Protesters demonstrate against nuclear power plants at Japan's parliament

Protesters hold placards and shout slogans as they march to form a 'human chain' around Japan's parliament in Tokyo, to demonstrate against nuclear power plants. Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images

Tens of thousands of people protested against nuclear power plants outside Japan's parliament on Sunday.
The protesters, including pensioners, were pressed up against a wall of steel thrown around the parliament building. Some broke through the barriers and spilled onto the streets, forcing the police to bring in reinforcements and deploy armoured buses to buttress the main parliament gate.
The protest came as results from rural Yamaguchi showed that Tetsunari Iida, an advocate of renewable energy, had lost his bid to become governor. He was defeated by a candidate backed by the opposition Liberal Democratic party (LDP), which promoted nuclear energy during its decades in power, Kyodo news agency reported.
Iida, who wants Japan to give up nuclear power by 2020, had promised to revitalise Yamaguchi's economy with renewable energy projects and opposed a project to build a new nuclear plant in the town of Kaminoseki.
Energy policy has become a major headache for prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda. Weekly protests outside the PM's office have grown in size in recent months, with ordinary workers and mothers with children joining the crowds.
On Sunday, the protesters, holding candles, took their demonstration to parliament. Many had marched past the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co, the company at the heart of Fukushima disaster, the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.
"We are here to oppose nuclear power, which is simply too dangerous," said Hiroko Yamada, an elderly woman from Saitama prefecture near Tokyo.
"[Noda] isn't listening to us. He only listens to companies and Yonekura," she said, referring to Hiromasa Yonekura, the chairman of Japan's biggest business lobby.
An upset victory by Iida would have put pressure on the government which is considering an energy portfolio to replace a 2010 programme that would have boosted nuclear power's share of electricity supply to more than half by 2030.
Noda, who approved restarting two reactors recently, has said he would decide on a new medium-term energy plan in August, but reports said that decision could be delayed.
Experts have proposed three options: zero nuclear power as soon as possible, a 15% atomic share of electricity by 2030, or 20-25% by the same date compared to almost 30% before the Fukushima disaster.
Under pressure from businesses worried about stable electricity supply, Noda has been thought to be leaning towards the 15% option, which would require all of Japan's 50 reactors to resume operations before gradually closing older units.
The growing anti-nuclear movement, however, may make that choice difficult.
Multiple inquiries into the Fukushima nuclear disaster have pointed to the failure by authorities and energy companies to adopt strict safety measures and disaster response plans.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/30/nuclear-protests-japan-fukushima-disaster

A series of important updates about the drought, with jokes

By Philip Bump

Let’s check in on our old friend the drought, shall we? Here’s the key takeaway, if you’re in a big rush:
It still exists.
Today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack added another 218 counties to the list of drought-afflicted disaster areas, meaning we’ve officially passed the halfway mark. Fully one out of every two American counties has been so designated. Here’s the current map.

Map via the USDA.

Just to save some effort, here’s our projection of that map a month from now.

(I made this one.)

To be fair, that’s not exactly a scientific assessment, but it will either be proven correct or the situation will be better than this. We did it that way because we like to aim high.
It’s climate change’s fault.
Surprising zero rational people, a scientist from UC-Santa Barbara outlined for Wired the ways in which the current drought is likely attributable to a changing climate.

“In any single event, it’s hard to really know if you’re just seeing a natural variation or climate change,” cautioned climatologist Chris Funk of the University of California, Santa Barbara. With that caveat, Funk said when asked if human activity exacerbated the drought, “Tentatively, the answer is yes. To some extent, it is.” …
La Niña generally produces dry spells in southern North America, but adding a warm-to-cool Pacific gradient generates what some scientists call “the perfect ocean for drought,” spreading it far and wide. …
“The 2011 drought in Texas was part of the La Niña effect, and we’ve carried it on here,” he said. “When background conditions in the tropical Atlantic and Indian Ocean are warm, it leads to the worst of all possible worlds for droughts in the mid-latitudes. I can’t confirm that’s been driving the conditions we’ve been seeing, but it’s a useful first guess.”
If that dynamic is at work, then fossil fuel pollution is implicated. “Some part of it is related to extra water vapor that wouldn’t be there” if not for human greenhouse gas emissions, Funk said. “If we didn’t have all that extra anthropogenic water vapor, the western Pacific would be cooler, and the gradient wouldn’t be as great.”

Again: Science cannot say definitively that climate change caused the drought, in part because science cannot say definitively what the manifestations of climate change should be when our atmosphere contains the amount of CO2 that it does. But I suspect if you gave those scientists $50 and put them at a betting window at the Flamingo, they wouldn’t put their money on “coincidence.”
Congress is told that it’s climate change’s fault, does nothing.
Another scientist made the long, lonely trudge up Capitol Hill this morning to put his money on “it’s our fault, idiots.” From the Guardian:

Drought, wildfires, hurricanes and heatwaves are becoming normal in America because of climate change, Congress was told on Wednesday in the first hearing on climate science in more than two years.
In a predictably contentious hearing, the Senate’s environment and public works committee heard from a lead scientist for the UN’s climate body, the IPCC, on the growing evidence linking extreme weather and climate change.
“It is critical to understand that the link between climate change and the kinds of extremes that lead to disaster is clear,” Christopher Field, a lead author of the IPCC report and director of global ecology at the Carnegie Institute for Science, said in testimony.
“There is no doubt that climate has changed,” he went on. “There is also no doubt that a changing climate changes the risks of extremes, including extremes that can lead to disaster.”

