Deadly virus infects 1,884, kills 20

EV71 Hits China’s Anhui Province

A highly contagious virus has infected 1,884 people, killed 20 children and is spreading. The virus known as EV71 causes fevers, blisters and rashes on the victims’ hands and feet.

The outbreak of the lethal intestinal virus started in March in Fuyang City in the east China’s Anhui Province, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Experts from places out of Anhui Province examine a sick child in Fuyang City, east China’s Anhui Province, April 29, 2008. The Health Ministry of China sent Fuyang 35 medical experts from Hunan and Hubei provinces in central China to give better treatment to sick children on April 28. An outbreak of lethal intestinal virus Enterovirus 71 has altogether sickened 1,520 children in Fuyang, claiming 20 lives by the morning of April 29. A total of 585 have recovered and 412 are in hospital. Of those, 27 are seriously ill. (Photo and caption: Xinhua). Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

As many as 540 children remain in hospital for further observation. The symptoms in children include fever, mouth ulcers, rashes and blisters hands and feet. Several children with severe pneumonia were admitted to hospitals between March 27-31. Some of the victims were diagnosed with brain, heart and lung damage. All of the victims are reported to be less than six, the majority being under two years old.

At least 27 are said to be in critical condition, according to the provincial health department.

Tipping Point: Here and Now!

Our thanks to Lisa G. for forwarding the link to the following (Source)

We are at the tipping point because the climate state includes large, ready positive feedbacks provided by the Arctic sea ice, the West Antarctic ice sheet, and much of Greenland’s ice. — James Hansen

Tipping Point: PERSPECTIVE OF A CLIMATOLOGIST [PDF]
by JAMES HANSEN

An Excerpt from Hansen’s report:
Our home planet is dangerously near a tipping point at which human-made greenhouse gases reach a level where major climate changes can proceed mostly under their own momentum. Warming will shift climatic zones by intensifying the hydrologic cycle, affecting freshwater availability and human health.

[James Hansen is director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Institute for Space Studies and an Adjunct Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.]

The ice in the Arctic is much younger than normal, with vast regions now covered by first-year ice and much less area covered by multiyear ice. Left: February distribution of ice by its age during normal Arctic conditions (1985-2000 average). Right: February 2008 Arctic ice age distribution. Credit: NSIDC [Caption: NASA]

Related Links:

• Arctic sea ice forecast:another record low in 2008
• Arctic Melting FAST!
• Greenland Ice Melt Faster Than IPCC Estimates
• Only Zero Emissions Would Avert Dangerous Warming
• Stern Report: “a great toxic dump of doublespeak in truly Orwellian fashion”

• Burning Earth
• Human Impact
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Giga Trends
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle

.-.

Northern Ontario Flooded

Flood forces 2nd day of evacuations in northern Ontario

CBC News – As many as 2,000 people were expected to be airlifted Sunday from three communities in northern Ontario after rapidly rising water levels and melting ice prompted local leaders to declare an emergency. The rising Albany River is threatening the communities of Kashechewan [in Cree, “Keeshechewan” means “where the water flows fast”] and Fort Albany near James Bay. Rising water levels were also threatening the community of Attawapiskat.

Residents are expected to be away from home for six to eight weeks. (Source)

Food Fetishism + Cheap Oil = Mounting Pollution

Excerpts from

The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Part 1)

Cheap oil has distorted the notion of creating ‘economic gains’ to such great extents that governments subsidize the industry to export and import the same product, often in similar quantities, within the same fiscal period. Country A exports Q tons of product P to country B, while it imports Q tons of the same product P from country B at the same time, with a net zero gain in commodity exchange for either country. However, the exchange produces about 9Q tons of CO2e pollution, nine times the weight of the commodity that was flown in either direction, for every 1,000 miles that the consignment is airborne.

Our weekly shopping basket includes items that would have flown more air miles than the average family fly in their lifetime! A 1kg (2.2lb) bag of New Zealand kiwifruit (in any of its cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury… or organochlorine varieties) produces about 142kg (313lb) of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent gases) pollution flying to the US, or 188.7kg (416lb) of CO2e to Europe.

Related Links:

• The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens

1. Killed by Homo Economicus
2. Domination by Disinformation
   
3. Is a Future Possible?
   
4. Exponential Growth Economy and Oil
   
5. Where Is All the Money?
6. Exporting Democracy to the Middle East

• The Food Chain:Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World

Rising Food Prices and the US-China Trade Imbalance

Rising Food, Fuel and Fertilizer Prices

How expensive must food, oil and fertilizers get before they could turn the tide of China-US trade imbalance AND force the EU economy into major retreat?

Would the breadbasket of the world use the rising prices of grains (cereal crops) as an economic weapon against China and EU?

Related Links:

• Fueling Food Shortages
• Sam’s Club, Costco Ration Rice Amid Hoarding Worries
• Japan: The land of rising . . . err . . . Prices!

• Brazil Lula defends biofuels from growing criticism
• Corn eyes new peaks, may add to food woes
• Bolivia Morales: biofuels serious problem to poor

• Only One Guess Allowed!
• Famous Last words …
• EU needs more pesticides, scientists claim

Famous Last words …

“With the worsening of the global food crisis, the time is coming when it will be inevitable to discuss whether we preserve the environment or produce more food. There is no way to produce more food without occupying more land and taking down more trees … In this moment of crisis, the world needs to understand that the country has space to raise its production.” ~ Blairo Maggi, the governor of Mato Grosso state and Brazil’s largest soy producer (aka, “King of Soy”)

Soybean USDA

Between August and December 2007, at least 2,700 square miles of Amazon rain forest were clearcut illegally for soy farming and cattle ranching.

