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Toilet Tech Fair Tackles Global Sanitation Woes

submitted by Albert Gomez

      

In this Friday, March 21, 2014 photo, an exhibitor from Loughborough University demonstrates the use of a toilet during Reinvent The Toilet Fair in New Delhi, India. Scientists who accepted the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s challenge to reinvent the toilet showcased their inventions in the Indian capital Saturday. The primary goal: to sanitize waste, use minimal water or electricity, and produce a usable product at low cost. India is by far the worst culprit, with more than 640 million people defecating in the open and producing a stunning 72,000 tons of human waste each day - the equivalent weight of almost 10 Eiffel Towers or 1,800 humpback whales. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

wirelessdesignmag.com - by Katy Daigle - March 24, 2014

New Delhi (AP) — Who would have expected a toilet to one day filter water, charge a cellphone or create charcoal to combat climate change?

These are lofty ambitions beyond what most of the world's 2.5 billion people with no access to modern sanitation would expect. Yet, scientists and toilet innovators around the world say these are exactly the sort of goals needed to improve global public health amid challenges such as poverty, water scarcity and urban growth.

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NOMAD Micro Homes

      

nomadmicrohomes.com

NOMAD’s living room, kitchen, bathroom, stair, bedroom, and storage are all seamlessly integrated: a stair doubles as a kitchen, a window adds light to one area and a higher ceiling to another, a bathroom doubles as a shower, storage that can be used as seating, and so on. These features are not obvious at first glance, but each one is essential to NOMAD's livability.

NOMAD "Live" becomes NOMAD "Zero" when the following pre-engineered sustainable features are added: 
Solar Power
Composting Toilet
Rainwater Collection
Grey Water Treatment

They also offer upgrades . . .
Increased Wall and Roof Insulation
High Wind Loading
Triple Glazing

http://www.nomadmicrohomes.com/models.html

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Big Facts: Climate Impacts on People

      

ccafs.cgiar.org - by Simon Bager - March 26, 2014

Millions of people around the world already struggle to achieve food security and climate change is set to make those challenges even harder. It is perhaps humanity’s most pressing challenge, as we seek to nourish more than nine billion people by 2050.

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND INFOGRAPHICS)

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Fisheries and Aquaculture Fact Sheet - Earth Policy Institute

earth-policy.org - March 27, 2014

The world fish catch is a measure of the productivity and health of the oceanic ecosystem that covers 70 percent of the earth's surface. The extent to which world demand for seafood is outrunning the sustainable yield of fisheries can be seen in shrinking fish stocks, declining catches, and collapsing fisheries.

Seafood plays a vital role in world food security. Roughly 3 billion people get about 20 percent of their animal protein from fishery products.

The world fish catch has hovered around 90 million tons over the last 20 years.

The wild fish catch per person has dropped dramatically, from 17 kilograms (37.5 pounds) per person at its height in 1988 to 13 kilograms in 2012—a 37-year low.

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sigma - No 01/2014 Natural Catastrophes and Man-Made Disasters in 2013

submitted by Tim Siftar

swissre.com

According to the latest sigma study, global insured losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters were USD 45 billion in 2013, down from USD 81 billion in 2012. Of the 2013 insured losses, USD 37 billion were generated by natural catastrophes, with hail in Europe and floods in many regions being the main drivers.

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND LINKS TO THE STUDY)

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Ebola victims quarantined in Guinea

 — Health workers in protective hazmat suits treated patients in quarantine centers on Tuesday in a remote corner of Guinea where Ebola has killed at least 60 people in West Africa's first outbreak of the deadly virus in two decades.

Seven patients are being hospitalized at one isolation ward in Gueckedou in southern Guinea, while two others are being treated elsewhere, said Doctors Without Borders. The aid group said it is sending mobile teams into the surrounding countryside in search of people who may have been exposed since the first cases emerged last week.

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New Report Reveals U.S. Fisheries Killing Thousands of Protected and Endangered Species

oceana.org - March 20, 2014

(CLICK HERE - REPORT -
Wasted Catch: Unsolved Problems in U.S. Fisheries)

thedailybeast.com - by Abby Haglage - March 23, 2014

A new report by Oceana exposes nine U.S. fisheries that throw away half of what they catch, and kill dolphins, sea turtles, whales, and more in the process.

A new study released this week called Wasted Catch: Unsolved Bycatch Problems in U.S. Fisheries reveals the nine dirtiest fisheries in the United States. It’s a dirty bunch indeed, the waste between them accounting for nearly half a billion wasted seafood meals in the U.S. alone.

Culled by Oceana, the largest international organization for ocean conservation, the fisheries are ranked based on bycatch—the amount of unwanted creatures caught while commercial fishing.

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Exxon to Disclose Extent of Its Carbon Asset Exposure

newscientist.com - by Andy Coghlan - March 25, 2014

Oil giant Exxon Mobil has promised to reveal how much of its fossil fuel reserves could become worthless if governments agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It is the first major fossil fuel company to declare the size of its exposure to the so-called carbon bubble – the over-valuation of fossil fuel companies that could result if their assets are left unused.

To save ourselves from the worst impacts of global warming, we have to leave fossil fuels in the ground instead of burning them.

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Ebola Virus Suspected to Have Spread From Guinea to Liberia

Africa’s biggest Ebola outbreak in seven years has probably spread from Guinea to neighboring Liberia and also threatens Sierra Leone.

Five people are suspected to have died from the disease in Lofa county in northern Liberia, Bernice Dahn, Liberia’s chief medical officer, said at a briefing yesterday. At least 86 cases and 59 deaths have been recorded across Guinea, the west African country’s health ministry said. The capital, Conakry, hasn’t been affected, government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara said.

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Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Plane It Says Violated Air Space

Turkey shoots down Syrian plane

reuters.com - by Daren Butler - March 23, 2014

(Reuters) - Turkish armed forces shot down a Syrian plane on Sunday that Ankara said had crossed into its air space in an area where Syrian rebels have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces for control of a border crossing.

"A Syrian plane violated our airspace," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told an election rally in northwest Turkey. "Our F-16s took off and hit this plane.

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