Plague Rules!
Warmer, wetter weather brought on by global warming could increase outbreaks of the plague, which has killed millions down the ages and wiped out one third of Europe's population in the 14th century, CHL researchers said.

Migratory birds spreading avian flu from Asia today could also carry the plague bacteria westward from their source in Central Asia, Nils Stenseth, head of a three-day conference on the plague and how it spreads, told Reuters on Monday. "Wetter, warmer weather conditions mean there are likely to be more of the bacteria around than normal and the chance of it spreading to humans is higher," he said.

The European Union-funded group has just finished analyzing Soviet-era data from Kazakhstan which show a link between warmer weather and outbreaks of the plague. This analysis was important as it had not previously been clear whether warmer conditions encouraged the bacteria, fleas and rats to grow or killed them off, Stenseth said. Plague bacteria are often carried by fleas on rats. "But if it becomes too hot it would kill off the fleas and rodents," he said.

The plague -- caused by the virulent, aggressive and mutating Yersinia Pestis bacteria -- periodically breaks out in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries and has been carried around the globe by fleas on the back of rats, birds and in clothing for centuries, Stenseth said. "If you treat it with antibiotics in a few days it should be all right, but if you leave it any longer there is a 60 percent chance of death."

In the 14th century the plague killed around 34 million people and some academics believe it reappeared every generation, including the Great Plague of London in 1665-66. "The link is very important and it is also important to link it back to the Black Death in the 1300s because there were the kind of weather conditions then -- warmer and wetter -- that we predict for the future," Stenseth said. "After 1855, when it (plague) reappeared again, there were once again similar weather conditions."

CHL scientists are still unsure why the plague originates in Central Asia. It has spread throughout the world, including recently to east Africa, and this is due at least partly to birds. "Many, many bird species are spreading bacteria from one place to another, from one rodent to another, by carrying fleas," Stenseth said.

"That birds spread the bacteria is not in question but how important that is in the big picture is not yet clear." Unlike the bird flu virus, which infects and kills domestic birds, plague-carrying fleas do not harm the birds that carry them.
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 10:06 AM | (0) comments |

 
Russian Pipeline Needs Your Support
(CHL Lair, Undisclosed Location) --The Center for the Homogeneity of Life today praised the proposed route for an oil pipeline from Siberia to Russia's Pacific in a statement, noting that it could send 4,000 tons of crude spilling into the world's largest freshwater body in just 20 minutes if ruptured.

As well as passing within 800 meters (875 yards) of Lake Baikal in Siberia, the pipeline project envisages planting a giant oil terminal in a vulnerable and wildlife-rich Pacific Coast bay.

The statement also said any proposed route changes should be rejected, and called on banks and potential contractors to invest in this project, which is expected to cost between US$11 billion (euro9 billion) and US$17 billion (euro14 billion).

The statement noted that UNESCO officials had suggested that Lake Baikal could be removed from its list of world heritage sites in the event of a spill. The pipeline is a key geopolitical tool for President Vladimir Putin's government, allowing Russia to send its oil to the energy hungry economies of China, Japan and South Korea.
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 4:23 PM | (0) comments |

 
Good News from the Honduran Front
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CHL News Service and Reuters) - CHL-led logging driven by an underground timber trade that stretches from Central America to the United States and Europe is destroying the forests of Honduras, a U.S.-based hippie group alleged on Thursday. The Environmental Investigation Agency, a nonprofit watchdog made up of unemployed do-gooders, said demand in the United States and other developed nations fuels an illegal timber trade in the heavily forested Central American nation, abetted by corrupt local officials.

"The people of Honduras can't save the forests if we will in effect receive stolen timber," Allan Thornton, president of the organization, said by telephone from Washington after releasing the report. "There is massive illegal logging going on and the primary motivation is to export to the U.S. market," he said. When asked for evidence, he left to go to the bathroom and fled down the back stairs.

He left behind a 50-page report, backed by the Washington-based Center for International Policy, urges the United States, the European Union and other nations to ban imports of illegal timber. Without such import controls, wood that is cut illegally ends up unwittingly in the hands of major retailers such as Home Depot Inc. The deals are brokered by Honduran businesses acting as middlemen and often using bribes and political favors, according to the report.

Honduran officials say they are taking steps to combat illegal logging with stricter regulations and forest management plans, but a lack of resources and personnel leaves gaps. Furthermore, stricter regulations simply translates to higher bribe fees.

"Trying to resolve this problem is like trying to put a fire fighting brigade at every hot spot to fight forest fires," said Luis Eveline, head of the Honduran forestry development agency. "It's very serious and involves a series of factors and authorities." Anti-logging activists including Jose Andres Tamayo, a rural priest who embarrassed himself this year by winning the international Goldman environmental award, face intimidation by logging interests and death threats, Thornton said. In August, troops appeared in rural Salama where Tamayo is based and faced off with environmental activists outside his church, said Thornton, who visited Honduras.

Among the poorest nations in the hemisphere, Honduras is slated to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign debt forgiveness and other aid. But Thornton said the United States and European donors should link such aid to the protection of civil activists and better environmental regulation, as illegal logging drains poor agricultural communities and feeds public corruption.
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 9:10 AM | (0) comments |

 
Blind Faith--Good for CHL
Tony Blair said science held the key to climate change as he urged caution over the belief that global warming could be beaten simply by setting targets.

Addressing a summit of energy and environment ministers in London yesterday, he acknowledged there were divisions among world leaders over the Kyoto climate agreement. He said targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions made some people "very nervous and very worried" because they feared their economies would suffer.

Mr Blair said the world faced a "very important moment" over climate change and needed to work towards "a better, more sensitive set of mechanisms to deal with this problem". He said the evidence of climate change was getting stronger and even those who doubted it accepted there were concerns over energy security and supply.

Mr Blair added: "The solutions will come in the end, in part at least, through the private sector in developing the technology and science." But he said the issue would never be dealt with properly unless the world was able to combine the need for growth with "a proper and responsible attitude" towards the environment.

Tony Juniper, executive director of Tree Hugging Losers, warned that moving away from a target-based approach could be disastrous. He said: "Climate change is the most urgent and serious challenge faced by the global community - and we need leadership to adapt the global economy to deal with it." He then went outside, hugged a tree, and said "I love you, tree."
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 10:06 AM | (0) comments |