Polio Campaign, Luck Helped Prevent Ebola Epidemic in Nigeria

E120, e130, health

Former Vice President Al Gore testifies on global warming

AP Archive

Published on Jul 21, 2015

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Plague Pandemic May Have Been Driven by Climate, Not Rats

By Sarah Zielinski
smithsonian.com

One of the greatest villains in the history of the plague may have been falsely accused. New evidence shows that the disease did not hide out in rats for centuries, as many have long thought. Instead, it’s possible the disease was reintroduced to Europe multiple times following Asian climate events.

From 1347 to 1353, the Black Death swept across Europe, killing some 25 million people there and another 25 million in Asia and Africa. That was the beginning of what’s known as the second plague pandemic, a series of European epidemics of the disease that went on for hundreds of years. But plague is not naturally found in Europe. The disease is endemic to Asia, where the bacterium Yersinia pestis is found among small animals and their fleas. The prevailing story is that after the disease was introduced to Europe in the 1300s, Y. pestis found a new reservoir in the continent’s rats or wildlife, and those animals seeded fresh outbreaks.

But some scientists smell a rat. After all, while European wildlife didn’t disappear in the 19th century, plague outbreaks had largely ended by then, except in southeastern Europe near the Caucuses. That’s not linked to medical advances, which actually can’t do much to halt the initial spread of plague from animals to people. Also, black rats were rare in northern Europe during the second pandemic, but those regions were not spared from the spread of the disease.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Consensus Among GOP Candidates: Let The Planet Die

Ring of Fire Radio

Published on Jul 22, 2015

When you look down the list of all of the 2016 GOP candidates, there is one thing that binds them all together: climate change denial. This means one of two things. Either these candidates literally believe that humans have no effect on climate change, or (and most likely), they’re just plain bought by the fossil fuel industry.

Ring of Fire’s Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss this.

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

HUMANITY FROM SPACE | The Black Marble

PBS

Published on Jul 17, 2015

Watch the full-length episode at 10:00 p.m. ET on PBS.

From space the illuminated world is a thing of extraordinary beauty. Almost everything we do involves electricity and seeing this from space shows us the interconnectivity of our electrified world.

Watch Documentary Online

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Yvette d’Entremont the SciBabe – ‘BS Detection and the Fall of the Food B abe’

Center for Inquiry

Published on May 15, 2015

From vaccines to chemo, modern science provides a wealth of services to prevent and heal disease. Many sources on the Internet would have us believe that these treatments and services are actually making us sicker! How is a person supposed to know what’s good science and what’s just plain old BS? Yvette d’Entremont, aka “Science Babe,” will walk you through it all, with a funny and informative discussion on how to detect reputable health advice on these topics and how modern science is making us live longer and healthier lives than ever before. In addition to talking about detecting bad science, she will discuss her current criticism of the claims of the “Food Babe” about what foods are healthy or not.

Yvette d’Entremont holds bachelor’s degrees in theatre and chemistry along with a master’s degree in forensic science. With a background working as an analytical chemist, she currently runs her Science Babe website full time. The site is a reliable mix of debunking pseudoscience with a combination of humor and real science. You can find more information at www.scibabe.com.

Give it a Minute: Pesticides

Monsanto Company

Published on Jul 22, 2015

There are many misconceptions when it comes to how farmers use pesticides on their fields. Are they safe? Do farmers use them responsibly? Give it a minute. Discover more at discover.monsanto.com.

Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Can the sun cool down Earth? | Keep it in the ground

The Guardian

Published on Jul 22, 2015

Every hour, enough sunlight blasts the earth to power humanity for a year.
Subscribe to The Guardian ► http://is.gd/subscribeguardian
By 2050, across the entire world, solar energy could power our computers, phones, lights, hot water – anything we use electricity for today. There would be no need to pollute the planet with oil, coal or gas. Plus, solar panels are cheap at the moment. What better way to save a heating planet?

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

…Global Pollution and Prevention News: Study examines overall carbon cost of fuel from Canadian oil sands

Gasoline and diesel fuel extracted and refined from Canadian oil sands will release about 20 percent more carbon into the atmosphere over the oil’s lifetime than fuel from conventional crude sources in the Unied States, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory; the University of California, Davis; and Stanford University.

The researchers used a life-cycle, or “well-to-wheels,” approach, gathering publicly available data on 27 large Canadian oil sands production facilities. The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, found the additional carbon impact of Canadian oil sands was largely related to the energy required for extraction and refining.

“The level of detail provided in this study is unprecedented,” said co-author Sonia Yeh, a research scientist at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis, who helped lead research on emissions related to land disturbance. “It provides a strong scientific basis for understanding the total carbon emissions associated with using this resource, which allows us to move forward with informed discussions on technologies or policy options to reduce carbon emissions.”

Canadian oil sands are extracted using two processes, both of which are energy intensive. Oil close to the surface can be mined, but still must be heated to separate the oil from the sand. Deeper sources of oil are extracted on-site, also called in situ extraction, requiring even more energy when steam is injected underground, heating the oil to the point it can be pumped to the surface. The extracted oil product, known as bitumen, can be moved to refineries in the United States or refined on-site to upgraded synthetic crude.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

NASA finds Greenland glaciers melting faster than thought

From: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Published July 22, 2015 06:49 AM

Greenland’s glaciers flowing into the ocean are grounded deeper below sea level than previously measured, allowing intruding ocean water to badly undercut the glacier faces. That process will raise sea levels around the world much faster than currently estimated, according to a team of researchers led by Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

The researchers battled rough waters and an onslaught of icebergs for three summers to map the remote channels below Greenland’s marine-terminating glaciers for the first time. Their results have been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and are now available online.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice