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[Climate Chaos]: from London Guardian, Wed May 22 2013:
Climate disasters displace millions of people worldwide
More than 32 million people fled their homes last year because of disasters such as floods, storms and earthquakes -- 98 percent of displacement related to climate change. Asia and west and central Africa bore the brunt. Some 1.3 million people were displaced in rich countries, with the US particularly affected. Floods in India and Nigeria accounted for 41 percent of displacement, according to the International Displacement Monitoring Centre and Norwegian Refugee Council...
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Welcome to the new normalypse.
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[Read more stories about: weather extremes, migration changes, anthropogenic change]
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[Climate Chaos]: from The Atlantic, Wed May 22 2013:
The (Slow, Tentative) Greening of the GOP
...House Republicans launched the year with a bill that demanded President Obama present a plan to wipe out the federal deficit, one that slashed pay for federal workers, and one that sought to increase renewable energy.... During the 2012 campaign, Mitt Romney made a point of attacking Obama's embrace of wind energy, pledging that if elected he'd end a long-standing production tax credit for wind power. But the strident opposition of all things renewable didn't go down well in swing districts -- .
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GOP: Green Over Profit!
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[Read more stories about: carbon emissions, climate impacts, renewable energy]
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[Climate Chaos]: from Columbus Dispatch, Wed May 22 2013:
Consumers could pay to clean up old natural-gas plants
Natural-gas utilities want to change the law to make clear that consumers rather than shareholders can be charged cleanup costs for about 90 abandoned natural-gas plants in the state, according to an amendment that might get tucked into the state budget.
Some of the gas plants date to the 1800s, when communities used coal and other fuels to manufacture natural gas for use in lighting. The plants have all shut down, leaving polluted sites that have largely been absorbed by the state's major utilities.
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The customer is always screwed.
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[Read more stories about: corporate malfeasance, contamination, coal issues]
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[Climate Chaos]: from New York Times, Wed May 22 2013:
Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust
... And when the groundwater runs out, it is gone for good. Refilling the aquifer would require hundreds, if not thousands, of years of rains.
This is in many ways a slow-motion crisis -- decades in the making, imminent for some, years or decades away for others, hitting one farm but leaving an adjacent one untouched. But across the rolling plains and tarmac-flat farmland near the Kansas-Colorado border, the effects of depletion are evident everywhere. Highway bridges span arid stream beds. Most of the creeks and rivers that once veined the land have dried up as 60 years of pumping have pulled groundwater levels down by scores and even hundreds of feet....
In 2011 and 2012, the Kansas Geological Survey reports, the average water level in the state's portion of the aquifer dropped 4.25 feet -- nearly a third of the total decline since 1996.
And that is merely the average. "I know my staff went out and re-measured a couple of wells because they couldn't believe it," said Lane Letourneau, a manager at the State Agriculture Department's water resources division. "There was a 30-foot decline."...
"Looking at areas of Texas where the groundwater has really dropped, those towns are just a shell of what they once were," said Jim Butler, a hydrogeologist and senior scientist at the Kansas Geological Survey.
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"Peak Water" was so 20th century.
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[Read more stories about: aquifers depletion, economic myopia, drought, soil issues, water issues]
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[Recovery]: from PLOS, via PlanetEarth, Wed May 22 2013:
Coccoliths thrive despite ocean acidification
An international team studied the effect of ocean acidification on plankton in the North Sea over the past forty years, to see what impact future changes may have....
Foraminifera and coccoliths, which are small shelled plankton and algae, appear to be surviving remarkably well in the more acidic conditions. But numbers of pteropods and bivalves - such as mussels, clams and oysters - are falling.
'Ecologically, some species are soaring, whilst others are crashing out of the system,' says Professor Jason Hall-Spencer, of Plymouth University, who co-authored the paper....
'The aragonite skeleton of pteropods dissolves more easily in corrosive waters than the low-magnesium calcite that typifies many clams and other molluscs,' explains Hall-Spencer. 'But now we think that it's not as simple as that. It depends partly on how stressed organisms are by other factors, such as lack of food. It also depends on their shape and their ability to protect their skeletons.'
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Ocean life will be half-full and half-empty!
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[Read more stories about: ocean acidification, carbon sinks]
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[Biology Breach]: from Time Magazine, Tue May 21 2013:
Labs Fail to Detect Cases of Bacterial Food Contamination
Foodborne illnesses are a continuing problem in the U.S., but labs that are supposed to detect the presence of pathogens aren't up to snuff, according to a new report.
The analysis, presented at the 113th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, revealed worrisome gaps in the ability of food laboratories to detect or rule out the presence of common disease-causing bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, and Campylobacter.
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Maybe I'll avoid food altogether.
