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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:	(6)
Plague/Virus:	(1)
Climate Chaos:	(9)
Resource Depletion:	(4)
Biology Breach:	(5)
Recovery:	(6)

This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
climate impacts ~ global warming ~ anthropogenic change ~ carbon emissions ~ weather extremes ~ smart policy ~ toxic water ~ food crisis ~ arctic meltdown ~ corporate malfeasance ~ predator depletion

ApocaDocuments (31) gathered this week:
Sun, Feb 6, 2011 from PhysOrg: Asia faces climate-induced migration 'crisis' Asia must prepare for millions of people to flee their homes to safer havens within countries and across borders as weather patterns become more extreme, the Asian Development Bank warns. A draft of an ADB report obtained by AFP over the weekend and confirmed by bank officials cautioned that failure to make preparations now for vast movements of people could lead to "humanitarian crises" in the coming decades. Governments are currently focused on mitigating climate change blamed for the weather changes, but the report said they should start laying down policies and mechanisms to deal with the projected population shifts. Research carried out for the United Nations showed that 2010 was one of the worst years on record worldwide for natural disasters. Asians accounted for 89 percent of the 207 million people affected by disasters globally last year, according to the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). ...	Every crisis is an opportunity! Right? Right? ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Feb 6, 2011 from AP, via MSNBC: Deadly bat fungus found in southern Indiana cave Wildlife officials say a bat found in a southern Indiana cave has tested positive for the state's first instance of a fungus blamed for killing more than a million bats in the eastern United States. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources said Tuesday that a brown bat with white-nose syndrome was captured in late January inside Endless Cave near the Washington County town of Salem. The agency says more bats with signs of the disease were found during routine surveys at other caves. All state-managed caves have been closed to the public the past two years in an attempt to stem spread of the fungus, which people can spread by spores on their clothing. DNR deputy director John Davis urged private cave owners to do the same. ...	Those bats are dying in an "Endless Cave" of sadness. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Feb 6, 2011 from Miami Herald: Florida Keys fishermen won't endorse controversial federal catch share program Keys fishermen said a resounding "no" at a public workshop Thursday in Key Largo to a controversial federal proposal to use catch shares to manage the commercial snapper-grouper fishery in the South Atlantic. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council says nine stocks of snapper-grouper from North Carolina to the East Coast of Florida are either overfished or about to be depleted to unhealthy levels. Since 2008, the council has been discussing the use of catch shares as a tool to stop overfishing and boost stocks. Already in place in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska and New England, catch shares mean allocating a percentage of a fisheries quota to individuals, fishing groups, or communities. The aim, federal fisheries managers say, is to eliminate "derby" fishing, where harvesters rush to catch their quota during shortened fishing seasons, and instead spread the harvest out, keeping markets stable and making seafood available year round. ...	I don't think it's very controversial with the fish. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Feb 6, 2011 from Huffington Post: The Jobs Project: Unemployed Coal Miners Install Solar Panels In West Virginia A group devoted to creating alternative energy jobs in Central Appalachia is building a first for West Virginia's southern coalfields region this week - a set of rooftop solar panels, assembled by unemployed and underemployed coal miners and contractors. The 40- by 15-foot solar array going up on a doctor's office in Williamson is significant not for its size but for its location: It signals to an area long reliant on mining that there can be life beyond coal.... The Jobs Project teamed up about a year ago with a solar energy company from the Eastern Panhandle, Mountain View Solar & Wind of Berkeley Springs, to develop a privately funded job-training program. The 12 trainees are earning $45 an hour for three days of work, while some local laborers are earning $10 an hour helping out. Mountain View owner Mike McKechnie is also buying all his electrical supplies from a local business. "We are not funded by any state organization. We're doing this as a business because we want to grow the solar infrastructure and industry," McKechnie says. "We're West Virginians, and we think it's important. There's a need here that's not being met." ...	"there can be life beyond coal" has a bell-like tone, doesn't it? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Feb 5, 2011 from EnvironmentalResearchWeb: Wolverines threatened by climate change The wolverine - a member of the weasel family that resembles a small bear - could disappear from the US as a direct result of man-made climate change, according to predictions by researchers at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The wolverine is unique among mammals in that it is heavily dependent on spring snow pack. Deep snow is required for successful wolverine reproduction because female wolverines dig elaborate dens in the snow for their offspring. These dens are not only insulating for the newborn kits, but also protect them from predators. "While other species such as the Arctic fox or caribou are adapted to snow, their relationship with snow is not as critical as that of the wolverine," NCAR's Synte Peacock told environmentalresearchweb. "Other species may be able to adapt if there is no spring snow, but without dens, the wolverine cannot reproduce."... "The impact of their disappearance would probably be relatively low and it is possible that the wolverine may continue to thrive in parts of Canada and Scandinavia where conditions are cold year-round and snow cover persists throughout spring." ...	Wolverine is in danger! Call in the other X-Men! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Feb 5, 2011 from BBC: New Zealand scientists record 'biodiversity breakdown' Scientists in New Zealand say they have linked the modern-day decline of a common forest shrub with the local extinction of two pollinating birds over a century ago. They say the disappearance of two birds - the bellbird and stitchbird - from the upper North Island of the country has lead to a slow decline in common plants, including the forest shrub New Zealand gloxinia. Ship rats and stoats imported into the country around the year 1870 are blamed for the birds' demise.... The researchers wanted to observe the impact on New Zealand gloxinia of these disappearing bird populations and so compared the situation on the mainland with that of three nearby island bird sanctuaries where the birds remain abundant. What they found was that pollination rates were vastly reduced on the mainland with seed production per flower 84 percent lower compared with the islands. While this has yet to fully manifest itself in the density of adult gloxinia populations on the mainland, the researchers found 55 percent fewer juvenile plants per adult plant on the mainland vis-a-vis the islands.... An estimated 49 percent of all land birds have been lost in New Zealand, say the researchers, and the consequences of that are far greater than those outlined in this study. ...	I suppose that implies something I should infer. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Feb 4, 2011 from SciDev.net: Threat of urban epidemics looms An unprecedented alliance of urban planners, doctors and scientists is needed to better prepare for "the looming threat of explosive urban epidemics" in an increasingly urbanised world, according to a review paper in The Lancet. The world's urban population will double by 2050 and most of this increase will be in developing countries, according to UN estimates. But how this will affect infectious diseases is poorly understood. Better research, surveillance, urban planning and policy are needed.... Millions of people live in slums with no access to clean water and regular rubbish disposal. They "build their own dwellings from flimsy, scrounged materials and with no concern for vector hygiene," the paper says. And high population density in cities means there is a "looming threat of explosive urban [disease] epidemics", including Ebola, chikungunya, yellow fever and dengue, according to the paper. "Urban epidemics can reach unprecedented scales and quickly become uncontrollable," especially in African cities where disease surveillance is weak. ...	Aren't you being a little high-falutin' with your vector hygiene? Soap and water's good enough for me. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Feb 4, 2011 from ScienceDaily: Still Hope for Arctic Sea Ice The substantial decline of Arctic sea ice in recent years has triggered some fears that the ice cover might be approaching a "tipping point" beyond which the loss of the remaining sea ice would become unstoppable. However, new research carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg/Germany now indicates that such tipping point is unlikely to exist for the loss of Arctic summer sea ice. The sea-ice cover reacts instead relatively directly to the climatic conditions at any given time. Hence, the ongoing loss of Arctic sea ice could be slowed down and eventually stopped if global warming were to be slowed down and eventually stopped.... The researchers underline that their results do not question the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice or its relation to anthropogenic climate change. "If we don't slow down global warming extensively, we will lose the summer sea-ice cover in the Arctic within a few decades," says Tietsche. "Our research shows that the speed of sea-ice loss is closely coupled to the speed of global warming. We think that it's important to know that we can still do something about slowing down or possibly even stopping the loss of the sea-ice cover." ...	