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The hidden cost of Ebola: thousands of measles deaths

VOX  by  Julia Belluz                                           March 12, 2015

(Scroll down for Science journal study.)

As if being stricken by the most deadly virus known to man weren't enough, now, it seems, West Africa is on alert for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases including measles, whooping cough, and tuberculosis.

A girl collects her family's laundry after drying it on a rooftop in the West Point township on January 31, 2015 in Monrovia, Liberia. Life has been disrupted by Ebola for many Liberians.

In a new study in the journal Science, researchers focused on measles — the most contagious virus recorded — and applied statistical models to quantify the likelihood of an epidemic in the three countries worst hit by Ebola, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

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Can a U.S. military Ebola treatment center slow Ebola in one hard-hit city?

WASHINGTON POST                                Nov. 3, 2014
By Kevin Sieff

GANTA, LIBERIA  --
The U.S. is erecting a new Ebola treatment center, slated to be ­finished later this month and manned by newly imported doctors. Just the sight of American helicopters flying over Ganta, a city of about 50,000, has lifted hopes here.

...a modern treatment center won’t be enough to eliminate Ebola in a place where the outbreak ­appears to rise and fall every few weeks and where victims sometimes disappear into remote communities with the disease. The question is whether those victims can be persuaded to use the new facility once it is built, preventing the spread of the disease in some of the country’s most vulnerable ­areas.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/can-a-us-military-ebola-treatment-center-slow-ebola-in-one-hard-hit-city/2014/11/01/afb7b058-60fd-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html

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Governor of New York Launches Massive Training Program for Citizen Preparedness

Governor of New York Launches Massive Training Program for Citizen Preparedness

On Feb. 1 New York’s Governor Cuomo will launch the Citizen Preparedness Corps Training Program.

According to an article from longisland.com, the program is designed to give 100,000 New Yorkers the training they need to be better prepared for emergencies and disasters. Not only will this training enable them to help themselves in a crisis, it will also teach them how to help their families and neighbors.

Severe weather events are becoming more frequent and extreme and to make sure that our communities are safe, we need more New Yorkers than ever to be prepared and trained to respond,” said Cuomo in the article.

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FEMA to Ask States to Account for Climate Change in Disaster Plans

FEMA to Ask States to Account for Climate Change in Disaster Plans

Switchboard, the Natural Resources Defense Council staff blog, has published a report on the recently announced changes to FEMA’s Blue Book.

According to Switchboard, FEMA plans to edit its guidelines to require state governments to consider climate change when making their hazard mitigation plans. The article says a revised draft from FEMA is expected to be available to the public as early as summer this year.

The Blue Book, as it is commonly known, is FEMA’s State Multi-Hazard Mitigation Planning Guidance document. It was created to help states understand the mitigation planning regulations found in the Code of Federal Regulations.

The Switchboard article explains that until now, FEMA has not required state governments to consider climate change and its potential impacts when preparing their hazard mitigation plans. These plans are made by governments “in order to assess their risk of natural disasters and to identify and implement actions they can take to reduce those risks”.

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Rooftop Farm in New York City Grows 50,000 Pounds of Organic Produce Per Year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTC_X1gblRE

watch the full video here:http://permaculturenews.org/2014/01/0...

By Ecofilms

“That view behind me is not a painted backdrop!” said Geoff Lawton to the camera. But the view looked great from where I was standing. Brooklyn Grange is a rooftop farm with a magnificent view looking over the Manhattan skyline.

Sitting on a concrete roof, totaling 2.5 acres and producing more than 50,000 pounds of organically-grown vegetables each year, you need to walk its length to appreciate how vast this rooftop garden truly is in scale.

We had been given one hour to film this place. The sun was setting. We were in the “magic hour” to film and needed to hurry. There was a lot to do.

Geoff walked down the narrow lanes of planted vegetables. Four to six inches of dirt was all the plants were allowed to grow in—very well drained dirt that resembled sharp river sand. It didn’t look like a normal loamy soil to my untrained eye.

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