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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

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This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
climate impacts ~ global warming ~ anthropogenic change ~ health impacts ~ koyaanisqatsi ~ fracking ~ contamination ~ ocean warming ~ governmental corruption ~ carbon emissions ~ corporate malfeasance

ApocaDocuments (25) gathered this week:
Sun, Feb 13, 2011 from Reuters: Climate change keenly felt in Alaska's national parks Thawing permafrost is triggering mudslides onto a key road traveled by busloads of sightseers. Tall bushes newly sprouted on the tundra are blocking panoramic views. And glaciers are receding from convenient viewing areas, while their rapid summer melt poses new flood risks. These are just a few of the ways that a rapidly warming climate is reshaping Denali, Kenai Fjords and other national parks comprising the crown jewels of Alaska's heritage as America's last frontier. These and some better-known impacts -- proliferation of invasive plants and fish, greater frequency and intensity of wildfires, and declines in wildlife populations that depend on sea ice and glaciers -- are outlined in a recent National Park Service report. ...	These kinds of new excitements should increase tourism! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Feb 13, 2011 from Huffington Post: One U.S. Corporation's Role in Egypt's Brutal Internet Crackdown The open Internet's role in popular uprising is now undisputed. Look no further than Egypt, where the Mubarak regime today reportedly shut down Internet and cell phone communications -- a troubling predictor of the fierce crackdown that has followed. What's even more troubling is news that one American company is aiding Egypt's harsh response through sales of technology that makes this repression possible.... Narus, now owned by Boeing, was founded in 1997 by Israeli security experts to create and sell mass surveillance systems for governments and large corporate clients. The company is best known for creating NarusInsight, a supercomputer system which is allegedly used by the National Security Agency and other entities to perform mass, real-time surveillance and monitoring of public and corporate Internet communications in real time. Narus provides Egypt Telecom with Deep Packet Inspection equipment (DPI), a content-filtering technology that allows network managers to inspect, track and target content from users of the Internet and mobile phones, as it passes through routers on the information superhighway. ...	Total Information Awareness abhors a vacuum. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Feb 13, 2011 from slashdot: Science Programs Hit Hard By Proposed Budget "The House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations has released a list of proposed spending cuts for the US Federal Government. The proposed cuts include reductions in spending on many science organizations and funds such as NASA, NOAA, nuclear energy research, fossil fuel energy research, clean coal research, the CDC, the NIH, and numerous EPA programs. There are also quite a few cuts proposed on domestic services, such as Americorps and high speed rail research. The House Appropriations Chairman, Hal Rogers, acknowledges that the cuts go deep, and would hurt every district across the country. But they are still deemed necessary to rein in Congressional spending. Notoriously absent from the proposed budget cuts are two of the largest spending sinks in the federal budget: the Department of Defense and Social Security." ...	I'm not feelin' that cut in "clean coal research." ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Feb 12, 2011 from Huffington Post: Wendell Berry Joins Retired Coal Miners and Residents in Kentucky Capitol Sit-in More than six years after Kentucky became the first state in the nation to introduce a bill that would halt the dumping of toxic coal mining wastes into headwater streams and effectively rein in the devastating fall-out of mountaintop removal operations, a group of affected coalfield residents, retired coal miners and bestselling authors have launched a sit-in in the office of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear this morning.... "This is not something we're doing for pleasure," said Wendell Berry, who has been active in the movement to abolish mountaintop removal mining for years. "We're doing it because it's the next thing to do after all our attempts to attract serious attention to these problems have failed. We're doing this as a last resort. Our intention is to appeal first to our elected representatives and the governor, and failing that, to appeal over their heads to our fellow citizens."... While national media attention on mountaintop removal mining has largely been focused on West Virginia, organizers are reminding the nation that more than 290 mountains... have been blown to bits in eastern Kentucky. A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council last year found that while more than 574,000 acres of hardwood forests in eastern Kentucky have been irreversibly destroyed by mountaintop removal strip mining, less than four percent yielded any verifiable post-mining economic reclamation excluding forestry and pasture. ...	Don't call it "mountaintop removal." It's "landscape altitude averaging." ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Feb 11, 2011 from New York Times: Seizure Highlights Illegal Wildlife Trading This week the authorities at Bangkok's international airport intercepted a would-be wildlife smuggler, an Indonesian man whose three suitcases contained dozens of turtles and tortoises, 44 snakes, including pythons and two boa constrictors, assorted lizards and spiders -- oh, and a parrot. All were headed for Indonesia, and the full list was compiled by Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network. The size and variety of the catch was unusual, but the incident itself was not.... The main driver is vastly increased demand from Asia, China in particular, where wealth is rising and endangered species are valued as ingredients for traditional medicines or foods or as pets. ...	Nature just has to step up to the laws of supply and demand. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Feb 11, 2011 from ecohearth: Abandoned Oil Wells: The Coming Environmental Disaster of Epic Proportions Failed gas and oil well capping technology and lax oversight make tens of millions of abandoned oil and gas wells ecological landmines. A three-month EcoHearth.com investigation has revealed this developing environmental catastrophe that almost no one is paying attention to and which gravely threatens ecosystems worldwide. There are at minimum 2.5 million abandoned oil and gas wells, none permanently capped, littering the US, and an estimated 20-30 million globally. There is no known technology for securely sealing these tens of millions of abandoned wells. Many--likely hundreds of thousands--are already hemorrhaging oil, brine and greenhouse gases into the environment. Habitats are being fundamentally altered. Aquifers are being destroyed. Some of these abandoned wells are explosive, capable of building-leveling, toxin-spreading detonations. And thanks to primitive capping technologies, virtually all are leaking now--or will be. Largely ignored by both industry and governments, this problem has been growing for 150 years--since the first oil wells were drilled. Each abandoned well is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. The triggers include accidents, earthquakes, natural erosion, re-pressurization (either spontaneous or precipitated by fracking) and, simply, time. ...	I'm sure the oil companies are on it. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Feb 11, 2011 from BioScience Magazine: Oyster Reefs at Risk and Recommendations for Conservation, Restoration, and Management Native oyster reefs once dominated many estuaries, ecologically and economically. Centuries of resource extraction exacerbated by coastal degradation have pushed oyster reefs to the brink of functional extinction worldwide. We examined the condition of oyster reefs across 144 bays and 44 ecoregions; our comparisons of past with present abundances indicate that more than 90 percent of them have been lost in bays (70 percent) and ecoregions (63 percent). In many bays, more than 99 percent of oyster reefs have been lost and are functionally extinct. Overall, we estimate that 85 percent of oyster reefs have been lost globally. Most of the world's remaining wild capture of native oysters (greater than 75 percent) comes from just five ecoregions in North America, yet the condition of reefs in these ecoregions is poor at best, except in the Gulf of Mexico. We identify many cost-effective solutions for conservation, restoration, and the management of fisheries and nonnative species that could reverse these oyster losses and restore reef ecosystem services. ...	It's their own damn fault for being so delicious. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 from Guardian: Mass tree deaths prompt fears of Amazon 'climate tipping point' Billions of trees died in the record drought that struck the Amazon in 2010, raising fears that the vast forest is on the verge of a tipping point, where it will stop absorbing greenhouse gas emissions and instead increase them. The dense forests of the Amazon soak up more than one-quarter of the world's atmospheric carbon, making it a critically important buffer against global warming. But if the Amazon switches from a carbon sink to a carbon source that prompts further droughts and mass tree deaths, such a feedback loop could cause runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences. "Put starkly, current emissions pathways risk playing Russian roulette with the world's largest forest," said tropical forest expert Simon Lewis, at the University of Leeds, and who led the research published today in the journal Science.... He said increasing droughts in the Amazon are found in some climate models, including the sophisticated model used by the Hadley centre. This means the 2005 and 2010 droughts are consistent with the idea that global warming will cause more droughts in future, emit more carbon, and potentially lead to runaway climate change. "The greenhouse gases we have already emitted may mean there are several more droughts in the pipeline," he said. ...	That tale of the pipeline is exhausting. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 from San Francisco Chronicle: Attacks on EPA misrepresent regulations' effects on economy Having successfully blocked the legislative branch from adopting carbon regulations, congressional Republicans and a few Democrats are now moving to cripple the EPA, whose mandate under the Clean Air Act, the Supreme Court found, includes addressing climate change. The rationale is that the rules "threaten jobs and economic growth." Environmental groups have responded with dump of data that indicates that the claim couldn't be farther from the truth. For instance, a CERES-commissioned report released today estimates that the rules currently being considered would create 1.46 million jobs -- about 290,000 per year over the next five years. The jobs would largely be skilled, high-paying jobs in engineering and construction, as power plants design and install new scrubbers. According to World Resources Institute analysis of historical OMB data, over the 10-year period starting October 1, 1999, EPA regulations cost the nation $26-29 billion. Their benefits, however, totaled between $82 and $533 billion. In other words, benefits outpaced their costs by at least a factor of three, and possibly by a factor of 20. ...	