weather.com - June 26th, 2015 - Brian Kahn

Big changes are afoot for the energy sector in the next 25 years. Coal and gas are headed out, and solar and wind are rushing to take their place on a multi-trillion dollar investment bonanza, according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The report scopes out the power generating landscape through 2040.

The main reason for the big shift in power generation isn’t likely to be because of a grand climate agreement, national policies or carbon pricing scheme, though. Instead, it comes down to cold, hard cash, with renewables offering more power-generating bang for the buck than fossil fuels. Here are the three big numbers.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

reuters.com - By Alphonso Toweh and James Harding Giahyue - July 2, 2015

Liberia confirmed a third Ebola case on Thursday, nearly two months after it was declared Ebola free, and officials said they were investigating whether the disease had managed to lurk in animals before resurfacing.

Dr Moses Massaquoi, case management team leader for Liberia's Ebola task force, said the three villagers who had tested positive for the disease had shared a meal of dog meat, which is commonly eaten in Liberia.

"They come from the same time and have a history of having had dog meat together," he said.

The response team was investigating whether domestic animals might be carrying the virus, he said, referring also to mysterious deaths of hundreds of cattle in remote Lofa county.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(ALSO SEE RELATED INFORMATION HERE)

AFP - YouTube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKkuOZCN3Iw

Trial to examine long-term health effects of Ebola virus disease

nih.gov - June 17, 2015

The Liberia-U.S. clinical research partnership known as PREVAIL has launched a study of people in Liberia who have survived Ebola virus disease (EVD) within the past two years. The study investigators hope to better understand the long-term health consequences of EVD, determine if survivors develop immunity that will protect them from future Ebola infection, and assess whether previously EVD-infected individuals can transmit infection to close contacts and sexual partners. The study, sponsored by the Ministry of Health of Liberia and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, will take place at various sites in Liberia and is expected to enroll approximately 7,500 people, including 1,500 people of any age who survived EVD and 6,000 of their close contacts.

who.int - July 1, 2015                                                                         ebolaresponse.un.org - June 29, 2015

CLICK HERE - WHO Ebola Situation Report - July 1, 2015

CLICK HERE - UNMEER External Situation Report - June 29, 2015 - (2 page .PDF file)

CLICK HERE - WHO Ebola Situation Reports

CLICK HERE - UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) Situation Reports

Health workers leave after they took a blood specimen from a child to test for the Ebola virus in a area were a 17-year old boy died from the virus on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, June 30, 2015.

Three cases of the disease have been confirmed in the country, which previously had been Ebola-free for nearly two months.

news.yahoo.com - AFP - by Zoom Dosso - July 1, 2015

Liberia said Wednesday a teenager who died of Ebola fever had spread the virus to at least two more people, confirming the first outbreak of the tropical disease for months. . . .

. . . "One hundred and two contacts have been identified, although that number is expected to increase as investigations continue," the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest report on the epidemic.

"At this stage the origin of infection is not known. The case reportedly had no recent history of travel, contact with visitors from affected areas, or funeral attendance." . . .

. . . The news came a day after Health Minister Bernice Dahn announced the first Ebola infection in Liberia for more than three months, warning that it was "likely that we will find additional cases".

uk.reuters.com - Reporting by Alphonso Toweh; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Daniel Flynn - July 1, 2015

Liberia confirmed a second case of Ebola on Tuesday just a day after authorities said they had detected a new case of the deadly virus previously thought to have been eliminated from the West African country, a senior health official said. . . .

. . . ”We have two confirmed cases today in Liberia," said Dr. Moses Massaquoi, case management team leader for Liberia's Ebola task force. He did not provide details of the new case. . . .

. . . A message from the Twitter account of the Liberian information ministry said that two people from the teenager's home had been confirmed as Ebola positive. It was not immediately possible to verify that information, nor was it clear if that included the case cited by Massaquoi.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Stephen Morse

“Specimen from the remains of a 17 year old corpse tested positive on two occasions after our burial team moved into the village and safely took the specimen before safe burial of the corpse”, said Nyenswah. We did the test twice and it all came positive but there is no need to panic. Quickly detecting means our system is working”.  – Mr. Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia Incidence Management Team Head

Ebola Back in Liberia: 1 Month, 20 Days After 'Free' Declaration

frontpageafricaonline.com - by Samwar S. Fallah - June 29, 2015

Monrovia - Liberia is reporting a new case of the deadly Ebola virus just one month and 20 days after the World Health Organization declared the country free of the virus transmission. Mr. Tolbert Nyenswah, Deputy Minister - designate for Disease, Surveillance and Epidemic Control confirmed to FrontPageAfrica Monday evening that the case was discovered after the death of the victim.

