Thomson Reuters Foundation - trust.org - by SciDev.Net - Gilbert Nakweya - October 29, 2015

Floods, disease and crop losses expected in coming months

Kenya has built camps for displaced people and is ready for cholera

East African farmers may face drought after the rains

[NAIROBI] East African countries near the equator are bracing for high El Niño-related rainfall that meteorologists warn may cause floods, crop losses and disease in the coming months.   The region is set to experience much more rain than usual during the October-December wet season, and possibly until early next year, forecasts say — although the rains may be less heavy than those experienced during the powerful 1997-98 El Niño ocean warming event.   The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Kenya Meteorological Department, Tanzania Meteorological Agency and Uganda National Meteorological Authority have issued warnings about the risks associated with higher rainfall.   The Famine Early Warning Systems Network says flooding along rivers and lakes, such as Lake Victoria, and flash floods in lowland areas of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania are likely to force people from their homes, lead to crop and livestock losses, and make it difficult for people to access food and work.

                                                   who.int                                                       ebolaresponse.un.org

Ebola Situation Reports:

CLICK HERE -WHO - Ebola Situation Report - 28 October 2015

CLICK HERE -  Interagency Collaboration on Ebola - Situation Report - 21 October 2015 (7 page .PDF report)

CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW - WHO - Report Archives
http://apps.who.int/ebola/ebola-situation-reports
http://apps.who.int/ebola/ebola-situation-reports-archive
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/situation-reports/archive/en/
http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.ebola-sitrep

hrpdcva.gov - July 2013

Effective planning for development and infrastructure near the shore requires understanding various shore processes, including erosion, tidal patterns, and sea level change. There is a significant amount of research documenting both a sustained and long-running trend of sea level rise and that the rate of sea level rise is likely to accelerate. Therefore, it is important for local planners to understand how much sea level rise is projected to occur and at what rate. Understanding the drivers of sea level rise and how they affect sea level rise rates can also help decision-makers tasked with selecting appropriate policy and infrastructure responses.

CLICK HERE - SEE PAGES 7-16 WITHIN 154 PAGE .PDF REPORT
Coastal Resiliency: Adapting to Climate Change in Hampton Roads

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), listens during a news conference after a week long preparatory meeting at the U.N. in Geneva February 13, 2015.  REUTERS/DENIS BALIBOUSE

reuters.com - Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Jane Merriman - October 28, 2015

A climate change deal to be agreed in Paris in December will not be able to come up with a global carbon price, the United Nations' climate chief, Christiana Figueres, said on Tuesday. . .

. . . the difficulties of bringing together different carbon schemes from countries around the world means the goal of a global carbon price remains elusive.

"(Many have said) we need a carbon price and (investment) would be so much easier with a carbon price, but life is much more complex than that," Figueres told a climate investor event in London.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Image: This girl was among those being treated at a hospital in Peshawar, in Pakistan

bbc.com - October 26th, 2015

More than 260 people have died, mostly in Pakistan, after a magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit north-eastern Afghanistan.

Tremors from the quake were also felt in northern India and Tajikistan.

At least 12 of the victims were Afghan schoolgirls killed in a crush as they tried to get out of their building.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

A girl wearing a mask over her mouth and nose looks out from her balcony in village of Beloomut, Russia, on July 31, 2010, as forest fires raged across central Russia during the worst heatwave in decades.  ANDREY SMIRNOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

CLICK HERE - American Academy of Pediatrics - American Academy of Pediatrics Links Global Warming to the Health of Children

CLICK HERE - American Academy of Pediatrics - Why Do Pediatricians Care About Climate Change?

cbsnews.com - by Ashley Welch - October 26, 2015

Climate change poses a rising global public health and safety threat, and children are particularly vulnerable, the American Academy of Pediatrics says in a new policy statement.

The group is urging pediatricians and politicians to work together to solve the crisis and protect children from the immediate and long-term health consequences of climate change.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

The scene in Charleston, S.C., on Tuesday morning during high tide. (Jessica Hofford)

washingtonpost.com - by Angela Fritz - October 27, 2015

Ocean water surged into neighborhoods on the Southeast coast on Tuesday morning during high tide, pushing gauges well beyond predicted levels. Seemingly overnight, spurred by sea level rise, we’ve entered an era where king tides compete with hurricanes in the water level record books . . .

