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Scientists Found a Flu Vaccine Flaw—Now They Have to Fix It

Image of person withdrawing medication from a vial with a needle.

Image: Image of person withdrawing medication from a vial with a needle.

wired.com - October 9th 2015 - Sarah Zhang

Among flu viruses, H3N2 is the one you should fear the most. It lands the most patients in hospitals. It kills the most people. 

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Ebola Nurse Pauline Cafferkey 'In Serious Condition'

            

Pauline Cafferkey previously spent a month in the specialist isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London

bbc.com - October 9, 2015

A Scottish nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone last year is in a "serious condition" after being readmitted to an isolation unit in London.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed that the virus is still present in Pauline Cafferkey's body after being left over from the original infection.

She is not thought to be contagious.

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Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Won't Slow Global Economic Growth — Report

          

Increased use of low-carbon energy sources instead of fossil energy sources is making it easier for countries to decouple economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report.  Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Reuters

New report from green think tank Heinrich Boll shows OECD countries grew their economies 16% in last decade – and cut greenhouse gas emissions 6.4%

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH REPORT - Turning point: Decoupling Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Economic Growth

theguardian.com - by Bruce Watson - September 26, 2015

As the world works out how to avoid catastrophic climate change, one of the biggest questions remaining is whether we can continue to grow economically without also increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

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Why We Must Act Now to Prevent Global Pandemics

submitted by George Hurlburt

      

agenda.weforum.org - by Sania Nishtar - October 7, 2015

The recent, devastating Ebola crisis reminded the world of a hard truth:  Pandemics are not just a threat to human health, they are a threat to societies and economies. That there will be another pandemic is not a question of “if,” but a question of “when.”  A catastrophe on the scale of the 1918 flu epidemic could conceivably wipe out all development gains of the last century.  We recognize this, but, still we are unprepared.

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Why Some Scientists are Worried About a Surprisingly Cold ‘Blob’ in the North Atlantic Ocean

      

January–August 2015 Blended Land and Sea Surface Temperature Percentiles. (NOAA)

CLICK HERE - PAPER - Exceptional twentieth-century slowdown in Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation

washingtonpost.com - by Chris Mooney - September 24, 2015

. . . we learned from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that the first eight months of 2015 were the hottest such stretch yet recorded for the globe’s surface land and oceans, based on temperature records going back to 1880. . . .

In the North Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland and Iceland, the ocean surface has seen very cold temperatures for the past eight months. . . .

. . . And while there may not yet be any scientific consensus on the matter, at least some scientists suspect that the cooling seen in these maps is no fluke but, rather, part of a process that has been long feared by climate researchers — the slowing of Atlantic Ocean circulation.

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Guinea - Four New Cases of Ebola This Weekend in Forecariah

guineenews.org - September 28, 2015

(Translation to English via Google Translate)

Four new cases of Ebola this weekend in Forecariah: she wants Guinea to end the epidemic?

Two people reported positive for Ebola test this Saturday and two on Sunday yesterday: the sad accounting revealed in the villages and Kintinia Taramassi (Forecariah) by the local coordinating the fight against Ebola. These cases were reported while the prefecture had over two weeks without a new case.

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India Bangalore lake of toxic snowy froth

The foam rises so high that it flows into the neighbourhoods around the lake.Image: The foam rises so high that it flows into the neighbourhoods around the lake. Photo: Debasish Ghosh

bbc.co.uk - September 28th, 2015

Is it snowing in India's tropical southern city of Bangalore?

The picture above would certainly make you think so.

Unfortunately, the reality is quite different: what looks like snow is actually harmful snow-white froth that floats up from the city's largest lake and spills over into neighbouring areas.

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Danger of Methane Explosions on Yamal Peninsula, Scientists Warn

      

Scientists from the respected Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics insist the process by which a series of craters formed was caused by the melting of gas hydrates and the emission of methane. Picture: Vladimir Olenchenko/Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics

More craters expected to form due to such eruptions as permafrost melts - and they ARE caused by global warming releasing methane gas.

siberiantimes.com - by Anna Liesowska - September 22, 2015

A new expedition to one of the mysterious Siberian giant holes found in recent years has concluded that it is a warning sign of a deadly threat to northern regions as the climate warms. . . .

. . . A pingo believed to be poised to explode 'at any moment' is now being constantly monitored by a Russian space satellite in an attempt to catch the moment when the eruption occurs. . . .

. . . The scientists also warn of a dire threat to both towns and cities in the extreme north, and natural gas exploration facilities and associated pipelines.

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Syrian Civil War Prompts First Withdrawal From Doomsday Seed Vault In The Arctic

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was opened on Feb. 26, 2008. Carved into the Arctic permafrost and filled with samples of the world's most important seeds, it's a Noah's Ark of food crops to be used in the event of a global catastrophe. AFP/Getty Images

Image: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was opened on Feb. 26, 2008. Carved into the Arctic permafrost and filled with samples of the world's most important seeds, it's a Noah's Ark of food crops to be used in the event of a global catastrophe. AFP/Getty Images

npr.org - September 23rd, 2015

A tall rectangular building juts out of a mountainside on a Norwegian island just 800 miles from the North Pole. Narrow and sharply edged, the facility cuts an intimidating figure against the barren Arctic background. But the gray building holds the key to the earth's biodiversity.

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Ukraine health officials fear big polio outbreak

Many young Ukrainian children are not vaccinated

Image: Many young Ukrainian children are not vaccinated

bbc.co.uk - September 22nd, 2015

Health officials in Ukraine are gripped by fears of a major polio outbreak, after it was announced this month that the disease had paralysed two children in the south-western region of Trans-Carpathia.

Concerns that the virus could cut a deadly swathe through the country has mobilised officials to launch a national immunisation campaign that would embrace all children up to 10 years old.

The threat has also mobilised international organizations, as well as Bill Gates, whose foundation promotes increased vaccinations worldwide and who spoke to President Petro Poroshenko about the polio danger last week.

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