Friday, September 12, 2014
Mothers' responses to babies' crying: Benefiting from and getting over childhood experiences
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 10-Sep-2014
Contact: Hannah Klein
Society for Research in Child Development
Mothers' responses to babies' crying: Benefiting from and getting over childhood experiences
Research has told us that infants whose mothers respond quickly, consistently, and warmly when they cry have healthier emotional development than infants whose mothers are less sensitive to their cries. A new study has found that mothers whose childhood experiences with caregivers was positive and those who have come to terms with negative experiences are more infant-oriented when they see videos of babies crying and respond more sensitively to their own babies' cries.
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"Responding sensitively to infant crying is a difficult yet important task," notes Esther M. Leerkes, professor of human development and family studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, who led the study. "Some mothers may need help controlling their own distress and interpreting babies' crying as an attempt to communicate need or discomfort. Home visiting programs or parenting classes that help parents become more aware of stress and teach ways to reduce it, as well as individualized parent education efforts, may help build these skills."
Mothers who experienced depression or had difficulty controlling their emotions responded to videos of babies crying by focusing on themselves rather than seeing the needs of the distressed babies as the priority. Mothers whose physical stress was poorly controlled (measured, for example, by skin conductance—how much sweat was on their skin in response to the stress—and rapid heart rate) in response to the videos were also more likely to focus on themselves and responded more negatively to the videos (they perceived crying as a nuisance or manipulation). In addition, mothers who responded more negatively and focused more on themselves prenatally were less sensitive to their own infants when the babies were 6 months old.
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tags: child abuse
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Binge drinking in pregnancy can affect child's mental health and school results
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 10-Sep-2014
Contact: Dara O'Hare
University of Bristol
Binge drinking in pregnancy can affect child's mental health and school results
Binge drinking during pregnancy can increase the risk of mental health problems (particularly hyperactivity and inattention) in children aged 11 and can have a negative effect on their school examination results, according to new research on more than 4,000 participants in the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol by a team of researchers from the universities of Nottingham, Bristol, Leicester, Oxford, Queensland (Australia) and Sheffield. The research is published today in the journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
This was the case even after a number of other lifestyle and social factors were taken into account, including the mother's own mental health, whether she smoked tobacco, used cannabis or other drugs during the pregnancy, her age, her education, and how many other children she had.
This builds on earlier research on the same children that found a link between binge drinking in pregnancy and their mental health when aged four and seven, suggesting that problems can persist as a child gets older. Other effects, such as on academic performance, may only become apparent later in a child's life.
In this research, binge drinking was defined as drinking four or more units of alcohol in a day on at least one occasion during the pregnancy.
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Exposure to violence has a different effect on people with aggressive traits
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 10-Sep-2014
Contact: Sasha Walek
The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
@mountsinainyc
New study examines impact of violent media on the brain
Exposure to violence has a different effect on people with aggressive traits
(NEW YORK – September 10, 2014) With the longstanding debate over whether violent movies cause real world violence as a backstop, a study published today in PLOS One found that each person's reaction to violent images depends on that individual's brain circuitry, and on how aggressive they were to begin with.
The study, which was led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the NIH Intramural Program, featured brain scans which revealed that both watching and not watching violent images caused different brain activity in people with different aggression levels. The findings may have implications for intervention programs that seek to reduce aggressive behavior starting in childhood.
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Investigators discovered that during mind wandering, when no movies were presented, the participants with aggressive traits had unusually high brain activity in a network of regions that are known to be active when not doing anything in particular. This suggests that participants with aggressive traits have a different brain function map than non-aggressive participants, researchers said.
Interestingly, while watching scenes from violent movies, the aggressive group had less brain activity than the non-aggressive group in the orbitofrontal cortex, a brain region associated by past studies with emotion-related decision making and self-control. The aggressive subjects described feeling more inspired and determined and less upset or nervous than non-aggressive participants when watching violent (day 1) versus just emotional (day 2) media. In line with these responses, while watching the violent media, aggressive participants' blood pressure went down progressively with time while the non-aggressive participants experienced a rise in blood pressure.
"How an individual responds to their environment depends on the brain of the beholder," said Dr. Alia-Klein. "Aggression is a trait that develops together with the nervous system over time starting from childhood; patterns of behavior become solidified and the nervous system prepares to continue the behavior patterns into adulthood when they become increasingly coached in personality. This could be at the root of the differences in people who are aggressive and not aggressive, and how media motivates them to do certain things. Hopefully these results will give educators an opportunity to identify children with aggressive traits and teach them to be more aware of how aggressive material activates them specifically."
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'Fat shaming' doesn't encourage weight loss
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
10-Sep-2014
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Contact: Harry Dayantis
h.dayantis@ucl.ac.uk
44-020-310-83844
University College London
@uclnews
'Fat shaming' doesn't encourage weight loss
Discrimination against overweight and obese people does not help them to lose weight, finds new UCL research
In a study of 2,944 UK adults over four years, those who reported experiencing weight discrimination gained more weight than those who did not. On average, after accounting for baseline differences, people who reported weight discrimination gained 0.95kg whereas those who did not lost 0.71kg, a difference of 1.66kg.
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"There is no justification for discriminating against people because of their weight," says lead author Dr Sarah Jackson (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health). "Our results show that weight discrimination does not encourage weight loss, and suggest that it may even exacerbate weight gain.
"Previous studies have found that people who experience discrimination report comfort eating. Stress responses to discrimination can increase appetite, particularly for unhealthy, energy-dense food. Weight discrimination has also been shown to make people feel less confident about taking part in physical activity, so they tend to avoid it."
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Even small stressors may be harmful to men’s health
http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2014/sep/even-small-stressors-may-be-harmful-men%E2%80%99s-health-new-osu-research-shows
Sept. 10, 2014
Older men who lead high-stress lives, either from chronic everyday hassles or because of a series of significant life events, are likely to die earlier than the average for their peers, new research from Oregon State University shows.
“We’re looking at long-term patterns of stress – if your stress level is chronically high, it could impact your mortality, or if you have a series of stressful life events, that could affect your mortality,” said Carolyn Aldwin, director of the Center for Healthy Aging Research in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU.
Her study looked at two types of stress: the everyday hassles of such things as commuting, job stress or arguments with family and friends; and significant life events, such as job loss or the death of a spouse.
Both types appear to be harmful to men’s health, but each type of stress appears to have an independent effect on mortality. Someone experiencing several stressful life events does not necessarily have high levels of stress from everyday hassles, Aldwin said. That is determined more by how a person reacts to the stress.
“It’s not the number of hassles that does you in, it’s the perception of them being a big deal that causes problems,” Aldwin said. “Taking things in stride may protect you.”
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Sept. 10, 2014
Older men who lead high-stress lives, either from chronic everyday hassles or because of a series of significant life events, are likely to die earlier than the average for their peers, new research from Oregon State University shows.
“We’re looking at long-term patterns of stress – if your stress level is chronically high, it could impact your mortality, or if you have a series of stressful life events, that could affect your mortality,” said Carolyn Aldwin, director of the Center for Healthy Aging Research in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU.
Her study looked at two types of stress: the everyday hassles of such things as commuting, job stress or arguments with family and friends; and significant life events, such as job loss or the death of a spouse.
Both types appear to be harmful to men’s health, but each type of stress appears to have an independent effect on mortality. Someone experiencing several stressful life events does not necessarily have high levels of stress from everyday hassles, Aldwin said. That is determined more by how a person reacts to the stress.
“It’s not the number of hassles that does you in, it’s the perception of them being a big deal that causes problems,” Aldwin said. “Taking things in stride may protect you.”
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Correlation between dietary fats and academic success
http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2014/014386/hold-mayo
By Andrea Estrada
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
You are what you eat, the saying goes, and now a study conducted by researchers at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Pittsburgh suggests that the oft-repeated adage applies not just to physical health but to brain power as well.
In a paper published in the early online edition of the journal Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, the researchers compared the fatty acid profiles of breast milk from women in over two dozen countries with how well children from those same countries performed on academic tests.
Their findings show that the amount of omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in a mother’s milk — fats found primarily in certain fish, nuts and seeds — is the strongest predictor of test performance. It outweighs national income and the number of dollars spent per pupil in schools.
DHA alone accounted for about 20 percent of the differences in test scores among countries, the researchers found.
On the other hand, the amount of omega-6 fat in mother’s milk — fats that come from vegetable oils such as corn and soybean — predict lower test scores. When the amount of DHA and linoleic acid (LA) — the most common omega-6 fat — were considered together, they explained nearly half of the differences in test scores. In countries where mother’s diets contain more omega-6, the beneficial effects of DHA seem to be reduced.
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The profiles are a useful measure for two reasons, according to Gaulin. First, because various kinds of fats interfere with one another in the body, breast milk DHA shows how much of this brain-essential fat survives competition with omega-6. Second, children receive their brain-building fats from their mothers. Breast milk profiles indicate the amount of DHA children in each region receive in the womb, through breastfeeding, and from the local diet available to their mothers and to them after they are weaned.
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Gaulin and Lassek considered two economic factors as well: per capita gross domestic product (a measure of average wealth in each nation) and per student expenditures on education. “Each of these factors helps explain some of the differences between nations in test scores, but the fatty acid profile of the average mother’s milk in a given country is a better predictor of the average cognitive performance in that country than is either of the conventional socioeconomic measures people use,” said Gaulin.
From their analysis, the researchers conclude that both economic wellbeing and diet make a difference in cognitive test performance, and children are best off when they have both factors in their favor. “But if you had to choose one, you should choose the better diet rather than the better economy,” Gaulin said.
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Their results are particularly interesting in 21st-century North America, Gaulin noted, because our current agribusiness-based diets provide very low levels of DHA — among the lowest in the world. Thanks to two heavily government-subsidized crops — corn and soybeans — the average U.S. diet is heavy in the bad omega-6 fatty acids and far too light on the good omega-3s, Gaulin said.
“Back in the 1960s, in the middle of the cardiovascular disease epidemic, people got the idea that saturated fats were bad and polyunsaturated fats were good,” he explained. “That’s one reason margarine became so popular. But the polyunsaturated fats that were increased were the ones with omega-6, not omega-3. So our message is that not only is it advisable to increase omega 3 intake, it’s highly advisable to decrease omega-6 — the very fats that in the 1960s and ’70s we were told we should be eating more of.”
Gaulin added that mayonnaise is, in general, the most omega-6-laden food in the average person’s refrigerator. “If you have too much of one — omega-6 — and too little of the other — omega 3 — you’re going to end up paying a price cognitively,” he said.
The issue is a huge concern for women, Gaulin noted, because “that’s where kids’ brains come from. But it’s important for men as well because they have to take care of the brains their moms gave them.
“Just like a racecar burns up some of its motor oil with every lap, your brain burns up omega-3 and you need to replenish it every day,” he said.
By Andrea Estrada
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
You are what you eat, the saying goes, and now a study conducted by researchers at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Pittsburgh suggests that the oft-repeated adage applies not just to physical health but to brain power as well.
In a paper published in the early online edition of the journal Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, the researchers compared the fatty acid profiles of breast milk from women in over two dozen countries with how well children from those same countries performed on academic tests.
Their findings show that the amount of omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in a mother’s milk — fats found primarily in certain fish, nuts and seeds — is the strongest predictor of test performance. It outweighs national income and the number of dollars spent per pupil in schools.
DHA alone accounted for about 20 percent of the differences in test scores among countries, the researchers found.
On the other hand, the amount of omega-6 fat in mother’s milk — fats that come from vegetable oils such as corn and soybean — predict lower test scores. When the amount of DHA and linoleic acid (LA) — the most common omega-6 fat — were considered together, they explained nearly half of the differences in test scores. In countries where mother’s diets contain more omega-6, the beneficial effects of DHA seem to be reduced.
•••••
The profiles are a useful measure for two reasons, according to Gaulin. First, because various kinds of fats interfere with one another in the body, breast milk DHA shows how much of this brain-essential fat survives competition with omega-6. Second, children receive their brain-building fats from their mothers. Breast milk profiles indicate the amount of DHA children in each region receive in the womb, through breastfeeding, and from the local diet available to their mothers and to them after they are weaned.
•••••
Gaulin and Lassek considered two economic factors as well: per capita gross domestic product (a measure of average wealth in each nation) and per student expenditures on education. “Each of these factors helps explain some of the differences between nations in test scores, but the fatty acid profile of the average mother’s milk in a given country is a better predictor of the average cognitive performance in that country than is either of the conventional socioeconomic measures people use,” said Gaulin.
From their analysis, the researchers conclude that both economic wellbeing and diet make a difference in cognitive test performance, and children are best off when they have both factors in their favor. “But if you had to choose one, you should choose the better diet rather than the better economy,” Gaulin said.
•••••
Their results are particularly interesting in 21st-century North America, Gaulin noted, because our current agribusiness-based diets provide very low levels of DHA — among the lowest in the world. Thanks to two heavily government-subsidized crops — corn and soybeans — the average U.S. diet is heavy in the bad omega-6 fatty acids and far too light on the good omega-3s, Gaulin said.
