Category Archives: planetkillers

Photos: Stolen Tesla Splits In Half And Explodes After Crashing In West Hollywood: LAist

The Tesla’s lithium battery exploded into flames that shot up several stories into the air—

via Photos: Stolen Tesla Splits In Half And Explodes After Crashing In West Hollywood: LAist.

Anthrax discovered in beef in Hungary | News | DW.DE | 04.07.2014

{Know where you food is from and if it has been properly inspected – give anyone who suggests privatizing inspection instructions on how to shut the door as they leave their senses!}

Five people were being monitored in hospital for a suspected infection of the disease, Hungarian health authority said ANTSZ in a statement.

The disease appeared to have been identified in frozen beef from two cattle that were slaughtered on a farm near the town of Tiszafured, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Budapest.

Authorities said the five people hospitalized had probably contracted the disease during illegal slaughtering. The ANTSZ said some of the beef had been shipped to a company that operates canteens, with the firm’s operations having been suspended.

ANTSZ added that the vaccination of animals exposed to the anthrax bacteria had already begun. “Authorities have taken the necessary measures, so there is no longer an immediate danger,” the statement said.

The health agency has also asked for people who believe they may have eaten the infected meat to see a doctor, with early treatment being vital.

It added that the matter would be reported to police, given that the canteen firm had allegedly bought the meat from illegal sources.

Anthrax, which is spread by spores, results in flu-like symptoms that can go on for several days, followed by pneumonia and often fatal respiratory collapse. Untreated, it has a mortality rate of more than 90 percent, which falls to 42 percent when treated early with antibiotics.

via Anthrax discovered in beef in Hungary | News | DW.DE | 04.07.2014.

California Firm Recalls Chicken Products Due to Possible Salmonella Heidelberg Contamination

The products subject to recall bear the establishment number “P6137,” P6137A” or “P7632” inside the USDA mark of inspection. The chicken products were produced on March 8, 10 and 11, 2014. These products were shipped to Costco, Foodmaxx, Kroger, Safeway and other retail stores and distribution centers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah. The list of products subject to recall can be accessed here. We will continue to update the list as more information is available. FSIS and the company want the public to be aware that the products are mostly likely no longer available for purchase, but may be in consumers’ freezers.

via California Firm Recalls Chicken Products Due to Possible Salmonella Heidelberg Contamination.

Ebola conference agrees to set up regional fund | Africa | DW.DE | 03.07.2014

However, in an interview with DW, Anja Wolz of Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the situation in Sierra Leone was still a matter of great concern. In the last two days, another 30 patients had been taken in at the treatment center where she works, she said.

According to Wolz, a major problem is that many people “are denying that Ebola exists.” People who fell sick were hiding rather than go to a doctor and could infect others. There was still a great need for public awareness campaigns, she said, as many Africans “think the white people are bringing Ebola.” MSF staff were working hard to overcome this but they could not go to every single village, Wolz said, addding that the problem was the same in Liberia and Guinea.

via Ebola conference agrees to set up regional fund | Africa | DW.DE | 03.07.2014.

In Panama, A Sad Retreat from the Rising Sea | The Beacon: Oceana’s Blog

While the retreat from rising seas may seem like a distant, if abysmal, end-of-the-century scenario, it is in fact already taking place in some low-lying island communities. For the Guna (pronounced “Kuna”) people of Panama the abandonment of their ancestral homeland, the San Blas Islands, has become the only option after frequent floods have made their way of life impossible.

While the flooding of the San Blas Islands is partly a consequence of rising sea levels, the Guna are not entirely blameless. Coral reefs that once surrounded and buffered the islands from storm surges and flooding have been destroyed after decades of exploitation (ironically, the Guna mined the reefs to build up the islands). It has been enough, according to Reuters “to submerge the Caribbean islands for days on end”.

The sad tale of the Guna, who are currently managing their retreat to mainland Panama, provides a cautionary tale of how climate change and poor resource management can combine to create disaster. But it isn’t just the direct exploitation of coral that threatens so many similar tropical, predominantly poor, coastal communities around the world. Coral reefs of the sort that once surrounded the San Blas Islands are under threat worldwide from carbon dioxide emissions that, when absorbed by the ocean, make it more acidic. When corals struggle in the more acidic water so too does the kaleidoscopic variety of life that depends on them. These once flourishing paradises may become barren monuments to changing ocean chemistry.

via In Panama, A Sad Retreat from the Rising Sea | The Beacon: Oceana’s Blog.

Study: 4 big wells injecting wastewater from energy drilling trigger more than 100 quakes

A new study explains how just four wells forcing massive amounts of drilling wastewater into the ground are probably shaking up Oklahoma.

Those wells seem to have triggered more than 100 small-to-medium earthquakes in the past five years, according to a study published Thursday by the journal Science. Many of the quakes were much farther away from the wells than expected.

