«  
  »

Study finds Fukushima worse than Chernobyl on bird population — “Dramatically” elevated DNA mutation rates and extinctions — Insect life significantly reduced — Shows immediate consequence of radiation

Published: February 2nd, 2012 at 8:54 pm ET
By
Email Article Email Article
33 comments


Title: Bird numbers plummet around stricken Fukushima plant
Source: The Independent
Author: David McNeill
Date: Feb 2, 2012
Emphasis Added

Researchers working around Japan’s disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life.

The Details

  • Analysis of 14 species of bird common to Fukushima and Chernobyl
  • Showed the effect on abundance is worse in the Japanese disaster zone
  • [Study] suggests that its findings demonstrate “an immediate negative consequence of radiation for birds during the main breeding season [of] March [to] July”
  • Timothy Mousseau and Anders Pape Moller say their research uncovered major negative effects among the bird population
  • Including reductions in longevity and in male fertility, and birds with smaller brains
  • Many species show “dramatically” elevated DNA mutation rates, developmental abnormalities and extinctions
  • Insect life has been significantly reduced

Read the report here

The study is to be published next week in the journal Environmental Pollution

See also:

Published: February 2nd, 2012 at 8:54 pm ET
By
Email Article Email Article
33 comments

Related Posts

  1. Economist: Composition of radionuclides may be more dangerous at Fukushima than Chernobyl, according to bird study — Population reduction twice as large after Japan meltdowns March 1, 2012
  2. MSNBC: Fukushima radiation “much higher than expected” says biologist — Negative effects to happen quicker than at Chernobyl… and be worse April 20, 2012
  3. Japan Bird Assoc.: It reminded me of ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson; Forest of no chirp — We found only a few swallows in Fukushima town, other summer birds missing as well June 26, 2012
  4. Comparison image shows severe mutation of Japan butterfly’s stump-like wings (PHOTO) — Reporter: “Scary” that humans could be affected by mutations too August 14, 2012
  5. Video: Fukushima birds unable to fly January 5, 2012
February 2nd, 2012 | Tags: | Category: Health, Japan (Fukushima)
«  
  »

33 comments to Study finds Fukushima worse than Chernobyl on bird population — “Dramatically” elevated DNA mutation rates and extinctions — Insect life significantly reduced — Shows immediate consequence of radiation

  • kintaman kintaman
    February 2, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    So what is there to stop contaminated migratory birds from flying out of Fukushima to others areas of Japan (Tokyo, etc) and beyond? This will then further spread the contamination through the food chain.

    The fact that there is not a 100% strict quarantine (including produce) around the affected areas and a consolidated disposal (burying) of contaminated debris is just pure insanity and makes me so very ashamed of Japan. It is a very sad thing what is happening. We are so very primitive in mind and shallow in soul.


    Report Comment

  • jec
    February 2, 2012 at 9:47 pm

    @kintaman Thank you for your considered response and understanding of the dire situation we all face. I say “we” as those of us outside of Japan also will suffer, but never as badly as the residents who face the full radiation effects of Fukushima I and II meltdowns. I add Fukushima II, as no evidence is shown Fukushima II has NOT added to the radiation disaster.

    Our food chain is already impacted. While “testing” is sporatic, it probably will become much more important as other nations discover migration patterns bring contaminated animals/plants to other areas of the globe. We all are going to get a sad wake up call. Yes, a very very sad thing.


    Report Comment

  • Myme
    February 2, 2012 at 9:52 pm

    I too feel ashamed of Japan for the inhumane and irresponsible way the gov and tepco have been handling the worst global eco disaster. In a recent conference I attended, I gently asked the Japanese attendees (mostly scholars specializing engineering and quality from Tokyo area) about the radiation concern in Japan. Many of them called my concern “global hysteria.”

    I later asked their wives (also Japanese) whether they knew that the Fukushima accident released over a hundered times more radioactive materials than the Hiroshima bomb (the fact a lot of scientists have pointed out). They were shocked, they had no idea. (I don’t know if the wives believed me or thought I was crazy like their husbands did)

    One thing for sure, the Japanese children’s life is never so cheap, that is basically what the Japanese decision makers are telling the world through their inaction.