In the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, verdant green Amazon Rainforest is broken up by broad tracts of pale green and tan deforested land. In 2005, the government of Brazil said that 48 percent of Amazon deforestation that took place in 2003 and 2004 occurred in Mato Grosso.

The transformation from forest to farm is evident in the photo-like images, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. The top image was taken on June 28, 2006, while the middle image is from June 17, 2002. The bottom map shows the difference in deforested areas over the time period, with some of the largest cleared areas marked in red. On this map, areas that were non-forested (either naturally or already deforested) in 2002 are light gray, while areas that remained forested in 2006 are darker gray.

Although some deforestation is part of the country’s plans to develop its agriculture and timber industries, other deforestation is the result of illegal logging and squatters. The Brazilian government uses MODIS images such as these to detect illegal deforestation. Because the forest is so large and is difficult to access or patrol, the satellite images can provide an initial alert that tells officials where to look for illegal logging.

These images were produced by the MODIS Rapid Response Team, which provides both the 2006 and 2002 images in a variety of resolutions, including MODIS’maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel.

NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at Goddard Space Flight Center. Map by Robert Simmon. (Text: NASA Earth Observatory)

Relate Links:

• Only One Guess Allowed!

• Brazil “soy king” sees Amazon as food solution

• Corn for Food, NOT for Fuel

Only One Guess Allowed!

Who said:

• “I think that ethanol is the most popular whipping boy in the agricultural world at the moment”

• “So to say that biofuels are the culprit clearly underestimates the demand and really shows a gross misunderstanding of the world food situation,”

• “We have to grow more food. We have to increase yields”

Hint: To increase yields, farmers are forced to buy lots and lots more fertilizers!

Related links:

• Fatal Harvest
• Keep Mine free …!
• The Center for Food Safety

Related Reading:

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth One
  Industrial agriculture will feed the world

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Two
  Industrial food is safe, healthy, and nutritious

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Three
  Industrial food is cheap

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Four
  Industrial agriculture is efficient

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Five
  Industrial food offers more choices

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Six
  Industrial agriculture benefits the environment and wildlife

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Seven
  Biotechnology will solve the problems of industrial agriculture

See the tags for the answer!

Arctic Marine Mammals on Thin Ice

(source: Ecological Society of America)

Experts outline primary risks of climate change to natives of the Arctic

The loss of sea ice due to climate change could spell disaster for polar bears and other Arctic marine mammals. The April Special Issue of Ecological Applications examines such potential effects, puts them in historical context, and describes possible conservation measures to mitigate them. The assessment reflects the latest thinking of experts representing multiple scientific disciplines.

Sea ice is the common habitat feature uniting these unique and diverse Arctic inhabitants. Sea ice serves as a platform for resting and reproduction, influences the distribution of food sources, and provides a refuge from predators. The loss of sea ice poses a particularly severe threat to Arctic species, such as the hooded seal, whose natural history is closely tied to, and depends on, sea ice.

The Arctic undergoes dramatic seasonal transformation. Arctic marine mammals appear to be well adapted to the extremes and variability of this environment, having survived past periods of extended warming and
cooling.

Walrus – Odobenus rosmarus divergens – hauled out on Bering Sea ice, Alaska. (Photo Credit: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps)

“However, the rate and scale of current climate change are expected to distinguish current circumstances from those of the past several millennia. These new conditions present unique challenges to the well-being of Arctic marine mammals,” says Sue Moore (NOAA/Alaska Fisheries Science Center).

Climate change will pose a variety of threats to marine mammals. For some, such as polar bears, it is likely to reduce the availability of their prey, requiring them to seek alternate food. Authors Bodil Bluhm and Rolf Gradinger (University of Alaska, Fairbanks) note that while some Arctic marine mammal species may be capable of adjusting to changing food availability, others may be handicapped by their very specific food requirements and hunting techniques. Species such as the walrus and polar bear fall under this category, while the beluga whale and bearded seal are among those who are more opportunistic in their eating habits and therefore potentially less vulnerable, at least in this regard.

Look here, General George, I can’t unzip the fur! (Photo Credit:Kathy Crane, NOAA Arctic Research Office.)

Using a quantitative index of species sensitivity to climate change, Kristin Laidre (University of Washington) and colleagues found that the most sensitive Arctic marine mammals appear to be the hooded seal, polar bear, and the narwhal, primarily due to their reliance on sea ice and specialized feeding.

Shifts in the prey base of Arctic marine mammals would likely lead to changes in body condition and potentially affect the immune system of marine mammals, according to Kathy Burek (Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services). She and fellow researchers point out that climate change may alter pathogen transmission and exposure to infectious diseases, possibly lowering the health of marine mammals and, in the worst case, their survival. Changing environmental conditions, including more frequent bouts of severe weather and rising air and water temperatures, also could impact the health of Arctic marine mammals.

Exasperated polar bears shoo the submarine USS Honolulu off their melting porch (450 km from the North Pole).

The effects of climate change will be compounded by a host of secondary factors. The loss of ice will open the Arctic to new levels of shipping, oil and gas exploration and drilling, fishing, hunting, tourism, and coastal development. These, in turn, will add new threats to marine mammal populations, including ship strikes, contaminants, and competition for prey.

Timothy Ragen (US Marine Mammal Commission) and colleagues describe how conservation measures may be able to address the secondary effects of climate change, but that only reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can-over the long-term-conserve Arctic marine mammals and the Arctic ecosystems on which they depend.

Ragen talks more about the issue on an Ecological Society of America podcast. Visit http://www.esa.org/podcast/ to listen to this latest edition of ESA’s podcast, Field Talk.

