Humans Plague Earth, Declare War on Plastics

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FIRE-EARTH Presentation: Humans Must Be Stopped From Killing Life On Earth

Prepared and presented by FIRE-EARTH Science and affiliated scientists.

• Details are available via FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.

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Vietnam Reports Mass Fish Deaths

Millions of dead fish litter miles of Vietnam’s coasts

Massive numbers of dead fish including rare species that live in the deep and other marine species have been founds on beaches of Vietnam’s central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Quang Binh and Hue, said reports.

State news outlet Thanh Nien quoted worried locals saying they dared not eat any of the washed up fish, adding in their report that “all signs (are) pointing to an environmental disaster.”

Central Ha Tinh province is home to a sprawling economic zone which houses numerous industrial plants, including a multi-billion dollar steel plant run by Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa.

In 2015, Vietnam earned USD6.6 billion from seafood exports, said the report.

Read more…

Chinese Cities Unfit for Living

ENVIRONMENTAL HOLOCAUST
TOXIC AIR POLLUTION
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Nearly all Chinese cities monitored for pollution in 2013 failed to meet environmental standards: Senior official

About 96 Chinese cities monitored for pollution in 2013 failed to meet environmental standards, said Wu Xiaoqing, China’s vice-minister of environmental protection.

Of the 74 cities monitored by Beijing, 71 had various degrees of problems, said Wu at a news conference on Saturday, Reuters reported.

The only three cities that met the standard were the flood-prone city of Haikou in the island province of Hainan, Llasa, the capital of quake-prone Tibet, and the coastal resort city of Zhoushan.

China’s pollution problems can only be solved through fundamental changes to the way the country develops its economy, said Wu.

“When we were chasing GDP growth, we were also paying the price of pollution, and this price is heavy, is massive.”

“China will cut outdated steel production capacity by a total of 27 million tonnes this year, slash cement production by 42 million tonnes and also shut down 50,000 small coal-fired furnaces across the country, according to the government work report delivered by Premier Li on Wednesday,” said Xinhua.

Beijing AQI

Meanwhile, the Beijing AQI for PM2.5 hit 255 (Very Unhealthy) on Saturday, before falling slightly to 249, as of posting. [Temp: 4°C; range  -3°C to 12°C]

Related Links

• Apocalyptic Smog Covers 10 Percent of China February 25, 2014
• Hazardous Smog Continues Choking N China February 24, 2014
• Beijing 398  February 23, 2014
• Derisory “Yellow Alert” as Brown Smog Bears on Beijing  February 21, 2014
• Smog and Mirrors in Beijing February 16, 2014
• “Breathtaken” Beijing Brown January 16, 2014
• “Apocalyptic” Smog Smothers China January 14, 2014
• “Apocalyptic” Smog Paralyzes Much of China December 6, 2013
• “Apocalyptic” Smog Turns Skies Yellow in North, East China December 5, 2013
• Shanghai Air Pollution Shoots Off the Chart Posted on December 2, 2013
• China’s Air Quality Chart Goes Apesh*t Again  October 28, 2013
• Air Pollution Levels Climb in China, India  October 27, 2013
• It won’t get any better, before it gets a lot worse! October 22, 2013
• Major City Shuts Down in China Smog Emergency October 21, 2013
• Smog Forces China’s Expressways Closures October 6, 2013
• Breathtaking Beijing in ‘Maroon Alert’  October 4, 2013
• Air Pollution: Visibility Down to 10 Meters in E China September 30, 2013

For earlier posts on Beijing AQI, search blog content.

Air Pollution Causes 200,000 Early US Deaths: Study

Victims of air pollution typically die about a decade prematurely

Air pollution causes 200,000 early deaths in the U.S., according to a new MIT study, which also finds vehicle emissions as the biggest contributor to these premature deaths.

Researchers from MIT’s Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment have tracked ground-level emissions from multiple sources including vehicle tailpipes, industrial smokestacks, marine and rail operations, and commercial and residential heating throughout the United States, and found that the pollution causes about 200,000 early deaths each year.

Highlights from the report

• Road transportation are the most significant contributor to air pollution, causing 53,000 premature deaths.

• Power generation follows closely with 52,000 deaths

• California air pollution commits about 21,000 people to early deaths annually,

• The highest emissions-related mortality rate among 5,695 U.S. cities mapped was in Baltimore, where 130 out of every 100,000 residents likely die each year due to long-term exposure to air pollution.

This graphic shows the annual average concentrations of fine particulates from U.S. sources of combustion emissions from (a) electric power generation; (b) industry; (c) commercial and residential sources; (d) road transportation; (e) marine transportation; (f) rail transportation; (g) sum of all combustion sources; (h) all sources. Graphic: Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment/MIT

“In the past five to 10 years, the evidence linking air-pollution exposure to risk of early death has really solidified and gained scientific and political traction,” says Steven Barrett, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “There’s a realization that air pollution is a major problem in any city, and there’s a desire to do something about it.”

The researchers have published their results in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

What’s Happening in Cyprus?

