Category Archives: environment

Epic 29-kilometre-long wave could turn Moncton, N.B., into an international surfing destination | National Post

Storm Surfers 3D, reviewed: Documentary rides a compelling wave

Yes sir: surfers, from all over, including Mr. Ouhilal and Mr. Hamilton and a pair of professional surfers from California, JJ Wessels and Colin Whitbread. The quartet put Moncton on the surfing (and YouTube) map back in July by riding the tidal bore — a metre-plus-high cresting wave that rolls in with the tide along the Petitcodiac River — from Belliveau Village just off the Bay of Fundy right into downtown. It was an epic, two-hour, 29km surf trip; a world record setting expedition like never before.

via Epic 29-kilometre-long wave could turn Moncton, N.B., into an international surfing destination | National Post.

Aussie Coalition scraps Climate Commission, dispensing with Tim Flannery | Environment | theguardian.com

Greens leader Christine Milne went further, calling prime minister Tony Abbott a “climate criminal” for dismantling bodies such as the commission and the Climate Change Authority, which sets targets on Australia’s emissions reductions.

“Shooting the messenger does not alter the fact that Australia has to do a lot better than 5% in order to contribute fairly to the global challenge of constraining global warming to two degrees,” she said.

“In the context of global warming this action is a crime against humanity. In one swoop, [Abbott] has demonstrated his contempt for climate science and for the health and wellbeing of future generations.

“Prime minister Abbott has distinguished himself as one of the only leaders of a western democracy to deny the severity of global warming and to actively undermine infrastructure which is bringing down emissions,” she said.

“Future generations will look back on this day and remember it as the day Tony Abbott condemned them and their peers to climate chaos.”

via Coalition scraps Climate Commission, dispensing with Tim Flannery | Environment | theguardian.com.

Raw milk and cheese safe? Not! One Dead, 16 Sickened in B.C. E. coli Outbreak Linked to Raw Cheese | Food Safety News

The outbreak of E. coli linked to Gort’s Gouda Cheese Farm in Canada has resulted in one death, as well as 10 confirmed and six suspected illnesses, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The victim who died was from British Columbia. Three more B.C. residents fell ill, while the other seven cases are in Alberta. The agency is investigating another six illnesses that appear to be connected.

Health officials have linked the outbreak to unpasteurized cheese products sold by B.C.-based Gort’s Gouda Cheese Farm. The Public Health Agency has recalled 14 of the farm’s cheese items, which were sold at the farm in Salmon Arm, B.C., in retail stores in B.C. and Alberta, and over the Internet between May 27 and Sept. 14.

The farm agreed to stop selling its cheese.

via One Dead, 16 Sickened in B.C. E. coli Outbreak Linked to Raw Cheese | Food Safety News.

WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – update

(Beginning to look like H7N1 outbreak in China and as if natural system is “probing” the human system for a path to re-balance the system to the state before so much of agriculture had become industrialized)

WHO has been informed of an additional 18 new laboratory-confirmed cases including three deaths with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in Saudi Arabia.

The patients are reported from Hafar Al-Batin, Medina and Riyadh. Their ages ranging from three to 75 years old. These cases were announced by the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia on 1, 5, 8, 10 and 11 September 2013.

Additionally, in Qatar, a previously laboratory-confirmed patient with MERS-CoV died on 6 September 2013.

Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 132 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 58 deaths.

via WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – update.

Guppy fish could be used to fight dengue fever | Vaccine News Daily

If you don’t mind a bit of guppy poo in your water, this is a good solution, as long as the guppies are indigenous… “This is a low-cost, year-round, safe way of reducing the spread of dengue in which the whole community can participate,” Gerard Servais, a health specialist with ADB, said. “It offers a viable alternative to using chemicals and can reduce the scale of costly emergency response activities to contain epidemics.”

The study found that guppies do not harm water quality and can survive on microscopic organic material in the absence of mosquito larvae. When the project closed in Cambodia, approximately 88 percent of the storage containers contained guppies. There were guppies in 76 percent of the containers in Lao PDR at the project’s close.

“The project was successful in mobilizing communities with widespread grassroots participation, and high levels of acceptance of fish as an effective way of reducing the spread of dengue,” Eva Christophel, a vector-borne diseases specialist with the WHO, said. “This project was an important contribution to WHO’s efforts to develop a toolkit of different community-based methods to prevent and reduce the magnitude of dengue transmission.”

via Guppy fish could be used to fight dengue fever | Vaccine News Daily.