    Report Comment

  • bleep_hits_blades
    February 2, 2012 at 10:40 pm

    As I & others have commented here before, this is so HUGE that it is logistically impossible to remediate. Therefore all TEPCO & govt. authorities can do is what they are doing – lie, evade, try to pretend that it is not that bad. And the world’s ‘big boys’ are fully supporting them. Just a few brave souls like Busby come right out & call it a great crime – that should be treated – & prosecuted – as such.

    An old newscast about TMI posted here on enenews yesterday said it quite frankly (I was rather surprised actually) – that the numbers of people affected/at risk were so huge that to remove them all to a safer place was logistically out of the question. And Fukushima is far far bigger than TMI, in terms of # of reactors & duration of the emissions & numbers of people affected. Also in terms of percentage of the country’s area or land mass affected.

    So the authorities can either lie or confess the above. To confess the above, frankly, would be to admit to huge crimes against humanity, their people & others around the world.

    Governments just pretend to care about their citizens. All of the unnecessary wars prove that – & all of the things they are doing to our environment & food, etc. that are toxic/harmful.

    We the sheeple participate in this ongoing crime by just not facing this reality that is staring us in the face. In fact we demonize & ostracize those who try to point it out – call them ‘conspiracy theorists’ etc.

    One guy I was talking to told me that back in the 18th-19th Centuries, generals would actually send out some men to draw enemy fire & help locate the placement & numbers of enemy cannons.

    Maybe that is the original meaning of the phrase ‘cannon fodder.’

    The more things change, the more they stay the same. We are still ‘cannon fodder’ in the eyes of the elites – are we not? The circumstances, weapons, & technologies have changed – but we humans have not.

    Clueless victims, & canny exploiters, are we still…


    Report Comment

  • bleep_hits_blades
    February 2, 2012 at 11:33 pm

    Also, evacuating people would be admitting that they had been harmed, and that their property had been harmed – and that would logically and legally open a real financial “Pandora’s Box” for the perps. Lawsuits – compensation for damages, both to health and property – etc. Millions of lawsuits.

    Even financially compensating people is a tacit admission that you have harmed them – that you owe them compensation – and sets a legal precedent.

    This is hardly a subtle or ambiguous situation. It is just stunning to see TEPCO, and the Japanese govt., and Westinghouse and GE and others involved in the manufacture of the reactors – just SO hanging out there… but boy, you don’t pay your taxes, or you commit any minor infraction … and there is no wiggle room for you!

    Double standard on a massive scale. There should be a HUGE INTERNATIONAL OUTCRY. Hence the media blackout…

    And therefore – you can be sure that JAPAN AND THE USA AND VIRTUALLY ALL COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD TODAY ARE BEING GOVERED UNDER PERMANENT ON-GOING NATIONAL EMERGENCY. THIS SUSPENDS CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND LAW AND PUTS THE COUNTRIES SO AFFECTED UNDER A FORM OF MILITARY DICTATORSHIP GOVERNMENT.

    Yet another fascinating tidbit of information, or at least possibility, that really should, you would think – catch people’s attention, get their interest… but does it… well — not so far…


    Report Comment

  • arclight arclight
    February 2, 2012 at 11:43 pm

    if its doing it to the birds, what about the children… why the coverup?

    This is a mirrored video from http://youtu.be/1ZGlO71Ag3c
    French version is at kna60′s channel: http://youtu.be/R7R2sWnmmbc

    from tokyobrowntabby



    Report Comment

  • arclight arclight
    February 3, 2012 at 12:01 am

    if the world had seen reports like this it would not be quite so surprised as to the consequences of mixing radiation and life… just dont go…

    i noticed a big lack of insects last year in the UK…

    Inside report from Fukushima nuclear reactor evacuation zone
    Uploaded by videonewscom on Apr 6, 2011

    Fukushima, Japan – The Japanese government has issued the evacuation order on March 12 for the residents living within the 20 kilometer radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
    Since then, residents have left their homes, and the “no man land” has been out of touch with the rest of the world.

    A Japanese journalist, Tetsuo Jimbo, ventured through the evacuation zone last Sunday, and filed the following video report.
    He says that, inside the evacuation zone, homes,building, roads and bridges, which were torn down by Tsunami, are left completely untouched, and the herd of cattle and pet dogs, left behind by the owners, wonders around the town while the radiation level remains far beyond legal limits.



