Photo: Picture of a hamburger. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/ Jacek Chabraszewski

alternet.org - Anthony Winson - December 2nd, 2013

In many of the food environments we encounter on a day-to-day basis, it is becoming difficult to find whole foods in anything like their natural form.

Healthy nuts are rendered unhealthy by prodigious amounts of added salt and sweet "honey" glazes.

Yoghurt is laced with copious amounts of sugar or high-fructose corn syrup sweetener, typically the equivalent of seven teaspoons of sugar in a small serving size.

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An inspector general's report says the EPA was justified in investigating claims of water contamination near a fracking site in Texas.

latimes.com - By Neela Banjeree - December 24, 2013

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency was justified in intervening to examine possible risks of gas drilling to Texas drinking water, the agency's internal watchdog reported Tuesday.

But environmentalists say the report raises fresh concerns about the EPA's 2012 decision to halt its investigation into possible well-water contamination in Parker County, Texas.

The EPA inspector general's report is the latest analysis to spotlight the regulator's handling of high-profile cases of alleged drinking-water contamination near natural gas drilling sites.

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Image: International gas consumption chart.

huffingtonpost.com - December 16th, 2013 - Maxwell Strachan

No country in the world knows how to fill 'er up quite like the good old U.S.A., not even the countries that keep gas prices well below market rates. If you need proof, take a look at this chart, via a new report on fuel subsidies by UC Berkeley Business Professor Lucas W. Davis.
The chart graphs gas consumption per person against the average price of a gallon of gas in 128 countries.

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Image: A dolphin is seen swimming through an oil sheen from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off East Grand Terre Island, where the Gulf of Mexico meets Barataria Bay, on the Louisiana coast, July 31, 2010. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

theguardian.com - December 18th, 2013 - Suzanne Goldenburg

US government scientists have for the first time connected the BP oil disaster to dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico, in a study finding direct evidence of toxic exposure.

The study, led by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found lung disease, hormonal abnormalities and other health effects among dolphins in an area heavily oiled during the BP spill.

The diseases found in the dolphins at Barataria Bay in Louisiana – though rare – were consistent with exposure to oil, the scientists said.

Image: Food being served.

nation.time.com - December 11, 2013 - Denver Nicks

Hunger is on the rise in major cities across the United States, according to a new survey released Wednesday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

In the survey of mayors in 25 major American cities, 83 percent said requests for emergency food aid had increased over last year while budgets for emergency food purchases increased by less than one percent. Across all 25 cities, 21 percent of those applying for assistance did not receive it.

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(VIEW 120-PAGE PDF REPORT - The United States Conference of Mayors - Hunger and Homelessness Survey)

census.gov- December 17, 2013

The U.S. Census Bureau released Census Explorer, a new interactive mapping tool that gives users easier access to neighborhood level statistics. The mapping tool uses updated statistics from the 2008-2012 American Community Survey (ACS), which were also released today.

The new application allows users to map out different social, economic and housing characteristics of their state, county or census tract, and to see how these areas have changed since the 1990 and 2000 censuses. The mapping tool is powered by American Community Survey statistics from the Census Bureau's API, an application programming interface that allows developers to take data sets and reuse them to create online and mobile apps.

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submitted by Mike Kraft

Jason Hall of Stansell Electric, left, talks with project manager Daron Whitehead as Nashville Wire and other vendors help repair the electrical systems after floodwaters inundated the company in May 2010, destroying $1.2 million in inventory alone./ Dipti Vaidya / File / The Tennessean

tennessean.com - by J. J. Rosen - December 8, 2013

In May 2010, after 36 hours of continuous rain, Nashville was in serious trouble. The “Flood of 2010,” as it came to be known, created a disaster that affected almost everyone in the city. . .

. . . In 2010, the idea of servers and applications being remotely hosted in the cloud was relatively new, and mobile technology was not as prevalent as it is today. Combining mobile and cloud, small- and medium-size businesses can now afford to design and implement disaster-recovery and business-continuity plans that have the same features as their larger competitors.

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submitted by Deirdre Darragh

nhspi.org

The NHSPI™ examines the health security preparedness of the nation by looking collectively at the health security preparedness of states. The Index results are updated annually.

