The Human Imprint

UN warns over swine flu in birds

BBC News has reported on the discovery of  the H1N1 virus on a turkey farm in Chile last week. This is a concerning because viruses when they cross the species barrier can remix (recombination or reassortment) and mutate. There have been previous instances of the H1N1 virus passing from people to pigs in Canada, Argentina and Australia, but this is believed to be the first case with birds.  Two poultry farms are affected near the seaport of Valparaiso. The article states that: "Chilean authorities have established a temporary quarantine and have decided to allow the infected birds to recover rather than culling them".   Follow the link to find out more.

Oxfam warning over Nepal climate

BBC News reports that the international aid agency Oxfam has raised covcern over the lack of rainfall in Nepal. The report says that: "poor harvests, water shortages and extreme temperatures will put pressure on millions of Nepalis already living below the poverty line". One in four of the human population relies upon the snow melt of the Himalyas for their survival. According to the report: "Nepal has experienced its driest winter in 40 years, followed by late and unpredictable monsoon rains, and this has meant the land is more susceptible to erosion, but the prolonged drought has had a bigger impact.  Several million villagers living in Nepal's hills are facing water shortages which have, in turn, led to falling crop yields. A lack of ground water has also contributed to the spread of diseases such as diarrhoea, as villagers use dirty streams and rivers for drinking water". Follow the link to read the full report.

Earth Observatory

Check out the photos on the NASA site "Earth Observatory". Check out the recent photos on floods and drought as well as the recent severe storms around the world. 

Another day, another water story

When I applied for my Nuffield Scholarship virtually three years ago, problems with water resources around the world were a monthly story at best, but now it seems there is a water issue somewhere in the world reported every day of the week. After calls for conservation of water supplies in Los Angeles there has been ahuge drop in consumption by an incredible 17% last month compared to July 2008.

Hoping for rain

Ausfoodnews reports that the New South Wales (NSW) Primary Industries Minister, Ian Macdonald, has suggested that higher food prices over Christmas can be expected if there is no rain in the next two weeks. Data shows that 63.9% of NSW is in drought. This is affecting key crops including oil seed rape (canola), wheat and barley. Check out the article.

 

Blowing in the wind

I first sang the song "Blowing in the wind" when I learned to play the guitar when I was fourteen. I heard Bob Dylan sing the words again on the radio last week. The words have gained so much more meaning and poignancy in the intervening thirty years and are as truthful now as when they were written.

How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove fly, before she sleeps in the sand?
And how many times must a cannon ball fly, before they're forever banned?

How many years can a mountain exist, before it is washed to the sea?
How many years can some people exist, before they're allowed to be free?
And how many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn't see?

How many times must a man look up, before he sees the sky?
And how many ears must one man have, before he can hear people cry ?
And how many deaths will it take till we know, that too many people have died?

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.

400th anniversary of Galileo telescope

Four hundred years ago today Galileo demonstrated his first telescope - August 25, 1609. Here are some quotes from the man that are worthy of thought:

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. 

Sugar shortage begins to impact

It was just over a week ago that I first wrote a post about sugar shortages sowhen I read the BBC News article about sugar shortages in South Asia it was concerning to read the impact that it is having. The article reported that the "massive shortage in sugar stocks in India and Pakistan has led to soaring prices and consumer unrest".

According to the article: "The Indian government has introduced strict limits on companies that stockpile sugar to check rising prices. Shortages led Pakistan's government to nearly double sugar prices causing public outrage ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan, which has now begun. India is the largest consumer of sugar in the world and the second largest producer, but poor monsoon rains have slashed output, forcing it to rely on imports". One report quotes states that India has just 60 days of sugar in stock.

Concerning.

California Acts to Control Chromium in Drinking Water

Yesterday was a post about mercury levels in US fresh water and today a further post about chromium. Scientific American reports that on Thursday - California put forward a new "public health goal" for chromium 6 in drinking water that is thousands of times lower than the amount currently in some water supplies. The recommendation follows: "a decade of debate among scientists trying to decide what concentration is safe to drink. The controversial water contaminant was made famous by Erin Brockovich and a small Mojave Desert town that won the largest tort injury settlement in U.S. history".

The new recommendation is 0.06 parts per billion compared to the current state standard for total chromium compounds in drinking water of 50 ppb. The US national standard is 100 ppb. The guideline is not enfoceable but will drive future public policy. The report states that:

"The small town of Hinkley in San Bernardino County has the highest levels of chromium 6, also known as hexavalent chromium, ever reported in U.S. water. Its ground water contained as much as 580 parts per billion--nearly 10,000 times higher than the new proposed goal. Based on the state’s new recommendation, Hinkley residents who drank that level in water over their lifetime faced an extremely high cancer risk—an estimated one cancer for every 100 people exposed.

The compound seeped into the water from a Pacific Gas and Electricity facility where it was used to coat cooling towers and discharged into holding ponds in the 1950s and 1960s. PG&E paid a $333 million settlement to about 600 residents of Hinkley in 1996, after Brockovich, a law clerk, investigated the contamination and found high rates of cancer and other diseases. A 2000 film was based on Brockovich's legal crusade. Cleanup of Hinkley's contaminated water--an underground plume that is two miles long and one mile wide--began in the late 1980s and is continuing".

Read the article for the full review.

One in Four Fish in U.S. Waterways Contaminated with Unsafe Levels of Mercury

I have written in the last few days about lead poisoning in China and the huge human impact, but Scientific American have written an article about a problem that was discussed with me when I undertook my Nuffield study on water in the US in the autumn of 2007 - unsafe levels of mercury in US rivers.

The article states that: "Mercury contamination found in a quarter of U.S. freshwater fish exceeds federal safe levels for human consumption, according to a study released today by the U.S. Geological Survey. The agency examined mercury in fish, sediment and water drawn from 291 rivers and streams between 1998 and 2005, finding 25 percent carried mercury at levels above the safe standard for human consumption (0.3 parts per million wet weight), while all of the fish had detectable mercury levels".... Some of the highest levels of mercury in fish were found in "blackwater" streams in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, all of which have large, undeveloped, forested watersheds. Some high levels were also found in the western United States, which the scientists attributed to mining."

It should be noted that these fish do not enter the food supply chain within commercial fishing operations but it highlights the ecological issues in the waterways concerned and  issues for those who fish the freshwater rivers for their own consumption. Click on the link to read the full article.