Situation Report

Global Warming is Epic, Long-Term Study Says

Fri, 2013-03-15 20:30 — Kathy Gilbeaux

(LINKS TO STUDY ABSTRACT AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ARE BELOW)

Scientists look at an ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide coring site. Credit: Thomas Bauska, OSU

CNN - by Ben Brumfield - March 8, 2013

Global warming has propelled Earth's climate from one of its coldest decades since the last ice age to one of its hottest -- in just one century.

A heat spike like this has never happened before, at least not in the last 11,300 years, said climatologist Shaun Marcott, who worked on a new study on global temperatures going back that far.

"If any period in time had a sustained temperature change similar to what we have today, we would have certainly seen that in our record," he said.

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Study Abstract - A Reconstruction of Regional and Global Temperature for the Past 11,300 Years
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6124/1198.abstract

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Resilience, Risk and Vulnerability at Sida - Final Report

Sat, 2013-03-09 19:46 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)

This report reviews the interventions of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) that have strong implications for increasing resilience and reducing vulnerability to natural disasters, and it aims at improving the understanding of how Sida has worked with these issues so far and how the work can be further strengthened. The report combines findings from a mapping phase with more in-depth analysis of resilience initiatives related to climate change adaptation, agriculture and water hazards.

The purpose of the study presented in the report is to:

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Study Uncovers Massive Global Yawn Over Global Warming

Sun, 2013-03-03 15:32 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A National Guard truck drives through high water on Newark Street in Hoboken, N.J. Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 in the wake of superstorm Sandy. AP Photo / Craig Ruttle

nationalpost.com - by Kelly McParland - February 26, 2013

This has to be bad news for environmental activists everywhere: a massive international study, conducted in 33 countries over 17 years, shows that people just don’t care a lot about the environment.

. . . the lack of concern is itself reason for concern.

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CSIS - Global Health Policy in the Second Obama Term

Sun, 2013-03-03 14:26 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Global Health Policy Center
by Stephen Morrison
February 23, 2013

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to share with you a new report and video series from the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, Global Health Policy in the Second Obama Term.

This volume analyzes seven important dimensions of a complex, widening U.S. global health agenda: HIV/AIDS; malaria; polio eradication; women’s health; health security; health diplomacy; and multilateral partners. Each chapter strives to catalog and interpret the past four years’ developments in their respective focal area, charting the measurable health impacts for which the United States can claim at least partial credit, and highlighting persistent problems and challenges. The essays conclude with concrete recommendations on how the United States can achieve the best results in the next four years in promoting the improvement of health, especially among the world’s most vulnerable citizens. Coupled with each essay is an author video interview.

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The Limits to the Shale Oil Boom

Thu, 2013-02-21 19:06 — admin

The cleanest form of petrochemical energy is clearly past its peak and is causing significant damage to ecosystems all over the planet. That is why risky and incredibly expensive resource extraction, such as Deep Water Horizon, is becoming the new reality of oil production. The impacts of climate change are now escalating rapidly. But the bigger problem lies in the extents to which the largest and most profitable businesses in the world in the petrochemical industry are willing to go to continue their profitability against all rationality in terms of the mass extinction and the impact on health and human security.

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Food Scarcity: The Timebomb Setting Nation Against Nation

Fri, 2012-10-19 15:44 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Paul G.Kaplan

A drying corn field in southern Minnesota. Bad weather has resulted in a poor harvest this year. Photograph: David I. Gross/ Corbis

As the UN and Oxfam warn of the dangers ahead, expert analyst Lester Brown says time to solve the problem is running out

guardian.co.uk - by John Vidal - October 13, 2012

Brandon Hunnicutt has had a year to remember. The young Nebraskan from Hamilton County farms 2,600 acres of the High Plains with his father and brother. What looked certain in an almost perfect May to be a "phenomenal" harvest of maize and soy beans has turned into a near disaster.

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Book - Full Planet, Empty Plates
http://www.earthpolicy.org/mobile/books/fpep

Oxfam Report - 'Our Land, Our Lives': Time Out on the Global Land Rush
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/our-land-our-lives-time-out-on-the-global-land-rush-246731

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Cutting Food Losses in Half Would Feed an Additional Billion People

Thu, 2012-10-11 22:28 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Homeland Security News Wire - October 11, 2012

More efficient use of the food production chain and a decrease in the amount of food losses will dramatically help maintaining the planet’s natural resources and improve people’s lives; researchers have proved a valid estimation, for the first time, for how many people could be fed with reducing food losses

Researchers in Aalto University have proved a valid estimation, for the first time, for how many people could be fed with reducing food losses.

An Aalto University release reports that the world’s population is an estimated seven billion people. An additional one billion can be fed from our current resources, if the food losses could be halved. This can be achieved if the lowest loss percentage achieved in any region could be reached globally.

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USDA - U.S. Drought 2012: Farm and Food Impacts

Wed, 2012-10-03 18:08 — Kathy Gilbeaux

ers.usda.gov - September 25, 2012 update

The most severe and extensive drought in at least 25 years is seriously affecting U.S. agriculture, with impacts on the crop and livestock sectors and with the potential to affect food prices at the retail level. Below is current information on potential impacts of the drought on key commodities and food prices. We will update the material periodically as information becomes available.

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UPDATE (8-21-19): The government source within the link above has unpublished this report. An archived version of this report can be accessed within the link below . . .

WEB ARCHIVE - USDA - U.S. Drought 2012: Farm and Food Impacts
https://web.archive.org/web/20130116030109/http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/in-the-news/us-drought-2012-farm-and-food-impacts.aspx

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Ocean-Based Food Security Threatened in a High CO2 World

Tue, 2012-10-02 22:57 — Kathy Gilbeaux

oceana.org - September 24, 2012

Emissions from human activities are changing the ocean’s chemistry and temperature in ways that threaten the livelihoods of those who depend on fish and seafood for all or part of their diets. The changes may reduce the amount of wild caught seafood that can be supplied by the oceans and also redistribute species, changing the locations at which seafood can be caught and creating instability for ocean-based food security, or seafood security. This report ranks nations based on the seafood security hardships they may experience by the middle of this century due to changing ocean conditions from climate change and ocean acidification. This is done by combining each nation’s exposure to climate change and ocean acidification, its dependence on and consumption of fish and seafood and its level of adaptive capacity based on several socioeconomic factors. Country rankings are developed for risks from climate change and ocean acidification independently, as well as from both problems combined.

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Probability Maps Help Detect Food Contamination

Mon, 2012-10-01 22:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Sandia's stochastic network metholodogy accelerates spread of food-borne illness // Source: sandia.gov

submitted by Luis Kun

Homeland Security News Wire - October 1, 2012

Researchers demonstrate how developing a probability map of the food supply network using stochastic network representation might shorten the time it takes to track down contaminated food sources; stochastic mapping shows what is known about how product flows through the distribution supply chain and provides a means to express all the uncertainties in potential supplier-customer relationships that persist due to incomplete information

Uncovering the sources of fresh food contamination could become faster and easier thanks to analysis done at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC).

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