Category Archives: environment

US nun’s killer placed under Brazil house arrest | News , International | THE DAILY STAR

A man sentenced to 27 years in prison for the 2005 murder of US nun Dorothy Stang has been placed under house arrest in Brazil after serving only eight years behind bars, a lawyer said Thursday.

Rayfran das Neves Sales “was released Tuesday and is already home. A judge determined that he had already served his sentence,” said Jose Batista Afonso, a lawyer for the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) in the northen state of Para.

CPT has for years campaigned to advance social justice and the rights of small farmers and the landless in Brazil.

Stang, 73, was shot to death on February 12, 2005 in the town of Anapu, 700 kilometers (450 miles) from the Para state capital of Belem after meeting with landless peasants on an ecological project.

Local ranchers accused her at the time of inciting landless farmers to invade their lands.

Neves Sales confessed and was jailed two days after the murder.

His accomplice, Clodoaldo Batista, was sentenced to 17 years in jail while Amair Feijoli, who acted as a go-between with the killers, got an 18-year term.

Defense lawyer Raimundo Cavalcante explained to reporters that after serving one sixth of his sentence, Neves Sales first had his jail conditions eased before being put under house arrest Tuesday.

“There will be some restrictions, as behind back home at 10 p.m. and he has 60 days to find a job,” the lawyer said.

via US nun's killer placed under Brazil house arrest | News , International | THE DAILY STAR.

Death Valley Claims A Heat Title Again : Image of the Day

The heat wave that gripped the western United States this week may have set an all-time record in Death Valley National Park, California. The air temperature rose to 129.2 °Fahrenheit (54 °Celsius) at the Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center on June 30, 2013, possibly breaking the all-time record high June temperature for the United States (set in Volcano, California, on June 23, 1902). A sharp bend in the jet stream trapped a strong ridge of high pressure over the western U.S., leading to an extreme heat wave and record temperatures.

The top image above shows the heat emanating from Death Valley on June 30, 2013. The measurement is surface temperature—how hot the land feels to the touch—as measured by the Thermal Infrared Sensor on the Landsat 8 satellite. The accompanying natural color view from the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 shows that the cooler areas are either higher in elevation or covered with plants. In fact, plants cooled Furnace Creek, the site of the record-high air temperature observation. Mesquite Flat and other nearby valleys radiated more heat.

via Death Valley Claims A Heat Title Again : Image of the Day.

When you’re hot, you’re hot! Love Death Valley!

News in Brief: Deadly flu virus flourishes in lung cells | Genes & Cells | Science News

A strain of bird flu that has sickened 132 people and killed 37 in China this year may have more potential to spread worldwide than the dreaded H5N1 avian influenza does.

The new flu, known as H7N9 avian influenza, latches onto sugars that coat bird cells — and it can cling to sugars on human cells too, Yuelong Shu of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention and colleagues report July 3 in Nature. That may give the virus the ability to jump from birds to people relatively easily, the team reports.

By contrast, outside of two highly publicized laboratory experiments (SN: 6/2/12, p. 20), the H5N1 virus only grasps onto bird sugars and hasn’t developed the ability to be readily transmitted among people. H5N1 has infected 630 people worldwide, killing 375.

H7N9 grows especially well in lung cells, the team discovered. That finding helps explain why people infected with H7N9 often develop severe pneumonia. But the virus doesn’t cling as well in the trachea, which could limit H7N9’s ability to spread among people via coughs or sneezes.

The researchers also examined blood samples from 90 healthy people who had gotten flu shots in 2012 and 2013. None of them carried antibodies that can fight H7N9, indicating that most people are probably susceptible to the virus.

via News in Brief: Deadly flu virus flourishes in lung cells | Genes & Cells | Science News.

Olives Sold in Northeast Recalled for Potential Botulism Risk | Food Safety News

A Rhode Island-based grocery chain is recalling certain Mediterranean olives because they have the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum.

Ocean State Job Lot (OSJL) issued a voluntary recall of Bel Frantoio brand Mediterranean Olives: Calcidica Sweet Monday after the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) discovered that the product was stored at room temperature when it should have been kept refrigerated, allowing for the potential growth of Clostridium botulinum bacteria.

via Olives Sold in Northeast Recalled for Potential Botulism Risk | Food Safety News.

Chai Tea Recalled for Botulism Risk | Food Safety News

A Washington state company is recalling its chai tea because the beverage was improperly processed and therefore has the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum bacteria.

