United States

by Emily Chung - CBC News - October 3, 2011

Left: Ozone in Earth's stratosphere at an altitude of approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) in mid-March 2011, near the peak of the 2011 Arctic ozone loss. Right: chlorine monoxide – the primary agent of chemical ozone destruction in the cold polar lower stratosphere – for the same day and altitude. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Environment Canada cuts could disable future Canadian measurements

Unusual winter weather in the atmosphere high above the Earth's surface caused an "unprecedented" loss of protective ozone over the Arctic this year, scientists say.

The ozone layer in the stratosphere, located about 15 to 35 kilometres above the Earth's surface, protects the Earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays and harmful effects such as skin cancer. While an ozone hole has formed in the stratosphere over the Antarctic each spring since the mid 1980s, a paper published in Nature on Sunday marks the first time scientists have reported a comparable loss over the Arctic.

Leverage IT for Effective Government Healthcare Programs

Thursday, October 6

7:30 - 8:30am
Registration, Networking Breakfast & Book Signing

8:30 - 11:00am
Program

The Willard Hotel
1401 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20004

In 2010, legislation changed how American citizens, service providers, insurers, and Federal, state and local governments approach national healthcare. Join Federal Computer Week for this free Federal Executive Briefing on October 6 to discuss the direct implications of these nationwide changes for citizens, businesses and public sector organizations.

There is no doubt that strategic application of information technology has a pivotal role in decreasing operating costs, improving quality of service, and retaining reliable patient, doctor, and insurance information. Following David Walker’s Keynote address hear subject matter experts discuss relevant technologies that directly support more effective Government Health IT programs.

You Will Learn:

Information Technology (IT) and Information Sharing Environments (ISEs) are crucial to the evolution of community health resilience.  Most people working to improve community health resilience do not understand the nuances of Information Sharing Environments, and how the rapid shifts in IT, mobile devices, social media, cloud computing, peer to peer parallel processing, smart grids, and the linking of millions of people, mobile devices, computers, and sensors are creating a societal mind, which is transforming community health resilience and the health and human security of Americans.

If you have thoughts on these topics, please comment within this collaboratory thread.