Paul Stamets: Fungi to the rescue in Japan!

Discussion in 'News from around the damp planet' started by sierrapermaculture, Mar 20, 2011.

  1. tobek

    tobek New Member

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    greetings all,
    Having just found this, i'm wondering why there have been no further installments in this discussion. does anyone know if there are any actions being taken in response to Paul Stamets' suggestion?
    thanks very much
     
  2. chrispoynton

    chrispoynton Junior Member

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    I have emailed Paul Stamets website directly https://www.fungi.com/front/stamets/index.html and asked for him to advise on a) whether he has identified a lead agency that is co-ordinating remediation efforts around fukushima, and b) whether there is a formal Expression of Interest process under way for remediation proposals. Will keep this thread posted on any updates.
     
  3. chrispoynton

    chrispoynton Junior Member

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    I recieved an email from Paul Stamet's company (Fungi Perfecti - fungi.com) today 9 July 2011, regarding the current status of his proposal for fungi remediation of Fukushima:

    QUOTE - "Paul formulated this mycoremediation strategy and put it out to the world...but to date, no individual or organization has approached us with any sort of funding or capacity for implementing this strategy. We are a small company...the implementation of this strategy (and traveling to Japan and working under hazardous conditions) are beyond the scope of our current capabilities. So, unfortunately, I do not have any contacts to pass along to you. Of course, spreading information is always helpful. If you haven't seen them already, we strongly suggest checking out Paul's TED talk or his latest book Mycelium Running for more information about mycoremediation. Thank you for your interest in our work! Please let me know if you have further questions."
    Respectfully, Casey Mullen, Office Manager -Fungi Perfecti - [email protected] TEL (US) 1-800-780-9126 www.fungi.com
     
  4. chrispoynton

    chrispoynton Junior Member

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    The quest continues to find a co-ordinating agency or funding body to support alternative methods of radiation remediation across Japan (e.g. Stamets' fungi proposal, other suggestions of zeolite minerals, agnihotra, etc, etc). Ideas for organisational links anyone?

    Can such a program of information-sharing be taken up by Permaculture Research Institute or its on-line contributors? (All things start small, after all!) Perhaps through an aid agency, trade union, enviro collective, farmers group that already has its feet on the ground in Japan?

    A recent news article (5 July 2011 from www.theintelhub.com) states that Japanese residents are taking matters into their own hands due to lack of government co-ordiantion and they are removing contaminated topsoil and dumping it in forests and rivers). The article also contains many stark new details on health effects and continuing contamination which is being ignored by mainstream media. See:
    Nuclear Radiation Survey: 1 in 20 Fukushima Children Will Develop Thyroid Cancer by Alexander Higgins - 5 July 2011 - www.theintelhub.com


    https://theintelhub.com/2011/07/05/nuclear-radiation-survey-1-in-20-fukushima-children-will-develop-thyroid-cancer/#respond


    I am very happy to assist any efforts in this regard.

    Sincerely, Chris Poynton CP RESEARCH SERVICES Victoria, Australia
    directemail: [email protected] web: www.cp.org.au/research
     
  5. Yukkuri_Kame

    Yukkuri_Kame Junior Member

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    BeGood Cafe is one of the NPO's in Japan that has been associated with the ecovillage movement. Networking with them might be fruitful.

    I have some loose contacts with a number of organic farmers in Chiba, Ibaraki and Fukushima prefectures - though we have not been in touch since the 3/11 disaster. We are heading to Japan in September for a few months, and we'll be able to do some networking at that point.
     
  6. chrispoynton

    chrispoynton Junior Member

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    1.

    Press article: "Contamination of Fukushima forests being studied"
    (Sep 17,2011) appears at https://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110917a6.html

    Work apparently being carried out by "Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture". Can anyone help bring Paul Stamets' work to their attention? Keep us posted of any efforts on this thread.

    2.

    "Uncanny Terrain" is a series of short documentaries about organic farmers facing Japan's nuclear disaster, with some excellent press articles on grassroots and permaculture also.

    VIDEOS: https://uncannyterrain.com/blog/video/
    PRESS: https://uncannyterrain.com/blog/press/

    3.

    Press article "Sunflowers Fail in Nuclear Decontamination" follows up on experiments to remove cesium from soil, with 0.5% reductions achieved, compared to 97% reduction when top layers of soil removed ... https://www.care2.com/causes/sunflo...japanese-public-rejecting-nuclear-energy.html

    4.

