Blogging the End of the World™
By arevamirpal::laprimavera8 May 2011 Fukushima I Nuke Plant has been one big “dirty bomb.” After Koriyama City’s sewage treatment center was tested positive for high level of radioactive cesium in the sewage sludge and slag and the sludge had been already sold (my post here and here), Fukushima Prefecture ordered the testing in other 19 […]
1. Record Breaking Mississippi River Levels Cause Levee Demo The Big Muddy rolled relentlessly southward, causing havoc as the record flood level drove citizens from their homes. Although the Army Corps of Engineers was forced to dynamite the levees to save Cairo, IL, the disaster is a movable catastrophe. 2. Tornado Attack in the South […]
By Daniel Griffiths6 May 2011 Several US states that were hit by recent storms in the south and midwest now face the threat of severe flooding. Earlier this week engineers blew up a section of a Mississippi River levee to prevent towns further downstream from being flooded. Thousands of people in states from Illinois to […]
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Global mercury emissions could grow by 25 percent by 2020 if no action is taken to control them, posing a threat to polar bears, whales and seals and the Arctic communities who hunt those animals for food, an authoritative international study says. The assessment by a scientific body set up by the […]
By Matthew Yglesias5 May 2011 Something that I think drives at least some of my disagreements with other liberals about education policy is that I think a lot of middle class liberals implicitly underestimate the extent of really bad learning outcomes. Take this report (PDF) from the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund which notes “that 47% […]
By Yosuke Akai, Kentaro Uechi, and Yuki Takayama6 May 2011 As critical repairs continue at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, its operator is finding it difficult to find people willing to work at the plant. The tally of workers at the plant as of May 3 was 1,312 people. Many of them […]
Pontifical Academy of Sciences working group of leading scientists to present report to Pope Benedict XVI Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego A panel of some of the world’s leading climate and glacier scientists co-chaired by a Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego researcher issued a report today commissioned by […]
Wave-cut coastal scarp near the Varandei oil terminal, Pechora Sea, Russia. Source: S. Ogorodov, Arctic Coastal Dynamics Coastal Photo Collection, Potsdam Climate change can also be a catalyst for expanding industrial activities in the Arctic. Retreating sea-ice will make new areas available for shipping and offshore oil and gas activities, while increasing wave erosion hazards […]
Baltimore MD (SPX) May 04, 2011 – Global climate change is anticipated to bring more extreme weather phenomena such as heat waves that could impact human health in the coming decades. An analysis led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health calculated that the city of Chicago could experience between 166 […]
The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 232 points in April 2011, virtually unchanged from the revised March estimate, 36 percent above April 2010, but 2 percent below its peak in February 2011. A sharp increase in international grain prices in April more than offset declines in dairy, sugar, and rice, while oils and meat […]