Lead authors of the collection of papers in the Special Supplement to Ecological Applications are:

John Walsh (U. of AK, Fairbanks)–climatological understanding C.R. Harrington (Canadian Museum of Nature)–evolutionary history of arctic marine mammals Maribeth Murray (U. of AK, Fairbanks)–past distributions of arctic marine mammals Gregory O’Corry-Crowe (Southwest Fisheries Science Center)–past and current distributions and behaviors Bodil Bluhm (U. of AK, Fairbanks)–food availability and implications of climate change Kristin Laidre (U. of WA)–sensitivity to climate-induced habitat change Kathy Burek (Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services)–effects on Arctic marine mammal health Grete Havelsrud (Center for International Climate & Environmental Research-Oslo)–human interactions Vera Metcalf (Eskimo Walrus Commission, Kawerak)–walrus hunting Sue Moore (NOAA/Alaska Fisheries Science Center)/Henry Huntington (Huntington Consulting)–resilience of Arctic marine mammals to climate change Timothy Ragen (U.S. Marine Mammal Commission)–conservation in context of climate change

The Ecological Society of America is the world’s largest professional organization of ecologists, representing 10,000 scientists in the United States and around the globe. Since its founding in 1915, ESA has promoted the responsible application of ecological principles to the solution of environmental problems through ESA reports, journals, research, and expert testimony to Congress. ESA publishes four journals and convenes an annual scientific conference. Visit the ESA website at http://www.esa.org.

Related Links:

• Polar Bear Decision Delay Meant to Protect Oil Leases?

• Bering Sea Drilling
• Arctic Melting FAST!
• Greenland Ice Melt Faster Than IPCC Estimates
• Only Zero Emissions Would Avert Dangerous Warming
• Stern Report: “a great toxic dump of doublespeak in truly Orwellian fashion”

EU needs more pesticides, scientists claim

Scientists: Reduction in pesticides makes EU uncompetitive!

(Reuters) Scientists from seven European Union countries have warned against a planned reduction in the number of pesticides allowed in the EU, claiming this could increase resistance of pests and make crop cultivation uncompetitive.

“The scientists […] fear that reducing the available range of pesticides could lower their efficiency as it is likely that it will increase resistance.” they said.

The boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) is a beetle measuring an average length of six millimeters, which feeds on cotton buds and flowers. (photo credit: Clinton & Charles Robertson, via wikipedia)

“In order to safeguard the production of food at affordable prices, it is essential to provide farmers with access to sufficient diversity of crop protection solutions.” the scientists’ spokesman from the UK’s Rothamsted Research institute added: “This is essential to prevent or delay the development of resistant pests, and to maintain the efficacy of remaining crop protection products,” he added.

Is their concern legitimate, or are they sacrificing the truth for the sake of their careers? The Chemical giants are doing booming business with their “+cide” products. Are the scientists party to their business “success?” FEWW would welcome any information provided by genuine whistleblowers. [Strict confidentiality of the sources of information is assured.]

A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used for preventing, controlling, or lessening the damage caused by a pest. A pesticide may be a chemical substance, biological agent (such as a virus or bacteria), antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest.

Codling moth: It is native to Europe and was introduced to North America, where it has become one of the regular pests of apple orchards. It is found almost worldwide. It also attacks pears, walnuts, and other tree fruits.

Pests include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms) and microbes that compete with humans for food, destroy property, spread or are a vector for disease or cause a nuisance. Although there are benefits to the use of pesticides, there are also drawbacks, such as potential toxicity to humans and other animals.Pesticides are hazardous to some wildlife in the sea because it gets evaporated and goes into the clouds.Then it rains, surface run-off into the sea and poisons them. (Source Wikipedia)

Types of pesticides

There are multiple ways of classifying pesticides:

• Algicides or Algaecides for the control of algae
• Avicides for the control of birds
• Bactericides for the control of bacteria
• Fungicides for the control of fungi and oomycetes
• Herbicides for the control of weeds
• Insecticides for the control of insects – these can be Ovicides (substances that kill eggs), Larvicides (substances that kill larvae) or Adulticides (substances that kill adult insects)
• Miticides or Acaricides for the control of mites
• Molluscicides for the control of slugs and snails
• Nematicides for the control of nematodes
• Rodenticides for the control of rodents
• Virucides for the control of viruses (e.g. H5N1)

A weevil of the Curculionidae family: Lixus angustatus (Image credit: Alvesgaspar, via wikipedia)

Weevils are often found in dry foods including nuts and seeds, cereal and grain products. In the domestic setting, they are most likely to be observed when opening a bag of flour although they will happily infest most types of grain including oats, barley and breakfast cereals. Their presence is often indicated by the granules of the infested item sticking together in strings, as if caught in a cobweb. If ingested, E. coli infection and other various diseases can be contracted from weevils, depending on their diet.

Pesticides can also be classed as synthetic pesticides or biological pesticides (biopesticides), although the distinction can sometimes blur.

Broad-spectrum pesticides are those that kill an array of species, while narrow-spectrum, or selective pesticides only kill a small group of species.

A systemic pesticide moves inside a plant following absorption by the plant. With insecticides and most fungicides, this movement is usually upward (through the xylem) and outward. Increased efficiency may be a result. Systemic insecticides which poison pollen and nectar in the flowers may kill needed pollinators such as bees.

Most pesticides work by poisoning pests. (Source Wikipedia)

Arctic Melting FAST!

Rocket Science: Ice + Heat = Water

Arctic summer sea ice. Image taken by NASA satellite September 16, 2007.

News Reports:

• Arctic ice seen melting faster than anticipated (so, what’s new?)
  
• Sun cycles seen not key to recent global warming (yawn …)
• Nearly 900 scientists at the EPA have experienced political interference in their work (While in GB they readily volunteer!)
  
