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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:	(3)
Plague/Virus:	(1)
Climate Chaos:	(8)
Resource Depletion:	(3)
Biology Breach:	(9)
Recovery:	(9)

This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
oil issues ~ climate impacts ~ unintended consequences ~ antibiotic resistance ~ global warming ~ water issues ~ health impacts ~ koyaanisqatsi ~ melting glaciers ~ radiation ~ death spiral

ApocaDocuments (33) gathered this week:
Sun, Sep 19, 2010 from LA Times: Obama administration leaves climate change to Congress, not the courts Environmentalists say they are surprised and disappointed that the Obama administration is urging the Supreme Court to kill a major global warming lawsuit that seeks new limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.... Though the administration seeks new limits on carbon pollution from Congress or through the Environmental Protection Agency, it says courts should step aside. But some environmentalists call this one-track approach shortsighted and a mistake.... Environmentalists last year won a major victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York in a global warming suit brought on behalf of eight states, including Connecticut and California. It sought new limits on greenhouse gases from power plants throughout the Midwest and South. But late last month, the Obama administration joined the case on the side of the utilities and said the suit should be dismissed. The brief by Acting U.S. Solicitor Gen. Neal Katyal argued that the plaintiffs, including the states, do not have standing to sue and that global warming is suited to "political or regulatory -- not judicial -- resolution." ...	I think I'll try to repair this engine with only a screwdriver in someone else's hands. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Sep 19, 2010 from Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies: Could precisely engineered nanoparticles provide a novel geoengineering tool? In a nutshell, David's idea is to engineer discs around 10 micrometers across and 50 nanometers thick, with a core of aluminum, a top layer of aluminum oxide, and a bottom layer of barium titanate. Injected high enough into the atmosphere (so Brownian motion didn't muck things up) the discs should align with the lighter aluminum/aluminum oxide side facing up, and the heavier barium titanate side facing down. This is important, because the way these two surfaces interact with air molecules when the particles heat up - as they would do in sunlight - means that there would be a net force pushing the discs up (photophoresis). In effect, the particles would levitate to a stable position in the atmosphere, while keeping their shiny side to the sun - thus reflecting sunlight away from the earth (or increasing albedo).... The neat thing of course is that this is a concept that can be tested reasonably easily in the lab, using simulated atmospheres and prototype particles. And with advances in materials manufacturing in recent years, it shouldn't be too hard to make small batches of the discs.... In his paper, David estimates that around 10 billion kg of these nano-discs would be needed. That's a lot - but probably economically viable with large-scale investment in production and if the benefits were deemed important enough (David runs the figures assuming the cost of manufacture is less than 1 percent the cost of abating CO2 emissions, and arrives at a cost of less than $60/kg). ...	Only $600,000,000,000 dollars, and I can still run my lights all night? Let's do it! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Sep 19, 2010 from New York Post: Rat-eating opossums now run amok in Brooklyn The city played possum -- and Brooklyn residents lost. In a bizarre attempt to outwit Mother Nature, city officials introduced beady-eyed opossums in Brooklyn years ago to scarf down rats running amok in the borough, according to local officials. Surprise: Operation opossum didn't work. Not only do wily rats continue to thrive, but the opossums have become their own epidemic, with bands of the conniving creatures sauntering through yards, plundering garbage cans and noshing on fruit trees.... "Didn't any of those brain surgeons realize that the opossums were going to multiply?"... The opossums were set free in local parks and underneath the Coney Island boardwalk, with the theory being they would die off once the rats were gobbled up, said Councilman Domenic Recchia (D-Brooklyn). ...	They tell me 'possum tastes a lot like chicken. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Sep 19, 2010 from TreeHugger: Super Rare Asian "Unicorn" Captured, Dies in Captivity [I]n late August, a group of Laotian villagers in the Annamite Mountains captured a saola, one of the rarest animals on the planet. The Bolikhamxay Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office, advised by the IUCN Saola Working Group and the Lao Programme of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), sent a team to examine and release the animal. Sadly, the saola, weakened by its capture, died after a few days in captivity. So why isn't this purely bad news? The upside is that efforts to protect the species, despite the loss of one more of its members, will benefit greatly from the saola's capture.... "Study of the carcass can yield some good from this unfortunate incident. Our lack of knowledge of Saola biology is a major constraint to efforts to conserve it. This can be a major step forward in understanding this remarkable and mysterious species." ...	