Villagers harvest rice in Sierra Leone. Harvesting is often a communal affair in West African nations, but the Ebola crisis interfered with group activities and disrupted many other aspects of agricultural production in the region. Photo credit: ©FAO/Peter DiCampo.

mongabay.com - by Lois Parshley - June 25, 2015

Pedelers Salee Craig used to grow vegetables. Near his home in Monrovia, Liberia, he planted peppers and bitter balls, potatoes and okra. A sturdy 39 year-old man with cheeks etched from former smiles, Craig is passionate and generally optimistic. 

But he's not smiling when he talks about the situation in Liberia now. Typically, farmers work to gather crops communally, harvesting together until the season is over. But in 2014, the Ebola crisis restricted travel. 

"Everyone was afraid of each other," Craig said. Mandatory government quarantines trapped people within their homes. As the disease spread, fields went unharvested and soon lay fallow. 

by Ananda Gautam, June 12, 2015 | ekantipur.com

TAPLEJUNG, JUN 12 - At least 21 people died and 37 others went missing in landslides triggered by heavy rainfall at several places in Taplejung district on Wednesday night.

Chief District Officer Damaru Prasad Niraula said seven men, eight women and six children died in landslides at Liwang, Santhakra, Khokling, Thinglabu and Lingtep VDCs. 

(Read Complete Article)

By William Yardley, LA Times, June 23, 2015 | Photo: Jim Cole, Associated Press

EPA report cites benefits of reducing emissions, including at power plants, and of limiting climate change. This coal-fired plant is Merrimack Station in Bow, N.H.  (Jim Cole / Associated Press)

Reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change could prevent tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of billions in economic losses in the United States, according to a new study by the Environmental Protection Agency.

(Read Complete Article)

By John Abraham | The Gaurdian | June 22, 2015

The paper finds that global warming is putting extreme weather on steroids 

One of the hottest areas of climate research these days is on the potential connections between human emissions, global warming, and extreme weather. Will global warming make extreme weather more common or less common? More severe or less severe? 

(Read Complete Article)

THE WASHINGTON POST by Ariana Eunjung Cha                                                      June 26, 2015

Public health officials may soon be able to screen patients for Ebola at border crossings and hospitals with a finger-prick blood test that takes mere minutes.

The development of the rapid diagnostic test, reported in The Lancet Thursday, represents a significant victory for scientists around the world who have been experimenting over the past year with all manner of vaccines, treatments and other ways of eradicating the virus.

Developing a way of confirming Ebola in a patient has been one of the top priorities. In the early stages the symptoms -- chest pain, cough, nausea -- can look like many other illnesses, making it very difficult for doctors to triage -- to determine who should be quarantined and who to send home. It can often take days or longer for laboratory tests, the current standard, to return a positive or negative result.

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 07: Vivek Murthy, U.S. surgeon general, speaks while participating in a roundtable discussion on the impacts of climate change on public health at Howard University with U.S. President Barack Obama, not pictured, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, April 7, 2015. President Obama is warning that climate change will start affecting Americans health in the near future and he's recruiting top technology companies to help prepare the nation’s health systems. (Photo | Pool via Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - EPA - Climate Change in the United States: Benefits of Global Action

CLICK HERE - REPORT - The Lancet - Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health

huffingtonpost.com - by Kate Sheppard - June 24, 2015

WASHINGTON -- Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Tuesday that climate change presents a "serious, immediate and global threat to human health," calling the danger a "sobering truth."

submitted by Nguyen Huu Ninh

AFP / Dimitar Dilkoff

CLICK HERE - REPORT - The Lancet - Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health

lemonde.fr - by Paul Benkimoun - June 23, 2015

Acting against climate change is both an emergency and the opportunity to achieve the greatest progress for public health in the 21 ^e century. It is in these terms that the Commission’s report Lancet on health and climate change poses the challenge to humanity. Online on Tuesday, June 23 about the British medical weekly site [1,999,011], the document was written by a multidisciplinary European and Chinese academic team.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE - ENGLISH)

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE - FRENCH)