In this Jan. 2, 2005 file photo, a wide area of destruction is shown from an aerial view taken over Meulaboh, 250 kilometers (156 Miles) west of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Researchers in the United States are hoping to use GPS data to speed up current warnings. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

U.S. seismologists currently testing new warning system

by Andrew Pinsent - CBC News - May 5, 2012

Scientists in the United States have been testing an advanced tsunami warning system using GPS data, combined with traditional seismology networks, to attempt to detect the magnitude of an earthquake faster so warnings of potential tsunamis can get out to potentially affected areas sooner.

The prototype is called California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN), and is a collaboration between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, whose focus is on environmental conservation.

World population will reach 9 billion by 2050. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Economic and environmental catastrophes unavoidable unless rich countries cut consumption and global population stabilises

guardian.co.uk - by John Vidal - April 25, 2012

World population needs to be stabilised quickly and high consumption in rich countries rapidly reduced to avoid "a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills", warns a major report from the Royal Society.

Contraception must be offered to all women who want it and consumption cut to reduce inequality, says the study published on Thursday, which was chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston.

The rash as seen on the hands and feet caused by the mystery "infection" - Photo credit: Saigon Giai Phong

google.com / News - AFP - April 23, 2012

HANOI, Vietnam — The World Health Organisation said Monday it was "concerned" about an outbreak of a mysterious skin disease in central Vietnam which has killed 19 people, mostly children.

More than 170 people have fallen ill with the unidentified illness, which causes stiffness in the limbs and ulcers on victims' hands and feet that look like severe burns.

"We are concerned about this. WHO is very aware of this case," said Wu Guogao, the organisation's chief officer in Hanoi, adding Vietnam had not asked for help with an investigation into the outbreak.

The WHO has not been given access to any official reports on the issue.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Image Credit: Flickr – Shannon Kringen

submitted by Albert Gomez

good.is - by Brittany Shoot - April 25, 2012

The WeTap app, currently available for Android smartphones, allows users to bookmark drinking fountains using GPS and Google Maps, rate the quality of the faucets, and share the news with other users. Using an early prototype of the WeTap app, environmental activist Evelyn Wendel recruited students from UCLA’s Institute of Environmental Studies and set to work mapping drinking fountains on her alma mater’s campus. Then, she extended her reach to cover the state of California. She’s since set her sights on mapping the entire United States. And after partnering with the OpenMaps project in the U.K., the project is flourishing on two continents.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Rice production in Asia is threaten by rapid climate change. Photo: T. Sunderland (CIFOR)

Researchers Focus on Innovations to Adapt Agriculture to Wild Swings in Climate Extremes, as Vividly Manifested by Southeast Asia’s Catastrophic Flood-drought Cycles

Bangkok (12 April 2012)—As Asia’s monsoon season begins, leading climate specialists and agricultural scientists warned today that rapid climate change and its potential to intensify droughts and floods could threaten Asia’s rice production and pose a significant threat to millions of people across the region.

“Climate change endangers crop and livestock yields and the health of fisheries and forests at the very same time that surging populations worldwide are placing new demands on food production,” said Bruce Campbell of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). “These clashing trends challenge us to transform our agriculture systems so they can sustainably deliver the food required to meet our nutritional needs and support economic development, despite rapidly shifting growing conditions.”

The Fourth Reactor at Fukushima on February 20, 2012. The yellow area is the containment vessel. (photo: The Asahi Shimbum Digital)

by Roberta Rampton, Reuters - readersupportednews.org - April 17, 2012

Japan, with assistance from the U.S. government, needs to do more to move spent fuel rods out of harm's way at the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, said U.S. Senator Ron Wyden on Monday.

Wyden, a senior Democratic senator on the Senate Energy committee, toured the ruined Fukushima plant on April 6, and said the damage was far worse than he expected.

"Seeing the extent of the disaster first-hand during my visit conveyed the magnitude of this tragedy and the continuing risks and challenges in a way that news accounts cannot," said Wyden in a letter to Ichiro Fujisaki, Japan's ambassador to the United States.

Last March, an earthquake followed by a tsunami wrecked the Fukushima plant, causing the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years and prompting global scrutiny of the safety of nuclear power plants.

Cuadrilla shale fracking facility in Lancashire. The controversial method of extracting gas has been given the green light by experts. Photograph: Matthew Lloyd/Getty

by Fiona Harvey - guardian.co.uk - April 16, 2012

Drilling method can be extended throughout UK, say experts, even though it has caused two earthquakes

Ministers have been advised to allow the controversial practice of fracking for shale gas to be extended in Britain, despite it causing two earthquakes and the emergence of serious doubts over the safety of the wells that have already been drilled.

The advice of the first official British government report into fracking, published on Tuesday, is all but certain to be accepted by ministers, with the result that thousands of new wells could be drilled across the UK.

