chron.com - by Todd Ackerman - April 27, 2012

Houston scientists have launched an attack against little-known tropical diseases, scourges of the developing world, increasingly showing up in poor areas of Texas.

The diseases, spread by all manner of blood-sucking insects, cyst-forming tapeworms and tissue-invading bacteria and viruses, typically don't kill, but they cause chronic disabilities that trap sufferers in lasting poverty.

"They may have been here all along, but now that we're looking we're seeing these diseases more and more," says Dr. Peter Hotez, a Baylor College of Medicine infectious disease professor leading the effort. "They have a huge impact - heart disease, epilepsy, mental retardation – even though they fly beneath most everyone's radar."

Image Credit: Flickr – Shannon Kringen

submitted by Albert Gomez

good.is - by Brittany Shoot - April 25, 2012

The WeTap app, currently available for Android smartphones, allows users to bookmark drinking fountains using GPS and Google Maps, rate the quality of the faucets, and share the news with other users. Using an early prototype of the WeTap app, environmental activist Evelyn Wendel recruited students from UCLA’s Institute of Environmental Studies and set to work mapping drinking fountains on her alma mater’s campus. Then, she extended her reach to cover the state of California. She’s since set her sights on mapping the entire United States. And after partnering with the OpenMaps project in the U.K., the project is flourishing on two continents.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

May 1

(Washington, D.C.)

A recent debate over whether to publish research papers on variants of the H5N1 virus precipitated an international discussion about the appropriateness and risks of this work and of dual use research in general.  This National Research Council and Institute of Medicine workshop will provide the opportunity to examine the implications of and challenges surrounding advances in the life sciences and associated technologies.  The workshop will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. at the 20 F Conference Center, 20 F St., N.W.  To view the agenda or for information on attending the workshop or viewing the live webcast, visit http://www.nationalacademies.org/stl.

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Fracking operation in southwest Pennsylvania // Source: trumbullcountygaslease.com

Homeland Security News Wire - April 24, 2012

From 1970 to 2000 the number of magnitude 3.0 or greater temblors in the U.S. mid-continent averaged twenty-one annually; by 2011 the number of such quakes had increased to 134; a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey links the increase of seismic activity to the increase in the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking

submitted by Robert G. Ross

maritime-executive.com - USGS - U.S. Dept. of the Interior - April 23, 2012

WASHINGTON—Excluding the United States, the world holds an estimated 565 billion barrels (bbo) of undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional oil; 5,606 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional natural gas; and 167 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas liquids (NGL), according to a new assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released today.

The report includes mean estimates of undiscovered but technically recoverable conventional oil and gas resources in 171 geologic provinces of the world.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE IN THE LINKS BELOW)

An Estimate of Undiscovered Conventional Oil and Gas Resources of the World, 2012

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3042/

http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/usgs-releases-global-estimate-for-undiscovered-technically-recoverable-conventional-oil-and-gas-resources

This is an undated handout photo issued by Total E&P UK Ltd of Total's Elgin PUQ (Process/Utilities/Quarters) platform. (AP/TOTAL E&P UK Ltd.)

Associated Press - foxnews.com - March 29, 2012

EDINBURGH, Scotland –  Environmental groups warned Thursday they fear an oil spill could be triggered at a North Sea offshore platform that has been leaking highly pressurized gas since the weekend.

A flame is still burning in the stack above the Elgin platform, which stands about 150 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, eastern Scotland, after a leak of flammable gas Sunday-- prompting all 238 staff to be evacuated on Monday.

Platform operator Total S.A. insists there is no threat of any explosion under current weather conditions, but said that surveillance flights have detected a sheen around the platform estimated to extend over 1.85 square miles.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Drill pipe ready for use on a rig at Exxon's Johnson Ranch site outside Fort Worth

by Brian O'Keefe - CNN - April 16, 2012

America's most profitable company now produces about as much natural gas as it does oil. CEO Rex Tillerson thinks the fracking party has just begun.

