2015 was the warmest year since modern record-keeping began in 1880, according to a new analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The record-breaking year continues a long-term warming trend — 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have now occurred since 2001. Credits: Scientific Visualization Studio/Goddard Space Flight Center

nasa.gov - January 20, 2016

Earth’s 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record keeping began in 1880, according to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Globally-averaged temperatures in 2015 shattered the previous mark set in 2014 by 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius). Only once before, in 1998, has the new record been greater than the old record by this much.

communityresiliencecenter.org

Community Resilience Center is a community-based organization in Sri Lanka with the aim of promoting community level resilience to disasters.

Vision

A safe world where people will live in love, dignity and opportunities for growth.

Mission

To engage, enlighten and empower communities to promote resilience.

Objectives

1.To promote continuous professional development of membership towards enhancing resilience.

2.To engage communities and all relevant stakeholders in an inclusive manner towards promotion of community resilience.

3.To promote the understanding and application of community resilience.

4.To develop, disseminate and evaluate tools and techniques to assess and enhance community resilience.

5.To innovate, implement and evaluate methods to improve community resilience.

(SEE ATTACHMENT BELOW FOR A REPORT ON COMMUNITY RESILIENCE CENTER ACTIVITIES)

insidebayarea.com - by Seth Borenstein - January 18, 2016

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Nature Climate Change - Industrial-era global ocean heat uptake doubles in recent decades

WASHINGTON -- The amount of man-made heat energy absorbed by the seas has doubled since 1997, a study released Monday showed.

Scientists have long known that more than 90 percent of the heat energy from man-made global warming goes into the world's oceans instead of the ground.

And they've seen ocean heat content rise in recent years. But the new study, using ocean-observing data that goes back to the British research ship Challenger in the 1870s and including high-tech modern underwater monitors and computer models, tracked how much man-made heat has been buried in the oceans in the past 150 years.

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A September 2008 photo released by the Ocean Conservancy on March 10, 2009, shows a trash-covered beach in Manilla, Philippines. (Tamara Thoreson Pierce/Ocean Conservancy/AP)

CLICK HERE - REPORT - World Economic Forum - The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Independent study tallies 'true catch' of global fishing

washingtonpost.com - by Sarah Kaplan - January 20, 2016

There is a lot of plastic in the world’s oceans.

It coagulates into great floating “garbage patches” that cover large swaths of the Pacific. It washes up on urban beaches and remote islands, tossed about in the waves and transported across incredible distances before arriving, unwanted, back on land. It has wound up in the stomachs of more than half the world’s sea turtles and nearly all of its marine birds, studies say . . .

. . . But that quantity pales in comparison with the amount that the World Economic Forum expects will be floating into the oceans by the middle of the century.

Aral Kakl (right), a Kurdish Iraqi journalist, his Syrian wife Shevin, his brother Rewan and some other refugees who have applied for the relocation programme, kill time in the cafeteria of their Athens hotel.  Photo: Nicola Zolin/IRIN

irinnews.org - by Andrew Connelly

ATHENS, 18 January 2016 (IRIN) - “Relocation does not work.”

With these words on Thursday, EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos finally admitted that the bloc’s September agreement to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from the frontline states of Greece and Italy to other EU states over two years has been a dismal failure. After the Commission revealed recently that only 272 asylum seekers had been relocated in the past four months, few could deny it.

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Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at a lab of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Sao Paulo University. The species is known to carry Zika virus, which has been connected to birth defects. Credit Nelson Almeida/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

reuters.com - by Dan Whitcomb - January 16, 2016

A baby born with brain damage at a hospital in Oahu, Hawaii, was infected by the Zika virus, U.S. health officials confirmed on Saturday, apparently the first case of the mosquito-borne virus in a birth on U.S. soil.

The mother became ill with the Zika virus while living in Brazil in May 2015 and the baby was likely infected in the womb, Hawaiian state health officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

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CLICK HERE - The New York Times - Hawaii Baby With Brain Damage Is First U.S. Case Tied to Zika Virus

NEUSON11 VIA GETTY IMAGES

The mosquito-borne illness may cause birth defects that include a small head and developmental problems.

CLICK HERE - CDC - Travel Health Notices

huffingtonpost.com - by Anna Almendrala - January 15, 2016

People traveling to Central America and South America, as well as some islands in the Caribbean, should take special precautions against mosquito bites because of an outbreak of Zika virus, a previously rare disease that may be linked to serious birth defects. Pregnant women should consider avoiding the region, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised.

The CDC on Friday issued a "Level 2" travel notice for Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, as well as the Caribbean islands Haiti and Martinique. A Level 2 notice means that Americans should "practice enhanced precautions" while on their trip and that, in this case, pregnant women should consider not going.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Photographer: Waldo Swiegers /Bloomberg

The world is warned to prepare now for health crises such as the Ebola outbreak, or pay a lot more later.

