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Slow Death and Fast Profits: The Globalisation of Pesticides and Poison

Colin Todhunter
Global Research
Wed, 29 Aug 2012 00:08 UTC
pesticide gear
The next time anyone in India serves up a good old 'wholesome' meal of rice and various vegetables, they will probably take in half a milligram of pesticide also, around a pin prick. That would be more than 40 times what an average North American person would consume.

India is one of the world's largest users of pesticides and a highly profitable market for the corporations that manufacture them. Ladyfinger, cabbage, tomato and cauliflower in particular may contain dangerously high levels because farmers tend to harvest them almost immediately after spraying. Fruit and vegetables are sprayed and tampered with to make them more colourful, and harmful fungicides are sprayed on fruit to ripen them in order to rush them off to market.

Research by the School of Natural Sciences and Engineering at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore has indicated disturbing trends in the increased use of pesticide. In 2008, it reported that many crops for export had been rejected internationally due to high pesticide residues.

Kasargod in Kerala is notorious for the indiscriminate spraying of endosulfan. The government-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala aerially sprayed the harmful pesticide on cashews for a period of over 20 years. Consequently, it got into rivers, streams and drinking water. Families and their children have been living with physical deformities, cancers and disorders of the central nervous system ever since.
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Cloud Lightning

Mount Washington Wind Gust Record Tops Hurricane Isaac

Tim Wall
Discovery News
Wed, 29 Aug 2012 08:01 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
Matthew Pettus holds a sheet open in the wind on the levee near Lake Pontchatrain as Hurricane Isaac approaches New Orleans, La.
A 1934 record from Mount Washington still stands as all time top gust measured in the U.S.

Hurricane Isaac may be nature's candidate for top wind in America right now, but Isaac's gusts don't touch U.S. record wind speeds. Mt. Washington in New Hampshire currently holds that record with a gust of 231 mph.

Blustery Mt. Washington held the world record fastest wind title from 1934 to 1996. Then, a 253 mph (408 km/h) blast from Cyclone Olivia on Barrow Island off the northwest coast of Australia blew away the American record. Mt. Washington still holds on to its spot for hosting America's strongest wind, but doesn't seem to be working hard at snatching back the world record.

"The event on April 12, 1934 was exceptional," said Mike Carmon, meteorologist at Mount Washington Observatory. "In fact, since that storm, wind speeds have never topped 200 mph (322 km/h) on Mt. Washington... The annual average wind speed for Mt. Washington is 35 mph (56 km/h), which is an impressive figure."
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Bizarro Earth

Flesh Eating Gulls Devour Whales Alive

Tim Wall
Discovery News
Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:37 UTC
Whale
© Michaël Catanzariti, Wikimedia Commons
Southern right whale off the Valdez Peninsula, Patagonia, Argentina.
Right whales (Eubalaena australis) off the coast of Argentina face the gruesome threat of being slowly eaten alive by birds every time they take a breath. The menace has become so great that local officials are planning to declare open season on the gulls and allow hunters to knock problem birds out of the sky, reported the AP.

The macabre torment of the whales sounds like a punishment from vengeful gods in a Greek myth or the plot of a Edgar Allan Poe story, but the real reason gulls have turned on the whales may be a bunch of garbage. Open air trash heaps near coastal cities have fueled a massive population boom in gulls. Fishermen add to the problem when they throw fish parts back into the ocean.

About eight years ago, the burgeoning gull population around the city of Puerto Madryn learned that they can get fresh meat from the whales. As more gulls learned the trick, the problems for whales increased. The gulls wait until a whale surfaces for air, then tear holes in the whales' flesh and rip off pieces of skin and blubber. Each time the whales come back up, the gulls go in for more.

"It really worries us because the damage they're doing to the whales is multiplying, especially to infant whales that are born in these waters," Marcelo Bertellotti, of the National Patagonia Center, a government-sponsored conservation agency, told the AP.
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Cloud Lightning

Will Hurricanes Ever Reach Category 6?

Emily Sohn
Discovery News
Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:21 UTC
Image
© NASA
In the 1970s, the National Hurricane Center began using categories to describe how strong a hurricane's winds are and how much damage its gusts might be expected to cause
Scientists predict an increase in strong hurricanes with global warming. Will we have to revise the rating scale?

As it moved toward to coast of Louisiana today, Hurricane Isaac was upgraded to a Category 1 on a scale that tops out at 5.

With wind speeds of about 75 miles per hour, Hurricane Isaac just barely earned the designation. Only at minimum speeds of 74 mph do winds become strong enough to cause significant damage, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Even though Category 5 storms, which sustain catastrophic gusts that blow at 157 mph or higher, are extremely rare, scientists predict an increase in strong hurricanes with global warming. That raises the question: Will we ever need to push the hurricane scale up to a 6?

Probably not, experts say. Even as warmer ocean temperatures provide more fuel for hurricanes, there are several factors that limit how powerful the storms can become.
climate

For now, about 200 mph is the highest that hurricane winds can theoretically get -- and only three land-falling storms have come close in the past century, said Mark DeMaria, a research meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Ft. Collins, Colo. With warming, according to some models, the upper boundry could reach 220 mph.
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Cloud Lightning

Tropical Storm Kirk looks more like a comet on NASA infrared imagery


PhysOrg
Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:10 UTC
Tropical Storm Kirk looks more like a comet than a tropical storm in infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite because of wind shear. NASA infrared imagery also revealed powerful thunderstorms around the center of circulation which are indicators that Kirk will continue strengthening. Meanwhile, another low pressure area appears to be organizing in the eastern Atlantic, far to the southeast of Kirk.

