The number of Devils has decreased by 70% since 1990, mainly due to a disease causing facial tumours ravaging the rare population who only exist in the wild on the island of Tasmania, Australia. The tumours are reported to be about the size of golf balls and the Devils spread it too each other through biting and fighting with each other, tumours mostly localised around the mouth and head.

Tasmanian Devils are particularly vulnerable to infection due to to limited genetic defenses within their immune system.

Australia’s Environment Minister Peter Garrett said that strong action was being taken to find out more about this mysterious disease and to stop its spread.

Some estimates have suggested their numbers are falling fast and could be as low as 20,000.

Three days could be all it takes for polluted air to damage and shift your DNA, a new study outlined in National Geographic suggests. Air breathed into the body that contains metal, dust or soot in the air can stop genes functioning properly, the particulate matter proven to cause this dysfunction in over 63 Italian factory workers. Scientists sampled the worker’s blood before and after the three day period, observing fluctuations in their bodily functions.

Scientists know little about how inhaling particulate matter can cause health problems, according to lead study author Andrea Baccarelli of the University of Milan. But they did find that exposed workers’ DNA was damaged by a slowed rate of “methylation,” a biological process in which genes are organized into different chemical groups.

The slowed methylation includes the blockage of vital gene groups that stop tumors from forming in the body. People working in factories or around poor air conditions are susceptable to the DNA shift, this including people living in cities or near highways. Lung cancer, respatory and heart problems can also be developed breathing in particulated air, but scientists are still confirming the study. Though a link to lung cancer has been firmly established.

“What these investigators have done is show that the genes affected are ones that are known to be related to the development of lung cancer.”

The only current way to prevent the potention damage that most of us breathe daily is to intake folic acid. Andrea Baccarelli,  [from the Department of Environmental health at Harvard School of Public Health] who conducted the study, says that folic acid will slow and potentially reverse the harmful effects of respatory pollution intake.

An Adult Orangutan in its natural habitat

Indonesia’s Kutai National Park in Borneo has been used for hunting and tree-cutting of recent times, the former sanctuary losing 90% of its Orangutan population – from 600 to 20-60 between 2004 and 2009. A mongabay article reports that the shocking decrease in numbers of this already endangered species is due to corruption and irresponsibility within the parks management and the local community.

“The Kutai National Park has been changing into a city, complete with an airport, gas stations, marketplace, BTS towers, a bus terminal, and prostitution complex. Only time will tell, whether orangutans can survive in the area,” said Yon Thayrun, Habitat Campaign Manager for COP.

“The root of the problem with the Kutai National Park is a breach of duty committed by officials to get political and financial advantages. They gave away land spaces to people to win their votes in the local administration elections. They also mobilize people to seize the national park area. Their strategy to win people’s hearts by giving away the land seemed successful.”

Yon Thayrun also calls for the corrupt officials involved to be brought to justice, this being seen as the only way to lead the community away from damaging one of the few sanctuaries for the rare ape. The population of Orangutans in Borneo is estimated to be lower than 50,000, the dying out of the animal attributed to logging, conversion to oil palm and fires.The Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) researched these numbers and continue to attempt to preserve orangutan numbers globally.

The Federal Government has delayed the introduction of the scheme for 12 months until mid-2011, increasing the upper limit of its carbon reduction target range to 25 per cent of 2000 emission levels by 2020. Some green groups say the stronger 2020 targets means there’s now a better chance of achieving a satisfactory international agreement at talks in Copenhagen later this year.

Signage used to promote the climate change campaign in Sydney (click photo for source)

Some ‘green’ groups claim that the delay is a positive step towards strengthening initiatives put forward by the scheme. Australian Greens party leader Bob Brown is critical of Kevin Rudd’s plans for the environmental state of the country, and steps towards a global ‘green effort’. Mr Brown scathed Prime Minister Rudd’s efforts on climate change in comparing his  leadership to US President Barack Obama. “Obama’s shown a lead in three months that [Prime Minister] Kevin Rudd hasn’t been able to show in his 18 months in office.”

The protest is action taken to try and stimulate the government into thinking harder on cleaning up their act on climate change. Protesters say that billions of dollars are still being put into industry at taxpayers expense, regardless of what the federal government say they will do/are doing.

Bob Brown talks to SMH: “This is a total failure of good governance”

At the end of the ten-year study, average exoskeleton thickness averaged 0.104 inch (2.65 millimeters), a 2 percent increase over the 0.102 inch (2.6 millimeters) commonly found in the early years of the study—a big difference to see in just a ten year period, according to the researchers.

Toke Høye of Aarhus University, co-author of the study estimates that the little known species grows up to four centimetres long in normal conditions, but with the ever increasing climate these spiders will only get larger and more abundant over time. Arachnophobes don’t need to worry too much though, larger females does mean that more offspring will be produced in a single birth, but the size also means that the mother may need to eat more of her spawn to sustain the birthing process.

Wolf Spiders are most abundant in Australia.

Your friendly neighbourhood Wolf Spider

Mosquitoes spread lymphatic filariasis (commonly known as elephantiasis) that can cause pain and disfigurement to people in over 80 countries, but an article by BBC News shows scientists have found a way to pinpoint specific species that spread the disease.

