Category Archives: planetkillers
H9N2 influenza virus in China: a cause of concern – duh? Infectious Diseases 2014 | Infectious diseases | Poultrymed
Industry just does not get it! Influenza viruses are not accidents, something un-natural to be exterminated somehow. These viruses and diseases like them is the natural system’s means of maintaining a balance in ecosystems. Human efforts to industrialize the raising of many different types of poultry for
profit continuously triggers “disease” responses from the natural system. Humans cannot alter this but we can learn to “farm” differently, in a manner that does not trigger “disease” responses. Trying to outsmart or bypass nature is a fools’ game that sometimes buys a bit of time for massive profit which is followed by unexpected results and humans pay with death from diseases that pass on to humans or massive die-offs that cause starvation.
H9N2 influenza virus has become endemic in different types of terrestrial poultry in multiple countries on the Eurasian continent, resulting in great economic losses due to reduced egg production or high mortality associated with co-infection with other pathogens. In China, which is regarded as an epicenter of avian influenza viruses, the H9N2 virus has been detected in multiple avian species. The first outbreak of the H9N2 influenza virus in China occurred in Guangdong province of Southern China during November 1992 to May 1994. These H9N2 viruses killed broilers with mortality of 10%-40%, and reduced the laying rates by 14%-75%. The H9N2 influenza virus is now the most revalent subtype of influenza viruses in chickens in China. H9N2 infections occur throughout the whole year, with lower morbidity in the summer. To prevent H9N2 infection in chickens, China implemented long-term vaccination programs in chicken farms as early as 1998. At least over twenty different commercial vaccines are used in China, with the vaccines are frequently updated. However, H9N2 avian influenza viruses continues to persist in chicken populations, even in vaccinated flocks.
Check for any corn ingredients and then choose something else to eat – EPA Approves Popular Weed Killer For Genetically Modified Crops
The Environmental Protection Agency has approved a new version of a popular weed killer to be used on genetically modified corn and soybeans.
The EPA said Wednesday that it will allow the use of a 2,4-D weed killer called Enlist Duo, a new version of the popular herbicide used since the 1940s. It is designed to be used on corn and soybeans grown with engineered seeds approved by the Agriculture Department last month. When used together, farmers can spray the fields after the plants emerge, killing the weeds but leaving crops unharmed.
The agriculture industry has anxiously awaited the approvals, as many weeds have become resistant to glyphosate, an herbicide commonly used on genetically modified corn and soybeans now. Enlist includes a combination of both 2,4-D and glyphosate.
Critics say they’re concerned the increased use of 2,4-D could endanger public health and more study on the chemical is needed. The USDA has said that if both the seeds and herbicide are approved, the use of 2,4-D could increase by an estimated 200 percent to 600 percent by the year 2020.
via EPA Approves Popular Weed Killer For Genetically Modified Crops.
Climate Change & Ebola: “We’re Running Out of Time,” says World Bank President – myEARTH360 (the blog)
“Ebola and climate change have a few things in common,” he said. “Most importantly, we are running out of time to find solutions to both. Also, until very recently, the plans to fight them were either nonexistent or inadequate. And inaction is literally killing people–one because of the rapid spread of a deadly virus, the other from the poisoning of the atmosphere and the oceans. And finally, perhaps most critically from our point of view, resolving these problems is essential to development, whether from the perspective of human suffering, economic growth or public health.”
Where’s Monty Hall when we need him? SoCal Researcher Launches Crowdfunded Effort To Find Cure For Ebola: LAist
{Is the race to find a vaccine or cure for ebola – which had more or less been ignored for 30 some years globally for lack of profit – becoming the new “Let’s Make a Deal!” for researchers and drug firms? The first to find a real advance will be able to trade on that for investments and support for other more profitable efforts in the future!}
Professor Saphire is leading the charge at Scripps to find a cure for Ebola, having already led in the development of the experimental ZMapp serum has cured five patients this past summer of the virus. In order to find the antibodies that will fight the virus effectively, her work requires samples being shipped in from around the globe. Unfortunately, her lab is limited in resources, and has started a CrowdRise fundraiser in order to get the money for personnel and equipment. So far, we’re at $14,000 of her $100,000 goal.
