Image: Cholera cases in MSF facilities

dailydot.com - David Holmes - March 9th, 2012

Five years ago, Ivan Gayton would spend months at a time in the African bush with no connection to the outside world except for a satellite phone or a high-frequency radio.

But today, the head of Doctors Without Borders in Nigeria spends 75 percent of his time on a computer or a cell phone, even when working in rural Africa. And while the sense of adventure may be diminished, Gayton says the new technologies have had an “astonishing” effect on his organization’s effectiveness.

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'The great profusion of life in the past – fossilised in the form of flammable carbon – now jeopardises the great profusion of life in the present.' Illustration by Daniel Pudles

guardian.co.uk - by George Monbiot - July 2, 2012

The facts have changed, now we must change too. For the past 10 years an unlikely coalition of geologists, oil drillers, bankers, military strategists and environmentalists has been warning that peak oil – the decline of global supplies – is just around the corner. We had some strong reasons for doing so: production had slowed, the price had risen sharply, depletion was widespread and appeared to be escalating. The first of the great resource crunches seemed about to strike.

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noaa.gov - July 10, 2012

Back-to-back La Niñas cooled globe and influenced extreme weather in 2011

New NOAA-led report examines climate conditions experienced around the world

Worldwide, 2011 was the coolest year on record since 2008, yet temperatures remained above the 30 year average, according to the 2011 State of the Climate report released online today by NOAA. The peer-reviewed report, issued in coordination with the American Meteorological Society (AMS), was compiled by 378 scientists from 48 countries around the world. It provides a detailed update on global climate indicators, notable weather events and other data collected by environmental monitoring stations and instruments on land, sea, ice and sky.

Texas State Park Police Officer Thomas Bigham walks across the cracked lake bed of O.C. Fisher Lake, Aug. 3, 2011, in San Angelo, Texas. A combination of the long periods of 100-plus degree days and the lack of rain in the drought-stricken region has dried up the lake that once spanned over 5,400 acres. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

washingtonpost.com - by Associated Press - July 10, 2012

NEW YORK — Last year brought a record heat wave to Texas, massive floods in Bangkok and an unusually warm November in England. How much has global warming boosted the chances of events like that?

Quite a lot in Texas and England, but apparently not at all in Bangkok, say new analyses released Tuesday.

Scientists can’t blame any single weather event on global warming, but they can assess how climate change has altered the odds of such events happening, Tom Peterson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told reporters in a briefing. He’s an editor of a report that includes the analyses published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

submitted by Luis Kun

Homeland Security News Wire - July 5, 2012

Executive Summary - Slideshare

Executive Summary - (88 page .PDF file)

NAIIC Report

The commission investigating the Fukushima disaster of March 2011 concluded that although the combination of the tsunami and earthquake was unprecedented in its ferocity, the disaster was largely man-made because it was amplified by what came before it and what followed it. The disaster itself, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, said was sandwiched by practices and conduct which were the result of government-industry collusion and the worst conformist conventions of Japanese culture.

submitted by Samuel Bendett

A priest conducts a funeral ceremony, while acquaintances of Pyotr Ostapenko, 35, a flood victim, stand nearby, at the central cemetery in Krymsk in theKrasnodar region, southern Russia, July 9, 2012. Russia began a day of mourning on Monday for the 171 people killed in floods that drove thousands from their homes, with the causes of the disaster posing hard questions for the authorities, including President Vladimir Putin.
Photo By EDUARD KORNIYENKO/REUTERS

yahoo.com - Associated Press - by Nataliya Vasilyeva and Sergey Ponomarev - July 9, 2012

KRYMSK, Russia (AP) — Authorities failed to properly warn residents in the Black Sea region of floods that killed at least 171 people and left others scrambling for safety, Russia's emergencies minister acknowledged Monday, adding to public outrage fueled by widespread mistrust of the government.

Burned-out hulk of stores and apartments after night of rioting // Source: wikipedia.org

Homeland Security News Wire - July 5, 2012

Researchers studying urban violence have developed a new method which can help city authorities to assess the conditions where conflict could potentially tip into violence; Participatory Violence Appraisal (PVA), used in Kenya and Chile, could have helped to anticipate the tipping points that led to last summer’s riots in cities across the United Kingdom, the researchers say

A University of Manchester team researching urban violence has developed a new method which can help city authorities to assess the conditions where conflict could potentially tip into violence.

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www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com - June 27, 2012

                                                                                Image source: usgs.gov

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti killed hundreds of thousands and destroyed large sections of the capital, Port au Prince; the clock is ticking on many earthquake faults throughout the world, and a comprehensive new book points to places around the world that could face the fate of Port au Prince.

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A class 2 brine disposal well in western Louisiana near the Texas border. The well sat by the side of the road, without restricted access. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)

propublica.org - by Abrahm Lustgarten - June 21, 2012

Over the past several decades, U.S. industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth, using broad expanses of the nation's geology as an invisible dumping ground.

No company would be allowed to pour such dangerous chemicals into the rivers or onto the soil. But until recently, scientists and environmental officials have assumed that deep layers of rock beneath the earth would safely entomb the waste for millennia.

There are growing signs they were mistaken.

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GHRF, and Nepal and Bhutan affiliated NGOs, along with Ministries of Health and Agriculture are partnering to utilize mobile and information technology tools to warehouse health and environmental data together to allow multi-level assessments and cross-correlation of outcomes to assess health and environmental impact. 

The Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet project and the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition would like to invite everyone to the launch of the book Eating Planet - Nutrition Today: A Challenge for Mankind and for the Planet on June 28th, 2012. There will a panel, "How do we feed (and also nourish) a planet of 7 billion?", hosted by the editor-in-chief of the Food & Environmental Reporting Network, Samuel Fromartz.

The event will take place at The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC Studios on 44 Charlton Street, New York, NY, from 10 AM to 12 PM EST. The event is free to attend, but space is limited. Please see the link below to RSVP. A light brunch will be provided.

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submitted by Robert G.Ross

EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP/Getty Images - For more photos of new energy powers, click here.

foreignpolicy.com - by Steve Levine - June 5, 2012

A flurry of new finds has analysts giddy over a new age of energy abundance. Just don't ask about global warming.

Energy experts are tittering about a prodigious new golden age of oil and gas in the Eastern Mediterranean, where Israel and Cyprus could become substantial oil and natural gas exporters, in addition to some other surprising places including French Guiana, Kenya, North Dakota, and Somalia.

submitted by Robert G. Ross

atlantis-press.com - Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response - May 2012

Abstract:

Crises are our new reality. “Black swans” are increasingly becoming the norm; our systems, environments, contexts are structurally prone to crises. Doing more of the same will not be the appropriate way to deal with modern crises: a paradigm shift is needed, based on a more accurate understanding of the dynamics of complex systems. This paper is an invitation to change the theoretical vision of crisis and crisis management, and the education and training of all actors involved.

unhcr.org - May 31, 2012

NEW YORK, United States, May 31 (UNHCR) – UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres warned on Thursday that factors causing mass population flight are growing and over the coming decade more people on the move will become refugees or displaced within their own country.

In comments marking the launch in New York of "The State of the World's Refugees: In Search of Solidarity," Guterres said displacement from conflict was becoming compounded by a combination of causes, including climate change, population growth, urbanization, food insecurity, water scarcity and resource competition.

All these factors are interacting with each other, increasing instability and conflict and forcing people to move. In a world that is becoming smaller and smaller, finding solutions, he said, would need determined international political will.