Combined, those wells daily pour more than 5 million gallons (19 million litres) of water a mile or two underground into rock formations, the study found. That buildup of fluid creates more pressure that “has to go somewhere,” said study lead author Cornell University seismologist Katie Keranen.

Researchers originally figured the water diffused through underground rocks slowly. But instead, it is moving faster and farther and triggers quake fault lines that already were likely ready to move, she said.

“You really don’t need to raise the pressure a great deal,” she added.

The study shows the likely way in which the pressure can trigger fault lines — which already existed yet were not too active— but researchers need more detail on the liquid injections themselves to absolutely prove the case, Keranen said.

via Study: 4 big wells injecting wastewater from energy drilling trigger more than 100 quakes.

Water supply key to outcome of conflicts in Iraq and Syria, experts warn | Environment | The Guardian

Armageddon on the horizon?

The Euphrates River, the Middle East’s second longest river, and the Tigris, have historically been at the centre of conflict. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein drained 90% of the vast Mesopotamian marshes that were fed by the two rivers to punish the Shias who rose up against his regime. Since 1975, Turkey’s dam and hydropower constructions on the two rivers have cut water flow to Iraq by 80% and to Syria by 40%. Both Syria and Iraq have accused Turkey of hoarding water and threatening their water supply.

“There has never been an outright war over water but water has played extremely important role in many Middle East conflicts. Control of water supply is crucial”, said Stephen.

It could also be an insurmountable problem should the country split into three, he said. “Water is one of the most dangerous problems in Iraq. If the country was split there would definitely be a war over water. Nobody wants to talk about that,” he said.

Some academics have suggested that Tigris and Euphrates will not reach the sea by 2040 if rainfall continues to decrease at its present rate.

via Water supply key to outcome of conflicts in Iraq and Syria, experts warn | Environment | The Guardian.

Poverty, Greed, and Unintended Harm – Costa Rica Enforces Green Justice | Inter Press Service

As well as inspecting specific cases, the TAA carries out “environmental sweeps,” their term for inspection tours lasting several days, with the purpose of putting a stop to ecological damage in a given territory.

The TAA has already halted 200 real estate projects on the Pacific coast and 40 on the Atlantic coast since the sweeps started in 2008, its president said.

But the “bad guys” do not give up. Only days after Sánchez’s inspection trip, another group of lawyers, experts and judges visited mangrove swamps in Puntarenas, in the Central Pacific region, 80 kilometres east of the provincial capital, to investigate another complaint.

They found a scene of devastation: 25 hectares of mangrove had been reduced to ashes by invaders who were already planting maize and sugarcane.

“They go on and on, and if we let them they would devour the whole zone. They burn down the mangroves and use the land for farming,” forest biologist Alexis Madrigal, the coordinator of TAA’s technical department, told IPS at the scene.

via Costa Rica Enforces Green Justice | Inter Press Service.

Thousands rally against expected decision by Japan to allow greater military role

The Cabinet is expected to announce the decision Tuesday. It is one of the biggest changes in Japan’s security policy since World War II. Previously the constitution has been interpreted as allowing the use of arms only for Japan’s own self-defence, and critics say the change undermines the charter.

Abe says the revision is needed because of China’s military expansion and missile and nuclear threats from North Korea.

via Thousands rally against expected decision by Japan to allow greater military role.

Deja vu WWII build up? In September 18, 1931, a group of Jap­anese soldiers stationed in the no­rthern Chinese province of Manchuria, masquerading as Chinese bandits, blew up a few feet of the Japanese-controlled South Manchurian Railway. The clumsily orchestra­ted incident was used as a pretext to launch an attack by the Kwantung Army (Japan’s field army in China), which aimed to occupy the whole of the province and bring its rich resources under Japanese control. This was the start of a decade of escalating violence that would culminate in the German assault on Poland and the start of World War II.

Within months of the Japanese seizure of Manchuria, the fragile international order of the 1920s was in tatters. The League of Nations did little to protect China from Japanese aggression, and in February 1933 Japan left the League altogether. Japanese statesmen and military leaders had grown frustrated by an international political and economic order that they thought gave them a second-rate status. 

ISIS declares leader al-Baghdadi ‘caliph of the Muslims,’ changes name | News | DW.DE | 29.06.2014

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Sunday released an audio recording declaring its leader the caliph, also saying that it would change its own name, removing references to Iraq and Syria to call itself Islamic State.

“The Shura (council) of the Islamic State met and discussed this issue,” ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani said in the recording. “The Islamic State decided to establish an Islamic caliphate and to designate a caliph for the state of the Muslims. The jihadist cleric Baghdadi was designated the caliph of the Muslims.”

via ISIS declares leader al-Baghdadi ‘caliph of the Muslims,’ changes name | News | DW.DE | 29.06.2014.