A human shadow is seen on a dried out field after drought in Germany. Photograph: Patrick Pleul/EPA

guardian.co.uk - by Fiona Harvey - May 19, 2013

Some of the most extreme predictions of global warming are unlikely to materialise, new scientific research has suggested, but the world is still likely to be in for a temperature rise of double that regarded as safe.

The researchers said warming was most likely to reach about 4C above pre-industrial levels if the past decade's readings were taken into account.

That would still lead to catastrophe across large swaths of the Earth, causing droughts, storms, floods and heatwaves, and drastic effects on agricultural productivity leading to secondary effects such as mass migration.

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Study - Energy budget constraints on climate response
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v6/n6/full/ngeo1836.html

First responders to a bioterror attack drill collecting samples // Source: baike.com

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - May 22, 2013

A three day drill called the Portland Area Capabilities Exercise (PACE), simulating a terrorist attack involving a biological weapon, will take place across fifty different facilities and sixty-five jurisdictions in the state of Oregon.

Officials say the exercise is the largest to be conducted since 2007.

“Exercises such as this are critical to identifying strengths and weaknesses in our response capabilities and to understanding the complexities of multi-state, multi-agency incident response operations,” Scott Porter, director of Washington County Emergency Management and co-chair of the exercise process, told the Oregonian.

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submitted by Samuel Bendett

(SEE LINKS TO CONFERENCE AND DECLARATION BELOW)

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - May 28, 2013

A conference of 500 leading water scientists from around the world, held last week in Bonn, issued a stark warning that, without major reforms, “in the short span of one or two generations, the majority of the nine billion people on Earth will be living under the handicap of severe pressure on fresh water, an absolutely essential natural resource for which there is no substitute. This handicap will be self-inflicted and is, we believe, entirely avoidable.”

The scientists pointed to chronic underlying problems led by mismanagement, and offered a prescription to policy makers in a 1,000-word declaration issued at the end of a 4-day meeting in Bonn, Germany. The conference, Water in the Anthropocene, was organized by the Global Water System Project (GWSP).

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(THE U.S. RESILIENCE SYSTEM IS ASSISTING WITH RELIEF EFFORTS FOR THIS DISASTER THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATION OF A FACEBOOK PAGE TITLED "MOORE OKLAHOMA TORNADO INFO".  CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE "MOORE OKLAHOMA TORNADO INFO" FACEBOOK PAGE.)

MOORE.RECOVERS.ORG

CITY OF MOORE - SERVEMOORE.COM

MOORE TORNADO HOUSING RELIEF - DOCUMENT-AVAILABLE PROPERTIES

CRISIS WIKI - 2013 MOORE (OK) TORNADO

OK STRONG DISASTER RELIEF

OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

FEMA - REGION VI

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE - BROCHURE ON BASE AND LOCAL HELPING AGENCIES - (9 PAGE .PDF FILE)

THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA - TORNADO RELIEF

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cbsnews.com - May 20, 2013

OKLAHOMA CITY - A mix of volunteers and first responders began combing through debris in the Oklahoma City area Monday evening to look for survivors after neighborhoods were flattened by a mile-wide tornado.

The National Weather Service says the devastating twister, one of several created by a storm system that swept through nation's midsection the past 36 hours, reached winds up to 200 mph.

Television footage on Monday afternoon showed homes and buildings that had been reduced to rubble in Moore, Okla., south of Oklahoma City.

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Image: Center of helium activity in the U.S. // Source: blm.gov

Submitted by Luis Kun

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - May 1st, 2013

Helium is an essential resource in technologies such as medical imaging, rocket engines, and surveillance devices. In response to the element’s scarcity, the United States has been stockpiling helium since the 1960s in a National Helium Reserve called the Bush Dome, a deep underground reservoir outside of Amarillo, Texas. In 1996 the Helium Privatization Act mandated that the Department of the Interior sell off all the stockpiled helium by 2015.

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submitted by Luis Kun

thehill.com - by Elise Viebeck - May 15, 2013

The federal Health department announced a new initiative to bring down healthcare costs and improve care delivery through $1 billion in grants and evaluations.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the second round of Healthcare Innovation Awards will target new areas for improvement, including care for special needs populations.

The awards are also meant to reduce costs for Medicare and Medicaid patients in outpatient hospital settings, test new care and financial models for specific provider groups, and ensure care delivery accounts for preventive and population health.

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energymanagementtoday.com - May 13th, 2013

As they try to comply with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, federal agencies have so far implemented efficiency projects that save around 7.1 trillion Btu of energy and 4.4 billion gallons of water each year, according to government figures.

These projects have so far cost just over $2 billion, according to the latest figures from the Federal Energy Management Program’s EISA 432 Compliance Tracking System.

As of May 9, 2013, comprehensive energy evaluations have been completed on 5,044 of the 6,937 EISA “covered facilities” – those sites that make up at least 75 percent of an agency’s total facility energy use and designate an energy manager responsible for implementing parts of the Act.

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healio.com - May 9, 2013

The amount charged by hospitals for inpatient services varies significantly based on region, and large disparities even exist within individual communities, according to a report released this week by the federal government.

“Consumers don’t know what a hospital is charging them or their insurance company for a given procedure, like a knee replacement, or how much of a price difference there is at different hospitals, even within the same city,” Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a press release. “This data … will help fill that gap.”

The data — available on the CMS website, cms.gov — compares costs for services associated with the 100 most common Medicare inpatient stays.

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Medicare Provider Charge Data
http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/index.html

Image: SunPower’s Oasis Power Plant product consists of scalable 1.5-megawatt power blocks that employ the company’s single-axis tracking panels. (image via SunPower)

earthtechling.com - April 29th 2013 - Pete Danko

What will become the world’s largest solar photovoltaic development is now in “major construction” mode in California’s Antelope Valley, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles.

The solar manufacturer and developer SunPower and the utility company MidAmerican announced this new status late last week, coinciding with a big community event at the 3,230-acre site, where preliminary work began in January.

The development consists of Antelope Valley Solar Project 1, a 309-MW plant that will straddle the Kern-Los Angeles county line; and AVSP 2, a 270-MW plant that will be entirely in Kern County.

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Image: Article illustration by Brett Ryder

economist.com - July 16th 2009

Robert Lucas, one of the greatest macroeconomists of his generation, and his followers are “making ancient and basic analytical errors all over the place”. Harvard's Robert Barro, another towering figure in the discipline, is “making truly boneheaded arguments”. The past 30 years of macroeconomics training at American and British universities were a “costly waste of time”.

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Goldi Guerra, a member of Occupy Sandy, spoke during a storm-recovery meeting with community members in April at a church on Staten Island.  Yana Paskova for The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Sarah Maslin Nir - April 30, 2013

Not long ago, the Occupy Wall Street movement seemed poised to largely fade from the national conversation with few concrete accomplishments beyond introducing its hallmark phrase, “We are the 99 percent.”

Then Hurricane Sandy struck. In its aftermath, Occupy Wall Street protesters rushed to apply their rabble-rousing hustle to cleaning out houses, clearing debris and raising more than $1.5 million for relief efforts.

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