• UN Expert: 50 Million Could be Displaced by Climate Change by 2010 (make that 200m)
  
• A Storehouse of Greenhouse Gases Is Opening in Siber[i]a

Related Links:

• Greenland Ice Melt Faster Than IPCC Estimates
• Only Zero Emissions Would Avert Dangerous Warming
• Stern Report: “a great toxic dump of doublespeak in truly Orwellian fashion”

Are the poor terrorists?

Delivering Climate Security: International Security Responses to a Climate-Changed World

According to the above-titled report written for Britain’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), governments around the world have hugely underestimated the potential conflicts resulting from climate change. The highlights of the report are:

• If climate change is not slowed and critical environmental thresholds are exceeded, then it will become a primary driver of conflicts between and within states

• In the next decades, climate change will drive as significant a change in the strategic security environment as the end of the Cold War,” said Mabey.

• If uncontrolled, climate change will have security implications of similar magnitude to the World Wars, but which will last for centuries

• A failure to acknowledge and prepare for the worst case scenario is as dangerous in the case of climate change as it is for managing the risks of terrorism or nuclear weapons proliferation

• Unless achieving climate security is seen as a vital and existential national interest it will be too easy to delay action on the basis of avoiding immediate costs and perceived threats to economic competitiveness

Source

Would the world elite brand the poor and starving masses as “terrorists” in order to eliminate them?

Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.” According to a report by New York Sun.

News Reports:

• U.N. Security Council must act preemptively – on climate change – this global threat requires a war-room mentality

• Security risk from climate said underestimated
• Sam’s Club, Costco limit bulk rice purchases
• Sam’s Club, Costco Ration Rice Amid Hoarding Worries
  

Special Links:

• Future in the Making
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Giga Trends
• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix

Would You Like to Be Spied on, Poisoned, Mugged, Raped, Murdered, or ‘Accidentally’ Killed?

Main Entry: Irish Tourist Mugged in New Zealand

Smog exposure causes premature death

Scientific report links smog exposure to premature death

(LiveNews.com.au)
Short-term exposure to smog, or ozone, is clearly linked to premature deaths that should be taken into account when measuring the health benefits of reducing air pollution, a US report shows.

The findings contradict arguments made by some White House officials that the connection between smog and premature death has not been shown sufficiently, and that the number of saved lives should not be calculated in determining clean air benefits.

The National Academy of Sciences report released today by a panel of the Academy’s National Research Council says government agencies “should give little or no weight” to such arguments.

“The committee has concluded from its review of health-based evidence that short-term exposure to ambient ozone is likely to contribute to premature deaths,” the 13-member panel said.

It added that “studies have yielded strong evidence that short-term exposure to ozone can exacerbate lung conditions, causing illness and hospitalization and can potentially lead to death.”

The panel examined short-term exposure – up to 24 hours – to high levels of ozone, but said more studies also were needed on long-term chronic exposure where the risk of premature death “may be larger than those observed in acute effects studies alone.”

The Academy’s report “could have important consequences” on such future disputes, said lawyer Vicky Patton of the advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund.

She said the OMB in a number of air pollution regulations has sought to minimize the relationship of pollution and premature deaths, resulting in a lower calculation of health benefits from pollution reductions.

“This has been used by industry to try to attack health standards by minimising the societal benefits,” said Patton. (Source)

Related Links:

• EPA Defies Supreme Court on Climate Change
• Analysis Shows Effective Action on Climate Change Will Have Little Impact on U.S. Economy
• Report confirms ozone pollution can kill

• Pittsburgh, Los Angeles have worst U.S. air pollution

–

If you’re flying to Beijing for the Olympics …

Make sure you sample the barreled water

In China’s southwestern province of Guizhou, polluted barreled water has made more than 200 ill. The victims feel ill with hepatitis A.

“The source of the water was heavily polluted and its production lacked strict sterilization,” according to Beijing News. News Report

According to a report, about half the water used in coolers in the Olympics host city could be tainted.

Hep A: An acute infectious disease of the liver

Hepatitis A, (formerly known as infectious hepatitis), is an acute infectious disease of the liver caused by Hepatitis A virus, which is most commonly transmitted by the fecal-oral route via contaminated food or drinking water. Every year, approximately 10 million people worldwide are infected with the virus. The time between infection and the appearance of the symptoms, (the incubation period), is between two and six weeks and the average incubation period is 28 days.

Electron micrograph of hepatitis A virions. Source: CDC

In developing countries, and in regions with poor hygiene standards, the incidence of infection with this virus approaches 100% and the illness is usually contracted in early childhood. Hepatitis A infection causes no clinical signs and symptoms in over 90% of these children and since the infection confers lifelong immunity, the disease is of no special significance to the indigenous population. In Europe, the United States and other industrialised countries, on the other hand, the infection is contracted primarily by susceptible young adults, most of whom are infected with the virus during trips to countries with a high incidence of the disease. (Source: Wikipedia)

The Deep F*cking Greencovered Corporations

The following post was submitted by Lisa G., a guest contributor.

The Deep F*cking Greencovered Corporations and Their Fecal Brownfaced NGOs

The usual mix of the deep f*cking greencovered corporations and their fecal brownfaced NGOs are at it again. This time they have come up with a deep green branding campaign (what no Saatchi and Saatchi?) called FORTUNE’s first-ever Brainstorm: GREEN Conference.”

By all means, storm on busters. Brainstorm ‘til your brains Explode. Kindly brainstorm yourselves out of existence ‘cause you can’t have a sustainable world run by corporations no matter what color they are painted in, green, blue or any shade of fecal brown.

