Tag Archive: Diseases
“The Skeptical Environmentalist”: A Conversation with John Tierney and Bjorn Lomborg
Published on Jun 19, 2012 by ReasonTV
“The thing that blows my mind is that we spend so much money on feeling good,” says author and activist Bjorn Lomborg about “feel-good” environmentalist measures like recycling and wind turbines, “I would like us to do stuff that actually works.”
The Reason Foundation hosted a conversation with Lomborg and the New York Times’ John Tierney at the Museum of Sex in New York City, where they discussed how free trade and innovation could help alleviate the suffering of the third world and improve the environment, if only people could be convinced these “unsexy” ideas were of greater benefit than sorting the glass and plastic in their garbage.
Lomborg, the author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist” and the subject of the documentary film “Cool It,” is also the founder and director of the Copenhagen Consensus, a Danish think-tank focused on finding the “the best ways for governments and philanthropists to spend aid and development money.”
For more Reason coverage of the Copenhagen Consensus go here: http://reason.com/blog/2009/09/04/reasontv-bjorn-lomborg-the-cop
About 27 minutes.
Produced by Anthony L. Fisher.
Related articles
- “The Skeptical Environmentalist”: A Conversation with John Tierney and Bjorn Lomborg (reason.com)
- Environmental summit misguided? (globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com)
- “This week saw the announcement of the latest conclusions of the Copenhagen Consensus…” (althouse.blogspot.com)
- The Debate: Should we be doing more to combat climate change? (blogs.independent.co.uk)
- The problem of priorities (eco-business.com)
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Corporate Watch.org
MONSANTO
A Corporate Profile
www.monsanto.com
Who, Where, How Much?
Start protecting yourself and your family. Be aware educate yourself about the companies that make the products you consume
NON-GMO SHOPPING GUIDE AND OTHER HELPFUL INFORMATION
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Earthquakes
M 4.2 2012/04/18 09:47 Depth 12.5 km STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR, SPAIN
11:47:27 AM at epicenter – Moderate earthquake with an epicenter 36 km from tourist location Almeria, where the people must have felt the shaking.
New Brunswick town plagued for weeks by ‘earthquake swarm’ — and no one knows why
Joe O’Connor Apr 17, 2012 – 8:17 PM ET | Last Updated: Apr 18, 2012 8:55 AM ET
Springtime in McAdam, a tiny village in southwestern New Brunswick not far from the Maine border, is like springtime in most other parts of Canada. Locals chatter about the NHL playoffs, the garden they are planting, the grass that needs to be cut, the fish they can’t wait to catch and the cottage they can’t wait to get to, once the warm weather really settles in.
Lately, however, an interloper has elbowed its way into the community’s daily dialogue. Pushing aside the playoffs. Pushing its way to the very top of the talking points.
“Everybody is talking about the earthquakes,” says David Blair, a retired science teacher and lifetime McAdam resident from his home on Old Harvey Road, just east of downtown.
Courtesy of David Blair
Retired science teacher David Blair with a seismograph set up in his basement. “Everybody is talking about the earthquakes,” he says.
“You’ll be out and about and people will say, ‘Did you feel the one last night, or did you feel the one this morning? Some people will say yes, others might say no. It really depends on what you are doing.’
“If you are quiet at home and there is not a lot of noise you are probably going to feel or hear it. But if you are banging around, or if the grandkids are banging around, you sometimes won’t know if it’s the kids — or if it was an earthquake — they are about the same magnitude, I guess.”
Residents were initially rattled awake at 1:40 a.m. on March 10 by a 2.4-magnitude earthquake that was followed three minutes later by a 1.4-magnitude aftershock. People described hearing what sounded like an explosion. Pictures fell off walls. Window panes rattled. Floorboards creaked and groaned. Some houses even shook, while locals, initially, felt a surge of panic that eased, somewhat, by morning with the realization that a bomb had not gone off but a small earthquake had.
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Extreme Temperatures/ Weather
Bay Area yachting community reeling from deadly racing accident
One sailor is dead and four are missing after a rogue wave struck the yacht Low Speed Chase during a race around the Farallon Islands. Three crew members are rescued after the boat capsizes.
