Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, center, meeting on Monday with Gazprom’s chief executive, Alexei Miller, left, and Russia’s energy minister, Alexander Novak. Credit Pool photo by Dmitry Astakhov

nytimes.com - by Neil MacFarquhar - June 16, 2014

MOSCOW — Further aggravating already tense relations between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian energy giant Gazprom cut off natural gas supplies to its neighbor on Monday, warning that the reduction could diminish the amount of gas flowing to Europe.

The cutoff came after Ukraine missed a Russian-imposed deadline Monday to pay a nearly $2 billion installment for past gas deliveries, with senior officials on both sides exchanging heated remarks blaming the other.

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But countries can take steps to reduce self-harm cases during economic downturns, researchers say

consumer.healthday.com

THURSDAY, June 12, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- The Great Recession that began in 2007 appears to have taken more than a financial toll: New research suggests that the economic downturn could be linked with more than 10,000 suicides across North America and Europe.

The study found that between 2008 and 2010, rates of suicide surged in the European Union, Canada and the United States. The increase was four times higher among men than women, according to the report published in the current issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.

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University of Oxford - Recession 'link' with over 10,000 suicides in the West
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-06-12-recession-link-over-10000-suicides-west

submitted by Cheryl Stroud

nap.edu - Institute of Medicine. Understanding the Connections Between Coastal Waters and Ocean Ecosystem Services and Human Health: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2014.

submitted by Margery Schab

Standing guard at Iraq’s Al-Basra Oil Terminal. Iraq has re-emerged as a critical source of oil in recent years.
Credit Nabil Al-Jurani/Associated Press

nytimes.com - by Clifford Krauss - June 13, 2014

After a long history of wars and sanctions, Iraq re-emerged as a critical source of oil in recent years. Mounting Iraqi production helped to ease world oil prices despite the tightening restrictions on Iran and tanking exports from Libya. And Western and Chinese oil companies rushed back, revitalizing long-neglected oil fields in the north and south.

Now suddenly all that progress has been put in jeopardy with the intense military offensive by extremist insurgents.

highcountryhealth.com - by C. Louis “pj” Perrinjaquet, MD - June 12, 2014

As may become clear if you continue reading… I’m a doctor not a writer.  But, just as I was compelled to volunteer the past 6 weeks in the Nuba Mts. of Sudan, I am compelled to write and tell the story of what is happening there. 

Since May 2011 when the government on Sudan in Khartoum launched a campaign “to exterminate the Nuba people like bugs”, the civilian population has been subjected to daily aerial bombardment and has been denied access to humanitarian aid.  Unable to plant crops people are starving to death or surviving on bugs and grass, risking death to venture outside their caves in search of food and water.

The one hospital in the entire Nuba Mts, Mother of Mercy in Gidel, staffed by one fulltime physician, Dr. Tom Catena,  have been spared bombardment… until last month.

The following is taken directly from my journal written when the events were fresh.

nubareports.org - May 5, 2014

On May 1, 2014 the Sudanese Air Force dropped five bombs on the Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel - the only hospital in the war-torn Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan State. This is the first time the hospital has been targeted. Doctors and patients alike fear follow-up attacks as a government offensive to the north bears down on the region.

http://nubareports.org/sudan-targets-only-hospital-in-nuba-mountains/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Ly9iW1-t4

The new pacemaker, the micra transcatheter pacing system. Photograph: University Hospital Southampton/PA

Wireless device, used for the first time at Southampton general hospital, set to reduce risks linked to traditional pacemakers

theguardian.com - June 9, 2014

A pacemaker the size of a tablet has been fitted inside the heart of a British patient, in a new operation that promises to reduce infection risk and reduce recovery time.

The wireless device used – for the first time in the country – at Southampton general hospital, known as the micra transcatheter pacing system, is the smallest in the world, at a tenth of the size of traditional models, and is implanted directly in the heart.