As if I'd let data get in the way of an article of faith. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 from Associated Press: New drilling method opens vast oil fields in US new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States, helping reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude. Companies are investing billions of dollars to get at oil deposits scattered across North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and California. By 2015, oil executives and analysts say, the new fields could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day -- more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces now.... Environmentalists fear that fluids or wastewater from the process, called hydraulic fracturing, could pollute drinking water supplies. ...	Whew! We can remain addicted to oil after all! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 from NASA: January Arctic Sea Ice Extent Lowest Since Satellites During the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2010-2011, unusually cold temperatures and heavy snowstorms plagued North America and Europe, while conditions were unusually warm farther north. Now the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has reported that Arctic sea ice was at its lowest extent ever recorded for January (since satellite records began). NSIDC reported that ice extent was unusually low in Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, and Davis Strait in the early winter. Normally frozen over by late November, these areas did not completely freeze until mid-January 2011. The Labrador Sea was also unusually ice-free.... Another factor in the low Arctic sea ice extent, NSIDC explained, could be that the areas of open ocean were still releasing heat to the atmosphere. Due to its bright appearance, sea ice reflects most of the Sun's light and heat back into space. Dark ocean water, by contrast, absorbs most of that energy and reinforces the melting process. ...	Records, alas, seem made to be broken. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 9, 2011 from Reuters: Buffalo, NY bans hydraulic fracturing The city of Buffalo, New York, banned the natural gas drilling technique of hydraulic fracturing on Tuesday, a largely symbolic vote that demonstrates concern about potential harm to groundwater from mining an abundant energy source. The city council voted 9-0 to prohibit natural gas extraction including the process known as "fracking" in which chemicals, sand and water are blasted deep into the earth to fracture shale formations and allow gas to escape. The ordinance also bans storing, transferring, treating or disposing of fracking waste within the city. ...	Frack you, natural gas industry! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 9, 2011 from Associated Press: APNewsBreak: Endangered decision delayed on walrus Pacific walrus need additional protection from the threat of climate warming but cannot be added to the threatened or endangered list because other species are a higher priority, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday. Walrus will be added to the "warranted but precluded" list, said agency spokesman Bruce Wood, a designation under the Endangered Species Act that allows delays in listing if the agency is making progress listing other species and does not have resources to make a decision on others. "The threats to the walrus are very real, as evidenced by this 'warranted' finding," said Geoff Haskett, the service's Alaska region director, in a statement. "But its greater population numbers and ability to adapt to land-based haulouts make its immediate situation less dire than those facing other species such as the polar bear." ...	I can't even understand "warranted but precluded," how can a walrus? ApocaDoc permalink
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Wed, Feb 9, 2011 from Associated Press: Global warming heats up Republican attacks on EPA Vowing to curb the authority and the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency, congressional Republicans are attacking the agency to a degree not seen since President Richard Nixon created it 40 years ago. The EPA's effort to tackle the latest and perhaps most challenging environmental problem -- global warming -- has made it a central target of the new Republican leadership's anti-regulatory agenda. Having failed last year to enact new legislation to curb global warming, the administration is left to use existing law -- the Clean Air Act -- to start reducing the pollution causing the planet's temperature to rise. During a hearing on Wednesday, GOP members of a House subcommittee contended that such actions will only raise electricity prices and penalize industries that otherwise could be creating jobs. ...	...ack... ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 9, 2011 from ASU, via PhysOrg: Strange valentines: some consumers literally 'in love' with possessions Just in time for Valentine's Day, new research from the W. P. Carey School of Business at ASU shows that a person may actually be "in love" with his or her favorite object. The phenomenon is called "material possession love," and the researchers found these customers are typically lonely and easily can spend a whopping six times more money lavishing their love on beloved possessions than others spend on similar products. "Until now, when we've thought about attachment to objects, most consumer researchers have thought of it in terms of self-identity, such as whether owning and driving an expensive sports car helps you tell others you have a higher social status or makes you seem sportier," said John Lastovicka, the study's primary author and marketing professor at ASU. "We tend to get attached to things that help us convey our sense of self. However, here we found that, in some cases, consumers became emotionally attached to possessions as real substitutes in what resembled human relationships." ...	