“Back in the 1960s, in the middle of the cardiovascular disease epidemic, people got the idea that saturated fats were bad and polyunsaturated fats were good,” he explained. “That’s one reason margarine became so popular. But the polyunsaturated fats that were increased were the ones with omega-6, not omega-3. So our message is that not only is it advisable to increase omega 3 intake, it’s highly advisable to decrease omega-6 — the very fats that in the 1960s and ’70s we were told we should be eating more of.”
Gaulin added that mayonnaise is, in general, the most omega-6-laden food in the average person’s refrigerator. “If you have too much of one — omega-6 — and too little of the other — omega 3 — you’re going to end up paying a price cognitively,” he said.
The issue is a huge concern for women, Gaulin noted, because “that’s where kids’ brains come from. But it’s important for men as well because they have to take care of the brains their moms gave them.
“Just like a racecar burns up some of its motor oil with every lap, your brain burns up omega-3 and you need to replenish it every day,” he said.
Northern Lights May Ignite in Northeast, Central US Skies: Where to See Rare Show
http://m.accuweather.com/en/features/trend/northern_lights_viewing_condit/33834457
September 12, 2014; 10:17 AM
Stargazers could be in for a rare display Friday night as an Earth-directed solar flare ignites the northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, in the United States. As a result of the flare's direction and strength, the dazzling light display could reach as far south as Maryland in the East and down over Nebraska farther west.
According to AccuWeather.com Astronomer Hunter Outten, the flare is ranked as an X-class, or the highest class for a solar flare. Along with the brilliant light display that may be visible to some in the northern part of the country, a flare of this magnitude could also have adverse effects on GPS, radio frequencies and cell phone and satellite reception as well.
A coronal mass ejection (CME), or a cloud of charged particles released from solar activity, is expected to induce a geomagnetic storm in Earth's atmosphere, around midday Friday. Outten said that this CME will be the second of a "two-hit punch," as another had hit the Earth on Thursday. The geomagnetic storm will cause the northern lights show.
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As the best viewing for the northern lights will occur Friday night, the northern lights will be seen in the Northeast first and then become visible farther west.
There will be some hurdles present for some hopeful viewers, however. Outten pointed out that we're just getting out of the Supermoon, so the light will dull some of the views. There will also be some cloud coverage that will hinder views as well. Clouds will be especially problematic in the Upper Ohio Valley into the Northeast.
Some clouds reaching the northern Plains may also hinder viewing conditions.
Outten said that DSLR cameras will pick up the lights better than the human eye may.
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September 12, 2014; 10:17 AM
Stargazers could be in for a rare display Friday night as an Earth-directed solar flare ignites the northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, in the United States. As a result of the flare's direction and strength, the dazzling light display could reach as far south as Maryland in the East and down over Nebraska farther west.
According to AccuWeather.com Astronomer Hunter Outten, the flare is ranked as an X-class, or the highest class for a solar flare. Along with the brilliant light display that may be visible to some in the northern part of the country, a flare of this magnitude could also have adverse effects on GPS, radio frequencies and cell phone and satellite reception as well.
A coronal mass ejection (CME), or a cloud of charged particles released from solar activity, is expected to induce a geomagnetic storm in Earth's atmosphere, around midday Friday. Outten said that this CME will be the second of a "two-hit punch," as another had hit the Earth on Thursday. The geomagnetic storm will cause the northern lights show.
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As the best viewing for the northern lights will occur Friday night, the northern lights will be seen in the Northeast first and then become visible farther west.
There will be some hurdles present for some hopeful viewers, however. Outten pointed out that we're just getting out of the Supermoon, so the light will dull some of the views. There will also be some cloud coverage that will hinder views as well. Clouds will be especially problematic in the Upper Ohio Valley into the Northeast.
Some clouds reaching the northern Plains may also hinder viewing conditions.
Outten said that DSLR cameras will pick up the lights better than the human eye may.
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Republicans vote that corporations are people
https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/861305047215426
Anyone who still doubts there’s a difference between congressional Republicans and Democrats should note that yesterday the Senate voted down a constitutional amendment that would have overturned several Supreme Court decisions by declaring that money isn't speech and corporations aren't people, and limits on campaign donations and spending therefore are permissible. Democrats voted for the proposed amendment, but every Senate Republican voted against (it needed 60 votes).
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Anyone who still doubts there’s a difference between congressional Republicans and Democrats should note that yesterday the Senate voted down a constitutional amendment that would have overturned several Supreme Court decisions by declaring that money isn't speech and corporations aren't people, and limits on campaign donations and spending therefore are permissible. Democrats voted for the proposed amendment, but every Senate Republican voted against (it needed 60 votes).
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High levels of physical activity linked to better academic performance in boys
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 11-Sep-2014
Contact: Eero A. Haapala
University of Eastern Finland
High levels of physical activity linked to better academic performance in boys
A recent Finnish study shows that higher levels of physical activity are related to better academic achievement during the first three school years particularly in boys. The study published in PLOS ONE was conducted in collaboration with the Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) Study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland and the First Steps Study at the University of Jyväskylä.
The study investigated the relationships of different types of physical activity and sedentary behavior assessed in the first grade to reading and arithmetic skills in grades 1 among 186 Finnish children. Higher levels of physical activity at recess were related to better reading skills and participation in organized sports was linked to higher arithmetic test scores in grades 1. Particularly boys with higher levels of physical activity, and especially walking and bicycling to and from school, had better reading skills than less active boys. Furthermore, boys who spent more time doing activities involving reading and writing on their leisure time had better reading skills compared to boys who spent less time doing those activities. Moreover, boys with more computer and video game time achieved higher arithmetic test scores than boys with less computer and video game time.
In girls, there were only few associations of physical activity and sedentary behavior with academic achievement when various confounding factors were controlled for.
The findings of the present study highlight the potential of physical activity during recess and participation in organized sports in the improvement of academic achievement in children. Particularly boys´ school success may benefit from higher levels of physical activity and active school transportation, reading and writing as well as moderate computer and video game use.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Increased Access to Nature Trails, Forest Lands Could Decrease Youth Obesity Rates
http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2014/0911-increased-access-to-nature-trails-forest-lands%E2%80%93not-nature-preserves%E2%80%93could-decrease-youth-obesity-rates-mu-study-finds/
Sept. 11, 2014
Story Contact(s): Nathan Hurst
As youth obesity levels in America remain at record high levels, health professionals and policymakers continue to search for solutions to this national health issue. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota have found that local governments can help reduce youth obesity levels by increasing the amount and type of public lands available for recreation. Sonja Wilhelm Stanis, an associate professor of parks, recreation and tourism in the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, found that counties with more non-motorized nature trails and forest lands have higher levels of youth activity and lower youth obesity
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“More non-motorized nature trails available for use by youth in a particular county lead to an increase in the physical activity rates as well as lower youth obesity rates,” Wilhelm Stanis said.
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Sept. 11, 2014
Story Contact(s): Nathan Hurst
As youth obesity levels in America remain at record high levels, health professionals and policymakers continue to search for solutions to this national health issue. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota have found that local governments can help reduce youth obesity levels by increasing the amount and type of public lands available for recreation. Sonja Wilhelm Stanis, an associate professor of parks, recreation and tourism in the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, found that counties with more non-motorized nature trails and forest lands have higher levels of youth activity and lower youth obesity
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“More non-motorized nature trails available for use by youth in a particular county lead to an increase in the physical activity rates as well as lower youth obesity rates,” Wilhelm Stanis said.
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Not enough vitamin B1 can cause brain damage
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 11-Sep-2014
Contact: Jim Ritter
Loyola University Health System
@LoyolaHealth
Not enough vitamin B1 can cause brain damage
Toxins and other metabolic disorders also can cause encephalopathy
MAYWOOD, Ill – (Sept. 11, 2014) A deficiency of a single vitamin, B1 (thiamine), can cause a potentially fatal brain disorder called Wernicke encephalopathy.
Symptoms can include confusion, hallucinations, coma, loss of muscle coordination and vision problems such as double vision and involuntary eye movements. Untreated, the condition can lead to irreversible brain damage and death, according to neurologists at Loyola University Medical Center.
In the developed world, Wernicke encephalopathy typically occurs in people who have disorders such as alcoholism and anorexia that lead to malnourishment.
Wernicke encephalopathy is an example of the wide range of brain diseases, called encephalopathies, that are caused by metabolic disorders and toxic substances, according to a report by Loyola neurologists Matthew McCoyd, MD, Sean Ruland, DO and Jose Biller, MD in the journal Scientific American Medicine.
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Toxic encephalopathy can be caused by illegal drugs, environmental toxins and reactions to prescription drugs.
Thiamine deficiency is among the nutritional deficiencies that can cause brain diseases such as Wernicke encephalopathy. The condition likely is underdiagnosed. Although clinical studies find a rate of 0.13 percent or less, autopsy studies show a prevalence as high as 2.8 percent.
"Particularly in those who suffer from alcoholism or AIDS, the diagnosis is missed on clinical examination in 75 to 80 percent of cases," the Loyola neurologists write.
Untreated, Wernicke encephalopathy can lead to Korsakoff syndrome (KS), characterized by profound memory loss and inability to form memories – patients often can't remember events within the past 30 minutes. Other KS symptoms can include apathy, anxiety and confabulation (fabricating imaginary experiences to compensate for memory loss).
About 80 percent of Wernicke encephalopathy patients develop KS, and once this occurs, only about 20 percent of patients recover.
Wernicke encephalopathy is a medical emergency that requires immediate thiamine treatment, either by injection or IV. "In the absence of treatment, deficiency can lead to irreversible brain damage and death with an estimated mortality of 20 percent," the Loyola neurologists write.
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Here’s How Global Warming Is Already Worsening Extreme Deluges In The U.S.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/09/3564989/global-warming-extreme-deluges/
by Joe Romm Posted on September 9, 2014
One of the most robust scientific findings is the direct connection between global warming and more extreme deluges. Scientists have observed a sharp jump in monster one- and two-day rainstorms in this country.
The 2014 National Climate Assessment (NCA), which is the definitive statement of current and future U.S. climate impacts, notes, “The mechanism driving these changes is well understood.” The congressionally-mandated report by 300 leading climate scientists and experts, which was reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences, explains:
Warmer air can contain more water vapor than cooler air. Global analyses show that the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere has in fact increased due to human-caused warming…. This extra moisture is available to storm systems, resulting in heavier rainfalls. Climate change also alters characteristics of the atmosphere that affect weather patterns and storms.
That final point from our leading scientists is very important. The worst deluges have jumped not merely because warmer air holds more moisture that in turn gets sucked into major storm systems. Increasingly, scientists have explained that climate change is altering the jet stream and weather patterns in ways that can cause storm systems to slow down or get stuck, thereby giving them more time to dump heavy precipitation.
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Dr. Kevin Trenberth, former head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and one of the world’s leading experts on extreme weather, wrote a must-read article in 2012 on how to “relate climate extremes to climate change” (PDF here, HTML here). As Trenberth explains:
The answer to the oft-asked question of whether an event is caused by climate change is that it is the wrong question. All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be….
The air is on average warmer and moister than it was prior to about 1970 and in turn has likely led to a 5–10% effect on precipitation and storms that is greatly amplified in extremes. The warm moist air is readily advected onto land and caught up in weather systems as part of the hydrological cycle, where it contributes to more intense precipitation events that are widely observed to be occurring.
Because global warming tends to make wet areas wetter and dry areas drier, this effect does not manifest itself the same way in every part of the country.
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Those of you in the Northeast who thought you’d noticed deluges becoming more intense were right. Thanks to climate change, when it rains, it pours, literally. As the NCA explained, “The heaviest rainfall events have become heavier and more frequent, and the amount of rain falling on the heaviest rain days has also increased.” Some 70 percent more precipitation falls in the heaviest rain events now than it did in 1958.
Ironically, what this means is that even for the regions that are expected to see a drop in total annual precipitation — such as the Southwest — more of the precipitation they do get will be in the form of deluges so intense they can create terrible flash floods. Sound familiar?
The bottom line is that scientists predicted that climate change would increase the intensity and frequency of the worst deluges — and we’ve observed that happening. Now scientists are telling us that things are going to get a lot worse. After all, the Earth has only warmed one degree Fahrenheit in the past half-century, while we are on track to warm as much as ten times that this century if we continue ignoring the warnings. Perhaps it’s time to listen and act…
•••••
by Joe Romm Posted on September 9, 2014
One of the most robust scientific findings is the direct connection between global warming and more extreme deluges. Scientists have observed a sharp jump in monster one- and two-day rainstorms in this country.
