Climate Change
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To the Our-Environment.Org website. We believe the best way to help solve the environmental problems we all face today is through building public awareness and increasing understanding of the environmental issues we all face. 

Though the voice to preserve and maintain our environment is getting louder with more and more people starting to pay attention, we cannot rest on our laurels; we still need to keep working towards raising the global consciousness about our environment even further and eventually high enough for the tide to turn on the destructive practises we

see around us every day. 

Our Problem

It has taken generations of human progress for us to see our environment getting to the stage were nature can no longer cope with the escalating production of the toxins that drive human advancement, pollutants and green house gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone are being produced faster than they can be naturally absorbed. 

The majority of greenhouse gases come mostly from natural sources though our contribution (i.e. human activity and progress) has started to tip the balance. Production of “Greenhouse Gases” has increased to the stage that the planet can no longer sustain itself and the Earth is in real terms losing the fight. Millions of years ago the Earth was dominated by these gases, though over the eons these compounds have been sequestered into substances like oil, natural gas and coal.

The human race over the past hundred plus years has become expert at re-releasing these compounds back into the atmosphere through industry and feeding our swelling hunger for energy and we are now seeing the alarming consequences of this activity. 

Of course we cannot go back to some pre-industrial stage of our history to find the answer, technology is the double edged blade that has catapulted us into this situation and technology will provide the way to meet and (hopefully) eventually overcome this challenge. 

This does not mean however we as individuals do not have to do our bit. We must all look at the consequences of what we do every day; turn off the lights when we are not in the room, power down our computers when we are not sitting on front of them, turn off the TV rather than sit mesmerised in front of it for hours on end and walk to the store instead of cranking up the car. It is the some total of all the little things we do every day that can have the biggest impact on the problem facing us and our environment.

This remedy will not happen overnight, it may well take a generation to undo the damage already caused. The important things is build momentum, we have to help wake peoples awareness to what we can all do together to help, and even more importantly what we can do as individuals right now.

Thanks for Stopping By...