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[Read more stories about: food safety, health impacts]
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[Biology Breach]: from Durban Mercury, Tue May 21 2013:
Alien plant to blame for rhino "pink lips"
The surprise discovery of rhinos with bright pink lips and swollen eyes in northern KwaZulu-Natal has raised alarm bells over the potentially devastating spread of an alien invader plant which can kill cattle and decimate the fields of peasant farmers.... the lips and nostrils of both animals had turned bright pink, while their eyes and eye sockets were "puffed up like Popeye" -- apparently from eating an invader plant known in Ethiopia as "famine weed".
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Sounds like they might need rhinoplasty.
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[Read more stories about: invasive species]
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[Resource Depletion]: from Reuters, Tue May 21 2013:
Drop in U.S. underground water levels has accelerated: USGS
Water levels in U.S. aquifers, the vast underground storage areas tapped for agriculture, energy and human consumption, between 2000 and 2008 dropped at a rate that was almost three times as great as any time during the 20th century, U.S. officials said on Monday.
The accelerated decline in the subterranean reservoirs is due to a combination of factors, most of them linked to rising population in the United States, according to Leonard Konikow, a research hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.
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What's this? There's fur in my aquifer.
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[Read more stories about: water issues, overpopulation]
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[Biology Breach]: from Center for Public Integrity, Tue May 21 2013:
'Upset' emissions: Flares in the air, worry on the ground
....unplanned emissions -- known in regulatory parlance as "upsets"¯ -- are occurring more often than industry admits or government knows, according to more than 50 interviews with regulators, activists, plant representatives, workers and residents, and an analysis of tens of thousands of records by the Center for Public Integrity. For many communities, these upsets have evolved into an invisible menace: They disrupt lives, yet offenders are rarely punished.
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Whoops! I just had an unplanned emission!
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[Read more stories about: airborne pollutants, contamination, health impacts]
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[Resource Depletion]: from Financial Times, Mon May 20 2013:
China: High and dry
...In the face of China's rapid economic expansion and growing presence on the global stage, it is often forgotten that the country is running out of water. In per capita terms, China's water resources are just a quarter of the world average. Eight of China's 28 provinces are as parched as countries in the Middle East such as Jordan and Syria, according to China Water Risk, a consultancy based in Hong Kong....The economic problems are formidable, with the water shortage threatening to slam a brake on growth.
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Let them drink Coke.
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[Read more stories about: water issues]
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[Climate Chaos]: from GreenTech Media, Mon May 20 2013:
How Low Can Utility Emissions Go?
When it comes to emissions, carbon dioxide tends to get the lion's share of the headlines.
But there have been large gains in some of the other major emissions of the largest power producers in the U.S., according to a new report from NRDC and major energy companies, Benchmarking Air Emissions.
The ninth annual report found that sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are 70 percent and 72 percent lower, respectively, than they were in 1990. Mercury is down 40 percent since 2000, the first year that it was tracked.
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In the post-Apocalypse we can (gingerly) pat ourselves on our leprosy-infested backs.
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[Read more stories about: airborne pollutants, climate impacts, carbon emissions, habitat loss, smart policy]
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[Species Collapse]: from BBC, Mon May 13 2013:
'Dramatic decline' warning for plants and animals
More than half of common plant species and a third of animals could see a serious decline in their habitat range because of climate change.
New research suggests that biodiversity ...
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[Plague/Virus]: from New Scientist, Sat May 11 2013:
Plague of locusts blankets Madagascar
A locust plague of epic size is devastating the island nation of Madagascar, threatening the lives of 13 million people already on the brink of famine.
Billions of locusts ...
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[Biology Breach]: from Maclean's, Thu May 9 2013:
When Science Goes Silent
... It's just one of many such stories of muzzled federal scientists and suppressed research that are being brought to the union's attention, he says. All against the backdrop ...
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[Climate Chaos]: from Al Jazeera, Wed May 8 2013:
Climate talks end inconclusively, again
Another week of international climate negotiations ended in Bonn, Germany on Friday, but there was little mid-level bureaucrats could do when world leaders remain in thrall ...
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Apoc-o-Meter
from the last 7 days
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Humoring the Horror of the
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Random Sample PANIQuestion:
To reduce global warming, what is now compulsory for Indonesian officials?
a) They must ride bikes to work.
b) They can't google-search.
c) If they have a fever, they have to stay home.
d) They can no longer fart.
e) Their backyard coal-fired plants must close down.
Answer: They must ride bikes to work.
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The ApocaDocs try to make fun of the horror of environmental collapse
by locating a handful of news items every day, and giving each a
punchline. The stories are categorized into five main topics: Species Collapse (ecosystem
interrelationships, invasive species, the sixth extinction, pesticide
effects, and more); Resource Depletion (peak oil, peak
phosphorus, overfishing, topsoil loss, aquifer declines, and more);
Biology Breach (toxic runoff, radiation, GMOs, pharmwater,
contamination, and idle destruction); Climate Chaos (global warming,
weather extremes, ocean warming, and more); and Infectious Disease
(pandemics, viruses, antibiotic resistance). To avoid deep depression,
we also include stories of Recovery
(alternative energy, innovations, species restoration, better policies, social
change, and the like).
For more information, see About The ApocaDocs.
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