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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

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Species Collapse:	(5)
Plague/Virus:	(2)
Climate Chaos:	(10)
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This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
climate impacts ~ holyshit ~ contamination ~ global warming ~ arctic meltdown ~ faster than expected ~ ecosystem interrelationships ~ toxic water ~ corporate farming ~ anthropogenic change ~ albedo effect

ApocaDocuments (34) gathered this week:
Sun, Sep 6, 2009 from Guardian (UK): Climate change: melting ice will trigger wave of natural disasters Scientists are to outline dramatic evidence that global warming threatens the planet in a new and unexpected way – by triggering earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches and volcanic eruptions.... Melting glaciers will set off avalanches, floods and mud flows in the Alps and other mountain ranges; torrential rainfall in the UK is likely to cause widespread erosion; while disappearing Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets threaten to let loose underwater landslides, triggering tsunamis that could even strike the seas around Britain. At the same time the disappearance of ice caps will change the pressures acting on the Earth's crust and set off volcanic eruptions across the globe. Life on Earth faces a warm future -- and a fiery one. ...	Hey, maybe the smoke from all those volcanoes will cool the globe! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Sep 6, 2009 from GOOD: Redesign Your Farmers' Market Winners Our latest project, Redesign Your Farmers' Market, asked for design solutions that would help food grown by local farmers to be more effectively delivered and distributed to urban residents. We received 65 entries from as far away as Finland, England, New Zealand, and Lithuania. Our ten judges picked 22 finalists which were exhibited at the Los Angeles farmers' market celebration 30 Years & Growing, as well as three runners-up and one winner. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who submitted for your thoughtful and passionate solutions. ...	Corporate farming built this country. What are you, a socialist? ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Sep 6, 2009 from Foreign Policy: Oil Spin Last week, four of the world's most outspoken oil aficionados waded into the controversy of peak oil, publishing articles packed with myth and distortion. This "Gang of Four" all claimed the issue was silly, moot, or simply a myth.... Thus, these four global oil authorities mused that oil, celebrating its 150th birthday last week, has never been in better shape. How terrific the world's outlook would be if these four myths had even a touch of reality! Sadly, if one ignores opinion and simply adheres to a body of well-documented -- if ugly -- facts, it quickly becomes clear that these four assertions are utterly without substance.... The facts speak for themselves: Oil flows have peaked, technology is now mature, the people running the industry are far too old, and few top-notch graduates are interested in embarking on a career in such a volatile field. ...	And the writer has been an oil-service investment banker for decades. Gulp. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Sep 6, 2009 from Financial Times: Thumbs up to geo engineering, thumbs down to carbon taxes from Lomborg group We now have the results of the study by the Copenhagen Consensus -- a group of economists brought together by Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Sceptical Environmentalist -- showing which options for averting dangerous climate change they judge to offer the best value for money. Five economists -- Finn Kydland, Thomas C. Schelling, Vernon L. Smith, Nancy L. Stokey, and Jagdish Bhagwati (the first three are Nobel laureates) decided the rankings. ...	So stupid they're not just wrong, but criminally wrong. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Sep 6, 2009 from New Scientist: Pain-free animals could take suffering out of farming "If we can't do away with factory farming, we should at least take steps to minimise the amount of suffering that is caused," says Adam Shriver, a philosopher at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. In a provocative paper published this month, Shriver contends that genetically engineered pain-free animals are the most acceptable alternative.... "I'm offering a solution where you could still eat meat but avoid animal suffering."... ...	I'm... speechless. And it's painful. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Sep 6, 2009 from Cebu Daily News (Philippines): Moratorium on coal ash dumping declared A moratorium on coal ash dumping in Naga City, Cebu was declared last month by a regional environment official pending test findings of chemical and air pollution tests. With this, Salcon Power Corp. and Korean Power Corp. are supposed to halt all indiscriminate disposal of coal ash waste from their power-generating plants.... In recent months, trucks have been unloading black soil-like material in open spaces, including a private subdivision, of Naga. Some residents welcomed the ash as filling materials for vacant property, unaware of warnings that coal ash was a pollutant and may contain heavy metals and toxic substances that endanger health. ...	