In 2008, CASF Team analyzed  the impact of “extreme environmental stress” in Cyprus and forecast the island’s early collapse triggered by the ecological time bomb.

The post is reproduced below with the permission of our CASF and EDRO:

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Cyprus Collapse May Be Imminent!

Posted by edro on July 19, 2008 – Submitted by a CASF Member

Cyprus’s extreme environmental stress may lead to early collapse!

Ex-govt official: “We are going through a visual process of desertification.”

Main Causes of Collapse

Climate Change
– Persistent Droughts
– Disruption in climatic patterns
– Low Precipitation
– Higher than normal temperatures
– Heatwaves
– Wildfires and other natural phenomena [disasters] exacerbated by warming

Land
– Urbanization
– Land use and land cover change
– Loss of topsoil
– Soil degradation, especially salination
– Soil erosion caused by high temperatures, low precipitation and hot dry winds

Water
– Extreme water shortages throughout the island worsened by additional [including unforeseen] factors

Tourism
– Causing additional environmental stress
– Creating excessive waste and pollution
– Weakening the Island’s natural defense mechanisms

Main Effects

– Reduced ability to produce food
– Crop failure
– Continued water scarcity (compounded by economic/monetary issues)
– Breakdown of sewage, water and sanitation systems
– Spread of disease pandemics
– Overshoot of Carrying Capacity: The Island may have already passed the tipping point
– Resumption of the Cypriot civil war between the north and south enclaves reignited by the specter of ecological collapse
– Collapse of local ecosystems
– Desertification
– Land abandonment
– Population displacement/climate refugees

Possible Timeline

2011- 2013

Country Data

Estimated Population: 793,000 (July 2008 Estimate)
Area:
Total: 9,250 sq km (of which 3,355 sq km are in north Cyprus)
Land: 9,240 sq km
Water: 10 sq km

No. of Tourists: About 3,000,000

Land use:
Arable land: 10.81%
Permanent crops: 4.32%
Other: 84.87% (2005)

Irrigated land: 400 sq km (2003)

Total renewable water resources: 0.4 cu km (2005)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):
Total: 0.21 cu km/yr (27%/1%/71%)
Per capita: 250 cu m/yr (2000)

Primary Energy Consumption year 2007: 0.13 Quad BTU [CASF estimate based on EIA data]
Percentage rise compared to year 2000: 20.8 percent

Fossil Fuel consumption (excluding aviation fuel) year 2007: 2,431,399 tonnes of oil [source]
Percentage rise compared to year 2000: 18.4 percent

CO2 Emissions From Consumption of Fossil Fuels year 2007 : 9.65 MMT [CASF estimate for 2007]
Percentage rise compared to year 2000: 22.5 percent

Natural hazards: moderate earthquake activity; droughts

Environment – current issues:
water resource problems (no natural reservoir catchments, seasonal disparity in rainfall, sea water intrusion to island’s largest aquifer, increased salination in the north); water pollution from sewage and industrial wastes; coastal degradation; loss of wildlife habitats from urbanization.

Human Rights Issues
Cyprus [like New Zealand] is primarily a destination country for a large number of women trafficked from Eastern and Central Europe, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic for the purpose of sexual exploitation; traffickers continued to fraudulently recruit victims for work as dancers in cabarets and nightclubs on short-term “artiste” visas, for work in pubs and bars on employment visas, or for illegal work on tourist or student visas. (Source CIA Factbook, Wikipedia, others)

Population density: It is estimated that at peak tourist season, the effective population density of [Southern] Cyprus exceeds that of the Netherlands (ranked world’s 25th most densely populated).

Location map: Cyprus (dark green) / European Union (light green) / Europe (dark grey). Credit: User 3meandEr, via Wikimedia Commons

Water Facts

• After little winter rainfall, the drought in Cyprus is now in its fifth year.

• Cypriot water reserves are at their lowest for 100 years; however, the effective population of Cyprus (citizens and tourists) have multiplied by about 150 folds.

• “As long as the population remained [as] low [as] in the pre-industrial period, the water was sufficient for supplying cities which received water either from the mountains through the aqueducts or through the groundwater supply.” Said Chris Schabel, medieval historian at the University of Cyprus.

• The entire island including both the Turkish Cypriot north and the Greek Cypriot south divisions are drought stricken.

• The Island has an annual requirement of about 210 million cubic meters of water.

• As of July 16, 2008 the water reservoirs were only about 6.5 percent full. Down one percent in the last three weeks (33 percent of the level 12 months ago).
• Southern Cyprus’ 17 main reservoirs currently contain a paltry 17,733 cubic meters of water, some of which may be unsuitable for drinking.

• Emergency measures have limited the supply of running water to homes to only twice weekly.

• Most of the municipal wells have been shut down to avoid the risk of seawater contamination.

• “The British policy of drilling boreholes throughout the island resulted in a serious depletion, due to excessive pumping of the groundwater reserves, in the main water bearing areas of Famagusta, Morphou and Akrotiri. It was calculated a few years ago that groundwater resources of Cyprus are over-pumped every year by 40 per cent over the allowable safe yield.” (Source)

• Cyprus is buying from Greece 8 million cubic meters (2.1 billion gallons) of water to be delivered by November 2008 at a cost of €40 million (US$64 million). The water will only be distributed in the Greek Cypriot south.