If you eat it – Well Done! Chicken Surprise: Antibiotic-Resistant E. Coli Levels Vary With Production Method | Food Safety News

For reasons that could not be immediately explained, kosher chickens carried the greatest amount of antibiotic-resistant E. coli, while organic chicken showed antibiotic-resistant bacteria levels just as high as conventional chicken. Only chickens “raised without antibiotics” (RWA) came in with reduced, but still contaminated, levels of the E. coli “superbug.”

via Chicken Surprise: Antibiotic-Resistant E. Coli Levels Vary With Production Method | Food Safety News.

CDC Threat Report: ‘We Will Soon Be in a Post-Antibiotic Era’ – Wired Science

their top three “urgent” threats:

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae or CRE, a set of ICU germs that are resistant to almost all antibiotics: 9,000 infections per year, 600 deaths

Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, which currently responds to only one drug: 246,000 infections per year

Clostridium difficile, which is growing in resistance to one class of drugs, but more important, serves as a marker for the use of other antibiotics: 250,000 illnesses, 14,000 deaths.

There are 12 resistant bacteria and fungal infections in a second category, which the agency dubs “serious” (requiring “prompt and sustained action”); they include the hospital infections Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and VRE; the foodborne organisms Campylobacter, Salmonella and Shigella; MRSA; Candida, a fungal infection; and TB, among others. The last category, “concerning” (requiring “careful monitoring and prevention”) includes rare but potent vancomycin-resistant staph, VRSA, as well as strains of strep resistant to two different categories of drugs.

via CDC Threat Report: ‘We Will Soon Be in a Post-Antibiotic Era’ – Wired Science.

IPS – Seeds of Conflict Sprout in the Balkans | Inter Press Service

“There’s small chance today that you will find out whether what you have bought is a real, home-grown tomato,” says Jasmina Zdravkovic of the Institute of Farming in the central Serbian town of Smederevska Palanka, some 63 km southeast of the capital Belgrade.

“Most probably you’ll end up with one which has a white, inedible middle. It comes from the gene that was introduced to keep the tomato firm,” she tells IPS. Such tomatoes are never ripe; they only get red from the outside, Zdravkovic adds.

via IPS – Seeds of Conflict Sprout in the Balkans | Inter Press Service.

Avian Flu Diary: FAO Warns On Bird Flu

Look at chart above – Am I the only one who associates Avian influenza/Bird Flu with Lunar New Year/Tet? Way too many folks associate flu with cold weather when the most likely facilitating factor is breeding millions more ducks, geese, chickens to be gathered together in live markets for sale during Lunar New Year/Tet. Millions upon millions of birds gathered together create perfect breeding ground for new mutations and to stressed bird to succumb and pass on to humans either directly or indirectly through the pigs being raised for same period. And now with globalization of poultry markets, it is all the easier to spread diseases worldwide via shipping chicks from homeland around the world.

As with seasonal flu, avian flu viruses tend to circulate more efficiently during cooler, drier weather. You can see the seasonality of H5N1 illustrated in the chart at the top of this post.

In February of this year a new and deadly avian flu virus appeared in China. On March 31st, the virus was identified, and the world first learned of the H7N9 threat. By the end of May, more than 130 people had been infected (32% would eventually die) – then case reports dried up over the summer.

The concern is, cooler weather – historically more conducive to the spread of avian influenza – is on the way. Which brings us to this press release from the FAO, warning that increased vigilance is required this fall.

via Avian Flu Diary: FAO Warns On Bird Flu.

CENSORED NEWS: Native America Calling ‘The Great Horse Controversy’ Roundup and Slaughter

Dine’ medicine people passed a resolution opposing the roundup and slaughter.

“The Horse is our medicine and has helped us survive many hardships, they must be given respect and honored for their sacred place within the Creation, as they possess the same fundamental right to Life as we, Five Fingered Ones do,” says the resolution passed with 32 in favor and none opposing on Aug. 26, 2013.

Nohooka Dine’ said the capture, imprisonment and slaughter of horses threatens traditional Dine’ spirituality and culture. Further, the medicine people said that the Navajo Nation government’s support of horse slaughter violates the way of life and being of traditional Dine’, the Ke’.

Navajo medicine people say efforts to exterminate wild horses repeats the pattern of the slaughter of the buffalo and is an indicator of the loss of the sacred and traditional ways as a result of boarding schools and colonization.

Leland Grass said Navajo leaders have lost the meaning of the Horse Song. Grass posed this question to tribal politicians who reflect the BIA mentality: “Why do you carry Horse Song (or even ask for horse song in your trail ride event) and want to kill numerous horses of your land that is sacred to all living.”

via CENSORED NEWS: Native America Calling ‘The Great Horse Controversy’ Roundup and Slaughter.