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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:	(6)
Plague/Virus:	(3)
Climate Chaos:	(11)
Resource Depletion:	(5)
Biology Breach:	(10)
Recovery:	(7)

This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
contamination ~ water issues ~ stupid humans ~ global warming ~ climate impacts ~ anthropogenic change ~ ecosystem interrelationships ~ toxic water ~ invasive species ~ short-term thinking ~ falling fertility

ApocaDocuments (42) gathered this week:
Mon, Dec 1, 2008 from CBC News (Canada): 500 narwhals trapped by Pond Inlet ice: fisheries officials When the trapped narwhals were first discovered on Nov. 15, residents had counted at least 200 of the Arctic whales, trapped in shrinking areas of open water, also known as breathing holes or savssats. But since the first discovery, fisheries officials say more breathing holes have been spotted. The department now estimates a total of 500 narwhals were trapped in as many as 20 breathing holes.... Hunters in Pond Inlet, a mostly Inuit community of about 1,300, told CBC News that the task of culling hundreds of entrapped whales has been daunting. They added that they are trying to harvest as many whales as they can with the limited amount of daylight they have at this time of year. ...	They're stuck, and "harvest" is the only option? Where are the miraculous unicorns? ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 30, 2008 from Guardian (UK): Africa's vanishing herds As the rain begins to fall on Tanzania's Tarangire National Park, thousands of zebra, wildebeest and giraffe will begin one of the world's greatest migrations. But many of the herds trampling across the grass at the foot of the Rift Valley highlands are falling in number - and scientists do not know why.... Numbers of wildebeest have fallen from 50,000 to 6,000 in the past 20 years, and numbers of antelope species, such as hartebeest and oryx, have declined by 90 and 95 per cent respectively. Confusingly some species -- zebra, giraffe, gazelle and buffalo - have remained relatively stable. To understand such contrasting fortunes, scientists from America's Dartmouth and Utah universities are working to determine whether habitat loss, changed food sources, or hunting -- or a combination of all -- is responsible. ...	You mean that National Geographic special I saw in 1988 is no longer valid?! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 30, 2008 from Telegraph.co.uk: Screw cap wine bottles threaten rare species Cork oak forests, which cover 2.7 million of hectares worldwide and support rare species such as Iberian lynx, black storks and booted eagles, are already disappearing in some areas. Faced with falling demand for cork stoppers, which make up 70 per cent of the income from cork harvests, farmers are ripping up trees that have been on their land for hundreds of years in an attempt to grow alternative crops, such as eucalyptus. The land that cork oaks grow on, however, is poor quality and when the trees are removed, the land often turns into desert. In the Algarve, Portugal, cork forests have declined by 28 per cent in the past 10 years. ...	Who woulda thought that would screw something up? ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 30, 2008 from CNN: New rifts form on Antarctic ice shelf Scientists have identified new rifts on an Antarctic ice shelf that could lead to it breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula, the European Space Agency said. The Wilkins Ice Shelf, a large sheet of floating ice south of South America, is connected to two Antarctic islands by a strip of ice. That ice "bridge" has lost about 2,000 square kilometers (about 772 square miles) this year, the ESA said. A satellite image captured November 26 shows new rifts on the ice shelf that make it dangerously close to breaking away from the strip of ice -- and the islands to which it's connected, the ESA said. Scientists first spotted rifts in the ice shelf in late February, and they noticed further deterioration the following week. ...	All we need ... is a giant caulking gun! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 30, 2008 from Albany Times Union: Mercury a concern in eagles Bald eagles have been making a soaring comeback in New York, becoming more common along lakes and rivers. But eagles living in the Catskills face a hidden danger carried on the wind from distant coal-fired power plants. Eagles here contain more toxic mercury than those anywhere else in the state, according to a recent study from the Maine-based BioDiversity Research Institute and the state Department of Environmental Conservation. One out of every four eaglets had elevated blood mercury levels from a diet of tainted fish, raising the possibility the birds could be at risk for reproductive or developmental problems. ...	So glad we brought them back from the brink of extinction so we could exPERiment on them further... ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 30, 2008 from The Sacramento Bee: Sierra Nevada climate changes feed monster, forest-devouring fires ... Wildfire has marched across the West for centuries. But no longer are major conflagrations fueled simply by heavy brush and timber. Now climate change is stoking the flames higher and hotter, too. That view, common among firefighters, is reflected in new studies that tie changing patterns of heat and moisture in the western United States to an unprecedented rash of costly and destructive wildfires. Among other things, researchers have found the frequency of wildfire increased fourfold – and the terrain burned expanded sixfold – as summers grew longer and hotter over the past two decades. ...	Pretty soon, we're gonna have to start giving these monster fires people-names, just like hurricanes. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 30, 2008 from London Independent: Pregnant women warned off make-up ...Growing concerns over the exposure of pregnant women to chemicals that may lead to birth defects have prompted calls for a new EU-wide cosmetics labelling system which would mark out some products as off-limits to mothers-to-be. The move follows the publication of a study which found that women exposed to high levels of hairspray during pregnancy were twice as likely to have babies born with hypospadias, a condition in which the urinary tract grows on the underside of the penis. The Imperial College London study suggested that the birth defects were linked to chemicals in hairspray shown to disrupt the hormonal systems in the body and affect reproductive development. ...	Dunno why pregnant women need make-up anyway as they are naturally beaUtiful! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 30, 2008 from Agence France-Presse: Climate change gathers steam, say scientists PARIS (AFP)-- Earth's climate appears to be changing more quickly and deeply than a benchmark UN report for policymakers predicted, top scientists said ahead of international climate talks starting Monday in Poland. Evidence published since the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change's (IPCC) February 2007 report suggests that future global warming may be driven not just by things over which humans have a degree of control, such as burning fossil fuels or destroying forest, a half-dozen climate experts told AFP. Even without additional drivers, the IPCC has warned that current rates of greenhouse gas emissions, if unchecked, would unleash devastating droughts, floods and huge increases in human misery by century's end. But the new studies, they say, indicate that human activity may be triggering powerful natural forces that would be nearly impossible to reverse and that could push temperatures up even further. At the top of the list for virtually all of the scientists canvassed was the rapid melting of the Arctic ice cap. ...	Those IPCC findings ... are sooooo yesterday. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Nov 29, 2008 from Reuters: Surging shoppers kill New York Wal-Mart worker NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A man working for discount retailer Wal-Mart was killed on Friday in a stampede by frenzied shoppers who broke down doors and surged into a Long Island, New York store, a police spokesman said. The 34-year-old man was at the entrance of the Valley Stream Wal-Mart store just after it opened at 5 a.m. and was knocked to the ground, the police report said.... Wal-Mart said it was saddened by the death of the man, who was working for a temporary employment agency serving the retailer, and by the injuries suffered by shoppers. ...	This poor temp worker had no idea how temp he was gonna be. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Nov 29, 2008 from NPR: Bluefin Tuna On Edge Of Collapse, Scientists Say Many of the world's fish are heading toward commercial extinction. The next one to go could be the majestic Atlantic bluefin tuna. This week, an international committee meant to protect the species approved fishing levels that far exceed what scientists say is sustainable. Conservationists fear that in just a few years, the remaining stocks of bluefin tuna in the Western Atlantic and Mediterranean could collapse completely. ...	The spokestuna for the bluefin is heart-breakingly eloquent. Listen in! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Nov 29, 2008 from Chicago Tribune: Scientists say they've found bacteria that will fight invasive mussels Researchers seeking to slow the spread of invasive zebra and quagga mussels in American lakes and rivers have found a bacterium that appears to be fatal to the problematic species without affecting native mussels or freshwater fish. The bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens, offers some hope for controlling the troublesome bivalves that are wreaking ecological and economic havoc in North American waters from the Colorado River to Vermont, and especially in the Great Lakes. But more testing remains to be done, and the bacteria could be used effectively only on a limited scale, said Daniel Molloy, the New York State Museum researcher who discovered the possible new use for P. fluorescens. ...	From the Great Lakes ... to the Ate-Up Lakes. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Nov 29, 2008 from Queen: Biologists Find New Environmental Threat In North American Lakes A new and insidious environmental threat has been detected in North American lakes by researchers from Queen's and York universities. Along with scientists from several Canadian government laboratories, the team has documented biological damage caused by declining levels of calcium in many temperate, soft-water lakes. Calling the phenomenon "aquatic osteoporosis," Queen's PhD candidate Adam Jeziorski, lead author of the study, notes that calcium is an essential nutrient for many lake-dwelling organisms. ...	Don't biologists have anything better to do than discover new and awful stuff? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Nov 29, 2008 from Salt Lake Tribune: Drought deepens strain on a dwindling Colorado The drought gripping Utah, Southern California and the rest of the Southwest this century shows no sign of ending. Scientists see it as a permanent condition that, despite year-to-year weather variations, will deepen as temperatures rise, snows dwindle, soils bake and fires burn.... Making matters worse, the Colorado -- the 1,450-mile-long lifeline that sustains more than 30 million souls and 3.5 million acres of farmland in seven states, 34 tribal nations and Mexico -- is in decline, scientists warn....Trend analyses by federal scientists, probably conservative, predict the population dependent on the river will reach at least 38 million during the coming decade. ...	Sounds like in our lifetime the Colorado will be the Coloradone. ApocaDoc permalink
