Environmental News For The Week Ending 13December 2019
This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at
GEI (but can be posted at other times).
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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
Summary:
New US Covid cases were at a record 247,737 on Friday on the worldometers site that I watch; that would be nearly 40% of all the new infections reported worldwide on that day as per that site.However, the Johns Hopkins dashboard is showing a record 1,489,000 new Covid infections worldwide on that date, more than double any previous one day total..I have to assume that s in error, and my best guess would be that somehow the data was entered twice, and they ll eventually correct it.Regardless, whatever the a
Ukrainian uranium mines shut down amidst protest wave, threatening radioactive contamination
Three uranium mines have been shut down in the Kirovohrad region of central Ukraine over disputed payments between the state nuclear energy company Energoatom and the state-owned enterprise operating the mine, Eastern Mining and Processing.
As a result of the alleged nonpayment, approximately 5,000 miners have been placed on unpaid leave. They are still owed approximately $5 million in months of back pay. The shuttering of the mines could also lead to an ecological catastrophe if the mines lose power and water pumps fail to operate, creating a toxic mixture of radioactive uranium-contaminated groundwater that could spread throughout the vast river systems of central Ukraine.