We killed the unicorn in order to save it. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Sep 18, 2010 from ScienceDaily: Night Light Pollution Affect Songbirds' Mating Life, Research Suggests In today's increasingly urbanized world, the lights in many places are always on, and according to a report published online on September 16 in of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, that's having a real impact on the mating life of forest-breeding songbirds. "In comparison to chemical and noise pollution, light pollution is more subtle, and its effects have perhaps not received the attention they deserve," said Bart Kempenaers of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany. "Our findings show clearly that light pollution influences the timing of breeding behavior, with unknown consequences for bird populations."... Kempenaers speculates that the effects of night lighting on breeding times may grow stronger as birds and other animals respond to warming spring temperatures as well. But, he says, the consequences of such a shift for the birds will ultimately depend on whether or not it creates a mismatch between breeding and the peak availability of food. ...	I'd expect young songbirds to just party on. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Sep 18, 2010 from New Scientist: Antibiotics play hell with gut flora Antibiotics can cause long-lasting changes in the bacteria living in the human gut. As changes in gut flora could increase the risk of some chronic diseases, such as inflammatory bowel syndrome, each course of antibiotics may represent a trade-off between short-term benefit and long-term risk. Les Dethlefsen and David Relman of Stanford University in California collected more than 50 stool samples from three people over a 10-month period that included two courses of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. They used gene sequencing to identify the microbial strains present in each sample. They found that each person had a unique set of microbial flora, the composition of which fluctuated around an equilibrium which was disrupted by each course of drugs. In most cases, the composition quickly returned to its previous state, but in a few, bacterial species present before treatment were replaced by related species. One person completely lost a common genus of bacteria, which did not return for the duration of the study ...	Who could have predicted that antibiotics would anti my biota? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Sep 17, 2010 from SciDev.net: Pesticides persist in Indian atmosphere While residues of banned pesticides in the atmosphere are declining around the world India continues to have exceptionally high levels, a new study shows. Portable samplers using chemically treated resin and deployed at several sites on seven continents from 2005 to 2008 showed that 'organochlorine' or chlorine-containing pesticides such as DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane), chlordanes and endosuplhans (that also contains sulphur) are declining in most regions, suggesting the effect of worldwide bans. But levels of organochlorine pesticides in India remain "exceptionally high", researchers from the University of Toronto at Scarborough, Canada, reported in this month's (September 2010) issue of Journal of Environmental Monitoring, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.... An estimated 11 billion tonnes of pesticides are used each year worldwide. ...	Eleven billion tonnes of pesticides per year? How can we still have pests? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Sep 17, 2010 from NASA, via HuffingtonPost: Ozone Hole Has Stopped Growing, Should Be Restored By Mid Century According To UN Scientists September 16 marks the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, commemorated as the anniversary of that day in 1987 when the Montreal Protocol was signed, an international treaty created to limit and eventually ban CFCs and other substances that were discovered to have been depleting our ozone. And this year certainly brings cause for celebration. In the "Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2010" report, UN scientists announced that the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere has ceased diminishing, attesting to the success of the Montreal Protocol. The scientists say the area of the ozone that has thinned out should largely be restored by mid century, AFP reports. ...	It's as if... as if the world could get together to solve a common problem, in spite of cries from industry of economic hardship. What's up with that? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Sep 17, 2010 from Low Tech Magazine: Low-Tech Magazine Low-tech Magazine refuses to assume that every problem has a high-tech solution. A simple, sensible, but nevertheless controversial message; high-tech has become the idol of our society.... The Museum of Old Techniques: For almost every electronic device or oil driven machine there used to be a low-tech alternative that was powered by human muscles, water or wind..... Wind powered factories: The Netherlands had 5 times more windmills in 1850 than it has wind turbines today. One of the most spectacular developments of industrial wind power technology occurred in the Zaan district, a region situated just above Amsterdam in the Netherlands. ...	