Geoengineering Watch Global Alert News, October 30, 2021, #325
Dane Wigington
GeoengineeringWatch.org
The CV-19 variants keep coming, when will it end? The medical industrial complex assures us they will continue to whip up as many different vaccine varieties as it takes, for as long as it takes, and they say they will do it at “warp speed”. Should that make us all feel better and more secure? How's that going so far? What is the bottom line factor that is fueling all of the unfolding and accelerating insanity around the world? Biosphere collapse. Will the upcoming COP26 international climate conference fix the planet for all future generations? Or is “behind closed doors” planning actually pushing us all further into the abyss? The latest installment of Global Alert News is below.
All are needed in the critical battle to wake populations to what is coming, we must make every day count. Share credible data from a credible source, make your voice heard. Awareness raising efforts can be carried out from your own home computer.
DW
This week's GeoengineeringWatch.org outreach booth is at the Expo Idaho, Boise, Idaho, and is shown below. My most sincere and continuing gratitude to the Gem Faire exhibition organizers for facilitating and setting up this very effective booth in every week's Gem Faire location. The schedule for upcoming Gem Faire events is HERE. A geoengineeringwatch.org booth will be at all events, thanks to the steadfast support of Gem Faire.
Must view, THE DIMMING, our most comprehensive climate engineering documentary:
– There is a part in the article that reminds me of something have been thinking about lately, about some people we see, just a few, who aren't really government or media but just around here or there, who are focused on sometimes, who seem to have something good about them, but then they do a speech that is backward. What I mean is for instance Charles, which I don't want to use royal type titles because it's a dividing sort of thing, but anyway many, many times Charles has talked about gmos, over a decade, and organic food over several decades. So I have respect for that because he talked about it, as much as he could I think, since big corporations or pharma cartels with agendas, can make things difficult if a person in a public exposure talks about something too much. And I started thinking about what if I was in their shoes, and even if it seems they have everything, what if they really don't, because without enough of us paying attention, how do they have any real security. I think it's the same with us, anyone really. Have been thinking of if we don't make groups of support, what about when things are tough?
Then in similar way thought about recently when Michael Moore put on a twitter or something with a photo of him taking a vaccine shot, and saying that other people should, and for some reason just seemed was sort off, like he tried to look happy and make the push, but, it just seemed off somehow. So, am wondering if he did that because he helped Eric Gibbs with Planet of the Humans, then had to do something to make up for it. Remember he made that pharma movie exposing so much, then, later he pushed the bogus affordable act, but people didn't have to go along with that, they could have just looked at the other things he exposed and we could have stopped the whole pharma goverment back-slapping, without forced mandate insurance. Meaning, I think some try to do what they can, but then have to dance on a pin for it later, because not enough other people make effort. So it's as if they are sort of stuck. What if Charles wanted be some other person if he could, even the whole family. But then where would they go so they are the same with the rest of us, just be an equal part of resisting things, like we are trying to do. People would stare at them or expect them to be leaders instead of we just all protest together. So, its as if he talked about organic food over a long time, then not enough listened, so now he has to push other things, which in the article he says green tech, but, we saw the false green in Gibb's documentary, so I wonder if he believes what he is saying. Same thing with a few people in hollywood, which I think many are not good with movies they made, but also think there are a few who to try to do or say something, but are stuck and can't say too much. Maybe am just imagining it, but just a sense have had recently sort of adding some things to other things. In any case am still sharing the website, every day share with at least two people when out doing errands. Take care Susan and all, and thank you Dane –
Mac
~ must have missed reply tab, was for reply under Susan's second post, and also, meant sort of instead of sort off in thought on Michael Moore. Again take care all,
Mac
A soon to be released study by UCLA scientists affirms that low moisture levels or Vapor Pressure Deficit in western U.S. contributes to major forest fires ( we knew that). Moisture levels in lithosphere/biosphere/atmosphere at all time low levels. Further evidence (as if we needed it) that those are not "condensation trails".
The FAKE SNOW which was APPLIED to the Sierra ski resorts two weeks ago vaporizing or sublimating rapidly. Resorts shutting down again.
The Engineered Bomb Cyclone which delivered above mentioned FAKE SNOW caused 30 foot waves in north Pacific which washed more than 100 shipping containers overboard. Contents of at least on container strewn along pristine coast of Vancouver Island. In the past few yrs thousands of containers have been lost at sea. More damage being caused by Weather Engineers.
