing jellyfish-like plastic bags and cigarette butts out of the surf, and spearing weathered puzzle pieces of Styrofoam coffee cups. We knew it was only a drop in the bucket, but there was a sense that something was being done. For the 10 minutes after we motored off from the beach in puffs of diesel smoke, that little patch of sand was clean. There are, of course, still beach clean-ups. But doing our part in a post-Copenhagen world can require a more intricate  grasp on the challenges the environment faces that tends to make eyes glaze over. These complex new problems aren’t actually new — the planet, after all, has been warming throughout the 20th century. But now we know about them — and even worse, we know that the best human minds can’t figure out what to do about them. Meanwhile, the simpler problems we used to worry about — back when the ozone layer seemed good and fixed because our hair spray stopped coming in aerosol cans — have gotten lost. Remember the seals? The ones with the plastic six-pack rings wrapped around their necks? They’re still there. Plastic consumption has not got any better in the last 15 years — it’s gotten worse. In North America and Western Europe, individual plastic use is set to rise from 220 pounds every year to 308 by 2015; in fast-developing parts of Asia, plastic use is set to nearly double from 44 pounds a person to 80. Douglas Woodring, a co-founder of the California and Hong-Kong based Ocean Recovery Alliance, is trying to get plastic back in the green conversation. So far, it seems to be working. In<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5219&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/06/17/retro-environmentalism-is-plastic-the-next-carbon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Water</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/water-2/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>Tokyo Offers to Help Compensate Nuclear Victims</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/06/14/tokyo-will-help-compensate-nuclear-victims/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/06/14/tokyo-will-help-compensate-nuclear-victims/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Jun 2011 10:14:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[earthquake]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fukushima]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[March 11]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear disaster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TEPCO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tokyo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tsunami]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5120</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Tokyo Electric Power Company&#8217;s stock rose 25% after Japan&#8217;s cabinet announced it approved a plan to help the nation&#8217;s largest utility avoid bankruptcy and pay a huge compensation bill to victims of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant crippled in the March 11 tsunami. For the last three months, the future of TEPCO, which operates the plant, has been anything but clear. The company has already announced annual losses of $15 billion for the last fiscal year — the largest of any non-financial company in Japan — and it could eventually have to pay out up to $125 billion to the tens of thousands of people displaced by the nuclear disaster as well as to several unions whose livelihoods have been affected. The bailout plan, which still has to be approved by parliament, would be managed by a government body, fed both by annual contributions from other nuclear power operators and public money. TEPCO would eventually have to pay back all the money it used from the fund. Trade Minister Banri Kaieda said the cabinet would try to move the plan through parliament &#8220;as early as possible,&#8221; but a move to save the company that has become a symbol of mismanagement in this historical nuclear crisis is likely to run into a few walls in Japan&#8217;s deeply divided government. The firm has come under intense criticism for its handling of the nuclear crisis, with everything from the safety conditions of its workers to its transparency in communicating the gravity of the situation to the government in the early days of the disaster under scrutiny. As of Monday, at least eight of nearly 4000 workers have been exposed to radiation levels over the emergency limit of 250 millisieverts that the government set for workers at the plant. That number is expected to climb. The Liberal Democrats, Japan&#8217;s main opposition group, has not yet come out in favor of the bill. LDP Secretary General Nobuteru Ishihara was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying,  &#8220;It&#8217;s a problematic scheme that demands payments<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5120&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/06/14/tokyo-will-help-compensate-nuclear-victims/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Energy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/energy/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/ap110526144248.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Japan Earthquake Depression</media:title>
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		<title>Hong Kong Sets High Bar with Trawling Ban</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/06/10/hong-kong-sets-high-bar-with-trawling-ban/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/06/10/hong-kong-sets-high-bar-with-trawling-ban/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:22:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5108</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A guest post from TIME Asia&#8217;s editorial intern Vanessa Ko: Last month, Hong Kong banned the destructive practice of trawl fishing in its waters. A few days later, affected fishermen showed up with their boats by the hundreds on Victoria Harbour, red protest banners waving brightly in the drizzling rain.But they were not opposing the ban. Many Hong Kong fishermen are more than happy to sell their boats to the government and put an end to their days of trawling, which in recent years has yielded only the most dismal of catches, with fish averaging about 4 inches in length. Instead, the dispute has been over the division of the HK$1.7 billion ($220 million) set aside to compensate them and other affected workers for loss of livelihood and to buy out the boats once the ban was in place. Fair or unfair, that compensation scheme was approved by Hong Kong’s Legislative Council today, which means affected fishermen can soon begin to apply for payment and sell their boats to the government if they so choose. The government will pay anywhere from US$115,000 to $705,000 for each trawler, every last one of which must disappear from Hong Kong waters before the end of 2012, when the ban is slated to come into effect. Four hundred boats trawl the small body of water within Hong Kong’s jurisdiction; the government estimates that they account for 80% of the territory’s fishing effort. While widespread globally, bottom trawling is considered the most destructive way to fish. The boats drag a weighted net along the sea floor which indiscriminately scoops out marine life while crashing through corals and other fish habitat. Acknowledging the detrimental effects of bottom trawling on fisheries, the United Nations tried in 2006 to put a moratorium on the practice in international waters, but it was unsuccessful in the face of strong opposition by Iceland and a few other fishing nations. “Fisheries issues often become very political because you’re talking about people’s livelihoods and very traditional industries,” says Andy Cornish, director of conservation<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5108&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Uncategorized</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/uncategorized/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