• The first ship carrying water from Greece arrived June 30 at Limassol (Cyprus’ main port). The officials then realized they could not pump the water from tanker because their makeshift pipeline was 10 feet short. Because of the delay, the water turned “odorous” and was deemed unsafe for drinking. The entire tanker load of 40,000 cubic meters was subsequently pumped into the ground, instead of the city’s water network due to contamination fears!

• Under the initial agreement, two water-laden tankers were scheduled to leave Elefsina near Athens bound for Cyprus every day for six months (6 tankers delivering 200 shipments) between June and November 2008.

• The Turkish Cypriot north is negotiating a separate arrangement with Turkey for their water needs.

• The Greek Cypriot south plans to build a third desalination plant.

Agriculture, Wildfires, Desertification

“Extremely hot and dry weather conditions in Cyprus, combined with strong winds led to a disastrous upsurge of forest fires and wildfires in the Troodos Montain area on 29 June 2007. … Small villages had to be evacuated. Some houses were destroyed. Cyprus reported severe material damages in the area. Moreover, two forest fires hit Cyprus on 16 July 2007 in touristic areas of the Island. The first hit the vicinity of the Kalavasos village area … The other was close to Kornos village, which is located 20 km south of Nicosia [capital city]. The total burnt area … in Cyprus measured from satellite imagery on 31 July 2007 was 12 286 hectares.” European Civil Protection.

Climate change is pointing at us “like a loaded gun,” warned the EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel at a conference on water policy last week.

“Global warming is happening,” she said. “It’s taken thousands of years for global temperatures to rise by just one degree. In this century we expect to see an increase in global temperatures of between two and six degrees Celsius.”

“Climate change has arrived. Drought has arrived. We need to take out insurance now. Good business sense demands better use of water. For those farmers caught unprepared, climate change could be a sledge hammer,” said Boel. “Maybe there are areas that will benefit from this, like in the north, but we expect climate change to leave a wave of destruction. We expect more heat waves, drought, floods and crop failures.”

“We are going through a visual process of desertification. Krasochorio near Limassol, has lost its environment [Ecosystems have collapsed]. Around 85 per cent of the population has left. In Lania, 30 villas are surrounded by burnt land after the fires. What can the villagers do with them now?” Said the former Cypriot Agriculture Ministry official, Antonis Constantinou.

“What Cyprus is not good at is holding water, avoiding erosion, adapting to water shortage, and not giving incentives which can’t guarantee a better future for the island. We are also not so good at keeping greenery, avoiding fires, fighting fires, giving incentives to people to manage land, even non-agricultural land owners,” he added. (Source)

Recent History

Cyprus is situated in the eastern Mediterranean south of Turkey, north of Egypt, and east-southeast of Greece, It is the third-largest Mediterranean island and a busy tourist destination, attracting about 3 million tourists each year.

A former British colony, it gained independence from the UK in 1960 claiming sovereignty over 97% of the island and surrounding waters, with the United Kingdom controlling the remaining three percent. It became a member of the European Union May 1, 2004.

In 1974, following a period of violence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and an attempted Greek Cypriot coup d’état aimed at annexing the island to Greece and sponsored by the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, Turkey invaded and occupied one-third of the island. This led to the displacement of thousands of Cypriots and the establishment of a separate Turkish Cypriot political entity in the north. Cyprus is thus divided to:

• The area under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus in the south of the island
• The Turkish-occupied area in the north, calling itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognized only by Turkey)
• The United Nations-controlled Green Line, separating the two
• Two “Sovereign Base Areas” or military bases Akrotiri and Dhekelia, where United Kingdom is the sovereign despite Cypriot independence. (Source: Wikimedia)

Map of Cyprus: WSBA and ESBA (British military bases at Akrotiri and Dhekelia) are in pink, UN buffer zone dividing the northern (Turkish) and southern (Greek) administrations is shown in gray. The map is adapted from the CIA World Factbook map. (Source).

Related Links:

• Drought
• Worsening Signs of Planetary Stress
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

edro

Meanwhile, the 1,372nd Tourist Is Killed in New Zealand!

“Sarah Katie Bond, 24, the ill-advised UK tourist who will leave New Zealand in a body bag, was the 1,372nd visitor killed in this country since Jan 1, 2000.”

Original Entry:

The 1,372nd Tourist Was Killed in New Zealand!

Are You Allowed to Live Free of Toxic Pollution?

The Right to Live Free of Toxic Pollution Must Be Made A Fundamental Human Right!

Of nearly 90,000 chemical compounds in use, the majority of which have never been tested for health effects, only a fraction are registered and of those only a handful have been banned by EPA in the last thirty years. Meanwhile, about 2,000 new chemicals are introduced each year.

See Main Entry: The Right to Live Free of Toxic Pollution

Related Links:

• Top EU court backs citizen rights in air pollution
• Initial Condition No. 6. Understand your human rights!

