Fracking causes Earthquakes new study confirms

Not surprisingly the new study confirmed what most of us already knew. If you build up pressure under the surface of our planet with liquids to distract volume you trigger movements we know as earthquakes. Duh!

The process of hydraulic fracturing is a mining technique which uses injected fluid to propagate fractures in a rock layer to release hydrocarbon deposits that would otherwise be un-commercial. Developed in the U.S. and first used in 1947 for stimulating of oil and natural gas wells, the use of “fracking” soared in the past decade as thousands of wells have been drilled into the Marcellus Formation, also referred to as the Marcellus Shale, a deposit of marine sedimentary rock found in eastern North America.

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So why are we being looted now?

To most people it may seem as if the current hurry to sell New Zealand’s assets is solely the result of the stupidity of Kiwi’s electing National as their Government but the truth is that National or Labour could not have prevented it because our assets are being sold not because of a philosophical or political doctrine but because there is a problem with the thing we call money.

Our money you see it what is called a fiat currency and it is not related to anything of value and the powers that be are printing more and more of it but people are catching on and the only way for the “rich” people to “keep” their wealth is to buy up real world wealth with their worthless digital and paper fiat money.

I thought I’d put up a 45 minute animation video that explains real simple how our money is is created and while it may not have anything to do with mining it does explain what we will get in exchange for our beautiful country being robbed of its resources and maybe it will serve to make you even more angry and please, please please share this with your loved ones and all who will listen

State Officials In Alabama Close Gulf Shrimping After Scientists Find Severe Deformities

I’m waiting for the first deformed species to emerge on the East coast in the wake of the Rena disaster.

After scientists and fishermen have found severe deformities in a substantial percentage of Gulf seafood, the State of Alabama have moved to shut down shrimping.

WERC-FM local news reports:

Some area waters along the Gulf Coast will close to shrimping starting today.  The areas closed are all waters in the Mississippi Sound, Mobile Bay, areas of Bon Secour, Wolf Bay, and Little Lagoon.  The closure comes after scientists found smaller than average population of shrimp and lesions. They say the plan to test the water and will continue to run samples until the waters are re-opened.  There is no set time when the waters will be open for shrimping again

Local ABC affiliate WEAR TV reports:

Aotearoa: A Wider Perspective

The Bring Change event featuring Tiki Taane, Minuit, Jason Kerrison and more scheduled in Christchurch this weekend has had a last min venue change due to the expected numbers. We will now be at Riccarton Raceway and the days events begin at 11am and wind up at 4pm, Saturday 28^th April (this weekend)

We are pleased to offer you this terrific line up. It is wonderful to see so many waking to the issues that face us in New Zealand today and the Fracking and Sea Bed Mining is certainly an issue that cannot go unseen.  The effect on our environment/water/health and the future for our children and grandchildren can no longer be ignored.

Join us in this fantastic community event and help us spread the word!

Gold coin donation is the entry fee, bring a picnic or support our food and beverage vendors.

CHANGE starts right here and with YOU!

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Better late than never: KASM supports the Hikoi!!!

According to an email I received today KASM (Kiwis against seabed mining) OK’s support of the Hikoi. Well better late than never!

Here is where to catch up with the Hikoi Auckland: Victoria park 2:00 pm and in Hamilton around 11:00 am on Sunday 28th April at the North side of the Town.

Big placards are in order to make sure people know you are one of the Kiwis who hate seabed mining and you like every frigging Kiwi should are supporting the Hikoi and give a big NO to asset sales.

Here is the itinerary again:

the Hikoi starts today

For all of you sitting on the fence; I think there is no better time to put aside your petty prejudices and get out there and join the Hikoi to tell John Key and his international Robber baron mates that New Zealand and it’s sea beds are not for sale.

Join the Hikoi when it arrives in a place close to you. I’ll be in Hamilton Sunday 29th 11:00 AM. Join me if you can!!!

Updates to follow!!!

Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists

Aotearoa: A Wider Perspective

Two years after the BP, Halliburton, Goldman Sachs oil disaster in the Golf of Mexico horrible things are turning up in the fishermen’s nets. Eyeless shrimp, soft shell crabs and fish with oil and Corexit in their tissue.

Not only that but fisheries are collapsing life is ebbing and dolphins are dying yet our government wants to invite these corporations over here to do the same thing they did over there.

Here is the current Hikoi ittinerary:
Be there!!!

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Seabed phosphate miner seeks more cash

Let’s hope the Hikoi puts investors off at least for a while!

Chatham Rock Phosphate needs to raise another US$2million (NZ$2.4m) this year and US$12m more next year as it moves towards plans to mine undersea phosphate in a couple of years.

The company plans to apply for a mining licence in June and a marine consent in September, with hopes of commercial mining on the Chatham Rise in 2014.