My possessions never confuse me. They are mine forever, and can't refuse me. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 9, 2011 from Discovery, via DesdemonaDespair: King Crabs Invade Antarctic Waters: 'quite frightening' pace Warming waters along the Antarctic peninsula have opened the door to shell-crushing king crabs that threaten a unique ecosystem on the seafloor, according to new research by a U.S.-Sweden team of marine researchers.... marine biologists collected digital images of hundreds of crabs moving closer to the shallow coastal waters that have been protected from predators with pincers for more than 40 million years. They are the same kind of deep-water crabs with big red claws that you might find at the seafood counter.... Bottom-dwelling creatures like mussels, brittle stars and sea urchins have not developed any defenses. They have thinner shells, for example. For the same reason, filter feeders, like clams and worms, burrow underground in most regions. The lack of predators has led to a thick canopy of sorts, much like a submarine jungle comprised of flowery feather stars, tube worms and squirming sea spiders.... "The pace of changes that we are observing here in the Antarctic, which is the remotest continent on this planet, is quite frightening," he said. What's happened is that the waters around the Antarctic peninsula have begun to get warmer. The air temperature has jumped 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the 1950s, while the average ocean temperature has increased by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) over the same time. ...	Get Long John Silver's and Red Lobster to work on it. Problem solved! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 8, 2011 from Reuters: Milwaukee, Chicago Areas May Face Water Shortages: Report The Great Lakes region, the world's largest freshwater system, could face local water shortages in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas due to increased demand and environmental changes, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Monday. Water levels in Chicago and Milwaukee could drop by an additional 100 feet over the next 30 years due to increased demand from pumping of groundwater that has already reduced groundwater levels as much as 1,000 feet, the report found... The five Great Lakes make up 84 percent of the fresh surface water in North America overall. ...	The sad fate / of the not so Great / Lakes ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 8, 2011 from New York Times: Climate Scientist Sues Skeptic for Libel A prominent Canadian climate scientist is suing a leading climate skeptic for libel, arguing that an article published online in January contained false and malicious claims. Andrew Weaver, a climate modeler at the University of Victoria, filed the suit against Tim Ball, a former professor of climatology at the University of Winnepeg and a vocal critic of the science linking man-made emissions to global warming, over an article published by the Canada Free Press, a conservative Web site. The article described Dr. Weaver, who served as a lead author of the 2007 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as lacking a basic understanding of climate science and incorrectly stated that he would not take part in the next I.P.C.C. panel because of concerns about its credibility. Dr. Weaver is already involved in the preparation of the next report from the panel and has never said that he was ending his involvement with it. Dr. Ball's article has been removed from the Canada Free Press site, which published a long retraction and apology to Dr. Weaver after being contacted by the scientist's attorney.... "I stand by the story," said Dr. Ball, who was prominently featured as a climate change expert in the 2007 film "The Great Global Warming Swindle." ...	He "stands by the story" even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Funny, that. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 8, 2011 from Associated Press: Study: Global obesity rates double since 1980 The world is becoming a heavier place, especially in the West. Obesity rates worldwide have doubled in the last three decades even as blood pressure and cholesterol levels have dropped, according to three new studies... In 1980, about 5 percent of men and 8 percent of women worldwide were obese. By 2008, the rates were nearly 10 percent for men and 14 percent for women. That means 205 million men and 297 million women weighed in as obese. Another 1.5 billion adults were overweight, according to the obesity study...Experts warned the increasing numbers of obese people could lead to a "global tsunami of cardiovascular disease." ...	Let's call it a global fatsunami. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 8, 2011 from Wall Street Journal: Business Groups' Target: EPA The Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces rules that affect the U.S. economy from factories to farms, is the No. 1 target of complaints from business groups collected by House Republican leaders. EPA rules were cited more than those from any other agency in more than 100 letters sent by trade associations, businesses and some conservative groups to House oversight committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) in response to his call for businesses to identify regulations they deemed burdensome, according to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. The letters are scheduled for release today. ...	