But it's so much cheaper to dump it willy-nilly. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Sep 6, 2009 from Bloomington Alternative: Our PCBs: Forgotten but not gone Six PCB Superfund sites lie within 20 miles of the Courthouse Square. And PCBs cause cancer, neurologic disorders, endocrine system disruption, reproductive problems and birth defects in people and nonhuman animals. Often associated with PCBs are other chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as dioxin and furans. Dioxin is the most powerful chemical carcinogen known. It's second only to radiation as the most potent carcinogen discovered to date. It was used in the Vietnam War as a defoliant called Agent Orange.... The Westinghouse Corp. (now CBS) manufactured PCB-filled electrical capacitors in Bloomington for about 30 years. The PCBs, manufactured by Monsanto under the trade name Innerteen, were used as insulating fluid. In 1975 a Bloomington newspaper reporter discovered that since about 1958, Westinghouse had routinely poured PCBs into the Bloomington sewer system and dumping defective, PCB-filled capacitors at eight locations: Lemon Lane Landfill, Neal's Landfill, Neal's Dump, Bennett's Quarry, the Winston Thomas Sewage Treatment Plant, the Anderson Road Landfill, Fell Iron and Metal (a salvage yard) and the Westinghouse property. The first four are on the National Priorities List, a list of contaminated sites commonly referred to as Superfund sites. ...	You can be sure... if it's Westinghouse. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Sep 5, 2009 from The Daily Climate: Seeking rapid change in human behavior Frustrated by society's inability to tackle pressing environmental dilemmas, Stanford University ecologist Paul Ehrlich on Friday announced a new endeavor aimed at rapidly turning human behavior toward a more sustainable future. Called the Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior, or MAHB (pronounced "mob"), the venture seeks to link a broad array of seemingly unrelated human activities that endanger humanity's future - from racism to climate change, loss of biological diversity, water shortages, declining food security, economic justice and pollution. The hope, Ehrlich said, is that by making these larger connections, more effective solutions can be found. "Basically, absolutely nothing is happening," he said. "We don't need more scientific evidence that we're screwing ourselves. We need to get beyond the cultural discussions we're having now." ...	You gotta 'preciate Ehrlich's chutzpah. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Sep 5, 2009 from National Science Foundation via ScienceDaily: Early Warning Signals Of Change: 'Tipping Points' Identified Where Sudden Shifts To New Conditions Occur What do abrupt changes in ocean circulation and Earth's climate, shifts in wildlife populations and ecosystems, the global finance market and its system-wide crashes, and asthma attacks and epileptic seizures have in common? According to a paper published this week in the journal Nature, all share generic early-warning signals that indicate a critical threshold of change dead ahead... "It's increasingly clear that many complex systems have critical thresholds -- 'tipping points' -- at which these systems shift abruptly from one state to another," write the scientists in their paper. Especially relevant, they discovered, is that "catastrophic bifurcations," a diverging of the ways, propel a system toward a new state once a certain threshold is exceeded. ...	I usually experience "catastrophic bifurcations" after a good meal. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Sep 5, 2009 from Guardian (UK): Kenyan drought becomes devastating Kenya, a land more than twice the size of Britain, is everywhere parched. Whole towns such as Moyale with more than 10,000 people are now desperate for water. The huge public reservoir in this regional centre has been empty for months and, according to Molu Duka Sora, local director of the government's Arid Lands programme, all the major boreholes in the vast semi-desert area are failing one by one. Earlier this year, more than 50 people died of cholera in Moyale. It is widely believed that it came from animals and humans sharing ever scarcer water. Food prices have doubled across Kenya. A 20-litre jerrycan of poor quality water has quadrupled in price. Big game is dying in large numbers in national parks, and electricity has had to be rationed, affecting petrol and food supplies. For the first time in generations there are cows on the streets of Nairobi as nomads like Isaac come to the suburbs with their herds to feed on the verges of roads. Violence has increased around the country as people go hungry. "The scarcity of water is becoming a nightmare. Rivers are drying up, and the way temperatures are changing we are likely to get into more problems," said Professor Richard Odingo, the Kenyan vice-chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). ...	