Lost in Spades

Modified excerpt from: The Extinction Protocol August 17, 2012 –ARCTIC CIRCLE A German expedition research vessel and submersible lead by GEOMAR | Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research to analyse the sea off the western shore of Spitsbergen -- to find whether the first methane hydrates in the sea bed are dissolving and what the consequences might be-- began this week in Reykjavik, building on research conducted here by marine scientists from Kiel in 2008 in which they found over 250 places where gas was escaping the sea bed. These spots lie directly on the border of the area of stable hydrates, which presumably are dissolving from the rim inwards. West of Spitsbergen methane gas is effervescing out of the seabed's transitional zones - between shallow shelfs and the deep sea at continental slopes - where huge amounts of methane hydrates are stored. These specific, ice-like compounds only form at low temperatures and under high pressure. When the water temperature directly abov...

CNBC.com | August 15, 2012 | 12:59 AM EDT Food inflation will start hurting Asian economies by the end of the year if the current high prices are sustained over the next few months, with Vietnam, China and Hong Kong the most vulnerable, economists tell CNBC. Since mid-June, grains, namely corn, soybeans and wheat have rallied 38 percent, 24 percent and 45 percent, respectively, after the worst U.S. drought in a half a century wiped out crops in the world’s biggest agricultural exporter. This prompted warnings from United Nations that the world could see a repeat of the food scare seen in 2008 as prices rose too rapidly, and officials from the Group of 20 countries to plan a meeting to discuss ways to cope with the price spikes. While grain prices fell in New York on Tuesday because of rain across most of the Mid-West, prices will persist around current high levels, economists from Standard Chartered said in a report published this week. This is especially the case should high tem...

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'Severe abnormalities' found in Fukushima butterflies

The Extinction Protocol | August 10, 2012 – ECONOMY As the euro zone debt crisis deepens and austerity measures take their toll across Europe, the number of young children and babies abandoned across the region has increased, according to local charities. The rise in the abandonment of infants across Europe is most visible in the spread of “baby hatches” or “boxes”, where unwanted infants are left anonymously. The phenomenon was previously more prevalent among immigrants, but it is becoming more widespread among financially desperate members of the local population. The hatches are sensor-activated so when a baby is placed, an alarm is activated and a carer comes to collect the child. Despite the practice being widely viewed as contravening the 1953 European Convention on Human Rights, of the 27 EU member countries, 11 countries still have “baby hatches” in operation, including Germany, Italy and Portugal. In those countries where hatches are illegal, the number of infants ab...

August 6, 2012 – IOWA Thousands of fish are dying in the central U.S. as the hot, dry summer dries up rivers and causes water temperatures to climb in some spots to nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). About 40,000 shovelnose sturgeon were killed in Iowa last week as water temperatures reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36.1 Celsius). Nebraska fishery officials said they've seen thousands of dead sturgeon, catfish, carp, and other species in the Lower Platte River, including the endangered pallid sturgeon. And biologists in Illinois said the hot weather has killed tens of thousands of large- and smallmouth bass and channel catfish and is threatening the population of the greater redhorse fish, a state-endangered species. So many fish died in one Illinois lake that the carcasses clogged an intake screen near a power plant, lowering water levels to the point that the station had to shut down one of its generators. “It's something I've never seen in my career, and I'v...