The company has just completed a total of 48 days surveying the Chatham Rise over the summer.

The latest cruise of the Dorado Discovery exploration ship ended yesterday and the company would now start the mammoth job of resource modelling, environmental assessment and geotechnical analysis.

The surveys had shown the phosphate deposits were as variable as they expected from earlier work carried out in the 1980s.

Billion dollar ironsands IPO in prospect

Developers of an offshore Taranaki ironsands mining project say it could be greenlighted within the next three years, and require infrastructure costing between $500 million and $1 billion.

Such a large investment in what could prove to be New Zealand’s largest single source of exports would lend itself to an initial public offering, Bill Bissett, the chairman of TransTasman Resources, the group investigating the ironsands opportunity, told BusinessDesk in an interview.

TTRL began investigating the global scale ironsands deposits, most of which lie within the 12 mile nautical limit off the coasts of Taranaki and Whanganui, in 2007.

It announced in April that Denham Capital, a United States private equity fund linked to the Harvard Endowment Trust, had become a 48 percent shareholder.

Local broker McDouall Stuart also helped find a group of wealthy New Zealanders who have invested “some millions” in the exploratory phase for the project, on which both Government and Opposition politicians have been kept fully briefed.

TTRL has kept a low profile to date, while spending substantial sums understanding the size of the resource, its potential contribution as a world-scale feedstock for steel-making, and consulting with local government, Maori and other stakeholders.

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Discussion paper for the review of the Crown Mineral Act

We have until the 20th of April to put forth submissions with regards to the revision of the Crown Mineral act. We are currently working on our automated submission page to make your submission easier.

Here is the discussion paper for those of you interested to read the whole paper.

K.A.S.M. (Kiwi’s Against Seabed Mining)

In support of Kiwis against seabed mining a member of the surfers for cetaceans wrote the following:

I write this letter on the Raglan West Bridge alongside two hundred other concerned coastal people…
Led by Kiwi’s Against Seabed Mining (KASM) we walked silently through the streets of downtown Raglan holding signs of community opposition to proposed iron ore seabed mining in New Zealand’s coastal waters. We stand to show our concern for mining’s impact on New Zealand’s precious natural resources, including the critically endangered Maui’s Dolphin.

Now we wait silently to usher Mr. Andrew Summerville, representative of the Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) mining company, who seek to mine for iron ore off the west coast of New Zealand. A group of local children bearing anti-mining signs will soon escort his vehicle across the bridge.

Read more and thank you surf sister for your support!

Billions in iron sand?

This article appeared in the Taranaki times in March 2011 but as this blog wasn’t active at the time I thought I’d post it now. $ 2300 billion worth of Iron sand to be harvested from our seabeds? Anyone want to comment on this? (Remember you will have to be approved once to check if you’re a human being or a spam bot)

An estimated $2300 billion worth of ironsand is sitting off the coast of Taranaki, a company seeking rights to mine the mineral says.

Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR), a New Zealand-based company owned by overseas interests, revealed the facts and figures behind its plans in a presentation to the Taranaki/Whanganui Conservation Board.

TTR was established to explore, assess and then hopefully mine the iron-ore deposits off the west coast of the North Island, the company’s environmental and approvals manager, Andy Sommerville, said.

His estimate is a result of surveys already completed. He said his company was one of several applying for, or which have already been granted, prospecting rights on the west coast.

TTR had Crown Mineral Act approval for prospecting an area along the west coast and was in the process of applying for a second, he said.

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Gulf’s dolphins pay heavy price for Deepwater Horizon oil spill

New studies show impact of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster on dolphins and other marine wildlife may be far worse than feared. 

A new study of dolphins living close to the site of North America’s worst ever oil spill – the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe two years ago – has established serious health problems afflicting the marine mammals.

The report, commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], found that many of the 32 dolphins studied were underweight, anaemic and suffering from lung and liver disease, while nearly half had low levels of a hormone that helps the mammals deal with stress as well as regulating their metabolism and immune systems.

More than 200m gallons of crude oil flowed from the well after a series of explosions on 20 April 2010, which killed 11 workers. The spill contaminated the Gulf of Mexico and its coastline in what President Barack Obama called America’s worst environmental disaster.

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Aotearoa is not for sale!

For those of intending to go to this demo please make a placard for KASM. Kiwi’s against seabed mining. If you make a photo and send a message to the contact page of http://kasm.weebly.com/ I’ll give you an email address to send it to and we will post it on the website.