Question:

IF the catastrophic changes that are engulfing us could somehow be mitigated, slowed down or stopped [sic] … if a new world could be created [sic] as if by an act of divine intervention [sic] offering a sizable number of communities the luxury of a future … should those surviving communities then allow the same old global deep f*cking greencovered corporations and their NGOs reiterate the same old algorithms that are about to checkmate humanity?

Among the “brainstormers” are CEOs and other top-level representatives from world’s biggest earth polluters and their usual line up of NGOs and green front groups that provide the desperately-needed camouflage. Believe it or not, the list includes:

• Monsanto Company (WTF)
• Caterpillar, Inc. (Yes the ones with earth f*cking machines, and bulldozers in the occupied territories.)
• The Dow Chemical Company (Agent Orange!)
• McDonald’s Corporation
• General Motors Corporation
• JP Morgan
• The Coca-Cola Co.
• The Procter & Gamble Company
• Duke Energy Corporation
• Black & Veatch Holding Co.
• Google.org
• Hewlett-Packard Co.
• Edison International
• PG&E Corporation
• IBM
• Lehman Brothers
• Dell Inc. (Yes, him, too!)
• Lufthansa German Airlines
• Xerox Corporation
• Siemens Corporate Research, Inc.
• Azamara Cruises and Celebrity Cruises
• The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
• Bank of America Corporation
• JPMorgan Chase
• GE Energy
• Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
• Marriott International, Inc.

And many others including their blue-thinking brownfaced NGO green fronts …

Related Links:

• Earth Hour (and earth day) Deception
• What Killed Earth Day? Too Much Fuss And No Bother

.

Stern Report: “a great toxic dump of doublespeak in truly Orwellian fashion”

Government “expert” says he underestimated threat

LONDON (Reuters) – Climate change expert Nicholas Stern says he under-estimated the threat from global warming in a major report 18 months ago when he compared the economic risk to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Full Report

Oh, really?

Northern Spotted Owl. Credit SPUI

What’s the connection between climate change spinners, the government “experts”, Nicholas Stern, Chomskette and costly “mistakes?” Asked the Northern Spotted Owl.

The brief discussion that follows may shed some light on the answer. It started when  Founder of The Management School of Restorative Business [HS] made the following comment posted at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naspir/message/2379 [Caution: NASPIR could be an element in the UK Government’s covert operations.]

[Mon Dec 4, 2006 1:56 am] –

[HS] The Stern Report: Playing Politics with Ecology – Spin the Tailspin

The Stern report, Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, asserts:

“The risks of the worst impacts of climate change can be substantially reduced if greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere can be stabilised between 450 and 550ppm CO2.”

The opening salvo of environmental calamities, sparked about 30 years ago at levels of 330ppm CO2, has now begun to engulf humanity. Just how the report authors can presume an additional 28 percent increase in the CO2 pollution in the atmosphere [up on the current levels of 430ppm CO2] would create any semblance of stability is a great toxic dump of doublespeak in truly Orwellian fashion. [Emphasis added.]

[Mon Dec 4, 2006 7:36 am] –
A reply by Mr Milan Rai, biographer of Noam Chomsky and co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness UK: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naspir/message/2380

Hi folks

It seems to me that we should distinguish between

1) whether this is a reasonable statement, on the facts
and
2) whether this is a reasonable goal.

> The Stern report, Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change,
> asserts:
>
> “The risks of the worst impacts of climate change can be substantially
> reduced if greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere can be stabilised
> between 450 and 550ppm CO2.”

1) This talks about the ‘worst impacts’ being less likely if greenhouse
gas levels can be stabilised at a level somewhat higher than we have now.
I can’t see how this is an unreasonable statement, given that the ‘worst
impacts’ would clearly be the result of unstabilised greenhouse gas levels
increasing to even higher levels.

2) Is it a reasonable goal to set this greenhouse gas level as the target?
That’s the real debate.

Best wishes

Mil

[Tue Dec 5, 2006 8:15 am]
[HS] Replied http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naspir/message/2381

Hello Milan

Syntax or semantics?

Tried the statement with 600ppm (instead of 550ppm), it read like Curry’s paradox (e.g., the statement must be true, since Santa exists.)

Then tried 650ppm, it turned into the liar’s paradox (e.g., the unstoppable positive feedback was triggered at much lower pollution levels. The unstoppable positive feedback can be stabilized [sic] at much higher pollution levels).

[REM: Average knowledge of ecology and feedback systems would be required—and the authors bank on the lack thereof—to realize the ramification of what happens to the system itself.]

Now let us try 700ppm. It turns to the fallacy of the beard (paradox of the heap or continuum fallacy) – if 300ppm is a safe level, then 400ppm is just 33percent higher, and 500ppm is a natural extension to 400ppm ad infinitum.

Take another shot at it, this time as dark humor. Does it not look like Bobby Henderson’s Flying Spaghetti Monster reasoning (reductio ad absurdum) vying for scientific legitimacy?

Interestingly, the syntax remains [deceptively] reasonable throughout!