The 2014 National Climate Assessment (NCA), which is the definitive statement of current and future U.S. climate impacts, notes, “The mechanism driving these changes is well understood.” The congressionally-mandated report by 300 leading climate scientists and experts, which was reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences, explains:
Warmer air can contain more water vapor than cooler air. Global analyses show that the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere has in fact increased due to human-caused warming…. This extra moisture is available to storm systems, resulting in heavier rainfalls. Climate change also alters characteristics of the atmosphere that affect weather patterns and storms.
That final point from our leading scientists is very important. The worst deluges have jumped not merely because warmer air holds more moisture that in turn gets sucked into major storm systems. Increasingly, scientists have explained that climate change is altering the jet stream and weather patterns in ways that can cause storm systems to slow down or get stuck, thereby giving them more time to dump heavy precipitation.
•••••
Dr. Kevin Trenberth, former head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and one of the world’s leading experts on extreme weather, wrote a must-read article in 2012 on how to “relate climate extremes to climate change” (PDF here, HTML here). As Trenberth explains:
The answer to the oft-asked question of whether an event is caused by climate change is that it is the wrong question. All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be….
The air is on average warmer and moister than it was prior to about 1970 and in turn has likely led to a 5–10% effect on precipitation and storms that is greatly amplified in extremes. The warm moist air is readily advected onto land and caught up in weather systems as part of the hydrological cycle, where it contributes to more intense precipitation events that are widely observed to be occurring.
Because global warming tends to make wet areas wetter and dry areas drier, this effect does not manifest itself the same way in every part of the country.
•••••
Those of you in the Northeast who thought you’d noticed deluges becoming more intense were right. Thanks to climate change, when it rains, it pours, literally. As the NCA explained, “The heaviest rainfall events have become heavier and more frequent, and the amount of rain falling on the heaviest rain days has also increased.” Some 70 percent more precipitation falls in the heaviest rain events now than it did in 1958.
Ironically, what this means is that even for the regions that are expected to see a drop in total annual precipitation — such as the Southwest — more of the precipitation they do get will be in the form of deluges so intense they can create terrible flash floods. Sound familiar?
The bottom line is that scientists predicted that climate change would increase the intensity and frequency of the worst deluges — and we’ve observed that happening. Now scientists are telling us that things are going to get a lot worse. After all, the Earth has only warmed one degree Fahrenheit in the past half-century, while we are on track to warm as much as ten times that this century if we continue ignoring the warnings. Perhaps it’s time to listen and act…
•••••
Minnesota Faces Loss Of Its Beloved Loon Due to Climate Change
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/11/3565598/climate-change-minnesota-loon/
by Katie Valentine Posted on September 11, 2014
•••••
This week, the Audubon Society released a comprehensive report on the threats North America’s birds face from climate change. The report found that the common loon, Minnesota’s beloved state bird, is projected to have just 25 percent of its non-breeding season range and 44 percent of its breeding season range left by 2080.
Due to warming temperatures and changing weather patterns, the report states, “it looks all but certain that Minnesota will lose its iconic loons in summer by the end of the century.” The common loon has a better chance than some other birds of being able to adapt to a new, more northern habitat as the earth warms, but that still means Minnesota won’t have the loons its residents have long been used to.
•••••
Loons aren’t the only state bird to be threatened by climate change. According to Audubon, the state birds of ten states, including Maryland’s Baltimore oriole and Louisiana’s brown pelican, could shift out of their representative states in the coming decades.
Looking beyond iconic state birds, the report found that nearly half of North America’s bird species face dwindling ranges as the planet warms, and some birds, including the eared grebe and the northern saw-whet owl, stand to lose almost 100 percent of their current ranges by 2080. Some of these birds will be able to adapt by moving northward or upward in elevation, but others won’t — Audubon’s Yarnold told the New York Times that when looking at the data from the report, “it’s hard to believe we won’t lose some species to extinction.”
“How many? We honestly don’t know. We don’t know which ones are going to prove heroically resilient,” Yarnold said.
•••••
by Katie Valentine Posted on September 11, 2014
•••••
This week, the Audubon Society released a comprehensive report on the threats North America’s birds face from climate change. The report found that the common loon, Minnesota’s beloved state bird, is projected to have just 25 percent of its non-breeding season range and 44 percent of its breeding season range left by 2080.
Due to warming temperatures and changing weather patterns, the report states, “it looks all but certain that Minnesota will lose its iconic loons in summer by the end of the century.” The common loon has a better chance than some other birds of being able to adapt to a new, more northern habitat as the earth warms, but that still means Minnesota won’t have the loons its residents have long been used to.
•••••
Loons aren’t the only state bird to be threatened by climate change. According to Audubon, the state birds of ten states, including Maryland’s Baltimore oriole and Louisiana’s brown pelican, could shift out of their representative states in the coming decades.
Looking beyond iconic state birds, the report found that nearly half of North America’s bird species face dwindling ranges as the planet warms, and some birds, including the eared grebe and the northern saw-whet owl, stand to lose almost 100 percent of their current ranges by 2080. Some of these birds will be able to adapt by moving northward or upward in elevation, but others won’t — Audubon’s Yarnold told the New York Times that when looking at the data from the report, “it’s hard to believe we won’t lose some species to extinction.”
“How many? We honestly don’t know. We don’t know which ones are going to prove heroically resilient,” Yarnold said.
•••••
Trees Are Dying From ‘No Obvious Cause’ In Rocky Mountains,
I hHeard a report a few minutes ago on scientists investigation whether fire flies are disappearing. I lived in the same place since 1993 (Atlanta suburb), and the question is not whether, by why. I did notice that I didn't see any for several years after the drought. I saw a few earlier this year.http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/11/3566195/rocky-mountain-trees-risk/
by Ari Phillips Posted on September 11, 2014
The Rocky Mountain forests that traverse the West are under unprecedented danger from climate-related impacts according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. The Rockies include national parks like Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Park, and are facing a “triple assault — tree-killing insects, wildfires, and heat and drought — that could fundamentally alter these forests as we know them.”
According to the report, titled “Rocky Mountain Forests at Risk,” many western trees are dying from “no obvious cause” like the bark beetle epidemic or increasing threat of wildfire, with scientists suggesting that these deaths are due simply to the hotter and drier conditions associated with climate change. The mortality rate for old-growth trees in undisturbed forests has doubled recently, with a sharp increase in recent years, and there’s been no compensating increase in the number of seedlings.
According to National Climate Assessment figures in the report, given very low future carbon emissions, average temperatures in the six Rocky Mountain states could rise to about 3°F above 1971–2000 levels by mid-century. However if emissions remain unchecked, this number could double or triple. In all scenarios, bark beetle infestations are likely to increase, larger wildfires are expected, and early snowmelt and reduced snow cover would lead to water stress.
This would make the climate less suitable for characteristic Rockies’ species, including lodgepole pine, Engelmann spruce, ponderosa pine, and Douglas fir, as well as iconic species including whitebark pine, aspen, and piñon pine.
“These species could be eliminated from much of their current ranges, potentially changing the fundamental makeup and extent of Rocky Mountain forests,” write the authors.
In a statement Stephen Saunders, report co-author and president of RMCO, said that while climate changes have been modest so far “they have already jolted our forests,” and “if we continue changing the climate, we may bring about much more fundamental disruption of these treasured national landscapes.”
•••••
==========================================
From a comment on the preceding web site:
There is no doubt that climate change will kill trees, as they cannot migrate fast enough. However, that is not what is killing the trees NOW. And there actually IS an obvious reason they are dying prematurely - it is from ordinary, invisible air pollution. The background level of ozone is inexorably rising, and it is highly toxic to vegetation. In addition to shrinking roots, making plants more vulnerable to drought and wind, it causes a loss of natural immunity to biotic pathogens such as insects, disease and fungus, which have become epidemics all over the world, not only in the American west. In fact bark beetles are killing trees in the southeast US, which has become cooler and wetter from climate change. Every species of tree is now in decline from an onslaught of attacks because they are weakened from pollution. This has been well-researched, but rarely is discussed because the only way to stop it is to stop burning fuel.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Walmart changes dress code, employees have to pay
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-a-dress-code-becomes-a-lightning-rod-add-walmart/
ByAimee Picchi September 10, 2014
When does a dress code become a major headache? When it involves Walmart (WMT) and most of its retail workforce.
Walmart has introduced what it's calling a new dress code for its employees, a "new look" that includes rather sedate choices, such as twill pants and knit polos. While the sartorial variety isn't raising questions, the issue of cost -- as in, who bears the responsibility for outfitting employees in the new clothes -- is bringing up a host of problematic issues.
Some workers say they can't afford to shell out for new threads, thanks to their meager Walmart hourly wages. One worker, Richard Reynoso, wrote in a letter to the company's human resources manager that he's paid about $800 to $900 a month as an overnight stocker, and that he estimates the cost of three uniforms would set him back about $50.
•••••
For Walmart, the decision to call the new requirement a "dress code" is also coming under fire. That's because there's a major difference in how the Department of Labor classifies dress codes versus uniforms, writes Erik Sherman at Forbes.com.
If Walmart had opted to call the new standards a "uniform," the requirement would have been considered a business expense of the employer. But even if the employer requires its workers to shell out for the uniform, those workers can't see their pay drop below the federal minimum wage because of that expense.
A dress code, however, comes with no legal obligation for the employer to pay for the new threads.
That means that Walmart's policy change appears to be squarely placing the additional costs on the shoulders of its workforce. Walmart, the world's largest retailer, employs 1.3 million people in the U.S.
•••••
Interestingly, Walmart isn't requiring that workers buy from its own stores, although it is marking dress-code appropriate merchandise with a "spark" on the tag, and provided workers with a link to buy clothing from Walmart.com.
•••••
ByAimee Picchi September 10, 2014
When does a dress code become a major headache? When it involves Walmart (WMT) and most of its retail workforce.
Walmart has introduced what it's calling a new dress code for its employees, a "new look" that includes rather sedate choices, such as twill pants and knit polos. While the sartorial variety isn't raising questions, the issue of cost -- as in, who bears the responsibility for outfitting employees in the new clothes -- is bringing up a host of problematic issues.
Some workers say they can't afford to shell out for new threads, thanks to their meager Walmart hourly wages. One worker, Richard Reynoso, wrote in a letter to the company's human resources manager that he's paid about $800 to $900 a month as an overnight stocker, and that he estimates the cost of three uniforms would set him back about $50.
•••••
For Walmart, the decision to call the new requirement a "dress code" is also coming under fire. That's because there's a major difference in how the Department of Labor classifies dress codes versus uniforms, writes Erik Sherman at Forbes.com.
If Walmart had opted to call the new standards a "uniform," the requirement would have been considered a business expense of the employer. But even if the employer requires its workers to shell out for the uniform, those workers can't see their pay drop below the federal minimum wage because of that expense.
A dress code, however, comes with no legal obligation for the employer to pay for the new threads.
That means that Walmart's policy change appears to be squarely placing the additional costs on the shoulders of its workforce. Walmart, the world's largest retailer, employs 1.3 million people in the U.S.
•••••
Interestingly, Walmart isn't requiring that workers buy from its own stores, although it is marking dress-code appropriate merchandise with a "spark" on the tag, and provided workers with a link to buy clothing from Walmart.com.
•••••
Tuesday, September 09, 2014
Intervention in 6-month-olds with autism eliminates symptoms, developmental delay
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 9-Sep-2014
Contact: Phyllis Brown
University of California - Davis Health System
Intervention in 6-month-olds with autism eliminates symptoms, developmental delay
'Infant Start' therapy removes disabling delay before most children are diagnosed
Treatment at the earliest age when symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear – sometimes in infants as young as 6 months old – significantly reduces symptoms so that, by age 3, most who received the therapy had neither ASD nor developmental delay, a UC Davis MIND Institute research study has found.
The treatment, known as Infant Start, was administered over a six-month period to 6- to 15-month-old infants who exhibited marked autism symptoms, such as decreased eye contact, social interest or engagement, repetitive movement patterns, and a lack of intentional communication. It was delivered by the people who were most in tune with and spent the most time with the babies: their parents.
“Autism treatment in the first year of life: A pilot study of Infant Start, a parent-implemented intervention for symptomatic infants,” is co-authored by UC Davis professors of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Sally J. Rogers and Sally Ozonoff. It is published online today in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
"Most of the children in the study, six out of seven, caught up in all of their learning skills and their language by the time they were 2 to 3," said Rogers, the study's lead author and the developer of the Infant Start therapy. "Most children with ASD are barely even getting diagnosed by then."
"For the children who are achieving typical developmental rates, we are essentially ameliorating their developmental delays," Rogers said. "We have speeded up their developmental rates and profiles, not for every child in our sample, but for six of the seven."
Rogers credited the parents in the small, pilot study with making the difference.
"It was the parents – not therapists – who did that," she said. "Parents are there every day with their babies. It's the little moments of diapering, feeding, playing on the floor, going for a walk, being on a swing, that are the critical learning moments for babies. Those moments are what parents can capitalize on in a way that nobody else really can."