Harmony Chai of Eastsound, WA issued a voluntary recall of its concentrated black spiced and decaffeinated roobius chai teas Friday after testing by the Washington State Department of Agriculture revealed the product had not been processed in a way that prevents Clostridium botulinum contamination.

via Chai Tea Recalled for Botulism Risk | Food Safety News.

iggy mogo — Tracking the Causes of Sharp Decline of the…

GMO Crops and Round Up killing Butterfly’s ecology

What we’re seeing here in the United States is a very precipitous decline of monarchs that’s coincident with the adoption of Roundup-ready corn and soybeans. The first ones were introduced in 1997, soybeans first, then corn. By 2003, 2004, the adoption rate was approaching 50 percent,

and then we really began to see a decline in monarchs. And the reason is that the most productive habitat for monarch butterflies in the Midwest, in the Corn Belt, was the corn and soybean fields [where milkweed, which monarchs feed on, grew]. Before Roundup-ready crops, weed control was accomplished by running a tiller through those fields and chopping up the weeds and turning over the soil, but not affecting the crops. The milkweed survives that sort of tillage to some extent. So there were maybe 20, 30, 40 plants per acre out there, enough so that you could see them, you could photograph them.

via iggy mogo — Tracking the Causes of Sharp Decline of the….

Feds Clear Way for Domestic Horse Slaughter

This is how the President is going to protect wild animals?

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Federal officials cleared the way Friday for a return to domestic horse slaughter, granting a southeastern New Mexico company’s application to convert its cattle facility into a horse processing plant.

In approving Valley Meat Co.’s plans to produce horse meat, Department of Agriculture officials also indicated they would grant similar permits to companies in Iowa and Missouri as early as next week.

With the action, the Roswell, N.M., company becomes the first operation in the nation licensed to process horses into meat since Congress effectively banned the practice seven years ago.

But the company’s attorney said on Friday that he remained skeptical about Valley Meat Co.’s chances of opening any time soon, as the USDA must send an inspector to oversee operations and two animal rights groups have threated lawsuits to block the opening.

“This is very far from over,” attorney Blair Dunn said. “The company is going to plan to begin operating in July. But with the potential lawsuits and the USDA — they have been dragging their feet for a year — so to now believe they are going to start supplying inspectors, we’re not going to hold our breath.”

The company has been fighting for the permit for than a year, sparking an emotional debate over whether horses are livestock or domestic companions.

The decision comes more than six months after Valley Meat Co. sued the USDA, accusing it of intentionally delaying the process because the Obama administration opposes horse slaughter.

The Justice Department moved Friday to dismiss the case. Dunn said he would fight to keep it open until all issues, including attorneys’ fees, are resolved.

via Feds Clear Way for Domestic Horse Slaughter.

Superweeds and Herbicide Use On the Rise | Eat Drink Better

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) herbicide data analyzed in the report, Superweeds: How Biotech Crops Bolster the Pesticide Industry, shows that herbicide use on corn, cotton and soybeans has steadily grown by 26 percent in the years between 2001 and 2010. The widely used glyphosate herbicides, primarily Monsanto’s Roundup Ready line, have become ineffective as the weeds develop stronger resistance due to continuous over-exposure to the chemical. As glyphosate proves to be increasingly ineffective, more farmers are turning to more dangerous herbicides including 2,4-D [aka: Agent Orange]. Use of 2,4-D has increased since glyphosate-resistant crops became widespread, growing 90 percent between 2000 and 2012.

via Superweeds and Herbicide Use On the Rise | Eat Drink Better.

Our Global Warming Noose Is Cinched Tight With Koch Brothers’ Money: Gothamist

The pledge was created in 2008 by the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, and those who sign it promise to not spend any money fighting global warming unless that money is “balanced” with tax cuts.

While the pledge began with a marginal following, an energized turnout of conservative voters in the 2010 election swept 85 freshman Republicans into the House. Of those 85 Republicans, 76 signed the Koch pledge as candidates. And 57 of those 76 received campaign contributions from Koch Industries’ political action committee.

With the support of these newly elected Republicans, from 2011 to 2013, Congress passed increasingly smaller budgets for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), attempted to strip the agency of varying regulatory powers and discouraged policies to address climate change across multiple federal agencies, according to the Workshop’s analysis.

Koch puppets have testified before Congress about global warming six times in 2013 alone, most recently on May 7, when Paul Knappenberger of the Cato Institute told the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, “The more we learn, the less responsive it seems that the earth’s average temperature is to human carbon-dioxide emissions.”

via Our Global Warming Noose Is Cinched Tight With Koch Brothers' Money: Gothamist.