TheTeam@Our-Environment.org

Earth Hour 2010
On the 27 March at 8.30pm at local time all around the world, people will be switching off their lights to show their support for positive action on climate change. It?s WWF?s Earth Hour, and all you need to do to join in is sit calmly in the dark . . . (Source: Gurgle)
Recent Public Policy Reports Online at www.aibs.org/public-policy-reports
Public Policy Report for 19 January 2010 Inspector General finds fault with Interior's management of collections. The Inspector General (IG) for the US Department of the Interior (DOI) has "found that DOI is failing to fulfill its stewardship responsibilities over museum collections." In a December 2009 report, the IG found that the DOI has failed to properly accession, catalogue, or inventory museum collections, leaving artifacts "unavailable for research, education, or display" and "subject to theft, deterioration, and damage." New biosecurity measures recommended for US lab. The Working Group on Strengthening Biosecurity of the United States has issued a set of recommendations to improve security at labs that handle dangerous pathogens and select toxins. The interagency working group ...
Concerns raised over Institute of Physics climate submission
Institute faces criticism over its evidence to UK parliamentary inquiry on climate change (Source: PhysicsWeb News)
Climate-Change Panel Under Scrutiny
Inquiry: Science academies will assess UN's prestigious body. (Source: Chemical and Engineering News)
New and Exciting in PLoS ONE
This study will form the basis for future research to understand the mechanisms of serine protease action, and examine the potential for rhinocerase to be used clinically to reduce the risk of human haemostatic disorders such as heart attacks and strokes. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock)
US to lobby for endangered species listing for polar bear
Melting sea ice in the Arctic will kill thousands of bears in coming years, the US says, and continued commercial trade must not be allowed to make the situation worseIt is a familiar story in the climate change debate. The US government is at odds with the rest of the world and, despite criticism, wants other countries to change their minds and fall in line behind Uncle Sam.This time, the tale comes with an unexpected twist. This weekend, the US will warn that the threat from climate change to the survival of the polar bear is so great that the world must grant it the highest possible protection.At the meeting of the international body that regulates trade in animals, the US will push for a total ban on the sale and movement of polar bear products that are used for furs, rugs and taxiderm...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Slide in climate change belief is a temporary glitch | Damian Carrington
It has taken a perfect storm of snow, scientific doubt and political failure to dent public acceptance of the reality of global warming - but these factors will passIs the world warming and are we causing it? The number of people confidently saying yes to that question has slipped sharply over recent weeks, if opinion polls on both sides of the Atlantic are to be believed. That looks like bad news for those arguing that major changes to how we travel, power our homes and feed ourselves are needed to avoid catastrophe.Yet a longer-term take on the data shows that interpreting the results as a collapse in confidence in climate science due to the release of the University of East Anglia emails or mistakes by the UN's climate body is not sustainable ? or at least a long way from the full sto...
Aquatic 'dead zones' contributing to climate change
The increased frequency and intensity of oxygen-deprived "dead zones" along the world's coasts can negatively impact environmental conditions in far more than local waters. Scientists explain that the increased amount of nitrous oxide produced in hypoxic waters can elevate concentrations in the atmosphere, further exacerbating the impacts of global warming and contributing to ozone "holes" that increase our exposure to harmful UV radiation. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
Health To Be At The Centre Of The Fight Against Climate Change
The danger and cost of climate change to the health of Europeans is at the forefront of the debate as the fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health begins today in Parma, Italy. The conference, organised by the World Health Organisation, will include representatives from across Europe and is an important forum on how to tackle cross-cutting environment and health issues such as climate change. Minister for Public Health, Gillian Merron said: "This conference will highlight the risk global warming poses to the health of our communities"... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)
Health To Be At The Centre Of The Fight Against Climate Change
The danger and cost of climate change to the health of Europeans is at the forefront of the debate as the fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health begins today in Parma, Italy... (Source: Water Quality / Air Quality News From Medical News Today)
New study debunks myths about vulnerability of Amazon rain forests to drought
A new study has concluded that Amazon rain forests were remarkably unaffected in the face of once-in-a-century drought in 2005, neither dying nor thriving, contrary to a previously published report and claims by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Response: Scientists should stop deceiving us
In holding that the aim of science is truth alone, they misrepresent its real aimsGeorge Monbiot is surely right to bemoan the profoundly unsatisfactory state of affairs that exists between science and the public (With complex science, we must take much on trust. The trouble is we can't, 9 March).Many members of the public instinctively and irrationally distrust, even fear, science. Thus, for climate sceptics, "No level of evidence can shake the growing belief that climate science is a giant conspiracy codded up by boffins and governments to tax and control us". And scientists don't help by producing specialised "gobbledegook" so incomprehensible that even scientists "studying neighbouring subjects within the same discipline can no longer understand each other".The situation might be helpe...
Slippery Standards Slope
By Neal McCluskeyThe draft national curricular standards released yesterday, as I wrote earlier, will in all likelihood do little or no educational good if adopted. They&#8217;ll either be ignored or, if hard to meet, dumbed-down. That said, the really troubling question is not whether the standards will do any good, but whether they will do much harm. The answer: Oh, they&#8217;ll do harm. They&#8217;ll move us one step closer to complete centralization of education, which portends many potentially bad things, from total special-interest domination to even more wasteful spending. Perhaps the most concerning possibility is that complete centralization &#8212; meaning, federalization &#8212; will lead to nationwide conflict over what the schools should teach, much as we are...
Nearly half of Americans believe climate change threat is exaggerated
US belief in climate science lowest since polling began 13 years agoPublic belief in climate science has seen a precipitous slide in the US, according to new polling that suggests fewer Americans are concerned about the threat posed by global warming.Nearly half of Americans ? 48% ? now believe the threat of global warming has been exaggerated, the highest level since polling began 13 years ago, the poll published today by Gallup said.It directly linked the decline in concern to the controversies about media coverage of stolen emails from the University of East Anglia climate research unit and a mistake about the Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035 in the UN's authoritative report on global warming."These news reports may well have caused some Americans to re-evaluate the scientific con...
Recent Articles Online at www.actionbioscience.org
Original article in English "Biofuel, Economics, and Society," by Daniel De La Torre Ugarte, associate professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics of the University of Tennessee and the Associate Director of the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center. In this interview, Ugarte explains that good biofuel management not only can provide economical, environmentally friendly fuel worldwide but also it can decrease world poverty and food insecurity. Read the article here. "Technology: An Educational Issue?" blog posts Read this blog about issues in educational technology that discuss ways to learn and teach the biological sciences using technology. Recent posts and discussions include: ? Storybird ? Citing the Internet Spanish translations of a previously posted article "El Cambi...
Recent Public Policy Reports Online at www.aibs.org/publicpolicy-reports
Public Policy Report for 19 January 2010 Inspector General finds fault with Interior's management of collections. The Inspector General (IG) for the US Department of the Interior (DOI) has "found that DOI is failing to fulfill its stewardship responsibilities over museum collections." In a December 2009 report, the IG found that the DOI has failed to properly accession, catalogue, or inventory museum collections, leaving artifacts "unavailable for research, education, or display" and "subject to theft, deterioration, and damage." New biosecurity measures recommended for US lab. The Working Group on Strengthening Biosecurity of the United States has issued a set of recommendations to improve security at labs that handle dangerous pathogens and select toxins. The interagency working group ...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Interacademy Council Asked To Review Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change
The InterAcademy Council (IAC), a multinational organization of the world's science academies, has been requested to conduct an independent review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) processes and procedures. The study comes at the invitation of the United Nations secretary-general and the chair of the IPCC, and will help guide the processes and procedures of the IPCC's fifth report and future assessments of climate science... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)
Interacademy Council Asked To Review Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change
The InterAcademy Council (IAC), a multinational organization of the world's science academies, has been requested to conduct an independent review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) processes and procedures... (Source: Water Quality / Air Quality News From Medical News Today)
Temperature rise spreads malaria, scientists insist
The hotly contested idea that climate change is increasing the spread of malaria has been supported by a review of recent studies. (Source: SciDev.Net)
More than two species lost every year
This report is not all doom and gloom, but we're losing species at an alarming rate and many of our species are seriously threatened," he said. "These species could the tip of the iceberg unless we take action."Matt Shardlow, head of Buglife, said: "The report [confirms] we are in the midst of an extinction crisis and it is happening here in England under our very noses."Dozens of scientists trawled records going back to the first century AD from official lists and books. They identified 492 species recorded in England that could no longer be found, all but 12 of which disappeared after 1800.A further 943 species are listed under the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) as plants and animals under threat. These include a number of species now extinct in many counties or regions of England. ...
More than two English species lost every year
This report is not all doom and gloom, but we're losing species at an alarming rate and many of our species are seriously threatened," he said. "These species could the tip of the iceberg unless we take action."Matt Shardlow, head of Buglife, said: "The report [confirms] we are in the midst of an extinction crisis and it is happening here in England under our very noses."Dozens of scientists trawled records going back to the first century AD from official lists and books. They identified 492 species recorded in England that could no longer be found, all but 12 of which disappeared after 1800.A further 943 species are listed under the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) as plants and animals under threat. These include a number of species now extinct in many counties or regions of England. ...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
IPCC Errors Prompt Review by International Science Academies
African crop yields wither, along with the Amazon rainforest; Himalayan glaciers disappear by 2035. These are the erroneous predictions ascribed to the most recent report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)--a document reviewed by some 2,500 scientists and other experts as well as vetted by more than 190 countries. So does the fact that a few errors crept into a more than 3,000 page report merit a revision of IPCC processes? [More] (Source: Scientific American - Official RSS Feed)
Top scientists to review IPCC report