Want more context? Try reading our book FREE online: Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
Fri, Nov 28, 2008 from Reuters: Forests under threat from climate change: study OSLO -- Forests are extremely vulnerable to climate change that is set to bring more wildfires and floods and quick action is needed to aid millions of poor people who depend on forests, a study said on Thursday. The report, by the Jakarta-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), urged delegates at a U.N. climate meeting in Poznan, Poland, from December 1-12 to work out new ways to safeguard forests in developing nations. It said climate change could have impacts ranging from a drying out of cloud forests in mountainous regions of Central America -- making wildfires more frequent -- to swamping mangroves in Asia as seas rise. ...	Plus, there will be fewer trees to hug! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Nov 28, 2008 from Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Environmental groups warn against dumping TV sets The big switch to digital television has people scrambling to make decisions: Cable or converter box? New TV? Satellite? As the deadline approaches, and with the holiday shopping season in full swing, environmental groups are warning consumers about an unseen consequence of their purchases: the impact on the environment halfway around the world. TVs and other electronics shipped overseas are frequently recycled under dangerously primitive conditions. Lead is melted over open coal fires. Wires are burned to expose the metal core. Gold and other metals are recovered in vats of acid. The resulting waste, much of it toxic, is dumped haphazardly. The groups are worried that the problem will be exacerbated in the run-up to the digital switch, scheduled for Feb. 18. ...	Not only is TV a waste of time, it's also contaminating the earth! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Nov 28, 2008 from Washington Post (US): Costs of Food Waste Pile Up ... Food waste has been a chronic problem for restaurants and grocery stores -- with millions of tons lost along the way as crops are hauled hundreds of miles, stored for weeks in refrigerators and prepared on hectic restaurant assembly lines. But the historically high price of commodities is making it an even bigger drag on the bottom line.... Roughly 30 percent of food in the United States goes to waste, costing some $48 billion annually, according to a Stockholm International Water Institute study. A 2004 University of Arizona study estimated that 40 to 50 percent of food in the United States is wasted. ...	This story ... makes me want to vomit! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Nov 28, 2008 from Nature: Carbon is forever After our fossil fuel blow-out, how long will the CO2 hangover last? And what about the global fever that comes along with it? These sound like simple questions, but the answers are complex — and not well understood or appreciated outside a small group of climate scientists... University of Chicago oceanographer David Archer, who led the study with Caldeira and others, is credited with doing more than anyone to show how long CO2 from fossil fuels will last in the atmosphere. As he puts it in his new book "The Long Thaw," "The lifetime of fossil fuel CO2 in the atmosphere is a few centuries, plus 25 percent that lasts essentially forever. The next time you fill your tank, reflect upon this." ...	You mean carbon ... lasts even longer ... than love? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Nov 28, 2008 from New York Times: Asian Beetle Spells Death for Maples So Dear [M]ost of the maples ... will be chopped down as early as next month because of an infestation of Asian long-horned beetles that is plaguing thousands of Worcester's trees.... When a tornado devastated Worcester in 1953, maples were planted as replacement trees. "Norway maples were readily available back then," said Brian Breveleri, the city’s urban forester. "And they were popular because they could weather the cold." But when Worcester plants new trees this time around, it will vary the type. A tree inventory, completed in 2006, showed that 80 percent of its street trees were maples, which the beetles find irresistible.... "Tree diversity helps prevent pests from gaining a foothold," said Mike Bohne... ...	Oh, that so-called "monocrop problem" again. As if Nature's diversity has anything to teach us. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 27, 2008 from Scientific American: Troubled waters: striped bass moms pass on harmful pollutants to babies ...Striped bass and other fish have been dying in droves off the coast of San Francisco for decades; pollution from industry and agricultural runoff has long been blamed. Now a team of scientists from the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Diego, have fingered the killer contaminants. They found that wild female fish from the Sacramento River produced eggs containing a host of pollutants at levels high enough to cause biological harm. The list includes chemicals called PBDEs (flame retardants), PCBs (a known carcinogen banned in the 1979), and a slew of pesticides. They even found DDT, the infamous pesticide linked to cancer that was banned in 1972 after being indicted in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring). ...	This striped bass mom is the microcosm of the macro-contamination of Mother Earth herself. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 27, 2008 from Toronto Star: Poorest areas also most polluted, report shows Many of Toronto's poorest residents live near industries that spew the highest levels of toxic chemicals and pollutants into the air, a groundbreaking report has found. Low-income families, many already facing diminished health from stress, bad nutrition, diabetes and poor dental care, are placed at further risk because they breathe air contaminated with pollutants suspected of causing cancer and reproductive disorders, say the authors of the report. The study, a two-year research project by Toronto-based PollutionWatch, is one of the most comprehensive examinations ever of an issue that has largely gone unnoticed in Canada. ...	Sometimes, you just gotta hear the obvious said aloud. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 27, 2008 from Guardian (UK): The 10 big energy myths Myth 1: solar power is too expensive to be of much use; Myth 2: wind power is too unreliable; Myth 3: marine energy is a dead-end; Myth 4: nuclear power is cheaper than other low-carbon sources of electricity... ...	Myth 11: people want their beliefs challenged by reality. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 27, 2008 from CGIAR, via Mongabay: Carbon market could pay poor farmers to adopt sustainable cultivation techniques ... [P]roceeds from the carbon market could be used to reward farmers who adopt cultivation techniques that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Such methods include growing crops under a canopy of fruit or timber trees, planting fodder trees for livestock, and curtailing the use of slash-and-burn agriculture. "If we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and effectively as possible, we need to do everything we can to encourage the people living in and around the world's tropical forests to adopt carbon-saving and carbon-enhancing approaches to development," said Dennis Garrity, Director General of the World Agroforestry Center, one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). "One crucial way to do that is to give them the same opportunities to sell their carbon as a commodity in the global market as is encouraged in other sectors." ...	My only worry is that this is too sensible for humanity, but not conducive to agribusiness. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Nov 26, 2008 from Telegraph.co.uk: Stern urges switch to low carbon economy during downturn The author of the Government's 2006 report on climate change said that while demand is low, it is a good time to switch to "a more sustainable pattern of growth" by replacing fossil fuels with more renewables and clean energy, designing new technologies and improving energy efficiency. The former economist at the Treasury warned that previous growth on the back of the housing market boom or dot.com bubble have been unsustainable. However investment in renewables and low carbon energy could improve the economy in the long term. ...	But then how will we grow the economy back to unsustainable levels? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Nov 26, 2008 from Reuters: Greenhouse gases hit record levels last year GENEVA (Reuters) - Gases blamed for global warming reached record levels in the atmosphere last year, the United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday. Concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) touched new highs after more steady rises in 2007, and methane had its largest annual increase in a decade, the World Meteorological Organization said. "The major greenhouse gases -- CO2, methane and N2O -- have all reached new highs in 2007. Two of them, CO2 and N20, are increasing steadily and there is no sign of leveling off of those two gases," WMO expert Geir Braathen told a news briefing. ...	From the Department of We Are Soooooo Screwed. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Nov 26, 2008 from London Independent: 3,000 dead from cholera in Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's President, is trying to hide the real extent of the cholera epidemic sweeping across his nation by silencing health workers and restricting access to the huge number of death certificates that give the same cause of death. A senior official in the health ministry told The Independent yesterday that more than 3,000 people have died from the water-borne disease in the past two weeks, 10 times the widely-reported death toll of just over 300....The way to prevent death is, for the Zimbabwean people, agonisingly simple: antibiotics and rehydration. But this is a country with a broken sewerage system and soap is hard to come by. Harare's Central Hospital officially closed last week, doctors and nurses are scarce and even those clinics offering a semblance of service do not have access to safe, clean drinking water and ask patients to bring their own. ...	Zimbab-we are all connected. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Nov 26, 2008 from Science News: Antidepressants make for sad fish ...Tons of medicine ends up in the environment each year. Much has been excreted by patients. Leftover pills may also have been flushed down the toilet. Because water treatment plants were never designed to remove pharmaceuticals, water released into rivers by these plants generally carries a broad and diverse array of drug residues.... Fish exposed as embryos or hatchlings to trace concentrations of the antidepressant venlafaxine, marketed as Effexor, didn't react as quickly as normal to stimuli signaling a possible predator. This laid-back reaction could prove to be a "death sentence"... ...	Hey, for all we know, it's fun to be lunch! ApocaDoc permalink
You're still reading! Good for you! You really should read our short, funny, frightening book FREE online (or buy a print copy): Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! We've been quipping this stuff for more than 30 months! Every day! Which might explain why we don't get invited to parties anymore.
Wed, Nov 26, 2008 from Guardian (UK): Inspiring people to grow their own food ... That's why I really like the idea of the WHO Farm Project in the US. It's an attempt to convince Barack Obama to also reach for the spade when he takes the keys to the White House in January and symbolically dig up the famous front lawn in order to toss in some vegetable seeds. It's exactly what the Roosevelts did during the second world war and it helped to inspire over 20m so-called "Victory Gardens" across the US. The garden at 10 Downing St isn't blessed with quite as many rods of prime growing land, but Buckingham Palace, and other world-famous sites across the UK, certainly are. It's not as if a decent veg patch needs to take up that much room. And just think of all those other wasted spaces where veg could easily be grown -- parks, verges, roundabouts (OK, that might be a little dangerous) and all those monoculture corporate HQ landscaped gardens. ...	We need not vanquish to declare victories like this. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Nov 26, 2008 from Telegraph.co.uk: Waterway wildlife sightings down by 25 percent The 2008 figures show 3,000 sightings compared to 4,000 in 2007 -- despite a 17 per cent rise in visitor numbers across the waterways network. Officials are baffled by the drop but suspect it is a statistical 'blip' rather than a dramatic fall in the number of animals. Many more people now use waterway tow paths as a route to work – walking, running or cycling – as well as for spotting wildlife. "If there is a similar fall-off in numbers next year then there will be a cause for concern but at the moment I am not too worried," said Dr Mark Robinson, national ecology manager for British Waterways. ...	That's a blip like a sledgehammer is a mallet. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Nov 26, 2008 from London Guardian: FDA finds traces of melamine in US infant formula Traces of the industrial chemical melamine have been detected in samples of top-selling U.S. infant formula, but federal regulators insist the products are safe. The Food and Drug Administration said last month it was unable to identify any melamine exposure level as safe for infants, but a top official said it would be a "dangerous overreaction" for parents to stop feeding infant formula to babies who depend on it.... Previously undisclosed tests, obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the FDA has detected melamine in a sample of one popular formula and the presence of cyanuric acid, a chemical relative of melamine, in the formula of a second manufacturer. Separately, a third major formula maker told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula. The three firms -- Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson -- manufacture more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States. ...	waaaaaaaaaaaa... waaaaaaaaaa... waaaaaaaa! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 25, 2008 from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Transporting Broiler Chickens Could Spread Antibiotic-resistant Organisms Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have found evidence of a novel pathway for potential human exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria from intensively raised poultry-- driving behind the trucks transporting broiler chickens from farm to slaughterhouse. A study by the Hopkins researchers found increased levels of pathogenic bacteria, both susceptible and drug-resistant, on surfaces and in the air inside cars traveling behind trucks that carry broiler chickens. ...	Eat my .... antibiotic-resistant dust. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 25, 2008 from Kalamazoo Gazette: War on ash borer moves outside of Lower Peninsula The native ash trees in Michigan's Lower Peninsula are doomed. Even $70 million in tax dollars has not been enough to defeat the shiny, green emerald ash borer, a beetle that hitchhiked to Michigan from Asia in 2002 and has since feasted on the state's ash-tree population. Michigan agriculture officials admit it's futile to enforce a Lower Peninsula quarantine designed to contain the beetle to identified "hot spots." The reason: Everywhere is a hot spot now in the Lower Peninsula. "If you look in Southeast Michigan, or the Kalamazoo area, you are hard-pressed to find any ash trees that are alive," said Kenneth Rauscher, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture's pesticide and plant-pest management division. "The future of ash is very, very dim." ...	Ashes to ashes.... dust to dust... ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 25, 2008 from New York Times: Economic Slump May Limit Moves on Clean Energy Just as the world seemed poised to combat global warming more aggressively, the economic slump and plunging prices of coal and oil are upending plans to wean businesses and consumers from fossil fuel. From Italy to China, the threat to jobs, profits and government tax revenues posed by the financial crisis has cast doubt on commitments to cap emissions or phase out polluting factories. Automakers, especially Detroit's Big Three, face collapsing sales, threatening their plans to invest heavily in more fuel-efficient cars. And with gas prices now around $2 a gallon in the United States, struggling consumers may be less inclined than they once were to trade in their gas-guzzling models in any case. ...	