Flood Resilience Guide – Overview

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Published on Aug 27, 2014

NOTE: If you need captions, please click the CC button on the player to turn them on.

Drinking water and wastewater utilities are vulnerable to damage and service disruptions from flooding. This overview video helps small and medium utilities to become more resilient to flooding. Told from the perspective of a small drinking water utility, the video introduces a 4 step approach with easy-to-use worksheets with corresponding videos. The utility is provided with the tools to examine the threat of flooding, determine impacts to utility assets, identify cost-effective mitigation options, and plan to implement such options.

To watch the videos for each step, go to the following links:
Step 1: http://youtu.be/PhY5mP4ZJJk
Step 2: http://youtu.be/eOlFPQA6POw
Step 3: http://youtu.be/Dj46VFl13nY
Step 4: http://youtu.be/ETqHQ3ibclI

For more information about flood resiliency, go to http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/w…
For more about EPA: http://www.epa.gov/
We accept comments according to our comment policy: http://blog.epa.gov/blog/comment-policy/

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US nuke system hacked 3 times by unknown sources

RT America

Published on Aug 27, 2014

According to a new inspector general report, the US’ nuclear reactor databases maintained by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission were hacked three times – twice by individuals in foreign countries, and once by an individual of unknown origin. All three hacks were carried out using the simplest email phishing techniques, despite NRC employees being made to attend cyber security seminars annually. The Resident discusses.

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Two-Thirds Of Arctic Sea Ice Lost Since 1980’s – NASA Explains

VideoFromSpace

Published on Aug 27, 2014

NASA cryospheric program manager Dr. Tom Wagner talks to Space.com’s @MiriKramer about how the space agency is trying determine the causes of the ice loss and how it affects Earth.

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Earth systems: Model human adaptation to climate change

• Paul I. Palmer
• & Matthew J. Smith

27 August 2014

We can no longer ignore feedbacks between global warming and how people respond, say Paul I. Palmer and Matthew J. Smith.

Jonas Bendiksen/Magnum

Residents in the flood-prone district of Kurigram, Bangladesh, move a community mosque to safer ground.

Current models of Earth’s climate capture physical and biophysical processes. But the planet has entered a new state: humans are adapting to, as well as causing, environmental changes. This major feedback must be modelled. Projections of the future climate based on simple economic narratives1 — from cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions to unmitigated growth — are unrealistic.

Faced with droughts and rising sea levels, people alter their behaviour. Even if global climate policy is effective, and nations deliver on ambitious green-energy-production and sustainability targets, societies will be different in a warmer world. People will move to places that are richer in resources, or stay where they are and be pushed further into poverty. Population growth, urbanization, migration2 and conflict3 will compound reactions to global temperature rises.

…(read more).

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Series Panic-free GMOs | Grist

Panic-free GMOs

It’s easy to get information about genetically modified food. There are the dubious anti-GM horror stories that recirculate through social networks. On the other side, there’s the dismissive sighing, eye-rolling, and hand patting of pro-GM partisans. But if you just want a level-headed assessment of the evidence in plain English, that’s in pretty short supply. Fortunately, you’ve found the trove.

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Genetic Literacy Project | Where Science Trumps Ideology

Mission

The Genetic Literacy Project

Agricultural and human biotechnology are reshaping farming, food and medicine. The GLP explores the intersection of DNA research, media and policy to disentangle science from ideology.

Biotechnology can improve food security, the environment and public health. Yet dramatic innovation can lead to unintended consequences and present ethical challenges. In theory, the study of genetics and related cutting edge sciences are widely celebrated. But in practice, the words “gene” and “genetic engineering” often stir fear and misunderstanding when applied to both biomedicine and farming. Intricate science scares people who don’t understand risk and complexity. What is the potential of agricultural and human genetics? The goal of the GLP is to promote public awareness of genetics and science literacy.

The Genetic Literacy Project is a non-profit organization funded by grants from non-partisan foundations. We also accept donations from individuals. We have no ties to and accept zero dollars from any industry or corporation. The GLP is affiliated with the non-profit Statistical Assessment Service (STATS) based at George Mason University in Virginia, which supplies administrative support for the GLP, and with the Center for Health & Risk Communication at GMU.

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Seeds of Truth – A response to The New Yorker | Dr Vandana Shiva

August 26, 2014 · by admin · in News, Press Release. ·

Seeds of Truth

Dr. Vandana Shiva

(A response to the article ‘Seeds of Doubt’ by Michael Specter in The New Yorker)

I am glad that the future of food is being discussed, and thought about, on farms, in homes, on TV, online and in magazines, especially of The New Yorker’s caliber. The New Yorker has held its content and readership in high regard for so long. The challenge of feeding a growing population with the added obstacle of climate change is an important issue. Specter’s piece, however, is poor journalism. I wonder why a journalist who has been Bureau Chief in Moscow for The New York Times and Bureau Chief in New York for the Washington Post, and clearly is an experienced reporter, would submit such a misleading piece. Or why The New Yorker would allow it to be published as honest reporting, with so many fraudulent assertions and deliberate attempts to skew reality. ‘Seeds of Doubt’ contains many lies and inaccuracies that range from the mundane (we never met in a café but in the lobby of my hotel where I had just arrived from India to attend a High Level Round Table for the post 2015 SDGs of the UN) to grave fallacies that affect people’s lives. The piece has now become fodder for the social media supporting the Biotech Industry. Could it be that rather than serious journalism, the article was intended as a means to strengthen the biotechnology industry’s push to ‘engage consumers’? Although creative license is part of the art of writing, Michael Specter cleverly takes it to another level, by assuming a very clear position without spelling it out.

[Alternate copy of text]

See: The New Yorker article and Grist article, based on The New Yorker article:

• Vandana Shiva’s Crusade Against Genetically Modified Crops August 26, 2014
• Why Vandana Shiva is so right and yet so wrong August 26, 2014

…(read more).

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