Moves aims to restore public confidence in science of global warming after mistake over melting rates of glaciersThe UN called in the world's top scientists today to review a report by its climate body, four months after public confidence in the science of global warming was shaken by the discovery of a mistake about the melting rates of Himalayan glaciers.In an announcement at the UN in New York Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, and Rajendra Pachauri, the much-criticised head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said the InterAcademy Council, which represents 15 national academies of science, would conduct the independent review.The announcement follows months of controversy which, while not altering the scientific consensus on climate change, has given fresh ammunition ...
In the AIBS Webstore
&#8220;COMMUNICATING SCIENCE: A PRIMER FOR WORKING WITH THE MEDIA&#8221; Evolution, climate change, stem cell research &#8212; Scientists are frequently called upon to provide expert information on hot button issues that pervade the daily news headlines, yet most find themselves woefully unprepared for the bright lights of the television studio or leading questions from a newspaper journalist. A new publication from AIBS, &#8220;Communicating Science: A Primer for Working with the Media,&#8221; by Holly Menninger and Robert Gropp in the Public Policy Office, will prepare scientists for successful and effective media interviews. Recognizing that many scientists are reluctant to engage in media outreach, &#8220;Communicating Science&#8221; outlines compelling reasons for scientists to inte...
Become an Advocate for Science: Join the AIBS Legislative Action Center
Quick, free, easy, effective, impactful! Join the AIBS Legislative Action Center today! The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) has launched the AIBS Legislative Action Center. The online resource allows biologists and science educators to quickly and effectively influence policy and public opinion. The AIBS Legislative Action Center is located at www.aibs.org/public-policy/legislativeactioncenter.html. This new tool is made possible through contributions from the Society for the Study of Evolution, American Society for Limnology and Oceanography, Association of Ecosystem Research Centers, and the Botanical Society of America. Each day lawmakers must make tough decisions about science policy. For example, what investments to make in federal research programs, biodiversity c...
NOAA Creates One-Stop Shop for Climate Data
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has launched a new online portal for climate information and predictions. Climate.gov will serve as &#8220;a single point-of-entry for NOAA&#8217;s climate information, data, products and services,&#8221; according to the agency. The website is designed to address the needs of decision makers, scientists, educators, business users, and the public by providing climate forecasts to data end-users, such as natural resource managers, water utilities, and state governments. The new Climate Service Portal is the first step to creation of a National Climate Service within NOAA. Currently, climate modeling, forecasting, and observations are spread throughout the agency. The new initiative would centralize these functions within NOAA, much...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Short Takes
Representative Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), the highest ranking Republican on the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, will not seek re-election in November. Ehlers is the first research physicist to serve in Congress. During his ten terms, he has championed science, including funding for the National Science Foundation, science education, and authorization of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in law. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has rejected a petition to list the American pika as a threatened or endangered species. The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy organization, had previously requested that the FWS list the species due to the impacts of climate change on its mountain habitat. &#8220;American pika can...
In the AIBS Webstore
&#8220;COMMUNICATING SCIENCE: A PRIMER FOR WORKING WITH THE MEDIA&#8221; Evolution, climate change, stem cell research &#8212; Scientists are frequently called upon to provide expert information on hot button issues that pervade the daily news headlines, yet most find themselves woefully unprepared for the bright lights of the television studio or leading questions from a newspaper journalist. A new publication from AIBS, &#8220;Communicating Science: A Primer for Working with the Media,&#8221; by Holly Menninger and Robert Gropp in the Public Policy Office, will prepare scientists for successful and effective media interviews. Recognizing that many scientists are reluctant to engage in media outreach, &#8220;Communicating Science&#8221; outlines compelling reasons for scientists to inte...
Become an Advocate for Science: Join the AIBS Legislative Action Center
Quick, free, easy, effective, impactful! Join the AIBS Legislative Action Center today! The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) has launched the AIBS Legislative Action Center. The online resource allows biologists and science educators to quickly and effectively influence policy and public opinion. The AIBS Legislative Action Center is located at www.aibs.org/public-policy/legislativeactioncenter.html. This new tool is made possible through contributions from the Society for the Study of Evolution, American Society for Limnology and Oceanography, Association of Ecosystem Research Centers, and the Botanical Society of America. Each day lawmakers must make tough decisions about science policy. For example, what investments to make in federal research programs, biodiversity c...
InterAcademy Council Asked to Review IPCC
The InterAcademy Council, a multinational body of science academies including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, was asked today to conduct an independent review of the processes and procedures of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The review was requested by the United Nations secretary-general and the chair of the IPCC. (Source: News from the National Academies)
Rediscovering Nature in Everyday Settings: Or How to Create Healthy Environments and Healthy People
This article explores how common urban places can foster links between people and nature, and generate positive health and well-being outcomes. We achieve this by exploring nature in the everyday settings of schools and residential housing. Content Type Journal ArticleCategory Short CommunicationDOI 10.1007/s10393-010-0282-5Authors Cecily J. Maller, RMIT University Global Cities Institute and Centre for Design, College of Design and Social Context GPO Box 2476 Melbourne VIC 3001 AustraliaClaire Henderson-Wilson, Deakin University School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences Melbourne AustraliaMardie Townsend, Deakin University Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences Melbourne Australia Journal E...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Save the planet. But maybe not right now
Doomsaying precludes the possibility of ingenious solutions ? and indicates a morbid vanity that we must be the savioursIsn't it welcome to have Ian McEwan as an advocate for a little optimism in the climate change debate? His hope, expressed in his new novel Solar, that humanity will prove ingenious enough to solve the problem through the skill of coming generations is a welcome change from those who portray our descendants as helpless victims of our "excess".Their injunctions to "save the world for our children and grandchildren" fly in the face of history, which repeatedly shows how progress ? from the wheel to the internet ? transforms the world picture as time marches on. The doom brigade has its moments, such as the collapse of the classical world in Europe, the Black Death and...
A Hippocratic oath for scientists
I agree with George Monbiot (Comment, 9 March) about the problems of communicating science, but it is a pity he did not mention the large amount of outreach work being done by scientists these days to address the very issues he raises, much of it in collaboration with Café Scientifique, a network of voluntary local initiatives in towns up and down the UK, and, indeed, the world. There is a Hippocratic oath for scientists, although it is not yet compulsory. It is called the Pugwash Pledge, and can be found at (www.spusa.org/pledge)."I promise to work for a better world, where science and technology are used in socially responsible ways. I will not use my education for any purpose intended to harm human beings or the environment. Throughout my career, I will consider the ethical implication...
The unpersuadables: the delusional is no longer marginal
In recent weeks, or so it seems, there has been an accumulation of some very disturbing trends in the media. Unaware of how they all are connected, I wrote separate posts on the different occasions when the events triggered their separate thought processes.It started in the US (where else?), when at least one creationist went on the record as claiming the moon landings were a hoax. Two delusions in the same person? Indeed, the blogosphere, home to all the echo-chambers of the social web, acts pretty much as a powerful amplifier without crossovers or equalizers: sometimes it just amplifies garbage. The political attacks on science slowly moved towards political (and physical) attacks on scientists. The US-based Discovery Institute wants to put all scientists in jail. Most recently, in the ...
ScienceOnline2010 - interview with Christine Ottery
Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants of the ScienceOnline2010 conference that was held in the Research Triangle Park, NC back in January. See all the interviews in this series here. You can check out previous years' interviews as well: 2008 and 2009. Today, I asked Christine Ottery from the MA program in science journalism at City University London to answer a few questions: Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What is your (scientific) background? Does double As at GCSE count as a science background? Leaving aside exams I took when I was 15 years old, I'm a humanities grad...
The global race to extinction | Adam Rutherford
Extinction may be the evolutionary norm, but the speed at which we are losing species should seriously worry usEveryone loves an apocalypse, and none more so than the one that sped the dinosaurs to their now legendary status. Having been a popular theory for 30 years, last week scientists finally reached a consensus that it was indeed the after-effects of a juggernaut meteorite crashing 65 million years ago into what we now call Chicxulub in Mexico that triggered the end of the dinosaurs' reign on Earth.The reasons for loving this particular catastrophe are easy to understand. Dinosaurs are awesome. Giant meteorites are awesome. And of course, the combination of the two opened the door for the rise of the mammals. Our own story begins with that cataclysm."Consensus" has unfortunately becom...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
When humans roam the earth
Not all dinosaurs were wiped out by the Chicxulub meteorite. We too may be in the midst of mass extinctionEveryone loves an apocalypse, and none more so than the one that sped the dinosaurs to their now legendary status. Having been a popular theory for 30 years, last week scientists finally reached a consensus that it was indeed the after-effects of a juggernaut meteorite crashing 65 million years ago into what we now call Chicxulub in Mexico that triggered the end of the dinosaurs' reign on Earth.The reasons for loving this particular catastrophe are easy to understand. Dinosaurs are awesome. Giant meteorites are awesome. And of course, the combination of the two opened the door for the rise of the mammals. Our own story begins with that cataclysm."Consensus" has unfortunately become a d...
Climate Change: Who Pays for Emissions in Global Trade?
The carbon equation isn't as straightforward as we might think. Scientists find that rich nations are essentially outsourcing some of their carbon emissions to developing nations through global trade (Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories)
Lack of trust in complex science
There is no simple way to battle public hostility to climate research. As the psychologists show, facts barely sway us anywayThere is one question that no one who denies manmade climate change wants to answer: what would it take to persuade you? In most cases the answer seems to be nothing. No level of evidence can shake the growing belief that climate science is a giant conspiracy codded up by boffins and governments to tax and control us. The new study by the Met Office, which paints an even grimmer picture than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will do nothing to change this view.The attack on climate scientists is now widening to an all-out war on science. Writing recently for the Telegraph, the columnist Gerald Warner dismissed scientists as "white-coated prima donnas and...
Ghost orchid comes back from extinction
