Nearly 9,500 people die each year in London because of air pollution, according to study

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Jim Brennan

The Guardian reports on the findings of a study into the amount of deaths caused by air pollution in London:

New research has found that nearly 9500 people die each year in London due to air pollution. Image credit: Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee on freedigitalphotos.net

New research has found that nearly 9500 people die each year in London due to air pollution.
Image credit: Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee on freedigitalphotos.net

“Nearly 9,500 people die early each year in London due to long-term exposure to air pollution, more than twice as many as previously thought, according to new research.

The premature deaths are due to two key pollutants, fine particulates known as PM2.5s and the toxic gas nitrogen dioxide (NO2), according to a study carried out by researchers at King’s College London.

The study – which was commissioned by the Greater London Authority and Transport for London – is believed to be the first by any city in the world to attempt to quantify how many people are being harmed by NO2. The gas is largely created by diesel cars, lorries and buses, and affects lung capacity and growth.

London, Birmingham, and Leeds are among the UK cities that have been in breach of EU safety limits on NO2 for five years, prompting legal action that led to a supreme court ruling in April that the government must publish a clean-up plan by the end of the year.

Previous research attributed 4,267 annual premature deaths to PM2.5s in 2008, based on 2006 levels of the particulates. Subsequent falls in those particulates and a change in methodology that excludes natural sources of the pollutant sees that figure fall to 3,537 for 2010 levels of PM2.5s in the new study.

However that fall is more than cancelled out by the addition of an estimated 5,879 deaths from NO2 each year, bringing the total early deaths from both pollutants in 2010 to 9,416.”

To read more about the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.greatwavesofchange.org

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Heatwaves in northern hemisphere becoming more frequent, says WMO

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Jim Brennan

RTCC.org reports on the World Meteorological Organisation’s observation of an increase in the frequency of heatwaves in the northern hemisphere:

“Record breaking temperatures, heatwaves, drought – all part of a usual Northern Hemisphere summer? Not so says the World Meteorological Organisation. The blistering heat hitting Europe since June 27 was “severe and unusually early” officials reveal. Wildfires in the US and Canada and intense heat in Southern China add to a curious but potent wave of events this year.

“Climate change scenarios predict that heatwaves will become more intense, more frequent and longer,” says Omar Baddour, who coordinates WMO’s World Climate Data and Monitoring Programme. “It is notable that the time between major heatwaves (2003, 2010, 2015) is getting shorter.”

To read more on the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.greatwavesofchange.org

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Flooding in Illinois Leads to Loss of Thousands of Acres of Crops

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Jim Brennan

Wsiltv.com reports on crop loss due to flooding in parts of the US:

“Heavy rains have plagued farmers across the midwest this year, leaving many scrambling to even get crops planted. Some southern Illinois farmers did manage to get all their seed in the ground, only to have their healthy crop completely washed away.

Fields that once contained six foot tall corn stalks, now look like lakes.

“Just because it’s green, doesn’t mean it’s going to live,” said farmer Jason Bosaw. “90 percent of the corn we saw today, it was at least 2 foot deep on it, it will not survive.”

Farmers in the Gallatin County river bottoms will have to mark thousands of acres of once healthy crop down as a total loss. For Bosaw, it’ll make up about 10 percent of all the crops he planted this year.”

To read more on the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.greatwavesofchange.org

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Suicide bomber strikes market in Afghanistan

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Jim Brennan

The Washington Post reports on a suicide attack in Afghanistan:

“A suicide blast tore through a crowded market in northwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing more than a dozen people in an area where government forces have clashed recently with Taliban militants.

There was no assertion of responsibility, but the Taliban and other extremist groups have carried out similar attacks in the past.

The bomber detonated an explosive belt after being spotted by a security guard in the main market in the Almar district of Faryab province, about 250 miles northwest of Kabul, officials said.”

To read more about the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.newmessage.org

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Understanding biodiversity loss requires global perspective

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Jim Brennan

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reports on the state of biodiversity in the world:

More than 1,500 animals and plant species are federally listed as endangered or threatened. The protections afforded by listing have saved species such as the bald eagle and California condor from extinction, but only 30 species have been delisted during the past four decades because of recovery. Focusing on success stories, which represent less than 2 percent of the total species listed, gives a misleading picture of American biodiversity. Ten species on the US federal list (not yet counting the eastern cougar) have gone extinct in the meantime, and many more are candidates for listing.

The situation is much worse in many other parts of the world. A paper just published in the journal Science Advances reported that, even by a conservative estimate, the average rate of vertebrate species loss since 1900 is as much as 100 times higher than the natural rate. The authors wrote: “Although biologists cannot say precisely how many species there are, or exactly how many have gone extinct in any time interval, we can confidently conclude that modern extinction rates are exceptionally high, that they are increasing, and that they suggest a mass extinction under way—the sixth of its kind in Earth’s 4.5 billion years of history.”

Counting species is, to be sure, a tricky business. Clear-cutting a virgin forest, for example, can sometimes increase biodiversity at a specific site by creating a different kind of habitat that is hospitable to a greater number of species. But “alpha biodiversity”—the number of species within a local area or habitat—is only one measure of biodiversity.