Imagine being told about the advantages of drowning in shallower waters, while your benefactors [sic] are recommending measures to control drowning in deeper waters, [and shining a green light at the oil industry to keep on pumping out, and the airline and automobile industry to keep on clocking up those uncovered miles…]

Best wishes

~~~

Related Links:

• The Great Ice age of 2008 is finally over
• Only Zero Emissions Would Avert Dangerous Warming

• Human Impact
• Emerging Trends
• First Wave of Collapsing Cities

The Shrinking Window of Opportunity

Two Questions for Don Quixote

1. General George, do you fight Global Warming, or prevent it?
2. How do you fight global warming?

World’s Top 33 Emitters of CO2

The top 20 emitters are responsible for about 80 percent of CO2 pollution. (Source: Wikipedia)

The Shrinking Window of Opportunity (Inset photo REUTERS/Jim Young). Image may be subject to copyright.

Related Links:

• Climate talks continue in Paris
• Bush urges halt of CO2 emission growth by 2025

• Pittsburgh, Los Angeles have worst U.S. air pollution

Freshening of deep Antarctic water could prove catasterophic

Scientists have detected changes in salinity of the antarctic water that could drmatically change the ocean currents and the world’s climate.

They found that salty, dense water that sinks near the edge of Antarctica to the bottom of the ocean about 5 km (3 miles) down is becoming fresher and more buoyant.

The Antarctic “bottom water” is responsible for the great ocean conveyor belt, a system of currents that move throughout the Southern, Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans distributing warm water around the globe.

The edge of the remaining part of an ice shelf in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica photo taken on March 4, 2008. REUTERS/Mariano Caravaca/Handout

“The main reason we’re paying attention to this is because it is one of the switches in the climate system and we need to know if we are about to flip that switch or not,” said Rintoul of Australia’s research arm the CSIRO.

“If that freshening trend continues for long enough, eventually the water near Antarctica would be too light, too buoyant to sink and that limb of the global-scale circulation would shut down,” he said earlier today.

the great ocean conveyor belt delivers warm water into the north Atlantic, making Europe warmer than it would otherwise be. The slowing down or stopping of these currents could result in catastrophic changes in the world’s climate.

“We don’t see any evidence yet that the amount of bottom water that’s sinking has declined. But by becoming fresher and less dense it’s moving in the direction of an ultimate shutdown.” Report

The Thermohaline Circulation (THC)

The thermohaline circulation (THC) is the global density-driven circulation of the oceans. Derivation is from thermo- for heat and -haline for salt, which together determine the density of sea water. Wind-driven surface currents (such as the , ) head polewards from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, cooling all the while and eventually sinking at high latitudes (forming North Atlantic Deep Water). This dense water then flows into the ocean basins. While the bulk of it upwells in the Southern Ocean, the oldest waters (with a transit time of around 1600 years) upwell in the North Pacific (Primeau, 2005). Extensive mixing therefore takes place between the ocean basins, reducing differences between them and making the Earth’s ocean a global system. On their journey, the water masses transport both energy (in the form of heat) and matter (solids, dissolved substances and gases) around the globe. As such, the state of the circulation has a large impact on the climate of the Earth.

The thermohaline circulation is sometimes called the ocean conveyor belt, the great ocean conveyer, the global conveyor belt, or, most commonly, the meridional overturning circulation (often abbreviated as MOC). (Source: wikipedia)

Vanishing Lakes

Source: Media Relations

Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of Washington (UW) have for the first time documented the sudden and complete drainage of a lake of meltwater from the top of the Greenland ice sheet to its base.

From those observations, scientists have uncovered a plumbing system for the ice sheet, where meltwater can penetrate thick, cold ice and accelerate some of the large-scale summer movements of the ice sheet.

According to research by glaciologists Sarah Das of WHOI and Ian Joughin of UW, the lubricating effect of the meltwater can accelerate ice flow 50- to 100 percent in some of the broad, slow-moving areas of the ice sheet.

“WHOI glaciologist Sarah Das stands in front of a block of ice that was raised up 6 meters by the sudden drainage of a meltwater lake in Greenland. (Photo by Ian Joughin, UW Polar Science Center)” Image may be copyrighted. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

“We found clear evidence that supraglacial lakes—the pools of meltwater that form on the surface in summer—can actually drive a crack through the ice sheet in a process called hydrofracture,” said Das, an assistant scientist in the WHOI Department of Geology and Geophysics. “If there is a crack or defect in the surface that is large enough, and a sufficient reservoir of water to keep that crack filled, it can create a conduit all the way down to the bed of the ice sheet.”

But the results from Das and Joughin also show that while surface melt plays a significant role in overall ice sheet dynamics, it has a more subdued influence on the fast-moving outlet glaciers (which discharge ice to the ocean) than has frequently been hypothesized. (To learn more about this result, read the corresponding news release from UW.)

The research by Das and Joughin was compiled into two complementary papers and published on April 17 in the online journal Science Express. The papers will be printed in Science magazine on May 9. Full press release Copyright ©2007 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, All Rights Reserved.

Project Vulcan

Vulcan’s list of top U.S. polluters by county (million tons of CO2 per year)

[Note; most of the data presented by Vulcan is about 6 years old.]

1. Harris, Houston, Texas, 18.625
2. Los Angeles, L.A., Ca., 18.595
3. Cook, Chicago, Ill., 13.209
4. Cuyahoga, Cleveland, Ohio, 11.144 [Hope T.S., the dishonest attorney, chokes!]
5. Wayne, Detroit, Mich. , 8.270
6. San Juan, Farmington, N.M., 8.245
7. Santa Clara, San Jose, Ca., 7.995
8. Jefferson, Birmingham, Ala., 7.951
9. Wilcox, Camden, Ala., 7.615
10. East Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, La., 7.322
11. Titus, Mt. Pleasant (!), Texas, 7.244
12. Carbon, Jim Thorpe, Pa., 6.534
13. Porter, Valparaiso, Ind., 6.331
14. Jefferson, Steubenville, Ohio, 6.278
15. Indiana, Indiana, Pa., 6.224