FORTUNE -- For Rex Tillerson fracking is more than a revolutionary approach to drilling oil and gas -- it's part of his personal history. Simply mention the word to the CEO of Exxon Mobil (XOM) and he starts reminiscing about his days as a young engineer.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Chart Sources: Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J. and Behrens III, W.W. (1972) /  Linda Eckstein

by Mark Strauss - Smithsonian Magazine - April 2012

Recent research supports the conclusions of a controversial environmental study released 40 years ago: The world is on track for disaster. So says Australian physicist Graham Turner, who revisited perhaps the most groundbreaking academic work of the 1970s,The Limits to Growth.

Written by MIT researchers for an international think tank, the Club of Rome, the study used computers to model several possible future scenarios. The business-as-usual scenario estimated that if human beings continued to consume more than nature was capable of providing, global economic collapse and precipitous population decline could occur by 2030.

(GO TO THE SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE ARTICLE)

Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update

The Club of Rome

submitted by Florence Gibert

greenbiz.com - March 6, 2012

Though their numbers are still relatively small, so-called zero energy buildings -- ones that generate as much energy as they consume -- are on the rise in the United States.

A new report by the New Buildings Institute and the Zero Energy Commercial Building Consortium identifies 99 structures that can be deemed zero energy commercial buildings or zero-energy capable buildings, ones that are highly energy efficient and could be counted in the zero energy category with the addition of on-site renewable power generation.

The study titled "Getting To Zero 2012 Status Update: A First Look at the Costs and Features of Zero Energy Commercial Buildings" takes a look at the buildings, their types, locations, design strategies and costs.

(GO TO THE ARTICLE)

by Akhila Vijayaraghavan - triplepundit.com - April 5, 2012

The US Geological Survey (USGS) will be presenting a paper next month at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America in San Diego. The paper will directly link an “unprecedented” increase in frequency and magnitude of earthquakes to drilling for oil and gas.

This link is not a new one. The USGS already linked about 50 earthquakes in Oklahoma due to fracking.

STUTTGART, Germany - Nancy Lindborg, assistant administrator for USAID's Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA), addresses staff of U.S. Africa Command, March 30, 2012, as part of the Command Speaker Series. Lindborg talked about USAID's efforts in Africa and discussed how U.S. AFRICOM can better work with the interagency organization to achieve common objectives. (U.S. AFRICOM photo by Danielle Skinner)

submitted by Samuel Bendett

U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs - by Danielle Skinner

STUTTGART, Germany, Apr 3, 2012 — In developing countries experiencing chronic crises, such as those in the Horn of Africa, disaster risk reduction is often just as important, if not more so, than humanitarian response and recovery, according to a senior official from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

                           (CLICK ON THE MAP IMAGE BELOW TO GO TO THE INTERACTIVE MAP)

The country is in the midst of an unprecedented gas drilling boom—brought on by a controversial technology called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." Along with this fracking-fueled gas rush have come troubling reports of poisoned drinking water, polluted air, mysterious animal deaths, industrial disasters and explosions. We call them "Fraccidents."

The map below displays a sampling of some of the high profile incidents related to the country's gas drilling boom. Each of the symbols represents a fraccident. Click on any of the highlighted states to learn more about some of the fraccidents in that state, details on the fracking issues facing the state, and resources for getting involved in your local fight against fracking.

You can also visit the state pages directly.

(GO TO THE INTERACTIVE MAP)

A new kind of oil from Texas and North Dakota may rescue some East Coast refiners from the brink of oblivion, providing a local alternative to the costly imported crude that had threatened to put them out of business.

Evidence of new buying interest has emerged this week for two other major plants, potentially saving the Northeast region from a summer fuel squeeze that had unnerved politicians all the way to the White House.

One of those bidders is counting on the boom in light, sweet shale oil to help resuscitate the ailing sector, which has been squeezed between costly, imported light crude, falling gasoline demand and new, more sophisticated overseas rivals.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CNN Heroes - by Allie Torgan - April 6, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Stan Brock made a name for himself lassoing animals on 'Wild Kingdom'

Today, he runs a nonprofit that provides free health care to people all over the world

He started a nonprofit, Remote Area Medical. Since then, the all-volunteer group has held more than 660 medical clinics worldwide, providing free health care to half a million people.