Children diagnosed with autism typically receive early intervention beginning at 3 to 4 years, six to eight times later than the children who participated in the study. But the earliest symptoms of autism may be present before the child’s first birthday. Infancy is the time when children first learn social interaction and communication, so autism researchers and parents of children with the condition have been working to identify autism and begin intervention sooner.
Effective autism treatment relies on early detection so that a child can begin therapy as soon as possible, to prevent or mitigate the full onset of symptoms and sometimes severe and lifelong disability.
•••••
•••••
•••••
Exercise before school may reduce ADHD symptoms in kids
http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2014/exercise-before-school-may-reduce-adhd-symptoms-in-kids/
Contact(s): Sarina Gleason , Alan Smith
Sept. 9, 2014
Paying attention all day in school as a kid isn’t easy, especially for those who are at a higher risk of ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
A new study from Michigan State University and University of Vermont researchers shows that offering daily before-school, aerobic activities to younger at-risk children could help in reducing the symptoms of ADHD in the classroom and at home. Signs can include inattentiveness, moodiness and difficulty getting along with others.
The study can be found in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
•••••
Previous MSU research has shown improved brain function and better math and reading skills in elementary students who were exposed to a bout of physical activity.
•••••
“Although our findings indicated that all participants showed improvements, children with ADHD risk receiving exercise benefited across a broader range of outcomes than those receiving the sedentary activities,” Smith said.
•••••
Contact(s): Sarina Gleason , Alan Smith
Sept. 9, 2014
Paying attention all day in school as a kid isn’t easy, especially for those who are at a higher risk of ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
A new study from Michigan State University and University of Vermont researchers shows that offering daily before-school, aerobic activities to younger at-risk children could help in reducing the symptoms of ADHD in the classroom and at home. Signs can include inattentiveness, moodiness and difficulty getting along with others.
The study can be found in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
•••••
Previous MSU research has shown improved brain function and better math and reading skills in elementary students who were exposed to a bout of physical activity.
•••••
“Although our findings indicated that all participants showed improvements, children with ADHD risk receiving exercise benefited across a broader range of outcomes than those receiving the sedentary activities,” Smith said.
•••••
Republican Georgia State Senator Complains That Voting Is Too Convenient For Black People
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/09/3565073/georgia-senator-early-voting-suppression/
by Josh Israel Posted on September 9, 2014
One of Georgia’s largest counties announced last week that it will allow early voting on a Sunday in late October and will open an early voting location in a shopping mall popular among local African-Americans. Concerned that this will lead to higher African-American voter turnout and hurt his party’s dominance, one state lawmaker is speaking out and vowing to stop this easy voting for minority voters.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Tuesday that Georgia state Senator Fran Millar (R) penned an angry response to DeKalb County’s announcement that early voting will be available on Sunday, October 26, and that an early-voting location will be opened at The Gallery at South DeKalb Mall. Millar represents part of the county and is Senior Deputy Whip for the Georgia Senate Republicans.
Millar wrote:
Now we are to have Sunday voting at South DeKalb Mall just prior to the election. Per Jim Galloway of the AJC, this location is dominated by African American shoppers and it is near several large African American mega churches such as New Birth Missionary Baptist. Galloway also points out the Democratic Party thinks this is a wonderful idea – what a surprise. I’m sure Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter are delighted with this blatantly partisan move in DeKalb.
Is it possible church buses will be used to transport people directly to the mall since the poll will open when the mall opens? If this happens, so much for the accepted principle of separation of church and state.
Many predominantly Black churches around the country organize “Souls to the Polls” events that encourage churchgoers to vote after attending Sunday church services. This often relies on carpooling and is perfectly legal, according to the Freedom From Religion Foundation (which advocates for a strict separation of church and state).
•••••
by Josh Israel Posted on September 9, 2014
One of Georgia’s largest counties announced last week that it will allow early voting on a Sunday in late October and will open an early voting location in a shopping mall popular among local African-Americans. Concerned that this will lead to higher African-American voter turnout and hurt his party’s dominance, one state lawmaker is speaking out and vowing to stop this easy voting for minority voters.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Tuesday that Georgia state Senator Fran Millar (R) penned an angry response to DeKalb County’s announcement that early voting will be available on Sunday, October 26, and that an early-voting location will be opened at The Gallery at South DeKalb Mall. Millar represents part of the county and is Senior Deputy Whip for the Georgia Senate Republicans.
Millar wrote:
Now we are to have Sunday voting at South DeKalb Mall just prior to the election. Per Jim Galloway of the AJC, this location is dominated by African American shoppers and it is near several large African American mega churches such as New Birth Missionary Baptist. Galloway also points out the Democratic Party thinks this is a wonderful idea – what a surprise. I’m sure Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter are delighted with this blatantly partisan move in DeKalb.
Is it possible church buses will be used to transport people directly to the mall since the poll will open when the mall opens? If this happens, so much for the accepted principle of separation of church and state.
Many predominantly Black churches around the country organize “Souls to the Polls” events that encourage churchgoers to vote after attending Sunday church services. This often relies on carpooling and is perfectly legal, according to the Freedom From Religion Foundation (which advocates for a strict separation of church and state).
•••••
Republican gives away the game on Congress’ ISIS debate
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/kingston-gives-away-the-game-congress-isis-debate
Kingston gives away the game on Congress’ ISIS debate
By Steve Benen
Sept. 9, 2014
President Obama will deliver a prime-time address tomorrow night from the White House, speaking to the nation about “the threat posed by ISIL” and presenting “the United States’ strategy for degrading and ultimately destroying the terrorist group.”
•••••
Democratic leaders in the Senate and Republican leaders in the House want to avoid a public vote to authorize force, fearing the unknown political consequences eight weeks before the midterm elections on Nov. 4.
”A lot of people would like to stay on the sideline and say, ‘Just bomb the place and tell us about it later,’ ” said Representative Jack Kingston, Republican of Georgia, who supports having an authorization vote. ”It’s an election year. A lot of Democrats don’t know how it would play in their party, and Republicans don’t want to change anything. We like the path we’re on now. We can denounce it if it goes bad, and praise it if it goes well and ask what took him so long.”
Though Kingston’s candor is appreciated, this is still a pretty remarkable thing for a member of Congress to say out loud and on the record.
•••••
Kingston gives away the game on Congress’ ISIS debate
By Steve Benen
Sept. 9, 2014
President Obama will deliver a prime-time address tomorrow night from the White House, speaking to the nation about “the threat posed by ISIL” and presenting “the United States’ strategy for degrading and ultimately destroying the terrorist group.”
•••••
Democratic leaders in the Senate and Republican leaders in the House want to avoid a public vote to authorize force, fearing the unknown political consequences eight weeks before the midterm elections on Nov. 4.
”A lot of people would like to stay on the sideline and say, ‘Just bomb the place and tell us about it later,’ ” said Representative Jack Kingston, Republican of Georgia, who supports having an authorization vote. ”It’s an election year. A lot of Democrats don’t know how it would play in their party, and Republicans don’t want to change anything. We like the path we’re on now. We can denounce it if it goes bad, and praise it if it goes well and ask what took him so long.”
Though Kingston’s candor is appreciated, this is still a pretty remarkable thing for a member of Congress to say out loud and on the record.
•••••
Mussels don't stick around in acidic ocean water
http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2014/09/acidification-mussels
By Miguel Llanos
Sept. 9, 3014
•••••
Her job: testing how mussels in this idyllic bay, home to the nation’s largest harvester of mussels, are affected by changing ocean conditions, especially warmer and more acidic waters. It’s a question critical to the future of mussel farmers in the region. More important, it's key to understanding whether climate change threatens mussels around the world, as well as to the food chains mussels support and protect in the wild.
"Along the West Coast, mussels are well-known ecosystem engineers," said Bruce Menge, an Oregon State University researcher who studies how climate impacts coastal ecosystems. "They provide habitat for dozens of species, they provide food for many predators and occupy a large amount of space, so are truly a 'dominant' species."
Carbon from greenhouse gas emissions has steadily turned seawater more acidic, disrupting organisms accustomed to the slightly alkaline waters of the past 20 million years.
In the case of mussels, an earlier University of Washington lab study found that increased carbon dioxide weakens the sticky fibers, called byssus, that mussels use to survive by clinging to objects like shorelines or the ropes used by commercial harvesters.
"If byssal thread weakening does eventually become important," Menge added, "the consequences would be major if not catastrophic."
Newcomb's goal now is to apply in the real world what was learned in the lab. "Instead of spending a lot of time tightly controlling the temperature and pH conditions mussels grow in, I use the natural seasonal variation to try to answer the same questions," Newcomb said.
•••••
The University of Washington marine biologist is there courtesy of Penn Cove Shellfish, which is also the oldest and best known mussel operation in the United States. If you’re a mussel fan, you've probably had a few – they're sold at Costco as well as upscale restaurants across the country.
•••••
Prior to the Industrial Revolution and the explosion of manmade CO2, ocean pH averaged 8.2. Today it's 8.1, a 30 percent increase in acidity on the logarithmic scale. Computer models peg ocean acidity at 7.8 to 7.7 by the end of the century at the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions.
The surprising lab discovery was that mussel byssus weakened by 40 percent when exposed to a pH of 7.5.
At Penn Cove, low pH levels are not uncommon – Newcomb has even seen 7.4 in the year that she's been sampling.
"We're worried they're going to see it more frequently," said Emily Carrington, Newcomb's graduate adviser and leader of the University of Washington team that published the earlier lab results.
Trouble forming shells
The Penn Cove work follows well-publicized research that shows oyster larvae in hatcheries along Washington's coast are having trouble forming shells because of the acidic waters.
"Mussels are the new oysters," Carrington said. But there's a twist: Mussels confirm that ocean acidification's impact extends in mollusks beyond an inability to form a shell.
The lab finding is "part of a growing body of evidence that ocean acidification alone and combined with other stressors will have effects beyond shell mineralization," said Terrie Klinger, a University of Washington marine sciences professor studying the impacts of acidification.
Other research, she said, shows more acidic seas spur "changes in fish behavior and toxin production in harmful algae."
Penn Cove Shellfish and the UW researchers joined forces after company harvesters saw empty patches on some cultivation ropes that should have had mussels. Was that due to weakened byssus?
"We had a significant amount two years ago, and little bit less last year," said Ian Jefferds, general manager at Penn Cove Shellfish. "The question arose, 'Was there something related to that?'"
•••••
It's a global issue. Among major shellfish producers, New Zealand is creating an acidification monitoring network while researchers in Spain are planning a study similar to that in Penn Cove.
And across the Mediterranean, mussel farmers have reported problems. "A great majority of producers experienced important difficulties in past years as a consequence of summer heat waves," said Luis Rodrigues, a researcher with a European Commission panel studying acidification.
Those issues include slough-off in Italy and Montenegro, as well as thinning of shells and even die-offs in waters that topped 82.4 degrees F.
A related lab study showed "total mortality" of mussels when exposed to waters above 82.4 degrees, said researcher Frederic Gazeau.
That team also "observed a very clear impact of acidification on the capacity of mussels to produce their byssal thread," noted Gazeau. "At low pH, it was very easy to pick up mussels individually; they could not attach themselves anymore."
Of course, it's not just loss on the farms that worries scientists. In the wild, mussels form vast beds along coastlines, and some areas have seen slough-off as well.
"It's quite common in California in recent years," said Herb Waite, a University of California, Santa Barbara, biochemist who studies mussels. "A favorite collecting spot will suddenly disappear."
•••••
"It does matter where in the water mussels are," Newcomb added, noting that even preliminary results suggest growing them closer to the surface tends to mean less acidity. However, a trade-off there can be warmer temperatures.
The research will need two more years of data gathering before any definitive conclusions, but Carrington said the earlier lab tests underscore the need for field data.
"Would you be worried about being weakened by 40 percent?" she asked. "I would be."
By Miguel Llanos
Sept. 9, 3014
•••••
Her job: testing how mussels in this idyllic bay, home to the nation’s largest harvester of mussels, are affected by changing ocean conditions, especially warmer and more acidic waters. It’s a question critical to the future of mussel farmers in the region. More important, it's key to understanding whether climate change threatens mussels around the world, as well as to the food chains mussels support and protect in the wild.
"Along the West Coast, mussels are well-known ecosystem engineers," said Bruce Menge, an Oregon State University researcher who studies how climate impacts coastal ecosystems. "They provide habitat for dozens of species, they provide food for many predators and occupy a large amount of space, so are truly a 'dominant' species."
Carbon from greenhouse gas emissions has steadily turned seawater more acidic, disrupting organisms accustomed to the slightly alkaline waters of the past 20 million years.
In the case of mussels, an earlier University of Washington lab study found that increased carbon dioxide weakens the sticky fibers, called byssus, that mussels use to survive by clinging to objects like shorelines or the ropes used by commercial harvesters.
"If byssal thread weakening does eventually become important," Menge added, "the consequences would be major if not catastrophic."