Fear stops us from thinking ahead? Are we really that effing stupid? ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 25, 2008 from Canwest News: WARMING TO GLOBAL WARMING ...a group of global-warming experts, made up mainly of university economists and anthropologists, is pushing the notion that global warming might not be an unmitigated disaster, especially for certain northerly regions, such as Canada, Russia and Scandinavia. Leading the charge is Robert Mendelsohn, an economics professor at Yale University, who says the benefits of global warming for Canada - from a longer growing season to the opening up of shipping through the Northwest Passage - will outweigh the negative effects. "You're lucky because you're a northern-latitude country, Mendelsohn says. "If you add it all up, it's a good thing for Canada." ...	It would appear this economics prof can't do the true math that everything is connected. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 25, 2008 from Associated Press: One-third of China's Yellow River heavily polluted with industrial discharge BEIJING (AP) _ Newly released scientific results show one-third of the famed Yellow River, which supplies water to millions of people in northern China, is heavily polluted by industrial waste and unsafe for any use. The Yellow River, the second-longest in China, has seen its water quality deteriorate rapidly in the last few years, as discharge from factories increases and water levels drop because of diversion for booming cities. The river supplies a region chronically short of water but rich in industry. The Yellow River Conservancy Committee said 33.8 percent of the river's water sampled registered worse than level 5, meaning it's unfit for drinking, aquaculture, industrial use and even agriculture, according to criteria used by the United Nations Environmental Program. ...	The Yellow River: Livin' up to its name! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 25, 2008 from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Fox River's dredging for PCBs starts soon Green Bay - The workhorse in the biggest and most expensive phase to clean up the Fox River is a massive building rising from the banks of the river. Operating like a factory, the 242,000-square-foot facility will extract chemical compounds from river sediments for an estimated seven years and send them away in scores of dump trucks every day. After years of jockeying and extensive planning, the actual processing of the contaminated sediments starts in May - making the Fox and the Hudson River in New York the largest remediation projects in the country. The Fox is the largest single source of polychlorinated biphenyls on Lake Michigan. ...	Ideally it will be done in a fair and balanced way! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 24, 2008 from University of Chicago, via EurekAlert: Ocean growing more acidic faster than once thought University of Chicago scientists have documented that the ocean is growing more acidic faster than previously thought. In addition, they have found that the increasing acidity correlates with increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a paper published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Nov. 24.... "The acidity increased more than 10 times faster than had been predicted by climate change models and other studies," Wootton said. "This increase will have a severe impact on marine food webs and suggests that ocean acidification may be a more urgent issue than previously thought, at least in some areas of the ocean." The ocean plays a significant role in global carbon cycles. When atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolves in water it forms carbonic acid, increasing the acidity of the ocean. During the day, carbon dioxide levels in the ocean fall because photosynthesis takes it out of the water, but at night, levels increase again. The study documented this daily pattern, as well as a steady increase in acidity over time. ...	It burns! It burns! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 24, 2008 from Texas A&M, via EurekAlert: Nutrients in water may be a bonus for agriculture Drs. John Sij, Cristine Morgan and Paul DeLaune have studied nitrate levels in irrigation water from the Seymour Aquifer for the past three years, and have found nitrates can be as high as 40 parts per million. Though unacceptable for drinking, the water would benefit agricultural producers who use it for irrigation. This high concentration of nitrates is a concern because it exceeds the federal safe drinking water standards as the aquifer is used as a municipal water source for the communities of Vernon, Burkburnett and Electra, as well as some rural families, Sij said. "When you get more than 10 parts per million, it exceeds the federal limit," he said. "Our water at Chillicothe is around 20 parts per million, so we don't give it to the babies, but adults can drink it."... "At nearly a $1 per pound for fertilizer nitrogen these days, 55 'free' pounds of nitrogen can add up to significant cost savings, about $55 per acre or more, for producers who irrigate their crops with high nitrate ground water," DeLaune said. ...	