Three species thought extinct, including a caddisfly and yellow-spotted bell frog, have been sighted in the UK and AustraliaThree species thought to be extinct have been found again, to the delight of conservationists.In the UK, the rare ghost orchid, declared extinct in this country just last year, has been found in England, and a caddisfly ? a small flying insect ? last seen more than a century ago has been discovered again in Scotland. On the global stage the yellow-spotted bell frog, presumed "possibly extinct" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, has been seen on a creek-bed in Australia.The good news stories follow a warning by a leading IUCN expert that humans are now driving plants and animals to extinction faster than new species can evolve.Simon Stuart, ...
Ghost orchid back from dead
Three species thought extinct, including a caddisfly and yellow-spotted bell frog, have been sighted in the UK and Australia? Humans driving extinction faster than species can evolve, say expertsThree species thought to be extinct have been found again, to the delight of conservationists.In the UK, the rare ghost orchid, declared extinct in this country just last year, has been found in England, and a caddisfly ? a small flying insect ? last seen more than a century ago has been discovered again in Scotland. On the global stage the yellow-spotted bell frog, presumed "possibly extinct" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, has been seen on a creek-bed in Australia.The good news stories follow a warning by a leading IUCN expert that humans are now driving plants an...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Cool model for a hot planet
(Binghamton University) In his recent book, "Strategic Bargaining and Cooperation in Greenhouse Gas Mitigations," Binghamton University's Zili Yang suggests ways governments might realistically work together to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He also makes a case for curbing the use of fossil fuels -- whether they contribute to climate change or not. (Source: EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science)
The role of hydrochory in structuring riparian and wetland vegetation
Hydrochory, or the passive dispersal of organisms by water, is an important means of propagule transport, especially for plants. During recent years, knowledge about hydrochory and its ecological consequences has increased considerably and a substantial body of literature has been produced. Here, we review this literature and define the state of the art of the discipline. A substantial proportion of species growing in or near water have propagules (fruits, seeds or vegetative units) able to disperse by water, either floating, submerged in flowing water, or with the help of floating vessels. Hydrochory can enable plants to colonize sites out of reach with other dispersal vectors, but the timing of dispersal and mechanisms of establishment are important for successful establishment. At the p...
Energy Policy Sparks Nuclear Options and Jobs
In a recent speech about new investments in energy efficient homes (check out the speech itself on Hulu), President Obama mentioned a desire to seek out all options to solve our energy problems. He gets a triple bang out of these sorts of energy efficiency initiatives, of course, because (1) the work is performed by laborers in the United States (2) using mostly materials manufactured in the United States (because, as he points out, it's hard to bring an energy-efficient window over from China), and (3) saves money on the subsequent energy bills. Plus there are secondary benefits, such as less power demand, less need for coal, less environmental pollution, and so on. (Whether all of these benefits warrant the investment of these rebates is something I'll leave to the more argumentative po...
Humans are driving extinction faster than species can evolve
Conservationists say rate of new species slower than diversity loss caused by the destruction of habitats and climate changeFor the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve, one of the world's experts on biodiversity has warned.Conservation experts have already signalled that the world is in the grip of the "sixth great extinction" of species, driven by the destruction of natural habitats, hunting, the spread of alien predators and disease, and climate change.However until recently it has been hoped that the rate at which new species were evolving could keep pace with the loss of diversity of life.Speaking in advance of two reports next week on the state of wildlife in Britain and Europe, Simon Stuart...
Humans drive extinction faster than species evolve
Conservationists say rate of new species slower than diversity loss caused by the destruction of habitats and climate change? Ghost orchid comes back from extinctionFor the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve, one of the world's experts on biodiversity has warned.Conservation experts have already signalled that the world is in the grip of the "sixth great extinction" of species, driven by the destruction of natural habitats, hunting, the spread of alien predators and disease, and climate change.However until recently it has been hoped that the rate at which new species were evolving could keep pace with the loss of diversity of life.Speaking in advance of two reports next week on the state of w...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Wanted: an eco prophet
People are drifting into a lethal slumber on climate change. More of the same won't wake them upIt's an exceptionally inconvenient truth. Only one American in three believes that human beings are responsible for climate change: a polling result 10% down on where opinion rested the year before. Worse, the number of Americans who believe that climate change is a hoax or a scientific conspiracy ? not doubting, just damned blank certain ? has doubled since 2008. Add in those who assert that the changes, if any, are of "no significant concern", and you've got 30% of the US denying, scoffing and just walking on by.Are the issues clearer, the people more committed, here in Britain? Call for the latest evidence from Ipsos Mori ? and find that the proportion of UK adults who believe that glob...
'We don't know what 96% of the universe is made of'
Pop star-turned-physicist Brian Cox speaks about his new TV series on the solar systemIt's big space, isn't it?It's 93&nbsp;million miles to the Sun: that's a long way. It takes light eight minutes to do that. There are 100bn galaxies in the observable universe. If you take a 5p coin and hold it 75 feet away, the space in the sky it would obscure would hold 10,000 galaxies. It's mindblowing. I don't think anyone has a grasp of that other than to say: it's big.You recently answered claims that experiments with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva might swallow the planet by saying: "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat." Ever worry that you might have phrased that more delicately?It's not a comment, it's a statement of fact, isn't it? It's factually accurate! It...
Rise in UK carbon emissions disputed
Soil deposits of CO2 'not fuelling global warming yet ? but will in future'A major study for the UK government has cast doubt over claims that rising temperatures are causing soil to pump greater amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further fuelling global warming.In 2005 it was reported in the science journal Nature that over the past 25 years 100m tonnes of carbon dioxide had been released by the soil of England and Wales. The figure cancelled out all emissions cuts in the UK since 1990.However, a national survey of the soils of Great Britain, funded by the department for environment food and rural affairs, claims to have found no net loss of carbon over approximately the same period.Scientists have now proposed that a special study group, with an independent statistical expe...
Thorniest, Knottiest (Editorial)
Anyone who offers simple, one-size-fits-all solutions on climate change, energy policy or health care doesn?t understand the problems. (Source: Arkansas Business - Health Care)
Public Health Updates
National Public Health Leadership Development Network Annual Conference http://www.heartlandcenters.slu.edu/nln/events.html April 27-30, 2010, Nebraska City, NE. The theme of the conference is Innovation 2010/Vision 2020: Creating the Future of Leadership Development. Webinar: The Public Health Role in Climate Change: Communication and Effective Messaging Strategy https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=859t8qs55w7u March 11, 2010, 12:00-1:00 PM EST. The session will cover the challenges related to communicating about climate change and how public health professionals can be effective messengers. APHA&#8217;s Get Ready Campaign: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks http://www.getreadyforflu.org/clocksstocks/index.htm APHA&#8217;s Get Ready campaign reminds everyone to check prepa...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Methane Leaks off Siberian Coast, Speeding Climate Change
A large amount of methane is bubbling up from the ocean floor east of Siberia at a surprising rate and could accelerate climate change, researchers said yesterday.The gas is bubbling up from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf because warming ocean water is thawing permafrost , allowing methane trapped underneath to escape. The amount of methane emitted by that one patch of seabed roughly equals the amount scientists believed was released by all of the world's oceans. [More] (Source: Scientific American - Official RSS Feed)
Climate sceptics guilty of double standards in condemnation over data | Bob Ward
Global warming thinktank has made exactly the kind minor factual error that would have been seized on by scepticsSome climate change sceptics have been guilty of applying double standards in their condemnation of alleged misdeeds by researchers at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.On 25 February, I wrote to Dr Benny Peiser, the director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation which is chaired by Lord Lawson, to warn him that a graph of "21st century global mean temperature" displayed prominently on his group's website contains an error.Instead of showing that 2009 was the warmest year since 2005, the foundation's graph portrays it as slightly cooler than 2006 and 2007.While it is a relatively small error, it is the kind of discrepancy that many sceptics would be s...
Do You or Do You Not Hate America?
By Sallie JamesSen. John Kerry (D, MA) made an, er, interesting rhetorical case yesterday (as reported on E2 Wire, The Hill&#8217;s Energy and Environment blog) that borrows heavily from the Bush playbook: your patriotism hinges on voting for his favored policy ? in this case, a climate change bill. Not that the bill is really about climate change, of course. It&#8217;s about a list of goodies completely unrelated to the changing political winds: What we are talking about is a jobs bill. It is not a climate bill. It is a jobs bill, and it is a clean air bill. It is a national security, energy independence bill,? he told reporters in the Capitol&#8230; ?And people are going to have to decide whether they are going to vote for America or against it,? he concluded. (Source: Cato-...
Climate Science: Ski While You Can
Contemporary global climate change is a phenomenon defined in large part by the rapid and substantial warming it includes. During the last glacial period, the climate of the Northern Hemisphere ? [Read more] (Source: Editors' Choice)
[News of the Week] ScienceInsider: From the Science Policy Blog
ScienceInsider reported this week that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its parent organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, will request an independent review of IPCC in the wake of unprecedented criticisms of the panel, among other stories. (Source: Science: Current Issue)<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
[Perspective] Climate Change: How Stable Is the Methane Cycle?
Ship and satellite data help to elucidate how methane emissions from sources such as wetlands may change in a warming climate.Author: Martin Heimann (Source: Science: Current Issue)
March eFactor
Discussion Mason Receives 2010 Bruker Award Superfund Researcher Elected to National Academies Birnbaum Revisits TSCA in Senate Testimony Hearing Sparks Call for Environmental Justice in Alaska Jung Joins NIEHS as Chief of Staff Fellows Participate in Biotech Career Workshop Shepard Edits EJ Issue on Climate Change Superfund Video Offers Plain Talk on Arsenic NIEHS and NTP Gear Up for a Productive Year at SOT Ancient Fires &mdash; Modern Dilemma Epidemiology Shines at Advisory Council Meeting NIEHS Welcomes Four New Principal Investigators Researcher Underscores Importance of Intracellular Communication Estrogen Receptors and Tumor Development Researchers Confirm Link Between Maternal Age and Autism Mining the Genome with Deep Sequencing Superfund Research Prompts Review o...
What Can Past Climate Change Reveal about Human Adaptation?
Research on climate change today focuses mostly on the future, taking stock of how humans have influenced the planet and using computer models to project unwanted changes like warming temperatures or rising seas and ways we might avoid them.But a new report suggests that there's value in looking at not just how humans shape the climate, but how the climate shaped human development going back millions of years. [More] (Source: Scientific American - Official RSS Feed)
Arctic sea ice: the data behind the climate change fightback visualised
