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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:	(4)
Plague/Virus:	(2)
Climate Chaos:	(7)
Resource Depletion:	(2)
Biology Breach:	(6)
Recovery:	(6)

This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
climate impacts ~ contamination ~ smart policy ~ efficiency increase ~ economic myopia ~ global warming ~ governmental idiocy ~ technological innovation ~ melting glaciers ~ sixth extinction ~ governmental corruption

ApocaDocuments (27) gathered this week:
Sat, May 9, 2009 from BBC: 'Climate threat' to Tibet region Rising temperatures in Tibet are threatening droughts and floods, which could endanger millions of people, China's top weather official warned. Climate change "has accelerated glacial shrinkage" which has already led to swollen lakes, said Zheng Guoguang. He said that if the warming continued, many of those living in western China would face "floods in the short-term and drought in the long-run". Beijing says it wants to tackle climate change yet ensure economic development. Experts say more than 400 million people in China are already living with the problem of desertification, partly brought on by climate change. ...	Let's just blame it on the Dalai Lama. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, May 9, 2009 from TIME Magazine: Another Blow to Ethanol: Biolectricity Is Greener Once touted as an environmental and economic cure-all, corn ethanol has had a rough year. The collapse in grain and oil prices, preceded by overinvestment in refineries over the past few years, badly hurt ethanol producers. Meanwhile, environmentalists have steadily chipped away at ethanol's green credentials. Far from being better for the planet than gasoline, many scientists now argue that ethanol actually has a sizable carbon footprint, because when farmers in the U.S. use their land to grow corn for fuel rather than food, farmers in the developing world end up cutting down more forests to pick up the slack. Now a new study makes the case that ethanol isn't even the greenest way to use biomass as a fuel. In an article published in the May 8 issue of Science, researchers from the Carnegie Institution, Stanford University and the University of California-Merced (UCM) used life-cycle analysis — which takes into account the entire impact of a biofuel from field to vehicle — to show that converting biomass to electricity (to power electric cars) produces 80 percent more transportation energy than turning it into ethanol (to power a flex-fuel car), with a carbon footprint that is half as small. ...	Perhaps corn can back to doing what it does best: make corn syrup! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, May 9, 2009 from The New York Times: UN: Treaty Expanded by 9 More Dangerous Chemicals A U.N.-sponsored treaty to combat highly dangerous chemicals has been expanded to include nine more substances that are used in pesticides, electronics and other products, U.N. officials said Saturday. The additions include one called PFOS worth billions of dollars in a wide range of uses from making semiconductor chips to fighting fires. Another is lindane, a pesticide widely used in combatting head lice. "These chemicals transit boundaries. They are found everywhere in the world," Donald Cooper, [executive secretary to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs] said. "They don't go away. They persist in the atmosphere, they persist in the soil, in the water for extremely long periods of time." ...	And, quite often, these chemicals have way too many syllables!! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, May 8, 2009 from Associated Press: Gov't sticks with Bush polar bear rule The Interior Department is letting stand a Bush administration regulation that limits protection of polar bears from global warming, three people familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will announce on Friday that he will not rescind the Bush rule, although Congress gave him authority to do so. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to pre-empt the secretary's announcement. ...	Once again... leaving the polar bears high and dry! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, May 8, 2009 from Syracuse Post-Standard: Syracuse's community gardens are tainted with lead and arsenic A dedicated band of gardeners have been tilling Syracuse's soil as a way of building community and providing fresh fruits and vegetables to their families. But the plots they have been eating from and others they have been working to develop are contaminated with toxic metals. In at least some cases, Syracuse city workers were likely the ones who laid down the polluted dirt. A recent study of six local community gardens by scientists at the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry showed that all but one of the plots contained elevated levels of lead, according to preliminary results. Samples from one garden in development -- the Isabella Street Community Garden -- exceeded health standards set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The normal level of lead in soil is between 40 and 50 parts per million. The Syracuse gardens have lead levels that range from 46 to 820 parts per million. Moreover, arsenic levels in all of the plots except for one were off the charts, said ESF professor Venera Jouraeva, who led the study. ...	