My chestnut tree dropped all its leaves at once. They are in a pile around the tree.The tree is so confused it's started budding again.
Many trees have piles of leaves around them. Appearing overnight.
My Oak is still green.
13 C/ 55 F one day. Now we had 2 inches of snow while the temp was 3C or 37F. It's slippery and heavy.
Question:
Since we are spiraling towards imminent extinction, why should I prolong the inevitable by stockpiling supplies of water and food. Just a thought.
Because the human will to survive is profound and miraculous. This does not come from nature or man himself. It is bestowed upon us by God.
Do not forget what Dane tells us – it is not too late. We have a small chance. And, it is our duty. It is our duty to fight for all life on this planet, especially the animal, insect, and plant life, because they have no voice, have no choice.
The only hope lies in whether enough people waken and demand a stop to geoengineering. Everyone who tunes in to the Bad News Broadcast needs to pray. Pray every single day. Pray for Dane and his family. Pray for divine intervention.
We are all connected – to each other, to the animals, the oceans, the sun, the universe. We are connected to God. So, pray! Because prayer can move mountains.
Robert,
There will always be a "remnant" meaning those who survive to inspire and lead humanity to a future better world. World without end. That may be you, or you may want to contribute your food & water to the younger survivors, those who will carry the seeds of Truth in their hearts and minds. No one knows precisely when, or even what will occur. Predictions are vulnerable to constantly changing human mental attitudes and behavior. Time gives those who are still in confusion, deluded by mass media propaganda, the chance to wake up. And never fear death.
Found on Medium.com: A 20-Year Truck Driver on the REAL Reason for the Supply Chain Fiasco (Hint: It's more complicated than just vaxxing all of us who aren't already…duh…:"In fact..the more things are backed up the more every point of the supply chain cashes in."):
I have a simple question for every ‘expert’ who thinks they understand the root causes of the shipping crisis:
Why is there only one crane for every 50–100 trucks at every port in America?
No ‘expert’ will answer this question.
I’m a Class A truck driver with experience in nearly every aspect of freight. My experience in the trucking industry of 20 years tells me that nothing is going to change in the shipping industry.
Let’s start with understanding some things about ports. Outside of dedicated port trucking companies, most trucking companies won’t touch shipping containers. There is a reason for that.
Think of going to the port as going to WalMart on Black Friday, but imagine only ONE cashier for thousands of customers. Think about the lines. Except at a port, there are at least THREE lines to get a container in or out. The first line is the ‘in’ gate, where hundreds of trucks daily have to pass through 5–10 available gates. The second line is waiting to pick up your container. The third line is for waiting to get out. For each of these lines the wait time is a minimum of an hour, and I’ve waited up to 8 hours in the first line just to get into the port. Some ports are worse than others, but excessive wait times are not uncommon. It’s a rare day when a driver gets in and out in under two hours. By ‘rare day’, I mean maybe a handful of times a year. Ports don’t even begin to have enough workers to keep the ports fluid, and it doesn’t matter where you are, coastal or inland port, union or non-union port, it’s the same everywhere.
Furthermore, I’m fortunate enough to be a Teamster — a union driver — an employee paid by the hour. Most port drivers are ‘independent contractors’, leased onto a carrier who is paying them by the load. Whether their load takes two hours, fourteen hours, or three days to complete, they get paid the same, and they have to pay 90% of their truck operating expenses (the carrier might pay the other 10%, but usually less.) The rates paid to non-union drivers for shipping container transport are usually extremely low. In a majority of cases, these drivers don’t come close to my union wages. They pay for all their own repairs and fuel, and all truck related expenses. I honestly don’t understand how many of them can even afford to show up for work. There’s no guarantee of ANY wage (not even minimum wage), and in many cases, these drivers make far below minimum wage. In some cases they work 70 hour weeks and still end up owing money to their carrier.
So when the coastal ports started getting clogged up last spring due to the impacts of COVID on business everywhere, drivers started refusing to show up. Congestion got so bad that instead of being able to do three loads a day, they could only do one. They took a 2/3 pay cut and most of these drivers were working 12 hours a day or more. While carriers were charging increased pandemic shipping rates, none of those rate increases went to the driver wages. Many drivers simply quit. However, while the pickup rate for containers severely decreased, they were still being offloaded from the boats. And it’s only gotten worse.
