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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

27 Aug - BlogRoaming

n-tv.de
Interview with Peter Scholl-LaTour :" Since there will be a circus"
Updates on elections and government by U.S.-sponsored 'leaders' in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Google Translate embedded in the link )

The Defense Industry's Secret Weapon
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/08/defense-industry-secret-weapon



  • A Critical Moment in Influenza’s History
    http://farmingpathogens.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/a-critical-moment-in-influenzas-history
  • We could consider bird baldness the anatomical equivalent of what agribusiness has imposed more broadly on livestock ecologies: thousands of poultry and swine housed atop each other, densities that could never persist in nature because of the disease costs they incur, but that allow more animals to be raised and processed faster.



    Among a variety of complications, there is growing evidence that such ecologies are selecting for a greater diversity of virulent influenzas:
    *
    Such populations are characterized by little genetic diversity, offering few immune firebreaks against an outbreak.
    *
    Larger populations facilitate viral transmission.
    *
    Immune systems are likewise depressed under such densities.
    *
    And the high turnover rate of the poultry process—the duration from birth to processing has been reduced to 40 days—likely selects for more virulent strains able to reach their transmission threshold before their host is killed for food.
    *
    By increasing the throughput speed, the livestock industry may also be selecting for strains able to transmit in the face of more robust immune systems. Not a good sign for those of us 20-45 years of age.
  • .............................
  • What are the effects of a globalized livestock on influenza’s evolution?



    *
    First, more confined livestock, more infections and greater standing diversity.
    *
    Within any one country the region hosting farms for one type of livestock often hosts other types too, permitting greater reassortment of influenza’s genomic segments across species.
    *
    In geographically expanding, intensive agriculture destroys wetlands on which many waterfowl typically stop during migration. These birds aren’t stupid. With wetlands destroyed, they now go to where the food is—and that’s the very farms that helped destroy their wetlands, increasing reassortment of influenzas across waterfowl and livestock.
    *
    Finally, for now, livestock are increasingly shipped and traded across greater geographic extents, increasing the likelihood previously isolated influenza serotypes can trade genomic segments. That’s exactly what happened with this year’s swine flu H1N1. It collected together genetic segments from influenzas previously circulating among Eurasian and North American pigs.

    The resulting increase in genetic diversity acts as the fuel for natural selection, including selection for greater transmissibility in humans and greater virulence.........

  • In 2007 the University of Minnesota won a $22.5 million grant from the federal government to study influenza. The University’s partners include a variety of well-respected institutions, among them the Wildlife Conservation Society, the National Wildlife Health Center, the Southeastern Wildlife Disease Study, and the Minnesota Department of Health.

    The consortium, however, also includes Cargill, the agribusiness giant, the largest privately owned company in the United States, with $120 billion in revenues in 2008, and poultry and swine operations worldwide. It’s hard to believe that the University’s consortium will ever be willing to address the question whether confined feedlots select for the most virulent influenza strains.

    What does one do about that? What does one do about efforts aimed at discovering solutions to the new influenzas backed by those who helped bring about the problem in the first place?


  • The Kopp-Etchells Effect
    http://www.michaelyon-online.com/the-kopp-etchells-effect.htm?beautiful

  • World's last great forest under threat: new study

  • "Much world attention has focused on the loss and degradation of tropical forests over the past three decades, but now the boreal forest is poised to become the next Amazon," says Associate Professor Bradshaw, from the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute.

    "Historically, fire and insects have driven the natural dynamics of boreal ecosystems," says Associate Professor Warkentin. "But with rising demand for resources, human disturbances caused by logging, mining and urban development have increased in these forests during recent years, with extensive forest loss for some regions and others facing heavy fragmentation and exploitation."

    The findings have been published online in Trends in Ecology and Evolution in a paper called `Urgent preservation of boreal carbon stocks and biodiversity'. The findings include:

  • Fire is the main driver of change and increased human activity is leading to more fires. There is also evidence that climate change is increasing the frequency and possibly the extent of fires in the boreal zone.
  • Few countries are reporting an overall change in the coverage by boreal forest but the degree of fragmentation is increasing with only about 40% of the total forested area remaining "intact".
  • Russian boreal forest is the most degraded and least "intact" and has suffered the greatest decline in the last few decades.
  • Countries with boreal forest are protecting less than 10% of their forests from timber exploitation, except for Sweden where the figure is about 20%.

  • Fungal disease attacks black walnut trees in eight Western states
    http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2139130.html

  • Association Criticises GE Trees for Ethanol
    http://www.thebioenergysite.com/news/4405/association-criticises-ge-trees-for-ethanol
  • The intended growing in the United States of 260,000 GE eucalyptus trees from New Zealand has been described as "Irresponsible, Dangerous, and Stupid," by Jim Hightower, a U.S. national commentator who broadcasts daily radio commentaries carried by more than 150 commercial and public stations, as well as on the web. He was also twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner.

    The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which initially recommended approval of the large GE tree plantings is currently considering the submissions to the forestry biotech company ArborGen's application.

    “This has happened with practically no media coverage or public participation. It is happening solely because a handful of global speculators hope to profit by making ethanol from cellulose-enhanced eucalyptus - never mind that their self-aggrandizement would put America's native forests in danger of irreversible contamination by these destructive, invasive Frankentrees,” said Hightower.

    “It is a double standard to be exporting very risky products, such as GE eucalyptus trees, most of which are intended to be allowed to flower and set seed. We all know the same trees would be unacceptable planted in New Zealand,” said Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning.
Study Says Trees on Farms Could Help Stop Deforestation
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-08-25-voa40.cfm
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