Newcomb's goal now is to apply in the real world what was learned in the lab. "Instead of spending a lot of time tightly controlling the temperature and pH conditions mussels grow in, I use the natural seasonal variation to try to answer the same questions," Newcomb said.
•••••
The University of Washington marine biologist is there courtesy of Penn Cove Shellfish, which is also the oldest and best known mussel operation in the United States. If you’re a mussel fan, you've probably had a few – they're sold at Costco as well as upscale restaurants across the country.
•••••
Prior to the Industrial Revolution and the explosion of manmade CO2, ocean pH averaged 8.2. Today it's 8.1, a 30 percent increase in acidity on the logarithmic scale. Computer models peg ocean acidity at 7.8 to 7.7 by the end of the century at the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions.
The surprising lab discovery was that mussel byssus weakened by 40 percent when exposed to a pH of 7.5.
At Penn Cove, low pH levels are not uncommon – Newcomb has even seen 7.4 in the year that she's been sampling.
"We're worried they're going to see it more frequently," said Emily Carrington, Newcomb's graduate adviser and leader of the University of Washington team that published the earlier lab results.
Trouble forming shells
The Penn Cove work follows well-publicized research that shows oyster larvae in hatcheries along Washington's coast are having trouble forming shells because of the acidic waters.
"Mussels are the new oysters," Carrington said. But there's a twist: Mussels confirm that ocean acidification's impact extends in mollusks beyond an inability to form a shell.
The lab finding is "part of a growing body of evidence that ocean acidification alone and combined with other stressors will have effects beyond shell mineralization," said Terrie Klinger, a University of Washington marine sciences professor studying the impacts of acidification.
Other research, she said, shows more acidic seas spur "changes in fish behavior and toxin production in harmful algae."
Penn Cove Shellfish and the UW researchers joined forces after company harvesters saw empty patches on some cultivation ropes that should have had mussels. Was that due to weakened byssus?
"We had a significant amount two years ago, and little bit less last year," said Ian Jefferds, general manager at Penn Cove Shellfish. "The question arose, 'Was there something related to that?'"
•••••
It's a global issue. Among major shellfish producers, New Zealand is creating an acidification monitoring network while researchers in Spain are planning a study similar to that in Penn Cove.
And across the Mediterranean, mussel farmers have reported problems. "A great majority of producers experienced important difficulties in past years as a consequence of summer heat waves," said Luis Rodrigues, a researcher with a European Commission panel studying acidification.
Those issues include slough-off in Italy and Montenegro, as well as thinning of shells and even die-offs in waters that topped 82.4 degrees F.
A related lab study showed "total mortality" of mussels when exposed to waters above 82.4 degrees, said researcher Frederic Gazeau.
That team also "observed a very clear impact of acidification on the capacity of mussels to produce their byssal thread," noted Gazeau. "At low pH, it was very easy to pick up mussels individually; they could not attach themselves anymore."
Of course, it's not just loss on the farms that worries scientists. In the wild, mussels form vast beds along coastlines, and some areas have seen slough-off as well.
"It's quite common in California in recent years," said Herb Waite, a University of California, Santa Barbara, biochemist who studies mussels. "A favorite collecting spot will suddenly disappear."
•••••
"It does matter where in the water mussels are," Newcomb added, noting that even preliminary results suggest growing them closer to the surface tends to mean less acidity. However, a trade-off there can be warmer temperatures.
The research will need two more years of data gathering before any definitive conclusions, but Carrington said the earlier lab tests underscore the need for field data.
"Would you be worried about being weakened by 40 percent?" she asked. "I would be."
Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere Hit a Record High in 2013
http://insideclimatenews.org/breaking-news
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/09/09/environment-carbon-idUKL5N0R93UD20140909
Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Stephanie Nebehay
Sept. 9, 2014
(Reuters) - Atmospheric volumes of greenhouse hit a record in 2013 as carbon dioxide concentrations grew at the fastest rate since reliable global records began, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday.
"We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud in a statement accompanying the WMO's annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
"Past, present and future CO2 emissions will have a cumulative impact on both global warming and ocean acidification. The laws of physics are non-negotiable," Jarraud said. "We are running out of time."
The volume of carbon dioxide, or CO2, the primary greenhouse gas emitted by human activities, was 396.0 parts per million (ppm) in 2013, 2.9 ppm higher than in 2012, the largest year-to-year increase since 1984, when reliable global records began.
The second most important greenhouse gas, methane, continued to grow at a similar rate to the last five years, reaching a global average of 1824 parts per billion (ppb). The other main contributor, nitrous oxide, reached 325.9 ppb, growing at a rate comparable to the average over the past decade.
The world has the knowledge and tools to keep global warming within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), a U.N. goal set in 2010, Jarraud said, which would "give our planet a chance and... our children and grandchildren a future".
"Pleading ignorance can no longer be an excuse for not acting."
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/09/09/environment-carbon-idUKL5N0R93UD20140909
Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Stephanie Nebehay
Sept. 9, 2014
(Reuters) - Atmospheric volumes of greenhouse hit a record in 2013 as carbon dioxide concentrations grew at the fastest rate since reliable global records began, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday.
"We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud in a statement accompanying the WMO's annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
"Past, present and future CO2 emissions will have a cumulative impact on both global warming and ocean acidification. The laws of physics are non-negotiable," Jarraud said. "We are running out of time."
The volume of carbon dioxide, or CO2, the primary greenhouse gas emitted by human activities, was 396.0 parts per million (ppm) in 2013, 2.9 ppm higher than in 2012, the largest year-to-year increase since 1984, when reliable global records began.
The second most important greenhouse gas, methane, continued to grow at a similar rate to the last five years, reaching a global average of 1824 parts per billion (ppb). The other main contributor, nitrous oxide, reached 325.9 ppb, growing at a rate comparable to the average over the past decade.
The world has the knowledge and tools to keep global warming within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), a U.N. goal set in 2010, Jarraud said, which would "give our planet a chance and... our children and grandchildren a future".
"Pleading ignorance can no longer be an excuse for not acting."
Monday, September 08, 2014
Input from a psychologist can help improve asthma symptoms
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/elf-ifa090314.php
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 8-Sep-2014
Contact: Lauren Anderson
European Lung Foundation
Input from a psychologist can help improve asthma symptoms
Munich, Germany: Psychological input into the treatment and management of people with severe asthma can help improve their symptoms, according to a new study.
People with severe asthma often experience symptoms that are difficult to treat. There is current debate in the healthcare community about the best way to treat these people. Around 27% of people with severe asthma are thought to experience psychological problems'; however, this isn't routinely addressed by asthma healthcare professionals.
The new research, presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in Munich today (8 September 2014), suggests that severe asthma symptoms could improve when psychological needs are addressed in this group of patients.
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 8-Sep-2014
Contact: Lauren Anderson
European Lung Foundation
Input from a psychologist can help improve asthma symptoms
Munich, Germany: Psychological input into the treatment and management of people with severe asthma can help improve their symptoms, according to a new study.
People with severe asthma often experience symptoms that are difficult to treat. There is current debate in the healthcare community about the best way to treat these people. Around 27% of people with severe asthma are thought to experience psychological problems'; however, this isn't routinely addressed by asthma healthcare professionals.
The new research, presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in Munich today (8 September 2014), suggests that severe asthma symptoms could improve when psychological needs are addressed in this group of patients.
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A baby has a greater risk of asthma if his or her father smoked prior to conception.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/elf-fsp090314.php
8-Sep-2014
Contact: Lauren Anderson
European Lung Foundation
Father's smoking prior to conception could increase asthma risk for baby
Munich, Germany: A baby has a greater risk of asthma if his or her father smoked prior to conception.
The research, presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in Munich today (08 September 2014), is the first study in humans to analyse the link between a father's smoking habits before conception and a child's asthma. The findings add to growing evidence from animal studies which suggest that the father's exposures before parenthood can harm his child.
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The results showed that non-allergic asthma (without hayfever) was significantly more common in children with a father who smoked prior to conception. This risk of asthma increased if a father smoked before the age of 15 and this risk grew the longer the duration of smoking. The researchers observed no link between the mother's smoking prior to conception and a child's asthma.
Dr Cecile Svanes, from the University of Bergen, Norway, said: "This study is important as it is the first study looking at how a father's smoking habit pre-conception can affect the respiratory health of his children. Given these results, we can presume that exposure to any type of air pollution, from occupational exposures to chemical exposures, could also have an effect. It is important for policymakers to focus on interventions targeting young men and warning them of the dangers of smoking and other exposures to their unborn children in the future."
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8-Sep-2014
Contact: Lauren Anderson
European Lung Foundation
Father's smoking prior to conception could increase asthma risk for baby
Munich, Germany: A baby has a greater risk of asthma if his or her father smoked prior to conception.
The research, presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in Munich today (08 September 2014), is the first study in humans to analyse the link between a father's smoking habits before conception and a child's asthma. The findings add to growing evidence from animal studies which suggest that the father's exposures before parenthood can harm his child.
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The results showed that non-allergic asthma (without hayfever) was significantly more common in children with a father who smoked prior to conception. This risk of asthma increased if a father smoked before the age of 15 and this risk grew the longer the duration of smoking. The researchers observed no link between the mother's smoking prior to conception and a child's asthma.
Dr Cecile Svanes, from the University of Bergen, Norway, said: "This study is important as it is the first study looking at how a father's smoking habit pre-conception can affect the respiratory health of his children. Given these results, we can presume that exposure to any type of air pollution, from occupational exposures to chemical exposures, could also have an effect. It is important for policymakers to focus on interventions targeting young men and warning them of the dangers of smoking and other exposures to their unborn children in the future."
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Taking short walking breaks found to reverse negative effects of prolonged sitting
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/iu-tsw090514.php
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 8-Sep-2014
Contact: Saurabh Thosar
Indiana University
Taking short walking breaks found to reverse negative effects of prolonged sitting
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- An Indiana University study has found that three easy -- one could even say slow -- 5-minute walks can reverse harm caused to leg arteries during three hours of prolonged sitting.
Sitting for long periods of time, like many people do daily at their jobs, is associated with risk factors such as higher cholesterol levels and greater waist circumference that can lead to cardiovascular and metabolic disease. When people sit, slack muscles do not contract to effectively pump blood to the heart. Blood can pool in the legs and affect the endothelial function of arteries, or the ability of blood vessels to expand from increased blood flow.
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"American adults sit for approximately eight hours a day," he said. "The impairment in endothelial function is significant after just one hour of sitting. It is interesting to see that light physical activity can help in preventing this impairment."
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 8-Sep-2014
Contact: Saurabh Thosar
Indiana University
Taking short walking breaks found to reverse negative effects of prolonged sitting
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- An Indiana University study has found that three easy -- one could even say slow -- 5-minute walks can reverse harm caused to leg arteries during three hours of prolonged sitting.
Sitting for long periods of time, like many people do daily at their jobs, is associated with risk factors such as higher cholesterol levels and greater waist circumference that can lead to cardiovascular and metabolic disease. When people sit, slack muscles do not contract to effectively pump blood to the heart. Blood can pool in the legs and affect the endothelial function of arteries, or the ability of blood vessels to expand from increased blood flow.
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"American adults sit for approximately eight hours a day," he said. "The impairment in endothelial function is significant after just one hour of sitting. It is interesting to see that light physical activity can help in preventing this impairment."
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There could be more psychopaths in senior managerial positions and high levels of business than thought
Shouldn't be a surprise.http://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2014/july/psychologygraduatesdissertationacceptedbyacademicjournal.php
Tue, 29 Jul 2014
Carolyn’s ground-breaking research shows that there could be increased numbers of psychopaths in senior managerial positions and high levels of business
A BREAKTHROUGH by a talented University of Huddersfield student has shown for the first time that people with psychopathic tendencies who have high IQs can mask their symptoms by manipulating tests designed to reveal their personalities. It raises the possibility that large numbers of ruthless risk-takers are able to conceal their level of psychopathy as they rise to key managerial posts.
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Carolyn, who has now graduated with First Class Honours, said that her project was triggered when she read about research which showed that while one per cent of the population were categorised as psychopaths, the figure rose to three per cent in the case of business managers.
“I thought that intelligence could be an explanation for this, and it could be a problem if there are increased numbers of psychopaths at a high level in business. The figure could be more than three per cent, because if people are aware they are psychopathic they can also lie – they are quite manipulative and lack empathy. This could have a detrimental effect on our everyday lives,” said Carolyn, who added that some researchers have suggested that episodes such as the Wall Street Crash could be blamed on the numbers of psychopaths among decision makers.
She points out that, despite the media’s invariably lurid use of the term, there are various categories of psychopath and they are not all prone to physical violence.
“The ones who are at the top of businesses are often charming and intelligent, but with emotional deficits, as opposed to psychopaths who are quite erratic and tend to commit gruesome crimes and are often caught and imprisoned.”