16. Middlesex, Boston metro area, Mass., 6.198
17. Bexar, San Antonio, Texas, 6.141
18. Hillsborough, Tampa, Fla., 6.037
19. Suffolk, New York metro area, N.Y., 6.030
20. Clark, Las Vegas, Nev., 5.955

CO2 maps zoom in on greenhouse gas sources

New analysis by Purdue researchers of greenhouse gases shows that the emissions are greater in the southeastern United States than was previously thought. In this image, the amount of red represents the increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from previous estimates, and the blue represents a reduction in atmospheric CO2. Purdue assistant professor Kevin Gurney says the difference appears greatest in winter months when there are more emissions and less vertical air movement. (Purdue University image/Kevin Gurney)

About Project Vulcan

The Vulcan Project is a NASA/DOE funded effort under the North American Carbon Program (NACP)to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at space and time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past. The purpose is to aid in quantification of the North American carbon budget, to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks, and to support the demands posed by the launch of the Orbital Carbon Observatory (OCO)scheduled for 2008/2009. The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO2 inventory has also made it a valuable tool for policymakers, demographers and social scientists.

Related Links:

• Pittsburgh, Los Angeles have worst U.S. air pollution

Country in Focus: Philippines

Philippines population climbs as food problems worsen

Philippines Facts

Population

• 93,411,554 (FEWW August 2008 est.)
  92,681,453 (CIA World Factbook July 2008 est.)

• The population grew at a rate of 2.34 percent annually between 1990 and 2000, and by than 2.04 percent since 2000.
• The population growth rate for 2008 could be as high 3.4% (see FEWW calculations)
• The population reached 88.57 million in August 2007 (census), up from 76.5 million in 2000.
• The average population growth rate in Asia is 1.1 percent (UNPF).

Politics and Religion and Politics

• Philippines is the biggest Catholic nation in Asia.
• In Manila, the capital, the conversion of agricultural land for property development has been halted to meet the food needs of the nation.
• The church forbids artificial birth control.
• President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in 2001 with the backing of the Church.

The Economy

• About 36 percent of the population are poor and the numbers of poor is growing faster than the population.
• Recent government data revealed that 28 million people subsisted on less than $1 per day in 2006 (up 16 percent from 2003). Report
• Estimated per capita GDP: $3,300 (Rank: 159th) 2007
• Unemployment rate for 2006: 7.9 percent
• Labor in agriculture: 36 percent (2003 estimate)

Population below poverty line

• 36% (2008 est.)
• Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  
  • lowest 10%: 2.4%
  • highest 10%: 31.2% (2006):

Armed soldiers deployed as security escorts during rice distribution, watch a large crowd of residents waiting to buy cheap priced government rice outside the National Food Authority warehouse in Manila on April 11, 2008. A senior UN official visiting Manila said April 11 that food riots from soaring food prices have hit 33 countries and warned that the Philippines, one of the world’s largest rice importers, could be next if the government mishandled the issue. Meanwhile the International Rice Research Institute warned that rice prices are likely to keep rising for some time as production fails to keep up with soaring demand.
4:25 a.m. ET, 4/11/08. Photo Credit: ROMEO GACAD / AFP/Getty Images – Image may be copyrighted. See FEWW Fair Use Notice. (Caption: MSNBC)

Geography

• Total area: 300,000 sq km
• Land: 298,170 sq km
• Water: 1,830 sq km

Land Use

• Arable land: 19%
• Permanent crops: 16.67%
• Other: 64.33% (2005)

Freshwater Withdrawal (Domestic, agricultural, industrial)

• Total: 28.52 cu km/yr (17%/9%/74%)
• Per capita: 343 cu m/yr (2000)

[Note: The Philippine archipelago is made up of 7,107 islands; favorably located in relation to many of Southeast Asia’s main water bodies: the South China Sea, Philippine Sea, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, and Luzon Strait]

Environmental issues

Uncontrolled deforestation especially in watershed areas; soil erosion; air and water pollution in major urban centers; coral reef degradation; increasing pollution of coastal mangrove swamps that are important fish breeding grounds. (Source: CIA- The World Factbook)

Comments by EU External Relations

The Philippines is ranked as a lower Middle Income Country, but is beset by extreme inequality of wealth distribution. While the Philippines is not a poor country, it is nevertheless a country with a lot of poor people: about [36] % of its total population, some [33] million people, live below the National Poverty Line. The country has not achieved sufficient economic progress over the past decades to substantially reduce poverty, due mainly to high population growth, lack of employment creation, rampant corruption, feudal politics and insurgencies, one communist-inspired, the other triggered by Islamic separatism. Combined with the lack of a national policy to slow its 2.3% annual population growth, its ability to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is seriously compromised. The Philippines lags economically behind the rest of the region and has recently been facing a severe fiscal crisis, with the highest deficit in the region of 5 % of GDP. At the same time it needs to service a national government debt of 78% of GDP The Philippines is witnessing an erosion of confidence in elected government and political institutions, coupled with a feeling of impotence to achieve substantial change towards a more equitable distribution of wealth. Although some measures to redress the fiscal balance have been taken, more economic reforms are necessary to sustain the momentum.

The main challenges for the Philippines are to:

• reduce poverty through stronger job creation and better access to services, especially social services, as well as to employment and income earning opportunities for the poor;
• achieve a more equitable distribution of wealth through economic, social and political and reforms.

Related Links:

• Emerging Food Crisis

• Philippines was one of the richest countries in the Asia until the 1960s

Lonar Crater

Lonar Crater, India

India’s Lonar Crater began causing confusion soon after it was identified in 1823 by a British officer named C.J.E. Alexander. Lonar Crater sits inside the Deccan Plateau—a massive plain of volcanic basalt rock leftover from eruptions some 65 million years ago. Its location in this basalt field suggested to some geologists that it was a volcanic crater. Today, however, Lonar Crater is understood to result from a meteorite impact that occurred between 35,000 and 50,000 years ago.

