Category Archives: environment

CDC expands Zika travel advisory as experts detail risks | CIDRAP

Not just mosquito-borne

 

The latest CDC assessment of the most recent developments in the Americas came from experts with its division of vector-borne diseases at its National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases. They wrote that the two Aedes mosquitoes that can spread Zika virus are found throughout much of the Americas, including parts of the United States.Their assessment appeared today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).Aside from disease passed from mosquitoes to people, the virus has also been known to result from intrauterine, intrapartum, sexual, blood transfusion, and lab exposure. There’s a theoretical risk from organ and tissue transplantation, and so far breast milk transmission hasn’t been documented, though Zika virus RNA has been detected in breast milk, they wrote.They urged clinicians to consider Zika virus infection in people who have visited an outbreak country within the previous 2 weeks and to consider dengue or chikungunya infection, which

 

 

Source: CDC expands Zika travel advisory as experts detail risks | CIDRAP

Viewpoint: The Flint Water Crisis from the Ground Up | Labor Notes

It would be one thing if those responsible for this crisis were democratically elected officials. We could just vote the bums out, right? Well, that isn’t the case in my hometown.Through a bill called P.A. 436, better known as the Emergency Manager law, Governor Rick Snyder appoints an “emergency manager” who answers to the governor and the governor alone.The emergency manager has the power to dismantle everything from local laws to public sector union contracts. All the local officials who were voted in, and all the public sector workers, are under the control of this state-appointed dictator.It was the Snyder-appointed emergency manager, Darnell Early, who initially switched Flint over from the long trusted-source of Lake Huron water, provided by Detroit, to the more corrosive water of the Flint River. It was the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, also answerable solely to Snyder, that deemed the move safe.This was only intended to be a temporary measure, but it didn’t take long for the damage to be done. The aging pipes in Flint were leaching lead into the city’s drinking water and into people’s homes. An entire community was poisoned, just like that.There is no safe level of lead; lead damage is permanent and irreversible. It can cause a staggering array of physical and behavioral problems, from lower IQ to miscarriages.To add insult to injury, the emergency manager in his infinite wisdom raised water rates to astronomical levels. So we’re paying $100-plus per person, per month, for water that is basically poison and practically useless.

Source: Viewpoint: The Flint Water Crisis from the Ground Up | Labor Notes

WHO reports more local Zika confirmations, GBS spike | CIDRAP

Local transmission on St. Martin, GuadeloupeMeanwhile, the WHO today confirmed the first two locally acquired Zika infection cases in the French part of St. Martin and in Guadeloupe. It said French health officials notified the WHO of both cases on Jan 18.The two territories already appear on PAHO’s list of affected locations in the Americas, which stands at 20. Like most other parts of the Caribbean, both areas have been affected by the chikungunya virus outbreak over the past year.WHO urges no travel restrictionsThe WHO said in both statements today it does not recommend any trade or travel restrictions to the affected areas.So far the WHO has held off on recommending that pregnant women, or those planning to become pregnant, avoid the affected countries due to the microcephaly threat. In its most recent update on the

The two territories already appear on PAHO’s list of affected locations in the Americas, which stands at 20. Like most other parts of the Caribbean, both areas have been affected by the chikungunya virus outbreak over the past year.WHO urges no travel restrictionsThe WHO said in both statements today it does not recommend any trade or travel restrictions to the affected areas.So far the WHO has held off on recommending that pregnant women, or those planning to become pregnant, avoid the affected countries due to the microcephaly threat. In its most recent update on the

WHO urges no travel restrictionsThe WHO said in both statements today it does not recommend any trade or travel restrictions to the affected areas.So far the WHO has held off on recommending that pregnant women, or those planning to become pregnant, avoid the affected countries due to the microcephaly threat. In its most recent update on the

The WHO said in both statements today it does not recommend any trade or travel restrictions to the affected areas. {Deja vu – same thing they said too long about ebola outbreak last year – giving in to local government’s fears of losing trade dollars and further increased the impact of the epidemic}

So far the WHO has held off on recommending that pregnant women, or those planning to become pregnant, avoid the affected countries due to the microcephaly threat. In its most recent update on the disease it urges pregnant women to take steps to protect against mosquitoes and to consult with their local health officials before traveling.

Source: WHO reports more local Zika confirmations, GBS spike | CIDRAP

Senator Heinrich: Armed Extremists at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Must Be Prosecuted – Native News Online

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the U.S. Committee on Indian Affairs, expressed his concern over the continued takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by armed extremists, and urged the U.S. Department of Justice to fully prosecute anyone who has broken the law.US Senator Martin Heinrich“Unfortunately, the attack on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is only the latest effort in a growing campaign by anti-government interests to seize and sell off the American people’s public lands,” Sen. Heinrich wrote in the letter. “I am concerned that the absence of federal prosecution after similar events in the past, such as the 2014 standoff near Bunkerville, Nevada, may have emboldened these individuals to seize federal property in the Malheur standoff. There must be consequences for this sort of dangerous action. When the federal government does not fulfill its duty in prosecuting violations of the law, individuals are emboldened to further defy the law.”Efforts to seize and sell off America’s public lands are deeply unpopular in the West. Recent polling in Western states, including New Mexico, found that an overwhelming majority of voters in the region oppose transferring national public lands to state ownership.

