Category Archives: environment

CENSORED NEWS: Nestle Water Battle: Warm Springs Tribal Members Speak Out

Source: CENSORED NEWS: Nestle Water Battle: Warm Springs Tribal Members Speak Out

CDC analysis concludes Zika causes microcephaly | CIDRAP

Despite urgent pleas from top federal health officials for Congress to approve Obama’s $1.9 billion emergency request to battle Zika virus earlier this week, House Republicans said they’ll probably grant part of it, but perhaps not until September, the Associated Press reported today. Federal health officials have said the money is needed to help states boost mosquito surveillance and control, to assist efforts in Puerto Rico and other US territories where the disease is already spreading, and to follow through on countermeasure development.

Source: CDC analysis concludes Zika causes microcephaly | CIDRAP

Can Great Apes Be Vaccinated Against Ebola and Other Diseases? | Smart News | Smithsonian – AKA – Human intervention and hubris destroys their environment and sets stage for vulnerability – so more will…?

“Our research has made it clear that viruses such as Ebola can affect gorillas and chimps, as can human respiratory viruses,” Walsh tells McKie. “Within five years, I would want all gorillas and chimpanzees that come anywhere near humans to be vaccinated against Ebola or respiratory diseases. That is the only way we can go.”

Source: Can Great Apes Be Vaccinated Against Ebola and Other Diseases? | Smart News | Smithsonian

Baldwin Hills 1963 – the first fracking failure

The role of central graben subsidence, accelerated by oil extraction, supplemented by reinjection of waste brine into the ground, on fault movement beneath the reservoir is indicated in the animated graphic following. Injection pressures exceeded hydrofracture pressures and the recorded timing of the fault offset (which was dutifully recorded by the reservoir owner) indicate the injection as being the decisive factor.

Source: Baldwin Hills

More Evidence that Monarch Butterflies Should be Listed as Endangered | Civil Eats

Now, new research by a group of scientists from around the nation reveals that monarchs may be even more vulnerable to extinction than previously understood. And this in turn means that listing the monarch as endangered under the Endangered Species Act is even more urgent than we thought. These revelations come despite the fact that there was an initial increase in this year’s overwintering monarchs in Mexico. While some news sources reported that the monarchs were “making a comeback” or “on the rebound,” such increases have commonly occurred in previous years. And while the latest news stories linked the reported increases to more milkweed planting, most of these often substantial population fluctuations are more likely caused by factors such as favorable or unfavorable weather. And, as if on cue, a major winter storm has recently reduced the overwintering population. So the optimism about this year’s population increase seems to have been premature. And, in much the same way that a particularly cold winter in one part of the world does not have anything to do with fact that the surface of the planet is getting warmer due to climate change, this year’s increase in monarchs provides no evidence that the long-term trend toward their decline has been reversed. And if the welcome, but limited, planting of milkweed along roadsides, and in parks and gardens has helped, any effect is likely to have been very small. We know that monarch butterfly populations fluctuate greatly, but this new research may also help us better understanding their historic fluctuations by enabling the scientists to place actual numbers on them. By using analytic methods not previously used, these scientists estimate that if current trends are not reversed, there is between an 11 and 57 percent risk of extinction of the Midwest migrating population (the main population by far) within the next 20 years.

Source: More Evidence that Monarch Butterflies Should be Listed as Endangered | Civil Eats

CDC updates Aedes mosquito maps, gears up for Zika summit | CIDRAP

Maps show best estimates, but not disease risk The new maps—the first update in over a decade—are the CDC’s best estimates for Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus ranges, based on a variety of sources. The agency emphasized that the maps aren’t intended to show exact locators or portray the risk for the spread of Zika virus.

Source: CDC updates Aedes mosquito maps, gears up for Zika summit | CIDRAP

Eurosurveillance – View Article – Measles from Philippines to Netherland and UK on one flight! Vaccines are important!

This report describes a joint measles outbreak investigation between public health officials in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands following detection of a measles cluster with a unique measles virus strain. From 1 February to 30 April 2014, 33 measles cases with a unique measles virus strain of genotype B3 were detected in the UK and the Netherlands, of which nine secondary cases were epidemiologically linked to an infectious measles case travelling from the Philippines. Through a combination of epidemiological investigation and sequence analysis, we found that measles transmission occurred in flight, airport and household settings. The secondary measles cases included airport workers, passengers in transit at the same airport or travelling on the same flight as the infectious case and also household contacts. This investigation highlighted the particular importance of measles genotyping in identifying transmission networks and the need to improve vaccination, public health follow-up and management of travellers and airport staff exposed to measles.

Source: Eurosurveillance – View Article

Avian Flu Diary: WHO SitRep : Zika, Microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome – March 31st

Zika virus, Microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome Read the full situation report Summary From 1 January 2007 to 30 March 2016, Zika virus transmission was documented in a total of 61 countries and territories. Four of these (Cook Islands, French Polynesia, ISLA DE PASCUA – Chile, and New Caledonia) reported a Zika virus outbreak that is now over. Six countries have now reported locally acquired infection in the absence of any known mosquito vectors, probably through sexual transmission (Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, New Zealand and the United States of America). In the Region of the Americas, the geographical distribution of Zika virus has steadily widened since the presence of the virus was confirmed in 2015. Mosquito-borne Zika virus transmission has been reported in 33 countries and territories of this region. In the Western Pacific Region, mosquito-borne Zika virus cases have been reported in 16 countries and areas. Microcephaly and other fetal malformations have been reported in Brazil (944 cases), Cabo Verde (two cases), Colombia (32 cases), French Polynesia (eight cases), Martinique (one case) and Panama (one case). Two additional cases, linked to a stay in Brazil, were detected in the United States of America and Slovenia. In the context of Zika virus circulation, 13 countries or territories have reported an increased incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and/or laboratory confirmation of a Zika virus infection among GBS cases. Based on observational, cohort and case-control studies there is strong scientific consensus that Zika virus is a cause of GBS, microcephaly and other neurological disorders. The global prevention and control strategy launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Strategic Response Framework encompasses surveillance, response activities and research. This situation report is organized under those headings.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: WHO SitRep : Zika, Microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome – March 31st

Ebola no longer poses global risk, says WHO | News | DW.COM | 29.03.2016

{The very non-health related desire to say everything is OK now, is the same reaction that caused WHO and its member nations to urge calm and under-react to Ebola – which gave Ebola all the time it needed to outstrip several nation’s ability to fight it. Immediate “economic” concerns that drive this behavior may well be the leading cause of the pandemic that kills millions!}

Chan stressed that the three worst affected countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – remain vulnerable to Ebola flare-ups, including an ongoing cluster of cases in Guinea, which has left five people dead.But the UN’s health agency said all original chains of virus transmission have now ended.Chan said the “risk of international spread is now low, and…countries currently have the capacity to respond rapidly to new virus emergences.”Her statement brings to an end a nearly 20-month emergency that started in Guinea in late 2013, saw 28,638 cases emerge and 11,300 deaths.

Source: Ebola no longer poses global risk, says WHO | News | DW.COM | 29.03.2016