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The Big Island

The Island of Hawaiʻi (the Big Island or Hawaiʻi Island) is a volcanic island With an area of 4,028 square miles (10,432 km²), it is the largest island in the United States and larger than all of the other Hawaiian Islands combined.

The Island of Hawaiʻi is built from five separate shield volcanoes that erupted somewhat sequentially, one overlapping the other. These are (from oldest to youngest):

• Kohala (dormant),
• Mauna Kea (dormant),
• Hualālai (dormant),
• Mauna Loa (active, partly within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park), and
• Kīlauea (very active; part of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park).

This simulated true-color image of the island of Hawai’i was derived from data gathered by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) on the Landsat 7 satellite between 1999 and 2001. Image: NASA/NOAA

The Island of Hawaiʻi is administered under the County of Hawaiʻi. The county seat is Hilo. It is estimated that as of the year 2003, the island had a resident population of 158,400.

MAP of Principal Islands of Hawaii

Source: [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection]

In greatest dimension, the island is 93 miles (150 km) across and has a land area of 4,028.0 square miles (10,432.5 km²),representing 62% of the total land area of the Hawaiian Islands. Measured from its base at the sea floor, to its highest peak, Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world, even taller than Mount Everest, according to the Guinness Book of Records. Traditionally, Hawaiʻi is known as the Big Island because it is the largest of the Hawaiian Islands and some confusion between Hawaiʻi Island and Hawaiʻi State can be avoided.

Mauna Kea with its seasonal snowcap, viewed from Kohala Mountain . Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, one of five volcanoes which together form the island of Hawaii. Pu’u Wekiu, one of numerous cinder cones on the summit plateau, is the highest point in the state of Hawaii at 13,796 feet (4,205 m). Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world when measured from base to summit, since its base is located on the seafloor about 19,000 feet (5,800 m) beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean, bringing its total height to about 33,000 ft (10,000 m). In the Hawaiian language, mauna kea means “white mountain”, a reference to its summit being regularly snow-capped during the Northern Hemisphere winter. [Caption from Wikipedia]
Licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. Credit: Eric Guinther; via Wikimedia Commons

Because Mauna Loa and Kīlauea are active volcanoes, the island of Hawaiʻi is still growing. Between January 1983 and September 2002, 543 acres (220 ha) of land were added to the island by lava flows from Kīlauea volcano extending the coastline seaward. Several towns have been destroyed by Kīlauea lava flows in modern times: Kapoho (1960), Kalapana (1990), and Kaimū (1990). (Source: Wikipedia)

Volcanoes of Hawaii (Big Island)

About 8 million tourists visit the Hawaiian Islands each year, leaving behind a legacy of air, land and sea pollution.

Related Links:

• Kilauea Volcano Continues to Discharge Lava

• Stop the Rape of Kauai (Video)

UPDATE #2 – California Fires

California Inferno Rages On

Wildfires are an indispensable tool in Nature’s cycle-of-life toolbox. But … the fires must not be allowed to burn naturally!! Click Here!

What People Said:

• California is reaching a “tipping point.” We need federal help, including military resources, said the mighty Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declared a state-wide drought in June amid two years of low rainfall.

• Humanoids’ ignorance of Nature’s defense mechanisms hasn’t improved in 12,000 years! Take the California’s wildfires, for example. Tackling the wildfires has become strictly a Freudian affair. ~ A Member of Creating A Sustainable Future (CASF).

A firefighter with the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District talks on his radio as a spot fire burns through trees and brush July 10, 2008 in Concow, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

• About 1,300 square miles (3,366 square kilometers), or 0.8 percent of the entire state, an area larger than Rhode Island, has been consumed in California since June 21, said Cal Fire. [The scorched land area is the largest in size in California’s wildfire history.]

• For first time in 30 years, California National Guard lends hand against wildfires, said abc News.

• “I am ordering 2,000 additional California National Guard personnel to boost our firefighting forces,” said Schwarzenegger.

• Burning embers – pinecones and bark chunks as big as baseballs – were thrown a quarter of a mile ahead of the primary wall of flames, creating spot fires. “You can’t see out a quarter mile,” Brown said. “When you find the new fire, it’s already a big fire.” Said SFGate

• “In my district, about 40 more homes were confirmed destroyed and there has been at least one death where a person refused to evacuate,” said Butte County Supervisor Bill Connelly.

• “[The California’s fires] are unprecedented in size and number … [State authorities] have essentially exhausted all of their internal resources; eighty percent of all the federal resources are committed to California right now.” Said Glenn Cannon, assistant administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

A mountain bike is one of the few items recognizable at a home in the Camelot subdivision in Concow, Calif. Chronicle photo by Paul Chinn. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

• The fires have killed two firefighters, injured 262, consumed 752,944 acres and have costs $325.7 million to fight. The fires threaten about 15,500 homes and structures across California, according to the state and federal fire reports.

• Some 19,704 firefighters and support personnel from 41 states are quenching 322 fires across California, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Cal Fire.