Isn't it more efficient to burn coal to make steam to turn turbines to power my electric scissors? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Sep 17, 2010 from IRIN: Nepal: Global warming swells glacial lakes, endangering thousands As global warming shrinks glaciers along the world's highest peaks, glacial lakes in Nepal are increasingly at risk of bursting the natural dams containing them - endangering the lives of tens of thousands in communities below, experts say. Nepalese authorities have identified about 20 "priority" lakes at risk of leading to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and are using various methods to reduce the volume of water in some of them.... "GLOFs come very fast, carry great big boulders; they can push down rock walls and destroy river banks. The destructive impact is very, very high," Mool told IRIN by phone from Kathmandu. ...	Didn't the Himalayan glaciers get the message about the IPCC being wrong about them? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Sep 17, 2010 from Guardian: Carbon-absorbent foam triumphs at 2010 Earth Awards An artificial foam inspired by the meringue-like nest of a South American frog has won the 2010 Earth Awards. The foam, which could help to tackle climate change, soaks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and generates sugars that can be converted into biofuel. The Earth Awards were set up in 2007 to bring together green start-ups strapped for cash with investors. Between March and May, over 500 designs were submitted to a panel of judges that included Richard Branson, Jane Goodall, David de Rothschild and Diane von Furstenberg.... The foam, which will be installed in the flues of coal-burning power plants, captures carbon dioxide and locks it away as sugar before it has a chance to enter the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. Due to its frothy structure, the foam can be up to five times more efficient than plants at converting carbon dioxide into sugar.... The secret to the foam's success is a protein that the Tungara frog uses as scaffolding in its foamy nests. "I read about a protein that the frog uses that allows bubbles to form in the nest, but doesn't destroy the lipid membranes of the eggs that the females lay in the foam, and realised that it was perfect for our own foam." ...	See? Proof that CleanCoal� is a reality! Or at least, just around the corner! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Sep 17, 2010 from CBC: Oilsands deforming, poisoning fish, say scientists, fishermen Fish with tumours, deformities and signs of disease or infection were collected from the lower Athabasca River, Athabasca Delta and Lake Athabasca, downstream from the oilsands. University of Alberta ecologist David Schindler says the National Pollutant Release Inventory, Canada's legislated, publicly accessible record of pollutant releases and transfers, is proof of the harm caused by oilsands' toxins going into the water. "Embryos of fish exposed to oilsands' water and sediment have very high rates of mortality, and among the survivors, there are very high rates of deformities," Schindler said. "I think most of you will agree they aren't things you'd like to find on your plate when you go to a restaurant."... First Nations fishermen from Fort Chipewyan and Fort MacKay say deformed fish are becoming more and more common. ...	What you call "deformed," I call "ready-2-eat!" ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Sep 17, 2010 from PLOS-One, through DesdemonaDespair: Bottom trawling more damaging to sea floor than all other human activities combined Scientists have for the first time estimated the physical footprint of human activities on the deep seafloor of the North East Atlantic. The findings published in the journal PLoS ONE reveal that the area disturbed by bottom trawling commercial fishing fleets exceeds the combined physical footprint of other major human activities considered.... Using available data for the year 2005, they mapped and estimated the spatial extent of intentional human activities occurring directly on the seafloor as well as structures and artefacts present on the seafloor resulting from past activities.... Even on the lowest estimates, the spatial extent of bottom trawling is at least ten times that for the other activities assessed, with a physical footprint greater than that of all the others combined. ...	You're implying that something I can't see is more important than things I ignore? ApocaDoc permalink
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Thu, Sep 16, 2010 from New Scientist: Huge fish kill - a common sight in Louisiana This large fish kill was reported last Friday in Plaquemines parish, Louisiana. Associated Press reports that biologists at the state department of wildlife and fisheries have determined the BP oil spill is not at fault. Summer dead zones are common in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by the large amounts of fertiliser that get flushed down the Mississippi river, which triggers a dramatic drop in the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water. Researchers have been concerned that microbes breaking down the oil from the BP spill might exacerbate this year's dead zone and have been closely monitoring oxygen levels in the Gulf. ...	Ah. So it's only standard farming practices via overfertilization. Whew! As long as it's not unnatural! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Sep 16, 2010 from CWRU, via EurekAlert: Case Western Reserve researcher discovers new 'anti-pathogenic' drugs to treat MRSA Menachem Shoham, PhD ... has identified new anti-pathogenic drugs that, without killing the bacteria, render Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) harmless by preventing the production of toxins that cause disease.... Dr. Shoham identified a bacterial protein, known as AgrA, as the key molecule responsible for the release of toxins. AgrA, however, needs to be activated to induce toxin production. His goal was to block the activation of AgrA with a drug, thus preventing the cascade of toxin release into the blood that can lead to serious infections throughout the body.... "It is possible to inhibit virulence of MRSA without killing the bacteria," continued Dr. Shoham. "Such anti-pathogenic drugs may be used for prophylaxis or therapy by themselves or in combination with an antibiotic." ...	Excellent! So it's only Mostly Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Sep 16, 2010 from Guardian: 'We will have no water and that will be the end of the world for us' He lives in a small village called Pampa Corral, at 4,020m (nearly 13,000ft) in the Cusco region, and he grows a staggering 215 varieties of potatoes - red ones, black ones, translucent ones, shapes and sizes you cannot imagine.... But the point is, folk like Julio and their extraordinary diversity of crops are critically endangered by the massive changes they observe taking place in the High Andes. When Julio was a boy, (he's now in his 50s) a glacier was just two minutes walk from his door. Now it is a nine-hour hike away. "The seasons used to be very clear, we knew when to plant. Now we have less water. We used to get the water from the glacier. Now we have twice as many mosquitoes. We have no light from the glacier I don't understand what is going on. We feel very disoriented," he said. "I think that I will have no water and that will be the end of the world for us." Peru is said to be the 56th richest country in the world, with 28 of the world's 35 climates and more than 70 percent of the tropical glaciers on earth. Most are in rapid retreat, leaving behind devastated farmers and communities short of water. ...	I guess Julio will just have to get a real job. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Sep 16, 2010 from BBC: Massive Louisiana fish deaths raise oil spill questions Officials in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish have called for an investigation after finding hundreds of thousands of dead fish near the Mississippi River. The Plaquemines Parish Inland Waterways Strike Force claims oil was spotted in pictures of the dead fish. The group is now attempting to find if the BP oil spill was connected to the incident, known as a "fish kill". The cause of the fish kill has not been determined, but such events typically happen due to depleted oxygen levels.... "We can't continue to see these fish kills. We need some additional tests to find out why these fish are dying in large numbers. If it is low oxygen, we need to identify the cause," said Mr Nungesser.... The Plaquemines Parish area was heavily affected by the [BP] spill. ...	Let's not jump to conclusions. Massive fish die-offs like this happen naturally every.... um... sometimes! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Sep 16, 2010 from Guardian: An alternative to the new wave of ecofascism It is time to acknowledge that mainstream environmentalism has failed to prevent climate catastrophe. Its refusal to call for an immediate consumption reduction has backfired and its demise has opened the way for a wave of fascist environmentalists who reject democratic freedom. One well-known example of the authoritarian turn in environmentalism is James Lovelock, the first scientist to discover the presence of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. Earlier this year he told the Guardian that democracies are incapable of adequately addressing climate change. "I have a feeling," Lovelock said, "that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while." His words may be disturbing, but other ecologists have gone much further. Take for example Pentti Linkola, a Finnish fisherman and ecological philosopher. Whereas Lovelock puts his faith in advanced technology, Linkola proposes a turn to fascistic primitivism. Their only point of agreement is on the need to suspend democracy.... Humanity can avert climate catastrophe without accepting ecological tyranny. However, this will take an immediate, drastic reduction of our consumption. ... Only by silencing the consumerist forces will both climate catastrophe and ecological tyranny be averted. Yes, western consumption will be substantially reduced. But it will be done voluntarily and joyously. ...	I bet Wall Street gets behind this plan! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 15, 2010 from ClimateProgress: Serreze: Arctic is "continuing down in a death spiral." National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) director Mark Serreze slammed the anti-science disinformers yesterday: "There are claims coming from some communities that the Arctic sea ice is recovering, is getting thicker again. That's simply not the case. It's continuing down in a death spiral. Every bit of evidence we have says the ice is thinning. That means there's less energy needed to melt it out than there used to be."