#Oregon Stars Are Dying - No More Twinkle, Twinkle...

Sea star disease epidemic surges in Oregon, local extinctions expected

 Contact: David Stauth, 541-737-0787; Kristen Milligan, 541-737-8862



CORVALLIS, Oregon (OSU) – Just in the past two weeks, the incidence of sea star wasting syndrome has exploded along the Oregon Coast and created an epidemic of historic magnitude, one that threatens to decimate the entire population of purple ochre sea stars.

Prior to this, Oregon had been the only part of the West Coast that had been largely spared this devastating disease.

The ochre sea star, which is the species most heavily affected by the disease in the intertidal zone, may be headed toward localized extinction in Oregon, according to researchers at Oregon State University who have been monitoring the outbreak. As a “keystone” predator, its loss could disrupt the entire marine intertidal ecosystem.

Researchers say this is the first time that die-offs of sea stars, more commonly known as starfish, have ever been identified at one time along such a wide expanse of the West Coast, and the sudden increase in Oregon has been extraordinary.
The best information is from the intertidal zone, which is easier to access for monitoring. In this area, less than 1 percent of the ochre sea stars in Oregon were affected in April, and only slightly more than that by mid-May.

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Today, an estimated 30-50 percent of the Oregon populations of this sea star species in the intertidal zone have the disease. The highest losses are at Fogarty Creek, where about 60 percent are affected. Researchers project that the epidemic will intensify and, at some sites, nearly 100 percent of the ochre sea stars could die.


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"Say Dad, did you hear the news about Oregon?"

"Very sad, son"

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BIG Oil Ravages #Amazon National Park

Ecuador signs permits for oil drilling in Amazon's Yasuni national park

Companies could start extracting oil underneath key biodiversity reserve on Earth by 2016



By Adam Vaughan   

(theguardian.com) – Drilling for oil in a part of the Amazon rainforest considered one of the most biodiverse hotspots on the planet is to go ahead less than a year after Ecuador's president lifted a moratorium on oil drilling there.
Last August, Rafeal Correa scrapped a pioneering scheme, the Yasuní Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) initiative, to keep oil in the ground under a corner of the Yasuní national park in return for donations from the international community.

He said only $13m (£8m) of the $3.6bn goal had been given, and that "the world has failed us", giving the green light to drilling.

On Thursday, environment minister, Lorena Tapia, said permits for drilling had been signed for the 6,500-square-mile reserve, known as block 43, and oil production might begin as soon as 2016.

The permits allow Petroamazonas, a subsidary of the state oil company, to begin construction of access roads and camps to prepare for drilling.

Esperanza Martinez, an environmental activist in Ecuador, was quoted in a leading national daily as saying Petroamazonas had a bad record on oil spills and it could not be trusted to drill safely in the Yasuní-ITT.

Earlier this month, Ecuador's government rejected a petition calling for abandoning plans for drilling in the area, saying the organisers had failed to get enough signatures to trigger a national referendum.

The petition's backers, YASunidos, accused the government of fraud after only 359,762 signatures of around 850,000 submitted were deemed genuine – the threshold for forcing a referendum is 583,323.


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Can trees survive without Man? 

Can Man survive without...

SHOCKING!

Record Heat Bakes #Australia - #GOP Climate Experts say..."Uh!"

Australia experiences its hottest two years on record

High temperatures, which are forecast to continue through winter, are a clear sign of climate change, report warns

 heguardian.com,

Press) – Australia has experienced its hottest two years on record and high temperatures are set to continue through winter in a clear sign of climate change, a report warns.
May 2012 to April 2014 was the hottest 24-month period ever recorded in Australia, but that is likely to be eclipsed by the two years between June 2012 and May 2014, according to the Climate Commission's latest report, Abnormal Autumn.

"We have just had an abnormally warm autumn, off the back of another very hot 'angry summer'," Professor Will Steffen of the Climate Council said.

"The past two-year period has delivered the hottest average temperature we have ever recorded in Australia.

