Nuclear Action in Sweden. Barrels marked with the nuclear waste symbol.
Japanese electronic giant Toshiba is developing mini nuclear reactors which could be buried underground (with the idea of providing safer energy). The reactors are only two meters high and have a width of 0.7 meters, but are expected to produce 10 megawatts of electricity. So reactors powered by highly enriched uranium, which is used for the manufacture of bombs, could be dumped inside people’s garages. In addition, they are cooled in a mixture of toxic lead. Toshiba is not the only one who has come up with this crazy idea of nuclear power generating man sized monsters. Hyperion Power Generation announced that it would commercially develop the technology in 2008. But it had to step back due for security reasons such the household disposal of nuclear waste. The sole idea sounds scary.
Photo Credit © Johanna Hanno / Greenpeace
GE rice illegally spreading in China
Despite that neither commercial cultivation nor importation of GM grain has been approved by the Chinese government Greenpeace China has found GM rice seeds, rice and rice products on sale in Chinese supermarkets. Local food authorities are now investigating the issue. "The GM rice seeds will very likely be sown in the coming May. Without immediate action, GM rice might further enter the country's food chain and threaten consumers health," Wang Weikang, spokesperson of Greenpeace's food and agriculture program, said at the conference. "Scientists hold different views on whether GM food can harm human health, but without confirmation on its safety, especially long-term, we regard it as a potential threat," Wang said. The rice was being sold in markets in central Hubei. The rice and seeds that had been secretly modified to produce a proteintoxic to insect pests: Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
But, it doesn't stop there. The cross-pollination could have contaminated other yields and reached other countries, such Japan and South Korea.
If you want to know why GM crops could pose a danger to the environment and consumers (specially in such a large scale) click here.
No GE Rice in The Philippines please
Greenpeace activists present GE (genetically-engineered ) rice cake presented to the Philippine-based rice center IRRI.
Photo Credit: © VJ Villafranca / Greenpeace
Concerns about GM rice are also present in The Philippines, where GE crops are legal and posed as a solution to end hunger. Greenpeace activists on Tuesday delivered puto (rice cake) to the International Rice Research Institute for its 50th birthday with a GE-Free message calling on the Philippine-based rice center IRRI to abandon the development of GE rice. "Greenpeace is opposed to all GE rice research being undertaken by the IRRI. This rice cake and marker is meant to remind IRRI that its mission to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers and ensure that rice production is environmentally sustainable can never be achieved through GE rice," said Natwipha Ewasakul, Greenpeace Southeast Asia sustainable agriculture campaigner. "IRRI must realize that GE crops are part of an outdated industrial agriculture model that continues the use of environmentally harmful chemicals, and is failing to provide solutions for food crises and climate change," she added.