They haven't enough water for tears. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Sep 5, 2009 from Mongabay: Investing in conservation could save global economy trillions of dollars annually By investing billions in conserving natural areas now, governments could save trillions every year in ecosystem services, such as natural carbon sinks to fight climate change, according to a European report The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). As reported by Reuters, a one time investment of 45 billion dollars in protected areas the global economy could save ecosystem services worth 4.5-5.2 trillion annually, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters, adding that this was more than the value of the global car, steel and information technology sectors. ...	That's kind of risky. I'll stick with credit default swaps. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Sep 5, 2009 from BusinessGreen: France to set carbon tax at 14 Euros a tonne The French government is poised to introduce a carbon tax of 14 euros a tonne from next year, brushing aside concerns that unilateral emission taxes could force carbon-intensive businesses to leave the country. In an interview with Le Figaro magazine to be published tomorrow, prime minister Francois Fillon said the government would introduce the tax at a level in line with the current carbon market price of 14 euros a tonne before increasing it over time.... The announcement sparked immediate protests from motorists and haulage firms, but Fillon said that measures would be undertaken to protect businesses and poorer families from the impact of the tax.... "I assure you there will be no increase in the obligatory taxes," he said. "The carbon tax is about transferring taxation, it is not a new tax." ...	Ah, Francois, I kees you on both cheeks! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Sep 5, 2009 from Huffington Post: Lobster Wars Turn Violent In Maine With lobster prices down, the animosity has been particularly shrill this summer. On a July morning, it reached the boiling point when a longtime lobsterman and his daughter drew guns on two fellow islanders. The lobsterman fired, shooting a man he had known for decades in the neck, police reported. The shooting has shone a spotlight on a long-standing territorial system all along the ragged Maine coast that gives fishermen unofficial rights to specified waters. The rights are legally unenforceable but important and usually accepted..... Bunker said he shot in self-defense, claiming he had been threatened in the previous days and that he pulled his gun because he feared that he and his daughter were going to be shot when Ames grabbed for the shotgun.... ...	Thank goodness we can all just get along! 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, Sep 4, 2009 from Guardian (UK): How global warming sealed the fate of the world's coral reefs If you thought you had heard enough bad news on the environment and that the situation could not get any worse, then steel yourself. Coral reefs are doomed. The situation is virtually hopeless. Forget ice caps and rising sea levels: the tropical coral reef looks like it will enter the history books as the first major ecosystem wiped out by our love of cheap energy.... "The future is horrific," says Charlie Veron, an Australian marine biologist who is widely regarded as the world's foremost expert on coral reefs. "There is no hope of reefs surviving to even mid-century in any form that we now recognise. If, and when, they go, they will take with them about one-third of the world's marine biodiversity. Then there is a domino effect, as reefs fail so will other ecosystems. This is the path of a mass extinction event, when most life, especially tropical marine life, goes extinct." ...	I wish these scientists would speak in less "technical" language. Oh, and more good news, willya? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Sep 4, 2009 from San Francisco Chronicle: Herring season canceled State wildlife regulators canceled the San Francisco Bay herring fishing season for the first time Thursday, hoping to rebuild a population that has plunged dangerously low.... The drop is blamed on environmental factors, not on overfishing. But John Mello, a senior biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game, said the herring population has now "reached a point where any fishing mortality inhibits the rebuilding of the stock." Fishers are primarily interested in herring roe [eggs], which is prized as a delicacy in Japan. Herring are also an important part of the food chain, supporting birds, larger fish and marine mammals. ...	