I'm delighted there are no other tipping points involved. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Feb 4, 2011 from London Guardian: Communities not getting a say in how forests are managed Governments have been accused by grassroots groups and scientific researchers of reneging on commitments to give communities a say in how forests are managed, and doing little to address the causes of worldwide deforestation. The charges came as the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, declared 2011 to be the international year of forests, and politicians from around the world meet in New York for the high level segment of the UN's ninth forestry forum (UNFF). Non-government groups released a report showing that indigenous peoples and forest communities have done a much better job at conservation than governments. ...	When are going to go ahead and declare an international year of panic!!! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Feb 4, 2011 from Bloomberg: EPA Sets First Standard for Perchlorate in Water, Reversing Bush Decision The Obama administration will set the first U.S. standard for perchlorate in drinking water, reversing a Bush-era decision against regulating the chemical that may impair the human thyroid. The Environmental Protection Agency will propose a rule for perchlorate, a toxic rocket-fuel ingredient used to make fireworks and explosive devices, the EPA said today in an e- mailed statement. The EPA also said it will craft a rule to protect people from as many as 16 chemicals found in drinking water that may cause cancer. The agency under President Barack Obama set aside about one-third, or $3.3 billion, of its proposed fiscal 2011 budget for drinking and wastewater projects, almost double the total approved in the final year of the Bush administration. Bush's EPA declined to establish rules for perchlorate.... More than 4 percent of public U.S. water systems have detected perchlorate and 5 million to 17 million people may drink water containing the chemical, according to the EPA, citing monitoring data. The agency said its has received almost 39,000 comments about regulating perchlorate. ...	They monitor chemicals they don't even regulate? That's gotta change. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 3, 2011 from Discovery: Amazon Drought of 2010 Sign of Forest Fatigue The tropical forests of Amazonia may be giving up their role as buffers against the continuing buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, scientists report, a circumstance that could accelerate climate change. The warning comes in the new issue of the journal Science, where an international research team reports that the drought in the Amazon during 2010 was even worse than what scientists called the "once-in-a-century" drought of 2005.... "The two recent Amazon droughts demonstrate a mechanism by which remaining intact tropical forests of South American can shift from buffering the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide to accelerating it," the scientists write. Growing trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Dying trees give it back. ...	How can a carbon sink become a carbon faucet? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 3, 2011 from Earth Institute, Columbia University: In the Arctic More Than Elsewhere, Things Are Heating Up Today's water temperatures are roughly 2.5 degrees F above what they were during the Medieval Warm Period, which affected the North Atlantic from about 900 - 1300 A.D. and altered the climates of Northern Europe and northern North America. The authors of the study hypothesize that this recent rise in water temperature in the Fram Strait is related to the amplification of global warming in the Arctic.... Based on their studies, the team of researchers behind the study believes that a number of recent trends (including the rapid warming of the Arctic, the loss of Arctic sea ice, and the warming of the North Atlantic) are interrelated.... Both methods demonstrated a sharp rise in the abundance of warmer-water foraminifera in the last 100 years; for the first time in 2,000 years, this species became dominant over a cold-water variety.... [A] co-author of the CU-Boulder study recently stated he feels "fairly confident that what we are seeing today is largely an anthropogenic signal." ...	I'm "fairly confident" that signal is saying STOP! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 3, 2011 from Yale360: Intel the Biggest Buyer Of Green Energy in the U.S., Report Says Intel Corporation remains the top purchaser of renewable energy in the U.S., nearly doubling the amount of green energy credits it will buy in 2011 to more than 2.5 billion kilowatt-hours -- the equivalent of powering 218,000 American homes -- according to a new ranking by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). With that increase, the California-based chipmaker -- which has also built nine solar plants at its facilities in the U.S. and Israel -- now gets about 88 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. The retail chain, Kohl's, which ranked second on the EPA's list of the top 50 green energy buyers, now gets 100 pecent of its electricity from green sources, purchasing more than 1.4 million kilowatt-hours annually. ...	That computes. ApocaDoc permalink