Earlier this summer, both BNSF and Union Pacific Railways shut down their container yards in the Chicago area for a week for inbound containers. These are some of the busiest ports in the country. They had miles upon miles of stack (container) trains waiting to get in to be unloaded. According to BNSF, containers were sitting in the port 1/3 longer than usual, and they simply ran out of space to put them until some of the ones already on the ground had been picked up. Though they did reopen the area ports, they are still over capacity. Stack trains are still sitting loaded, all over the country, waiting to get into a port to unload. And they have to be unloaded, there is a finite number of railcars. Equipment shortages are a large part of this problem.
One of these critical shortages is the container chassis.
A container chassis is the trailer the container sits on. Cranes will load these in port. Chassis are typically container company provided, as trucking companies generally don’t have their own chassis units. They are essential for container trucking. While there are some privately owned chassis, there aren’t enough of those to begin to address the backlog of containers today, and now drivers are sitting around for hours, sometimes days, waiting for chassis.
The impact of the container crisis now hitting residencies in proximity to trucking companies. Containers are being pulled out of the port and dropped anywhere the drivers can find because the trucking company lots are full. Ports are desperate to get containers out so they can unload the new containers coming in by boat. When this happens there is no plan to deliver this freight yet, they are literally just making room for the next ship at the port. This won’t last long, as this just compounds the shortage of chassis. Ports will eventually find themselves unable to move containers out of the port until sitting containers are delivered, emptied, returned, or taken to a storage lot (either loaded or empty) and taken off the chassis there so the chassis can be put back into use. The priority is not delivery, the priority is just to clear the port enough to unload the next boat.
What happens when a container does get to a warehouse?
A large portion of international containers must be hand unloaded because the products are not on pallets. It takes a working crew a considerable amount of time to do this, and warehouse work is usually low wage. A lot of it is actually only temp staffed. Many full time warehouse workers got laid off when the pandemic started, and didn’t come back. So warehouses, like everybody else, are chronically short staffed.
When the port trucker gets to the warehouse, they have to wait for a door (you’ve probably seen warehouse buildings with a bank of roll-up doors for trucks on one side of the building.) The warehouses are behind schedule, sometimes by weeks. After maybe a 2 hour wait, the driver gets a door and drops the container — but now often has to pick up an empty, and goes back to the port to wait in line all over again to drop off the empty.
At the warehouse, the delivered freight is unloaded, and it is usually separated and bound to pallets, then shipped out in much smaller quantities to final destination. A container that had a couple dozen pallets of goods on it will go out on multiple trailers to multiple different destinations a few pallets at a time.
From personal experience, what used to take me 20–30 minutes to pick up at a warehouse can now take three to four hours. This slowdown is warehouse management related: very few warehouses are open 24 hours, and even if they are, many are so short staffed it doesn’t make much difference, they are so far behind schedule. It means that as a freight driver, I cannot pick up as much freight in a day as I used to, and since I can’t get as much freight on my truck, the whole supply chain is backed up. Freight simply isn’t moving.
It’s important to understand what the cost implications are for consumers with this lack of supply in the supply chain. It’s pure supply and demand economics. Consider volume shipping customers who primarily use ‘general freight’, which is the lowest cost shipping and typically travels in a ‘space available’ fashion. They have usually been able to get their freight moved from origination to delivery within two weeks. Think about how you get your packages from Amazon. Even without paying for Prime, you usually get your stuff in a week. The majority of freight travels at this low cost, ‘no guarantee of delivery date’ way, and for the most part it’s been fine for both shippers and consumers. Those days are coming to an end.
People who want their deliveries in a reasonable time are going to have to start paying premium rates. There will be levels of priority, and each increase in rate premium essentially jumps that freight ahead of all the freight with lower or no premium rates. Unless the lack of shipping infrastructure is resolved, things will back up in a cascading effect to the point where if your products are going general freight, you might wait a month or two for delivery. It’s already starting. If you use truck shipping in any way, you’ve no doubt started to see the delays. Think about what’s going to happen to holiday season shipping.
What is going to compel the shippers and carriers to invest in the needed infrastructure? The owners of these companies can theoretically not change anything and their business will still be at full capacity because of the backlog of containers. The backlog of containers doesn’t hurt them. It hurts anyone paying shipping costs — that is, manufacturers selling products and consumers buying products. But it doesn’t hurt the owners of the transportation business — in fact the laws of supply and demand mean that they are actually going to make more money through higher rates, without changing a thing. They don’t have to improve or add infrastructure (because it’s costly), and they don’t have to pay their workers more (warehouse workers, crane operators, truckers).