“Gamma biodiversity”—the total species diversity across many local habitats, within an ecosystem, region, or the entire globe—can give a different picture. The world’s overall forest cover is declining markedly, for example, and while that may be a boon to species that can colonize a clear-cut, it leaves many other plants and animals homeless.

To read more about the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.greatwavesofchange.org

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Arbitration court to issue ruling on maritime territory row before end of the year

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Jim Brennan

Business World Online reports on moves by the Permanent Court of Arbitration to resolve the maritime territory dispute between China and the Phillipines:

THE PERMANENT Court of Arbitration (PCA) expects to decide before the end of the year if it has jurisdiction over the Philippines’ dispute against the territorial claims of China in the West Philippine Sea, a statement from the tribunal said.

“In the event that the Arbitral Tribunal determines that it has jurisdiction over some or all of the Philippines’ claims, it will then proceed to a hearing on the merits,” PCA, a 117-state body set up in 1899 to rule in disputes between countries and private parties including companies, said in the statement dated July 13.

Up until Aug. 17, China will be given the chance to comment in writing regarding “anything said during this hearing on Jurisdiction and Admissibility,” citing United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which states that the tribunal should “assure each party a full opportunity to be heard and to present its case.”

To read more about the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.greatwavesofchange.org

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More than 4 million refugees have fled Syria’s civil war

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Jim Brennan

The L.A. Times reports on the number of Syrian refugees who have fled abroad due to the civil war:

The civil war in Syria has now caused more than 4 million Syrians to flee abroad, according to the latest UN figures. Image credit: taesmileland on freedigitalphotos.net

The civil war in Syria has now caused more than 4 million Syrians to flee abroad, according to the latest UN figures.
Image credit: taesmileland on freedigitalphotos.net

With no end in sight to Syria’s civil war, the number of people who have fled to neighboring countries has surpassed 4 million, according to United Nations figures released Thursday.

“This is the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “It is a population that needs the support of the world but is instead living in dire conditions and sinking deeper into poverty.”

The last time a conflict produced so many refugees was during the 1990s civil war in Afghanistan, when the number of people driven from their country exceeded 4.6 million.

To read more about the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.greatwavesofchange.org

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Canada’s Beaufort Sea acidifying fastest in the world according to new study

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Jim Brennan

Macleans.ca reports on the findings of a new study into ocean acidification:

A study has found that the Beaufort sea is acidifying faster than any other ocean. Image credit: Collection of Dr. Pablo Clemente-Colon, NOAA National Ice Center.

A study has found that the Beaufort sea is acidifying faster than any other ocean.
Image credit: Collection of Dr. Pablo Clemente-Colon, NOAA National Ice Center.

Research suggests Canada’s Beaufort Sea is becoming acidic more quickly than any other ocean in the world, offering a window into what a major side effect of climate change will do to waters around the globe.

“As goes the Arctic, so go the rest of the oceans,” said Jeremy Mathis of the U.S.-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, lead author of the new paper published in the journal Oceanography.

In about 10 years, he predicts the Arctic waters off the Northwest Territories will be more acidic for most of the year than they have ever been before. The consequences for sea life are unknown, although organisms that have shells are likely to have trouble.

(Break)

Scientists have concluded that oceans around the globe are already an average of 30 per cent more acidic than they were 200 years ago. Acidification is happening fastest in the North because Arctic seas are already low in the chemicals that buffer against the process and because they are increasingly exposed to the atmosphere as sea ice retreats.

To read more on the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.greatwavesofchange.org

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Caribbean faces worsening drought

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Jim Brennan

The Star Tribune reports on a drought affecting the Caribbean:

The worst drought in five years is creeping across the Caribbean, prompting officials around the region to brace for a bone dry summer.

From Puerto Rico to Cuba to the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia, crops are withering, reservoirs are drying up and cattle are dying while forecasters worry that the situation could only grow worse in the coming months.

Thanks to El Nino, a warming of the tropical Pacific that affects global weather, forecasters expect the hurricane season that began in June to be quieter than normal, with a shorter period of rains. That means less water to help refill Puerto Rico’s thirsty Carraizo and La Plata reservoirs as well as the La Plata river in the central island community of Naranjito. A tropical disturbance that hit the U.S. territory on Monday did not fill up those reservoirs as officials had anticipated.

To read more about the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.greatwavesofchange.org

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Dutch Court Ruling On Climate Change Could Have A Global Impact

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Jim Brennan

NPR.org reports on a ruling made against the Dutch government in regard to tackling climate change:

A court in the Netherlands has ruled that the Dutch government must cut carbon emissions by 25% in order to protect the country from the effects of climate change. Image by taesmileland on freedigitalphotos.net

A court in the Netherlands has ruled that the Dutch government must cut carbon emissions by 25% in order to protect the country from the effects of climate change.
Image by taesmileland on freedigitalphotos.net

In a ruling that could echo far beyond the Netherlands, a Dutch court has sided with an environmental group and said the government must cut carbon emissions by 25 percent in five years in order to protect the country’s citizens.

Many other environmental groups and governments have paid close attention to the Dutch case, and there are similar ones in the works in other countries, including Belgium and Norway.

“The state should not hide behind the argument that the solution to the global climate problem does not depend solely on Dutch efforts,” the judges said in their ruling. “Any reduction of emissions contributes to the prevention of dangerous climate change and as a developed country the Netherlands should take the lead in this.”

To read more on the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.newmessage.org

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