Category Archives: environment

Trapped in a Russian jail (Petition) – Peace for the Soul

Ana Paula is a 31-year old from Brazil who wanted to peacefully protest Russia’s plans to drill the Arctic. Now she, along with her 29 crewmates from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, is locked in a Russian jail with no release in sight. But we can throw her and the rest of her crew a lifeline.

The Greenpeace staff, some in solitary confinement, are now facing fifteen years in prison on trumped up charges of piracy. Their crime? Hanging a banner on a Russian oil rig to protest dangerous deepwater drilling in one of the earth’s most beautiful and fragile places. Many western governments have already spoken out, but now Ana Paula and Greenpeace are asking the Avaaz community to help build a truly global outcry.

via Trapped in a Russian jail (Petition) – Peace for the Soul.

Avian Flu Diary: mBio: PEDV – Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus – An Emerging Coronavirus

And USDA approved Smithfield Ham being bought by a Chinese firm – great – not!

In summary, we report here the emergence of PEDV in the United States and detailed genetic and phylogenetic analyses of the complete genomic sequences of three emergent U.S. PEDV strains from Minnesota and Iowa. The findings that the emergent U.S. PEDV strains are most closely related to Chinese G2a strains suggest that the emergence of the PEDV in the United States likely originated from China. However, the exact source of the origin is difficult to identify at this point. The finding that the emergent PEDV strains in the United States share unique genetic features with a bat coronavirus further suggests a possible evolutionary origin of PEDV from bat species and potential cross-species transmission. The information presented in this study will guide the current control measures to stop the ongoing spread of PEDV in the United States and also provides important clues for the development of an effective vaccine against the emergent PEDV strains.

(Continue . . . )

Whether the result of an introduction from China, or evolutionary events here in the United States, pig producers are now confronted with at least three new variants of this virus.  PEVD has the potential to cause extensive economic damage to pork producers across the nation.

via Avian Flu Diary: mBio: PEDV – Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus – An Emerging Coronavirus.

Cockroach farming becoming China’s fastest growing, ickiest industry: Shanghaiist

\”I thought about raising pigs, but with traditional farming, the profit margins are very low. With cockroaches you can invest 20 yuan and get back 150,\” Wang Fuming said. In fact, the going rate for a pound of cockroaches is anywhere from $20 to $89 USD, up from $2 in 2010. In other words, the recession has been created a roach-bubble.

via Cockroach farming becoming China’s fastest growing, ickiest industry: Shanghaiist.

Obama Foodorama: The White House In Shutdown: First Lady Michelle Obama’s Kitchen Garden Is Wrecked

The first government shutdown in seventeen years has had a dramatic impact on First Lady Michelle Obama\’s world-famous Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn, currently bursting with more than thirty kinds of vegetables, including Presidential pumpkins awaiting harvest just in time for Halloween.  (Above, Mrs. Obama in the garden in happier days)

In the eleven days since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, the pounds and pounds of ripe organic bounty have gone to waste.  The vegetables filling the 1,500 square-foot plot are now rotting away on the vines and in the boxed beds, thanks to the mandate for \”minimal maintenance\” placed on the skeletal crew of National Park Service gardeners who remain on duty at 1600 Penn.

The gardeners are not allowed to harvest the crops, a White House source told Obama Foodorama.  Weeds are springing up everywhere, and the vegetables that have already fallen off the vines are now mouldering on the ground.

via Obama Foodorama: The White House In Shutdown: First Lady Michelle Obama’s Kitchen Garden Is Wrecked.

Protest – EU destroys 700,000 hectares of rainforest – Rainforest Rescue

The EU wants to save our climate with supposedly green agrofuels, and has certified palm oil as sustainable – despite the clear-cutting of rainforests for plantations. 1.9 million tons of palm oil end up in European fuel tanks annually. The EU Parliament will vote on the 11th of September. Join us in demanding an end to agrofuels!

via Protest – EU destroys 700,000 hectares of rainforest – Rainforest Rescue.

NYC launches initiative to control hepatitis C prevalence in the city | Vaccine News Daily

“This is a very hopeful time for persons living with hepatitis C,” Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said. “After many years in which the infection was very difficult to treat, hepatitis C can now be cured. We also expect that medications that are easier to use and even more effective will be available in just a few months, and many other promising drugs should be approved for use in the next few years.”

The initiative is titled Hepatitis C in New York City: State of the Epidemic and Action Plan. It is estimated approximately 146,500 people in New York are carrying HCV and only half are aware that they have the infection. Most will not experience symptoms until 10 to 30 years after infection, when life-threatening conditions, such as liver disease, develop as a result of the initial infection.

“Unfortunately, roughly half of those living with HCV infection do not know that they are infected,” Farley added. “With new opportunities to treat and cure this disease, all health care providers in New York City must become familiar with current recommendations for testing and treatment.”

via NYC launches initiative to control hepatitis C prevalence in the city | Vaccine News Daily.

USDA Allows Foster Farms Plants to Stay Open

Shut them down until entire plants get cleaned and new training of employees takes place – or 100% inspection at their cost until assured safe – The CDC says the outbreak is ongoing and some illnesses began as recently as two weeks ago. The majority of illnesses have been in California but people in 17 states have been infected, from Texas to Michigan to North Carolina.

Salmonella can contaminate meat during slaughter and processing and is especially common in raw chicken. The infections can be avoided by proper handling and cooking of raw poultry.

The pathogen causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within a few days of eating a contaminated product and can be life-threatening to those with weakened immune systems.

via USDA Allows Foster Farms Plants to Stay Open.

Six more cases of MERS-CoV reported in Saudi Arabia | Vaccine News Daily

All six new patients are from the Riyadh region and five of them were hospitalized with severe symptoms. The dates of onset of the patients, which include three women and three men, range between September 15 and September 26. Three of the patients were contacts of previously confirmed MERS-CoV patients.

via Six more cases of MERS-CoV reported in Saudi Arabia | Vaccine News Daily.

Mysterious Sinkholes Threaten to Sink the Dead Sea | Green Prophet

Mysterious Sinkholes Threaten to Sink the Dead Sea | Green Prophet.

Watch your step, kibbutzniks and spa-mavens! Diminishing water levels in the Dead Sea are causing changes to surrounding groundwater flows.  Freshwater moves through the aquifer, dissolving subterranean salt deposits and creating underground voids, which cause surface collapse. Dramatic and unpredictable, sinkholes appear at the alarming rate of nearly one a day.

First observed around the Dead Sea in the 1980s, geologist Eli Raz estimates that today there are over 3,000 on the Israeli side alone.  “Sinkholes are caused by human irresponsibility,” he told Slate Magazine, “For more than 30 years, I’ve been trying to warn everyone—especially government officials—that if we don’t do something about the situation in the Dead Sea, the sinkholes will swallow us up.”

The Dead Sea (which is technically a lake fed by the Jordan River) spans more than 60 miles. Its shorelines include Jordan, the West Bank, and Israel.  Located 1,388 feet below sea level, it’s the lowest place on earth,and with no outlet for minerals deposited over millennia, its waters have become ten times saltier than the north Atlantic.