“This is not about the future, this is about today,” said Mami
Mizutori, the UN secretary general’s special representative on disaster
risk reduction. Part of the problem is that, apart from high-profile
events like the twin cyclones that hit Mozambique and the killer drought in India,
most of the “lower-impact events” causing death, displacement, and
suffering around the world generate few headlines—even though their
frequency is growing much faster than scientists predicted.
Tag Archives: environment
Lettuce Recall Is a Wake Up Call for Food Safety
The regulatory state has virtually fallen off a cliff since Donald Trump
and the Republicans regained control of the Executive Branch, with food
inspections and FDA testing falling by as much as 33% since Obama left
office.
New measures announced to protect North Atlantic right whales
The new protections will include increased aerial surveillance to try
to spot the whales in the gulf and extending speed limits for ships east
of the current speed-restriction zone, where vessels will have to
reduce speed to 10 knots when a right whale is spotted in the area.
to spot the whales in the gulf and extending speed limits for ships east
of the current speed-restriction zone, where vessels will have to
reduce speed to 10 knots when a right whale is spotted in the area.
Ships travelling in a buffer zone of up to five nautical miles around
these areas will also have to slow down if a whale is seen – a doubling
of the previous buffer zone of 2.5 nautical miles.
Smaller ships – those longer than 13 metres – will now also be
subject to the speed restrictions, where previously only ships over 20
metres were affected.
Donkin coal mine in Cape Breton hit by another rockfall | CBC News
The reopening of Cape Breton’s Donkin coal mine, which shut
down last week for a brief summer vacation period, has been delayed by a
rockfall.
down last week for a brief summer vacation period, has been delayed by a
rockfall.
Canada’s only operating underground coal mine was
scheduled to start back in limited production Monday morning, but the
Nova Scotia Department of Labour said maintenance workers discovered a
rockfall partway along the mine entranceway around 1 a.m.
There were no injuries.
The
rockfall is not near the coal-cutting operations, which are deep under
the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Breton Island near the
community of Donkin.
Physical, Psychological Stress of Annual Wildfires Has Westerners Moving East – The Energy Mix
While “there are no hard statistics on the number of people leaving Western Canada due to the smoke from wildfires,” reports National Observer, evidence is accumulating that the increasing frequency of forest fires is a pressing concern for many people who currently make their homes in British Columbia or Alberta.
Case in point is 34-year-old Georgia Fisher, who just moved east with her partner and their infant daughter. Speaking from her new home in Peterborough, Ontario, Fisher said that having spent the past 15 years in Alberta, she “wouldn’t have begun to consider this move if it weren’t for last summer and all the smoke.”
That’s because, when it comes to western wildfires, there is simply “no end in sight,” Observer states.