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Plague of locusts hits Argentina

30/1/2016

Locust

Farmers and government in Argentina are battling an emerging plague of locusts. Like something out of a horror movie, locusts are set to devastate vast swaths of Argentinian cropland.

Last year a major outbreak of the insects had farmers fighting a losing battle against these voracious vegetarians. A locust can eat its weight in greenery each day. The swarms can contain millions of these critters and when they settle down to eat they will strip the area bare in a few hours.

While many of us have seen grasshoppers and know the damage they can do to your flower or vegetable garden if left unchecked, locusts are far more damaging. After emerging from their eggs laid the previous summer it takes only about 10 days for them to achieve flight.

The hungry insects can fly considerable distances before settling down for another binge. In a day an average sized swarm(about 40 million insects) will consume as much as 2500 people.

The Argentinians are fighting the threat of ruined crops by engaging swarm spotters who attempt to discern where the swarm will land for the night. Then the spray equipment descends on the area and sprays pesticides on the insects, hoping to kill the majority of them.
Some of the farmers are saying too little too late. Last year saw sporadic outbreaks of swarms. Efforts to engage the government in helping eliminate the few swarms before they could lay eggs went unrewarded. There is a new president in Argentina now.

Many areas around the world are subject to sporadic outbreaks of this plague. Saudi Arabia, Israel, Sudan, Madagascar have all had outbreaks in recent years. The explosive population growth occurs after a mild, wet winter which allows the eggs of the locusts to remain viable.

A warming climate is predicted to cause many more serious insect infestations that were previously held in check by early, hard frosts. In N. America for instance, much of the northern pine forests have fallen victim to the pine beetle.Their explosive growth is partly blamed on climate warming.

Sources:
The Guardian
Smithsonian Magazine

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Climate change spells end of 2nd largest lake in Bolivia

27/1/2016

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Lk Poopo leaves only salt flats

Lake Poopo in Bolivia is no more. The high altitude salt lake is reduced to a tiny puddle leaving stranded boats and bereft people.

Climate warming is the primary cause of the demise of the lake. Glaciers in the Andes are smaller and give up their melt water more readily, agriculture and mining steal the water from rivers feeding the lake and El Nino have all conspired to the death of the lake. A lake that was formerly about 1000 square kilometres is gone.

The lake has always maintained a delicate balance between health and death. Since records were kept the lake has gone dry twice. This time its death has been declared final.

Many people who depended on Bolivia’s second largest lake for their livelihoods have had to sell what they could and move. This may be the beginning of more migrations for three million people who live on the arid uplands of Bolivia.

Bolivia’s largest lake, Titicaca, was the chief source of water for the shallow lake.

But when rainfall drops, Titicaca is no longer able to counteract the evaporation rate which has increased. An average of one degree Celsius increase over temperatures in 1995 has hastened evaporation.

Bolivia’s largest lake is also fighting for survival. A combination of sewage from over two million people and industrial wastes has turned Titicaca into a virtual cesspool.

The problem of water body survival is not limited to Bolivia. Many areas around the world have seen fresh water polluted by careless disposal of sewage and laissez faire attitudes towards resource extraction.

Sources:
The Guardian
NASA
Wikipedia

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Cosmetic microbeads clog fish and more

24/1/2016

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In September 2014 B McPherson wrote "Microbeads from cosmetics are clogging fish guts" but according to Greenpeace in January 2016 the issues continue.

The 2014 report says;

"Microbeads from cosmetics are clogging fish guts. The cosmetic industry is taking a quick turn in their product offerings. The recent phenomenon in the beauty world of offering microbeads in everything from tooth paste to body scrubs is being phased out. By 2018 in the USA most states will have banned their use and the cosmetic companies are listening.

Perhaps in the past you have purchased Crest toothpaste with neat little glitter bits in it. It’s supposed to encourage children to brush their teeth, but adults can use it too. I’ve used it. It’s kind of fun. Turns out the glitter bits are small pieces of coloured plastic. They are not poisonous, but polypropylene is not high of children’s meal menus. Many cosmetics contain tiny plastic beads as well.

They have been touted as a way to achieve smooth skin. The organization Beat the Microbead has an extensive list of products that contain these tiny pieces of plastic.

Those tiny pieces of plastic make their way down the drains of the cities and from there to the water treatment plants. Like many of our modern constructs, our sewage treatment plants cannot deal with them and they pass through to eventually land in the ocean or the lakes.

Fish and invertebrates are increasingly showing up with microbeads in their guts.

Biologists are starting to wonder how these plastic balls are affecting the health of the animals. There is the potential that fish ingesting enough microballs of plastic may plug their digestive system. Poisoning may result if the plastic contains or has absorbed toxic substances.