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		<title>Australia: Killing Camels for Carbon Credits?</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/06/10/australia-killing-camels-for-carbon-credits/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/06/10/australia-killing-camels-for-carbon-credits/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:53:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Carbon Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Invasive Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Australia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[camels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kangaroos]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5098</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Feral camels have never gotten much love in the Australian bush. Considered to be an invasive species, they graze native plants to the point of local extinction. They walk across roads in the middle of the night. They trample fences. Now one Australian company has a plan to get rid of the camel scourge once and for all. The proposition? Kill a camel, get a carbon credit. To understand how this creature found itself in the cross-hairs of this 21st century solution, one must go back to the 1840s. Imported from India by the thousands in the second half of the 19th century, camels were used as transport and draught animals in western and central Australian for decades, able to endure the southerly continent&#8217;s hot, arid conditions. They reached their domesticated peak in the 1920s at about 20,000 animals, but as cars and railways took over, the camels were no longer needed. They wandered into the bush — and multiplied. Today, some 1.2 million feral camels roam the nation, and as of 2009, their population was still doubling every 8 or 9 years. (LIST: The Adorable Dozen: Bizarre Animal Friendships) Today, the varieties of mayhem that feral camels whip up across rural Australia cost the domestic economy at least $10 million a year. They have a seemingly bottomless appetite for delicate flora; they destroy rural infrastructure; they cause road, rail and even air traffic accidents, and they rip air conditioning boxes off the sides of houses to try to get to water. Having a camel eating the outside of your house sounds unpleasant, but the damage they’re doing is even more wide-reaching that all that. Like cows, camels are ruminants, and the fermentation that takes place during their digestion causes them to belch and, er, otherwise emit methane — a lot of methane. Every camel releases about 100 pounds of methane per year, or the equivalent of about a quarter of the emissions of the average American car. As Australia struggles to get out from under its status as the world’s<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5098&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Wildlife</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/wildlife/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>Fukushima: New Report Suggests Fuel Burned Through Vessels</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/06/08/fukushima-new-report-suggests-fuel-burned-through-vessels/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/06/08/fukushima-new-report-suggests-fuel-burned-through-vessels/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:10:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fukushima]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[March 11]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[meltdown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tokyo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tsunami]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5075</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Summer has arrived in Japan. The pink cherry blossoms that offered some aesthetic respite from the destruction in the weeks after March 11 are long gone, and the heat —and all of the attendant challenges of living long-term with a nuclear disaster — have arrived. In Tokyo, where the mayor has set an ambitious energy reduction goal of 25% given the power plants now out of commission, some workers are shifting their work days to start at 7:30 a.m., and government offices have kicked off the “super cool biz” summertime dress code. On Tuesday, Tokyo announced it would start new radiation testing on beaches, rivers and lakes ahead of swimming season, in addition to the water monitoring that has been started by local governments. The government also said it is considering further expanding the evacuation zone in certain “hot spots” around Fukushima where radiation levels are still measuring in excess of the exposure limit of 20 millisieverts per year. The announcement follows close on the heels of the government nuclear safety agency’s admission that it grossly underestimated the amount of radiation released in the days following the tsunami: as Eben wrote here earlier this week, the agency’s new estimate of 770,000 terabecquerels is nearly double TEPCO&#8217;s original estimate. Equally worrying is the revelation in a 750-page report that fuel rods in three of Fukushima&#8217;s reactors have probably melted through their pressure vessels, or cores, and reached their outer containment vessels. The report, released yesterday by Japan&#8217;s emergency nuclear task force, says that fuel in reactors 1, 2 and 3, which TEPCO had acknowledged were in various stages of meltdown, had not only melted, but breached their protective vessels, where TEPCO says the melted fuel is submerged in water and cooling. The utility had previously indicated a breach was possible, and that contaminated water on the site could have come from inside the pressure vessels. This report seems to confirm that suspicion, but the scope of the contamination — including whether it could have reached the environment off the Fukushima power<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5075&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Energy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/energy/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>Series on Tropical Forests Wins Environmental Reporting Prize</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/06/08/series-on-tropical-forests-wins-environmental-reporting-prize/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/06/08/series-on-tropical-forests-wins-environmental-reporting-prize/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Jun 2011 05:18:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brazil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grantham Prize]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indoensia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James Astill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uganda]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5068</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An eight-part series that appeared in the Economist has won this year&#8217;s prestigious Grantham Prize for environmental reporting. Journalist James Astill reported the 14,000 word story in the forests of Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Uganda, assessing the state of the world&#8217;s tropical forests and what&#8217;s being done to protect them. The prize&#8217;s jurors credit the series, which they say was circulated widely before Cancun last year, with contributing to the agreement reached on REDD at the end of the conference. Read the winning series, &#8220;The World&#8217;s Lungs,&#8221; here.