The first polar vortex (Credit: NASA/Facebook)

Next week is going to be brutal

salon.com - by Lindsay Abrams - February 20, 2014

Remember that time when a giant pattern of Arctic air descended over the U.S. and Canada, freezing everything in its path? Remember when it came back? Yeah, that’s all happening again.

Here’s Wunderground’s Jeff Masters, who completely buried the lede with something about a “major February thaw” across the Midwest U.S. before delving into this forecast of horrors:

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                                             (CLICK ON POSTER IMAGE BELOW TO ENLARGE)

submitted by Tim Siftar

arctic-news.blogspot.com - February 19, 2014

High methane concentrations have persistently shown up over the Arctic Ocean since October 1, 2013.

The danger is that methane will further warm up the air over the Arctic, causing further weakening of the Jet Stream and further extreme weather events, particularly extreme warming of water all the way along the path of the Gulf Stream from the Atlantic Ocean into the Arctic Ocean, in turn triggering further releases from hydrates at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean and escalating into runaway global warming.

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Click on the video above, or CLICK HERE to view Dr. McDonald's suggestion - at the 40:30 mark.

wilsoncenter.org - February 14, 2014

Pallab Ghosh: "We may have to get used to winters where spells of weather go on for weeks - or even months"

bbc.co.uk - by Pallab Ghosh - February 15, 2014

The main system that helps determine the weather over Northern Europe and North America may be changing, research suggests.

The study shows that the so-called jet stream has increasingly taken a longer, meandering path.

This has resulted in weather remaining the same for more prolonged periods.

The work was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.

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CLICK HERE - RESEARCH STUDY - Exciting Science: Rapid Arctic Warming and Wacky Weather: Are They Related?

CLICK HERE - Evidence linking Arctic amplification to extreme weather in mid-latitudes

David Cameron: "Whatever money is needed, we will spend it."

bbc.co.uk - February 11, 2014

The prime minister says money will be no object as flood relief efforts continue across swathes of the UK.

David Cameron warned the severe weather was not over, saying: "Things could get worse before they get better."

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference after returning from the flood-stricken South West, Mr Cameron said: "Money is no object in this relief effort. Whatever money is needed, we will spend it."

He said recovering from the floods could take time, telling reporters: "It will be a long haul and it will require a stepped up national effort, with the whole country pulling together.

He vowed lessons would be learned, adding: "We will deal with the floods and we will build a more resilient country for the future."

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(CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW FOR UK FLOODING PICTURES)

http://www.businessinsider.com/uk-flooding-pictures-2014-2

Flooding like that in Somerset may become more frequent

telegraph.co.uk - by Tim Ross - February 8, 2014

metoffice.gov.uk - February 6, 2014

Regional statistics suggest this is one of the most exceptional periods of winter rainfall in at least 248 years
https://twitter.com/metoffice/statuses/431417739367165952

UK’s exceptional weather in context
http://metofficenews.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/uks-exceptional-weather-in-context/

Met Office
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/

Countries are designing Sustainable Development Goals to replace the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. CIFOR/Aulia Erlangga

cifor.org - by Center for International Forestry Research

BOGOR, Indonesia (4 February 2014) — The United Nations’ Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will convene for its final meeting from 3-7 February 2014 in New York. The 30-member working group will focus on the role of biodiversity, forests and oceans in human development. . . Following this meeting, the group will develop a report that will be handed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in September.

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bbc.co.uk - Alpa Patel reports - February 4, 2014

A quarter of Slovenians have been left without electricity, as parts of Europe battle some of the worst winter blizzards for decades.

Around 40% of the country's schools have been closed, transport is disrupted and residents in some areas have been advised not to drink tap water.

Parts of Croatia, Serbia, and Germany have also been severely affected by snow.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26028321

huffingtonpost.com - by Jeffrey Sachs - February 3, 2014

CLICK HERE - Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL Project - Executive Summary January 2014 (44 page .PDF report)

The new State Department Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone Pipeline does three things. First, it signals a greater likelihood that the pipeline project will be approved later this year by the administration. Second, it vividly illustrates the depth of confusion of US climate change policy. Third, it self-portrays the US Government as a helpless bystander to climate calamity.

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Image: Before and after photographs of Syrian neighborhoods.

news.nationalpost.com - January 30th, 2014 - Ryan Lucas

The Syrian government used controlled explosives and bulldozers to raze thousands of residential buildings, in some cases entire neighbourhoods, in a campaign that appeared designed to punish civilians sympathetic to the opposition or to cause disproportionate harm to them, an international human rights group said Thursday.

The demolitions took place between July 2012 and July 2013 in seven pro-opposition districts in and around the capital, Damascus, and the central city of Hama, according to a 38-page report by Human Rights Watch. The New York-based group said the deliberate destruction violated international law, and called for an immediate end to the practice.

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(Photo: Sutanta Aditya, AFP, Getty Images)

usatoday.com - AP - February 1, 2014

MOUNT SINABUNG, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian volcano that has been rumbling for months unleased a major eruption Saturday, killing 14 people just a day after authorities allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes, saying that activity was decreasing, officials said.

Among the dead on Mount Sinabung were a local television journalist and four high-school students and their teacher who were visiting the mountain to see the eruptions up close, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. At least three other people were injured, and authorities feared the death toll would rise.

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huffingtonpost.com - by Eleanor Goldberg - January 23, 2014

Fifty thousand people, many of whom are children, have lost limbs in the war in Sudan. The number of victims is staggering, but one company is working to help by developing inexpensive prosthetics that can be made in about six hours.

. . . A team is capable of producing a low-cost, 3-D-printed arm for about $100.

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Computer rendering of an avian influenza virus
Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF

With the Chinese New Year and the Olympics on the horizon, health officials can only watch and wait for a potential pandemic

time.com - by Alice Park - January 29, 20114

Lucky delivery: A south Sudan refugee mother takes a meal after successfully delivering her newborn at Nzjaipi health center III. A number of expecting mothers in limbo due to inadequate health facilities at refugee transit and sattlement sites in Adjumani.  Charles Akena/IRIN

irinnews.org

GULU-NAIROBI, 27 January 2014 (IRIN) - Disease burden is growing among people who fled their homes following the outbreak of conflict in South Sudan.

The mid-December eruption of fighting between army forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting former vice-president Riek Machar has adversely impacted the already weak health system.

“Even before this crisis, South Sudan’s health system was extremely fragile - 80 percent of the health services were provided by international organizations," Raphael Gorgeu, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) head of mission for South Sudan, told IRIN in an email. “So for MSF, the current conflict exacerbates an already dire situation.”

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