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2. US Schools More Segregated Today than in 1950s Schools in the United States are more segregated today than they have been in more than four decades. Millions of non-white students are locked into "dropout factory" high schools, where huge percentages do not graduate and few are well prepared for college or a future in the US The UN has disregarded its own findings and has ignored Somali and international appeals to act on the continued ravaging of Somali marine resources and dumping of toxic wastes. Violations have also been largely ignored by the region's maritime authorities. economy. 4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina According to a new Civil Rights Project report One of the most lethal patches of ground in North published at the University of California, Los Angeles, | America is located in the backwoods of North Carolina, schools in the US are 44 per cent non-white and where the Shearon Harris nuclear plant is housed and minorities are rapidly emerging as the majority of public | owned by Progress Energy. The plant contains the larges' school students. Latinos and blacks, the two largest radioactive waste storage pools in the country. It is no minority groups, attend schools more segregated today just a nuclear-power-generating station but also a than during the civil rights movement 40 years ago. In __ repository for highly radioactive spent fuel rods from two Latino and African-American populations, two of every _ other nuclear plants. The rods are transported by rail and five students attend intensely segregated schools. For — stored in four densely packed pools filled with circulating Latinos, this increase in segregation reflects growing cold water to keep the waste from heating. The residential segregation. For blacks, a significant part of | Department of Homeland Security has marked Shearon the reversal reflects the ending Harris as one of the mos of desegregation plans in public vulnerable terrorist targets in the schools throughout the nation. . nation. The Civil Rights Project study Should the cooling system The threat exists, however, shows that the most severe malfunction, the resulting without the speculation o segregation in public schools is terrorist attack. Should the in the western states, including fire would be virtually cooling system malfunction, the California—not in the South, as unquenchable and could resulting fire would be virtually many people believe. Q unquenchable and could trigger trigger a nuclear a nuclear meltdown, putting 3. Poaching, Toxic Waste meltdown... more than 200 million residents in extreme peril. A recent study The international community by Brookhaven Lab estimates has come out in force to that a pool fire could cause condemn and declare war on the Somali fishermen 140,000 cancers, contaminate thousands of square miles pirates, while discreetly protecting the illegal, unreported —_ of land and cause over US$500 billion in off-site property and unregulated (IUU) fleets from around the world that damage. have been poaching and dumping toxic waste in Somali The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has waters since the fall of the Somali government 18 years estimated that there is a 1:100 chance of a pool fire ago. In 1991, foreign interests seized the opportunity to happening under the best of scenarios. Between 1999 begin looting the country's food supply and using its and 2003, there were 12 major problems requiring the unguarded waters as a dumping ground for nuclear and — shutdown of the Shearon Harris plant. According to the other toxic waste. NRC, the national average for commercial reactors is one According to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), there — shutdown per 18 months. were over 800 IUU fishing vessels in Somali waters at one ime in 2005, taking advantage of Somalia's inability to 5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products police and control its own waters and fishing grounds. US deregulation of toxic substances, such as lead in The IUUs poach an estimated US$450 million in seafood lipsticks, mercury in electronics, and phthalates rom Somali waters annually. In so doing, they steal an (endocrine disruptors) in toys, may pose not only invaluable protein source from some of the world's disastrous consequences to our health but also to poorest people and ruin the livelihoods of legitimate | America's economic and political status in the world. ishermen. International markets are moving toward a European Allegations of the dumping of toxic waste, as well as = model of insisting on environmental and consumer illegal fishing, had been circulating since the early 1990s, safety. A Europe-led revolution in chemical regulation, but hard evidence emerged when the 2004 tsunami hit = which requires that thousands of chemicals finally be he country. The United Nations Environment Program __ assessed for their potentially toxic effects on humans and reported that the tsunami washed rusting containers of _ the environment, signals the end of US industry's ability oxic waste onto the shores of Puntland, northern to withhold critical data from the public. Somalia. Dangerous chemicals have been identified via the Dumping and Somali Piracy Should the cooling system malfunction, the resulting fire would be virtually unquenchable and could ‘trigger a nuclear meltdown... 5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products US deregulation of toxic substances, such as lead in lipsticks, mercury in electronics, and phthalates (endocrine disruptors) in toys, may pose not only disastrous consequences to our health but also to America's economic and political status in the world. International markets are moving toward a European model of insisting on environmental and consumer safety. A Europe-led revolution in chemical regulation, which requires that thousands of chemicals finally be assessed for their potentially toxic effects on humans and the environment, signals the end of US industry's ability to withhold critical data from the public. Dangerous chemicals have been identified via the 14 * NEXUS DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010 www.nexusmagazine.com