Guess the Japanese will have to shift to "paté of scientifically slaughtered whale" ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Sep 4, 2009 from Science, via BBC: Arctic 'warmest in 2000 years' Changes to the Earth's orbit drove centuries of cooling, but temperatures rose fast in the last 100 years as human greenhouse gas emissions rose. Scientists took evidence from ice cores, tree rings and lake sediments.... "The 20th Century stands out in strong contrast to the cooling that should have continued. The last half-century was the warmest of the 2,000-year temperature record, and the last 10 years have been especially dramatic," he told BBC News. ...	Coincidence? Or just a fluke? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Sep 3, 2009 from Press of Atlantic City: Aficionados miss butterfly's effects This scene is a far cry from spring and early June, when Sutton, a retired naturalist, literally saw no butterflies. It was the first time Sutton had seen such a scarcity in her 30 years of butterfly watching, and they did not return in large numbers to her garden until early August. Sutton observed a similar shortage in parts of Cumberland County in late June... "It was spooky," she said during a recent garden tour. "We should have been seeing a lot more of them, and there was one of this, one of that."... "I don't think we've ever seen anything like the response we've gotten this year, unsolicited, about the dearth of butterflies," Glassberg said. "It's pretty clear (the loss) is real."... The heavy mosquito boom this year prompted government officials and homeowners to spray malathion to kill adult insects. Sutton and fellow survey volunteer Jackie Parker, of Beachwood, Ocean County, fear the pesticide could have harmed butterflies. ...	When a butterfly doesn't flap its wings, is the world also changed? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Sep 3, 2009 from Connecticut Post: Lobster population decline prompts stricter protections Gus Bertolf Jr. and his father returned to their Cos Cob dock last week with about $200 worth of conch, their new cash crop in the continued aftermath of a lobster die-off that began in the late 1990s, they said. Since 1998, they have found few lobsters large enough to catch legally while trolling from the New York state line to the western end of Stamford. The futility sometimes causes them to question their investment in diesel fuel, bait and time. "We caught one legal-sized lobster today, but we threw it back," Gus Bertolf Sr. said, standing on the deck of the boat Island Girl. "What's going on is discouraging." To restore a lobster population decimated in the die-off, the Bertolfs said more aggressive intervention is needed to eliminate what they believe is the illegal harvesting of egg-bearing female lobsters and curb damage caused by commercial clam dredges disturbing the sea floor. "How are lobsters supposed to breed with the dredges coming through every day?" the younger Bertolf said. "The state has to take greater action to protect the resource, and the clamming industry has to find a better way besides the dredge. ...	Not to worry! There's plenty of lobster somewhere else. Right? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Sep 3, 2009 from AlterNet: How Farm-Raised Salmon Are Turning Our Oceans Into Dangerous and Polluted Feedlots As it turns out, farmed salmon comes with its own set of environmental and health issues -- threatening wild salmon populations, becoming harbingers of disease, and contaminating the oceans with antibiotics and toxic chemicals. And if you're eating salmon in the U.S., the chances are very good that it's farm raised. Only about 10 percent of salmon on the market in the U.S. is actually wild these days Alex Trent, executive director of the industry group Salmon of the Americas, told the New York Times.... While salmon "farming" conjures an agrarian image, the industry is more akin to CAFOs -- the concentrated animal feeding operations -- used by the industrial meat industry that is responsible for most of the chicken, burgers and pork that Americans consume. They're also responsible for a lot of waste and pollution that comes with raising a whole bunch of creatures in a confined space. ...	Wanting Omega-3 might produce the omega point for the ocean? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Sep 3, 2009 from ANI, via Yahoo: Scientists identify 'tipping points' at which sudden shifts to new conditions occur In a new research, scientists have identified 'tipping points' at which sudden shifts to new conditions occur in the world.... They found that abrupt changes in ocean circulation and Earth's climate, shifts in wildlife populations and ecosystems, the global finance market and its system-wide crashes, and asthma attacks and epileptic seizures share generic early-warning signals that indicate a critical threshold of change dead ahead. The team found that similar symptoms occur in many systems as they approach a critical state of transition.... Especially relevant, they discovered, is that "catastrophic bifurcations," a diverging of the ways, propel a system toward a new state once a certain threshold is exceeded. ...	