. . . Residents are saying Tuesday’s high tide was worse than South Carolina’s “1,000-year flood” in early October.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

A young boy takes a photo of houses damaged in Saudi-led airstrikes. A hospital run by Doctors Without Borders was also hit in the attack. Associated Press

msf.org - October 27, 2015

Airstrikes carried out late last night by the Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen destroyed a hospital supported by the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), MSF announced today. 

The small hospital, in the Haydan district in Saada Province, was hit by several airstrikes beginning at 22:30 last night. Hospital staff and two patients managed to escape before subsequent airstrikes occurred over a two hour period.  One staff member was slightly injured while escaping. With the hospital destroyed, at least 200,000 people now have no access to lifesaving medical care.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLES IN THE LINKS BELOW)

CLICK HERE - Huffington Post - Doctors Without Borders Hospital In Yemen Hit By Airstrikes

Pilgrims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in September. A new study predicts heat and humidity levels “intolerable to humans.”  
Credit Ahmad Masood/Reuters

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Future temperature in southwest Asia projected to exceed a threshold for human adaptability

nytimes.com - by JOHN SCHWARTZ - October 26, 2015

By the end of this century, areas of the Persian Gulf could be hit by waves of heat and humidity so severe that simply being outside for several hours could threaten human life, according to a study published Monday. Because of humanity’s contribution to climate change, the authors wrote, some population centers in the Middle East “are likely to experience temperature levels that are intolerable to humans.” . . .

Image: A photograph of a city skyline at dusk with lamps in the foreground that resemble stylized trees.

huffingtonpost.com - October 20th, 2015 - Jeremy Rifkin

The global economy is slowing, productivity is waning in every region of the world and unemployment remains stubbornly high in every country. At the same time, economic inequality between the rich and the poor is at the highest point in human history. In 2010 the combined wealth of the 388 richest people in the world equaled the combined wealth of the poorest half of the human race.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Image: A microscopic view of the Ebola virus. Credit: CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith/Public Health Image Library

livescience.com - October 20th, 2015 - Ashley P. Taylor

Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey — who became sick with Ebola about a year ago and recovered, but then became very ill again last week with what may be a relapse of the deadly virus — is now improving.

"Pauline Cafferkey's condition has improved to serious but stable," representatives from London's Royal Free Hospital said in a statement Monday (Oct. 19).

Hospital representatives said on Oct. 9 that the nurse had developed an "unusual late complication" of the virus, and reported last week that she was "critically ill."

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Hurricane Patricia was forecasted to bring catastrophic damage to Mexico’s coast and put the popular tourist destination of Puerto Vallarta on high alert.

Friday afternoon forecasters said that Hurricane Patricia was the strongest hurricane ever recorded packing winds of over 200 MPH, many referring to the storm as a Category 6 storm on a scale 1-5.

For two days Hurricane Patricia was expected to bring 3-5 meter storm surges, 10 inches of rain, and hurricane force winds to Puerto Vallarta when it made landfall between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta late Friday afternoon.

Hurricane Patricia packed maximum sustained winds of 160 mph late Saturday, a Category 5 hurricane

cnn.com - by Catherine E. Shoichet and Ben Brumfield - October 22, 2015 - 11:37 PM ET

(CNN) Hurricane Patricia, churning toward southwestern Mexico, is a "potentially catastrophic hurricane," forecasters said after the storm increased in strength to Category 5.

"Satellite images indicate that maximum sustained winds have increased to near 160 mph (260 kph) with higher gusts," the National Hurricane Center said Thursday night.

Though it is expected to weaken Friday, it should make landfall on the Pacific coast near Punta San Telmo late in the day as an extremely dangerous storm.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by George Hurlburt

Sierra Leonean doctors practice wearing protective clothing in the Ebola Training Academy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, December 16, 2014. Reuters

uk.reuters.com - by Kemo Cham and Emma Farge - October 21, 2015

. . . the case of Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey – the first known Ebola survivor to have an apparently life-threatening relapse – has revived concerns about the health of some 17,000 survivors in Sierra Leone, neighbouring Guinea and Liberia.

Doctors and health officials in Sierra Leone told Reuters that a handful of mystery deaths among discharged patients may also be types of Ebola relapses, stirring fear that the deadly virus may last far longer than previously thought in the body, causing other potentially lethal complications.

Diagnoses have not been made, partly because of a lack of relevant medical training and insufficient equipment for detecting a virus that can hide in inaccessible corners of the body - such as the spinal fluid or eyeball. In Cafferkey's case, the virus in her brain caused meningitis.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)