... Arctic sea ice volume, extent, and area continue to shrink apace as we approach the dramatic end to this year's melt season. The NSIDC tells me extent dropped to 4.76 million square kilometers today -- which is below the majority of even the most recent expert predictions logged with the Study of Environmental Arctic Change... ...	Pretty soon there'll be nothing to get in the way of oil exploration! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 15, 2010 from EnvironmentalResearchWeb: NASA satellites reveal surprising connection between beetle attacks, wildfire While it may look like autumn has come early to the mountains, evergreen trees don't change color with the seasons. The red trees are dying, the result of attacks by mountain pine beetles. Mountain pine beetles are native to western forests, and they have evolved with the trees they infest, such as lodgepole pine and whitebark pine trees. However, in the last decade, warmer temperatures have caused pine beetle numbers to skyrocket.... The idea that beetle damaged trees increase fire risks seems a logical assumption - dead trees appear dry and flammable, whereas green foliage looks more moist and less likely to catch fire.... Their preliminary analysis indicates that large fires do not appear to occur more often or with greater severity in forest tracts with beetle damage.... green needles... contain high levels very flammable volatile oils.... wildfires are less likely to ignite and carry in a forest of dead tree trunks and low needle litter. ...	Thank goodness. I guess. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 15, 2010 from San Francisco Chronicle: Did BP write your child's textbook? A new environmental curriculum, written over the course of seven years, is about to be launched in California. Guess who helped write it? BP. That's right, the company earned a place on the working group that developed the [optional] program's guiding principles despite a checkered safety record even before this summer's catastrophic spill. BP was the only oil company to participate in writing the curriculum, which will be taught to 6 million K-12 students across several subjects. But other corporate giants, including PG&E, Sempra Energy and the American Plastics Council were also considered "stakeholders." Corporations in the most environmentally destructive industries are considered stakeholders in what our students learn about the environment. Although the California EPA -- which oversaw the state environmental curriculum development -- insists BP played a minor role, the high school materials praise BP for its donation to energy research at the University of California. ...	"A" is for Appalling. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 14, 2010 from PR Watch: Lauria Quit Cigarettes, But Now He's on the Bottle ...Bottled water means big money for beverage manufacturers, but people are starting to realize that it's also big drain on their wallets and the environment. Bottled water costs a whopping 2,000 times more than tap water, and about 40 percent of mass-produced bottled water brands come from the same sources as tap water. Tap water is also subjected to more regulations than bottled water. Moreover, bottled water also siphons money from taxpayers' pockets. Last March, Corporate Accountability International surveyed the budgets of five states and found that taxpayers in those states were shelling out between $78,000 and $450,000 for bottled water, a resource that essentially flows free from public taps. People are discovering this information to the detriment of the bottled water companies, which made $11 billion on the product in 2008.... When he worked for the tobacco industry, Tom Lauria used to deny smoking was addictive. He denied the connection between secondhand smoke and respiratory disease. He also denied the health affects of parental smoking on children, opposed restrictions on cigarette vending machines and told us that efforts to end smoking in public places would lead to Prohibition. Now Lauria works for the International Bottled Water Association, which occupies the same address as the American Beverage Association, the soft drink companies' lobbying group. Lauria is running a campaign to try to convince people that bottled water is indisposable. ...	When Lauria's free, I'd like to hire him to convince people that the planet is not warming! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 14, 2010 from BBC: Alien 'killer' shrimp found in UK An invasive species of predatory shrimp has been found in the UK for the first time. The animal was spotted by anglers at the Grafham Water reservoir in Cambridgeshire and sent to the Environment Agency for identification. The shrimp preys on a range of native species, such as freshwater invertebrates - particularly native shrimp - and even young fish. This alters the ecology of habitats it invades, and could cause extinctions. According to the Environment Agency, the animal, known as Dikerogammarus villosus, often kills its prey and leaves it uneaten. Insects such as damselflies and water boatmen could be at risk, with knock-on effects on the species which feed on them. ...	These killer shrimp sound remarkably human-like. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 14, 2010 from Huffington Post: Scientists Find Drugs That May Fight White Nose Syndrome Scientists may have found some ways to help the nation's bats, which are being wiped out by a novel fungal disease. Lab tests show that several drugs can fight the germ and that some antiseptics might help decontaminate areas where bats live or the shoes and hands of people who visit them, researchers reported at an infectious-diseases conference Sunday. "Both of those are critical elements. The decontamination is in my mind the most immediate need," because people may be helping to spread the disease, called white-nose syndrome, said Jeremy Coleman, who heads the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's response to the problem.... One type, the little brown bat, "was the most common bat in the Northeast and typically the most common bat in the nation, and they've been just completely decimated," Coleman said. In some areas, "we're down to 3 percent of the original population."... Trying to handle surviving bats for treatment may stress them more than the disease does. And bats' habitats have other important plant and animal life that could be harmed by spraying antiseptics, Coleman said. "You don't want to go in and bomb a cave with an antifungal because you could be impacting other species," he said. ...	Maybe there's light at the end of the bat-tunnel. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 14, 2010 from Washington Post: Miniature nuclear reactors might be a safe, efficient source of power Take a mental stroll through the streets of Anytown, U.S.A. City hall is on your left, the movie theater on your right. Smell the delights from the bakery. And in the distance, there's the gentle steam plume billowing from the cooling tower of the miniature nuclear reactor that powers the quaint little burg. Not your idea of Americana? Wait a decade or two. The government and its private partners are developing reactors that one day might power your home town. Not long ago, siting a nuclear reactor anywhere near a population center would have been unthinkable. While the 1979 Three Mile Island reactor meltdown didn't cause any deaths or injuries, it soured Americans on nuclear energy. Construction of new reactors came to an abrupt halt. The dramatic Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, meanwhile, created widespread fear that another accident could be even more disastrous. ...	Is that nuclear reactor in your pocket ... or are you happy to see me! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 14, 2010 from Forbes: Bracing For Peak Oil Production By Decade's End The use of petroleum in the world is now up to about 30 billion barrels per year. The rate at which we have found new supplies of petroleum over the last 10 years has fallen to an average, of only about 10 billion barrels per year. We're obviously in an unsustainable situation. We are now using up a greater number of barrels than we have found in the recent past and that we have reserved in the ground. We are now beginning to use it up relatively quickly--with scary consequences for the future.... A bind is clearly coming. We think that the peak in production will actually occur in the period 2015 to 2020. And if I had to pick a particular year, I might use 2017 or 2018. That would suggest that around 2015, we will hit a near-plateau of production around the world, and we will hold it for maybe four or five years. On the other side of that plateau, production will begin slowly moving down. By 2020, we should be headed in a downward direction for oil output in the world each year instead of an upward direction, as we are today. ...	We plan to peak that oil where the sun don't shine. 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 14, 2010 from PhysOrg: 'Time bomb' superbug requires global response: doctor A new superbug from India thought to be resistant to nearly every known antibiotic poses a global threat, scientists warned Monday, urging health authorities to track the bacteria. "There is an urgent need, first, to put in place an international surveillance system over the coming months and, second, to test all the patients admitted to any given health system" in as many countries as possible, said Patrice Nordmann of France's Bicetre Hospital. "For the moment, we don't know how fast this phenomenon is spreading... it could take months or years, but what is certain is that is will spread," he told AFP.... The NDM-1 is a gene that produces an enzyme that deactivate basically all antibiotics.... For example, scientists have determined that the NDM gene "is very mobile, hopping from one bacteria to another," he said. ...	This Superbug can hop tall bacteria with a single bound! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 14, 2010 from Alaska Dispatch, via DesdemonaDespair: Tens of thousands of walrus on land haulout near Point Lay, Alaska A few miles down the coastline, tens of thousands of walruses are jammed together in a tight beach-bound pod to catch a little R&R from their daily routine. This is not a small group -- we're talking in the neighborhood of 40 million collective pounds of massive marine mammal.... But government scientists suspect it has more to do with an increasing lack of sea ice. Walruses have been known to haul out onto land in large numbers in Russia, but never on the Alaska side of their migratory corridor in the tens of thousands, as is being witnessed this year. ...	"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax, Of cabbages, and kings, And why the sea is boiling hot-- And whether pigs have wings." ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Sep 13, 2010 from The Vancouver Sun: Ottawa's media rules muzzling federal scientists, say observers The Harper government has tightened the muzzle on federal scientists, going so far as to control when and what they can say about floods at the end of the last ice age. Natural Resources Canada scientists were told this spring they need "pre-approval" from Minister Christian Paradis' office to speak with national and international journalists. Their "media lines" also need ministerial approval, say documents obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation. The documents say the "new" rules went into force in March and reveal how they apply to not only to contentious issues including the oilsands, but benign subjects such as floods that occurred 13,000 years ago. They also give a glimpse of how Canadians are being cut off from scientists whose work is financed by taxpayers, critics say, and is often of significant public interest -- be it about fish stocks, genetically modified crops or mercury pollution in the Athabasca River. "It's Orwellian," says Andrew Weaver, a climatologist at University of Victoria. The public, he says, has a right to know what federal scientists are discovering and learning. ...	We wouldn't want to unnecessarily alarm the public about the pre-Apocalypse, would we? ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Sep 13, 2010 from Moscow News: Radiation scare for Moscow parks Levels of radiation on Moscow's streets have reached a level so high that the authorities are about to spend 4.7 billion roubles to get rid of it. The $153 million clean-up will run from 2011-2013 amid reports of no fewer than 18 dangerous radioactive objects within the capital. And they can be found in heavily built-up areas like Kuzminki, or on slopes vulnerable to landslips close to the Moskva river... During the intensive work with nuclear energy in 1950s a lot of radioactive material was moved beyond the city borders. "The used minerals and radioactive materials were simply taken out in cars and dumped into ravines outside the city," the head of radiation control laboratory of the institute of city ecology Gennady Akulkin said. "It was acceptable then. But Moscow grew, and the ravines outside the city limits became part of it. Now the radioactive waste needs to be removed." ...	Let's hope they at least washed their hands afterward! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Sep 13, 2010 from Guardian: Solar panels you can install with a clear conscience Toxic pollution and links to the arms trade - not all solar panel suppliers are ethically sound. Simon Birch offers some consumer guidance. With the government offering to pay you - and some companies even offering to fit them for free - you may be considering installing solar photovoltaic panels on your roof. But if you are, would you really want to buy one from a company that's been responsible for one of the biggest recent environmental cock-ups on the planet or one that's up to its neck in the arms trade? No of course you wouldn't. To help shoppers navigate this particular ethical-minefield in its latest buyers' guide, Ethical Consumer magazine has identified those solar-power panels that you can stick on your roof with a clean conscience and those that you may just want to leave on the shelf. The best buys are GB-Sol, Solarcentury, SolarWorld and Yingli Solar. ...	I just go with whatever's cheapest. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Sep 13, 2010 from ABC News, via DesdemonaDespair: Oil From the BP Spill Blanketing Bottom of Gulf Professor Samantha Joye of the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, who is conducting a study on a research vessel just two miles from the spill zone, said the oil has not disappeared, but is on the sea floor in a layer of scum. "We're finding it everywhere that we've looked. The oil is not gone," Joye said. "It's in places where nobody has looked for it." All 13 of the core samples Joye and her UGA team have collected from the bottom of the gulf are showing oil from the spill, she said.... "If we're seeing two and half inches of oil 16 miles away, God knows what we'll see close in -- I really can't even guess other than to say it's going to be a whole lot more than two and a half inches," Joye said. This oil remaining underwater has large implications for the state of sea life at the bottom of the gulf.... "There is nothing living in these cores other than bacteria," she said. "I've yet to see a living shrimp, a living worm, nothing." ...	There's a dead fly in a dead frog in a dead log in the oil at the bottom of the sea.... ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Sep 13, 2010 from Carnegie Institution via ScienceDaily: Carbon Mapping Breakthrough By integrating satellite mapping, airborne-laser technology, and ground-based plot surveys, scientists from the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, with colleagues from the World Wildlife Fund and in coordination with the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), have revealed the first high-resolution maps of carbon locked up in tropical forest vegetation and emitted by land-use practices. These new maps pave the way for accurate monitoring of carbon storage and emissions for the proposed United Nations initiative on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). ...	How wonderful that we can actually watch the horror unfold! ApocaDoc permalink