By Lee Romney, Los Angeles TimesApril 17, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO — The winds gusted above 25 knots and the swells topped 12 feet. In short, sailors participating in this year’s race around the craggy Farallon Islands, 27 miles west of the Golden Gate, faced typically grueling conditions. Then something went terribly wrong.
A rogue wave pummeled the 38-foot Low Speed Chase as it rounded the islands Saturday, knocking five crew members overboard. As the captain sought to rescue them from the 50-degree water, the boat capsized and was hurled onto the rocks.
The body of Marc Kasanin, 46, a lifelong sailor and artist from Belvedere, Calif., was recovered soon after the accident. Four other sailors are missing and presumed dead. Three survivors, including the yacht’s captain, were rescued by the Coast Guard, which has suspended search operations.
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| Upd. | Date (UTC) | Event | Country | Location | Level | Details | |
| Today | Biological Hazard | USA | State of Michigan, Grand Rapids [Kent County Jail] |  |
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| Today | Biological Hazard | China | Province of Sichuan, Chengdu [Sichuan University] | |
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| Today | Extreme Weather | China | Capital city, Beijing |  |
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| Today | Epidemic Hazard | United Kingdom | Wales, Swansea [Swansea nursing homes] | |
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| Today | Vehicle Incident | Ireland | Capital city, Dublin [Dublin Airport] | |
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| 18.04.2012 | Extreme Weather | Egypt | Northern Governorates, [Cairo, Alexandria, Marsa Matrouh, Suez and Assuit] | |
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| 18.04.2012 | Biological Hazard | China | Ningxia Autonomous region, [Touying township] | |
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| 1 | 19.04.2012 | Enviroment Pollution | USA | State of Tennessee, Memphis [University of Memphis ] | |
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| 2 | 19.04.2012 | Enviroment Pollution | Australia | State of New South Wales, [Pacific Highway, Near to Port Macquarie] | |
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| 2 | 19.04.2012 | CBRNE | Afghanistan | Province of Takhar, [The area is not defined.] |  |
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| 1 | 19.04.2012 | Epidemic Hazard | USA | State of Connecticut, Rocky Hill [Connecticut State Veterans Home] | |
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Storms, Flooding
Hailstorms hammer San Joaquin Valley crops
Issue Date: April 18, 2012
By Steve Adler
A supercell that pounded a large swath of the San Joaquin Valley with huge hailstones fills the sky along Highway 99 in the Traver area, which absorbed the brunt of the damage from the 1 1/2-inch hailstones that rained down.
Photo/Ed Needham
Photo/Ed Needham
A series of freak April storms hammered the San Joaquin Valley last week, damaging vulnerable crops with a one-two-three punch of hail, lightning and tornados that caused millions of dollars of crop losses.
It will be several weeks before an accurate tabulation of losses can be made, but for some growers it amounted to 100 percent of this year’s production. A number of crops suffered damage from the unrelenting power of hailstones measuring 1.5 inches in diameter or larger.
Nature’s fury came in the form of “supercells”—large thunderstorms that moved slowly across the valley from Kings County, through parts of Tulare County, up to Merced County and all the way eastward to Mariposa County.
The most destructive storm brought torrents of hail across a six-to-eight mile-wide swath of farmland that extended some 30 miles, accompanied by thunderstorms and numerous lightning strikes.
The epicenter of the more significant of two supercells last Wednesday was in Tulare County near Traver. Grower Ed Needham, who was caught driving near Traver when the storm struck, described it as “the sound of someone hitting my truck with a hammer.”