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Thu, Feb 3, 2011 from AIBS, via EurekAlert: Oysters at risk: Gastronomes' delight disappearing globally A new, wide-ranging survey that compares the past and present condition of oyster reefs around the globe finds that more than 90 percent of former reefs have been lost in most of the "bays" and ecoregions where the prized molluscs were formerly abundant. In many places, such as the Wadden Sea in Europe and Narragansett Bay, oysters are rated "functionally extinct," with fewer than 1 percent of former reefs persisting. The declines are in most cases a result of over-harvesting of wild populations and disease, often exacerbated by the introduction of non-native species.... Beck's team examined oyster reefs across 144 bays and 44 ecoregions. It also studied historical records as well as national catch statistics.... The survey team argues for improved mapping efforts and the removal of incentives to over-exploitation. It also recommends that harvesting and further reef destruction should not be allowed wherever oysters are at less than 10 percent of their former abundance, unless it can be shown that these activities do not substantially affect reef recovery. ...	"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,/ "You've had a pleasant run!/ Shall we be trotting home again?'/ But answer came there none--/ And this was scarcely odd, because/ They'd eaten every one. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 from San Francisco Chronicle: Chevron files RICO suit in Ecuador case Using a law written to prosecute the Mafia, Chevron Corp. on Tuesday filed a racketeering lawsuit against a team of lawyers who have been fighting the company over oil field pollution in Ecuador. Chevron accused the lawyers - as well as their clients and their spokeswoman - of conspiring to extort up to $113 billion from the oil company, based in San Ramon.... As a verdict in the marathon lawsuit nears, Chevron has tried to prove corruption among the lawyers and Ecuadoran officials involved in the case. Last year, Chevron persuaded judges in the United States to grant the company access to many of the lawyers' private documents, arguing that they could provide evidence of fraud. Chevron also won access to outtakes from a documentary film about the lawsuit, despite the objections of the filmmaker and many media companies (including Hearst Corp., which owns The Chronicle). ...	In a case like this it's hard to tell who's Mafia and who's not. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 from Reuters: Giant cyclone hits Australian tourist coast One of the most powerful cyclones on record slammed into Australia's coast on Thursday, uprooting trees, tearing roofs off buildings and raising the danger of deadly storm surges. Cyclone Yasi, packing winds of up to 300 km (186 miles) an hour near its core, come ashore along hundreds of kilometers of northeast coastline late on Wednesday...Satellite images showed Yasi as a massive storm system covering an area bigger than Italy. It is predicted to be the strongest ever to hit Australia... Queensland has had a cruel summer, with floods sweeping across it and other eastern states in recent months, killing 35 people. ...	Down Under, torn asunder. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 from Mark Bittman, New York Times: A Food Manifesto for the Future And we've come to recognize that our diet is unhealthful and unsafe. Many food production workers labor in difficult, even deplorable, conditions, and animals are produced as if they were widgets. It would be hard to devise a more wasteful, damaging, unsustainable system. Here are some ideas -- frequently discussed, but sadly not yet implemented -- that would make the growing, preparation and consumption of food healthier, saner, more productive, less damaging and more enduring.... Total agricultural subsidies in 2009 were around $16 billion, which would pay for a great many of the ideas that follow. Begin subsidies to those who produce and sell actual food for direct consumption.... Outlaw concentrated animal feeding operations and encourage the development of sustainable animal husbandry. The concentrated system degrades the environment, directly and indirectly, while torturing animals and producing tainted meat, poultry, eggs, and, more recently, fish. Sustainable methods of producing meat for consumption exist. At the same time, we must educate and encourage Americans to eat differently. ...	This from the guy whose food column in the NYT was called the Minimalist?! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 from EnvironmentalResearchWeb: Planet is 'more sensitive to carbon dioxide than we thought' ... Kiehl describes how he examined the relationship between global temperatures and high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere tens of millions of years ago. Global temperatures then averaged about 16 deg C above pre-industrial levels. The article pulls together several recent studies that look at various aspects of the climate system, while adding a mathematical approach by Kiehl to estimate average global temperatures in the distant past. The study found that carbon dioxide may have two times or more the effect on global temperatures than currently projected by computer models of global climate. The world's leading computer models generally project that a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would have a climate feedback factor (ratio of change in surface temperature to radiative forcing) in the range of 0.5 to 1.0 deg C per watts per square metre. However, the published data show that the comparable climate feedback factor of carbon dioxide 35 million years ago amounted to about 2 deg C per watt per square metre.... Because carbon dioxide is being pumped into the atmosphere at a rate that has never been experienced, Kiehl could not estimate how long it would take for the planet to fully heat up. However, a rapid warm-up would make it especially difficult for societies and ecosystems to adapt, he says. He estimates that global temperatures may take centuries or millennia to fully adjust in response to the higher carbon dioxide levels. ...	Planet, if you want our respect, you'll need to toughen up. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 from change.org: Ban the use of Rozol (chlorophacinone) grain bait on prairie dogs (petition) Urge your elected officials to pressure the the EPA to immediately ban the use of Rozol (chlorophacinone) grain bait to exterminate black-tailed prairie dogs. This poison is inhumane. Rozol causes internal bleeding to animals who ingest it, and their suffering can be prolonged over the course of several days to two weeks until death. Black-tailed prairie dogs have declined by up to 99 percent across their range in the Great Plains. These animals are keystone species who create habitat that benefits over 100 vertebrate species. Many of the animals who depend on black-tailed prairie dogs are also declining and imperiled. Any additional poison to kill prairie dogs will only hasten their decline toward extinction. Rozol is also particularly dangerous to non-target animals. Animals such as grassland birds and other rodents that eat grain and seeds are at risk to dying from Rozol-laced bait. Birds of prey and carnivores that eat prairie dogs are also at risk. Some of these animals include hawks, eagles, foxes, badgers, and endangered black-footed ferrets. By approving Rozol, the EPA has violated the Endangered Species Act. Use of the poison to exterminate black-tailed prairie dogs can harm species listed under the Act. These species include the black-footed ferret, the American burrowing beetle, and the whooping crane. ...	All we have to do is teach eagles, hawks, foxes, badgers, coyotes, and ferrets not to eat the Rozol-killed prairie dogs. How hard can that be? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 from West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minnesota: Not enough being done to prevent zebra mussels spread in local lakes; potential to be 'biggest bombshell' ever for county If anything is going to be done to prevent invasive species like zebra mussels from entering county lakes, it may have to be done locally. Kandiyohi County Commissioner Dennis Peterson said legislators do not understand how serious the problem is and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is procrastinating and not taking necessary action. The end result will most surely be a disastrous infestation of zebra mussels that could cause property values around high-priced lakes like Green Lake to plummet, he said. A 30 percent drop in property values is already happening on lakes near Alexandria where zebra mussels have been found, Peterson said. If that happens here it will be the "biggest bombshell this county has ever seen," said Peterson, who's afraid that it may already be too late to prevent zebra mussels from entering Green Lake. During a report Tuesday at the County Board of Commissioners' meeting, Peterson said it's time for local lake associations and residents to "really raise heck." ...	A little heck-raising may indeed be required. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 1, 2011 from Reuters: U.S. scientists work to grow meat in lab In a small laboratory on an upper floor of the basic science building at the Medical University of South Carolina, Vladimir Mironov, M.D., Ph.D., has been working for a decade to grow meat. A developmental biologist and tissue engineer, Dr. Mironov, 56, is one of only a few scientists worldwide involved in bioengineering "cultured" meat. It's a product he believes could help solve future global food crises resulting from shrinking amounts of land available for growing meat the old-fashioned way ... on the hoof.... The new National Institute of Food and Agriculture, part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, won't fund it, the National Institutes of Health won't fund it, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration funded it only briefly, Mironov said. ...	What do you wanna bet chickens, cows and pigs would be willing to help fund it? ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 1, 2011 from Reuters: U.S. fracking firms may have broken enviromental law: probe Several energy companies may have violated environmental rules by injecting diesel into the ground without permits as part of a controversial natural gas drilling technique, according to findings from Congressional probe released on Monday. The probe of diesel use in hydraulic fracturing, a practice that has allowed drillers to tap abundant shale gas, found that oil services firms such as Halliburton and BJ Services, which was bought by Baker Hughes Inc, injected millions of gallons of fluids containing the fuel into wells between 2005 and 2009. A total of 12 companies were cited in the probe for using diesel without proper permits.... Halliburton said there are currently no federal requirements that companies obtain permits for the use of diesel in fracking and therefore it does not believe its "activities have resulted in a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act or any other federal environmental law." ...	Just call it "carbon sequestration," guys, and then you'll get a tax break! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 1, 2011 from PhysOrg: Surprising approach could help rescue fragile ecosystems and halt cascades of extinctions Feral pigs introduced to the Galapagos Archipelago shortly after Charles Darwin's historical visit have damaged the ecosystem of Santiago Island, causing, it is believed, the extinction or imperilment of a number of species. The complete removal of the pigs 11 years ago is beginning to restore balance to the island. Two Northwestern University scientists have developed a mathematical model that supports the management choices in perturbed ecosystems, such as the Gal�pagos, and illustrates how human intervention may effectively aid species conservation efforts. The selective suppression or removal of one or more species in a troubled ecosystem can save many more species.... Motter explained further, "We find that extinction cascades can often be mitigated by suppressing -- rather than enhancing -- the populations of specific species. In numerous cases, it is predicted that even the proactive removal of a species that would otherwise be extinct by a cascade can prevent the extinction of other species." ...	If you think about this a minute, it has disturbing implications for invasive humans. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 1, 2011 from CBC: Arctic mapping camp abandoned amid thin-ice worry The Canadian government is abandoning plans for a remote scientific camp on the Arctic Ocean ice this year, citing dangerously thin ice conditions. Over the past five years, scientists have set up ice camps in remote areas of the Arctic Ocean as they gather extensive mapping data that could help Canada claim a greater area of the seabed under the Law of the Sea convention. Canada and other Arctic countries are vying to claim more of the Arctic seabed, which is potentially rich in oil and gas resources. Canada has until 2013 to submit its claim. This year, 25 Canadian scientists were to conduct their mapping work from an ice camp about 400 kilometres offshore. Last year, a similar camp housed 12 researchers on an ice floe on the Arctic Ocean, about 250 kilometres offshore from Borden Island in the High Arctic. But that ice floe started breaking up, said Jacob Verhoef, director of Canada's mapping program with the Natural Resources Department. "That floe actually broke up, and so we had a new crack forming about a kilometre away from the camp," Verhoef told CBC News on Monday, adding that the camp was luckily not affected. ...	Cap'n! We're moving into iceberg country! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 1, 2011 from Yale360: Ocean Fertilization to Cut CO2 Has Low Chance of Success, Study Says The first comprehensive survey of plans to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by seeding the oceans with iron or other nutrients shows that even widespread fertilization would remove only modest amounts of CO2 from the air over the next century. The summary of existing studies said ocean fertilization also carries a risk of causing unintended long-term harm to marine ecosystems. Ocean fertilization involves dumping iron and other nutrients into the ocean to trigger the growth of phytoplankton, which consumes CO2 as it grows. But the summary, released at a conference on climate geoengineering schemes in California, said the risks of ocean fertilization probably far outweigh the rewards, as it is extremely difficult to assess the impact of the technique over wide swaths of ocean. ...	I'm sure we'll figure something out. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jan 31, 2011 from New York Times: Once Popular, Car Pools Go the Way of Hitchhiking Remember the 1970s? Watergate, disco, oil embargoes and, of course, car-pooling. Many big companies organized group rides for their employees, and roughly one in four Americans who drove to work shared a ride with others. But now far more people are driving alone, as companies have spread out, Americans are wealthier and cars have become cheaper to own. The percentage of workers who car-pool has dropped by almost half since 1980, the first time the Census Bureau started systematically tracking the numbers, according to new data from the bureau. ...	And thus we shall drive / one person per vehicle / unto our ruin 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, Jan 31, 2011 from London Guardian: Greenpeace protests at Koch brothers' rally Prominent figures on both the right and left of the US political spectrum gathered in the luxury enclave of Rancho Mirage in the Californian desert today amid increasingly heated debate about the influence of the secrecy-loving billionaires Charles and David Koch on the political process. About 200 key figures in business, energy, the media and law were expected to assemble at a five-star hotel at the invitation of the Koch brothers for the latest of their twice-yearly discussion groups on how to forward their libertarian causes... As the attendees arrived in their private jets, they were greeted by an airship that circled over the hotel's golf courses and tennis courts bearing the logo: "Koch brothers dirty money." It was sent up by Greenpeace, the environmental campaign group, which has joined forces with several other left-leaning organisations to hold a counter-rally to the Koch meeting. ...	In an air battle, I fear the jets would win. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jan 31, 2011 from San Francisco Chronicle: San Bruno pipeline called 'tip of the iceberg' Federal investigators' findings in the San Bruno pipeline explosion probe suggest that thousands of miles of long-buried and untested natural gas pipelines across the United States are at far greater risk of failure than the industry and government regulators have long maintained, experts say... In a detailed report released Jan. 21, the safety board identified a "progressive" crack on a seam running several feet along the San Bruno line as the point where the 30-inch transmission pipe ruptured, causing a fireball that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. The crack began at a shoddy weld that extended only halfway through the pipe wall, investigators said. ...	Coincidentally, I know of an iceberg that has a crack in its pipe. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jan 31, 2011 from Sydney Morning Herald: Fish develop red spot fungus after floods Fish in Brisbane waterways are starting to develop a red spot fungus from flood contamination, while authorities are rushing to fix a treatment plant to stop a sewage leak.... "But that's still likely to be six weeks before they have got disinfection processes in place to remove the sewage contamination."... He said there was evidence some fish had developed the fungus "red spot" from the flood pollution. "It shows up on fish that are in distress," he said. ...	I'm feeling a little spotty myself. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jan 31, 2011 from Guardian: World carbon dioxide emissions data by country: China speeds ahead of the rest A reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions is not only the decided goal of environmentalists but also of pretty much every government in the world. Currently 191 countries have adopted the Kyoto protocol with the aim of collectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 63.9 percent of the 1990 levels by 2012.... * China emits more CO2 than the US and Canada put together - up by 171 percent since the year 2000 * The US has had declining CO2 for two years running - the first time this has happened, certainly since these records began. ...	C'mon America! This is a Sputnik moment! Consume! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jan 31, 2011 from AlJazeera, via Perry: Hunger and despair in Sri Lanka Recent flooding in eastern Sri Lanka destroyed thousands of homes, devastated the rice crop and drowned thousands of livestock. A million people, 40 per cent of them children, are at risk of serious hunger as a result. Some of the worst-affected areas were only just recovering from decades of conflict and the tsunami when the floods hit, and the people who live there are facing their third humanitarian emergency in less than 10 years.... Among those at risk of the impending food crisis is Pakyarani, a 32-year-old farmer's wife and mother of four.... The rain started on January 6. It didn't stop for days - there was thunder and lightning, and the wind was blowing extremely hard. I was sure there would be a cyclone. Eventually we were warned that the rivers and lakes were about to burst their banks. We were afraid that we would be caught in the flood, so we decided to leave.... All the rice in our field has been ruined by the floods. It will be May before we can sow new rice seeds, and July before we can harvest. We have no savings to buy food, let alone to repair our house. It's not safe to live like this; the area is full of snakes, and if my children get bitten we have no transport to take them to the nearest hospital, which is 10 kilometres away. ...	Just laugh at the clouds / so dark up above / put a song in your heart / you're ready for love! ApocaDoc permalink