The ‘experts’ want to say we can do things like open the ports 24/7, and this problem will be over in a couple weeks. They are blowing smoke, and they know it. Getting a container out of the port, as slow and aggravating as it is, is really the easy part, if you can find a truck and chassis to haul it. But every truck driver in America can’t operate 24/7, even if the government suspends Hours Of Service Regulations (federal regulations determining how many hours a week we can work/drive), we still need to sleep sometime. There are also restrictions on which trucks can go into a port. They have to be approved, have RFID tags, port registered, and the drivers have to have at least a TWIC card (Transportation Worker Identification Credential from the federal Transportation Security Administration). Some ports have additional requirements. As I have already said, most trucking companies won’t touch shipping containers with a 100 foot pole. What we have is a system with a limited amount of trucks and qualified drivers, many of whom are already working 14 hours a day (legally, the maximum they can), and now the supposed fix is to have them work 24 hours a day, every day, and not stop until the backlog is cleared. It’s not going to happen. It is not physically possible. There is no “cavalry” coming. No trucking companies are going to pay to register their trucks to haul containers for something that is supposedly so “short term,” because these same companies can get higher rate loads outside the ports. There is no extra capacity to be had, and it makes NO difference anyway, because If you can’t get a container unloaded at a warehouse, having drivers work 24/7/365 solves nothing.
What it will truly take to fix this problem is to run EVERYTHING 24/7: ports (both coastal and domestic),trucks, and warehouses. We need tens of thousands more chassis, and a much greater capacity in trucking.
Before the pandemic, through the pandemic, and really for the whole history of the freight industry at all levels, owners make their money by having low labor costs — that is, low wages and bare minimum staffing. Many supply chain workers are paid minimum wages, no benefits, and there’s a high rate of turnover because the physical conditions can be brutal (there aren’t even bathrooms for truckers waiting hours at ports because the port owners won’t pay for them. The truckers aren’t port employees and port owners are only legally required to pay for bathroom facilities for their employees. This is a nationwide problem). For the whole supply chain to function efficiently every point has to be working at an equal capacity. Any point that fails bottlenecks the whole system. Right now, it’s ALL failing spectacularly TOGETHER, but fixing one piece won’t do anything. It ALL needs to be fixed, and at the same time.
How do you convince truckers to work when their pay isn’t guaranteed, even to the point where they lose money?
Nobody is compelling the transportation industries to make the needed changes to their infrastructure. There are no laws compelling them to hire the needed workers, or pay them a living wage, or improve working conditions. And nobody is compelling them to buy more container chassis units, more cranes, or more storage space. This is for an industry that literally every business in the world is reliant on in some way or another.
My prediction is that nothing is going to change and the shipping crisis is only going to get worse. Nobody in the supply chain wants to pay to solve the problem. They literally just won’t pay to solve the problem. At the point we are at now, things are so backed up that the backups THEMSELVES are causing container companies, ports, warehouses, and trucking companies to charge massive rate increases for doing literally NOTHING. Container companies have already decreased the maximum allowable times before containers have to be back to the port, and if the congestion is so bad that you can’t get the container back into the port when it is due, the container company can charge massive late fees. The ports themselves will start charging massive storage fees for not getting containers out on time — storage charges alone can run into thousands of dollars a day. Warehouses can charge massive premiums for their services, and so can trucking companies. Chronic understaffing has led to this problem, but it is allowing these same companies to charge ten times more for regular services. Since they’re not paying the workers any more than they did last year or five years ago, the whole industry sits back and cashes in on the mess it created. In fact, the more things are backed up, the more every point of the supply chain cashes in. There is literally NO incentive to change, even if it means consumers have to do holiday shopping in July and pay triple for shipping.
This is the new normal. All brought to you by the ‘experts’ running our supply chains.