    Report Comment

    • HoTaters HoTaters
      February 3, 2012 at 11:44 am

      Very few insects and spiders here, too. Hardly any flies, mosquitoes, beetles (except for one type), and almost no slugs and snails. Last winter all of the above were plentiful. Located in San Francisco East Bay Area, California.


      Report Comment

  • bleep_hits_blades
    February 3, 2012 at 12:06 am

    Arclight, it is a ‘numbers game’ – as most of us here know, most of our fellow citizens ‘don’t know/don’t wanna know.’ In fact, keep on trying to ‘enlighten’ them and they will get mad at you and/or just avoid/drop you.

    This is partly a result of the mind control/programming to which we are exposed literally from birth (now that there are TV and radio, etc.) and partly that subconsciously people are afraid to confront these realities.

    It IS really scary – that to ‘our’ governments, our lives mean nothing – in fact they want to kill off a bunch of us (and in fact are doing that with Fukushima and in other ways – wars, chemtrails ,fluoride, chemicals in our food, pesticides on our food, GMO foods, mercury in shots, etc.).

    People resort to the psychological defense mechanism of denial in order not to have to deal with this can of worms. (As we know, it is stressful and scary.) Children from abusive families can do the same thing, even adoring or admiring an abusive parent – or at the very least being very ambivalent/conflicted in their views/feelings about the abuser.

    And then of course there is the ‘Stockholm Syndrome,’ an even more exaggerated manifestation of the same psychological defense mechanism of denial.


    Report Comment

    • arclight arclight
      February 3, 2012 at 12:28 am

      i hear you bleep..

      i think that you are right concerning the technology fear… thats because people do not understand the science… and there is no easy google translate that explains the arguments against nuclear.. it gets very technical as the arguments develop.. common sense things like actual figures on the ground as opposed to derived statistics should be taken into account but the universities insist on tight controlled statistics, even when peoples health and well being depend on it..

      i think the education establishment over recent years has grown fond of the nuclear related investment at the cost of peoples lifes… they play on peoples ignorance of this subject to minimise the damage.. thats why a belly dancer with an education in literature is front person for the NRC..

      its not what you know its who you know
      and who you know can tell you what to know
      when you know you can tell people what you know
      err, know what i mean??
      :)


      Report Comment

  • bleep_hits_blades
    February 3, 2012 at 12:20 am

    Great video, arclight, the first one. As I was watching it, a recent New Yorker cartoon came to mind – a doctor is sitting with his lawyer, getting legal advice… the caption is, “First, admit no harm…” So true!

    (Of course the Hippocratic Oath originally says ‘First, DO no harm.” That, today, is, as they say, ‘honored more in the breach than the observance’, by allopathic medicine.)


    Report Comment

    • AGreenRoad AGreenRoad
      February 3, 2012 at 4:17 pm

      I have heard that the medical schools no longer administer this Oath, so the docs are free to get married and swear whatever oath to whoever their boss is, such as the nuke industry..

      One rumor is being spread that says that docs are being sworn to secrecy in Japan, and they no longer test for radiation internally or externally. Could it be that no one in the medical profession in Fukushima Province is being allowed to go in the nuclear direction? Could it really be that there is no harm being caused by low level radiation according to them, NO MATTER WHAT?

      That leaves only lack of smiling, ‘infections’ and unexplained causes for the huge increase in health problems for people in this highly radiated Province, plus others, all the way down to Tokyo…

      Yup, that lack of smiling will cause all kinds of dis-eases, that is for sure.. especially nausea, diarrhea, bloody noses, tiredness, nails falling off, hair falling out, bruising, and all the stuff that otherwise happens ONLY after a nuclear bomb fallout exposure.

      Keep on smilin, cause we all on the list fo sure. This is not limited to Fukushima Province..

      I would suggest staying out of the rain and not flying in a plane, especially to Spain.. if you get my drift.

      Class dismissed :)


      Report Comment

  • bleep_hits_blades
    February 3, 2012 at 12:36 am

    arclight, 2nd vid you posted had a sort of eerie beauty, and it felt kind of like I was watching an Antonioni film! (Some of his seem to have not much more plot than that segment, but they have loads of ‘ambience’ and a certain amount of suspense – you keep waiting for something to happen…) Anyway, thanks for posting those.