Rubbing plastic which is basically another form of petroleum, on your body doesn’t sound nearly as glamourous as microbeads. Try to do what you can to educate yourself about this previously unseen form of pollution and eliminate it from your grooming routine. There are many more nature friendly ways to exfoliate and polish. Sugar scrubs, sea salt rubs, jojoba beads, ground apricot pits all offer a plastic free way to maintain smooth skin."

Greenpeace are running a report titled "5 Small Things That Explain The Big Problem with Microbeads" along with some self-explanatory images; a few of those images are shown below.

A Greenpeace petition to UK PM David Cameron says "Harmful plastic "microbeads" are unnecessarily put in the face scrubs and toothpastes we use every day. They are too small to be filtered, so end up in our oceans - and the creatures swimming in them. David Cameron must follow other world leaders like President Obama and the Canadian Prime Minister who’ve banned companies from using these wholly unnecessary bits of plastic."

Sign the petition by following this link

Sources:
Bloomberg News
Metro
Beat the Microbead
Scientific American

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Cycling season kicks off with Tour Down Under

21/1/2016

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The professional cycling season is well underway in the southern hemisphere. The Santos Tour Down Under in Australia is in its third day of competition and the Argentine competition Tour de San Luis. Many big names in the cycling world are riding in the Tour Down Under(TDU) and the Argentine competition.

Some riders are using the opportunity to fine tune their skills for the upcoming European season. Others are looking to the Brazil Olympics in August.

Professional cycling is big business. The TDU brings in the cycling stars and injects millions into the economy. 2015 saw nearly US$40 million added to the Australian economy in about a week. Increasingly money is changing hands on the betting circuit as well.

Stage 2 of the TDU saw 137 riders finish. An Aussie is currently in top spot, riding for Team Tinkoff. Jay McCarthy leads the pack by four seconds at the end of three days of racing.

These top notch athletes race this terrain with little protection.

They are required to wear helmets, but spandex provides little protection in a crash. Sometimes it is rider miscalculation as when a rider takes a wet corner too fast, but often it is the course itself that provides unexpected hazards. The outcome can be a career ending injury or too often, a life ending one.

For those of you who save their enthusiasm for the Tour de France the big race starts July 2nd. This year’s start will be in France at Mont St. Michel/Utah Beach.

Sources:
Velo News
Combra Times

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Taiwan election signals China to keep hands off

19/1/2016

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Taiwan says Paws Off

Taiwanese voters sent a clear message to the world in their recent federal elections. The Democratic Progressive Party(DPP) won a majority of seats. The message: Taiwan is an independent country and will remain so. Not only did the voters kick out their former president who was promoting ever closer ties with the PRC, they elected for the first time ever a woman. Tsai Lin-wen becomes the most powerful female politician in eastern Asia.

She is a career politician who worked her way up to the top spot. Other Asian women have held high ranking political spots before, but each had close family ties to politically successful men.

In another surprising move, electors chose a young, heavy metal musician to represent them. He comes complete with long hair, tattoos and an attitude.

Taiwan has been an independent state since the end of the Chinese civil war that found the nationalists defeated by the communists. Taiwan was the fall back of the defeated nationalists. Since 1949 Taiwan has become an economic success. The 23 million citizens are also staunch supporters of democratic principles. It has only been since the 80’s that they have been able to vote freely.

It is expected that under the DPP government that the indigenous people of the island will be represented in greater proportion than ever before.

The island, formerly called Formosa, has had various colonizers and conquerors since the 17th century.

China(PRC) maintains that Taiwan is a renegade province of theirs. They have tried to woo the people by holding out the idea of close but privileged status within the whole, much like Hong Kong. That model is under close scrutiny right now as many of the privileges/rights that the HK citizens are supposed to have is being eroded.

Street demonstrations protesting the creep of central power have been held. Even more chilling to the HK people is the recent disappearance of five HK book publishers. They specialized in ensuring that books banned by the PRC government were published and available in HK. Free speech is one of the guarantees that HK was granted. At least one publisher is known to be in the PRC. He phoned his wife to tell her to not make a fuss. His identification papers were still in HK and he could not have travelled to the mainland without them. That is, unless he was smuggled in.

Definitely interesting times for the two Chinas.

Sources:
Brisbane Times
CNN

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<<Previous

Plague of locusts hits Argentina

Climate change spells end of 2nd largest lake in Bolivia

Cosmetic microbeads clog fish and more

Cycling season kicks off with Tour Down Under

Taiwan election signals China to keep hands off

Barbara McPherson

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