• Mexican and Canadian crews are also helping the US firefighters, said Mark Rey, undersecretary of natural resources and the environment for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

• The Butte blaze threatens 3,800 homes and structures, said Justin Scribner, a spokesman for Cal Fire. “We were trying to conduct a planned burning operation, with crews in place to hold the lines, but the winds picked up, and we weren’t able to stop it.”

• The Butte fire has scorched about 49,000 acres (19,600 hectares), 60 structures, and caused $40.5 million in damages, according to Cal Fire and the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

This image of the combined fires was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on July 10, 2008.

Carbon Dioxide Is a Fire Retardant (!)

• Homeland Security (!) Sec. Michael Chertoff held a conference call with Gov. Schwarzenegger, Sen. Feinstein, a staffer for Sen. Boxer, Interior Sec. Kempthorne and Agriculture Sec. Schafer to discuss California’s needs, said DHS spokeswoman. [She did not specify whether the conference was held in French or in English!]

• It has been decided that to create more CO2, which might help put out the fires, firefighters from Australia, Greece and New Zealand should come to the U.S. </dark humor>

• State officials are trying to get all the fires declared as major disasters, to enable increased access to federal funds, said California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi.

• Forest fires have broken out in nine states, including two in Washington yesterday, which destroyed [thirteen] homes [some were multimillion-dollar homes] in the Spokane Valley [Friday], said Don Smurthwaite, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Numerous major wildfires continued burning Friday in Eastern Washington, prompting Gov. Chris Gregoire to declare a state of emergency for the entire state. That freed equipment, firefighters and funding for efforts to quench the flames.

Fire crews from across Washington were battling blazes in Chelan, Douglas, Stevens, Adams, Ferry, and Spokane counties. With hot and dry conditions statewide, Gregoire said the proclamation ensured any affected area would have sufficient firefighting resources. (Source)

• “It would do us no good to send everything to California and then see fires ignite in three or four other states,” Smurthwaite said.

• So far, about 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares), [an area roughly the size of Connecticut,] have burned in the U.S. this year, exceeding the 10-year average of 2.5 million [by 20 percent,] Smurthwaite said.

• “Hand crews and bulldozers were (in Concow) all night, posted at individual homes” trying to retard the flames, said Joshpae White, an engineer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

• High temperatures and low humidity have hampered efforts by crews trying to contain another fire advance near Carmel Valley, north of Big Sur. said Susan Zornek, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman on loan from Missouri.

• Because this fire season started so early, the firefighting conditions have been among the worst in memory, even among longtime crews, said Terence McHale, policy director for CDF Firefighters of Cal Fire, the union representing the firefighters.

• “We have firefighters who’ve been working nonstop since mid-May, who haven’t seen their families or homes, who are working 24-hour shifts, 21 days on, sometimes putting in 36 hours in the initial attack of a fire,” said McHale said. “It’s an incredible challenge.”

• “You almost feel like somebody is out to get you,” said Nancy Henphill, 61, a Concow resident.

California Must Decide: Life or “Lifestyle?”

Related News Links:

• Calif. National Guard Joins Firefighting Effort
• California Wildfires Force 10,000 to Evacuate Homes
• Calif. Wildfire Forces More Evacuations

Related Links:

• UPDATE #1: California Fires
• Early Halloween

• Images of the Day: California Fires
• Lightning Safety Awareness Week: June 22-28

• A Few Extreme Events Away

• 2008: Year of the Fire
• Raging Wildfires: Mother Nature ensuring the cycle of life?

• Our Forecast for 2009 California Fires [Aug 14, 2008]

UPDATE: California Fires

submitted by a member

15,000 residents of Paradise, California, ordered to leave their homes!

The problem is they don’t understand the fires in California!

Californians Lack a ‘Life Policy’ and Will Pay Dearly!

A firefighter watches over a backfire set in a redwood forest along Pacific Coast Highway 1 during a massive wildfire in Big Sur, California July 6, 2008. REUTERS/ Robert Galbraith. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Up to 15,000 residents of Paradise, California, were ordered to leave their homes on Wednesday as fire threatened to spread into town where it consumed nearly 80 homes in June.

The ‘Butte Lightning Complex’ fire near Paradise, about 140 km north of Sacramento, is one of nearly 350 lightening-started wildfires still burning across California. The Butte fire has consumed about 20,000 hectares since June, destroying as many as 60 structures including 45 residences and now threatens up to 4,000 residences.

In the Big Sur area 2,300 firefighters and volunteers have contained about a quarter of the Basin Complex fire, which has burned up to 40,000 hectares of land along California’s pacific coast. Further south, about a half of the Gap Fire in Goleta, near Santa Barbara, which has consumed about 4,000 hectares, has been contained.

About a quarter of a million hectares of scenic land have been scorched in California in the past two weeks. Meanwhile California temperatures rise in what is considered to be “the first significant heat wave of the summer,” according to the California Independent System Operator.

In October 2007, California Wildfires left eight people dead, burned about 200,000 hectares and consumed 2,000 homes displacing about 700,000 people.