For more thought-provoking articles to read in a short amount of time please visit https://medium.com/
Wow Dennie, What a great find. Thanks for sharing this article with us. And kudos to the long time trucking business expert who authored it. This information the majority of people would have no idea of. From what the author writes it becomes clear that this problem looks also to be orchestrated. As I understand it the shipping industry is largely owned and operated at top levels by *Mr. Global* (credit to Catherine Austin Fitts using her term for the nic name) or the usual suspects of the international criminal banking cartels. Certainly if the problem continues without redress and/or worsens we will have our confirmation of this. Thanks again Dennie, for the insider illumination into yet another obstacle being thrown at the 99% of us in this class (and might I add crass) warfare. Don't let the ba$t@r&s get us down… koko everybody! : )
These supply chain disruptions are planned and deliberate. I recommend that everyone stock up on food and supplies if they have not already. I am sorry if I sound alarmist, but chaotic conditions may be only days away rather than weeks or months
Dennie,
I worked in restaurants for twenty some odd years and pairing wine and cheese with nanoparticulates is hilarious.
I wish there were more of us.
Take care
b
Noticed some over my house yesterday and watched them spread. It was so disturbing to watch.
-PA
COP26: The 2021 UN Climate Change Conference & 400 private jets! …calling for a ‘vast military-style campaign’
VSF: Have the last two years been a mere mild precursor to what is coming? Have we been unconsciously conditioned into a cult of confusing contradictions to accept lockdowns, mandates, and more as our inevitable future?
ZeroHedge reports: “Hypocrisy and hot air over Glasgow Airport as the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, attracts 400 private jets carrying world leaders and business executives from around the world. We want readers to visualize these political and financial elites flying in on their jet fuel-guzzling private planes as they urge the rest of us for the next week to eat less meat, drive less, and fly less.”
“Prince Charles was among those traveling by non-commercial plane … Flight records suggest the plane was an MOD jet. Yes, the same Prince Charles hypocritically calling for a ‘vast military-style campaign’ with trillions at it's disposal in order to force ‘fundamental economic transition’ when it comes to the environment.”
Breitbart reports that Prince Charles said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us just how devastating a global cross-border threat can be, climate change and biodiversity loss are no different. In fact, they pose an even greater existential threat, to the extent that we have to put ourselves on what might be called a war-like footing.”
Claiming that “time has quite literally run out”, the British royal said that as many countries in the world are unable to make the necessary investments into so-called green technologies, it will be up to richer nations to marshal “a vast military-style campaign” with “trillions at its disposal” to fight climate change.
“The calls for a globalist solution are nothing new from Prince Charles, who was an early proponent of the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset agenda. In 2015 the prince argued that the global economy was in need of a ‘rewiring’ in order to prevent a climate catastrophe.”
So while the elite fly around the planet to propagandize and implement their ‘Great Reset’ — which will essentially reduce the rest of us to techno-feudalism or worse — can we expect endless lockdowns, digital passports, carbon taxes, genocidal bio-weapons, & martial law. All of course for 'our good' – for climate change!
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/jeff-bezos-leads-parade-private-jets-cop26-his-65m-gulfstream
I too take umbrage with that guy's blatant omission and overt denial of geoengineering (supported by snowjob back in December). Not to mention countless others associated w Arctic news blog.
These are some brilliant people who simply want to stay out of the street.
As you have said countless times, It's coming , and soon.
I can tell you that my honesty, decency, and character have left me with NO ONE and NO THING.
Maybe they are right.
Guess I'm THE FOOL…
b
Well, I look at it this way: We were all warned that if we didn't take the goddamned shot we'd be "left out" of so-called "society–" Hah hah haaah, whatta joke! Just take a look at the kinds of places you wouldn't be allowed to go:
1. Disneyland = A primer for young humans to begin to learn how to live in a world of utter fantasy where their parents' hand over their hard-earned money, paying to eat junk food while bumping elbows around thousands of others just like them: Vaxxed-to-the-max, wearing plastic, riding on plastic, eating plastic–all paid for with… plastic!
2. Gyms: Sweat-fest places filled with piping hot humans huffing and puffing and spewing droplets and aerosols while working out on machines packed so closely together that you can feel the next guy's breath, all the while listening to deafening "music," steaming the windows, then hosing off in yet-more-steam-filled shower rooms where funguses lurk, ready to invade any body part that'll have it– EEEEEWWWW!!!!!
3. Bars: A club for future members of Alcoholics Anonymous, where you bullshit away your money and your time while achieving an "appropriate" level of ethanol saturation, all done in very close contact with other like-minded people, laughing, guffawing and generally spewing droplets in one another's faces– what more can I say?
4. Chain restaurants: With plenty of artificial light, commercially-grown food, feed-lot animal proteins and low-paid workers who take crap off of their customers day in and day out. One step above Bars.