Scientists are fighting back over climate change. Get the data behind the latest battle - and see how we visualised it? Get the dataClimate change scientists have started a fightback against sceptics who argue that the observed changes in the Earth's climate can largely be explained by natural variability. This comes after the email hacking furore.A major Met Office review of more than 100 scientific studies tracking the observed changes in the Earth's climate system finds that it is an "increasingly remote possibility" that human activity is not the main cause of climate change.We visualised this information for the Guardian today - click on the image above to see how we did it. Our graphic uses data, thanks to the UK Met Office Hadley Centre, tracking the extent of Arctic sea ice - a k...
The data behind climate change fightback
Scientists are fighting back over climate change. Get the data behind the latest battle - and see how we visualised it? Get the dataClimate change scientists have started a fightback against sceptics who argue that the observed changes in the Earth's climate can largely be explained by natural variability. This comes after the email hacking furore.A major Met Office review of more than 100 scientific studies tracking the observed changes in the Earth's climate system finds that it is an "increasingly remote possibility" that human activity is not the main cause of climate change.We visualised this information for the Guardian today - click on the image above to see how we did it. Our graphic uses data, thanks to the UK Met Office Hadley Centre, tracking the extent of Arctic sea ice - a k...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
New and Exciting in PLoS ONE
There are 19 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites: Winter Active Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) Achieve High Foraging Rates in Urban Britain: Foraging bumblebees are normally associated with spring and summer in northern Europe. However, there have been sightings of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris during the warmer winters in recent years in southern England. But what floral resources are they relying upon during winter and how much winter forage can the...
Climate Change One Factor In Malaria Spread - Study
Climate change is one reason malaria is on the rise in some parts of the world, new research finds, but other factors such as migration and land-use changes are likely also at play. The research, published in The Quarterly Review of Biology, aims to sort out contradictions that have emerged as scientists try to understand why malaria has been spreading into highland areas of East Africa, Indonesia, Afghanistan and elsewhere... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)
Climate Change One Factor In Malaria Spread - Study
Climate change is one reason malaria is on the rise in some parts of the world, new research finds, but other factors such as migration and land-use changes are likely also at play... (Source: Tropical Diseases News From Medical News Today)
How public trust in climate scientists can be restored | Chris Huntingford
The Met Office's review of latest climate research will strengthen the case for human-induced climate changeWe know from many long-term records of environmental change (for instance, analysis of bubbles of air trapped in ice cores) that planet Earth is a truly remarkable "living" entity. The climate has had both warm and cold periods in the past. But what is different about the present is the speed at which the planet is warming.Our computer simulations can only recreate this rapid warming when the addition of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from human sources is included. If this warming continues, we may reach a situation where very unwelcome changes occur to our weather patterns, which for developing nations could cause major difficulties with food and water security...
'Clear fingerprints' of climate change
Climate scientists say the 100 studies of sea ice, rainfall and temperature should help the public to make up their own minds on global warming? Datablog: the new data in full and visualised? Comment: How public trust in climate scientists can be restoredIt is an "increasingly remote possibility" that human activity is not the main cause of climate change, according to a major Met Office review of more than 100 scientific studies that track the observed changes in the Earth's climate system.The research will strengthen the case for human-induced climate change against sceptics who argue that the observed changes in the Earth's climate can largely be explained by natural variability.Climate scientists and the UN's climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have ...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
The marriage of science and rainmakers
Kenyan meteorologists are joining forces with traditional rainmakers to deliver communities weather forecasts as climate change takes hold. (Source: SciDev.Net)
Humans must be to blame for climate change, say scientists
Climate scientists have delivered a powerful riposte to their sceptical critics with a study that strengthens the case for saying global warming is largely the result of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. (Source: The Independent - Science)
Assessing the future threat from vivax malaria in the United Kingdom using two markedly different modelling approaches
Conclusion: Although the future climate in the UK is favourable for the transmission of vivax malaria, the future risk of locally transmitted malaria is considered low because of low vector biting rates and the low probability of vectors feeding on a malaria-infected person. (Source: Malaria Journal)
[Correspondence] Health benefits of interventions to reduce greenhouse gases
The Series on health and climate change (Dec 5?19) is an important step in quantitative analysis of how programmes and policies in sectors such as energy, transportation, and agriculture can affect health outcomes. In estimating the benefits on mortality and burden of disease of strategies to reduce greenhouse gases, the papers in the Series use the subtraction of attributable disease burdens under the modelled and baseline exposures, which is equivalent to assuming that health benefits occur immediately on removing or reducing exposure; this is not the case for chronic diseases. (Source: LANCET)
[Correspondence] Health benefits of interventions to reduce greenhouse gases ? Authors' reply
Majid Ezzati and Hsien-Ho Lin make an important observation that, for exposures that give rise to chronic disease, their removal or reduction does not give rise to immediate and complete reversal of the attributable health burdens. There is rather a time course of days to decades over which the health benefits accrue, a point which we acknowledged throughout the series on health and climate change. (Source: LANCET)<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
[Review] Health effects of hot weather: from awareness of risk factors to effective health protection
Because of the increasing concerns about climate change and deadly heatwaves in the past, the health effects of hot weather are fast becoming a global public health challenge for the 21st century. Some cities across the world have introduced public health protection measures, with the timely provision of appropriate home-based prevention advice to the general public being the most crucial point of intervention. In this Review, we report current epidemiological and physiological evidence about the range of health effects associated with hot weather, and draw attention to the interplay between climate factors, human susceptibility, and adaptation measures that contribute to heat burdens. We focus on the evidence base for the most commonly provided heat-protection advice, and make recommendat...
Painting climate change
Artist Diane Burko collaborates with scientists to bring global warming to the canvas, blending data with brushstrokes (Source: The Scientist)
Frozen Arctic methane shows signs outgassing
This study is a testament to sustained, careful observations and to international cooperation in research," said Henrietta Edmonds of the National Science Foundation, which partially funded the study. "The Arctic is a difficult place to get to and to work in, but it is important that we do so in order to understand its role in global climate and its response and contribution to ongoing environmental change. It is important to understand the size of the reservoir&mdash;the amount of trapped methane that potentially could be released&mdash;as well as the processes that have kept it "trapped" and those that control the release. Work like this helps us to understand and document these processes." Earlier studies in Siberia focused on methane escaping from thawing terrestrial permafrost. Semil...
Researchers Seek Funding to Study How Climate Change Influenced Human Evolution
Researchers have often proposed that dramatic changes in ancient climates triggered major events in... [Read more] (Source: ScienceNOW)
More Warming Worries: Methane from the Arctic Permafrost
Scientists discover that methane is leaking from the continental shelf. It's bad for climate change -- but the question is, How bad? (Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories)<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Climate emails inquiry: Energy consultant linked to physics body's submission
Evidence from Institute of Physics drawn from energy industry consultant who argues global warming is a religionEvidence from a respected scientific body to a parliamentary inquiry examining the behaviour of climate-change scientists, was drawn from an energy industry consultant who argues that global warming is a religion, the Guardian can reveal.The submission, from the Institute of Physics (IOP), suggested that scientists at the University of East Anglia had cherry-picked data to support conclusions and that key reconstructions of past temperature could not be relied upon.The evidence was given to the select committee on science and technology, which is investigating emails from climate experts at the University of East Anglia that were released online last year.The committee interviewe...
Call to address population growth
BMA hosts climate change symposium (Source: BMA daily feed)
Climate change one factor in malaria spread
Climate change is one reason malaria is on the rise in some parts of the world, new research finds, but other factors such as migration and land-use changes are likely also at play. The research aims to sort out contradictions that have emerged as scientists try to understand why malaria has been spreading into highland areas of East Africa, Indonesia, Afghanistan and elsewhere. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
Scientists must be ruthlessly honest about their data
If we want the public to continue to trust us as scientists, we must be absolutely open and never resort to spin or PRI'm not a climate scientist, but I am concerned about the reputation of science and scientists. One motive for going into science for me was that it is one of the few jobs where you get rewarded for telling the truth.So it was painful to watch the trust of the public in science, already dented, taking another crushing blow when the emails stolen from the University of East Anglia were revealed. We'll probably never know exactly what the emails meant, but we can say that the matter was handled very badly indeed. Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit, should have been immediately on every TV station, explaining what he meant. By going to ground, and by denying Freedo...
Climate scientists must be absolutely honest about data | David Colquhoun
If we want the public to continue to trust us as scientists, we must be absolutely open and never resort to spin or PRI'm not a climate scientist, but I am concerned about the reputation of science and scientists. One motive for going into science for me was that it is one of the few jobs where you get rewarded for telling the truth.So it was painful to watch the trust of the public in science, already dented, taking another crushing blow when the emails stolen from the University of East Anglia were revealed. We'll probably never know exactly what the emails meant, but we can say that the matter was handled very badly indeed. Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit, should have been immediately on every TV station, explaining what he meant. By going to ground, and by denying Freedo...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Africa: Global U.S. Assistance is Strategically Focused
The role of U.S. foreign assistance in improving global health, feeding the hungry, responding to climate change and providing humanitarian aid is to save lives and enhance livelihoods, but also to make people less vulnerable to poverty and the chaos that extreme poverty breeds, says Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). (Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine)
Climate change will impact infectious diseases worldwide, but questions remain as to how
NEW YORK--As climatologists weather the IPCC controversy , another storm is brewing, and this one is filled with not with bloggers but with beasts, bugs and bacteria. It is the potential plague of infectious diseases --threatened to be made worse, many scientists propose, by projected changes in the Earth's climate . [More] (Source: Scientific American - Official RSS Feed)