We Apocadocs bifurcated catastrophically from the mainstream about a year ago. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 2, 2009 from Environmental Health News: A bad mix: exposure may be 'safe' only with one chemical at a time Exposure to a mixture of environmental chemicals is far more harmful to male rats than exposure to the individual chemicals would predict, even when the level of each contaminant in the mixture causes no effect by itself. The results indicate that assessing the risk of chemicals one-compound-at-a-time will underestimate potential harm. People are exposed to hundreds of chemicals at a time, if not more. People could be affected by mixtures of chemicals that are currently considered "safe" based on their individual toxicities.... Because people are exposed to all sorts of chemical mixes -- from environmental sources such as food, water, prescription drugs, air and dust -- it is not possible to test for all possible chemical combinations. Therefore, regulators use information based on the toxicities of individual chemicals to determine safe exposures. ...	We much prefer using the findings from Duh! Laboratories, to predict our terror. Or, wait -- perhaps "Doh! Laboratories is more appropriate! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 2, 2009 from San Jose Mercury News: 'Pacific Garbage Patch' expedition finds plastic, plastic everywhere Scientists who returned to the Bay Area this week after an expedition to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" brought piles of plastic debris they pulled out of the ocean -- soda bottles, cracked patio chairs, Styrofoam chunks, old toys, discarded fishing floats and tangled nets. But what alarmed them most, they said Tuesday, was the nearly inconceivable amount of tiny, confettilike pieces of broken plastic. They took hundreds of water samples between the Farallon Islands near San Francisco and the notorious garbage patch 1,000 miles west of California, and every one had tiny bits of plastic floating in it. And the closer they sailed to the garbage patch, which some researchers have estimated to be twice the size of Texas, the more plastic pieces per gallon they found... crews on the three-week voyage discovered tiny jellyfish eating bits of the plastic debris. The jellyfish are, in turn, eaten by fish like salmon or tuna, which people eat. ...	Planet Plastic ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 2, 2009 from University of British Columbia, via EurekAlert: Humans causing erosion comparable to world's largest rivers and glaciers "Our initial goal was to investigate the scientific claim that rivers are less erosive than glaciers," says Michele Koppes, a professor of geography at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and lead author of the study. "But while exploring that, we found that many of the areas currently experiencing the highest rates of erosion are being caused by climate change and human activity such as modern agriculture," says Koppes, who conducted the study with David Montgomery of the University of Washington. In some cases, the researchers found large-scale farming eroded lowland agricultural fields at rates comparable to glaciers and rivers in the most tectonically active mountain belts. "This study shows that humans are playing a significant role in speeding erosion in low lying areas," says Koppes. "These low-altitude areas do not have the same rate of tectonic uplift, so the land is being denuded at an unsustainable rate." ...	Well, sure, unsustainable, but I'll be dead by then, right? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 2, 2009 from Environmental Research Web: Climate-adaptation costs are three times higher than estimated The costs of adapting to climate change could be at least two to three times higher than predicted by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The underestimate has implications for the international climate negotiations coming up in Copenhagen in December... "The reason [for the underestimate] is they didn't include a number of very important sectors that are likely to be impacted by climate change -- industry, energy mining, retailing -- about a half of the world's economy," Martin Parry of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.... For example, the UNFCCC estimate of $11 billion for the water sector did not include the cost of adapting to floods and assumes no costs for transferring water within nations from areas of surplus to areas of deficit. And the figure of $8–130 billion for infrastructure adaptation assumed a low level of investment in infrastructure in Africa and other relatively poor areas. If this is not the case, adapting the upgraded infrastructure to climate change could be eight times more costly. ...	Oops! We forgot about all those co(a)sts! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 2, 2009 from BBC (UK): Engineering Earth 'is feasible' A UK Royal Society study has concluded that many engineering proposals to reduce the impact of climate change are "technically possible". Such approaches could be effective, the authors said in their report.... Of the two basic geo-engineering approaches, the report concluded that those involving the removal of carbon dioxide were preferable, as they effectively return the climate system closer to its pre-industrial state. But the authors found that many of these options were currently too expensive to implement widely.... The study also said that many of these approaches had huge logistical demands, and it could take several decades for them to be implemented. ...	I am sanguine in my belief that humans understand ecosystem complexities well enough to predict all the consequences of our actions. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 2, 2009 from EcoWorldly: Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji's 'Cove' Suspended O'Barry has been trying to raise awareness in Japan about the secretive dolphin slaughter that takes place in the small fishing town of Taiji for years, but the Japanese media has refused to cover it. Until now. "Today is September 1st, the first day of the dolphin slaughter season in Japan. But when I arrived today by bus from Kansai Airport with media representatives from all over the world, the notorious Cove from the movie was empty. There were no dolphin killers in sight. So today is a good day for dolphins!", wrote O'Barry today in a report for the activist social network, TakePart.... O'Barry sees an opportunity to turn the disgraced town into a place where dolphins are cherished rather than slaughtered. In time, he thinks Taiji could become a model for dolphin activism and education, raising awareness about dolphins much in the same way that Nantucket, once the center of the whaling industry in the U.S., has changed its image by stopping the killing and marketing to whale-watchers instead. ...	Activism is so crazy it just might work! 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.
Tue, Sep 1, 2009 from London Guardian: The Sermilik fjord in Greenland: a chilling view of a warming world It is calving season in the Arctic. A flotilla of icebergs, some as jagged as fairytale castles and others as smooth as dinosaur eggs, calve from the ice sheet that smothers Greenland and sail down the fjords. The journey of these sculptures of ice from glaciers to ocean is eerily beautiful and utterly terrifying. The wall of ice that rises behind Sermilik fjord stretches for 1,500 miles (2,400km) from north to south and smothers 80 percent of this country. It has been frozen for 3m years. Now it is melting, far faster than the climate models predicted and far more decisively than any political action to combat our changing climate. If the Greenland ice sheet disappeared sea levels around the world would rise by seven metres, as 10 percent of the world's fresh water is currently frozen here. ...	Sounds to me like we are fjucked. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 1, 2009 from Louisville Courier-Journal: Ky., Ind. lead nation in coal ash ponds Indiana and Kentucky are the nation's top two states for coal ash ponds -- and many of the holding basins for the toxic mess were built without the guidance of trained engineers, according to new information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The accounting, which found nearly 600 ash ponds across the U.S. -- 53 in Indiana and 44 in Kentucky -- is based on a survey of the nation's electric utilities that the EPA conducted after a massive December coal ash spill in Tennessee.... The EPA reported numerous ponds that had not been designed by an engineer, including three at Duke Energy's Gibson County, Ind., plant, seven Kentucky Utilities ponds scattered around Kentucky, and LG&E's 10 ponds at its Cane Run and Mill Creek plants in Louisville. Some also weren't overseen by a professional engineer during construction. ...	I play an engineer on television! I'll help! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 1, 2009 from Environmental Health Perspectives: Swine CAFOs and Novel H1N1 Flu: Separating Facts from Fears ...one potential source of the original outbreak--swine farming in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)--has received comparatively little attention by public health officials. CAFOs house animals by the thousands in crowded indoor facilities. But the same economy-of-scale efficiencies that allow CAFOs to produce affordable meat for so many consumers also facilitate the mutation of viral pathogens into novel strains that can be passed on to farm workers and veterinarians, according to Gregory Gray, director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Iowa College of Public Health.... Gray says workers exposed routinely to livestock can pass these zoonotic infections--which transmit readily among humans and animals--on to the wider public. However, public health agencies that monitor risks from zoonotic infections routinely overlook CAFO workers, according to Ellen Silbergeld, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. ...	