And so this is the kind of "society" the unvaxxed are being
shieldedbarred from participating in?? HA HAH HA HAH HAAAAAAAAH!!!!Dennie: LOLS:-))). So true.
Martin Luther King was a man of magnificent courage, dedication, integrity and eloquence King, who received constant death threats gave a speech called I have been to the mountaintop on the final night of his life that has special relevance today. Here is an excerpt
Well I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. And so I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
(American Rhetoric Top 100 Speeches)
Isaiah 5:20
"Woe unto them who call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
I'll never forget Brian Williams of MSNBC covering the Tomahawk land attack missiles being launched on Syria. As he watched them in the night sky 4/6/17, he called them "beautiful." I'm sure the Syrians did not describe the missiles the same way.
Our enemies are adept at calling evil good and darkness light. Not to be outdone, on 3/10/21 Donald Trump called the Covid vaccine "beautiful." Folks that have suffered adverse affects might choose a different way to describe what they thought was a vaccine.
Dane's bad news broadcast is necessary because those that desire our demise are masters of manipulation. What's evil they call good. What's light they call darkness and what's bitter they call sweet.
Stan, Dear brother thank you for the true light in that scripture.
Christine,
Thank you for taking the time to acknowledge your love for the scriptures. I am proud to stand with you as we support Dane in this fight of good versus evil, of freedom versus tyranny.
To engage in sophistry is to make "plausible but ultimately fallacious" arguments. Sophistry is a key component of propaganda and, over the decades, it's techniques have been studied and refined to a frighteningly efficient level. The whole world is now collectively starving for some truth – ANY truth!
With that in mind, building on Stan's theme, below is a (partial) timeless lyric from Roger Waters' 1975 song "Wish You Were Here".
"So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
That's what Robert Oppenheimer said about the atomic bomb explosion– "beautiful…" keep in mind that the homicidal are always also the suicidal, so, umm, like, when are they going to do themselves in? AFTER they've done the rest of us in, my dear– once they're finally done with us….
The cyclonic radar signature centered over Havana has been going on and off for nearly a month now! Check @ windy under the radar/satellite – weather radar section. Use the 12 Hour time span.
Could this be for hurricane suppression or gulf stream modulation?
It has been raining in Cuba a lot! Any thoughts on this Dane?
Today it was centered over Camaguey, Cuba. Instead of Havana.
11 cyclonic radar arms, each with 3-4 bands reaching from 40 to over 70 dBZ.
The higher dBZ was in the South and North East.
It was active for about 3-4 hours.
VSF: This is an old report from 2012. You can imagine that this nanotech industry has greatly expanded… Perhaps aluminum is in our food as well as our skies.
Nanoparticles in your food? You’re already eating them
GRIST / Dec.2012
What's engineered in a lab, added to processed foods, and never labeled? If you thought GMOs were mysterious, try nanoparticles.
… the fact that nanoparticles are now used to help deliver nutrients, keep food fresh for longer, and act as thickening and coloring agents in processed foods, these “different properties” might be cause for concern. Or — at the very least — they might be reason enough to conduct thorough research into their health impacts.
In actuality, companies are not required to disclose nano-sized ingredients, nor is there much active questioning about their safety.
Instead, Belli writes, “From the government’s perspective, nano forms of silver, iron or titanium are no different, fundamentally, from their scaled-up counterparts which have already been safety tested, so the agency has ushered the particles into the food supply under the Generally Recognized as Safe provision.”
I’ve been hearing about nanoparticles in food packaging for a while now (it’s a market Belli says is expected to reach $20 billion by 2020), but I had no idea that there was nano-coating in the works for bananas. And what I was most surprised to learn is just how many food products already contain nanoparticles.
As Belli writes:
Nanoparticles can be used to purify water, as anticaking and gelatin-forming agents and in packaging to protect against UV light, prevent the growth of microbes or detect contamination. Titanium dioxide is added to a huge swath of products in nano form including paints, paper and plastics but also lends white pigment to most toothpastes and many processed foods, including Mentos, Trident and Dentyne gum, M&Ms, Betty Crocker Whipped Cream Frosting, Jello Banana Cream Pudding, Vanilla Milkshake Pop Tarts and Nestlé Original Coffee Creamer.
