Category Archives: environment

How Siberia’s methane craters affect the whole planet | Green Prophet

“Gas pressure increased until it was high enough to push away the overlaying layers in a powerful injection, forming the crater,” “href=”http://www.nature.com/news/mysterious-siberian-crater-attributed-to-methane-1.15649″>explained geochemist Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten of Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute.

The other two craters have diameters of 45 feet and 13 feet. And while the pockmarked peninsula poses a particular risk to local people, especially considering that industrial plants have been erected on the frozen land that is now melting away, the global community will be affected as well.

Despite the danger of investigating this “spooky” unstable landmass, archaeologist Andrei Plekhanov from the Scientific Center of Arctic Studies in Salekhard, Russia reported in a recent Nature article that the air at the bottom of the crater consists of up to 9.6 percent methane – compared to the standard 0.000179 percent.

Related: Giant plumes of gurgling methane could fast-track planetary warming

This is worrisome because methane is far more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping greenhouse gases in our atmosphere – the one atmosphere that everyone on planet Earth shares.

“Pound for pound, the comparative impact of [methane gas] on climate change is over 20 times greater than [carbon dioxide] over a 100-year period,” the Environmental Protection Agency reported.

NIMBYism refers to the idea that as long as something bad (pollution, mining, social injustice) is taking place anywhere other than my back yard, it’s not my problem. But the thawing permafrost and subsequent release of methane bombs is everyone’s problem.

via How Siberia’s methane craters affect the whole planet | Green Prophet.

“Forget Media – getting too hyped” – read: WHO | Ebola virus disease update – West Africa

“WHO=World Health Organization”

Between 2 and 4 August 2014, a total of 108 new cases of Ebola virus disease (laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases) as well as 45 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

via WHO | Ebola virus disease update – West Africa.

Home comfort after China earthquake

A child, cuddling a cat, rests under a shelter at the earthquake zone in Ludian county, Zhaotong, Yunnan province. An earthquake in China on the weekend triggered landslides that have blocked rivers and created rapidly growing bodies of water that could unleash more destruction on survivors of the disaster that killed 410 people, state media reported on Tuesday.

REUTERS/Stringer

via Home comfort after China earthquake.

Drug given to American Ebola patients is produced in Kentucky using tobacco plants | Health | Kentucky.com

{the good, bad, and the ugly – the drug is being produced under contract with US Military Labs that had tested nerve weapons and antidotes, as well as the possibilities of weaponizing a variety of diseases, as well as producing antidotes – why given only to two Americans – how dare I even ask that?)

In 2007, Mapp, working under contract for the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies, engaged KBP to develop a process to manufacture a compound designed to be a post-exposure treatment for Ebola virus.

That compound was MB-003 or ZMapp, a cocktail of antibodies that has proven to be the most effective treatment so far in fighting off the Ebola virus.

In a study published last year, scientists at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases reported that 43 percent of infected nonhuman primates recovered after receiving the treatment intravenously 104 to 120 hours after infection — after symptoms developed.

via Drug given to American Ebola patients is produced in Kentucky using tobacco plants | Health | Kentucky.com.

A Practice of Gratitude. | Rebelle Society

Take that gratitude and write it, speak it, dance it, paint it. Let it shine bright, for you and for all of us. So that when darkness falls, this thank you is the salve on your wounded knees, the balm for my broken heart, the friend who holds us all during aching times of loneliness.

Be gratitude.

via A Practice of Gratitude. | Rebelle Society.

On 2nd day without water, Ohio city mayor says more tests are needed to ensure toxins are gone

TOLEDO, Ohio – More tests are needed to ensure that toxins are out of Toledo’s water supply, the Ohio city’s mayor said Sunday, instructing the 400,000 people in the region to avoid drinking tap water for a second day.

Mayor D. Michael Collins said that new samples showing decreased levels of toxins in the water are a positive sign.

Toledo officials issued the warning early Saturday after tests at one treatment plant showed two sample readings for microsystin above the standard for consumption, possibly because of algae on Lake Erie, the shallowest of the five Great Lakes.

The city also said not to boil the water because that would only increase the toxin’s concentration. The mayor also warned that children should not shower or bathe in the water and that it shouldn’t be given to pets.

Algae blooms during the summer have become more frequent and troublesome around the western end of Lake Erie. The algae growth is fed by phosphorus mainly from farm fertilizer runoff and sewage treatment plants, leaving behind toxins that have contributed to oxygen-deprived dead zones where fish can’t survive. The toxins can kill animals and sicken humans.

via On 2nd day without water, Ohio city mayor says more tests are needed to ensure toxins are gone.