Currently pacemakers are inserted under the skin via an incision in the chest and connected to the heart via a lead that carries electrical signals to correct slow or irregular heartbeats, but they can require replacement due to broken or dislodged wires.

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BMW Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer uses the term “German Angst” to explain the paradox of the country’s innovation ability on one hand and its reluctance to embrace technological change on the other. 
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

bloomberg.com - by Sheenagh Matthews - June 10, 2014

Germany has rejected genetically modified crops, nuclear power and magnetic levitation trains. Now, the country that invented the modern car and X-ray technology is adding fracking to the list of innovations it’s wary of.

Business leaders had lobbied for the extraction method, which injects water and chemicals underground, to lessen Germany’s dependence on Vladimir Putin’s Russia where a third of its natural gas supply is derived. Last week, the government started preparing a law to limit fracking to rare cases, unlike in the U.S. where the practice is widespread.

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Emily Penn - Pangaea Exploration - featured in the latest Apple commercial - (in the link below - starting at 1:11)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBSU9KaCYP4&feature=youtu.be&t=1m11s

About Us - Pangaea Exploration

Mission

We believe that the depth, complexity and sheer inertia of the threats to our oceans is significant. Practical solutions and the resources to implement them do still exist. The central challenge is our collective will to act, to care. We also believe that our ultimate success depends on a future generation of inspired conservationists.

We have a two part mission

1. To actively strengthen the health of marine life through Exploration, Conservation and Education work.

environmentalleader.com - by Ailsa Burns - June 12, 2014

Greenhouse gases (GHG) can be measured by recording emissions at source by estimating the amount emitted using active data and applying relevant conversion factors. . . With recent changes to how the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) calculate CO2 emissions, the potential exists for companies in the UK to experience significant shifts in both individual emission factors and overall Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. These changes have been published as part of DEFRA’s greenhouse gas conversion factors for company reporting: methodology paper for emission factors which reviewed the format and content of GHG conversion factors.

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A security guard uses a fan to keep cool as a heatwave continues in Shanghai on July 24, 2013. (PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

huffingtonpost.com - Reuters - by Alister Doyle - June 6, 2014

BONN, Germany, June 6 (Reuters) - China led calls by emerging economies on Friday for the rich to raise financial aid to the poor as a precondition for a United Nations deal to combat global warming.

Many countries at U.N. climate negotiations from June 4-15 have welcomed news this week that the United States plans to slash emissions from power plants, but emerging nations said cash was just as important to unlock progress.

"When the financing is resolved, this will set a very good foundation to negotiate a good agreement," China's chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua told delegates from about 170 nations.

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Meltwater channels run along the ice in Greenland. Soot, dust and microbes that live in the ice all contribute to its darkening.  Credit: Henry Patton/Flickr

climatecentral.org - by Brian Kahn - June 8, 2014

Despite it’s name, Greenland is predominantly white, as snow and ice cover the majority of the country. New research indicates that Greenland’s main color may be starting to fade and in fact darken, though, thanks to a widespread increase of dust across the ice sheets. That darkening could speed up surface melt, and with it, sea level rise around the globe.

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RESEARCH - Contribution of light-absorbing impurities in snow to Greenland’s darkening since 2009

Pipelines carrying steam to wellheads and heavy oil back in Alberta, Canada Todd Korol/Reuters

newsweek.com - by Zoe Schlanger - June 2, 2014

Just weeks after President Obama made on-air appearances with meteorologists explicitly to address climate change, a journalist learned that in Canada, official policy dictates that government-employed meteorologists aren’t supposed to talk about climate change at all.

Government scientists “speak to their area of expertise,” a government spokesman recently wrote to journalist Mike DeSouza defending the policy. . . Questions about climate change or long-term trends would be directed to a climatologist or other applicable authority.”

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When a team from Tulane University sent a batch of protective clothing and equipment to help workers fighting an outbreak of Ebola virus in Sierra Leone last month, they were fairly confident the 300 or so packs would be enough for a good start.

They couldn’t have predicted what they would be up against.