Source: Senator Heinrich: Armed Extremists at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Must Be Prosecuted – Native News Online

Avian Flu Diary: CDC Zika Press Conference: Audio & Transcript

The CDC has posted the transcript of last night’s hastily called CDC press conference (at 7pm EST) on yesterday’s release of new, interim travel advice for pregnant women seeking to travel to countries where the Zika virus is transmitting.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: CDC Zika Press Conference: Audio & Transcript

WHO | Zika virus infection – France – Overseas Departments

On 21 December 2015, WHO received notification of the first 2 laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika virus infection in two overseas departments of France: Remire-Montjoly, French Guiana and Schœlcher, Martinique. Since then, 2 additional cases have been reported in Saint Laurent du Maroni, French Guiana and in Fort de France, Martinique.The cases were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (viral genome detection) at the Pasteur Institute in Cayenne, French Guiana and at the university hospital laboratory in Martinique.Samples from 4 additional suspected cases in Martinique (1 in Lamentin and 3 in Le Robert) were sent to the National Reference Centre for arboviruses in Marseille for further analysis.

Source: WHO | Zika virus infection – France – Overseas Departments

An Atlantic Hurricane…in January : Image of the Day

Hurricanes have arrived early this year in the northern hemisphere. Just days after hurricane Pali became the earliest Central Pacific hurricane on record, the Atlantic basin spun up its own unusual storm. On January 14, 2016, a tropical depression in the eastern Atlantic evolved into hurricane Alex; it became the earliest hurricane in the basin since 1938 and just the fourth January hurricane in 150 years of records.At 11:00 a.m. Azores time (13:00 Universal Time) on January 14, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this view of hurricane Alex. Two hours after the image was acquired, the storm was reported to have sustained winds of 75 knots (85 miles or 140 kilometers per hour) and a central pressure of 981 millibars.

Source: An Atlantic Hurricane…in January : Image of the Day

Flint Wants Safe Water, and Someone to Answer for Its Crisis – The New York Times

“Put yourself in our shoes,” she said. “It’s hurting kids, the elderly. It’s hurting all of us.”And there was plenty of blame to go around, she added. “It’s almost like a stepladder — you start from the top and you go all the way down to the bottom,” she said.Switching the source of drinking water was meant to relieve some of the financial pressures on this struggling city. Flint has high rates of gun violence and crumbling infrastructure. And as manufacturing jobs have moved overseas, the population has steadily dropped to fewer than 100,000 — more than 40 percent of whom live below the poverty line.But it was not long before some in Flint were pointing out the nasty color and odor of what was coming out of their taps, and digging into their wallets to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking, and baby wipes for bathing.State and city leaders had largely dismissed residents’ complaints for months, assuring them that the water was safe and being tested regularly. With the emergence of the blood level data, officials began advising residents not to drink unfiltered tap water — a recommendation that remains in effect.

Source: Flint Wants Safe Water, and Someone to Answer for Its Crisis – The New York Times

James Lovelock: ‘enjoy life while you can: in 20 years global warming will hit the fan’ | Environment | The Guardian

Humanity is in a period exactly like 1938-9, he explains, when “we all knew something terrible was going to happen, but didn’t know what to do about it”. But once the second world war was under way, “everyone got excited, they loved the things they could do, it was one long holiday … so when I think of the impending crisis now, I think in those terms. A sense of purpose – that’s what people want.”

Source: James Lovelock: ‘enjoy life while you can: in 20 years global warming will hit the fan’ | Environment | The Guardian

 

I’d like to think he is wrong, I really do. I think, however, that he is right and that we are already past the tipping point for changes that will force those left, after all all the eco-disasters to find a way of living in nature in a way that will enable us not to kill millions of humans because of shortsightedness, hubris and delusion.

Caribbean Journalists Prepare to Report on Climate Change | Inter Press Service

“Scientific information must be published in clearer language, and we must talk about the real impact of climate change on people’s lives,” journalist Amelia Deschamps, an anchorwoman on the El Día newcast of the Dominican channel Telesistema 11, told IPS.She was referring to the communication challenges posed in the wake of COP21 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 in Paris to produce the first universal agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and curb the negative impacts of global warming.

Source: Caribbean Journalists Prepare to Report on Climate Change | Inter Press Service