WHO | WHO Director-General assesses the Ebola outbreak with three West African presidents

First, this outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it. If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socioeconomic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries. As I said before, this meeting must mark a turning point in the outbreak response.

In addition, the outbreak is affecting a large number of doctors, nurses, and other health care workers, one of the most essential resources for containing an outbreak. To date, more than 60 health care workers have lost their lives in helping others. Some international staff are infected. These tragic infections and deaths significantly erode response capacity.

Second, the situation in West Africa is of international concern and must receive urgent priority for decisive action at national and international levels. Experiences in Africa over nearly four decades tell us clearly that, when well managed, an Ebola outbreak can be stopped.

This is not an airborne virus. Transmission requires close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, also after death. Apart from this specific situation, the general public is not at high risk of infection by the Ebola virus.

At the same time, it would be extremely unwise for national authorities and the international community to allow an Ebola virus to circulate widely and over a long period of time in human populations.

Constant mutation and adaptation are the survival mechanisms of viruses and other microbes. We must not give this virus opportunities to deliver more surprises.

Third, this is not just a medical or public health problem. It is a social problem. Deep-seated beliefs and cultural practices are a significant cause of further spread and a significant barrier to rapid and effective containment. This social dimension must also be addressed as an integral part of the overall response.

Fourth, in some areas, chains of transmission have moved underground. They are invisible. They are not being reported. Because of the high fatality rate, many people in affected areas associate isolation wards with a sure death sentence, and prefer to care for loved ones in homes or seek assistance from traditional healers.

Such hiding of cases defeats strategies for rapid containment. Moreover, public attitudes can create a security threat to response teams when fear and misunderstanding turn to anger, hostility, or violence.

Finally, despite the absence of a vaccine or curative therapy, Ebola outbreaks can most certainly be contained. Bedrocks of outbreak containment include early detection and isolation of cases, contact tracing and monitoring of contacts, and rigorous procedures for infection control.

Moreover, we do have some evidence that early detection of cases and early implementation of supportive therapy increases the chances of survival. This is another message that needs to be communicated to the public.

via WHO | WHO Director-General assesses the Ebola outbreak with three West African presidents.

Threat from drug-resistant malaria is ‘immense’ | Asia | DW.DE | 31.07.2014

The study, carried out by the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, concluded that the strand of the disease that is resistant to the world’s most effective antimalarial drug – artemisinin – is now firmly established in border regions in four Southeast Asian countries. The scientists analyzed blood samples from over 1,200 malaria patients in 10 countries across Asia and Africa and found that Plasmodium falciparum, which is the most deadly form of the malaria-causing parasite and resistant to the treatment drug, is now common in parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.

via Threat from drug-resistant malaria is ‘immense’ | Asia | DW.DE | 31.07.2014.

Promising Ebola Drugs Stuck in Lab Limbo as Outbreak Rages in Africa

{Although the writer is well respected using the term promising feeds doubts about regulations designed to keep people safe and researchers accountable. This is not just red tape for the sake of red tape. Years ago, a drug with great promise was released and “oops” babies with deformed arms and legs were being born. Just a few years ago, a widely prescribed drug was found to “oops” increase the likelihood of strokes and was withdrawn. Research at U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland is done to protect members of the military from disease in areas of the world where they may be asked to serve. If they had }

Yet, some experimental therapies and vaccines show promise. Some show excellent efficacy when given to nonhuman primates deliberately infected with the virus.

Of the experimental vaccines, most work only to protect against infection. But one—designed by scientists from the Public Health Agency of Canada in conjunction with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland—protected half of the animals injected with lethal amounts of Ebola virus when administered 30 minutes post exposure.

via Promising Ebola Drugs Stuck in Lab Limbo as Outbreak Rages in Africa.

Emory Healthcare to treat Ebola patient | www.ajc.com

Agence France-Presse interviewed Dr. Peter Piot, a discoverer of the virus and head of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who said there was little risk of pandemic.

“Spreading in the population here, I’m not that worried about it,” he told AFP.

“I wouldn’t be worried to sit next to someone with Ebola virus on the Tube as long as they don’t vomit on you or something,” he said, referring to London’s underground train system. “This is an infection that requires very close contact.” (if this is as true, as we are led to believe, then how did well trained and outfitted people contract the disease – including top doctor who had treated 100 patients – all knowing they had to take extreme precautions)

via Emory Healthcare to treat Ebola patient | www.ajc.com.