Tropical Depression Kirk formed from the eleventh tropical depression of the Atlantic Ocean season. Tropical Depression 11 formed on Aug. 28 at 5 p.m. EDT about 1,270 miles (2,045 km) east-northeast of the Lesser Antilles. On Aug. 29 at 12:29 a.m. EDT the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on Tropical Storm Kirk's clouds.
Image
© NASA/JPL, Ed Olsen
On Aug. 29 at 12:29 am EDT the AIRS instrument on Aqua captured infrared data on Tropical Storm Kirk's clouds. Cloud top temperatures were colder (purple) than –63F (-52C) around the center of circulation and west of the center. That's where the strongest storms and heaviest rainfall were occurring. Kirk appears to resemble a comet because windshear is pushing clouds and showers to the northeast.
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Bizarro Earth

Earthquake swarms prompt emergency declaration in Brawley, CA


LA Now
Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:47 UTC
Earthquake swarms continued Wednesday in Imperial County as the city of Brawley declared an emergency to deal with the damage. The swarm that began Sunday morning showed signs of slowing down Wednesday, with fewer quakes reported by the U.S. Geological Survey than on recent days. The magnitude of the quakes is also declining.

There was scattered damage around Brawley, but officials have not yet compiled a full estimate of the costs. The Brawley City Council on Tuesday declared a local emergency, according to the Imperial Valley Press.

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Igloo

Low sunspot activity linked to rivers freezing: Mini Ice Age on way?

Lewis Page
The Register
Wed, 29 Aug 2012 06:27 UTC
Image
'CO2 is certainly a climate factor, but so is the Sun'

A team of boffins in Germany say they have found a statistical link between periods of low solar activity and very cold winters in Europe. Some physicists believe that a long period of low solar activity - like the "Maunder Minimum" of the 17th and 18th centuries - could be on the cards in coming decades, so the new research might indicate an upcoming "mini Ice Age".

The new study was published over the weekend in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Lead author Professor-Doktor Frank Sirocko of the Johannes Gutenberg Universität (University) of Mainz in Germany - and his colleagues - compared old records showing which years the Rhine river iced over to the record of sunspot activity.
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Target

California earthquake swarm enters third day, hundreds of temblors


LA Times
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:24 UTC

Hundreds of earthquakes have rattled Imperial County since Sunday morning as an earthquake swarm continued.

But experts say the swarm does not necessarily indicates a larger temblor is on the way.

Certainly, the weekend's quakes were troubling for Imperial County, which is located in one of California's most earthquake prone regions. More than 400 earthquakes have been detected since Saturday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. One local family felt 15 quakes in 21/2 hours.

But for all the ground movement, experts said there is no evidence the earthquake swarms were a precursor to much larger quakes on longer, more dangerous faults. And scientists don't see any immediate signs of added pressure to the San Andreas fault, which is not far from the location of the earthquake swarm.
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Cow Skull

Sixth Extinction, not man-made climate change: El Salvador Earthquake Destroys Rare Turtle Eggs


Huffington Post
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:19 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Luis Romero
A baby sea turtle advances towards the ocean waters of a beach in San Diego, El Salvador, on Saturday Oct. 1, 2011.
Wildlife authorities say a strong earthquake in the Pacific Ocean late Sunday destroyed more than 45,000 endangered sea turtle eggs on the coast of El Salvador.

The director of the turtle conservation program for the El Salvador Zoological Foundation says the 7.4-magnitude undersea quake sent at least three waves at least 30 feet high up the beach and destroyed thousands of nests and just-hatched turtles. It also washed up on about 150 people collecting eggs in order to protect them in special pens hundreds of feet up the beach. The waves injured three.

Program director Emilio Leon said that in the last year and a half the foundation has successfully hatched and released 700,000 turtles from four species at risk of extinction.

Comment: Tunguska, Psychopathy and the Sixth Extinction

The Golden Age, Psychopathy and the Sixth Extinction

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Attention

Preparing for Earth Changes: Alaskan state government to stockpile massive warehouses with five years' supply of food

Becky Bohrer
Fox News
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:08 UTC
Image

Alaska Emergency Management Director John Madden stands inside the state emergency operations center at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.
Alaska is known for pioneering, self-reliant residents who are accustomed to remote locations and harsh weather. Despite that, Gov. Sean Parnell worries a major earthquake or volcanic eruption could leave the state's 720,000 residents stranded and cut off from food and supply lines. His answer: Build giant warehouses full of emergency food and supplies, just in case.

For some in the lower 48, it may seem like an extreme step. But Parnell says this is just Alaska.

In many ways, the state is no different than the rest of America. Most people buy their groceries at stores, and rely on a central grid for power and heat. But, unlike the rest of the lower 48, help isn't a few miles away. When a fall storm cut off Nome from its final fuel supply last winter, a Russian tanker spent weeks breaking through thick ice to reach the remote town.

Weather isn't the only thing that can wreak havoc in Alaska, where small planes are a preferred mode of transportation and the drive from Seattle to Juneau requires a ferry ride and 38 hours in a car. The state's worst natural disaster was in 1964, when a magnitude-9.2 earthquake and resulting tsunami killed 131 people and disrupted electrical systems, water mains and communication lines in Anchorage and other cities.
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