Category Archives: environment

Ebola virus outbreak in Techiman, Ghana is imminent | Health News 2014-07-14

Many people show unconcerned when it comes to the discussion of disease outbreaks in Ghana; thinking that the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service owe the responsibility to curb the disease. This attitude has precipitated the cause of disease outbreaks in Africa and particularly in Ghana. The earlier we change this attitude, the better we can control diseases to the extent of not even causing outbreaks.

Currently, Ghana due to her international territories is imminent for the Ebola disease outbreak and cities including Techiman where there is African market that serves the whole West Africa. Due to the influx of people from all walks of life to the Techiman market, Ebola virus disease is likely to occur in Techiman if preventative measures are not taken. It would be important that all meaningful Ghanaians join the advocacy against the Ebola virus.

via Ebola virus outbreak in Techiman is imminent | Health News 2014-07-14.

Polar Vortex Knock-Off Headed Straight Toward Us: Gothamist

Trigger Warning: An unseasonable blast of cold air reminiscent of last winter’s infamous Polar Vortex is headed our way next week. Tropical Storm Neoguri, off the coast of Japan, has initiated a chain reaction in weather patterns which, according to Weather Underground, will cause a ripple effect in the jet stream over western North America, resulting in a phenomenon “similar to the nasty ‘Polar Vortex’ pattern that set up during the winter of 2014.” Guess we’re still not done slurping up winter’s blood from that snowman’s skull. Fine, pass it over.

via Polar Vortex Knock-Off Headed Straight Toward Us: Gothamist.

Clear differences between organic and non-organic food, study finds | Environment | The Guardian

Organic food has more of the antioxidant compounds linked to better health and lower levels of toxic metals and pesticides, according to the most comprehensive scientific analysis to date.

The international scientific team behind the new work suggests that switching from regular to organic fruit and vegetables could give the same benefits as adding one or two portions of the “five a day” currently recommended.

The team, led by Prof Carlo Leifert at the University of Newcastle, concludes that there are “statistically significant, meaningful” differences, with a range of antioxidants being “substantially higher” – between 19% and 69% – in organic food. It is the first study to demonstrate clear and wide-ranging differences between organic and conventional fruits, vegetables and cereals.

via Clear differences between organic and non-organic food, study finds | Environment | The Guardian.

El Niño juega con la comida de Nicaragua | IPS Agencia de Noticias

El fantasma del hambre se acerca a Nicaragua. El segundo país más pobre de América Latina y uno de los 10 más vulnerables del mundo al cambio climático, se enfrenta a un fenómeno meteorológico que amenaza su seguridad alimentaria.

via El Niño juega con la comida de Nicaragua | IPS Agencia de Noticias.

Nyaho Clinic suspected Ebola virus patient dies | General News 2014-07-08

The initial tests run on the American, now deceased, according to the source, was inconclusive because the officials used the wrong reagent.

The sources, who are medical practitioners, told Joy News “the test should have taken Noguchi not more than five hours.”

via Nyaho Clinic suspected Ebola virus patient dies | General News 2014-07-08.

UN: 50 new Ebola cases in 2 African countries since last week, deadly virus still spreading

The U.N. health agency says there have been 50 new Ebola cases in Sierra Leone and Liberia since last week as the disease, among the deadliest in the world, keeps spreading in West Africa.

The World Health Organization says 34 new cases were reported by Sierra Leone and 16 by Liberia since July 3.

WHO officials said in a statement Tuesday the outbreak in those two countries and Guinea shows “a mixed picture” because of a reduction in the number of new cases in Guinea, where no new cases have been reported during the past week.

The agency says as of Sunday, there have been 844 cases of Ebola in the three countries, including 518 deaths.

via UN: 50 new Ebola cases in 2 African countries since last week, deadly virus still spreading.

Loyalty of oil producers? To Profit$, not America – Qatar and Exxon Mobil seek LNG exporting through Houston company Golden Pass Products – Houston Business Journal

A final investment decision is expected in 2015, after which Golden Pass Products would invest approximately $10 billion over five years to build the proposed facility. Golden Pass claims the effort would create about 45,000 direct and indirect jobs across the nation during the construction phase.

The company also is awaiting Department of Energy authorization for export to non-free trade agreement nations in Asia and Europe.

via Qatar and Exxon Mobil seek LNG exporting through Houston company Golden Pass Products – Houston Business Journal.

ADM Buys Wild Flavors

“We intend to maintain the Wild Flavors name and grow the brand and the innovative, entrepreneurial culture that sustains it,” said Woertz. “We appreciate the difference in our business models, and will support continued success of the Wild Flavors model by establishing a new business unit called Wild Flavors and Specialty Ingredients. The new unit will include many of our specialty ingredients.”

via ADM Buys Wild Flavors.