Fast food... could kill us fast! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Aug 31, 2009 from St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Researchers find a clue to honeybee deaths Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found a clue in the gut of honey bees that might help identify a deadly disorder that's killing off some of the world's most important pollinators. In bees affected by what's now known as a colony collapse disorder, or CCD, researchers found breakdowns in the factories, or ribosomes, that manufacture essential proteins. Healthy bees did not have as many ribosomal fragments in their guts as those affected by colony collapse disorder, according to the Illinois study, which was published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "They are overrepresented in CCD bees, significantly overrepresented," said May Berenbaum, a University of Illinois entomology professor and one of the study's authors. "The one consistent indicator of CCD across samples collected and in multiple times and in multiple places was the overabundance of ribosomal fragments." ...	Maybe we can get worker bees to stitch those ribosomal fragments back together! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Aug 31, 2009 from Agence France-Presse: Swine flu spreading at 'unbelievable' rate: WHO chief Swine flu spreads four times faster than other viruses and 40 percent of the fatalities are young adults in good health, the world's top health official warned in an interview appearing Saturday. "This virus travels at an unbelievable, almost unheard of speed," World Health Organisation Director General Margaret Chan told France's Le Monde daily in an interview. "In six weeks it travels the same distance that other viruses take six months to cover," Chan said. "Sixty percent of the deaths cover those who have underlying health problems," Chan said. "This means that 40 percent of the fatalities concern young adults -- in good health -- who die of a viral fever in five to seven days. ...	Another way to put this would be that pigs are flying. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Aug 31, 2009 from CNN: India's idol rituals take toll on environment All over India, Hindus recently celebrated the birthday of the elephant god and now the idols made for this festivity are being taken to India's ocean, rivers and lakes and deposited. It's part of the Hindu religious cycle. But it's also a huge source of pollution. And in recent years, idol immersion has become a popular local event, with some statues so huge they must be lifted by cranes. The Ganeshas gleam with gold paint and glisten with reds, pinks and greens. But scientists who've studied the problem say these paints often contain toxic metals, such as lead and mercury. They contaminate plants, and poison fish and irrigation and drinking water. They end up in the human food chain. ...	Idol hands are the devil's workshop. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Aug 31, 2009 from via ScienceDaily: International Greenland Ice Coring Effort Sets New Drilling Record In 2009 A new international research effort on the Greenland ice sheet with the University of Colorado at Boulder as the lead U.S. institution set a record for single-season deep ice-core drilling this summer, recovering more than a mile of ice core that is expected to help scientists better assess the risks of abrupt climate change in the future. The project, known as the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling, or NEEM, is being undertaken by 14 nations and is led by the University of Copenhagen. The goal is to retrieve ice from the last interglacial episode known as the Eemian Period that ended about 120,000 years ago. The period was warmer than today, with less ice in Greenland and 15-foot higher sea levels than present -- conditions similar to those Earth faces as it warms in the coming century and beyond... ...	Long as the drilling doesn't add to the problem! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Aug 31, 2009 from Associated Press: Climate trouble may be bubbling up in Far North ...Pure methane, gas bubbling up from underwater vents, escaping into northern skies, adds to the global-warming gases accumulating in the atmosphere. And pure methane escaping in the massive amounts known to be locked in the Arctic permafrost and seabed would spell a catastrophe. Is such an unlocking under way? Researchers say air temperatures in northwest Canada, in Siberia and elsewhere in the Arctic have risen more than 2.5 C (4.5 F) since 1970 â€” much faster than the global average. The summer thaw is reaching deeper into the frozen soil, at a rate of 4 centimeters (1.5 inches) a year, and a further 7 C (13 F) temperature rise is possible this century... ...	How many carbons does it burn up to have to add Fahrenheit equivalencies! ApocaDoc permalink