MMR, climate change, and orthopaedics: a bad month for peer review
(Source: JRSM)
Strategies are needed to deal with migration resulting from climate change
(Source: BMJ Online First)
Health Impact Project Awards Grant To Conduct First Study Of Its Kind On Climate Change Legislation
The Health Impact Project has announced the award of a $150,000 grant to the Oakland-based Public Health Institute to collaborate with the California Department of Public Health on a health impact assessment (HIA) of a proposed "cap-and-trade" regulation under California's 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act. The study will analyze the health impacts of this landmark proposal and provide a health-based analysis to inform the California rulemaking process... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Health Impact Project Awards Grant To Conduct First Study Of Its Kind On Climate Change Legislation
The Health Impact Project has announced the award of a $150,000 grant to the Oakland-based Public Health Institute to collaborate with the California Department of Public Health on a health impact assessment (HIA) of a proposed "cap-and-trade" regulation under California's 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act... (Source: Public Health News From Medical News Today)
Study: Climate change one factor in malaria spread
(University of Chicago Press Journals) Climate change is one reason malaria is on the rise in some parts of the world, new research finds, but other factors such as migration and land-use changes are likely also at play. The research, published in the Quarterly Review of Biology, aims to sort out contradictions that have emerged as scientists try to understand why malaria has been spreading into highland areas of East Africa, Indonesia, Afghanistan and elsewhere. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Jamaica to receive European climate aid
The European Commission will finance a four-year plan to help Jamaica adapt to climate change. (Source: SciDev.Net)
Q&A: Joanna Cole on writing science books for kids
Q&A: Joanna Cole on writing science books for kids Nature 464, 36 (2010). doi:10.1038/464036a Author: Nicola Jones Joanna Cole has authored more than 100 science books for children, including the best-selling Magic School Bus series, the latest edition of which tackles the topic of climate change. In the last of our series of interviews with authors who write science books for different audiences, Cole reveals how clarity and colour can introduce even very young children to science. (Source: Nature)
Climate Panel To Get Independent Review
Climate Change: UN to commission audit of IPCC procedures. (Source: Chemical and Engineering News)<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Institute of Physics clarifies its position
Strongly worded submission to the parliamentary inquiry is being used to imply the institute questions the scientific evidence for climate change, statement saysThe Institute of Physics has been forced to clarify its strongly worded submission to a parliamentary inquiry into climate change emails released onto the internet.The institute's submission, to the science and technology select committee, said the emails from scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) contained "worrying implications for the integrity of scientific research in this field".The submission has been used by climate sceptics to bolster claims that the email affair, dubbed "climategate", shows the scientists did not behave properly and that the problem of global warming is exaggerated.The committee held its only ...
In the AIBS Webstore
&#8220;COMMUNICATING SCIENCE: A PRIMER FOR WORKING WITH THE MEDIA&#8221; Evolution, climate change, stem cell research &#8212; Scientists are frequently called upon to provide expert information on hot button issues that pervade the daily news headlines, yet most find themselves woefully unprepared for the bright lights of the television studio or leading questions from a newspaper journalist. A new publication from AIBS, &#8220;Communicating Science: A Primer for Working with the Media,&#8221; by Holly Menninger and Robert Gropp in the Public Policy Office, will prepare scientists for successful and effective media interviews. Recognizing that many scientists are reluctant to engage in media outreach, &#8220;Communicating Science&#8221; outlines compelling reasons for scientists to inte...
Become an Advocate for Science: Join the AIBS Legislative Action Center
Quick, free, easy, effective, impactful! Join the AIBS Legislative Action Center today! The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) has launched the AIBS Legislative Action Center. The online resource allows biologists and science educators to quickly and effectively influence policy and public opinion. The AIBS Legislative Action Center is located at www.aibs.org/public-policy/legislativeactioncenter.html. This new tool is made possible through contributions from the Society for the Study of Evolution, American Society for Limnology and Oceanography, Association of Ecosystem Research Centers, and the Botanical Society of America. Each day lawmakers must make tough decisions about science policy. For example, what investments to make in federal research programs, biodiversity c...
Correction: Climate change may extend allergy season: study
(Corrects study duration to 26 years from six years in paragraph 2) (Source: Reuters: Health)
Climate Change May Extend Allergy Season: Study
Sneezing, congestion, and runny noses from hay fever may be lasting longer because climate change may be extending pollen seasons, Italian researchers said on Monday. Reuters Health Information (Source: Medscape Today Headlines)<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Understanding global climate change through new breakthroughs in polar research
Scientists have investigated the distribution and abundance of Antarctica's vast marine biodiversity with the Census of Antarctic Marine Life. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
Ciguatera Fish Poisoning and Sea Surface Temperatures in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies.
Authors: Tester PA, Feldman RL, Nau AW, Kibler SR, Litaker RW Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is a circumtropical disease caused by ingestion of a variety of reef fish that bioaccumulate algal toxins. Distribution and abundance of the organisms that produce these toxins, chiefly dinoflagellates of the genus Gambierdiscus, are reported to correlate positively with water temperature. Consequently, there is growing concern that increasing temperatures associated with climate change could increase the incidence of CFP. This concern prompted experiments on the growth rates of six Gambierdiscus species at temperatures between 18 degrees C-33oC and the examination of sea surface temperatures in the Caribbean and West Indies for areas that could sustain rapid Gambierdiscus growth rates year rou...
Of Polar Bears & People
I have pointed to the fact that mtDNA genetics has suggested that the polar bear is actually a derived lineage of brown bears. And, more specifically, that some extant lineages of brown bears share a more recent common ancestor with polar bears than other brown bears. In other words, brown bears are paraphyletic. Apparently there has been dispute of when the polar bear morph emerged from the brown bears. Luckily polar bears have been resident in a region where the likelihood of preservation of ancient DNA is relatively high. PNAS has a new paper which reports on the extraction of genetic material from ancient polar bear remains. Complete mitochondrial genome of a Pleistocene jawbone unveils the origin of polar bear: The polar bear has become the flagship species in the climate-change discu...
Climate Change Likely Caused Polar Bear to Evolve Quickly
Climactic changes might currently be threatening the survival of polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ), but similar shifts appear to have played an important part in bringing the species into existence in the not too distant past.&nbsp; [More] (Source: Scientific American - Official RSS Feed)
Phil Jones survives grilling from MPs
Commons committee tiptoed round embattled scientist and sidestepped crucial questionsParliamentary climate emails inquiry - as it happenedGaunt and nervous, but with his ever-smiling University of East Anglia vice-chancellor beside him, Phil Jones survived his grilling by MPs ? probably profoundly grateful that he did not have to face questioning from an earlier witness, the equally gaunt but far from nervous climate sceptic, Lord Lawson.Jones did his best to persuade the Commons science and technology committee that all was well in the house of climate science. If they didn't quite believe him, they didn't have the heart to press the point. The man has had three months of hell, after all.Jones's general defence was that anything people didn't like ? the strong-arm tactics to silence c...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Climate scientist admits sending 'awful emails' but denies perverting peer review
In his first public appearance since the beginning of the emails row Phil Jones tells MPs he will be cleared of accusationsRead our live coverage from the hearingThe scientist at the centre of a media storm over global warming research admitted today he had sent "awful emails" but said he expected to be cleared of accusations that he tried to pervert the scientific process.Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, told a parliamentary inquiry that there was nothing in the hundreds of emails released on to the internet last year that supported the claims."I was just commenting that those papers weren't very good," Jones said. "There is nothing that [shows] that me or the CRU were trying to pervert the peer review process in any way."In his first public...
Climate change may extend allergy season: study
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sneezing, congestion, and runny noses from hay fever may be lasting longer because climate change may be extending pollen seasons, doctors in Italy said on Monday. (Source: Reuters: Health)
Inhofe accused of turning climate row into 'McCarthyite witch-hunt'
James Inhofe calls for criminal investigation of climate scientists as senators prepare proposal that would ditch cap and tradeThe US Congress's most ardent global warming sceptic is being accused of turning the row over climate science into a McCarthyite witch-hunt by calling for a criminal investigation of scientists.Climate scientists say Senator James Inhofe's call for a criminal investigation into American as well as British scientists who worked on the UN climate body's report or had communications with East Anglia's climate research unit represents an attempt to silence debate on the eve of new proposals for a climate change law.Inhofe's document ends by naming 17 "key players" in the controversy about CRU's stolen emails, including the Britons Phil Jones and Keith Briffa."I think t...
Global Warming Kicks Up Allergy Storm
Longer pollen seasons, more allergy sufferers are the result, study finds Source: HealthDay Related MedlinePlus Pages: Climate Change, Hay Fever (Source: MedlinePlus Health News)
More Details From IPCC Official on Coming Review
Turns out the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change review will be jointly requested by the... [Read more] (Source: ScienceNOW)<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Climate science emails: witnesses and terms of reference
Who are the scientists and sceptics and what will they be asked by MPs on the science and technology committee today?Follow our live coverage from 3pmI'll say right now that nothing in the emails undermines the case for man-made global warming. Instead it's all about how the scientists and the climate sceptics behaved.The running order of witnesses is below, but first let's see what's on the agenda.Committee's terms of reference1. What are the implications of the disclosures for the integrity of scientific research?This will tackle the allegations of misconduct made by critics on the basis of the leaked emails (there's an archive of them here). Probably the most important here is whether the scientists and university did or did not comply with Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. The Inf...
81 months and counting ? | Andrew Simms
Like a bad disaster film, the naysayers have been in charge over climate change. It's not too late to rewrite the final scenesEvery disaster movie has a stock character ? the person who tells everyone else that there's nothing to worry about. Shark? There's no shark. What could possibly go wrong with that tower block, ship, plane, volcano, dinosaur safari park or paramilitary robot cop with a slightly psychopathic glint in its eye?Such "don't worry" confidence is always bullish and reassuring. The motives are mostly financial: to open in time for the holiday season or launch the product ahead of a few safety checks. People fall for it, of course, because they want to believe that things will be OK, that their plans won't have to change. It always ends badly. In the battered landscapes as...
Live blog: Parliamentary climate emails inquiry