Flood Warning
SHREVEPORT LA LAKE CHARLES LA EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA/GRAND FORKS ND LITTLE ROCK AR JACKSON, MS
Gale Warning
JUNEAU AK LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA
Freeze Warning
ALBANY NY
Red Flag Warning
FIRE WEATHER
MIDLAND/ODESSA TX
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Radiation
China Syndrome? Japan Times on Melt Through: “Molten ‘lava’ melted bottom of containment vessel,” says nuclear engineer given access by top official — Huge amounts of fission materials released into environment
Published: April 18th, 2012 at 9:53 am ET
By ENENews
Yomiuri: “The worst-case scenario is a China syndrome” […] A China syndrome refers to a situation in which nuclear fuel in a reactor melts and goes through a containment vessel –Masao Yoshida, former chief of the Fukushima Daiichi plant
Title: Fukushima: Probability theory is unsafe
Source: The Japan Times Online
Author: Kenichi Ohmae, Nuclear engineer
Date: Apr. 18, 2012
Emphasis Added
[…] As a nuclear core designer and someone who earned a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in nuclear engineering, I volunteered to look into the situation at Fukushima No. 1 in June of 2011. Mr. Goushi Hosono, minister of nuclear power and environment, personally gave me access to the information and personnel who were directly involved in the containment operations of the postdisaster nuclear plants. After three months of investigation, I analyzed and wrote a long report detailing minute by minute how the nuclear reactors were actually disabled (pr.bbt757.com/eng/)
Here are the highlights of my findings:
1. Three of the six reactors of Fukushima No. 1 had a complete core meltdown a few days after the tsunami hit. The molten fuel penetrated not only through the bottom of the thick pressure vessel, but also poked holes at the bottom of the containment vessel, thus releasing fission materials into the environment. The meltdown itself started at 11p.m. on the day of the tsunami, March 11, 2011…..
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Lights In Th Sky
UFO Fireball Lights Up Arizona Sky 2011
Published on Apr 16, 2012 by SeeCaTV
Many residents around Arizona have reported seeing a “glowing object” fly across the night sky Wednesday.
ABC15 is working to confirm what it really was. We started getting reports of the possible meteor around 7:45 p.m.
Our multimedia journalist Brien McElhatten captured two photos when he saw a glowing orange light before an object started streaking across the sky.
One photo shows how the glowing light looked in Chandler. The other image was taken as McElhatten kept the shutter open to show the object streaking across the sky.
“It had a big old tail, and it was so bright. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing,” Valley resident Holly Pickard told ABC15.
Law enforcement in the Valley also saw the object.
“We received four calls (total) regarding the light in the sky,” a Phoenix Police spokesman told ABC15. “Our air unit, myself, and other officers also observed it as well. We all made our wishes and went back to work.”
A spokesman with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said their aviation unit did confirm seeing the meteor over Deer Valley Airport, but there hasn’t been any reports of an impact site.
Sharon Roesch wrote, “It was huge and incredible- we were driving and too much in shock.”
Althea Keegan wrote, “It had a green tail and burned out just as I had my camera ready to snap a picture.”
The ABC15 newsroom confirmed that there have been similar reports in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.
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Solar Activity
3MIN News Apr18: Disaster Update, Planetary/Solar Conditions
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Space
Press Release
Release No.: 2012-12For Release: Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Some Stars Capture Rogue Planets
Cambridge, MA – New research suggests that billions of stars in our galaxy have captured rogue planets that once roamed interstellar space. The nomad worlds, which were kicked out of the star systems in which they formed, occasionally find a new home with a different sun. This finding could explain the existence of some planets that orbit surprisingly far from their stars, and even the existence of a double-planet system.
“Stars trade planets just like baseball teams trade players,” said Hagai Perets of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The study, co-authored by Perets and Thijs Kouwenhoven of Peking University, China, will appear in the April 20th issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
To reach their conclusion, Perets and Kouwenhoven simulated young star clusters containing free-floating planets. They found that if the number of rogue planets equaled the number of stars, then 3 to 6 percent of the stars would grab a planet over time. The more massive a star, the more likely it is to snag a planet drifting by.
They studied young star clusters because capture is more likely when stars and free-floating planets are crowded together in a small space. Over time, the clusters disperse due to close interactions between their stars, so any planet-star encounters have to happen early in the cluster’s history.