The National Weather Service has issued the following alerts throughout California:

1. Red Flag Warning
2. Excessive heat warning
3. Air Quality Alert
4. Hazardous Weather Outlook

See Also:

• UPDATE #2 – California Fires [July 12, 2008] AND
• Our Forecast for 2009 California Fires [Aug 14, 2008]

• Gov. Schwarzenegger signs 10 wildfire-related bills, 104 others (September 26, 2008)
  

For more information go to: National Weather Service link

This Is NO Way to Deal With California Fires!

Elevated Risk of Leptospirosis Infection

Before you opt for a kidney transplant, please ensure the kidney is obtained ethically!

See Original Entry:

Visitor Health Warning: Elevated Risk of Leptospirosis Infection in New Zealand

 

Outbreak of Dangerous Group A Streptococcus Bacterium in NZ

[New Zealand Death Syndrome (NZDS), Health Bulletin # 12. Outbreak of Dangerous Group A Streptococcus Bacterium, June 17, 2008]

Urgent Visitor Health Warning: Keep Your Kids OUT of New Zealand!

Health workers revealed an outbreak of group A streptococcus bacterium, which causes rheumatic fever and can lead arthritis and heart damage, had infected at least 32 children in Kaikohe, New Zealand.

Original Entry Blocked by Google:

Urgent Health Warning: Outbreak of Dangerous Group A Streptococcus Bacterium

Photomicrograph of Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria, 675x Mag. A pus specimen, viewed using Pappenheim’s stain. Last century, infections by S. pyogenes claimed many lives especially since the organism was the most important cause of puerperal fever and scarlet fever. This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #2110.

News Links:

• High levels of dangerous bacterium in Kaikohe
• Baby died after infection breakout
• Stuff New Zealand

Previous Visitor Health Warnings for New Zealand:

• Health Bulletin # 11. Outbreak of Staphylococcus Aureus, June 12, 2008

• Health Bulletin # 10. Outbreak of mystery bacterium, June 4, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 9. Outbreak of Viral Gastroenteritis, May 30, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 8. Outbreak of Salmonella Mbandaka, April 4, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 7. Don’t Take Your Children To New Zealand, March 27, 2008
  
• Health Bulletin # 6. New Zealand Emergency Health Warnings: Toxic Honey Poisoning March 22, 2008
  
• Health Bulletin # 5. Food infected with Listeria, March 8, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 4. Sewage contaminated beaches, Feb. 16, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 3. Toxic blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), Feb. 13, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 2. Exposure to Compound 1080 Feb. 10, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 1. Exposure to Bromoethane Feb. 6, 2008

Related Links:

• Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’
• The Poisoning of New Zealand
• Hermaphrodite Lamb Born With Seven Legs
• Toxic Sludge
• Toxic Country – Diseased Food
• 1080
• NZ indiscriminate aerial applications of the potent poison 1080

Google Censorship Violates the US Constitution and International Law

The Human Rights of an Octogenarian Chinese Woman

Google has effectively blocked the following posts from its search engines:

Brave New Zealanders Bash Octogenarian Chinese Woman to Death and

New Zealand Racist Storm Worse Than China Quake at

New Zealand: Plumbing the Depth of Depravity

Google Censorship is a Flagrant Violation of Our Freedom of Speech!

Freedom of speech is being able to speak freely without censorship. The United States Constitution protects opinions under inalienable 1st Amendment free speech rights.

The right to freedom of speech is also guaranteed under international law through numerous human-rights instruments, notably under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

How much longer is Google allowed to continue its censorship in violation of the United States Constitution and the international law?

Environmental Disasters: Too Close for Comfort?

submitted by a reader

“You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Beginning to feel that the environmental disasters are getting up close and personal?

One minute you are in your comfortable home near Paradise, north of Sacramento, the next minute you are being consoled by the firefighters as you stand in the front garden watching your home turn into blackened cinder. They apologize for failing to help you, but it wasn’t their fault. They ran out of water!

Wondering why?

Butte Valley fire, Humboldt, Thursday night. Image: Jason Halley / Chico Enterprise-Record. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Into the SUV with what little you could snatch away from the mouth of the fire heading east to Iowa to stay with Aunt Molly. On interstate 29 a twister is about to touch down. Whoosh! You swerve out of the way just in time.

Parkersburg Tornado. Photo AP. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Aunt Molly’s house in Cedar Rapids wasn’t so lucky. It didn’t have wheels to drive away and avoid the floodwater; it is completely deluged.

An aerial photo shows a flooded area of downtown looking North over Cedar Rapids, Iowa June 13, 2008. Interstate I-380 can be seen at top while Mays Island, with Cedar Rapids City Hall, is seen on the left with its bridges under water. Floodwaters have inundated about 100 city blocks of Cedar Rapids, Iowa’s second-largest city with 200,000 residents. REUTERS/Ron Mayland. Photo AP. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Five hours and a dozen phonecalls later, you are finally heading to the calm of Wisconsin to stay with Cousin Thelma and her family. Turn the radio on. Homes on Lake Delton in central Wisconsin have been ripped apart by deadly storm and washed away by floodwaters. Chilly gooseflesh grow on your forearms. Something tingles deep inside your gut, that uncomfortable feeling something is wrong. And you are right! Well, It’s Friday the 13th, you hear yourself murmuring.