    Report Comment

  • bleep_hits_blades
    February 3, 2012 at 3:54 am

    News flash – after relaxing watching silly funny cats on You Tube getting stuck inside vases and hamster balls, was struck by latest huge insight: most people want someone else to do their thinking for them! (Actually it’s a kind of ‘deja vu all over again’ insight.)

    The complexity of the modern world has outstripped their ability (and/or their willingness to make the effort) to deal with it. Or maybe has outstripped their belief/confidence in their ability to deal with it. Although they do not consciously arrive at such a decision, on some level (not conscious, to ‘save face’ on the private inner level)…

    … they surrender, give up the struggle, and let ‘the experts’ do much of their thinking for them. This is a kind of return to childhood – the impersonal parent in this case being the ‘nanny state’ and its coterie of ‘experts.’

    It is a kind of ‘infantilization’ of modern man. It’s also intellectually lazy, a cop-out. But in addition to being easier, it feels safer than trying to figure it all out unaided. And one remains part of the herd – which definitely feels safer.

    Only the already socially excommunicated dare to ‘think alone.’ Or those who just can’t help doing it.

    Where did I read it, long ago, expressed well in few words…. what most people call ‘thinking’ is actually a kind of ‘voting.’

    ERGO – we are probably lost, doomed. The forces that have shaped this world to be as it is are big and many. Still, in the words of the baseball philosopher, it ain’t over ’til it’s over.

    Which, at the present rate of unraveling, should be soon.

    Perhaps I should haul my ‘The end is nigh’ sign out of the closet and start standing with it on the corner again… the radioactive corner… (is there any other kind)?


    Report Comment

    • or-well
      February 3, 2012 at 8:53 am

      yay bleep! we out-complexed ourselves, evolutionarily speaking.
      Being a highly interdependent society of specialists doesn’t help either.
      More “links in the chain” become dependent on other links,exposing the whole chain to crippling shocks.
      Years ago someone termed us “The People of the Switch” – flick, something works, few know how or why.
      Flick, something fails, oh oh…
      I read in some book about the infantilization of USA. It seems to have happened in Japan with a vengeance too.
      A population that won’t think critically, that believes the “system” generally is good and works apart from some flaws, is an easier population to “manage”.


      Report Comment

  • Misitu
    February 3, 2012 at 4:14 am

    Good post, thanks, time short otherwise would reply to the level your writing deserves, thanks again.


    Report Comment

  • enoughalready45 enoughalready45
    February 3, 2012 at 6:08 am

    In the early 1960′s a treaty was made among nuclear countries to stop testing nuclear weapons above ground.

    Why was this done?
    Leaders in government figured out that too much radiation was getting into the global atmosphere and they were not just exposing their “enemies” they were also exposing themselves.

    The situation with nuclear plants now is no different. When nuclear reactors meltdown they expose everyone on the whole planet. If we have a few more meltdowns in various places around the globe it will be the same as too many above ground tests of nuclear weapons.

    The same logic that ended above ground nuclear weapons testing should also lead us to the conclusion that nuclear power is too risky for humanity to risk being exposed to.


    Report Comment

  • many moons
    February 3, 2012 at 8:51 am

    If these animals and insects had some monitary value, they might come under some consideration. We should all take a good look at the abuse of the living things because there we can see the human situation as well. Wether and insect a bird or a human, Tepco has no consideration for any of them. They are too worried about their investments and profits. Perhaps the birds can’t organize but we surely can and it’s our only hope…to fight for our lives and do away with nuclear.


    Report Comment

    • Grace Grace
      March 14, 2012 at 5:43 am

      Hello many moons; 'ecosystem services'. There are studies that detail cost breakdown analysis for processes like pollination etc I think the New Zealand Government has commissioned a number of these as have other countries- missing the point in total, yet making a valid point.

      I haven't posted for a while, yet read always and post on the pro-nuke facebook walls.
      Keep up the good work.

      Love to you wonderful watchers and safekeepers of our beautiful planet.


      Report Comment

  • dosdos dosdos
    February 3, 2012 at 9:45 am

    From Mainichi, indictments made for contract worker fraud in Japan’s nuclear industry.

    http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20120203p2a00m0na018000c.html


    Report Comment

«  
  »