Live coverage of the science and technology committee inquiry into disclosure of climate data by the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East AngliaFind out about the witnesses and terms of reference hereScientists and sceptics to face parliamentary inquiry into emails4.49pm: Evan Harris asks if Jones might have been reluctant to publish the data because he didn't want to give his scientific rivals the opportunity to out-do him."We do the best we can [to publish data], with the resources we have," says Jones.Harris now picks up the allegations that Jones and others were trying to subvert the peer review process - a key issue.For example:Jones wrote to Mann as follows: "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin [TRENBERTH] and I will keep them out someh...
Andean countries ?struggle to adapt to climate change?
Andean countries have fragile climate change policies and focus mainly on mitigation, says a study. (Source: SciDev.Net)
Andean countries 'struggle to adapt to climate change'
Andean countries have fragile climate change policies and focus mainly on mitigation, says a study. (Source: SciDev.Net)<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
New Research Suggests Link Between Climate Change And Outdoor Allergies
Climate changes may affect many aspects of human health, including respiratory allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis (hay fever), according to a study being presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI). Pollen counts, seasons' duration and prevalence of sensitizations for five types of pollen in the Bordighera region of Italy were recorded from 1981 to 2007 by the Allergy and Respiratory Diseases Clinic at Genoa University in Italy. Over time, there was a progressive increase in the duration of some pollen seasons... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)
New Research Suggests Link Between Climate Change And Outdoor Allergies
Climate changes may affect many aspects of human health, including respiratory allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis (hay fever), according to a study being presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI)... (Source: Allergy News From Medical News Today)
Climate scientist at centre of email row to face questions from MPs
Scientists Phil Jones and John Beddington and sceptics Nigel Lawson and Benny Peiser among those giving evidenceFollow the science and technology select committee in our live blog starting at 3pm todayThe climate scientist at the centre of a media storm over private emails released on to the internet will face his first public questions on the affair today when he appears before a parliamentary committee.The science and technology select committee is expected to ask Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, to explain emails that critics claim show he manipulated data and censored research.It will be the first time Jones has appeared in public since the emails were released in November. He will also be asked about correspondence that appears to ...
International team of scientists to meet in Panama to discuss future of the world's forests
(Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) To monitor forests' response to change requires massive data sets. The Smithsonian's Center for Tropical Forest Science and Earthwatch train volunteers to measure trees -- giving them a new perspective on life and resulting in new insights into biodiversity and climate change. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Science Weekly: Brian Cox's Wonders of the Solar System
We are privileged to have in the studio the man who dislikes being known as the rockstar physicist. Professor Brian Cox introduces his new BBC TV series Wonders of the Solar System in which he uses locations on Earth to describe how the laws of nature work across the solar system.The particle physicist also updates us on the new phase of experiments that are about to begin at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern. Environment correspondent David Adam tells us about his encounter with the new president of the Flat Earth Society, Daniel Shenton. The panel discusses how the flat Earth phenomenon throws up some interesting questions about attitudes to climate change. Fresh off the plane from California, science correspondent Ian Sample re-lives the highlights of this year's AAAS conference in San ...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
AAAAI: Climate Change Linked to Increased Allergies
In Italy, climate changes over the past quarter-century may have increased the pollen load of some allergenic species and therefore the rates of allergic sensitization to those species, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma &amp; Immunology, held from Feb. 28 to March 2 in New Orleans. (Source: Modern Medicine)
MMR, climate change, and orthopaedics: a bad month for peer review.
Authors: Abbasi K PMID: 20200173 [PubMed - in process] (Source: J R Soc Med AND (has...)
An alternative radiometric method for calculating the sedimentation rates: Application to an intertidal region (SW of Spain).
Authors: Ligero RA, Casas-Ruiz M, Barrera M, Barbero L, Mel&#xE9;ndez MJ A new method using the inventory determined for the activity of the radionuclide (137)Cs, coming from global radioactive fallout has been utilised to calculate the sedimentation rates. The method has been applied in a wide intertidal region in the Bay of C&#xE1;diz Natural Park (SW Spain). The sedimentation rates estimated by the (137)Cs inventory method ranged from 0.26 cm/year to 1.72 cm/year. The average value of the sedimentation rate obtained is 0.59 cm/year, and this rate has been compared with those resulting from the application of the (210)Pb dating technique. A good agreement between the two procedures has been found. From the study carried out, it has been possible for the first time, to draw a map of s...
Number of bugs in British soil up 50%
This article was amended on Monday 1 March. The headline incorrectly said the number of bugs had doubled. This has been corrected.InsectsWildlifeBiodiversityBiologyAgricultureJuliette Jowitguardian.co.uk &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Truth will out -- if you let it
Most of the important political debates going on this country right now have something important in common -- there happens to be truth on one side or the other and we could just do the necessary experiment to prove it.Republicans are screaming and yelling about a "government takeover" of health care and how they're going to confiscate your money to take care of the shiftless and then let you die. Well, there's an easy way to settle the question. All the Democrats have to do is pass a decent bill and then soon enough we'll all know who was right. And they wouldn't be taking much of a chance -- as we all know they really did have a government takeover of health care in the UK, and that country is now a totalitarian dungeon where the enslaved people live longer and healthier lives than we do...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
My bright idea: Robert Winston
The scientist and TV presenter tells us why it's important to check out the dark side of inventions firstRobert Winston, Professor of Science and Society and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College, London, is one of the best-known popularisers of science in this country and has a reputation for taking a provocative stance on many issues. His latest book, Bad Ideas? (Bantam Press) deals with the dark side of the inventions that have shaped human history, and when he arrives at the Observer offices, this 69-year old doctor, sometime TV presenter and Labour peer is on characteristically punchy form.Your new book is described as "tracing the fascinating history of our attempts at self-improvement? but also questioning their value". In other words: not every invention is ...
SciBlings at AAAS10
Four Sciblings (and three ex-Sciblings - Sheril Kirshenbaum, Chris Mooney and Carl Zimmer - but once a Scibling always a Scibling rule applies, so we hung together some...) went to the AAAS meeting last week in San Diego. There is a lot of coverage in the MSM (and a little bit on blogs - it's hard to blog when you are not given tools, access and respect and thus AAAS will get much less, and much less positive coverage than they would have otherwise) - but here I just want to link to what my SciBlings have posted so far (I will post some more myself later - just watch the AAAS10 category here): Jennifer Jacquet: Do Scientists Want to Bridge Science and Society? So much of what the scientists do is less relevant than it could be. This was the motivation behind the theme at the 2010 AAAS an...
Climate change and coral reefs: Coral species has developed the 'skills' to cope with rising temperatures
Marine reserves are increasingly important for species that are being forced by climate change to move to a new home, adapt to new conditions or die. Biologists have now compared the relative benefits of large and small protected areas in perpetuating populations. Interestingly they have also found a coral species that has developed the "skills" to cope with rising temperatures. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
Algae, Art and Attitudes: A Roundtable About the AAAS Conference
Scientific American staffers Mark Fischetti and Robin Lloyd talk with podcast host Steve Mirsky about sessions they attended--including those about algae for energy, dissecting the astronomy in art and attitudes about climate change--at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Medical Technology)
Algae, Art and Attitudes: A Roundtable About the AAAS Conference
Scientific American staffers Mark Fischetti and Robin Lloyd talk with podcast host Steve Mirsky about sessions they attended--including those about algae for energy, dissecting the astronomy in art and attitudes about climate change--at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [More] (Source: Scientific American - Official RSS Feed)<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Unreason marches on | Henry Miller
As celebrities endorse nonsensical diets and journalists lend credence to anecdote over science, are we heading for disaster?Will anecdote, rumor and buzz oust science as the basis for individual decision-making and public policy? If so, will it give rise to societal disintegration and disaster? Climate historian and physicist Spencer Weart thinks it's possibleWeart mused recently on what a historian 200 years from now might say about early 21st century discussions of climate change, but his speculations are also relevant to other areas of science.Weart predicted that a future historian might conclude: "The media coverage [of East Anglia Unversity's controversial climate change emails] represented a new low ... As we know, the repetition of allegations is sufficient to make them stick in t...
Unreason marches on
As celebrities endorse nonsensical diets and journalists lend credence to anecdote over science, are we heading for disaster?Will anecdote, rumor and buzz oust science as the basis for individual decision-making and public policy? If so, will it give rise to societal disintegration and disaster? Climate historian and physicist Spencer Weart thinks it's possibleWeart mused recently on what a historian 200 years from now might say about early 21st century discussions of climate change, but his speculations are also relevant to other areas of science.Weart predicted that a future historian might conclude: "The media coverage [of East Anglia Unversity's controversial climate change emails] represented a new low ... As we know, the repetition of allegations is sufficient to make them stick in t...
Making sure pills go down, and money flows
When drugs maker Wyeth Australia wanted its arthritis drug Enbrel listed on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) it hired political lobby group Parker & Partners to wheel out sick kids in its meetings with politicians. The image of arthritic 10-year-olds, together with the threat of a bleeding heart media campaign, was so potent that Enbrel was rushed on to the PBS under the watch of then federal health minister Kay Patterson, at a cost to Australian taxpayers of $100 million a year. Getting a government subsidy for a drug through a listing on the PBS is the Holy Grail for big pharmaceutical companies. Companies spend an average $1.2 billion getting a product to market, so making that pay off is the name of the game. In the case of Enbrel, the cost of a yearly prescription was esti...
Possible U.N. Review of IPCC Would Break New Ground
The organization that created the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says it plans... [Read more] (Source: ScienceNOW)
UN climate heads call for consensus and urge attempts to rebuild trust
UN climate chiefs meet in Bali, admitting they face 'existential challenge' after failure of Copenhagen climate change talksEnvironmental officials on Friday urged industrialised and developing countries to stop bickering in climate change negotiations, as a Chinese delegate accused rich nations of reneging on commitments to fight global warming.Officials from more than 100 countries are attending an annual UN environmental meeting on Indonesia's resort island of Bali. They said trust must be restored among nations following the failure at talks in Copenhagen in December create a binding accord on cutting CO2 emissions."There was a very strong message from many countries that this is actually an existential challenge," Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa told a news conference."On...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