 

Dredging Namibia’s phosphate dredge

Seabed mining threatening the Namibian coast:

The incongruous connection between a comforting bowl of breakfast cereal and marine mining was triggered by reading a public document: one which announces that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) recently lodged with Government by an Australian mining company shows that ‘ …there are presently no identified issues of environmental significance to preclude the dredging of phosphate-enriched sediments (off the Namibian coast) ’
No living thing – including oats – can exist without phosphorus. Fertile soils are rich in the stuff as well as several other elements essential for plant (and human) survival. Feeding a rapidly expanding human population is not easy: it demands massive-scale land clearing for irrigation, eye-bulging rates of water abstraction and – as soils become drained of vital nutrients – the increasing necessity to apply phosphorous-based fertilisers. Thus, mining phosphorus has become synonymous with global food security.
Land-based sources of phosphate-rich rock are running out and it’s estimated that by 2035 demand will have exceeded supply. Clearly, in order to keep hunger at bay, new sources of phosphorus have to be exploited and, whether we like it or not, the seabed’s where it’s at.
The phosphate mining EIA acknowledges that dredging Namibian marine sediments will destroy seabed habitats and that the re-suspension and re-disposition of sediments into the water column will threaten biodiversity within the mined area (a total of 60 km2 over 20 years). These impacts alone undermine the Ministry of Fishery’s policy to embrace an ‘ecosystem approach’ to management: one that is precautionary in nature and recognizes that – due to limited knowledge regarding species composition and marine biogeochemical processes – any habitat or species in each distinct marine zone demands protection. We know very little about the vast and diverse populations of microbes that thrive at the surface of and deep within the sediments of the seabed; we barely understand the roles that many of these organisms play in marine energy flow and nutrient cycling – roles which scientists now believe are essential to the stability of the planet (biologically and climatically). Yet, the EIA does not acknowledge this ignorance. It does not provide this as a valid reason – enshrined within the Precautionary Principle – to pull the plug on sediment mining off our coast.

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‘One spark and we’ll have another Piper Alpha on our hands’: Explosive gas leak from ‘well from hell’ threatens repeat of Britain’s deadliest rig disaster

Fears are growing that a single spark could lead to a repeat of Britain’s deadliest rig disaster. A huge toxic gas leak spewing from a North Sea oil well may lead to an explosion like that seen in the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988, it is claimed.Environmentalists have branded Total’s Elgin gas platform ‘the well from hell’ after the leak was discovered at the weekend. Total evacuated all 238 workers from its platform in the North Sea after the potentially disastrous discovery on Sunday.

An exclusion zone for ships and aircraft was set up around the evacuated rig in an attempt to prevent an explosion. But there are fears that a naked flame, located on the top of the leaking platform, could spark a massive explosion and lead to an environmental disaster.

One spark could ignite the gas cloud – so big it can be seen eight miles away – above the platform.  Experts who admitted they still do not know the exact location of the leak or how much gas is emerging say it could take six months to fix.

Jake Molloy, regional organiser of the RMT union, said: ‘If the gas were to find an ignition source, this could lead to the same outcome as Piper Alpha.’

He added: ‘Total acted very swiftly in getting everyone off but the potential still exists for catastrophic devastation.

‘If the gas cloud somehow finds an ignition source we could be looking at complete destruction.

‘The emergency operation in the North Sea is unprecedented.’

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Hopes of big money in controversial seabed mine

KASM spokesperson Phil McGabe

Seabed mining pressure is mounting on Waikato’s west coast amid fears that it could damage the unique coastline and its endangered wildlife.

Trans-Tasman Resources has lodged two new exploration permits with NZ Petroleum and Minerals covering 333,090 hectares of ocean floor in a band that runs along the coast from the Awakino River mouth to Port Waikato and extends 12 nautical miles out to sea. It’s also exploring the South Taranaki Bight.

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New Website for KASM

It took us a while but we finally got around to it.

Our old website we knew was way past the sell by date but as it was also a treasure trove of research and information we were also hesitant to let it go but with the advent of the Asset sale eager National policies and the arrival of TTR (Trans Tasmanian Resource mining company) we knew we had to pull finger and get a new website up and running which would allow us to quickly update it with the latest on the Kasm against seabed mining actions and news connected to that. So without further ado here is a sneak peek of our New Website with an archived old website so none of the valuable information goes lost.

Let us know what you think!

Mining protest on film

Via Vera

More than 100 people gathered at Raglan’s Ngarunui Beach on Sunday to take part in the filming of an anti-seabed mining protest video.
Supporters, many of them local residents, marched down the beach with picket signs while shouting slogans devised by the event’s organisers, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining (KASM).

More than 100 people showed up at Ngarunui Beach on Sunday to protest against seabed mining. Photo: Mackenzie McCarty
Phil McCabe, KASM member and part coordinator of the filming, said the purpose of the video was to inform the public about an issue which was largely being ignored.
“Everyone that hears about [seabed mining] – it stirs them,” he says, “This is to inform the New Zealand government and the mining companies that it is not going to happen.”

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