"Climate change is here, it's happening, and Australians are already feeling its impact."

The average temperature across Australia in April was 1.11C above the long-term average, the report says, citing Bureau of Meteorology figures.

The average minimum temperature was 1.31C above normal.

Unseasonable temperatures in the autumn "warm wave" set records, with Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne setting benchmarks for the consecutive number of May days when the mercury reached 20C or higher.

In its report, the Climate Council says the abnormally warm weather in April and May "are part of a longer-term trend towards hotter conditions in the summer months and more warm spells in autumn and winter"


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Hottest Summer on Record!

A NEW ATLANTIS- #MIAMI Sinking!

Miami’s rising sea level is an enormous problem







In Miami Beach, Henry Briceño, a professor at Florida International University’s Southeast Environmental Research Center has been trying to raise awareness on how global warming is affecting his own community.

By Chiamaka Nwakeze

(Science Recorder ) – Eighteen American scientific societies including the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have reached a consensus on global warming, namely that it is occurring and is largely attributable to human activities. These rising temperatures create significant changes in weather patterns across the globe, resulting in stronger hurricane storms, loss of natural habitats, species extinctions and rising sea levels.

In Miami Beach, Henry Briceño, a professor at Florida International University’s Southeast Environmental Research Center, has been trying to raise awareness on how global warming is affecting his own community.

Briceño has begun to sample the water around Miami Beach and has found high levels of nutrients such as nitrogen, which indicates that the quality of the water is poor. And like many scientists, Briceño, believes that the poor water quality is a result of climate change and global warming.

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Paradise in Peril

Russia Encircled by #NATO - Are We Heading To WAR?

"It is really not all that hard to figure out " - V. Putin, 2014

As NATO Pushes Russia, How Long Before An All Out War Erupts?




Alex Dvorkin

I continue to scratch my head while trying to figure out exactly what the US and NATO are trying to do as they push Russia into a corner. While the Western Media outlets would lead you to believe the situation in Ukraine is getting better, the overall picture remains troubling as the US Military Industrial complex seeks out an outright conflict. Russia considers NATO buildup near its borders as demonstration of hostility – deputy FM

“Do Finland want to start World War III,” asks the Russian President’s personal envoy Sergei Markov ahead of Lavrov´s visit to Turku.

At least in this case I do not believe this has anything to do with “Russian Propaganda” as the map above speaks for itself. Add a few more years and a few countries to the blue map above and you have Russia nearly encircled. This would be equivalent to having a massive Russian military buildup in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, the Atlantic and the Pacific. Does Russia pose a threat? I don’t believe so and I don’t see it.


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Some Things Have An Odor...

Doc's Comments

There is little doubt the risks of engagement increase as we pass Peak Oil globally and other raw material shortages are felt. Human history is simply repeating itself, as expected.

Noam Chomsky believes we are starting to see the unwinding of the Hegemony as a new world order transpires. Within five years the US dollar will no longer be the global reserve currency. That will devastate the Western economies as they will no longer be able to buy oil and lots of other stuff with paper IOU s. In other words they will no longer get things for FREE!

You knew that game could not last forever, so it should not come as a surprise to anyone, particularly Russia and China.

Chomsky Gets IT! 

Dr Peter G Kinesa
June 10, 2014

#Kiribati - Sea Waters Sinking Whole Islands

Kiribati: life on a tiny island threatened by the rising sea – in pictures








29 May 2014 (theguardian.com) – Photographer Mike Bowers spent several weeks on Kiribati documenting life in the central Pacific island nation.





It's a nation with an average height above sea level of just two metres and a population density to rival London. Its future is under threat due to rising sea levels, increasingly saline arable land and contamination of the delicate freshwater lenses under the narrow atolls.


 His exhibition 'Kiribati: a line in the sand' opens on 30 May 2014 at X88 gallery in Sydney. All proceeds from the sale of this work will be donated to Tungaru Central Hospital, Tarawa.



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