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Chevron Goes to Trial in New York Over $18 Billion Ecuador Award

A Chevron gas station sign is pictured at one of their retain gas stations in Cardiff, California October 9, 2013. 
Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake

reuters.com - by Bernard Vaughan - October 14, 2013

(Reuters) - Chevron Corp will try to convince a U.S. judge this week that a group of Ecuadorean villagers and their U.S. lawyer used bribery to win an $18 billion judgment against Chevron from a court in Ecuador, in the latest chapter in a long-running fight over pollution in the Amazon jungle.

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CLICK HERE - Wikipedia - History - Lago Agrio Oil Field

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Increased Mercury Levels Near Tar Sands

priceofoil.org - by Andy Rowell - October 15, 2013

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Mercury Trends in Colonial Waterbird Eggs Downstream of the Oil Sands Region of Alberta, Canada

Scientists have released yet another academic study that indicates the growing ecological impact of the tar sands.

They measured the amount of mercury in birds eggs downstream from the tar sands and compared them to eggs some distance away from the polluting region.

What they found was that the eggs of certain species of predatory birds living downstream from the tar sands were found to have “statistically significant increases” of the dangerous heavy metal, mercury.

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Cyclone Phailin (India) - Crisis Maps and Resources

http://google.org/crisismap/2013-phailin http://google.org/crisismap/a/gmail.com/2013-phailin-cyclone

The Crisis Respone Google website has created crowd-sourced maps of volunteers offering shelter in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Clicking on the shelter or red cross gives more details about the shelter and hospital in the area. The maps are also highlighting the intensity of the cyclone at different spots. All the data shown on the map is crowdsourced from publicly visible webpages of news websites, forums, social media, blogs, Wikipedia and government sites.

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Earthquake Alert in Philippines

      

gdacs.org - October 14, 2013

 

This earthquake can have a high humanitarian impact based on the Magnitude and the affected population and their vulnerability.

  • Earthquake Magnitude 7.1M, Depth:20km
  • on 15/10/2013 00:12 UTC
  • 5600343 people within 100km

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

(ALSO SEE USGS INFORMATION HERE)

 

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Climate Change Will Bring Conditions Outside Historical Variability In Coming Decades


Video: A video report on the predicted climate shifts.

huffingtonpost.com - October 9th, 2013 - Andrew Freedman

The mean annual climate of the average location on Earth will slip past the most extreme conditions experienced during the past 150 years and into new territory by between 2047 and 2069, depending on the amount of climate-warming greenhouse gases that are emitted during the next few decades, a new study found. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, used a new index to show for the first time when the climate — which has been warming during the past century in response to manmade pollution and natural variability — will be radically different from average conditions during the 1860-2005 period.

The study shows that tropical areas, which contain the richest diversity of species on the planet as well as some of the poorest countries, will be among the first to see the climate exceed historical limits — in as little as a decade from now — which spells trouble for rainforest ecosystems and nations that have a limited capacity to adapt to rapid climate change.

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GDACS - Red Alert - Tropical Cyclone NARI-13 in Laos, Thailand, Viet Nam, Philippines

      

gdacs.org - October 11, 2013

 

Tropical Cyclone NARI-13 can have a high humanitarian impact based on the Maximum sustained wind speed and the affected population and their vulnerability.

Updated: this report is based on advisory number 11.

  • Tropical Cyclone Hurricane/Typhoon > 74 mph (maximum wind speed of 185 km/h)
  • from 09/10/2013 12:00 UTC to 11/10/2013 06:00 UTC
  • Population affected by Category 1 (120 km/h) wind speeds or higher is 14.3 million
  • Vulnerability: High

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

 

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GDACS - Red Alert - Tropical Cyclone PHAILIN-13 in India

      

gdacs.org - October 10, 2013

 

Tropical Cyclone PHAILIN-13 can have a high humanitarian impact based on the Maximum sustained wind speed and the affected population and their vulnerability.

Updated: this report is based on advisory number 5.

  • Tropical Cyclone Tropical Storm (maximum wind speed of 157 km/h)
  • from 09/10/2013 18:00 UTC to 10/10/2013 00:00 UTC
  • Population affected by Category 1 (120 km/h) wind speeds or higher is 4million
  • Vulnerability: High

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

 

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The Oceans are Heating, Acidifying and Choking

newscientist.com - by Fred Pearce - October 4, 2013

CLICK HERE - State of the Ocean Report 2013

We know the oceans are warming. We know they are acidifying. And now, to cap it all, it turns out they are suffocating, too. A new health check on the state of the oceans warns that they will have lost as much as 7 per cent of their oxygen by the end of the century.

The cascade of chemical and biological changes now under way could see coral reefs irreversibly destroyed in 50 to 100 years, with marine ecosystems increasingly taken over by jellyfish and toxic algal blooms.

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(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

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Shell Oil Spill Victims Reject 'Derisory and Insulting' Compensation Offer

Niger delta residents pass a burning Shell oil pipeline as they evacuate their homes by boat in December 2005. (Photo: George Osodi/AP) Image: Niger delta residents pass a burning Shell oil pipeline as they evacuate their homes by boat in December 2005. (Photo: George Osodi/AP)

commondreams.org - September 14th, 2013 - Andrea Gernabis

A Niger Delta community affected by oil spills has rejected a compensation offer from oil giant Shell they see as "totally derisory and insulting."

The residents of Bodo, Nigeria are represented by the London-based law firm Leigh Day to seek damages for two 2008 spills that devastated tens of thousands of residents in dozens of villages and unleashed a thick, black river of death that has choked mangroves and riverways for years.

The Guardian reports:

    On Friday the full scale of the spills could be seen from the air with over 75 sq km of mangrove forests, creeks, swamps and channels thick with crude oil.

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Tackling Antibiotic Resistance for Greater Global Health Security

      

chathamhouse.org - Gemma L. Buckland Merrett, October 2013

DOWNLOAD PAPER HERE (16 page .PDF file)

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