ApocaDocuments (12) gathered this week:
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Sun, Feb 3, 2008
from DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory:
Human-caused Climate Change At Root Of Diminishing Water Flow In Western US, Scientists Find
"The Rocky Mountains have warmed by 2 degrees Fahrenheit. The snowpack in the Sierras has dwindled by 20 percent and the temperatures there have heated up by 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit. All could lead to dire consequences for the water supply in the Western United States, including California. Scientists have noted that water flow in the West has decreased for the last 20 to 30 years, but had never explained why it was happening. Until now." ...
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Drum roll, please.... HUMANS are to blame!
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Sun, Feb 3, 2008
from Associated Press:
Rain forests fall at 60 acres a minute
"ABO EBAM, Nigeria - In the gloomy shade deep in Africa's rain forest, the noontime silence was pierced by the whine of a far-off chain saw. It was the sound of destruction, echoed from wood to wood, continent to continent, in the tropical belt that circles the globe. From Brazil to central Africa to once-lush islands in Asia's archipelagos, human encroachment is shrinking the world's rain forests. The alarm was sounded decades ago by environmentalists — and was little heeded. The picture, meanwhile, has changed: Africa is now a leader in destructiveness. The numbers have changed: U.N. specialists estimate 60 acres of tropical forest are felled worldwide every minute, up from 50 a generation back." ...
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This news bit could go in more than one scenario -- a testimony to its key importance. Why is it we can't see the rainforest for the trees?
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Sun, Feb 3, 2008
from Associated Press:
Butz, former agriculture secretary, dies
"WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Earl L. Butz, an outspoken U.S. agriculture secretary forced from office in 1976 for making a racist joke and once a dean at Purdue University, died Saturday. He was 98.... The free-market advocate had a relaxed and earthy style that won him acclaim as an after-dinner speaker but caused problems in his public life." ...
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People remember Butz's public gaffs but his real legacy is corn, corn, corn. In the 70s he told farmers to "plant from fence row to fence row." Thus, the high fructose fattening of America was born.
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Thu, Jan 31, 2008
from Discover:
Unsustainable Soil Use Can Cause Civilizations to Collapse
"Earth is running out of soil. At least that's the conclusion of a new study supporting the long-held belief that current farming practices are causing soil to erode more quickly than new soil can be produced." ...
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We'll run out of soil even faster if the poor have to resort to eating it.
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Thu, Jan 31, 2008
from Washington Post (US):
Video Reveals Violations of Laws, Abuse of Cows at Slaughterhouse
"Video footage being released today shows workers at a California slaughterhouse delivering repeated electric shocks to cows too sick or weak to stand on their own; drivers using forklifts to roll the "downer" cows on the ground in efforts to get them to stand up for inspection; and even a veterinary version of waterboarding in which high-intensity water sprays are shot up animals' noses -- all violations of state and federal laws designed to prevent animal cruelty and to keep unhealthy animals, such as those with mad cow disease, out of the food supply." ...
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Now we know how cows get mad enough to create mad cow disease.
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Thu, Jan 31, 2008
from Associated Press:
Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt
"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau. Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well." ...
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While Haitians are forced to eat dirt, most Americans can't even join the Clean Plate Club.
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Wed, Jan 30, 2008
from Globe and Mail (Canada):
Commodities continue to rack up double digit gains
"In five of the last six years commodity prices have posted double-digit increases.
And the indications are that the index, which tracks price trends in 32 of Canada's major exports, has started the year with another increase, aided by gold, oil, potash, sulphur and wheat prices, all of which reached record highs so far this month." ...
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Five of the last six years....
but that's not a trend.
Yet.
ApocaDoc
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Tue, Jan 29, 2008
from Technical Research Centre of Finland:
Could Bush Chips Be Profitably Used For Electricity Generation In Namibia?
"VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has studied the profitability of using bush chips in electricity production in Namibia, where biomass from bushes has great energy production potential. Namibia suffers from the overgrowth of bush, which is disruptive to cattle raising, the country's primary source of livelihood. VTT also developed the production technology for bush chips. According to the study, the production of chips for power plants is technically possible." ...
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For once, bush could actually be of service to the environment.
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Tue, Jan 29, 2008
from National Geographic News:
Flame Retardants Found in Rare Tasmanian Devils
"Flame retardants that are suspected carcinogens have been found in some of Australia's Tasmanian devils, researchers announced last week. The find triggered local media reports suggesting that the chemicals might be linked to the mysterious cancer that has been killing the rare marsupials for more than a decade. A study conducted by the Australian government's National Measurement Institute ... found "high" levels of hexabromobiphenyl ether and "reasonably high" levels of decabromobiphenyl ether�chemicals used to treat electronics, textiles, and furniture." ...
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Bugs Bunny was reported to have assisted the scientists in their study with his constant refrain of "What's up, Docs?"
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Tue, Jan 29, 2008
from The Guardian:
Bush opens 3m acres of Alaskan forest to logging
"The US government has announced plans to open more than 3m acres (about 5,000 square miles) of Alaskan wilderness to logging, mining and road building, angering environmental campaigners who say it will devastate the region. Supporters say the plan for the Tongass National Forest, a refuge for grizzly and black bears, wolves, eagles and wild salmon, will revive the state's timber industry. The Bush administration plan for the forest, the largest in the US at nearly 17m acres, would open 3.4m acres to logging, road building and other development, including about 2.4m acres that are currently remote and without roads. About 663,000 acres are in areas considered most valuable for timber production." ...
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You'd think someone named "Bush" would have more affinity for the trees.
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Tue, Jan 29, 2008
from American Geophysical Union:
American Geophysical Union Revises Position On Climate Change
"A statement released on January 24 by the world's largest scientific society of Earth and space scientists--the American Geophysical Union, or AGU--updates the organization's position on climate change: the evidence for it, potential consequences from it, and how to respond to it. The statement, Human Impacts on Climate ... is the first revision since 2003 of the climate-change position of the AGU, which has a membership of 50,000 researchers, teachers, and students in 137 countries." ...
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The society delivered this revised paper, then climbed into their spaceship, headed for Mars.
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Tue, Jan 29, 2008
from University of Leicester:
Man-made Changes Bring About New Epoch In Earth
"Geologists from the University of Leicester propose that humankind has so altered the Earth that it has brought about an end to one epoch of Earth's history and marked the start of a new epoch ... they suggest humans have so changed the Earth that on the planet the Holocene epoch has ended and we have entered a new epoch - the Anthropocene." ...
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And we are going to hang ourselves by that Anthrope.
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Other
Weeks' Archived
ApocaDocuments:
Sep 26 - Dec 31, 1969
Sep 19 - Sep 26, 2011
Sep 12 - Sep 19, 2011
Sep 5 - Sep 12, 2011
Aug 29 - Sep 5, 2011
Aug 22 - Aug 29, 2011
Aug 15 - Aug 22, 2011
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