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.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Watch New CDC Report Finds Stunning Suicide Increases on PBS.

neighborhoodscout.com

Even the most dangerous cities in America can have relatively safe neighborhoods, as there is more variation in crime within most cities than between cities. But using exclusive data developed by NeighborhoodScout, and based on FBI data from all 17,000 local law enforcement agencies in America, we here report those specific neighborhoods in America that have the highest predicted rates of violent crime per 1,000 neighborhood residents of all. Violent crimes include murder, forcible rape, armed robbery, and aggravated assault. These neighborhoods are the epicenters of violence in America, where social issues are likely to ignite into violence and spread. See our FAQ on how we rank the most dangerous neighborhoods

Click on any neighborhood name in the link below to view the neighborhood map and full profile.

http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/25-most-dangerous-neighborhoods/

Image: Chart of energy density per energy type

energytrendsinsider.com - April 30th, 2013 - Robert Rapier

Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of solar and wind power is their intermittency. In locations like Hawaii, where I live, wind and solar power are already competitive on price. My fossil-fuel supplied electricity typically costs above 40 cents a kilowatt-hour, and wind and solar power can compete with that. But since they can’t supply power that is available on demand (firm power) they must be backed up by power sources that can provide power when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.

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blogs.scientificamerican.com - by David Biello - April 23, 2013

In a draft assessment of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, consultants for the U.S. State Department judged that building it would have no significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Why? Because the analysts assumed the tar sands oil would find a way out with or without the new pipeline.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not agree.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

EPA Comment Letter: Department of State's Draft Supplemental EIS for the Keystone XL Project (April 22, 2013)       (7 Page .PDF report)

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision making processes by considering the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and reasonable alternatives to those actions.

newamerica.net

**This event has reached capacity, and we can no longer accept RSVPs.**

For those unable to attend in person, this event will be webcast live (see link below)
http://newamerica.net/events/2013/the_new_digital_age

Event Time and Location

Thursday, May 2, 2013 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm
The McDermott Building
500 North Capitol Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
See map: Google Maps

nws.noaa.gov - April 24, 2013

On April 24, 2013, NOAA’s National Weather Service, in partnership with the National Weather Service Employees Organization (NWSEO), released The Weather-Ready Nation Roadmap 2.0.  The updated Roadmap blends an understanding of social and physical sciences and lends itself to building community resilience in the face of increasing vulnerability to extreme weather and water events. After achieving the goals of the Weather-Ready Nation Roadmap, NWS will empower emergency managers, first responders, government officials, businesses, and the public to make faster, smarter decisions to save lives and protect livelihoods.

“The NWS recognizes that issuing excellent forecasts and warnings may not always be enough to save lives,” said NWS Director Louis W. Uccellini.  “The Weather-Ready Nation initiative is first and foremost to save lives and protecting livelihoods by providing useful, relevant, actionable information on for critical decision support services.”

nytimes.com - by Kate Galbraith - April 6, 2013

 . . . “Texas does not and will not have enough water” in a bad drought, the state’s water plan warned last year. More than two dozen communities could run out of water in 180 days, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Looking ahead, the already-dry western half of the state is expected to be hit particularly hard by climate change. . .

. . . Wes Perry, an oilman who doubles as Midland’s mayor, put it this way recently: as valuable as oil and gas are, he said, “we are worthless without water.”

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

UPROSE “Youth Justice” members at a rally for the closing of New York’s Indian Point nuclear power plant. Photo: Murad Awawdeh/UPROSE

colorlines.com - by Brentin Mock - April 23, 2013

While mainstream environmental organizations lick their wounds over the failure of climate-change legislation and their startling lack of diversity, people of color and those living on low incomes continue to bear the brunt of climate-change impacts. We saw this most recently with Superstorm Sandy, which ripped through New York and the northeastern seaboard late last year. Sandy devastated many communities in low-lying areas such as the South Bronx and parts of New Jersey.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

law.georgetown.edu - April 2013

Each year, Georgetown University Law Center’s Human Rights Institute conducts a human rights fact-finding mission. The 2012-2013 mission topic (chosen by a student committee the previous academic year) is “The Human Right to Water in Marginalized Communities in the United States.” The mission is designed and led by students participating in a year-long practicum course on fact-finding methodology taught by Rachel Taylor, the Institute’s Director. In January 2013, students traveled to Detroit, Michigan and Boston, Massachusetts to conduct interviews with people affected by or knowledgeable about the economic inaccessibility of water.

(VIEW WEBSITE)

(VIEW REPORT)

An aerial view of the Limerick Generating Station, a nuclear power plant in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. (AFP Photo / Stan Honda)

submitted by Albert Gomez

rt.com - April 9, 2013
nytimes.com - by Matthew L. Wald - April 8, 2013

All 104 nuclear reactors currently operational in the US have irreparable safety issues and should be taken out of commission and replaced, former chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory B. Jaczko said.

The comments, made during the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference, are “highly unusual” for a current or former member of the safety commission, according to The New York Times. Asked why he had suddenly decided to make the remarks, Jaczko implied that he had only recently arrived at these conclusions following the serious aftermath of Japan’s tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daichii nuclear facility.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE - RT.COM)

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE - NYTIMES.COM)

nejm.org - March 28, 2013

In the past decade, a succession of public health emergencies has challenged preparedness and response capacities of government agencies, hospitals and clinics, public health agencies, and academic researchers, in the United States and abroad. The epidemic of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the anthrax mailings stand out as signal examples in the early years of the decade. In addition to natural disasters such as the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2012 Superstorm Sandy, other recent events — including the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor emergency in Japan — illustrate the diverse and complex forms that threats to public health can assume. Figure 1 displays some examples over the past decade or so and highlights the diversity and frequency of events that can be expected to occur in the foreseeable future.

Click on each balloon for more information on individual patients infected with the avian flu virus: blue, patients infected with the H7N9 virus under treatment; red, those infected with H7N9 who have died; and pink, those infect with the H1N1 avian flu virus.

CLICK HERE - WHO - Global Alert and Response - Disease Outbreak News

CLICK HERE - ProMED-mail updates on H7N9 Bird Flu (Avian Influenza) - www.promedmail.org

ALSO SEE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IN LINKS BELOW:

China reports nine bird flu cases amid allegations of cover up on social media

xinhuanet.com - China reports 2 more H7N9 bird flu cases

National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China

China's deadly new H7N9 bird flu virus may be harder to track than predecessors, scientists say