The NHSPI™ applies the National Health Security Strategy definition of national health security: the state in which the Nation and its people are prepared for, protected from, and resilient in the face of health threats or incidents with potentially negative health consequences.

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The Maritime Center in New Haven during Hurricane Irene.

submitted by Bill Greenberg

uli.org - by Robert Krueger - December 11, 2013

WASHINGTON (December 11, 2013) – The Urban Land Institute (ULI), a global research and education institute dedicated to responsible land use and sustainable community building, has been awarded an $800,000 grant from The Kresge Foundation to support the institute’s pursuit of urban design and development practices that are more resilient and adaptable to the impact of climate change.

ULI’s community resiliency program explores how issues related to climate change are affecting the real estate industry and reshaping urban growth patterns. Through the grant from The Kresge Foundation, ULI will leverage the substantial expertise of its members to provide guidance on community building in a way that responds to inevitable climate change and sea level rise, and helps preserve the environment, boost economic prosperity, and foster a high quality of life.

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CLICK HERE - whitehouse.gov
State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force

CLICK HERE - whitehouse.gov
Climate Change Resilience

Local leaders planning for climate effects

news.yahoo.com - by Matthew Daly - December 10, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to climate change, local officials have a message for Washington: Lead or get out of the way.

Local governments have long acted as first responders in emergencies and now are working to plan for sea level rise, floods, hurricanes and other extreme events associated with climate change.

As a presidential task force prepares for its first meeting Tuesday, local officials say they want and need federal support, but they worry that congressional gridlock and balky bureaucratic rules too often get in the way.

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(CLICK HERE - STUDY - ABRUPT IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE - Anticipating Surprises)

National Academy of Sciences

ap.org - by Seth Borenstein - December 3, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hard-to-predict sudden changes to Earth's environment are more worrisome than climate change's bigger but more gradual impacts, a panel of scientists advising the federal government concluded Tuesday.

The 200-page report by the National Academy of Sciences looked at warming problems that can occur in years instead of centuries. The report repeatedly warns of potential "tipping points" where the climate passes thresholds, beyond which "major and rapid changes occur." And some of these quick changes are happening now, said study chairman James White of the University of Colorado.

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Flooding in Red Hook, Brooklyn after Sandy (Flickr/gunnicool)

The agency ignored state and city officials' appeals to update the maps with better data until it was too late.

wnyc.org - December 6, 2013
by Al Shaw : ProPublica / Theodoric Meyer : ProPublica / Christie Thompson : ProPublica

When Patrice and Philip Morgan bought a house near the ocean in Brooklyn, they were not particularly worried about the threat of flooding.

Federal maps showed their home was outside the area at a high risk of flood damage. . .

. . . But the maps drawn up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were wrong. And government officials knew it.

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100resilientcities.rockefellerfoundation.org - by Judith Rodin - December 2, 2013

Today, we are excited to name the first group of cities selected through the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge – cities who have demonstrated a dedicated commitment to building their own capacities to prepare for, withstand, and bounce back rapidly from shocks and stresses.

Since we announced the challenge on our 100th birthday, May 14, 2013, the response has been enormous, with more than 1,000 registrations and nearly 400 formal applications from cities around the world. Each city was asked to present a clear and compelling description of how they are approaching and planning for resilience to decrease vulnerabilities, and after careful review of the applications, a panel of esteemed judges, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Olosegun Obasanjo, recommended the first set of 33 cities for the 100 Resilient Cities Network.

CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

thinkprogress.org - By Katie Valentine - December 6, 2013

Researchers at Southern Methodist University have linked a string of 2009 and 2010 earthquakes in Texas to the injection of fracking wastewater into the ground, according to a new study.

The researchers examined the group of more than 50 earthquakes that hit the area of Cleburne, Texas in 2009 and 2010, and found that they could have happened because of wastewater injection wells associated with fracking operations. Before 2008, the Fort Worth Basin of Texas had never experienced an earthquake.

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STUDY - Analysis of the Cleburne, Texas, Earthquake Sequence from June 2009 to June 2010

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Voltaic Systems makes products that produce and store their own power to run your electronics anywhere. We are based in New York City and ship directly to customers and our partners worldwide from warehouses in New Jersey and the Netherlands.

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