Monthly Archives: December 2011

Mass Extinction in Oceans is happening NOW

ScienceDaily (Aug. 20, 2012) — Life in the world’s oceans faces far greater change and risk of large-scale extinctions than at any previous time in human history, a team of the world’s leading marine scientists has warned.  The researchers compared … Continue reading

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Permafrost melting destabilizes infrastructure

In addition to methane releases adding to the runaway greenhouse effect, continued thawing of permafrost threatens to destabilize transportation, building, and energy extraction infrastructure in Russia’s colder regions.  Permafrost, or soil that is permanently frozen, covers about 63 percent of … Continue reading

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One Child Per Woman — or NONE

Many ecologists and scientists see one, or even no children at all, as the only option to avoid a die-off in the usual unpleasant ways — genocide, war, starvation, and disease. I’ve said one-child per woman for many years, but … Continue reading

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Huge releases of arctic methane

Methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. At the American Geophysical Union Meeting in San Francisco, Dr Semiletov announced he’d found an unprecedented amount of methane bubbling up from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (which … Continue reading

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Drought affects Survival in many ways

Christian Parenti calls multiple crises “The Catastrophic Convergence” in “Tropic of Chaos, Climate change and the new geography of Violence”.  The problem isn’t that calamities happen simultaneously, it’s that they compound and amplify one another. Obviously drought reduces agricultural production.  … Continue reading

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Climate Change: unprecedented RATE species can’t adapt to

  5 Dec 2011. Climate Changes Faster Than Species Can Adapt, Rattlesnake Study Finds. ScienceDaily. The ranges of species will have to change dramatically as a result of climate change between now and 2100 because the climate will change more … Continue reading

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Chemicals

Mercury Nationally most mercury in all of our waterways, restriciting how much fish can be eaten in the lower 48 states, comes from coal power plants. California Gold Mining. California has gotten rid of coal plants and won’t buy electricity … Continue reading

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Infrastructure

  Transportation Infrastructure 2009. The economic impact of current Investment Trends in surface Transportation Infrastructure. American Society of Civil Engineers. Highways, bridges, railroads, and transit systems are vital to America’s economic system. But the nation’s surface transportation infrastructure has been … Continue reading

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Water depletion and pollution

Water Depletion Michael Specter. October 23, 2006. The Last Drop. Confronting the possibility of global catastrophe. The New Yorker. Cyanobacteria Brookes, J., et al.  7 Oct 2011. Resilience to Blooms. Science. Explosive cyanobacterial blooms cause disease in humans and livestock, … Continue reading

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Disease

Bird Flu H5N1 MacKenzie, D. 31 Aug 2011. Bird flu flies back into the news. NewScientist. Cholera 18 Aug 2011. Famine-struck Somalia faces cholera outbreak. New Scientist. 9 Feb 2011 Detecting Cholera Rampaging in 40 countries. ScienceDaily. Tick borne Illnesses … Continue reading

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