Translation: GMO and artificial ingredients will soon be added and with no labeling requirements – who will be the wiser?

Same Interest as Facebook – Manipulate Your Thoughts and Actions for Profit and maybe a Little Good! Participant Index Seeks to Determine Why One Film Spurs Activism, While Others Falter – NYTimes.com

Participant, created in 2004 by the eBay co-founder Jeffrey S. Skoll, is using that methodology to build a proprietary database. It will feature three echelons with 35 projects each, or about 100 distinct bits of media, annually.

The company will lean heavily toward films and television shows of its own, especially those carried on its activism-driven online and pay-television network, Pivot. But it will also index properties for partners, like the Gates and Kaiser Family foundations, and for companies or others who will pay a fee.

Participant was created in 2004 by the eBay co-founder Jeffrey S. Skoll, left, pictured here with James G. Berk, chief executive. Credit Emily Berl for The New York Times

(Prices have not been set, Mr. Berk said, but he expects to serve nonprofits at cost. He declined to say how much Participant has invested in the index.)

In an inaugural general survey, which polled 1,055 of its viewers in March and April of this year, Chad Boettcher, Participant’s executive vice president for social action, and Caty Borum Chattoo, a researcher and communications professor at American University, found some perhaps surprising results.

Even among the presumably progressive Participant audience, crime ranked near the top of the list of 40 primary concerns. It was cited by 73 percent of respondents as an important social issue, placing it just behind human rights, health care and education.

Gay rights, female empowerment and prison sentencing reform, by contrast, ranked near the bottom of the list, while climate change was stuck in the middle, a concern among 59 percent of respondents. Digital intellectual property issues, at 38 percent, brought up the rear.

Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story

Stories about animal rights and food production, it turned out, were the most likely to provoke individual action. But tales about economic inequality — not so much.

Over all, said Marc Karzen, a social media entrepreneur whose company, RelishMix, advises film and television marketers, Participant will most likely affirm what is becoming clear to conventional film studios: Impact can be less about persuasion than nudging an audience to go where it is already pointed.

“You have to embrace your fans, not shout at them,” Mr. Karzen said. “They need to be inspired to spread the word.”

One of the weirdest problems in measuring social impact, and one still unresolved, Mr. Boettcher said, is the paradox of “The Cove.”

That documentary, which looks closely at dolphin killing in Japan, had worldwide ticket sales of just $1.2 million after its release in 2009. Yet it has repeatedly led to campaigns to protect the Japanese dolphins, Mr. Boettcher notes, particularly among activists who are aware of the film but will not watch (and hence, would not be counted under the current methodology of the index) because of its gory content.

“They don’t want to see it,” Mr. Boettcher said, “but they will sign up.”

via Participant Index Seeks to Determine Why One Film Spurs Activism, While Others Falter – NYTimes.com.

 

Is it a documentary or propaganda – the folks who want to profit from your feelings don’t care – they just care about the money!

We Are Making Ebola Outbreaks Worse By Cutting Down Forests | Mother Jones

Human activity is driving bats to find new habitats amongst human populations. More than half of Liberia’s forests—home to 40 endangered species, including the western chimpanzee—have been sold off to industrial loggers during President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s post-war government, according to figures released by Global Witness. Logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, and chopping down trees for an increased demand for fire wood, are all driving deforestation in Sierra Leone, where total forest cover has now dropped to just 4 percent, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which says if deforestation continues at current levels, Sierra Leone’s forests could disappear altogether by 2018.

“We see deforestation or incursion into forests, whether it’s through hunting or just alteration of landscape, causing people and wildlife to have more contact,” says Epstein.

Mining

The 1994 outbreak of Ebola, which killed 31 people, occurred in gold mining camps deep in the rain forest.

The 1994 outbreak of Ebola, which killed 31 people, occurred in gold mining camps deep in the rain forest. Mining also appears to be a feature of this latest outbreak: Its epicenter is in the south east of Guinea, close to iron ore reserves, according to Reuters.

Mining “has become a big livelihood activity across the regions, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, as of the last couple of decades,” says Leach. And that means more mines in the forest, but also “immense movement: people going seasonally in and out of mines, coming in and out, young people coming from all over the country.” Guinea is the world’s top exporter of bauxite, the raw material used in aluminum production, according to Reuters.

“That whole sense of movement is something that means that a disease, an outbreak, once established in a place, is very likely not to stay in that place; it tends to move quite quickly,” Leach says.

via We Are Making Ebola Outbreaks Worse By Cutting Down Forests | Mother Jones.

 

(And it is not just Ebola that breaks out as a result of deforestation – malaria’s, and denge’s expansion is facilitated by deforestation which creates the perfect breed grounds for the mosquito that carries the deadly and more common diseases)