This is trying to find a silver lining in a big fat load of shit. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 24, 2008 from Honolulu Injury Board: Breast Cancer Risk in Hawaii Linked to Pesticides in Drinking Water and Indoor Air Pesticides leach into the Hawaii ground water system and end up in our drinking water. The warm tropical sun causes the pesticides to evaporate and enter the building through gaps in the foundation and infect breathing spaces inside the homes and schools and office buildings. Not only cancer but many respiratory diseases are caused by pesticides. Controlling insects with pesticides is a huge risk to drinking water and indoor air quality in Hawaii, and ultimately to matters of life and death to the public in Hawaii.... "Emerging evidence on endocrine disruption suggests that environmental chemicals may play a role in the development of breast cancer. Agricultural chemicals, including endocrine disruptors, have been used intensively in Hawaii's island ecosystem over the past 40 years leaching into groundwater, and leading to unusually widespread occupational and general population exposures." ...	That toxical Paradise, Hawaii. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 24, 2008 from Environmental News Network: 'Fish technology' draws renewable energy from slow water currents Slow-moving ocean and river currents could be a new, reliable and affordable alternative energy source. A University of Michigan engineer has made a machine that works like a fish to turn potentially destructive vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power.... Here's how VIVACE works: The very presence of the cylinder in the current causes alternating vortices to form above and below the cylinder. The vortices push and pull the passive cylinder up and down on its springs, creating mechanical energy. Then, the machine converts the mechanical energy into electricity. Just a few cylinders might be enough to power an anchored ship, or a lighthouse, Bernitsas says. These cylinders could be stacked in a short ladder. The professor estimates that array of VIVACE converters the size of a running track and about two stories high could power about 100,000 houses. Such an array could rest on a river bed or it could dangle, suspended in the water. But it would all be under the surface. ...	I love that sound of that: VIVACE energy from vortices -- va va VOOM. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 24, 2008 from Sydney Morning Herald: Rescued whales reunite in Bass Strait Five pilot whales tagged with satellite tracking devices after surviving a mass stranding have successfully joined a larger pod in deeper waters off Tasmania. It's the first time whales rescued from stranding have been tagged to track their progress. Wildlife officers were celebrating on Monday after launching a huge rescue operation, which followed Saturday's mass beaching by more than 60 whales at Anthonys Beach near Stanley on Tasmania's north-west coast. Despite the efforts of 60 volunteers and 15 government wildlife officers, 53 whales died, but 11 were saved after being transported on trucks 17km along the Bass Highway and released in deep water at Godfreys Beach on Sunday. ...	Good job, Aussies. Now, will the Japanese kill them for scientific research? ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 24, 2008 from Mongabay: Madagascar denies 'land grab' by South Korean conglomerate Officials from Madagascar are denying they have reached an agreement to turn over half the island nation's arable land to a South Korean corporation for food production, reports Reuters. The controversial deal -- which would have paid Madagascar nothing and turned over 1.3 million hectares to produce corn and palm oil for export at a time when one-third of country's children are malnourished -- was reported last week by the Financial Times. "Several announcements have been made regarding Daewoo Logistics' project which are erroneous and we would like to set the record straight," Eric Beantanana, of the Economic Development Board of Madagascar, told Reuters on Thursday.... "Furthermore, we are talking about a search for 100,000 hectares ... It is only after this stage that the rest of the process will continue." ...	A lot of fauna -- not to mention flora -- are happier today. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 24, 2008 from Journal of Medical Microbiology, via EurekAlert: Scientists discover 21st century plague Bacteria that can cause serious heart disease in humans are being spread by rat fleas, sparking concern that the infections could become a bigger problem in humans. Research published in the December issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology suggests that brown rats, the biggest and most common rats in Europe, may now be carrying the bacteria. Since the early 1990s, more than 20 species of Bartonella bacteria have been discovered. They are considered to be emerging zoonotic pathogens, because they can cause serious illness in humans worldwide from heart disease to infection of the spleen and nervous system. ...	Next they'll be carrying MRSA -- those dirty rats. ApocaDoc permalink