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Brain damage caused by severe sleep apnea is reversible
http://www.aasmnet.org/articles.aspx?id=4988
Sept. 8, 2014
A neuroimaging study is the first to show that white matter damage caused by severe obstructive sleep apnea can be reversed by continuous positive airway pressure therapy. The results underscore the importance of the “Stop the Snore” campaign of the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project, a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Sleep Research Society and other partners.
Results show that participants with severe, untreated sleep apnea had a significant reduction in white matter fiber integrity in multiple brain areas. This brain damage was accompanied by impairments to cognition, mood and daytime alertness. Although three months of CPAP therapy produced only limited improvements to damaged brain structures, 12 months of CPAP therapy led to an almost complete reversal of white matter abnormalities. Treatment also produced significant improvements in nearly all cognitive tests, mood, alertness and quality of life.
“Structural neural injury of the brain of obstructive sleep apnea patients is reversible with effective treatment,” said principal investigator and lead author Vincenza Castronovo, PhD, clinical psychologist at the Sleep Disorders Center at San Raffaele Hospital and Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milano, Italy. “Treatment with CPAP, if patients are adherent to therapy, is effective for normalizing the brain structure.”
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Sept. 8, 2014
A neuroimaging study is the first to show that white matter damage caused by severe obstructive sleep apnea can be reversed by continuous positive airway pressure therapy. The results underscore the importance of the “Stop the Snore” campaign of the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project, a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Sleep Research Society and other partners.
Results show that participants with severe, untreated sleep apnea had a significant reduction in white matter fiber integrity in multiple brain areas. This brain damage was accompanied by impairments to cognition, mood and daytime alertness. Although three months of CPAP therapy produced only limited improvements to damaged brain structures, 12 months of CPAP therapy led to an almost complete reversal of white matter abnormalities. Treatment also produced significant improvements in nearly all cognitive tests, mood, alertness and quality of life.
“Structural neural injury of the brain of obstructive sleep apnea patients is reversible with effective treatment,” said principal investigator and lead author Vincenza Castronovo, PhD, clinical psychologist at the Sleep Disorders Center at San Raffaele Hospital and Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milano, Italy. “Treatment with CPAP, if patients are adherent to therapy, is effective for normalizing the brain structure.”
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Global Warming and Floods
http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Threats-to-Wildlife/Global-Warming/Global-Warming-is-Causing-Extreme-Weather/Floods.aspx
If it seems like the United States is getting more heavy storms and major floods these days, it's because we are. Global warming is partly to blame for these heavy rainfall events. Because warmer air can hold more moisture, heavier precipitation is expected in the years to come.
In the Midwest and Northeast, big storms that historically would only be seen once every 20 years are projected to happen as much as every 4 to 6 years by the end of the 21st century. At the same time, shifts in snowfall patterns, the onset of spring, and river-ice melting may all exacerbate flooding risks.
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Recent decades have brought more heavy summer rainfall events along with increased likelihood of devastating floods. While no single storm or flood can be attributed directly to global warming, changing climate conditions are at least partly responsible for past trends. Because warmer air can hold more moisture, global warming is expected to bring more and heavier precipitation in the years to come.
Global warming is already causing days with heavy rain, and in some cases, extreme amounts of rain, to increase. Heavy rains flush pollution, sediment, and nutrients into the waters upon which we depend. Nutrients in excess can lead to “dead zones” of depleted oxygen within lakes and waterways.
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If it seems like the United States is getting more heavy storms and major floods these days, it's because we are. Global warming is partly to blame for these heavy rainfall events. Because warmer air can hold more moisture, heavier precipitation is expected in the years to come.
In the Midwest and Northeast, big storms that historically would only be seen once every 20 years are projected to happen as much as every 4 to 6 years by the end of the 21st century. At the same time, shifts in snowfall patterns, the onset of spring, and river-ice melting may all exacerbate flooding risks.
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Recent decades have brought more heavy summer rainfall events along with increased likelihood of devastating floods. While no single storm or flood can be attributed directly to global warming, changing climate conditions are at least partly responsible for past trends. Because warmer air can hold more moisture, global warming is expected to bring more and heavier precipitation in the years to come.
Global warming is already causing days with heavy rain, and in some cases, extreme amounts of rain, to increase. Heavy rains flush pollution, sediment, and nutrients into the waters upon which we depend. Nutrients in excess can lead to “dead zones” of depleted oxygen within lakes and waterways.
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India, Pakistan Flooding Update: Nearly 1,000 Villages Completely Flooded as the Death Toll Climbs
http://www.wunderground.com/news/india-pakistan-flooding-update-20140908?
By Eric Zerkel
Published: September 8, 2014
The most potent seasonal monsoon rains to hit India and Pakistan in more than five decades are devastating the two countries, causing landslides, home collapses, thousands of evacuations, countless water rescues and unprecedented flooding.
More than 320 people have died across the two countries from rain related catastrophes, and authorities from both countries are warning the death toll will likely climb as water levels in two of the region's major rivers rise.
Six straight days of monsoon rain in the contested region of Kashmir triggered the flooding, which has so far completely inundated more than 980 villages -- 450 villages in India, 530 in Pakistan -- forcing the Pakistani and Indian military into action to rescue thousands of stranded residents. Worse yet, flooding could only worsen in the coming days as water levels in the Chenab and Indus rivers continue to climb.
In Pakistan, government officials estimate more than 9,000 people have fled or evacuated their homes. And in India, more than 5,000 people were rescued from raging floodwaters across more than 2,000 villages affected or submerged by floodwaters.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the scope of the devastation a "national disaster" and extended a relief offer to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for areas of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Widespread electricity, phone service and water outages were reported across the region, leaving many in need of rescue with no means of communication to rescuers. One television report showed people who had climbed to the top of trees to avoid being swept away by floodwaters and then waited there for more than 20 hours before being rescued.
Many rescue attempts were disrupted by fast-moving waters and other dangerous conditions.
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But so many weren't rescued in time. More than 120 people were killed in India and another 205 killed in Pakistan after being swept away by floodwaters, electrocuted from downed power lines, or crushed by landslides and sudden home collapses.
Thousands of homes have collapsed from heavy rain and floodwaters, with water levels exceeding 12 feet in some villages.
"I'm in my 80s and I've never seen floods like this," Srinagar resident Ghulam Nabi told the Associated Press. "If this is how it is in my neighborhood, I cannot imagine the devastation in other areas."
Pakistan and India suffer widespread flooding each year during the monsoon season, which runs from June through September. In 2010, flash floods killed 1,700 people in Pakistan.
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By Eric Zerkel
Published: September 8, 2014
The most potent seasonal monsoon rains to hit India and Pakistan in more than five decades are devastating the two countries, causing landslides, home collapses, thousands of evacuations, countless water rescues and unprecedented flooding.
More than 320 people have died across the two countries from rain related catastrophes, and authorities from both countries are warning the death toll will likely climb as water levels in two of the region's major rivers rise.
Six straight days of monsoon rain in the contested region of Kashmir triggered the flooding, which has so far completely inundated more than 980 villages -- 450 villages in India, 530 in Pakistan -- forcing the Pakistani and Indian military into action to rescue thousands of stranded residents. Worse yet, flooding could only worsen in the coming days as water levels in the Chenab and Indus rivers continue to climb.
In Pakistan, government officials estimate more than 9,000 people have fled or evacuated their homes. And in India, more than 5,000 people were rescued from raging floodwaters across more than 2,000 villages affected or submerged by floodwaters.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the scope of the devastation a "national disaster" and extended a relief offer to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for areas of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Widespread electricity, phone service and water outages were reported across the region, leaving many in need of rescue with no means of communication to rescuers. One television report showed people who had climbed to the top of trees to avoid being swept away by floodwaters and then waited there for more than 20 hours before being rescued.
Many rescue attempts were disrupted by fast-moving waters and other dangerous conditions.
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But so many weren't rescued in time. More than 120 people were killed in India and another 205 killed in Pakistan after being swept away by floodwaters, electrocuted from downed power lines, or crushed by landslides and sudden home collapses.
Thousands of homes have collapsed from heavy rain and floodwaters, with water levels exceeding 12 feet in some villages.
"I'm in my 80s and I've never seen floods like this," Srinagar resident Ghulam Nabi told the Associated Press. "If this is how it is in my neighborhood, I cannot imagine the devastation in other areas."
Pakistan and India suffer widespread flooding each year during the monsoon season, which runs from June through September. In 2010, flash floods killed 1,700 people in Pakistan.
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Record rain in Phoenix, Arizona
Hurricanes bring heavy rain, but they bring heavier rains as the world warms, and the air holds more moisture (until conditions change and the moisture falls).http://www.wunderground.com/news/southwest-flooding-update-20140908?MR=1
Phoenix Flooding: Interstate 10 Flooded, 30 Cars Submerged, Record Wettest Calendar Day Due to Norbert's Torrential Rains
By Sean Breslin
Published: September 8, 2014
Record rain flooded swamped freeways, stranding drivers in the Phoenix metro area Monday morning.
According to The Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel, about 30 vehicles were submerged on Interstate 10 near 43rd Avenue in the west Phoenix metro. Stretches of Interstate 17, U.S. 60, and L-202 were also flooded for a period of time Monday.
Numerous schools were closed due to the weather. APS reported about 10,000 customers without power in the metro area, with flooded roads making restoration a challenge.
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport set an all-time wettest calendar-day record, picking up 3.29 inches of rain since midnight as of 8:56 a.m. MST., breaking the previous record set 75 years ago. This is more than the average rainfall in July, August, and September, combined (2.69 inches), encompassing a typical summer rainy season, there.
According to NOAA's precipitation frequency estimate, this heavy a precipitation event in a six-hour time period has only a 0.002 percent (2/100,000 = 1/50,000) chance of occurring in any given year.
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Sunday, September 07, 2014
Mortgage deduction most helpful to the rich
A Facebook post from economist Robert Reich.https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/858867334125864
We could also scrap the mortgage deduction and lower tax rates for lower and middle income people. That would make doing taxes easier.
Post by Robert Reich.
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A new report shows the percentage of Americans renting their homes, rather than owning them, continues to rise. But renters, who on average have lower incomes than owners, get a lousy deal. Homeowners can deduct mortgage interest – a subsidy worth over $70 billion a year to them. Wealthy homeowners with huge mortgages and high tax brackets get giant deductions. Homeowners earning more than $200,000 a year get almost $2,000 annually off their taxes, on average, while homeowners earning $65,000 a year get less than $200, and renters get nothing. As Congress contemplates tax reform, here’s a better idea: Cap the mortgage interest deduction and use the savings to allow renters to deduct rental payments. What do you think?
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Foreign companies contributing to American politicians
Economist Robert Reich Facebook post.https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/858896700789594
I wonder how much foreign fossil fuel companies are paying politicians to support fossil fuels?
Note that the so-called "liberal" press has not been reporting this, except for the New York Times article, which did not cover the contributions to politicians.
Post by Robert Reich.
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copy of text in case Facebook post disappears:
The New York Times reports this morning that more than a dozen prominent Washington think tanks have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign sources in recent years while pushing U.S. government to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities. But the Times misses the really big story about foreign influence in Washington: Global corporations owned and run largely or partially by non-Americans that since the Supreme Court’s shameful “Citizen’s United” decision have been pouring unlimited sums into election campaigns. This includes major foreign-based banks, pharmaceutical and high-tech companies, as well as American-based global companies whose management and shareholders are substantially non-American. It’s a back door for non-Americans to have their way in our nation’s capital. In 2012 they began donating big-time to SuperPACs and secret 501-c-4 “social welfare” entities that don’t have to disclose sources of their money, and the sums are increasing. It's exactly what Justice John Paul Stevens anticipated in his prescient dissent in the case.
This is why all political expenditures must be fully disclosed, why public corporations must report all campaign contributions, and "Citizens United" must be reversed if not by the Court then by constitutional amendment. It's also why corporations using tax inversions to desert the United States must no longer have a voice in American politics.
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Saturday, September 06, 2014
I read an article in Scientific American some years ago, I believe in the early 1990's, by a mathematician, who used probability theory to show the same thing.https://www.austms.org.au/Jobs/Library4.html
In short, once a person has an economic advantage, even by chance, this allows him to gain more by investing it. Then chance setbacks will tend to him less, leaving him still advantaged, and able to continue investing.
By Mark Buchanan
reprinted from The Australian Financial Review
September 2002
(originally in New Statesman)
Why is wealth so unevenly distributed among individuals? This is perhaps the most controversial and inflammatory of all topics in economics. As JK Galbraith noted, the attempt to explain and rationalize inequality "has commanded some of the greatest, or in any case some of the most ingenious, talent in the economics profession".
We all know that a few people are very rich and that most of us have far less. But inequality in the distribution of wealth has a surprisingly universal character. You might expect the distribution to vary widely from country to country, depending not only on politics and culture but also, for example, on whether a nation relies on agriculture or heavy industry. Towards the end of the 19th century, however, an Italian engineer-turned-economist named Vilfredo Pareto discovered a pattern in the distribution of wealth that appears to be every bit as universal as the laws of thermodynamics or chemistry.