Lake Delton is a popular tourist spot south of the Wisconsin Dells. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Distant Cousin Joe and his family are in deep mourning in Loveland. Two of their kids with four of their classmates and a teacher didn’t make it back from a fishing trip. And his 5,000 acre cornfield is submerged in floodwater …

Corn crop submerged in floodwaters near Loveland, Iowa, June 12, 2008. REUTERS/Dave Kaup. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Back to Iowa to stay with an old classmate who lives in Marshal Town, Iowa, and who invited you to visit her last summer. A rain check is as good as … a rain check! Finally you arrive in Marshal Town. But the whole town has been evacuated and the power plants have been shut down!

Well, at least you have the good old, reliable SUV, and it’s not as if the world is running out of corn to make ethanol for you!

Related Links:

• Failing Ecosystems
• The Root Cause Matrix
• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

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China’s Coastal Waters Are Terminally Polluted

China would be lucky to find a single healthy fish swimming in its coastal waters by 2011.

A Shrinking World Series

China’s wetlands, coral reefs and mangroves are rapidly disappearing: expert

According to a Chinese specialist, Luan Weixin, a professor at the Economics and Management College at Dalian Maritime University:

• About 50 percent of inland coastal wetlands in china have disapperaed because of excessive reclamation.

• Some 80 percent of coral reefs and mangrove forests had been destroyed over the past 50 years.

• Worst affected areas include estuaries of the Yangtze, Yellow and Zhujiang rivers, and water bodies near East Liaoning, Bohai and Hangzhou bays.

• A total of 145,000 square kilometers of shallow waters along China’s coast are substandard.

• Some 29,000 square kilometers of seawater is heavily contaminated by chemicals including fertilizers, which contain nitrogen and phosphate.

A child clears water from his boat in the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, in east China’s Anhui province October 14, 2007. Blue-green algae has caused water pollution in Chaohu Lake, China’s fifth largest fresh water lake, where the rare whitebait production is on the decline, Xinhua News Agency reported. REUTERS/Jianan Yu (CHINA). Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

“Over the past 20 years or so, China’s marine economy has been developing at a staggeringly rapid pace and marine resources are being widely tapped. As a result, the condition of China’s inshore environment is deteriorating and the ocean ecology has been seriously damaged,” he said. (Source)

A man carrying lotus roots walk through an algae-filled pond in Yingtan, east China’s Jiangxi province, October 12, 2007. China’s pollution woes will form the smoggy backdrop to a key Communist Party gathering in October as leaders, who long treated nature as a foe to conquer, now fear that dirty air and water threaten stability and growth. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA) CHINA OUT. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Related Links:

• FACTBOX-Cross-border pollution strains ties in Asia
• China using up natural resources fast: report

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A Biochemical Weapons Testing Ground?

Main Entry:
New Zealand Violence Related to Biochemical Weapons?

Urgent Health Warning

[Food Imports from New Zealand – Health Bulletin # 10. Outbreak of mystery bacterium, June 4, 2008]

Do NOT consume capsicum and tomato imports from New Zealand!

A new disease affecting tomatoes and capsicum have been discovered at three of New Zealand’s North Island hothouses. A new bacterium has been discovered, which is causing severe problems, including leaf curling and yellowing; however, little is known about its origin or potential dangers. (Source)

Previous Health Warnings Concerning New Zealand Food Imports:

• Health Bulletin # 9. Outbreak of Viral Gastroenteritis, May 30, 2008

• Health Bulletin # 8. Outbreak of Salmonella Mbandaka, April 4, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 7. Don’t Take Your Children To New Zealand, March 27, 2008
  
• Health Bulletin # 6. New Zealand Emergency Health Warnings: Toxic Honey Poisoning March 22, 2008
  
• Health Bulletin # 5. Food infected with Listeria, March 8, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 4. Sewage contaminated beaches, Feb. 16, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 3. Toxic blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), Feb. 13, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 2. Exposure to Compound 1080 Feb. 10, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 1. Exposure to Bromoethane Feb. 6, 2008

Related Links:

• Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’
• The Poisoning of New Zealand
• Hermaphrodite Lamb Born With Seven Legs
• Toxic Sludge
• Toxic Country – Diseased Food
• 1080
• NZ indiscriminate aerial applications of the potent poison 1080

Penguins DDT Contamination Levels Still High

Just when you thought penguins fared better than polar bears!

Just when you thought the Antarctic marine life had only a few minor problems like the climate change and ozone hole to worry about, but were otherwise safe from other harms like ingesting plastic trash, or growing a “skin” rash from pesticide contamination, it has been revealed that the deadly pesticide DDT, banned in most countries more than 35 years ago, stills show up in penguins in Antarctica.

A researcher has blamed the DDT contamination on the chemical’s accumulation of the poison in melting glaciers.