CLICK HERE - LINK TO REPORT AND OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION - The Neglected Dimension of Global Security - A Framework to Counter Infectious Disease Crises 

bloomberg.com - by John Tozzi - January 13, 2016

The world needs a . . . transformation to prevent outbreaks of infectious disease that threaten security and economic stability, according to a report sponsored by several major foundations. Pandemics—epidemics that spread across the globe—could cost humanity $6 trillion in the 21st century, or $60 billion a year, the authors estimate. They argued for investing $4.5 billion a year—or 65 cents for every resident of the planet—to prepare.

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nam.edu - January 13, 2016

CLICK HERE - National Academy of Medicine - Global Health Risk Framework - The Neglected Dimension of Global Security: A Framework to Counter Infectious Disease Crises

CLICK HERE - REPORT - The Neglected Dimension of Global Security: A Framework to Counter Infectious Disease Crises (144 page .PDF report)

The Global Health Risk Framework (GHRF) initiative will build on lessons from the current Ebola outbreak and other major outbreaks to develop a comprehensive framework for improving our response to future global public health threats. The Commission will rigorously analyze options for improving governance, finance, health system resilience, and research and development for global health security. To foster trust internationally with various levels of government, civil society, academia, and industry, the Commission intends to keep the framework from being influenced by politics or the interests of any one country or organization.

submitted by George Hurlburt

Zoom Dosso / AFP / Getty Images

It’s been more than 42 days since the last case – although officials warn that it is likely to return.

CLICK HERE - WHO - Latest Ebola outbreak over in Liberia; West Africa is at zero, but new flare-ups are likely to occur

buzzfeed.com - by Tom Chivers - January 14, 2016

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that Liberia is free of Ebola.

The west African country hasn’t seen a new case in 42 days. That’s the measure the WHO uses to determine whether an outbreak is still ongoing.

It means that, for the first time since December 2013, the whole of West Africa (and the world) is free of the disease.

It’s been the worst Ebola outbreak in history, killing at least 11,000 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

However, the WHO warns that new cases are likely.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Gavin Macgregor-Skinner

Al Jazeera America - (Tonight) Thursday, Jan 14, 2016 at 930pm EST 

Survivors of Ebola report strange symptoms as America Tonight examines how post-Ebola syndrome is making life difficult after the dreaded disease. (new, 30 minutes)

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW - Watch at 930pm EST on Thursday, Jan 14, 2016
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight.html

Dengue fever, chikungunya virus and Zika virus are spread by the bite of infected Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. PHOTO: UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UIG/GETTY IMAGES

wsj.com - by BETSY MCKAY and REED JOHNSON - January 12, 2016

A Houston-area woman who traveled in November to El Salvador has been diagnosed with the Zika virus, public health officials said, raising concern that the mosquito-borne illness linked to a health crisis in Brazil could spread through the Americas. . . .

. . . The Texas case shows how the Zika virus is spreading after sparking an epidemic in Brazil that has led to an estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million cases, public health officials say.

Health officials in Brazil believe the virus is behind thousands of cases of microcephaly in that country—a condition in which infants are born with undersized brains and skulls—though it hasn’t before been linked to that rare condition. . . .

. . . U.S. officials say they are preparing for a possible influx of Zika this spring and summer, when populations of the mosquitoes that transmit it—Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus—flourish. . . .

. . . The department is also urging people to protect themselves from mosquitoes.

Graphic from Singularity is Near, demonstrating "Law of Accelerating Returns" in the field of computation

huffingtonpost.com - by Peter Diamandis - January 10, 2016

No doubt you've heard of Moore's Law.

What you might not realize is that Moore's Law only refers to the exponential price-performance improvements of integrated circuits (over the last 50 years).

Did you know that exponential growth has been going on for a much longer period? Or that such growth is occurring in other fields outside of computing, such as communication and genomics?

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reliefweb.int - UNOCHA - January 11, 2016

Overview of the crisis

Violent attacks on civilians by Boko Haram since 2009 have left widespread devastation in the north-east of Nigeria. With attacks continuing to occur on a regular basis, the crisis is directly affecting more than 14.8 million people in Adamawa, Borno, Gombe and Yobe States. More than 2.2 million people have fled their homes and 7 million people are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance. The security situation remains volatile and with the military and paramilitary response ongoing, millions of people remain displaced, host community resources are becoming exhausted and an estimated 3 million people living in areas that have been inaccessible for most of 2015 have unknown needs.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Madaya Syria: Aid convoy reaches besieged town - bbc.com

nytimes.com - Associated Press - January 11, 2016

Aid convoys delivered long-awaited food, medicine and other supplies to three besieged communities Monday, part of a U.N.-supported operation to help tens of thousands of civilians cut off for months by the war in Syria.

Reports of starvation and images of emaciated children have raised global concerns and underscored the urgency for new peace talks that the U.N. is hoping to host in Geneva on Jan. 25.

The U.N. Security Council took up the issue Monday. The U.N. says 4.5 million Syrians are living in besieged or hard-to-reach areas and desperately need humanitarian aid, with civilians prevented from leaving and aid workers blocked from bringing in food, medicine, fuel and other supplies.

It will take several days to distribute the aid in the town of Madaya, near Damascus, and the Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya in northern Syria, and the supplies are probably enough to last for a month, aid agencies said.

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