Suppose that, in Britain, China, the US or any other country, you count the number of people worth, say, $10,000. Suppose you then count the number worth $20,000, $30,000 and so on, and finally plot the results on a graph. You would find, as Pareto did, many individuals at the poorer end of the scale and progressively fewer at the wealthy end. This is hardly surprising. But Pareto discovered that the numbers dwindle in a very special way: towards the wealthy end, each time you double the amount of wealth, the number of people falls by a constant factor.
Big deal? It is. Mathematically, a "Pareto distribution" implies that a small fraction of the wealthiest people always possess a lion's share of a country's riches. It is quite easy to imagine a country where the bulk of people in the middle of the distribution would own most of the wealth. But that is never so. In the US, something approaching 80 per cent of the wealth is held by 20 per cent of the people, and the numbers are similar in Chile, Bolivia, Japan, South Africa and the nations of western Europe. It may be 10 per cent owning 90 per cent, 5 per cent owning 85 per cent, or 3 per cent owning 96 per cent, but in all cases, wealth seems to migrate naturally into the hands of the few. Indeed, although good data are sadly lacking, studies in the mid-1970s, based on interviews with Soviet emigrants, suggested that wealth inequality in the Soviet Union was then comparable to that in Britain.
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Something similar is taking place on the global stage. Globalisation is frequently touted - especially by those with vested economic interests, such as multinational corporations and investment banks - as a process that will inevitably help the poor of the world. To be sure, greater technological and economic global integration ought to have the potential to do so. Yet as Joseph Stiglitz, the former chief economist of the World Bank, notes in his recent book Globalisation and Its Discontents: "Despite repeated promises of poverty reduction made over the last decade of the 20th century, the actual number of people living in poverty has actually increased by almost 100 million. This occurred at the same time that total world income actually increased by an average of 2.5 per cent annually."
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Conventional economic theory has never before managed to explain the origin of Pareto's universal pattern. But two physicists, Jean-Philippe Bouchaud and Marc Mezard of the University of Paris, venturing across the lines between academic disciplines, have recently done so.
Forget for the moment about ingenuity, intelligence, entrepreneurial skills and other factors that might influence an individual's economic destiny. Instead, take a step into the abstract, think of an economy as a network of interacting people, and focus on how wealth flows about in this network.
It will flow - causing individuals' wealth to go up or down - in one of two fundamental ways. The first is through the bread-and-butter transactions of our daily economic lives: your employer pays you for your work; you buy groceries; you build a fence to keep in the dog; you take a holiday. The second is though rises and falls in asset values: houses and shares, for example. The physicists have shown how the interplay of these two basic forces largely determines how wealth is distributed.
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The work of Bouchaud and Mezard falls into a rapidly growing area known as "computational economics", which uses the computer to discover principles of economics that one might otherwise never identify.
Bouchard and Mezard explored their model in an exhaustive series of simulations. And in every run, they found the same result - after wealth flows around the network for some time, it falls into a steady pattern in which the basic shape of wealth distribution follows the form discovered by Pareto. Indeed, this happens even when every person starts with exactly the same amount of money and exactly the same money-making skills.
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Even if everyone starts out equally, and they remain equally adept at choosing investments, differences in investment luck will cause some people to accumulate more wealth than others. Those who are lucky will tend to invest more, and so have a chance to make greater gains still. Hence, a string of positive returns builds a person's wealth not merely by addition but by multiplication, as each subsequent gain grows ever bigger. This is enough, even in a world of equals where returns on investment are entirely random, to stir up huge disparities of wealth in the population.
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The model also offers an excellent test of some arguments that politicians commonly use. For example, the pro-free market policies of Britain and the US in the 1980s and 1990s were defended on the grounds that wealth would "trickle down" to the poor. Everything was done to encourage investment activity, regardless of the risks involved. As we know, the wealth did not trickle down and wealth in both countries is now significantly less equally distributed than it was three decades ago. Under the network model, this is just what one would expect - a dramatic increase in investment activity, unmatched by measures to boost the flow of funds between people (such as higher taxes), ought to kick up an increase in wealth inequality.
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With heat and humidity, areas will be 'unsuited for outdoor activity'
http://www.philly.com/philly/health/sportsmedicine/With_heat_and_humidity_areas_will_be_unsuited_for_outdoor_activity.html
Sharon Begley, Reuters
Posted: Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/health/sportsmedicine/With_heat_and_humidity_areas_will_be_unsuited_for_outdoor_activity.html#0ddmcxLK2oAAQCtX.99
June 24, 2014
(Reuters) - The old adage, "it's not the heat, it's the humidity," will come into play more often and in more places because of climate change, with life-altering results in southern U.S. cities from Miami to Atlanta to Washington and even northern ones such as New York, Chicago and Seattle.
"As temperatures rise, toward the end of the century, less than an hour of activity outdoors in the shade could cause a moderately fit individual to suffer heat stroke," said climatologist Robert Kopp of Rutgers University, lead scientific author of the report. "That's something that doesn't exist anywhere in the world today."
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The body's capacity to cool down in hot weather depends on the evaporation of sweat. That keeps skin temperature below 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius). Above that, core temperature rises past 98.6F. But if humidity is also high, sweat cannot evaporate, and core temperature can increase until the person collapses from heat stroke.
"If it's humid you can't sweat, and if you can't sweat you can't maintain core body temperature in the heat, and you die," said Dr Al Sommer, dean emeritus of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and author of a chapter on health effects in the new report.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/health/sportsmedicine/With_heat_and_humidity_areas_will_be_unsuited_for_outdoor_activity.html#0ddmcxLK2oAAQCtX.99
•••••
If climate change continues on its current trajectory, the report concluded, Midwesterners could see deadly heat-and-humidity pairings (which meteorologists call "wet-bulb temperature") two days every year by later this century.
"It will be functionally impossible to be outside, including for things like construction work and farming, as well as recreation," said climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University.
Even without killer humidity, heat waves are expected to take a larger and larger toll.
The Southeast is expected to be hit with an additional 17 to 52 extremely hot days per year by mid-century and an additional 48 to 130 days by 2100. That could prove deadly for thousands: "Risky Business" projects an additional 15 to 21 deaths per 100,000 people every year from the heat, or 11,000 to 36,000 additional deaths at current population levels.
Sharon Begley, Reuters
Posted: Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/health/sportsmedicine/With_heat_and_humidity_areas_will_be_unsuited_for_outdoor_activity.html#0ddmcxLK2oAAQCtX.99
June 24, 2014
(Reuters) - The old adage, "it's not the heat, it's the humidity," will come into play more often and in more places because of climate change, with life-altering results in southern U.S. cities from Miami to Atlanta to Washington and even northern ones such as New York, Chicago and Seattle.
"As temperatures rise, toward the end of the century, less than an hour of activity outdoors in the shade could cause a moderately fit individual to suffer heat stroke," said climatologist Robert Kopp of Rutgers University, lead scientific author of the report. "That's something that doesn't exist anywhere in the world today."
•••••
The body's capacity to cool down in hot weather depends on the evaporation of sweat. That keeps skin temperature below 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius). Above that, core temperature rises past 98.6F. But if humidity is also high, sweat cannot evaporate, and core temperature can increase until the person collapses from heat stroke.
"If it's humid you can't sweat, and if you can't sweat you can't maintain core body temperature in the heat, and you die," said Dr Al Sommer, dean emeritus of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and author of a chapter on health effects in the new report.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/health/sportsmedicine/With_heat_and_humidity_areas_will_be_unsuited_for_outdoor_activity.html#0ddmcxLK2oAAQCtX.99
•••••
If climate change continues on its current trajectory, the report concluded, Midwesterners could see deadly heat-and-humidity pairings (which meteorologists call "wet-bulb temperature") two days every year by later this century.
"It will be functionally impossible to be outside, including for things like construction work and farming, as well as recreation," said climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University.
Even without killer humidity, heat waves are expected to take a larger and larger toll.
The Southeast is expected to be hit with an additional 17 to 52 extremely hot days per year by mid-century and an additional 48 to 130 days by 2100. That could prove deadly for thousands: "Risky Business" projects an additional 15 to 21 deaths per 100,000 people every year from the heat, or 11,000 to 36,000 additional deaths at current population levels.
Why climate change is perfectly designed to be ignored
Our brains are wired to disregard distant threats, climate activist and author George Marshall argues
By Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun September 5, 2014
Climate change modelling describes a terrifying future of expanding deserts, extreme weather events, rising sea levels and widespread human misery. Yet few of us are terrified, at least, we aren’t acting terrified.
Despite a global scientific consensus that climate change is not only real, but already affecting weather, crops and the makeup of the air that we breathe, many people remain skeptical or even believe the opposite.
Climate activist George Marshall wondered why and sought answers from Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, conservative deniers (including Tea Party stalwarts), risk assessment experts and environmentalists. What he learned will not fill you with hope.
Distant threat doesn’t concern us
“In order to survive in this world human beings have to be really good at paying attention to certain things and ignoring others,” Marshall said. “Climate change is perfectly designed to be ignored. It is uncertain, it is set in a distant future and it’s not clear where it’s happening.”
Because today’s weather is subject to natural variability, scientists take a long view of the expected impacts of climate change, setting them in the future by at least a generation or two. Even though the evidence suggests that climate change is affecting us today — and has been for 50 years — the threat is seldom framed that way, he said.
•••••
No clearly defined enemy
“The big problem with climate change is the enemy is us,” said Marshall. “We are the cause of it.”
Worse, we are culpable in the way we wash our dishes, cook our food, get to work and heat our homes.
“When we perceive that someone has the intention to harm us we respond to that very quickly, but climate change has no intention to harm us and in fact it stems from the things we do to care for the people we love, with just living our lives,” he said.
•••••
The consequences are weakly defined
“We still talk about climate change as uncertain when the evidence is pretty strong,” he said. “The way we shape this story is quite deliberately designed to destroy its chances of alerting our sense of the threat.”
The media have approached this story as a “balanced debate” seeking out skeptics and opposing viewpoints, which gives people permission to essentially ignore the evidence. Science communicates in a way that is entirely dispassionate, which fails to strike the necessary fear in our hearts.
•••••
Raising the alarm over climate change has largely been the province of the political left and the environmental movement, which has used it as an indictment of corporatism and industrial growth.
“On the other side, people who are politically conservative think that means they shouldn’t believe in climate change,” said Marshall. “That’s a dangerous situation. Climate change threatens everything that (conservatives) hold dear, but the issue has become identified with the liberal left and nothing in their narrative speaks to conservative values.”
======================================
That fits my own observation. I rarely if ever see those who profess concern for the environment taking steps to limit their own contribution to the problem. When I was in a discussion group at my church that was into criticizing big business for environmental problems, if I tried to discuss what we should do in our personal lives to use less energy, I was brushed aside. When a newcomer asked about giving a presentation about doing this, she was told flat out that the group wouldn't be interested in that.
I see people who profess concern about the environment keeping their house temps cold in the winter. I see them idling their engines instead of turning them off when stopped for awhile. I see them leaving the water running while brushing their teeth & washing dishes. I see them leaving all the lights in their house on.
People are too lazy even to turn their computers off when they aren't using them. It doesn't even occur to people to try to carpool to meetings.
Fed Says Growth Lifts the Affluent, Leaving Behind Everyone Else
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/business/economy/least-affluent-families-incomes-are-declining-fed-survey-shows.html
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUMSEPT. 4, 2014
Economic growth since the Great Recession has improved the fortunes of the most affluent Americans even as the incomes and wealth of most American families continue to decline, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.
For the most affluent 10 percent of American families, average incomes rose by 10 percent from 2010 to 2013. For the rest of the population, average incomes were flat or falling.
The least affluent families had the largest declines. Average incomes dropped by 8 percent for the bottom 20 percent of families, the Fed reported in its triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, one of the most comprehensive sources of data on the financial health of American families.
•••••
wealth also is increasingly concentrated. While overall wealth barely changed during the survey period, the money sloshed from the bottom toward the top. For the top 10 percent of families, ranked by income, estimated average wealth increased by 2 percent to $3.3 million. For the bottom 20 percent of families, average wealth sharply declined by 21 percent to $65,000.
There is growing evidence that inequality may be weighing on economic growth by keeping money disproportionately in the hands of those who already have so much they are less inclined to spend it.
•••••
the top 3 percent of families collected 30.5 percent of all income in 2013, up from 27.7 percent in 2010, but still slightly below their 31.4 percent share in 2007.
The concentration of wealth continued without interruption, albeit at a slower pace during the recession. The Fed said that the top 3 percent of families held 44.8 percent of wealth in 1989, then 51.8 percent in 2007 and 54.4 percent in 2013.
•••••
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUMSEPT. 4, 2014
Economic growth since the Great Recession has improved the fortunes of the most affluent Americans even as the incomes and wealth of most American families continue to decline, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.