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5068&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Media</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/media/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
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		<title>Could A 36-Year Drought Push Somalia Over the Edge?</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/06/07/could-a-36-year-drought-push-somalia-over-the-edge/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/06/07/could-a-36-year-drought-push-somalia-over-the-edge/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:33:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Water]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pirates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Somalia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5044</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The fleeting moments that Somalia still gets in the international press these days mostly revolve around pirates, and understandably so. Piracy, though it no longer dominates headlines, is still a tremendous problem both inside Somalia and for the crews and owners of ships that must make the trip through the Indian Ocean to get from Europe to Asia. And things have taken a turn for the worse: recent reports indicate that Somali pirates are becoming increasingly violent with their hostages, using them as human shields and employing torture in their bargaining tactics. Less discussed is the fact that the other 99.9% of Somalia is in the throes of its worst drought in 36 years. Much of the nation hasn’t seen rain since November, and some 55,000 people have already had to leave their homes this year — literally in search of greener pastures. As the Guardian’s Poverty Matters blog noted yesterday: “Events over the years have led to an image of a country mired in endless conflict, plagued by piracy and lawlessness. But there is another story, one of ordinary people persevering in the face of incredible odds to make a better life for themselves and their children.” As the drought has dried up pasture and crop lands alike, a third of the nation’s population – some 2.4 million people – has been impacted. And as in other parts of the world, the price of food has risen in step, with some cereal prices up an unwieldy 135%, according to the NGO Concern Worldwide that works in Somalia and whose program advisor authored the post. In better times, the country’s informal agrarian economy, run largely by semi-nomadic herdsmen, accounts for about 40% of the national GDP and half of the nation’s exports. Now that activity has dried up, and according to aid groups, one in four kids is malnourished. Fixing that won’t be easy. Only patches of the nation are still run by the UN-backed government, and food aid has not been easy to deliver to the millions of people<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5044&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Water</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/water-2/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/ap110315118148.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Somalia WFP Food Distribution</media:title>
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		<title>Japanese PM Says He Will Resign Over Fukushima</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/06/02/japanese-pm-says-he-will-resign-over-fukushima/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/06/02/japanese-pm-says-he-will-resign-over-fukushima/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jun 2011 06:49:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fukushima]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Naoto Kan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear energy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=4991</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Naoto Kan, Japan&#8217;s beleaguered prime minister, has acknowledged for the first time since March 11 that he may step down — but not until he&#8217;s done doing what he needs to do. Kan has come under increasing pressure from both inside and outside his party to give up his post after his handling of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and continuing nuclear crisis. In a televised meeting with his party on Thursday morning, Kan said: “I&#8217;d like to pass on my responsibility to a younger generation once we reach a certain stage in tackling the disaster and I&#8217;ve fulfilled my role.” He did not indicate when that might be. It was an effort to save his job ahead of a no-confidence motion that took place 3PM today in the lower house of parliament. The motion, which would have required Kan to dissolve the parliament and call for new elections or resign with his Cabinet in 10 days, was voted down 293 to 152. Still, its submission by the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and two smaller opposition groups underscores the fact that Japan&#8217;s political landscape is nearly as volatile as its geology. In the months since March 11, Kan has come under fire for his government&#8217;s response to the crisis, from the length of time that it has taken to build temporary housing for the thousands left homeless after the tsunami to the lack of clear communication about the severity and scope of the nuclear crisis that has followed. Indeed, Kan was peculiarly absent from the public sphere during the first month of the crisis — he did not set foot in the disaster zone for weeks after the tsunami — with chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano tirelessly facing world&#8217;s cameras. More recently, detailed reports have emerged that Kan was deeply involved in trying to prevent a full-blown nuclear fallout at Fukushima during those early days, which may account for — if not excuse — his absence. Read more over at Global Spin.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=4991&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Energy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/energy/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/ap110527121146.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Naoto Kan</media:title>
		</media:content>
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