Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that a tiny single-celled parasite may have a greater-than expected impact on honey bee colonies, which have been undergoing mysterious declines worldwide for the past decade. In this week’s issue of the journal PLOS ONE, the scientists report that a microsporidian calledNosema ceranae, which has been known to infect adult Asiatic and European honey bees, …
Bird Flu Is Slamming Factory Farms But Sparing Backyard Flocks. Why? – Tom Philpott
The Midwest’s ongoing avian flu crisis is wreaking havoc on the region’s large-scale egg and turkey farms. Last week alone, the US Department of Agriculture confirmed that the virus had turned up in more than 20 additional facilities in the region, condemning 4 million birds to euthanasia. Altogether, the H5N2 virus—”highly pathogenic” to birds, so far non-threatening to humans—has affected …
Could Fracking Spark a Modern-Day Dust Bowl? – Tim Radford
Oil wells and natural gas may have made individual Americans rich, but they have impoverished the great plains of North America, according to new research. Fossil fuel prospectors have sunk 50,000 new wells a year since 2000 in three Canadian provinces and 11 U.S. states, and have damaged the foundation of all economic growth: net primary production—otherwise known as biomass, or …
Mysterious cancer spreads among clams off N. America
The discovery of a contagious cancer spreading among edible clams off the northeast US and Canadian coasts has stunned scientists and raised new questions about marine health, according to research published Thursday. The study in the journal Cell describes for the first time the unusual kind of leukemia that has been killing untold numbers of clams for years. “We were …
“BREAKING NEWS – Scientists detect Fukushima radiation on North American shores” — Coastal communities ‘concerned’ — Over 7 Bq/m3 of cesium from dock in Pacific Northwest — Professor: It indicates arrival of other radioactive substances
Statesman Journal, Apr 6, 2015: BREAKING NEWS Scientists detect Fukushima radiation on North American shores — Seaborne radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster has reached North America… cesium-134 and cesium-137 in a sample of seawater taken in February from a dock on Vancouver Island… It’s the first time radioactivity from the March 2011 triple meltdown has been identified on West Coast shores [see: April 2011 …
Seattle City Council Unanimously Declares Opposition to Fast Track, TPP
“Few things counterpose the interests of multinational corporations to the interests of workers, the environment, and democracy” like the TPP, says councilmember Kshama Sawant Deirdre Fulton The Seattle City Council resoundingly approved a resolution Monday evening cementing its opposition to so-called Fast Track authority that’s needed to speed passage of corporate-friendly, rights-trampling trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The resolution (pdf), …