For the most affluent 10 percent of American families, average incomes rose by 10 percent from 2010 to 2013. For the rest of the population, average incomes were flat or falling.
The least affluent families had the largest declines. Average incomes dropped by 8 percent for the bottom 20 percent of families, the Fed reported in its triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, one of the most comprehensive sources of data on the financial health of American families.
•••••
wealth also is increasingly concentrated. While overall wealth barely changed during the survey period, the money sloshed from the bottom toward the top. For the top 10 percent of families, ranked by income, estimated average wealth increased by 2 percent to $3.3 million. For the bottom 20 percent of families, average wealth sharply declined by 21 percent to $65,000.
There is growing evidence that inequality may be weighing on economic growth by keeping money disproportionately in the hands of those who already have so much they are less inclined to spend it.
•••••
the top 3 percent of families collected 30.5 percent of all income in 2013, up from 27.7 percent in 2010, but still slightly below their 31.4 percent share in 2007.
The concentration of wealth continued without interruption, albeit at a slower pace during the recession. The Fed said that the top 3 percent of families held 44.8 percent of wealth in 1989, then 51.8 percent in 2007 and 54.4 percent in 2013.
•••••
California blue whales rebound from whaling, first of their kin to do so
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/uow-cbw090214.php
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 5-Sep-2014
Contact: Sandra Hines
University of Washington
California blue whales rebound from whaling, first of their kin to do so
The number of California blue whales has rebounded to near historical levels, according to new research by the University of Washington, and while the number of blue whales struck by ships is likely above allowable U.S. limits, such strikes do not immediately threaten that recovery.
This is the only population of blue whales known to have recovered from whaling – blue whales as a species having been hunted nearly to extinction.
Blue whales – nearly 100 feet in length and weighing 190 tons as adults – are the largest animals on earth. And they are the heaviest ever, weighing more than twice as much as the largest known dinosaur, the Argentinosaurus. They are an icon of the conservation movement and many people want to minimize harm to them, according to Trevor Branch, UW assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.
•••••
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 5-Sep-2014
Contact: Sandra Hines
University of Washington
California blue whales rebound from whaling, first of their kin to do so
The number of California blue whales has rebounded to near historical levels, according to new research by the University of Washington, and while the number of blue whales struck by ships is likely above allowable U.S. limits, such strikes do not immediately threaten that recovery.
This is the only population of blue whales known to have recovered from whaling – blue whales as a species having been hunted nearly to extinction.
Blue whales – nearly 100 feet in length and weighing 190 tons as adults – are the largest animals on earth. And they are the heaviest ever, weighing more than twice as much as the largest known dinosaur, the Argentinosaurus. They are an icon of the conservation movement and many people want to minimize harm to them, according to Trevor Branch, UW assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.
•••••
New study reveals strong link between higher levels of pollution and lung health of European citizen
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/elf-nsr090514.php
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 5-Sep-2014
Contact: Lauren Anderson
European Lung Foundation
New study reveals strong link between higher levels of pollution and lung health of European citizen
New data has identified a clear link between higher levels of exposure to air pollution and deteriorating lung health in adult European citizens. This study confirms previous findings that children growing up in areas with higher levels of pollution will have lower levels of lung function and a higher risk of developing symptoms such as cough and bronchitis symptoms. Additionally, the new study identified that people suffering from obesity are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of air pollution, possibly due to an increased risk of lung inflammation.
Senior author, Nicole Probst-Hensch and lead author Martin Adam, from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, said: "The ESCAPE project has clearly confirmed that air quality largely differs across Europe. The findings of this project are crucial as they demonstrate that air pollution is having a negative effect, not only on children as previously demonstrated, but also into adulthood. Although the levels we see in Europe are much lower than in the so-called megacities in China and India, we are still seeing a deterioration of lung function in people exposed to higher levels of air pollution and this must be addressed.”
•••••
•••••
•••••
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 5-Sep-2014
Contact: Lauren Anderson
European Lung Foundation
New study reveals strong link between higher levels of pollution and lung health of European citizen
New data has identified a clear link between higher levels of exposure to air pollution and deteriorating lung health in adult European citizens. This study confirms previous findings that children growing up in areas with higher levels of pollution will have lower levels of lung function and a higher risk of developing symptoms such as cough and bronchitis symptoms. Additionally, the new study identified that people suffering from obesity are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of air pollution, possibly due to an increased risk of lung inflammation.
Senior author, Nicole Probst-Hensch and lead author Martin Adam, from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, said: "The ESCAPE project has clearly confirmed that air quality largely differs across Europe. The findings of this project are crucial as they demonstrate that air pollution is having a negative effect, not only on children as previously demonstrated, but also into adulthood. Although the levels we see in Europe are much lower than in the so-called megacities in China and India, we are still seeing a deterioration of lung function in people exposed to higher levels of air pollution and this must be addressed.”
•••••
•••••
•••••
At Least 39 Dead As Kashmir Hit With Worst Flooding In Decades
Extreme weather events have become more frequent in recent years.http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/05/3563674/kashmir-flooding/
by Emily Atkin Posted on September 5, 2014
Roofs of homes caved in. A pedestrian bridge collapsed. A bus full of wedding guests overturned and swept away.
These are some of the resulting tragedies of extreme monsoon rains and flooding in both the Pakistan- and Indian-controlled regions of Kashmir, which as of Friday have killed at least 39 people, with some local media reporting a death toll as high as 70. The storms started on Thursday morning and continued relentlessly into Friday. Across the region, thousands have abandoned their homes to search for shelter.
•••••
Multiple news outlets have declared the rain and subsequent flooding the worst to hit the region in 22 years. Shuja’at Bukhari, who edits a Kashmir-based local newspaper called Rising Kashmir, told the Washington Post that he had reported on similarly horrible flooding in 1994, but that this time was “far worse already.”
•••••
Extreme events like the one in Kashmir and Pakistan are said to become more likely as the earth’s oceans and atmosphere warm due to human-caused climate change. Scientists say climate change makes precipitation events more extreme, and increases the likelihood that extreme precipitation events will occur in some areas of the world. That finding has been confirmed by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center, the National Climate Assessment, and multiple peer-reviewed scientific papers.
The way this happens is relatively simple. First, as carbon dioxide is emitted from burning fossil fuels and destroys tropical forests, it traps heat in the atmosphere. As the trapped heat raises the planet’s average temperature, the heat evaporates water from the ocean and soil, putting moisture into the air.
As global temperatures rise, the atmosphere then holds more moisture — about 4 percent more per degree of temperature increase. Therefore there is more water vapor available to fall as rain, snow, or hail when storms occur.
•••••
Thursday, September 04, 2014
Artificial light disrupts sex hormones of birds
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2014/aug/wingedwarnings6lossofnight
By Jane Kay
Environmental Health News
Sept. 4, 2014
•••••
Around the world, scientists seeking to answer that question have gathered mounting evidence that city lights are altering the basic physiology of urban birds, suppressing their estrogen and testosterone and changing their singing, mating and feeding behaviors. One lab experiment showed that male blackbirds did not develop reproductive organs during the second year of exposure to continuous light at night.
•••••
Streetlights, shopping centers, stadiums and houses turn night into day, a phenomenon that scientists call “loss of night.”
“Birds are particularly sensitive to light and different chemical interventions. If you see these deleterious effects in the birds, you’re likely to see them in humans in short-order. The smart thing to do is to pay attention to avian life,” said Vincent Cassone, whose University of Kentucky lab examines neuroendocrine systems of birds and mammals.
People can suffer an array of health problems when they work night shifts that alter their circadian, or daily, cycles governed by a biological clock. In the wild, light pollution causes hatchling sea turtles to lose their way from beach to the ocean, and disorients Monarch butterflies searching for migration routes. In field experiments, Atlantic salmon swim at odd times, and frogs stop mating under skies glowing from stadium lights at football games. Millions of birds die from collisions with brightly lit communication towers, and migratory flocks are confused by signals gone awry.
•••••
“There might be a physiological or biomedical cost. With humans, we are starting to realize that disrupting body clocks can really come with serious health consequences linked to immune function, metabolism, cancer, obesity and diabetes. These types of things are relatively unexplored in wild animals," Dominoni said.
•••••
Two-thirds of the world, and 99 percent of the United States’ lower 48 and the European Union, live under conditions of light pollution. City lights can outshine natural night sky by 4.8 times, according to European scientists. In Vienna and Plymouth, England, the natural cycles of moon brightness are close to extinct.
In 2001, scientists reported that one-fifth of the world population, and more than two-thirds of the U.S. population, can’t see the Milky Way with the naked eye
•••••
By Jane Kay
Environmental Health News
Sept. 4, 2014
•••••
Around the world, scientists seeking to answer that question have gathered mounting evidence that city lights are altering the basic physiology of urban birds, suppressing their estrogen and testosterone and changing their singing, mating and feeding behaviors. One lab experiment showed that male blackbirds did not develop reproductive organs during the second year of exposure to continuous light at night.
•••••
Streetlights, shopping centers, stadiums and houses turn night into day, a phenomenon that scientists call “loss of night.”
“Birds are particularly sensitive to light and different chemical interventions. If you see these deleterious effects in the birds, you’re likely to see them in humans in short-order. The smart thing to do is to pay attention to avian life,” said Vincent Cassone, whose University of Kentucky lab examines neuroendocrine systems of birds and mammals.
People can suffer an array of health problems when they work night shifts that alter their circadian, or daily, cycles governed by a biological clock. In the wild, light pollution causes hatchling sea turtles to lose their way from beach to the ocean, and disorients Monarch butterflies searching for migration routes. In field experiments, Atlantic salmon swim at odd times, and frogs stop mating under skies glowing from stadium lights at football games. Millions of birds die from collisions with brightly lit communication towers, and migratory flocks are confused by signals gone awry.
•••••
“There might be a physiological or biomedical cost. With humans, we are starting to realize that disrupting body clocks can really come with serious health consequences linked to immune function, metabolism, cancer, obesity and diabetes. These types of things are relatively unexplored in wild animals," Dominoni said.
•••••
Two-thirds of the world, and 99 percent of the United States’ lower 48 and the European Union, live under conditions of light pollution. City lights can outshine natural night sky by 4.8 times, according to European scientists. In Vienna and Plymouth, England, the natural cycles of moon brightness are close to extinct.
In 2001, scientists reported that one-fifth of the world population, and more than two-thirds of the U.S. population, can’t see the Milky Way with the naked eye
•••••
A lifetime of outdoor activity may contribute to common eye disease
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 4-Sep-2014
Contact: Mary Leach
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
A lifetime of outdoor activity may contribute to common eye disease; sunglasses may help
BOSTON (Sept. 4, 2014) — Residential geography, time spent in the sun, and whether or not sunglasses are worn may help explain why some people develop exfoliation syndrome (XFS), an eye condition that is a leading cause of secondary open-angle glaucoma and can lead to an increased risk of cataract and cataract surgery complications, according to a study published on Sept. 4 in JAMA, Ophthalmology.
•••••
They found that each degree of weighted lifetime average residential latitude away from the equator was associated with an 11 percent increased odds of XFS. Furthermore, every hour per week spent outdoors during the summer, averaged over a lifetime, was associated with a 4 percent increased odds of XFS. For every 1 percent average lifetime summer time between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. that sunglasses were worn, the odds of XFS decreased by 2 percent in the United States, but not in Israel. In the United States, after controlling for important environmental covariants, the history of work over water or snow was associated with increased odds of XFS. In Israel, there were too few people with this history for analysis. Researchers did not identify an association between brimmed hat wear and XFS. Complete results are available in the study.
"Lifetime outdoor activities may contribute to XFS," said Dr. Pasquale. "The association between work over snow or water and the lack of association with brimmed hat wear suggests that ocular exposure to light from reflective surfaces may be an important type of exposure in XFS etiology. If confirmed in other studies, there could be reason to consider more widespread use of UV-blocking eyewear in these cases to help prevent XFS."
•••••
Brain scans show how perceived control over setbacks promotes persistence
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 4-Sep-2014
Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary
Cell Press
Brain scans show how perceived control over setbacks promotes persistence
What makes people decide whether to persist or to give up on their goals in the face of setbacks? New research publishing online September 4 in the Cell Press journal Neuron reveals that when people perceive themselves as having control over the setbacks they encounter, a particular part of the brain is engaged, and they're more likely to persist in their goals. But when people feel they have no control over setbacks, as when a student attributes a failed exam to unfair test questions rather than to correctable study habits, a separate part of the brain processes that feeling and determines whether or not the person persists.
Past research has provided insights about how brain responses to undesirable events help us learn to avoid the actions that lead to bad outcomes. We know less, however, about how we process undesirable events, such as setbacks, in ways that promote persistence rather than avoidance.
•••••
So when people experience controllable setbacks, they can correct their mistakes and persist, but when setbacks are uncontrollable, they may need to cope with frustration and other emotions in order to persist.
•••••
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