I wondered why my carrots seem soooo heavy... ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, May 8, 2009 from Charleston Gazette: Bush EPA hid data on coal-ash risks, study shows The Bush administration kept secret for nearly five years data that showed increased cancer risks from drinking water polluted by coal-ash impoundments, according to a new report issued Thursday. Under President Bush, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials never made public an October 2002 study that outlined increased risks of as high as 1 in 50 additional cancer cases. EPA later published some of the data in an August 2007 study. But even then, the agency report left out some key information about additional dangers to aquatic ecosystems and wildlife from toxic metals leaching out of unlined or inadequately lined coal-ash dumps. The Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice on Thursday issued a report that tries to explain in simple language the findings in both EPA documents, which examined more than 200 coal-ash landfills and surface impoundments. ...	Bush and company... nothing but a bunch of ashholes! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, May 8, 2009 from New York Times: U.S. Drops Research Into Fuel Cells for Cars Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells, once hailed by President George W. Bush as a pollution-free solution for reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil, will not be practical over the next 10 to 20 years, the energy secretary said Thursday, and the government will cut off funds for the vehicles' development.... The Energy Department will continue to pay for research into stationary fuel cells, which Dr. Chu said could be used like batteries on the power grid and do not require compact storage of hydrogen. The Obama administration will also establish eight "energy innovation hubs," small centers for basic research that Dr. Chu referred to as "Bell Lablettes." These will be financed for five years at a time to lure more scientists into the energy area. "We're very devoted to delivering solutions -- not just science papers, but solutions -- but it will require some basic science," Dr. Chu, who won a Nobel Prize for his work in physics, said at a news conference. ...	Again with the pragmatics. Where has the ideology gone? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, May 8, 2009 from DOE, via EurekAlert: Report examines limits of national power grid simulations America's power grid today resembles the country's canal system of the 19th Century. A marvel of engineering for its time, the canal system eventually could not keep pace with the growing demands of transcontinental transportation. More than 150 years later, America's infrastructure is again changing in ways that its designers never anticipated. Distributed and intermittent electricity generation, such as wind power, is rapidly expanding, new smart meters are giving consumers more control over their energy usage, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles may someday radically increase the overall demand for electricity.... "Implementing smart grid technologies on a large scale will not be trivial," Petri added. "The challenges go beyond technical and economic issues. The smart grid technologies could fundamentally change how national power grid systems operate and respond to disruptions." ...	Since when is smart anything trivial? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 7, 2009 from BusinessGreen: Ford to convert SUV plant to produce its first electric car In a highly symbolic move, auto giant Ford announced yesterday that it is to invest $550,000,000 ... in converting a Michigan plant currently used to manufacture SUVs into a factory specialising in small, fuel-efficient cars that will also produce its first electric vehicle. The company said that the plant would be refitted to manufacture a new version of its small Ford Focus from next year, and would then begin producing a battery-electric version of the Focus -- Ford's first all-electric passenger car -- in 2011. The Michigan plant was one of the world's most profitable car factories during the late 90s when sales of large SUVs such as Ford's Lincoln Navigator boomed. However, it has suffered in recent years as the market for larger vehicles has collapsed. ...	But without a monster SUV, how can I prove my dominant-primate status? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 7, 2009 from BBC (UK): Wild fruit trees face extinction The wild ancestors of common domestic fruit trees are in danger of becoming extinct, scientists have warned.... These disease-resistant and climate-tolerant fruit trees could play a role in our future food security. But in the last 50 years, about 90 percent of the forests have been destroyed, according to conservation charity, Fauna and Flora International.... "A lot of our domestic fruit supply comes from a very narrow genetic base," she continued. "Given the threats posed to food supplies by disease and the changing climate, we may need to go back to these species and include them in breeding programmes." ...	Most of my ancestors are already dead. What's the big deal? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 7, 2009 from Mongabay: Chimpanzee population plummets 90 percent in supposedly strong region A new survey of our closest relatives in the Cote D'Ivoire found that the population fell from an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 individuals to a paltry 800 to 1,200, a decline that took place in less than twenty years. Perhaps most troubling about this new survey is Cote d'Ivoire was supposed to be a stronghold for chimpanzees in West Africa. The report warns it is likely that similar declines have occurred in other West African nations. Researchers point to an increase of humans in Cote d'Ivoire as the primary reason. Since 1990 the nation has seen its human population grow by 50 percent. This has lead to increases in poaching and deforestation, activities which target both chimps and their habitat. "The habitat is gone, and all the protected areas have been invaded by people. It's not just the chimps -- [there's] no animals at all," lead author Genevieve Campbell told National Geographic. ...	We're running the risk of genus-cide. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 7, 2009 from The Engineer (UK): Hot topic: Geoengineering There are two main methods of doing this. One is reversing the greenhouse effect by pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and locking it away in a planetary version of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) scheme. That may sound ambitious, but it is nothing compared to the other option: create a giant sunshade to prevent some of the sun's rays from hitting the atmosphere in the first place. As far fetched as these ideas seem, they are now beginning to gather attention and are the subject of serious research. To some, however, particularly in the environmental movement, they are seen as a distraction from the matter of reducing emissions and developing renewable technologies.... Some of the effects of global warming are only just becoming apparent and this drastic form of global cooling could easily have effects that are difficult to predict. 'One important consideration is: if it goes wrong, can you turn it off?' Vaughan added. ...	Lifestyle change? Me? Heck, just let the scientists and engineers fix it. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 7, 2009 from UCLA, via EurekAlert: UCLA physicists create world's smallest incandescent lamp The incandescent lamp utilizes a filament made from a single carbon nanotube that is only 100 atoms wide. To the unaided eye, the filament is completely invisible when the lamp is off, but it appears as tiny point of light when the lamp is turned on. Even with the best optical microscope, it is only just possible to resolve the nanotube's non-zero length. To image the filament's true structure the team uses an electron microscope capable of atomic resolution. With less than 20 million atoms, the nanotube filament is both large enough to apply the statistical assumptions of thermodynamics and small enough to be considered as a molecular � that is, quantum mechanical � system. "Because both the topic (black-body radiation) and the size scale (nano) are on the boundary between the two theories, we think this is a very promising system to explore," Regan said. "The carbon nanotube that is used as the lamp filament is ideal for their purposes because of its smallness and extraordinary temperature stability." ...	Shouldn't we be replacing these incandescent lights with really tiny CFLs? 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!
Thu, May 7, 2009 from Sacramento News and Reviews: An outsider's view of Earth Believing that an outsider perspective may be illuminating in evaluating today�s news, we imagine here what The Briefer would tell "a volunteer" about Earth�s present situation.... How serious is the situation with the biosphere? Very serious. Humanity will either build new renewable energy-powered economies and live, or fail to do so and die. As in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, people will have to consume far less and invest far more in building a new economy. They will have to live with less now so that they -- and their kids and grandkids -- will not only live well but simply live. Doing so is technically feasible but politically difficult.... What evidence is there for the magnitude of this threat? The world's scientists, traditionally competing for grants and laurels like the Nobel Prize, rarely agree. For the first time in scientific history, however, climate scientists have not only reached a near-unanimous consensus that human-made global warming threatens humanity, but have formed a global organization -- the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- to try and prevent it. ...	Could an outsider truly understand human problems? As if!!! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, May 6, 2009 from Guardian (UK): Agenda 21 Sinks Norwegian Whaler "We came to Henningsvaer. We saw the Skarbakk. We sank the bastard." This was the message left by the anonymous activists who scuttled the Norwegian whaling ship the Skarbakk last month. On April 23 a group identifying themselves only as Agenda 21 � named after the UN programme for sustainable development that was often talked about in the 90s but seems to have been completely forgotten about today � crept on to the boat, anchored in Henningsvaer harbour, and used an adjustable spanner to open the salt water intake and flood the engine room. Before the ship hit bottom fire crews had got to it. However, the ship had already filled with sea water, so damage was extensive and will certainly be expensive. And this is not the first time it's happened.... The Skarbakk is the fourth ship they've sunk in 12 years. Norwegian whalers pay huge insurance premiums as a result of their campaign, but it hasn't had much impact on whaling. The amount of whales caught by Norway has risen from 280 in 1994 to 592 in 2007. ...	