gdacs.org - November 7, 2013

Tropical Cyclone HAIYAN-13 can have a high humanitarian impact based on the Maximum sustained wind speed and the affected population and their vulnerability.

Updated: this report is based on advisory number 20.

• Tropical Cyclone Hurricane/Typhoon > 150 mph (maximum wind speed of 315 km/h)
• from 04/11/2013 00:00 UTC to 08/11/2013 00:00 UTC
• Population affected by Category 1 (120 km/h) wind speeds or higher is 17.7 million
• Vulnerability: High

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CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM THE JOINT TYPHOON WARNING CENTER (JTWC)

CLICK HERE - GDACS Tropical Cyclones - Joint Research Centre

CLICK HERE - Tropical Cyclone Information - Japan Meteorological Agency

The World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled 5 priority actions to strengthen the fight against one of the world’s leading infectious killers - tuberculosis (TB) - at the 23 October launch of a new report on the epidemic. The 2013 TB report calls for more attention to multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and reaching those who are being missed by the system.

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A rigorous assessment of drug and vaccine development for neglected diseases that shows some improvement over the last decade but still major gaps has been published in the Lancet today. Only 4% of the new therapeutic products registered between 2000-11 were for 11% of the global disease burden, and only 4 new chemical entities that can lead to truly new products were approved. 

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A call for action in 4 areas was put out at the World Health Summit in Berlin, held 20-22 October. The 1000 decision makers and representatives of health-related fields from more than 80 countries were there to address pressing issues of medicine and health care systems. The M8 Alliance released a joint statement on what was needed in research and innovation; education and leadership; evidence to policy; and global health for development. 

November 5,2013, RealNews24

By: Brian,

Live Free Live Natural.

July 29, 2013, a sperm whale was stranded on Tershelling, a northern island in the Netherlands. A rescue attempt was attempted, but unfortunately the whale died. A young adult at 13.5 meters was taken for a necropsy at the port of Harlington. The sperm whale had plastic in its stomach, an increasing common phenomenon say researchers at the Biodiversity Centre Naturalis. In  March of this year, a 10 meter long sperm whale washed up on Spain’s South Coast. This whale had swallowed 59 different plastic items totaling over 37 pounds. Most of this plastic consisted of transparent sheeting used to build greenhouses in Almeria and Grenada for the purpose of tomatoes for the European market. The rest was plastic bags, nine meters of rope, two stretches of hosepipe, two small flower pots, and a plastic spray canister. Cause of death was intestinal blockage....

FULL STORY AND SHORT VIDEO CLIP HERE

marketwatch.com - October 29th, 2013 - Justin Schenk

 BP PLC Tuesday reported a 33.6% decline in third-quarter net profit from a year earlier, largely on lower refining margins, but also announced a series of measures aimed at pleasing investors.

The British oil giant set a dividend boost and announced a plan to sell $10 billion in assets by the end of 2015, saying it would use the proceeds for “additional distributions to shareholders,” including share buybacks.

BP said net profit was $3.5 billion, or $1.01 per American depositary share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

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A new study finds that the oceans could be holding the missing heat from global warming.  Photo by Alexis DUCLOS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Greenhouse gas emissions have been rising, but warming has plateaued in recent years. It turns out the heat is likely being absorbed by the ocean depths.

science.time.com - by Bryan Walsh - November 1, 2013

. . . the oceans depths seem to be soaking up the excess heat energy created by the accumulation of greenhouse gases. Researchers led by Yair Rosenthal at Rutgers University reconstructed temperatures in one part of the Pacific Ocean and found that its middle depths have been warming some 15 times faster over the past 60 years than at any other time over the past 10,000 years. It’s as if the oceans have been acting as a battery, absorbing the excess charge created by the greenhouse effect, which leaves less to warm the surface of the planet, where we’d notice it.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Many of the ills of the modern world -- starvation, poverty, flooding, heat waves, droughts, war and disease -- are likely to worsen as the world warms from man-made climate change, a leaked draft of an international scientific report forecasts.

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SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer

abcnews.go.com - October 24th, 2013 - Kevin Begos

Some of the largest pension funds in the U.S. and the world are worried that major fossil fuel companies may not be as profitable in the future because of efforts to limit climate change, and they want details on how the firms will manage a long-term shift to cleaner energy sources.

In a statement released Thursday, leaders of 70 funds said they're asking 45 of the world's top oil, gas, coal and electric power companies to do detailed assessments of how efforts to control climate change could impact their businesses.

"Institutional investors must think over the long term, which means that we must take environmental risks into consideration when we make investments," New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli told The Associated Press in a statement.

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Video: Interview with Mary Robinson

democracynow.org - October 29th, 2013

As the New York region marks the first anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, hurricane-strength winds are battering northern Europe today. At least a dozen people have already been killed across Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and France. Amidst an increase in extreme weather and storms, we discuss the movement to confront climate change with Mary Robinson, former Irish president and U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

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Image: World Annual Installed Offstore Wind Power Capacity, 1991-2013

earth-policy.org - October 30th, 2013 - J. Matthew Roney

Offshore wind power installations are on track to hit a seventh consecutive annual record in 2013. Developers added 1,080 megawatts of generating capacity in the first half of the year, expanding the world total by 20 percent in just six months. Fifteen countries host some 6,500 megawatts of offshore wind capacity.

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Brighton Sussex UK 28th October 2013 - massive waves crash over Brighton Marina as storms battered the south coast this morning The storm, called St Jude, brought the windiest weather to hit the UK since 1987.
Simon Dack/Alamy Live News

huffingtonpost.com - by Gregory Katz - October 28, 2013

LONDON (AP) — A major storm with hurricane-force gusts lashed southern Britain, the Netherlands, France and Germany on Monday, knocking down trees, flooding low areas and causing travel chaos. Seven deaths were reported.

Weather forecasters say it was one of the worst storms to hit Britain in years.

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smithsonianmag.com - nationalgeographic.com - October 9, 2013

Climate change is a global problem, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to hit us all the same time.

If you live in Moscow, scientists estimate that your local climate will depart from the historical norm in the year 2063. In New York, that date is the year 2047. And if you happen to reside in Mexico City or Jakarta, those numbers are 2031 and 2029, respectively.

See a pattern here? These estimates, which all come from a new study published today in Nature by scientists from the University of Hawaii, reflect a concerning trend that some scientists believe will define the arrival of climate change’s effects on the planet: It’ll arrive in tropical, biodiverse areas first.

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state.gov

Remarks - Todd D. Stern
Special Envoy for Climate Change 
Chatham House
London, United Kingdom
October 22, 2013

Thanks so much. I’m very glad to be here at this distinguished venue. I appreciate the invitation.

Today, I want to talk about the promise and challenge of developing an ambitious, durable, new international climate agreement.

We are, of course, well past the time of doubting that our climate is changing, that it is changing rapidly, and that the pace of change is accelerating. We can see that climate impacts are already large, are very likely to increase significantly, and have the potential to be fundamentally disruptive to our world and the world of our children and grandchildren.