http://www.apocadocs.com Humoring the Horror Regarding Climate Chaos, Resource Depletion, Plague/Virus, Species Collapse, Biology Breach, Recovery, and more. en-us http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/predators-affect-the-carbon-cycle-study-shows.html A new study shows that the predator-prey relationship can affect the flow of carbon through an ecosystem. This previously unmeasured influence on the environment may offer a new way of looking at biodiversity management and carbon storage for climate change.... The study found that the presence of spiders drove up the rate of carbon uptake by the plants by about 1.4 times more than when just grasshoppers were present and by 1.2 more times than when no animals were present. It was also revealed that the pattern of carbon storage in the plants changed when both herbivores and carnivores were present. The grasshoppers apparently were afraid of being eaten by the spiders and consumed less plant matter when the predators were around.... Appreciating the role of predators is also important currently, given that top predators are declining at rates faster than that of many other species in global trends of biodiversity loss. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/study-of-oceans-past-raises-worries-about-their-future.html A McGill-led international research team has now completed the first global study of changes that occurred in a crucial component of ocean chemistry, the nitrogen cycle, at the end of the last ice age. The results of their study confirm that oceans are good at balancing the nitrogen cycle on a global scale. But the data also shows that it is a slow process that may take many centuries, or even millennia, raising worries about the effects of the scale and speed of current changes in the ocean.... "We are changing the planet in ways we are not even aware of," says Galbraith. "You wouldn't think that putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere would change the amount of nitrogen available to fish in the ocean, but it clearly does. It is important to realize just how interconnected everything is." (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/is-a-sleeping-climate-giant-stirring-in-the-arctic.html ...Over hundreds of millennia, Arctic permafrost soils have accumulated vast stores of organic carbon - an estimated 1,400 to 1,850 petagrams of it (a petagram is 2.2 trillion pounds, or 1 billion metric tons). That's about half of all the estimated organic carbon stored in Earth's soils. In comparison, about 350 petagrams of carbon have been emitted from all fossil-fuel combustion and human activities since 1850. Most of this carbon is located in thaw-vulnerable topsoils within 10 feet (3 meters) of the surface.... "Permafrost soils are warming even faster than Arctic air temperatures - as much as 2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius) in just the past 30 years," Miller said. "As heat from Earth's surface penetrates into permafrost, it threatens to mobilize these organic carbon reservoirs and release them into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, upsetting the Arctic's carbon balance and greatly exacerbating global warming."... If climate change causes the Arctic to get warmer and drier, scientists expect most of the carbon to be released as carbon dioxide. If it gets warmer and wetter, most will be in the form of methane. The distinction is critical. Molecule per molecule, methane is 22 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide on a 100-year timescale, and 105 times more potent on a 20-year timescale. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/pentagon-bracing-for-public-dissent-over-climate-and-energy-shocks.html But why have Western security agencies developed such an unprecedented capacity to spy on their own domestic populations? Since the 2008 economic crash, security agencies have increasingly spied on political activists, especially environmental groups, on behalf of corporate interests. This activity is linked to the last decade of US defence planning, which has been increasingly concerned by the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks or economic crisis - or all three. Just last month, unilateral changes to US military laws formally granted the Pentagon extraordinary powers to intervene in a domestic "emergency" or "civil disturbance": "Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances." (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/gas-line-ruptures-under-ohio-river-near-bellaire.html A gas line that runs underneath the Ohio River near Bellaire ruptured Thursday morning, spewing gas out of the water. The Neffs Fire Department responded to the call on the riverbank underneath the Bellaire Bridge. The company that owns the line has been notified of the situation. Authorities say the leak is a big hazard because people often camp along the river and start campfires. They say they have made repeated calls to Columbia Gas, but no one has arrived at the scene as of 10:30 a.m. Thursday. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/toxic-waste-spill-in-northern-alberta-biggest-of-recent-disasters-in-north-america.html The substance is the inky black colour of oil, and the treetops are brown. Across a broad expanse of northern Alberta muskeg, the landscape is dead. It has been poisoned by a huge spill of 9.5 million litres of toxic waste from an oil and gas operation in northern Alberta, the third major leak in a region whose residents are now questioning whether enough is being done to maintain aging energy infrastructure. The spill was first spotted on June 1. But not until Wednesday did Houston-based Apache Corp. release estimates of its size, which exceeds all of the major recent spills in North America.... "Every plant and tree died" in the area touched by the spill, said James Ahnassay, chief of the Dene Tha First Nation, whose members run traplines in an area that has seen oil and gas development since the 1950s.... Neither Apache nor Alberta initially disclosed the spill, which was only made public after someone reported it to a TV station late last week.... (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/experts-urge-focus-on-aquifers-in-push-for-water-from-mexico.html At least 20 aquifers stretch across the United States-Mexico border, said Gabriel Eckstein, a professor at the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law and the director of the International Water Law Project. Some are being mined at a record pace, he said. "I know you have a lot of agricultural interests in the Valley yelling and screaming about water in the Rio Grande; that is going to continue," he said. But of the 14 million people living within 50 miles of the border, "80 or 90 percent of them get their water from aquifers." "I would suggest that focusing on just the rivers is a mistake," he said. "Every state is pumping based on its own rules without actually quantifying how much water is in the aquifers." (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/after-drought-rains-plaguing-midwest-farms.html About this time last year, farmers were looking to the heavens, pleading for rain. Now, they are praying for the rain to stop. One of the worst droughts in this nation's history, a dry spell that persisted through the early part of this year, has ended with torrential rains this spring that have overwhelmed vast stretches of the country, including much of the farm belt. One result ha... (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/carbon-dioxide-emissions-rose-percent-in-iea-report-says.html Global emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use rose 1.4 percent to 31.6 gigatons in 2012, setting a record and putting the planet on course for temperature increases well above international climate goals, the International Energy Agency said in a report scheduled to be issued Monday. The agency said continuing that pace could mean a temperature increase over pre-industrial times of as much as 5.3 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), which IEA chief economist Fatih Birol warned "would be a disaster for all countries." (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/nepalese-farmers-go-organic-with-human-waste.html Jeevan Maharjan has a different approach to human waste -- he considers it as wealth. Rather than flush it down the toilet, the 47-year-old Nepalese farmer collects it to spray on his crops. "It's three times better than chemical fertilizers," he said .... The urine and feces are stored in separate airtight compartments of the toilet, he said, for later use on the land. The urine is kept for about two weeks before it is used, while the feces, which is turned into manure, is used every six months. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/jellyfish-surge-in-mediterranean-threatens-environment-and-tourists.html Scientists across the Mediterranean say a surge in the number of jellyfish this year threatens not just the biodiversity of one of the world's most overfished seas but also the health of tens of thousands of summer tourists. "I flew along a 300km stretch of coastline on 21 April and saw millions of jellyfish," said Professor Stefano Piraino of Salento University in southern Italy. Piraino is the head of a Mediterranean-wide project to track the rise in the number of jellyfish as global warming and overfishing clear the way for them to prosper. "There are now beaches on the island of Lampedusa, which receives 300,000 tourists a year, where people can only swim for a week in the summer," said Piraino. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/monsanto-mystery-wheat-appears-in-oregon-no-one-knows-why.html How did genetically modified wheat produced by the agricultural corporation Monsanto end up in Oregon? That's the question many people want answered after the discovery of the wheat by a farmer in Oregon, according to a report in the New Scientist. Genetically modified wheat has not been cleared for commercial use anywhere in the world, though the Federal Drug Administration approved it as ... (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/honeybee-food-may-contribute-to-u-s-colony-collapse-study.html Bee keepers' use of corn syrup and other honey substitutes as bee feed may be contributing to colony collapse by depriving the insects of compounds that strengthen their immune systems, according to a study released on Monday.... A bee's natural food is its own honey, which contains compounds like p-coumaric acid that appear to help detoxify and strengthen a bee's immunity to disease, according to a study by scientists at the University of Illinois. Bee keepers, however, typically harvest and sell the honey produced by the bees and use substitutes like sugar or high-fructose corn syrup to feed them. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/exxon-ceo-concerned-about-world-s-poor-tillerson-says-cutting-oil-use-to-fight-climate-change-would-make-poverty-reduction-harder.html The CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp. says there's no quick replacement for oil, and sharply cutting oil's use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would make it harder to lift 2 billion people out of poverty. "What good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?” CEO Rex Tillerson said at the oil giant's annual meeting Wednesday. Tillerson jousted with environmental activists who proposed that the company set goals to reduce emissions from its products and operations. Shareholders sided with the company and voted nearly 3-to-1 to reject the proposal. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/us-atlantic-puffin-population-in-peril-as-fish-stocks-shift-ocean-waters-heat-up.html The Atlantic puffin population is at risk in the United States, and there are signs the seabirds are in distress in other parts of the world. In the Gulf of Maine, the comical-looking seabirds have been dying of starvation and losing body weight, possibly because of shifting fish populations as ocean temperatures rise, according to scientists. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/tea-party-targeting-southern-co-power-monopoly.html The Southern Co. makes billion-dollar decisions that affect millions of people in Georgia, yet it has attracted little political scrutiny -- until now. Leaders of the Atlanta Tea Party are challenging Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power over the monopoly's reluctance to increase its use of solar power, the ballooning costs of building a new nuclear power plant and even its legal right to monopoly status. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/frank-r-lautenberg-term-senator-from-new-jersey-dies-at.html Frank R. Lautenberg, who fought the alcohol and tobacco industries and promoted Amtrak as a five-term United States senator from New Jersey, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 89... He was also the author of legislation requiring that by 2012 all cargo destined for United States ports be screened for nuclear material, a requirement that both the Bush and the Obama administrations said could not ... (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/dairy-s-carbon-footprint-flatulence-tops-the-list.html Researchers at the University of Arkansas are attempting to help the U.S. dairy industry decrease its carbon footprint as concentrations of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere reach record levels... The researchers found that for every kilogram of milk consumed in the United States per year, 2.05 kilograms of greenhouse gases, on average, are emitted over the entire supply chain to produce... (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/jun/transcanada-ceo-says-keystone-aids-jobs-and-environment.html TransCanada Corp. (TRP)'s proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline would benefit U.S. employment and support efforts to tackle climate change, according to the company's Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/study-links-exposure-to-bug-and-weed-killers-to-higher-risk-for-parkinson-s.html Who doesn't want a pristine lawn free of annoying weeds and bugs? But some of those pest-fighting strategies may come with a price -- to your health. A new study published in the journal Neurology found that pesticides, which have already been linked to a range of health complications from allergies to lower IQ levels, may also play a role in the development of Parkinson's. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/french-man-dies-of-sars-related-respiratory-virus.html A French patient infected with a deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS died Tuesday of the disease, which has killed half the people known to be infected and alarmed global health officials. The novel coronavirus is related to SARS, which killed some 800 people in a global epidemic in 2003.... 20 of the 40 confirmed cases of the disease have ended in death. Most of those infected since the virus was identified last year had traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan. There also have been cases in Britain and Germany. The ministry said the Frenchman, whose illness was identified May 8 after he returned from a visit to the United Arab Emirates, died Tuesday. His hospital roommate also tested positive for the illness. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/insight-pork-industry-hunts-for-deadly-pig-virus.html The sudden and widespread appearance of a swine virus deadly to young pigs - one never before seen in North America - is raising questions about the bio-security shield designed to protect the U.S. food supply. The swine-only virus, the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV), poses no danger to humans or other animals, and the meat from infected pigs is safe for people to eat. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/gas-industry-building-database-of-water-test-results-but-won-t-make-it-public.html More than two years ago the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a gas industry trade group, began building an electronic database to house information about the water quality in thousands of private wells across Pennsylvania. It's made up of "pre-drill" or baseline data critical information that helps establish whether drilling operations may have caused water contamination issues. The project is already up and running, but there are no plans to make it public. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/gm-salmon-can-breed-with-wild-fish-and-pass-on-genes.html Scientists from Canada have found that transgenic Atlantic salmon can cross-breed with a closely related species - the brown trout. The fish, which have been engineered with extra genes to make them grow more quickly, pass on this trait to the hybrid offspring. The research is published the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.. However, the biotech company AquaBounty, which created the salmon, said any risks were negligible as the fish they were producing were all female, sterile and would be kept in tanks on land. The transgenic salmon are currently being assessed by the US authorities, and could be the first GM animals to be approved for human consumption. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/wal-mart-pleads-guilty-in-case-involving-pesticides-sent-to-missouri-contractor.html Retailer Wal-Mart resolved years of hazardous-waste complaints Tuesday with criminal guilty pleas in Missouri and California and the settlement of a civil lawsuit filed by federal environmental authorities. The day's admissions cost the company about $81.6 million in fines and penalties, an amount that the company said would "not be material to its financial position." (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/new-co-removal-technique-produces-green-fuel-offsets-ocean-acidification.html A new technique to remove and store atmospheric carbon dioxide has been demonstrated by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The new technique also generates carbon-negative hydrogen and produces alkalinity, which can be used to offset ocean acidification. At laboratory scale, the team demonstrated a system that uses the acidity normally produced in saline water electrolysis to accelerate silicate mineral dissolution. The system simultaneously produces hydrogen fuel and other gases. The electrolyte solution that results shows a significant elevation in hydroxide concentration that in turn proved strongly absorptive and retentive of atmospheric CO2. The findings of this study were published in a recent issue of PNAS. The carbonate and bicarbonate produced in the process could be used to mitigate ongoing ocean acidification, the researchers suggest, much like how an Alka Seltzer neutralizes excess acid in the stomach. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/russia-to-pack-up-arctic-ice-station-after-cracks-develop-in-ice-floe.html Russia is evacuating a drifting Arctic research station that was supposed to last until September, because the ice it is built on is starting to break up. The cracks are another indication of the rapid decline of the Arctic ice sheet -- especially so because the encampment is on the Canadian side of the Arctic Sea, where the ice is oldest and most durable.... In years past, drift stations have remained in operation for 12 months or longer, with the exception of 2010, when an early breakup also caused a premature evacuation. One station in the Soviet era, called North Pole-22, was launched Sept. 13, 1973, and stayed in service until April 8, 1982. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/canadian-firm-s-nuclear-waste-plan-near-lake-huron-stirs-michigan-fears.html A Canadian company's plan to store nuclear waste near Lake Huron is alarming environmental groups and some Michigan lawmakers, who fear the project could eventually harm the Great Lakes. For years, Ontario Power Generation has pushed to construct a deep geologic repository -- a massive underground storage facility to handle low- to intermediate-level nuclear wastes -- on the grounds of its Bruce nuclear facility near Kincardine, Ont. The company wants to locate its storage facility 2,230 feet below the ground and three-quarters of a mile from the Lake Huron shore. (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/opinion-stop-the-decay-of-our-planet-s-life-support-systems.html ...A statement released today and signed by more than 500 scientists from 44 countries who study the interactions of people with our planet is unequivocal: "Based on the best scientific information available, human quality of life will suffer substantial degradation by the year 2050 if we continue on our current path."... "By the time today's children reach middle age," ... (Punchline and user comments available on site) http://www.apocadocs.com/docs/2013/may/two-volcanoes-erupting-in-alaska-scientists-are-monitoring-and-providing-alerts-on-pavlof-and-cleveland-volcanoes.html Two of Alaska's most active volcanoes -- Pavlof and Cleveland -- are currently erupting. At the time of this post, their activity continues at low levels, but energetic explosions could occur without warning.... The United States has approximately 169 active volcanoes, and more than half of them could erupt explosively. When the violent energy of a volcano is unleashed, the results can be catastro... (Punchline and user comments available on site)