Much as I applaud the sentiment, this is not the way to win Norwegian hearts and minds. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, May 6, 2009 from BBC: 'Anaconda' harnesses wave power A new wave energy device known as "Anaconda" is the latest idea to harness the power of the seas. Its inventors claim the key to its success lies in its simplicity: Anaconda is little more than a length of rubber tubing filled with water. Waves in the water create bulges along the tubing that travel along its length gathering energy. At the end of the tube, the surge of energy drives a turbine and generates electricity.... [T]he problem holding back wave energy machines is that devices tend to deteriorate over time in the harsh marine environment. "Anaconda is non-mechanical. It is mainly rubber, a natural material with a natural resilience, and so has very few moving parts to maintain."... It is claimed that a group of 50 full-size Anacondas -- each 200m long -- could provide electricity for 50,000 homes. ...	That's a thousand homes per Anaconda... Snakes on the Waves! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, May 6, 2009 from University of Montreal, via EurekAlert: Battery-powered vehicles to be revolutionized by Universite de Montreal technology "It's a revolutionary battery because it is made from non-toxic materials abundant in the Earth's crust. Plus, it's not expensive,'" says Michel Gauthier, an invited professor at the Universit� de Montr�al Department of Chemistry and co-founder of Phostech Lithium, the company that makes the battery material. "This [LiFePO4] battery could eventually make the electric car very profitable."... "It is a battery that is much more stable and much safer," says Dean MacNeil, a professor at the Universite de Montreal's Department of Chemistry and new NSERC-Phostech Lithium Industrial Research Chair in Energy Storage and Conversion. "In addition, it recharges much faster than previous batteries." ...	And what a great acronym! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 5, 2009 from CBC News (Canada): Researchers flag increasing levels of fresh water in Labrador Sea Melting Arctic ice that flows into the Labrador Sea could affect the climate along the Labrador coast, and elsewhere in the North Atlantic, new research suggests.... "We see this small trend towards fresher waters coming out, but we're not certain if it's a large-scale trend yet," said oceanographer Craig Lee, who headed the research project. Lee said more fresh water would slow down the Labrador Current, which flows south along the Labrador coast. Water density changes in the Labrador Sea could also affect the Gulf Stream, a transatlantic current that brings warm temperatures to northern Europe.... Anderson said people in Nain are already living with effects. For example, he said the "rattles" -- places that don't freeze over in the winter because of the movement of currents -- are getting smaller. ...	The perimeter fresh water freezes better. Will we end up with Arctic fringe baldness? How do we do a comb-over? ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 5, 2009 from Miami Herald: Bolivia's Chacaltaya glacier is gone If anyone needs a reminder of the on-the-ground impacts of global climate change, come to the Andes mountains in Bolivia. At 17,388 feet above sea level, Chacaltaya, an 18,000 year-old glacier that delighted thousands of visitors for decades, is gone, completely melted away as of some sad, undetermined moment early this year. "Chacaltaya has disappeared. It no longer exists," said Dr. Edson Ramirez, head of an international team of scientists that has studied the glacier since 1991. Chacaltaya (the name in Aymara means "cold road") began melting in the mid-1980s. ...	Just like Frosty... except it won't be back again someday! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 5, 2009 from National Geographic News: New, Fast-Evolving Rabies Virus Found -- And Spreading Evolving faster than any other new rabies virus on record, a northern-Arizona rabies strain has mutated to become contagious among skunks and now foxes, experts believe. The strain looks to be spreading fast, commanding attention from disease researchers across the United States... What is unusual is that the strain appears to have mutated so that foxes and skunks are now able to pass the virus on to their kin -- not just through biting and scratching but through simple socializing, as humans might spread a flu. ...	Whew! Now I can stop worrying about that durn swine flu! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 5, 2009 from Kansas City Star: New governor approves one coal-fired power plant for Kansas In a stunning reversal from his predecessor, Gov. Mark Parkinson on Monday signed an agreement ending a two-year fight over plans to build coal-fired power plants in western Kansas. The compromise allows Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build one 895-megawatt coal-fired power plant near Holcomb, instead of two 700-megawatt plants that were repeatedly blocked by Kathleen Sebelius when she was governor. In exchange for the go-ahead, Sunflower will build more wind turbines and agree to more pollution controls and a greater investment in energy efficiency. "We have been at an energy impasse for the past couple of years," said Parkinson, a Democrat. "I thought it was time to bring an end to that impasse." ...	With Dorothy gone to Washington, looks like the Wicked Witch is taking over. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 5, 2009 from Washington Post: For Old Drugs, New Tricks ...leftover pills can seem so small, so easily disposable, that many people routinely flush them down toilets, wash them down sinks or throw them in trash that goes to a landfill. And then they often end up in places where they shouldn't be, like the public water supply. The average American takes more than 12 prescription drugs annually, with more than 3.8 billion prescriptions purchased each year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The most commonly cited estimates from Environmental Protection Agency researchers say that about 19 million tons of active pharmaceutical ingredients are dumped into the nation's waste stream every year. ...	Funny how I always feel my mood elevated after a cool drink of tapwater. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 5, 2009 from New York Times: Justices Limit Liability Over Toxic Spill Cases The Supreme Court made it harder on Monday for the government to recover the often enormous costs of environmental cleanups from companies with only minor or limited responsibility for toxic spills. The decision tightened the reach of the Superfund law, known formally as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, by limiting both the kinds of companies subject to liability and the situations in which partly culpable companies can be made to bear the entire cost of cleanups. ...	The High Court... must be high! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 4, 2009 from ABC News: Plastic bag ban begins South Australia has become the first state to ban lightweight plastic checkout bags. The ban is expected to reduce the 400 million bags a year which end up in dumps. Shops must supply reusable or environmentally friendly alternatives such as cornstarch or paper bags. Retailers could get an on the spot fine of $315, or a maximum penalty of $5,000 if they are caught breaching the ban. ...	Quit being a bag nag! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 4, 2009 from All Headline News: Pig Farmers Clash With Police In Egypt To Prevent Mass Slaughter Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - Hundreds of pig farmers reportedly clashed with the riot police on Sunday in the capital city of Egypt as they try to stop the government from taking away their pigs to slaughter. At least 300 residents gathered in the Egyptian capital Cairo to demand to stop of slaughter and threw stones and bottles at police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, BBC reported. The authorities in Cairo have stepped up measures to accelerate pigs slaughter to curb the spread of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus. Some of the pig farmers in Cairo also submitted complaint to the local churches, but they refused to interfere with the slaughtering or culling of farmers' pigs. The government has also been criticized for overreacting to the threat and not providing compensation to the pig-farmers for their losses. ...	Pigs vs. pigs! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 4, 2009 from Washington Post: Finding Space for All in Our Crowded Seas The ocean is getting crowded: Fishermen are competing with offshore wind projects, oil rigs along with sand miners, recreational boaters, liquefied gas tankers and fish farmers. So a growing number of groups -- including policymakers, academics, activists and industry officials -- now say it's time to divvy up space in the sea... To resolve these conflicts, a handful of states -- including Massachusetts, California and Rhode Island -- have begun essentially zoning the ocean, drawing up rules and procedures to determine which activities can take place and where. ...	Tell ya what. Y'all can just have that giant garbage island! 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.
Mon, May 4, 2009 from New York Times: Earlier Puberty in European Girls A 15-year study of young girls in Denmark found that the average age of breast development has fallen by a full year compared to girls studied in the early 1990s. The findings, published this month in the journal Pediatrics, add to a growing body of evidence that the timing of puberty is changing, possibly related to environmental exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals that mimic estrogen in the body.... The average age for breast development among the current generation of girls was 9.86 years, compared to an average age of 10.88 years among the children studied in the early 1990s. ...	At this rate, girls will be born with breasts by the year 2143. ApocaDoc permalink