Sen. James Inhofe (R), whose home state of Oklahoma is having the hottest day in its history today, told everyone, “The global warming movement has completely collapsed.” He then laughed and led all the other Republicans in telling Field that his mother was a hamster and that his father smelt of elderberries.

“The US experienced 14 billion-dollar disasters in 2011, a record that surpasses the previous maximum of 9,” [Field] said. “The 2011 disasters included a blizzard, tornadoes, floods, severe weather, a hurricane, a tropical storm, drought and heatwaves, and wildfires. In 2012, we have already experienced horrifying wildfires, a powerful windstorm that hit Washington DC, heat waves in much of the country, and a massive drought.”
He went on to make a point of warning Texans that the future of farming and ranching could be put in jeopardy because of climate change.

At this point, Senate Republicans dropped a large wooden rabbit on his head.
Outside the Capitol, D.C. was setting records.
July 2012 was the second-hottest July in the recorded history of Washington, D.C. (The hottest? 2011. See! It’s getting cooler!)
The fantastic team at the Washington Post‘s Capital Weather Gang (seriously, it’s fantastic) delineates the key stats:

• July 2012 set the record for most days at or above 95 with 16
• July 2012 set the record for most days at or above 100 with 7
• July 2012 tied (with 1930) the record for most consecutive days at or above 100 with 4
• July 2012 ranked 2nd for most days with lows at or above 80 with 4 (2011 had 7)

Japan anti-nuclear groups protest at parliament

Crowd breaks through barriers
* Defeated candidate wanted no nuclear power by 2020
(Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people protested against nuclear power outside Japan's parliament on Sunday, the same day a proponent of using renewable energy to replace nuclear following the Fukushima disaster was defeated in a local election.
The protesters, including old-age pensioners, pressed up against a wall of steel thrown up around the parliament building shouting, "We don't need nuclear power" and other slogans.
On the main avenue leading to the assembly, the crowd broke through the barriers and spilled onto the streets, forcing the police to bring in reinforcements and deploy armoured buses to buttress the main parliament gate.
The protest came as results from rural Yamaguchi showed that Tetsunari Iida, an advocate of renewable energy to replace nuclear power, lost his bid to become governor to a rival backed by the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which promoted nuclear power during its decades in power, Kyodo news agency reported, citing exit polls.
Iida, who wants Japan to exit nuclear power by 2020, had promised to revitalise Yamaguchi's economy with renewable energy projects and opposed a project by Chubu Electric Power Co to build a new nuclear plant in the town of Kaminoseki.
Energy policy has become a major headache for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who less than a year in office is battling to hold his Democratic Party together before a general election due next year but which could come sooner.
Weekly protests outside Noda's office have grown in size in recent months, with ordinary salary workers and mothers with children joining the crowds.
On Sunday, the protesters - holding candles as darkness fell on the hot summer day - took their demonstration to parliament.
Chanting "oppose restarts", they pressed against steel barriers erected around the parliament building, where thousands of police were deployed to keep the peace.
Many of the crowd had marched past the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co, the company at the heart of the worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
"We are here to oppose nuclear power, which is simply too dangerous," Hiroko Yamada, an elderly woman from Saitama prefecture near Tokyo, said.
"(Noda) isn't listening to us. He only listens to companies and Yonekura," she said, referring to Hiromasa Yonekura, the chairman of Japan's biggest business lobby.
An upset victory by Iida, 53, would have added to Noda's woes as the government tries to decide on an energy portfolio to replace a 2010 programme that would have boosted nuclear power's share of electricity supply to more than half by 2030.
Still, Iida's support from volunteers in the conservative stronghold bodes ill for the Democrats and the LDP, support for which has failed to benefit greatly from Noda's woes, Kyodo said in an analysis of the local vote.
"The brave battle by Iida, who sought a change in energy policy, can be said to be proof the popular call to exit nuclear power has spread even to Yamaguchi," the news agency said.
Noda, who approved the restart of two idled reactors this month, has said he would decide on a new medium-term energy plan in August, although media reports over the weekend said that decision could be delayed.
Experts have proposed three options: zero nuclear power as soon as possible, a 15 percent atomic share of electricity by 2030, or 20-25 percent by the same date compared to almost 30 percent before the Fukushima disaster.
Under pressure from businesses worried about stable electricity supply, Noda has been thought to be leaning toward 15 percent, which would require all of Japan's 50 reactors to resume operations before gradually closing older units.
The growing anti-nuclear movement, however, may make that choice difficult, some experts said.
Multiple inquiries into the March 11, 2011 nuclear crisis, in which a huge quake-induced tsunami devastated the Fukushima plant, causing meltdowns and forcing mass evacuations, have underscored the failure by authorities and utilities to adopt strict safety steps or disaster response plans. (Reporting by Linda Sieg and Aaron Scheldrick; Editing by Joseph Radford and Michael Roddy)