“DDT, along with a lot of other of these organic contaminants, actually travel through the atmosphere … toward the polar regions by a process of evaporation and then condensation in cooler climates,” according to Heidi Geisz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

The DDT contamination in the Adelie penguins was first discovered in 1964. The contamination level rose in the 1970s and has stayed stable since then, Geisz said.

Mating Adelie penguins at Cape Adare in Ross Sea, Antarctica January of 2001. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license versions 2.5, 2.0, and 1.0 (Credit: Mila Zinkova)

In 1962, Silent Spring by American biologist Rachel Carson was published. The book cataloged the environmental impacts of the indiscriminate spraying of DDT in the US and questioned the logic of releasing large amounts of chemicals into the environment without fully understanding their effects on ecology or human health. The book suggested that DDT and other pesticides may cause cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly birds. Its publication was one of the signature events in the birth of the environmental movement. Silent Spring resulted in a large public outcry that eventually led to most uses of DDT being banned in the US in 1972. DDT was subsequently banned for agricultural use worldwide, but its limited use in disease vector control continues to this day in certain parts of the world and remains controversial. (source)

Is it possible that New Zealand is still using DDT in large quantities?

Related Links:

• Pesticide DDT shows up in Antarctic penguins

• Health Bulletin # 2. Exposure to Compound 1080 Feb. 10, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 1. Exposure to Bromoethane Feb. 6, 2008

• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part III
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part II
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part I
• Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ Advertising Campaign

The Floating Toxic Garbage Island

WILD FACTS SERIES: North Pacific Gyre

A patch of garbage dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch floats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in North Pacific Gyre. Depending on the source, the size estimate of the patch varies from the size of Texas to twice as large as the continental United States.

• About 46,000 pieces of plastic float on each square mile of sea (Source: telegraph.co.uk)
• Researcher Dr Marcus Eriksen believes the Great Pacific Garbage Patch stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the coast of California, across the Northern Pacific to near the coast of Japan.
• According to the Independent newspaper 100 million tons of plastic garbage float in the North Pacific Gyre.

The North Pacific Gyre (top, center)is one of five major oceanic gyres. (Image Credit: NOAA)

Following are links to a series of short videos by VBS.TV.

• Episode #1. Searching out the Pacific Ocean’s mythical floating trash heap.
• Episode #2. The ORV Alguita casts off for the middle of nowhere.
• Episode #3. The Captain nets a moon jellyfish, nature’s plastic bag.

Marine debris on the Hawaiian coast (Image Credit: NOAA)

Related Links:

• OH, THIS IS GREAT – PART 1- Humans Have Finally Ruined the Ocean
  

• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part III
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part II
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part I

An Interesting animation of how the garbage entering the ocean is caught by the gyre.

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Death by Lethal Pollution

Accumulation of toxic pollution in the environment is one of the dynamics that is driving the ecosystems to the verge of collapse. In the worst case scenario, which could unfold by as early as 2012¹, about 20% the world’s cities become unsustainable and begin to collapse. Massive waves of human migration from the affected areas create domino effect that causes the collapse of most of the remaining population centers. It may be too late to make a significant difference to the final outcome; however, we still have the option to change the worst case scenario! See Collapsing Cities

1. The date “2012” is based on the dynamic model simulations analyzing the impact of excessive energy consumption on the environment. The CASF Committee and its Members do NOT endorse the Mayan Calendar or any New Age, ancient, or bible prophecies whatever.

Legal Limits on Pollution

The idea of having ‘legal limits’ on how much damage you can inflict on nature must surely be a Freudian design. It’s like imposing the death penalty on the victim; and nature isn’t even ‘legally’ represented!

Freud said: “Against the dreaded external world one can only defend oneself by some kind of turning away from it, if one intends to solve the task by oneself. There is, indeed, another and a better path: that of becoming a member of human community, and, with the help of a technique guided by science, going over to attack against nature and subjecting her to human will. [And if the technique guided by science fail to reverse the ‘marsification’ of Earth that it started in the first place, you can always hide behind more abstractions!]” Excerpt from The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Part 1)

Defendant: Planet Earth (AKA, Blue Marble)
Age: 4.5 billion years
Color: Blue
Verdict: The Defendant stands convicted of the serious felonies of aiding and abetting humanoids by way of providing them with life and material support including air, water, food, land, atmosphere, ecosystems, energy… and majestic splendor.
Sentence: Death by Lethal Pollution [the sentence shall be carried out in the early morning of the Third Millennium, CE.]

“Troubled Waters” by U.S. PRIG

Pollution pouring into nation’s waters far beyond legal limit

San Francisco Chronicle
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Friday, October 12, 2007

More than half of all industrial and municipal facilities across the country dumped more sewage and other pollutants into the nation’s waterways than allowed under the Clean Water Act, according to a report released Thursday by an environmental group. Read more…

Download the full report, Troubled Waters, by U.S. PRIG Education Fund. (1.12 MB, PDF)

Related Links:

• How Much Water?
• Oceans, were life started, are now dying! – March, 2008
  
• New Zealand Poisoning Syndrome (NZPS), Health Bulletin # 3. Toxic blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), Feb. 13, 2008
• SICK WATER?