Rogue planets are a natural consequence of star formation. Newborn star systems often contain multiple planets. If two planets interact, one can be ejected and become an interstellar traveler. If it later encounters a different star moving in the same direction at the same speed, it can hitch a ride.
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Diseases
China reports bird flu outbreak
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) April 18, 2012
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Agricultural authorities in northwest China have culled about 95,000 chickens after an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus, state press reported Wednesday.
The outbreak in Touying township of the Ningxia region was discovered on Friday last week after over 23,000 chickens began showing symptoms, Xinhua news agency said, citing the Ministry of Agriculture.
The ministry said the “epidemic is now under control”, the report said, while work teams have been sent to the area to step up prevention measures.
China is considered one of the nations most at risk of bird flu epidemics because it has the world’s biggest poultry population and many chickens in rural areas are kept close to humans.
In January, a man in southwest China’s Guizhou province died after contracting the bird flu virus, the second such fatality reported in China this year, health authorities said.
Related Links
Epidemics on Earth – Bird Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola
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Articles of Interest
Mapping Disease to Climate
—By Julia Whitty
| Tue Apr. 17, 2012 11:37 AM PDT
Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Anomaly color scale.
Vegetation Anomaly percent color scale.
This map from the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio shows a snapshot of the relationship between environmental extremes and a deadly disease outbreak in Africa in January 2007. (Click here for larger image.) Specifically:….
Sea-life In America’s Midwest?
redOrbit
© Anneka / Shutterstock
New research from the American Museum of Natural History shows that America’s Great Plains region may have once been home to some typically sea-bound creatures.
Ammonites – a type of shelled mollusk, now extinct and closely related to the nautiluses and squids of today – may have lived in methane seeps when a seaway once covered America’s midwest. The findings have been published online in the journal Geology, and shed some new light on how and where these ancient animals lived.
During the Late Cretaceous period, around 80 to 65 million years ago, scientists believe America was split into two land masses by the Western Interior Seaway. Sediments were deposited in this seaway, creating geologic formations in some parts of Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. As popular destinations for paleontologists, the researchers have narrowed their focus on a giant mound of fossilized material where methane-rich fluids are believed to have migrated through sediments onto the seafloor.
Two new geological faults found in Thai North
The Nation/Asia News Network
Wednesday, Apr 18, 2012
Wednesday, Apr 18, 2012
The Mineral Resources Department is analysing the Nakhon Nayok Fault to determine if it is active and the result will be announced next year, Lertsin Raksasakulwong, director of the Environmental Geology Division, said yesterday.
The Mae Ing and Phetchabun faults will be put on the department’s list this year, he said.
The Mae Ing Fault has experienced a tremor stronger than 4.0 magnitude, while the Phetchabun Fault has spawned a quake greater than 5.0.
The Tha Khaeg Fault, which runs mainly in Laos and was last active more than 30 years ago, has been taken off the department’s hot list.
There remain 13 faultlines in 22 provinces, including Mae Chan in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai; Mae Hong Son; Meoi in Tak and Kamphaeng Phet; Mae Tha in Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Chiang Rai; Thoen in Lampang and Phrae; Phayao in Phayao, Chiang Rai and Lampang; Pua in Nan; Uttaradit; and Three Pagodas in Kanchanaburi.
The other is Si Sa Wat in Kanchanaburi, Suphan Buri and Uthai Thani. The Tha Khaeg Fault will soon be officially deleted from the 13-fault list. The inclusion of Mae Ing and Phetchabun will make a total of 14.
4 injured in severe turbulence on flight to Denver
5:33 PM, Apr 17, 2012
KUSA – Two passengers and two U.S. Airways flight attendants were injured after a flight from Phoenix to Denver hit severe turbulence Saturday night. One of the flight attendants was still hospitalized as of Tuesday morning.
U.S. Airways spokesman Andrew Christie confirmed the incident.
Jackie Walden was sleeping on board flight 496 when she says she was abruptly awoken.
“I’ve flown so much, and this was terrifying,” she said.
She described a feeling that the plane was diving for several seconds.
“We were holding on for dear life,” she said.
Read Full Article Here
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1
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