How family changes your views on the environment
By Aaron Bernstein, MD, MPH, physician in Medicine at Children?s and faculty, Center for Health and the Global Environment For many parents, having kids changes everything (or almost everything). Sleep schedules, meal choices, work routines and more may get revamped with the birth of a child. The transformation, though, often goes still deeper. More so than at any other point in life, new parents rethink their relationship with the environment and especially how it may affect the health of their child. Find a home with newly purchased water filters and air purifiers, hormone-free meat and milk, pesticide-free produce and whose inhabitants spend more time spent outdoors than most and you likely have found yourself the home of a family with young children. The appearance of so many new thi...
Cations in the Veins
Major events in Earth's history, from climate change to tectonic activity, can be revealed by reconstructing past conditions of the oceans. Clues from ancient ocean chemistry can be found in ? [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)
[Perspective] Climate: Seawater Chemistry and Climate
Reconstructions of past seawater chemistry provide insights into the driving forces behind long-term climate change.Author: Harry Elderfield (Source: Science: Current Issue)
United Nations to commission independent scientific inquiry into IPCC
UN climate body to appoint scientists to review climate change panel as UK climate change secretary writes to Rajendra Pachauri to express concern over 'damaging mistakes'The UN is to commission an independent group of top scientists to review its climate change panel, which has been under fire since it admitted a mistake over melting Himalayan glaciers.The experts will look at the way the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) operates and will recommend where they think changes are needed. The panel will be part of a broader review of the IPCC, full details of which will be announced by the UN next week.Nick Nuttall, of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) told Reuters: "It will be [made up of] senior scientific figures. I can't name who they are right now. It should...
Britain's green spaces under threat from water shortages and house prices
Government adviser calls for smarter management of land because of climate change and population increasesParts of the UK could face water shortages, rapidly rising house prices and threats to wildlife and landscapes without major changes to how land is managed, a report warned today.The chief scientific adviser, professor John Beddington, said sticking with "business as usual" management of land was not an option in the face of pressures such as climate change and population increases over the next 50 years.The Foresight report on the future of land use said addressing these major challenges would need a strategic and integrated approach, rather than the fragmented policies of the past.Land is also likely to come under pressure from an increasingly wealthy population to provide more livin...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Trial by ice ? what it takes to be an Arctic explorer
The Catlin Arctic Survey team is off to the north pole. They face exhaustion, numbing cold ? and hungry polar bears? Catlin Arctic team brave polar bears to monitor acid oceansSix am on a sub-zero morning in Devon. A five-mile run in the dark, ending in a couple of hill sprints. Breakfast. Circuit training in the barn; beyond any pain threshold to physical exhaustion. Lunch. Ninety minutes dragging weighted tyres up and down a 1:6 hill. The only upside is that the mud has frozen over. It's mindless, repetitive, punishing effort, not improved by an ex-marine shouting in your ear. Tea. A three-mile run, followed by more circuits. Die.One day of this ? well, most of it. OK then, half, and I'm shattered. For Ann Daniels, Martin Hartley and Charlie Paton, the three members of the second ...
How can accidental captures of loggerhead turtles be reduced?
Scientists have studied interactions between the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and fishing gear such as longline hooks used at the water surface, mass beachings, and the effects of climate change on these animals. In order to reduce captures of this marine species without causing economic losses for fishermen, the scientists are proposing that fishing in the summer should only be carried out by night and in areas more than 35 nautical miles from land. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
How can accidental captures of loggerhead turtles be reduced?
(FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) Spanish scientists have studied interactions between the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and fishing gear such as longline hooks used at the water surface, mass beachings, and the effects of climate change on these animals. In order to reduce captures of this marine species without causing economic losses for fishermen, the scientists are proposing that fishing in the summer should only be carried out by night and in areas more than 35 nautical miles from land. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Tackling the challenges of survival in a changing world
(The Company of Biologists) It is almost impossible to ignore the effects of global climate change on the planet and the current challenge is to document these changes and predict which populations are most at risk. In a specially commissioned collection of reviews published in the Journal of Experimental Biology on Feb. 26, 2010, leading biogeographers and environmental physiologists discuss the ecological challenges we currently face. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Value-Affirmation, and the Situation of Climate Change Beliefs
On NPR&#8217;s All Things Considered, Situationist Contributor Dan Kahan and Donald Braman were interviewed this week by Christopher Joyce regarding their important work on cultural cognition.  Here is an excerpt. * * * Over the past few months, polls show that fewer Americans say they believe humans are making the planet dangerously warmer, and that is despite a raft of scientific reports that say otherwise. And that puzzles many climate scientists, but not social scientists. As NPR&#8217;s Christopher Joyce reports, some of their research suggests that when people encounter new information, facts may not be as important as beliefs. CHRISTOPHER JOYCE: The divide between climate believers and disbelievers can be as wide as a West Virginia valley, and that&#8217;s where two of them square...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Two cultures but one message for climate change
Tackling recent controversies about climate change data requires a robust partnership between the natural and social sciences. (Source: SciDev.Net)
India Explicitly Rejects Bringing Environmental Issues Into WTO
By Sallie JamesAn article today in BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest (What? You don&#8217;t subscribe??) contains an explicit rejection by India&#8217;s trade minister of the idea that carbon border tax adjustments belong in the WTO&#8217;s agenda.  Border tax adjustments in this context refers to de facto tariffs that would &#8220;level the playing field&#8221; for domestic producers competing with foreign producers not subject to climate change policies of an equivalent rigour, also called &#8220;border carbon adjustments&#8221; or variations on that theme. While Minister Khullar predicts that these sorts of measures will be in place in 2-3 years time, he rejects that the WTO is the forum to deal with environmental issues. Furthermore, countries introducing such measures can expect liti...
Climate Change and Highland Malaria: Fresh Air for a Hot Debate
The Quarterly Review of Biology, Volume 85, Issue 1, Page 27-55, March 2010. ABSTRACT In recent decades, malaria has become established in zones at the margin of its previous distribution, especially in the highlands of East Africa. Studies in this region have sparked a heated debate over the importance of climate change in the territorial expansion of malaria, where positions range from its neglect to the reification of correlations as causes. Here, we review studies supporting and rebutting the role of climatic change as a driving force for highland invasion by malaria. We assessed the conclusions from both sides of the argument and found that evidence for the role of climate in these dynamics is robust. However, we also argue that over-emphasizing the importance of climate is misl...
Tropical cyclones and permanent El Niño in the early Pliocene epoch
Authors: Alexey V. Fedorov, Christopher M. Brierley & Kerry Emanuel Tropical cyclones (also known as hurricanes and typhoons) are now believed to be an important component of the Earth?s climate system. In particular, by vigorously mixing the upper ocean, they can affect the ocean?s heat uptake, poleward heat transport, and hence global temperatures. Changes in the distribution and frequency of tropical cyclones could therefore become an important element of the climate response to global warming. A potential analogue to modern greenhouse conditions, the climate of the early Pliocene epoch (approximately 5 to 3 million years ago) can provide important clues to this response. Here we describe a positive feedback between hurricanes and the upper-ocean circulation in the tropical Paci...
University of East Anglia rejects lost climate data claims
Submission ahead of next week's parliamentary inquiry 'strongly rejects' accusations university lost or manipulated climate dataThe university at the centre of the row over emails sent by climate scientists today rejected accusations that it had lost or manipulated scientific research.The University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) has been under fire since hacked emails, which sceptics claimed showed scientists manipulating climate data, were leaked online last year.In a submission to parliament's science and technology committee, which is investigating the disclosure of climate data from the unit, the university said it "strongly rejected" accusations that it had manipulated or selected figures to exaggerate global warming.The university also denied suggestions that it had b...<div id="medworm"><p><b><i>MedWorm Message:</i></b> Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm <b><a href="http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%2Bswine+%2B%28influenza+flu%29&t=Swine+Flu&f=infectiousdiseases&r=Any&o=d" target ="_self">Swine Flu RSS news feed</a></b> - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.</p></div>
Catlin Arctic team brave thin ice and polar bears to monitor acid oceans
Scientists to set up ice base in northern Canada to examine impact of ocean acidification on the region's animals and plantsScientists and explorers will brave polar bears, thin ice and frostbite within the next fortnight as they embark on an Arctic expedition to examine the impact of an acidifying ocean on the region's animals and plants.The Catlin Arctic Survey will set up an "ice base" in northern Canada for the scientists while a separate team of adventurers will undertake a 500km trek across sea ice off Greenland. Both will investigate the impact of ocean acidification on marine life, while the explorers will also measure variations in sea ice thickness. Last year's Catlin Arctic Survey showed the Arctic ice was thinner than expected.The expedition will also be the first to take water...
More tropical cyclones in past could play role in warmer future
More frequent tropical cyclones in Earth's ancient past contributed to persistent El Niño-like conditions, according to a team of climate scientists. Their findings could have implications for the planet's future as global temperatures continue to rise due to climate change. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
Met Office wants re-examination of 150 years of climate data
Plan comes at a time when public conviction about the threat of climate change has declined sharply after questions over the scienceThe Met Office has called for a re-examination of more than 150 years of global temperature records as part of a new comprehensive approach for analysing temperature data ? to better assess the risks posed by changes in extremes of climate.The plan comes at a time when public conviction about the threat of climate change has declined sharply after questions over the science and growing disillusionment with government action.In what is being viewed as a bid to regain public confidence, the Met Office submitted Proposal for a New International Analysis of Land Surface Air Temperature Data at a meeting in Turkey.The document says the current sets of data, assem...
Trans-NIH group assesses response to climate change
GHM Newsletter Article (Source: Fogarty International Center News Releases)

 

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Additional Resources Life Cover Firms Must Face Up To Climate Change A new report has stressed the urgent need for the UK life insurance industry to react to the growing threat of climate change.In The Front Line: The Insurance Industry's Response to Climate Read more...

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