greenbiz.com - July 15th, 2014 - Todd Reubold

By 2050, seven out of every 10 people on Earth will be an urban dweller. What the cities of the future look like depends largely on decisions we make today.

Will we design a future where driverless cars zip around under skyscraping vertical gardens in hyperconnected, energy-efficient “smart cities”? Or will we be trapped in endless traffic jams while pollution overwhelms remaining green spaces and infrastructure crumbles?

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Image: Eleni Kalorkoti

nytimes.com - by David J. Hayes - July 17, 2014

STANFORD, Calif. — AFTER years of hype, renewable energy has gone mainstream in much of the United States and, increasingly, around the world. . .

. . . But many communities that need small-scale renewable energy remain out in the cold — literally and figuratively.

In Alaska, for instance, the vast majority of the more than 200 small, isolated communities populated primarily by native Alaskans rely on dirty, expensive diesel fuel to generate their electricity and heat.

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CLICK HERE - The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP)

submitted by Albert Gomez

e360.yale.edu - July 15, 2014

Thirty scientific institutions from 15 countries last week released a report for the United Nations outlining how the world’s major carbon dioxide-emitting nations can slash those emissions by mid-century. Called the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project, the initiative aims to provide government leaders with a plan of action in advance of a UN climate summit in September and climate negotiations in Paris in late 2015. Yale Environment 360 asked Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and a key player in the decarbonization project, five questions about the initiative and the prospects for global action on the climate front.

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Published on Jul 10, 2014

Cities have always had to contend with things like natural disaster, economic and infrastructure collapse, and widespread illness. But globalization, climate change and rapid urbanization are making this moment in history different, and the stresses facing cities all the more complex. So how can cities survive, adapt, and grow, no matter what shocks might lie ahead? Join the Rockefeller Foundation's Judith Rodin for a look at what she calls "the resilience dividend" — investments that can minimize the disruptive effects of strain on a city, while simultaneously creating jobs, social cohesion, and equity.

It was humid, muddy and raining when WHO staff approached a compound in heavily populated New Kru Town, outside Monrovia, Liberia to look for people who have had contact with people infected with Ebola. A WHO technical adviser from Rwanda, sent in to help the zone coordinator, spoke to a woman who had cared for an Ebola patient. She understood the need to be monitored for the disease, but another man with whom the team talked denied knowing anyone with Ebola and refused further contact with the team.

Japan Meteorological Agency - http://www.jma.go.jp/en/typh/

gdacs.org - July 14, 2014

Tropical Cyclone RAMMASUN-14 can have a medium humanitarian impact based on the Maximum sustained wind speed and the affected population and their vulnerability.

Updated: this report is based on advisory number 18.

• Tropical Cyclone Hurricane/Typhoon > 74 mph (maximum wind speed of 167 km/h)
• from 14/07/2014 00:00 UTC to 18:00
• Population affected by Category 1 (120 km/h) wind speeds or higher is 35.6 million
• Vulnerability: High

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

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

submitted by Joe Browder

Offsetting carbon emissions by conserving ocean vegetation

thebluecarbonproject.com

What is Blue Carbon?

The problem: The growing emission of carbon dioxide from a wide range of human activities is causing unprecedented changes to the land and sea. Identifying effective, efficient and politically acceptable approaches to reduce the atmospheric concentration of CO₂ is one of society’s most pressing goals.

Image: The Keeling Curve

economist.com - May 11th, 2013

Charles D. Keeling, mostly known as Dave, was a soft-spoken, somewhat courtly man who changed the way people and governments see the world. A slightly aimless chemistry graduate with an interest in projects that took him out into the wild, in 1956 he started to build instruments that could measure the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a scientific topic which, back then, was barely even a backwater. In 1958, looking for a place where the level of carbon dioxide would not be too severely influenced by local plants or industry, he installed some instruments high up on Mauna Loa, a Hawaiian volcano.

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earth-policy.org - by J. Matthew Roney - July 8, 2014

China installed a world record amount of solar photovoltaics (PV) capacity in 2013. While this was the first time the country was the number one installer, China has led all countries in making PV for the better part of a decade. China now accounts for 64 percent of global solar panel production—churning out 25,600 megawatts of the nearly 40,000 megawatts of PV made worldwide in 2013—according to data from GTM Research. . .

. . . As demand for increasingly affordable solar power continues to climb around the world, GTM Research projects that China’s annual solar panel output will double to 51,000 megawatts by 2017, representing close to 70 percent of global production at that time.

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In this Sept. 25, 2009 photo, opposition candidate from the Aruban People's Party, Mike Eman, center left, and his wife Doina ride atop a jeep upon their arrival to a polling station in Oranjestad, Aruba. Prime Minister Eman and several legislators launched a hunger strike Friday, July 11, 2014, to protest what they say is meddling by the Dutch government in local financial affairs.(Photo: Pedro Famous Diaz AP)

usatoday.com - AP - July 12, 2014

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Aruba's prime minister and several legislators have launched a hunger strike to protest what they say is meddling by the Dutch government in local financial affairs. . .

. . . The hunger strike comes after the Dutch government asked Aruba's governor to hold off on signing the 2014 budget into law pending an evaluation of it. The Dutch Caribbean island, which approved the budget two weeks ago, is facing a major deficit and its national debt represents 75 percent of its GDP.

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esa.un.org - Press Release (excerpt)

UN finds world's population is increasingly urban with more than half living in urban areas today and another 2.5 billion expected by 2050

With nearly 38 million people, Tokyo tops UN’s ranking of most populous cities followed by Delhi, Shanghai, Mexico City, São Paulo and Mumbai

New York, 10 July—Today, 54 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66 per cent by 2050. Projections show that urbanization combined with the overall growth of the world’s population could add another 2.5 billion people to urban populations by 2050, with close to 90 percent of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa, according to a new United Nations report launched today.

The efforts to contain the largest Ebola outbreak in history have so far failed. International response teams, desperate to limit the toll of the fast-spreading epidemic in three West African countries, have been calling for the use experimental drugs or vaccines to try to stop the deadly virus. Many experts, however, including the scientist who led the work on a Canadian-made Ebola vaccine, say that using untested medications in the current West African outbreak could be disastrous. Other scientists disagree. The World Health Organization reports that the current outbreak, which is the first in West Africa, has so far infected 844 people, causing the death of 518 of them. This is double the size of the next largest outbreak, in Uganda in 2000, and this outbreak has just begun...

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Two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities by 2050, posing unique infrastructural challenges for African and Asian countries, where 90% of the growth is predicted to take place.

Twitter - @M_Ryuki0529 - https://twitter.com/M_Ryuki0529/status/486648262749732865/photo/1

weather.com - July 9, 2014

In Okinawa, heavy rainfall triggered flash flooding, prompting the Japanese Meteorological Society to reissue an "emergency warning" for landslides and damaging floods for the prefecture, having downgraded it earlier after the typhoon's eye had moved north. The city of Nago on Okinawa Island reported 17.24 inches (438.0 mm) of rain between 9:10 a.m. Tuesday and 9:10 a.m. Wednesday local time.

A Twitter user in Nago posted photos of floodwaters swamping the city of 60,000 Wednesday morning, warning residents of his or her native Miyazaki Prefecture that this was coming their way.

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/typhoon-neoguri-japan-okinawa-flood-threat-20140709

World Health Organisation says latest figures from three health ministries show total of 844 cases, with 518 deaths, in epidemic