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) flying on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image of Lonar Crater on November 29, 2004. In this simulated-true-color image, pink-beige indicates bare ground, blue and off-white indicate human-made structures, dark blue indicates water, green indicates vegetation, and dull purple indicates fallow fields. A vegetation-lined lake fills the crater, one of the few natural features of this scene. Signs of human habitation surround the lake, especially the cluster of blue and off-white points to its immediate northeast. Outside of this settlement, the vicinity is a patchwork of agricultural fields.

Lonar Crater is approximately 150 meters (500 feet) deep, with an average diameter of almost 1,830 meters (6,000 feet). The crater rim rises roughly 20 meters (65 feet) above the surrounding land surface. Scientists established Lonar’s status as an impact crater based on several lines of evidence, perhaps the most compelling being the presence of maskelynite. Maskelynite is a kind of naturally occurring glass that is only formed by extremely high-velocity impacts. A Science article published in 1973 pointed out this material’s presence, and suggested that the crater’s situation in volcanic basalt made it a good analogue for impact craters on the surface of the Moon.

References

• Fredriksson, K., Dube, A., Milton, D.J., Balasundaram, M.D. (1973). Lonar Lake, India: An impact Crater in basalt. Science. 180, 862-864.
• Khagol Mandal. Lonar Meteoritic Crater. Accessed April 11, 2008.
• Wikipedia. Deccan Plateau. Accessed April 11, 2008.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Michon Scott.

Canceling Your Life Insurance Policy with Nature

WILD FACTS SERIES

Ice and Snow

Humans are in a great hurry to cancel their life insurance policy with nature, melting the snow and ice. As a result of climate change, mountain snow and glaciers are melting earlier, in the spring instead of summer, resulting in water scarcity during the hotter summer months when the precious water is most needed.

Perito Moreno Glacier, Patagonia, Argentina This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 (Image credit: Luca Galuzzi via wikimedia commons)

“This is just a time bomb,” said hydrologist Wouter Buytaert at a meeting of geoscientists in Vienna.

Areas most at risk from water shortages include the United States, South America, Australia, the Middle East, southern Africa, and the Mediterranean.

The most vulnerable places are earth’s sub-tropic zones, where 70 percent of the world’s population live. Report

The following information is mirrored from the USGS Webpage

Ice caps influence the weather

Just because water in an ice cap or glacier is not moving does not mean that it does not have a direct effect on other aspects of the water cycle and the weather. Ice is very white, and since white reflects sunlight (and thus, heat), large ice fields can determine weather patterns. Air temperatures can be higher a mile above ice caps than at the surface, and wind patterns, which affect weather systems, can be dramatic around ice-covered landscapes.

Some glacier and ice cap facts

• Glacial ice covers 10-11 percent of all land.
• According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), if all glaciers melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet (70 meters).
• During the last ice age (when glaciers covered more land area than today) the sea level was about 400 feet (122 meters) lower than it is today. At that time, glaciers covered almost one-third of the land.
• During the last warm spell, 125,000 years ago, the seas were about 18 feet (5.5 meters) higher than they are today. About three million years ago the seas could have been up to 165 feet (50.3 meters) higher.
• Largest surface area of any glacier in the contiguous United States: Emmons Glacier, Washington (4.3 square miles or 11 square kilometers)

ice caps and global water distribution

Even though the amount of water locked up in glaciers and ice caps is a small percentage of all water on (and in) the Earth, it represents a large percentage of the world’s total freshwater. As these charts and the data table show, the amount of water locked up in ice and snow is only about 1.7 percent of all water on Earth, but the majority of total freshwater on Earth, about 68.7 percent, is held in ice caps and glaciers.

One estimate of global water distribution

Water source	Water volume, in cubic miles	Water volume, in cubic kilometers	Percent of total water	Percent of total freshwater
Ice caps, Glaciers, & Permanent snow	5,773,000	24,064,000	1.7%	68.7%
Total global freshwater	8,404,000	35,030,000	2.5%	—
Total global water	332,500,000	1,386,000,000	—	—
Source: Gleick, P. H., 1996: Water resources. In Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather, ed. by S. H. Schneider, Oxford University Press, New York, vol. 2, pp.817-823.

Related Links:

• Drying Aquifers, Sinking Cities

Travel Warning

Muggings are on the rise. Avoid Traveling to New Zealand.

After the latest incident in which eight English and dutch tourists, including two women, were attacked by a large gang of knife-wielding Caucasian New Zealanders, and other incidents of robbery targeting foreign visitors (see references below), a trend seems to be emerging.

The attackers, 6 men in their late 20s or early 30s, shouted, “they have the wrong accent!” as they proceeded to stab six of the tourists, in what seems to be a mugging incident.

If you are traveling to New Zealand

• Don’t drive on the deadly roads.

• Don’t walk alone. Make sure you visit places in groups of 20 to 30 people.

• When attacked by muggers, hand over your money without any resistance, or you could get stabbed.

Related Links:

• Six English and Dutch Tourists Injured in Knife Attack

• Another Tourist Raped in New Zealand

• Honeymooning Dutch couple were attacked, raped, and forced to pay rapists

• Moviegoers fall victim to young thieves

• Increase in violent crime

• Driver takes off with Danish backpackers’ luggage

• .NZ Tourism Claims More Victims

.

Another Racist Murder?

Why do foreigners have the annoying habit of getting themselves killed in New Zealand?

The man whose body was found in the Waikato River is identified by New Zealand police.

He was 17-year-old Tianye LU, a Chinese national.

As expected, New Zealand police said, “there were no suspicious circumstances linked to Mr Lu’s death.” Report

Does it matter to the Chinese Government that its citizens are being killed [‘found dead’] in new Zealand rivers and on NZ roads, or do they have more important business to take care of?

Related Links:

• About New Zealand

• Racist killings in New Zealand

• NZ Tourism Claims More Victims