WHO

Each year infectious diseases kill 3.5 million people – mostly the poor and young children who live in low and middle income countries. Research can change this and bring health to many more people. TDR has brought people and institutions together to identify and advocate for the research priorities that will bring new and innovative approaches and products.

The result is Global Report for Research on Infectious Diseases of Poverty , which provides a new cross-disciplinary approach and analysis. It is essential reading for policy-makers, funders and research leaders.

Low and middle income countries would benefit from the establishment of a new indicator that uses the impact of disease as a measurement of social and economic development. That is one of numerous recommendations for a more multidisciplinary approach coming from a new report released today at a European Commission meeting. The Global Report on Research for Infectious Diseases of Poverty, published by TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, offers new ways of improving public health in low and middle income countries through research.

This is an undated handout photo issued by Total E&P UK Ltd of Total's Elgin PUQ (Process/Utilities/Quarters) platform. (AP/TOTAL E&P UK Ltd.)

Associated Press - foxnews.com - March 29, 2012

EDINBURGH, Scotland –  Environmental groups warned Thursday they fear an oil spill could be triggered at a North Sea offshore platform that has been leaking highly pressurized gas since the weekend.

A flame is still burning in the stack above the Elgin platform, which stands about 150 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, eastern Scotland, after a leak of flammable gas Sunday-- prompting all 238 staff to be evacuated on Monday.

Platform operator Total S.A. insists there is no threat of any explosion under current weather conditions, but said that surveillance flights have detected a sheen around the platform estimated to extend over 1.85 square miles.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Drill pipe ready for use on a rig at Exxon's Johnson Ranch site outside Fort Worth

by Brian O'Keefe - CNN - April 16, 2012

America's most profitable company now produces about as much natural gas as it does oil. CEO Rex Tillerson thinks the fracking party has just begun.

FORTUNE -- For Rex Tillerson fracking is more than a revolutionary approach to drilling oil and gas -- it's part of his personal history. Simply mention the word to the CEO of Exxon Mobil (XOM) and he starts reminiscing about his days as a young engineer.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Chart Sources: Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J. and Behrens III, W.W. (1972) /  Linda Eckstein

by Mark Strauss - Smithsonian Magazine - April 2012

Recent research supports the conclusions of a controversial environmental study released 40 years ago: The world is on track for disaster. So says Australian physicist Graham Turner, who revisited perhaps the most groundbreaking academic work of the 1970s,The Limits to Growth.

Written by MIT researchers for an international think tank, the Club of Rome, the study used computers to model several possible future scenarios. The business-as-usual scenario estimated that if human beings continued to consume more than nature was capable of providing, global economic collapse and precipitous population decline could occur by 2030.

(GO TO THE SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE ARTICLE)

Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update

The Club of Rome

(LINKS TO THE 3 STUDIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST)

SEATTLE TIMES - A new study released yesterday, and two published last week, strengthen the case that neonicotinoid pesticides are key drivers behind declining bee populations — alone and especially in combination with other stressors. This class of pesticides covers 143 million acres of U.S. countryside, and more damning studies are awaiting publication. (Read this article in link below)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/northwestvoices/2017923620_beeslet.html

Dear Friends,

I agree with Eric- big implications, along with Janet's Sharklet forward (and the myriad of other antibacterial metallic compounds out there), make for a greater possibility of mitigating our losing fight with bacteria.  

Out in our neck of the woods, the Black Canyon Infectious Disease Forecasting Station has produced hundreds of forecast libraries for our pathogen-antibiotic resistance pairs.  How we use this information is to forecast 5 to 10 years out where the current trends of antimicrobial resistance is taking us.  Those of us who are Trekkies call the process "frequency-modulated shielding for the hospital".  What is interesting is our patterns are highly local-specific.  Meaning, if you use standard antibiotic references in the clinic such as the Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy, you would be grossly misled in terms of what antibiotics are effective against, say, Pseudomonas.  Most physicians do not use local antibiograms, and we are the first (to our knowledge) to incorporate forecasting in the decision process of what antibiotics to allow for use in the hospital.  

submitted by Nguyen Huu Ninh

International scientific community issues first
“State of the Planet Declaration”

Recognizing the complexity and urgency of current challenges, researchers propose a new vision for science for global sustainability at major international conference.

Scientists today issued the first “State of the Planet” declaration* at a major gathering of experts on global environmental and social issues in advance of the major UN Summit Rio+20 in June.

The declaration opens: “Research now demonstrates that the continued functioning of the Earth system as it has supported the well‐being of human civilization in recent centuries is at risk.” It states that consensus is growing that we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, where many planetary‐scale processes are dominated by human activities. It concludes society must not delay taking urgent and large‐scale action.

“This is a declaration to our globally interconnected society,“ said Dr Lidia Brito, director of science policy, natural sciences, UNESCO, and conference co‐chair.