A Cascadia Subduction Zone MegaThrust Earthquake Documentary Titled: “Unprepared”

Doc Luke
Published on Sep 25, 2017

OPB’s Oregon Field Guide presents “Unprepared”. This Documentary is part of an integrated radio, TV and online effort that examines our region’s vulnerability to a mega-quake. The Pacific Northwest has seen earthquakes before. But Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes are completely different—and will trigger massive destruction from British Columbia to California and produce tsunamis that can wipe entire towns off the map. The geologic record reveals that they strike every 300 to 500 years. The last one was in 1700. Can we prepare? How? And what lessons can we learn from earthquakes elsewhere? OPB has launched a new initiative to inform people of the dangers of the Cascadia Subduction Zone mega-­‐quakes. Oregon Field Guide sent a team to Japan to look at the effects of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. We examine the staggering vulnerability of our own aging infrastructure designed before this threat was known. Most importantly, we explore the big and small ways that our region can take steps to be better prepared.

For More Information: www.opb.org/unprepared https://www.opb.org/news/article/port…

Featured in this video: Dr. Chris Goldfinger, OSU
Active Tectonics Lab/ Professor of Marine Geology
Pat Corcoran, Coastal Hazards Specialist, OSU Extension Manchi Lai,
Portland Bureau of Transportation,
Structures/Bridge Inspection Carmen Merlo,
Director, Portland Bureau of Emergency Services
Dr. Rob Whitter, Research Geologist
Dr. Nathan Wood, Research Geographer

Judge Agrees To Let Corporate Locusts Ravage California’s Public Lands

Trump Says He Knows More About Climate Science Than Actual Scientists

Opinion | Midterm Climate Report: Partly Cloudy – The New York Times

Antonio Sortino

This week’s elections produced a mixed forecast for the environment.

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

• Nov. 9, 2018

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made it clear that averting the worst consequences of climate changes (lesser consequences are by now all around us) will mean quickly cutting back on the use of fossil fuels that cause global warming.

Big Oil didn’t get the memo.

Faced with what they saw as an existential threat to their businesses, BP, Valero, Phillips 66, the Koch brothers and other members of the fossil fuel fraternity dumped more than $30 million into Washington State to crush a ballot initiative that would have imposed the first taxes in the nation on carbon emissions. Backers of the proposal hoped it would serve as a template for similar action elsewhere and perhaps for the country as a whole. But the theoretical elegance of a carbon tax, which most economists and scientists believe is the surest way to control emissions on a broad scale, was no match even in reliably Democratic Washington for relentless fearmongering about job losses, higher electricity bills and more expensive gasoline.

The defeat in Washington was the most disappointing setback for climate activists in the midterm elections on Tuesday, a day of decidedly mixed messages on climate change in particular and environmental issues more broadly.

On the negative side of the ledger, the firewall in the Republican-majority Senate against any action at all on climate was fortified by assured Republican pickups in North Dakota, Indiana and Missouri. One new senator, Representative Kevin Cramer, who defeated Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, served as an energy adviser in the 2016 Trump campaign and was an architect of the president’s energy agenda, which consists mainly of drilling oil and gas wells on just about every square inch of available federal land, onshore and off. If Rick Scott, the Republican Florida governor, maintains his narrow lead over Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, it will be another major loss for the environment. Governor Scott’s administration for a time barred the use of the term “climate change” in official documents, and the governor was so inattentive to Florida’s many climate-related risks, including sea level rise and flooding, that he was sued by a group of young people for ignoring the issue.

$350M gift to tackle public health challenges – Harvard Gazette

A $350 million gift — the largest in Harvard’s history — comes from The Morningside Foundation, established by the family of the late T.H. Chan. The gift will support efforts at the Harvard School of Public Health to tackle the world’s toughest health challenges.

Kent Dayton/Harvard School of Public Health

By Alvin Powell Harvard Staff Writer

Date September 8, 2014

Harvard University will announce today a $350 million gift — the largest in Harvard’s history — to support efforts at the School of Public Health (HSPH) to tackle the world’s toughest health challenges.

The gift comes from Newton, Mass.-based The Morningside Foundation, established by the family of the late T.H. Chan, which has focused its philanthropy primarily on education, health, and faith-based organizations in North America and Asia. The gift will also lead to the renaming of the School, which will be called the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Harvard School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk said the gift will focus on four global health threats: pandemics old and new, such as malaria, Ebola, cancer, and obesity; harmful physical and social environments such as those resulting from tobacco use, gun violence, and pollution; poverty and humanitarian crises such as those stemming from war and natural disasters; and failing health care systems around the world.

…(read more).

Harvard Medical School receives record $200 million gift – The Boston Globe

Len Blavatnik has donated tens of millions of dollars internationally to support life sciences research and education, including previous gifts to Harvard over the past decade. He earned a Harvard MBA in 1989.

Rick Maiman/Bloomberg/file

Harvard Medical School has received a $200 million donation — the largest in its history — to support research into fundamental questions about human illness and health.

The pledge, from the Blavatnik Family Foundation, will enable the school to hire researchers, add to its advanced technology, and a build an “incubator” in the Longwood area to help bring research findings to market.

But Harvard officials said the gift promotes loftier goals than just new hires and purchases. The money, they said, will free researchers to pursue the questions that intrigue them, even when no immediate application can be foreseen. At the same time, the incubator building and other resources are intended to more quickly translate scientific insights into therapies.

…(read more).