I have this sneaking suspicion Issa is gonna pissa me off! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 8, 2011 from Los Angeles Times: Bill would exempt municipal fireworks displays from Coastal Act regulation Describing seaside fireworks displays as wholesome and patriotic, an Orange County legislator wants to prevent the California Coastal Commission from snuffing them out. State Assemblywoman Diane Harkey (R-Dana Point) introduced a bill last month that would exempt municipal fireworks displays from regulation under the state Coastal Act by declaring they do not constitute "development." The bill comes in response to increasing pressure from environmental groups to clamp down on fireworks. Environmentalists say the noise and explosive debris generated by the displays threatens wildlife and degrades water quality. ...	But it's patriotic to threaten wildlife and degrade the environment! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 7, 2011 from Telegraph.co.uk: Fears for tourists as Florida invaded by Portuguese Man-of-War Almost 500 people were stung by the jellyfish-like creatures on beaches in Fort Lauderdale on Friday and Saturday, while another 320 were stung 45 miles up the coast in Palm Beach during the weekend. Officials said the US invasion, which numbered several thousand, had ridden in on steady 5-10mph south-easterly winds, which could continue for several more days. Lt. Jim McCrady, a 24-year veteran officer from Fort Lauderdale's Ocean Rescue department, said: "I've never seen this many, ever". Heather Irurzun, an ocean rescue supervisor in Delray Beach for the past 14 years, told the local press: "It's extreme. It is wall-to-wall man-of-war. I've never seen it this bad." Dozens of the creatures, which resemble purple and blue balloons with long tentacles, were washed up on beaches in the region. Their stings can cause swelling and shortness of breath. ...	Those Portuguese need to be sent a message. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 7, 2011 from Mongabay: Bushmeat trade pushing species to the edge in Tanzania Hunters are decimating species in the Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve, a part of the Eastern Arc Mountains in Southern Tanzania, according to a new report compiled by international and Tanzanian conservationists. Incorporating three research projects, the report finds that bushmeat hunting in conjunction with forest degradation imperils the ecology of the protected area. "Some species in this region are on the brink of extinction from one of their last remaining strongholds, especially the Udzungwa red colobus, a monkey species found only in these mountains and nowhere else in the world," said Arafat Mtui, Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Center coordinator, in a press release. The report also finds that duikers, a small antelope, are in danger of vanishing from the forest due to hunting, and that the Angolan colobus may already have disappeared from the forest. ...	The kids are hungry. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 7, 2011 from Christian Science Monitor, Editor: As world population heads toward a peak, Malthusian worries reemerge Food and people. Thomas Malthus posed them as two forces rarely in balance. Plentiful food encourages population growth. A booming population devours more food than can be produced. Famine and other ugliness follow. Population crashes. Students who learn of Malthus's grim prediction usually take away two lessons. The first is the sharp contrast between arithmetic and geometric progression. Food supplies grow slowly, Malthus said. But consumers multiply like rabbits. A geometric progression outstrips an arithmetic one every time. The second lesson is about why Malthus's catastrophe hasn't occurred. Most scholars think it is because the 19th-century Anglican parson didn't have sufficient regard for technology and innovation. From the "green revolution" to global trade, from drip irrigation to entrepreneurial ingenuity, Homo sapiens learn and improve. We farm better, manage resources more carefully, and as education increases, birthrates fall. A wise species - which is what "sapiens" means, after all - avoids a crash. That's the story so far.... We have about 40 years before the jury renders its final verdict on Malthus. The population of the planet is currently 6.9 billion. By 2050, it will hit 9.2 billion, according to the US Census Bureau. ...	The commons just goes on forever. That's quantum progression. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 7, 2011 from United Nations University, via EurekAlert: Pollutants in aquifers may threaten future of Mexico's fast-growing 'Riviera Maya' Pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, shampoo, toothpaste, pesticides, chemical run-off from highways and many other pollutants infiltrate the giant aquifer under Mexico's "Riviera Maya," research shows. The wastes contaminate a vast labyrinth of water-filled caves under the popular tourist destination on the Yucatan Peninsula. The polluted water flows through the caves and into the Caribbean Sea. Land-sourced pollution may have contributed, along with overfishing, coral diseases, and climate change, to the loss since 1990 of up to 50 percent of corals on the reefs off the region's coast. And, with a 10-fold increase in population through 2030 expected, the problems are likely to worsen, according to research published today in the journal Environmental Pollution.... While the levels of pollution found are not considered a health threat today, "the data provided in this study raise some concerns about the potential for human exposure from the consumption of contaminated drinking water." ...	I thought we flushed that shit away. ApocaDoc permalink