Category Archives: planetkillers

Five mutations could send bird flu virus airborne : Study | Metro

While some critics argue these studies should not be done at all, Osterholm doesn’t take that view. But he insists that making this kind of information readily available makes it possible for scientists anywhere — even those working in laboratories which don’t meet the highest standards of biosafety and biosecurity — to make dangerous viruses.

“We now have intentionally lowered the bar to the point … where we have made it possible for laboratories around the world to do this work,” said Osterholm, who is the director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

“I think what remains very problematic is just the enabling information it provides. There are a lot of laboratories around the world that are not funded by the U.S. government, do not have specific restrictions or limitations on what they can do relative to biosafety.”

via Five mutations could send bird flu virus airborne : Study | Metro.

Text of H.R. 4419: AKA: Kill wild horses and burros bill and sell off National Forests to developers bill – To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require periodic review of listings … (Introduced version) – GovTrack.us

H.R. 4419: To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require periodic review of listings of endangered species and

via Text of H.R. 4419: To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require periodic review of listings … (Introduced version) – GovTrack.us.

Polluting of Lake Okeechobee Must End, Court Rules | Earthjustice

Why you should not trust Big Ag about anything but their desire for big profits!

Our case was 11 years in the making—we first filed it in 2002 to challenge the practice of “backpumping.” Backpumping works like this: South Florida sugar and vegetable growers pump the public’s waters out of Lake Okeechobee to irrigate fields. They wash the water over their industrial-sized crops, where it gets contaminated with fertilizers and other pollutants. Then, the agribusinesses get taxpayers in the South Florida Water Management District to pay to pump the contaminated water—along with some polluted run-off from industrial areas and city streets—back into Lake Okeechobee, where it pollutes public drinking water supplies for West Palm Beach, Fort Myers and the entire Lower East Coast metropolitan area.

via Polluting of Lake Okeechobee Must End, Court Rules | Earthjustice.

Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future — Medium

In 2009, three New York physicians cared for a sixty-seven-year-old man who had major surgery and then picked up a hospital infection that was “pan-resistant” — that is, responsive to no antibiotics at all. He died fourteen days later. When his doctors related his case in a medical journal months afterward, they still sounded stunned. “It is a rarity for a physician in the developed world to have a patient die of an overwhelming infection for which there are no therapeutic options,” they said, calling the man’s death “the first instance in our clinical experience in which we had no effective treatment to offer.”

via Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future — Medium.

To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require periodic review of listings of endangered species and threatened species under that Act, to support protection and conservation measures for endangered or threatened species under that Act and to alleviate the need to list a species as an endangered or threatened species, to convey small parcels of National Forest System land and Department of the Interior land to generate revenues for such protection and conservation measures, and for other purposes. (H.R. 4419) – GovTrack.us

Teddy Roosevelt turning over in grave – GOP Rep. wants to sell off National Forests to pay for less species protection while pretending to be doing a good thing!

H.R. 4419: To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require periodic review of listings of endangered species and threatened …

… species under that Act, to support protection and conservation measures for endangered or threatened species under that Act and to alleviate the need to list a species as an endangered or threatened species, to convey small parcels of National Forest System land and Department of the Interior land to generate revenues for such protection and conservation measures, and for other purposes.

via To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require periodic review of listings of endangered species and threatened species under that Act, to support protection and conservation measures for endangered or threatened species under that Act and to alleviate the need to list a species as an endangered or threatened species, to convey small parcels of National Forest System land and Department of the Interior land to generate revenues for such protection and conservation measures, and for other purposes. (H.R. 4419) – GovTrack.us.

To prohibit any Federal agency or official, in carrying out any Act or program to reduce the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change, from imposing a fee or tax on gaseous emissions emitted directly by livestock. (H.R. 4393) – GovTrack.us

Missed filing this on April 1st.? 

H.R. 4393: To prohibit any Federal agency or official, in carrying out any Act or program to reduce the effects of greenhouse gas …

… emissions on climate change, from imposing a fee or tax on gaseous emissions emitted directly by livestock.

Introduced:

Apr 03, 2014

Status:

Referred to Committee

Prognosis

0% chance of being enacted

TRACK THIS BILL

Call Congress

OVERVIEWExploreComments (0)

SPONSOR

Jeff Fortenberry

Representative for Nebraska’s 1st congressional district

PARTY

Republican

via To prohibit any Federal agency or official, in carrying out any Act or program to reduce the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change, from imposing a fee or tax on gaseous emissions emitted directly by livestock. (H.R. 4393) – GovTrack.us.

Widespread Contamination of Drinking Water from the East Poplar Oil Field in Montana | Briana Mordick’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

A new report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) documents serious drinking water contamination caused by oil production in Montana. This is the latest report from the USGS in an ongoing investigation of groundwater contamination in and near the East Poplar oil field.

Researchers found that almost 18 square miles of the shallow aquifer in the study area is contaminated with brine (also known as “produced water”) that is co-produced with oil. Produced water can be many times saltier than seawater and may also contain hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and naturally occurring radioactive material.

These shallow aquifers are the only source of drinking water in the area. The contamination has impacted both private drinking water wells and public water supply wells for the city of Poplar. All told, the USGS estimates that anywhere from 15-37 billion gallons of groundwater is contaminated with brine, compromising the groundwater supplies of about 3,000 people. As a result, the city of Poplar, headquarters of the Fort Peck Tribal government, had to build a pipeline to bring in drinking water from the Missouri River.

via Widespread Contamination of Drinking Water from the East Poplar Oil Field in Montana | Briana Mordick’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC.

Canada: Monsanto fund supports the future of agriculture

Pretty cheap pass-go free and greenwashing fee for academic pats of back???

$210,000 grant, the Monsanto Fund is supporting the recruitment of future agri-food leaders into programs at the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC). The grant will support OAC’s Student Liaison Program over the next three years to engage and excite high school students by showing them the educational and career opportunities in agriculture, food and the environment.

via Canada: Monsanto fund supports the future of agriculture.

DRC logging is out of control as Chatham House study lays bare | Greenpeace International

DRC logging is out of control as Chatham House study lays bare | Greenpeace International.

On top of everything else, continued logging and deforestation will induce new outbreaks of ebola and create perfect conditions for massive increase in breeding grounds for malarial carrying mosquitoes!

Section of national park in Guam closed after discovery of invasive little fire ants

“Hitchhikers” on ships and planes – globalization of trade and tourists drives modern “evolution” of species and ecosystems.

A section of War in the Pacific National Historical Park in Guam has been closed after the presence of the invasive little fire ants was discovered.

Pacific Daily News (http://is.gd/LJzSmU) says the Asan Beach unit of the park has been closed to reduce the possibility of spreading the little fire ants.

The closure also aims to protect the public from the ants, which are tiny but can produce painful stings.

Officials are considering several options to eradicate the pest from Asan Beach, including the application of pesticides, and cutting and burning infested trees.

The little fire ant was first discovered in Guam in 2011 and first found in Hawaii in Puna in 1999.

The species is native to South America.

via Section of national park in Guam closed after discovery of invasive little fire ants.