The aforementioned products were featured in a report in February 2012 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology which concluded that each of us likely consumes some amount of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles each day, and children under 10 likely consume the greatest amounts (around 1-2 mg TiO2 per kilogram body weight per day) due to their higher intake of frosted foods, candy, gum and other sweets.
Although there is less science focused on ingested nanotech particles than on, say, the ones that are inhaled in industrial environments, Belli does point to the few studies that exist, including a recent one out of Cornell University that looked at chickens’ abilities to absorb iron after eating nanoparticles generally considered safe for human consumption. In it, researchers found that acute exposure to the particles changed the structure of the lining of the chickens’ intestinal walls, a change the lead scientist noted “serves to underscore how such particles, which have been widely studied and considered safe, cause barely detectable changes that could lead to, for example, over-absorption of other, harmful compounds.”
When it comes to questions about the health effects of eating nanoparticles, Belli quotes a guide on the American Society of Safety Engineers’ website, which reads:
Nanoparticles may be ingested through drinking water, food additives, atmospheric dust on food, toothpaste and dental fillings and implants. Ingested nanoparticles can then be absorbed through ‘Peyer’s Plaques’ or small nodules in intestinal tissue that are part of the immune defense system. If nanoparticles enter the digestive system and proceed into the bloodstream, they could move throughout the body and cause damage.
Of course, most of this — and much of the science Belli points to — is preliminary, based on very little hard science. And if that lack of a cautionary approach to science in a multibillion-dollar industry sounds familiar, that’s because — well, it is. The comparison to genetically modified foods is unavoidable.
In fact, Timothy Duncan, a research chemist from the Food and Drug Administration, admitted as much about the nanotech industry (which likely has thousands of food and food packaging products in the research and development stage) while writing in the journal Nature Nanotechnology last year. “What’s holding back the introduction of nanofoods is the hesitation of the food industry, fearing a public backlash along the lines of what happened with genetically modified foods, and public fears in some countries about tampering with nature,” Duncan wrote.
And considering how little media coverage these larger questions about nanotechnology and food have received — not to mention inclusion on the larger “food movement” laundry list — it looks like the lesson the food industry has learned from GMOs is not one about the importance of transparency, but quite the opposite.
As Tom Philpott observed in Grist in 2010, the last time big questions surfaced about nanotech in food in the media: “As with GMOs, the strategy seems to be: release into the food supply en masse first; assess risks later (if ever).”
https://grist.org/food/nanoparticles-in-your-food-youre-already-eating-them/
Which is yet another sound reason to avoid processed foods. Make it from scratch where possible. Food coloring? Nano particles can pass through the blood-brain barrier. Dyed brains.
I had some 1 a day vitamins. In the non-medical ingredient section it contained Titanium Dioxide. (Complements/Sobeys/Canada)
I stopped taking those. I still take D3, B12, Zinc and C daily. I try to avoid the chewables and artificial sweeteners. But selection is quite limited.
It's the latest money-making gimmick from our Brilliant "know-it-all" Scientists! Kinda like fifth graders learning to use commas, nanoparticulates go with everything– Hey kids, let's come up with a wine and cheese pairing with nanoparticulates!
And one more "nano" (or maybe two): Should we really believe for a New York Nanosecond that any red-white-and-blue-blooded Uhmer'kun would stop and ponder this information for longer than, well…a New York Nanosecond?
CISA Warns of Water, Wastewater Infrastructure Security Threats
Lt. Col. Jody Ogle Cybersecurity Adviser CISA / October 18, 2021
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI issued a joint advisory warning that threat actors are targeting hardware and software that support drinking water and wastewater infrastructure operations.
CISA said Thursday that malicious cyber threats to information and operational technology networks, systems and devices could affect the sector's potable water delivery wastewater management efforts.
The alert states that cybercriminals are spearphishing personnel, exploiting unsupported and outdated operating systems and software, and capitalizing on control system devices with vulnerable firmware in an attempt to compromise facilities.
In the advisory, CISA listed five cyber incidents that occurred within the water industry between March 2019 August 2021 and attributed sector-specific intrusions to vulnerabilities associated with insider threats from employees with improperly managed credentials and ransomware attacks.
To defend against such threats, the agency and its federal partners recommended operators to conduct monitoring and adopt various mitigation practices related to remote access, networks safety systems, and planning and operational processes.
https://www.executivegov.com/2021/10/cisa-warns-of-water-wastewater-infrastructure-security-threats/