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Mercury Pollution from Wildfires

As thousands of acres continue to burn across the western United States, scientists from The National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Washington are flying over the wildfires to measure mercury emissions in their smoke.

During a wildfire, mercury stored in the foliage and ground litter is released and carried into the atmosphere, says NCAR scientist Hans Friedli. He and Lawrence Radke are conducting research flights over wildfires and prescribed burns. Scientists are trying to understand the global sources of atmospheric mercury, as well as how much of the dangerous substance ends up in the food chain.
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One of the most awful pieces of legislation in recent history is now under consideration by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, with hearings scheduled on September 5, 2001. It is designed to criminalize government whistleblowing and ‘leaks.’ (It is part of the Intelligence Appropriations Bill, SH 216.)

This draconian new secrecy law comes at a time when we should be relaxing government secrecy, not finding new ways of enforcement that are drawn from the annals of dictatorship. According to Steven Aftergood, the highly respected author of Secrecy News says in his Washington Times article on the proposal, “this ill-conceived proposal could do profound damage to our political system.”
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Video buffs looking for crop circle secrets climbed into Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, allegedly damaging the biggest man-made Neolithic mound in Europe. The fields surrounding the hill are where the largest and most intricate crop circles have appeared, and some researchers speculated that some sort of energy was released when the hill opened up last year. Since the event, the most spectacular crop formations in history have appeared.

English Heritage closed the 4,000-year-old mound to the public after an 18th century mining shaft reopened at the top. It has just been discovered that trespassers broke into the site at night, soon after the hole was discovered, because video of the break-in has been included in a documentary film.
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The East Coast of the United States could be hit by giant ocean waves if a dormant volcano on the other side of the Atlantic erupts. An eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands could cause a massive landslide that would generate massive waves that would sweep across the Atlantic, inundating coastal areas from Maine to Florida.

The energy released by the collapse would be equal to the electricity consumption of the entire United States in half a year. Waves as high as 330 feet would race across the Atlantic. The tsunami would be capable of traveling up to 500 miles an hour and would strike parts of the Eastern Seaboard within nine hours.
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