Blogs

An excellent video about the rebuidling of Haiti.

Haiti: The politics of rebuilding

A product of Al Jazeera's "Fault Lines" television series, here is the synopsis from their website:

Just weeks after the earthquake that took more than 200,000 lives and devastated Haiti's capital city, a new normalcy is taking shape in Port-au-Prince.

Inside Science reports on worries about big earthquakes in the US, and Caribbean.

With the world focusing upon the destruction in Haiti in terms of human impact, geologist are looking at the impact of the earth movement to populations living along other fault lines in the Caribbean. And too, what other parts of the world are pending risk from a major earthquake.

Mobile phones are playing a significant role in the relief efforts in Haiti. From on the ground communications information sharing to fund raising, mobile is proving its' muscle in Haiti.

TWITTER
Many Haiti twitter lists have been set up, including those by reliable news organizations:
CNN Haiti Boots On The Ground Twitter list
NPR Haiti Earthquake Twitter List
New York Times Haiti Earthquake Twitter list

ROM THE UK
The project is called 10:10. The goal is to unite every sector of British society behind one simple idea: that by working together they can achieve a 10% cut in the UK’s carbon emissions in 2010.
http://www.1010uk.org/#what_is_1010

To support the launch of the 10:10 Climate campaign in the UK, the Guardian newspaper http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/series/10-10-climate-change-special
asked authors to write new work in response to the climate crisis.

The cost of climate change extend far beyond the welfare of polar bears. Food supplies, drinking water, and basic survival could become issues for all species in response to extreme weather events, flooding, drought and fires.

Doctors use the term “golden hour” to refer to the time in which critically ill and injured patients must receive medical care, otherwise, death appears certain. The question is, are we now at the golden hour of species health, particularly human species health, due to the impacts of climate change?

Under the category of SOLUTIONS, a study suggest the way to prevent deforestation of valuable jungle is to give forests back to local people to save them.

The Study is titled:
"Trade-offs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benefits from forest commons"
by Ashwini Chhatrea, and Arun Agrawalb

Tracking the fate of 80 forests worldwide over 15 years, concluded

Healthy people who catch swine flu but show only mild symptoms should not be given Tamiflu, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

There have been fears that mass use of Tamiflu will encourage the virus to become resistant to the antiviral.

The advice contradicts British policy on the issue, which has seen hundreds of thousands of doses of the antiviral given to people with the virus.

Today's advice, published on the WHO website, said most patients were experiencing typical flu symptoms and would get better within a week.

Inside Scotland’s swine flu bunker
Deep underground in the centre of Edinburgh, emergency planners are hard at work preparing Scotland’s response to the H1N1 virus. At its heart is the ‘resilience room’, where crucial decisions are taken each day.

WE'RE INSIDE "THE BUNKER", the Scottish government's equivalent to Cobra (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A), Westminster's nerve centre for dealing with national emergencies, disasters and terrorism. It's here, in the Bunker, that the nation's battle against H1N1 is being fought.

The 2009 H1N1 virus is transmitted from person to person.
Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue.
The 2009 outbreak has shown an increased percentage of patients reporting diarrhea and vomiting.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in humans the symptoms of the 2009 "swine flu" H1N1 virus are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general.

Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue.

The 2009 outbreak has shown an increased percentage of patients reporting diarrhea and vomiting.

The 2009 H1N1 virus is transmitted from person to person.

http://globalhealth.kff.org/Multimedia/2009/July/14/gh071409video.aspx

This 3-day meeting convened by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine explores the implications of the recent global food price increase and economic crisis on nutrition and health. International presenters discuss the effects of the economic and food price crises on nutrition; nutrition surveillance; responses to the crises on individual country and global levels; U.S. policies surrounding the crises; and actions to mitigate the current crises as well as prevent future crises.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon today estimated that $1 billion is needed by the end of the year to help developing countries respond to pandemic influenza, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Speaking at a press conference in Geneva after a donor's conference, Moon said funding isn't coming in as expected. Margaret Chan, the WHO's director-general, said donor assistance is needed to help 49 developing countries stockpile antivirals and other drugs. [Jul 6 AP story]

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon today estimated that $1 billion is needed by the end of the year to help developing countries respond to pandemic influenza, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Speaking at a press conference in Geneva after a donor's conference, Moon said funding isn't coming in as expected. Margaret Chan, the WHO's director-general, said donor assistance is needed to help 49 developing countries stockpile antivirals and other drugs. [Jul 6 AP story]