    Dr Masauro Emoto (the high-profile new age healing water crystal man) had a public event on 25 July promoting prayer for healing of radioactive water in the ecosystem. He also briefly drew attention to the Vedic (Indian) practice of Agnihotra fumigation, using burning cow manure and mantras, as being of potential benefit to the healing of radioactivity, especially in direct relation to cows and the dairy industry.

    You Tube video at : https://www.homatherapy.org/content/dr-masaru-emoto-speaks-agnihotra-fukushima-japan

    (As a person with particular interest in Agnihotra, I have not heard of any follow up as to whether any Japanese dairy farmers or other citizens have taken up Agnihotra or related practices of Homa Framing. Nor am I aware of any new Japanese/international scientific research efforts on radiation and Agnihotra. Perhaps there is potential for a PhD science student to set up some experiments of radiactive residue monitoring. I am happy to assist in providing any background or contacts for Agnihotra [email protected] www.cp.org.au/homasupport)
     
  7. butler43

    butler43 New Member

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    Zeolite and its possible role in japan

    Howdy folks:
    I'm brand new to the forum having been referred by chris poynton. We have been discussing zeolite and its possible role in decontamination at fukushima.
    Zeolite was used at chernobyl where it was used to remediate the soil and was also crushed and baked into bread and cookies and fed to the populace.
    I have been told and have read many times that zeolite (clinoptilolite) is very effective at absorbing cessium and strontium. Its ability to absorb other types of radiation is not known to me at this present time.
    I hear that dr. Helen caldicott has poured cold water on the idea of using zeolite to absorb radiation in the human body and i wish she would do some more research before she comes out and announces this.
    If you take zeolite internally it will remove cessium and strontium along with heavy metals. There's certainly tons of research on zeolite's ability to absorb radiation which is why it is used in the uk to restore irradiated water at reactors.
    People in japan should at the minimum be informed of zeolite's ability so they can make their own choices. From what i can see they have good zeolite in the north of japan that they could easily access.
    I would have thought that at this point anything that can help, even if it is limited to only two types of radiation, would be welcome news.
    I know if i had a child that was in danger of being irradiated, i would give that child the zeolite.
    Any thoughts about this out there? Any way of getting this information out to the people who need it?
     
  8. Yukkuri_Kame

    Yukkuri_Kame Junior Member

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    Welcome to the forum.

    Certainly there are many people in Japan aware that zeolite can be used for remediation of contaminated land, and I do believe they are using some directly around the nuclear reactors. I have not heard of them using it on agricultural land or in schoolyards, etc.

    As for internal use of zeolite, I am open-minded and skeptical at the same time.
     
  9. chrispoynton

    chrispoynton Junior Member

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  10. chrispoynton

    chrispoynton Junior Member

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    Japanese study quantifies contamination?

    Japanese researchers are starting to quantify the contamination. The following press release from a Wall Street Journal website of 25 Jan 2012 paints a picture that perhaps the contamination is not as intense as we might have expected???

    (Can someone comment on these studies? I cannot find more detail on their availability.)

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/p...-contamination-from-nuclear-crisis-2012-01-25

    The press release includes only a brief description of results from Fukushima University and Radioisotope Center of University of Tokyo as follows:

    -- Determining that uranium and plutonium contamination was extremely limited, in the vicinity of the reactors, and not widespread

    -- While radioactive iodine is completely gone from affected sites, the bulk of remaining contamination comprises long half-life cesium-134 and -137

    -- Cleaning up radioactive soil depends on varied terrain -- and requires different protocols depending on variables such as abundance of site vegetation, and other related factors
     
  11. Yukkuri_Kame

    Yukkuri_Kame Junior Member

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    Sounds like more BS to me. The latest reports are that cesium and iodine levels have been rising... the cesium could be contributed to incinerating radioactive rubble or green waste. But iodine indicates there are active nuclear reactions happening somewhere. The dust is far from settled, and let's not even discuss the intentional dumping of radioactive ash in Tokyo bay. As far as I am concerned, the japanese government is participating in a bureaucratic genocide.
     
  12. Ludi

    Ludi Junior Member

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    There's no such thing as "cleaning up radioactive soil." There is no way to make radioactive material non-radioactive, except time. "Cleaning it up" is just moving the problem from one place to another. It is an unsolvable problem. The nuclear industry, in my opinion, is one of the most irresponsible activities our culture has ever devised.
     

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