Saphire was on KPCC’s Take Two this morning to talk about her efforts, and addressed the concerns that research for a cure isn’t what the current epidemic needs right at this moment:
It’s true that none of these experimental therapies are going to be available in enough doses to treat everybody; it’s just not possible. To contain this outbreak the focus really needs to be on medical supplies and medical care. We just can’t have people dying in the streets and infecting their families at home. They need to be cared for by doctors and nurses that have supplies to protect themselves, but the contain and control isn’t enough. One of the things about crowdfunding is it gives people the control. They can choose what they want to invest in and maybe they want to put some of their resources toward supplies like medical gloves and bleach and maybe they want to put some of their resources toward getting a cure ready to treat this thing.
via SoCal Researcher Launches Crowdfunded Effort To Find Cure For Ebola: LAist.
FDA warns three companies against marketing their products as Ebola treatments or cures – The Washington Post
theoildropper.com
Written by a paid consultant (referred to as a “member”) for Young Living, the post goes on to tout the possible benefits of a few oils sold by the company: “The Higley Essential Oil Reference guide mentions that the Ebola Virus can not live in the presence of cinnamon bark (this is in Thieves) nor Oregano. I would definitely add those two oils to whatever I was using.”
It adds: “I pray we don’t have to hear about this virus coming to the U.S. but if you travel outside of our country or know someone who goes to Africa or lives in Africa, maybe you could send them a care package of Young Living essential oils!”
Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change and what to do about it | George Marshall | Comment is free | The Guardian
So if we are to really mobilise action on climate change it is vital that we recognise that it exists in two forms: the scientific facts and the far more potent social facts of constructed narratives or deliberate silence. It is the latter that provide the basis on which we accept, deny or ignore the issue, reinforced by our innate need to conform to the norm within our social group.
However, seen in this light, the situation is far from hopeless. Like the cycles that govern global energy and carbon systems, public attitudes are subject to positive feedback effects that can amplify small changes and result in rapid shifts. Strong visible protest and increased media coverage can break the climate silence and create wider engagement. Above all, though, we need to recognise that the narrative we choose will shape what happens from now on. We may continue to fall back on our need for an enemy. But the very best story would be a one of common purpose, based around our shared humanity.
IRIN Africa | Turning away the Ebola dying | Guinea | Liberia | Sierra Leone | Aid Policy | Governance | Health & Nutrition | Human Rights
Pierre Trbovic, an anthropologist from Belgium working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the ELWA Ebola Treatment Centre, one of two in the capital, Monrovia, was forced to turn patients away: He had no choice – the centre was full and could not safely admit more patients.
“The first person I had to turn away was a father who had brought in his sick daughter in the trunk of his car. He was an educated man, and he pleaded [with] me to take her, saying while he knew we couldn’t save her life, we could save the rest of his family from her. At that point I had to go behind one of the tents to cry,” says Trbovic in a written testimony.
Other families pulled up in cars, let the sick out and drove off, abandoning them. One mother tried to leave her baby on a chair hoping that doctors would have no choice but to care for the child.
In streamed the patients, “but there was nothing we could do. We couldn’t send them anywhere else – everywhere was, and still is, full.”
Health workers are already completely overwhelmed by the brutal job of providing palliative care for Ebola sufferers: Each morning dead bodies must be body-bagged, and blood, faeces and vomit cleaned from the ward – and if they take on more patients, they risk lowering their safety guard which could prove fatal.
Japanese regulator caves to the nuclear industry and government pressure – but still no restart for Sendai | Greenpeace International
The Abe government is desperate to prevent people from grasping that the world’s third largest nuclear reactor program has failed to generate any electricity for 12 months. In that year, there have been no blackouts or brownouts, the trains still run, the lights still turn on, and smart phones are still charged.
Most people in Japan understand that the declared government policy, that nuclear power is an essential and a stable source of energy, is a myth. They will not be fooled.
Disowned and forgotten: Russian soldiers in Ukraine | Crisis in Ukraine | DW.DE | 29.08.2014
Lev Schlosberg, representative of the deputy assembly for the Pskow district in northwest Russia, was the first to speak openly about secret burials of soldiers from the Pskower parachute division.
“The community must know what’s really happening. To my great regret, the civil authorities as well as the defense ministry are not telling the truth,” Schlosberg told DW. “There is enough evidence that regular Russian troops – disguised as units of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk – are taking part in the fighting in Ukraine.”
Valentina Melnikova of the Union of the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia, an organization which works to exposes human rights violations committed by the Russian military, spoke of an exceptionally high numbers of troops.
“By my estimate, between 10,000 and 12,000 soldiers are taking part in the fighting in Ukraine,” Melnikovasaid. “That is my estimate – only the defense minister knows the exact number. There are parachutists and infantry. We’re not taking about mercenaries or volunteers, but regular soldiers.”
via Disowned and forgotten: Russian soldiers in Ukraine | Crisis in Ukraine | DW.DE | 29.08.2014.



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