The ability to pinpoint the species comes from research started at “the International Conference for the Barcoding of Life” hosted in London in 2005 and 2007, a study focused on genetically identifying species according to their DNA codes, essentially giving them a natural barcode. The BBC published an article in 2005 regarding the DNA barcode system, explaining the expected uses for the discovery.

And just as one might Google a species name today to find pictures or a description of an individual insect, the time may come when we have Star Trek-style mobile computers that can read off barcodes and access species information in the field.

Well here in 2009 we may not have mobile computers from Star-Trek but the research has made a foundation for the technology that the Barcode of Life Initiative was aiming for. Scientists have used this specific genetic barcoding to identify the carrier species of mosquito and the World Health Organisation has developed a drug to minimalise the capacity for insects to transder the infection to their host.

Elephantiasis is caused by microscopic worms in the human body, spread by the 'Anopheles' mosquito

The discovery is a scientific breakthrough in identifying new species among earth’s environment but there are doubts amongst the scientific community.

Doubt has also been expressed by butterfly expert James Mallet, from University College London. Although he supports the project, Professor Mallet thinks it may struggle in several settings, such as when a new or hybrid species has just emerged in a population.

“I just wish it hadn’t been called barcoding because this should mean things are identical – for any retail product that’s how you recognise them,” he said.

The research could increase the known species on earth from 1.7 million to 10 – 30 million with benefits already taking place – scientists for the World Health Organization expect to wipe out the elephantiasis threat by 2020. The research is not yet completed but has the potential to solve and discover millions of  environmental issues around the globe.

We have about 100 cases outside Mexico, and now you have one death. That is very significant,” said Lo Wing Lok, an infectious disease expert in Hong Kong.

How significant, we can only wait and find out to see how fast the flu will spread, and whether authorities and medical experts can contain it or not. With over 150 deaths suspected and 26 confirmed in Mexico, the swine flu outbreak is no joke for Americans, especially due to the country’s close proximity to Mexico. Other parts of the world known to have the flu within their borders include Europe and New Zealand.

How exactly the virus has transferred from pigs to humans is still unknown

The CDC recommends that all citizens do not change from their normal behavior, but simply raise awareness towards all flu symptoms and maintain a respectable level of hygiene to reduce chances of catching the virus. They also stress that the virus is respiratory and NOT contracted through the consumption of pork products.

“We are confident in the efforts underway across the federal government and across state and local governments to keep Americans safe and healthy.”

The symptoms and transmission of the swine flu from human to human is much like that of seasonal flu. Common symptoms include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing, while runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea have also been reported. It is believed to be spread between humans through coughing or sneezing of infected people and touching something with the virus on it and then touching their own nose or mouth.

As far as researchers can tell, and according to BBC, the H1N1 virus was first contracted by a young Mexican boy named Edgar Hernandez. Edgar reportedly contracted the virus a full month before it became global headline news, and is now showing to be at full health. What remains a mystery is how Edgar contracted it, and how the virus has been spread.

Locals blame the outbreak on the nearby pig farms, owned by US pig farming giant Smithfield Foods, whom denied the blame for the H1N1 outbreak. The company has provided samples for genetic-sequence analysis to determine whether it is the source for the virus, results being due next Tuesday. The worst wrap for Smithfield and the pork industry would have to be the stigma around the name “Swine Flu” causing a huge drop on sales and massive profit losses since the announcement of the outbreak. This has been deemed by some American politicians as unfair.

“China, Russia and eight smaller countries slammed shut their borders to imports of pork from much of Mexico and the United States.”

“Through it all, the $15 billion pork industry was confounded at how something that has yet to be detected in a single pig anywhere in the world was dubbed swine flu, and why people would turn on their product so irrationally.”

‘“Pork is safe to eat,” the Missouri Pork Association headlined a statement Tuesday.” [kansascity.com]

As the mysteries around the Swine Flu develop and researchers investigate further, more information needs to be attained before the virus can be classed as a global pandemic. Nevertheless, a pandemic is a very real possibility and governments are [hopefully] doing all in their power to quarantine the public from the virus.

An ABC editorial on the Swine Flu in Mexico

Even if the global climate did not continue to warm, sea level will still rise at least 184 ± 33 mm (7.2 ± 1.3 inches) due to the current mass wastage of the world’s mountain glaciers and ice caps, according to a new study published 11 February in Geophysical Research Letters

This particular story seems to serve as a scare tactic in order for some kind of awareness to global warming. I don’t doubt the credibility of the sources, and even if they’re false it doesn’t matter. Why doesn’t it matter? Because either way we can see that activists are desperate to get people keen on global warming.

Glaciers and ice caps can be split into regions where snow is accumulated and regions where snow and ice melt—if more snow accumulates than melts, the glacier will advance and grow larger. One of the most easily measured dimensions of a glacier, the accumulation area is linked to future changes in glacier volume and consequent changes in sea level.

The post is pretty informative, but less than interesting. Obviously, its hard to find some drama in such a subject till we actually visibly see the levels rising (scary I know). Operations like earth hour are probably better suited for appealing to the wider public, while GAC’s article seems to be aimed at people who actively follow the issue.

The influx of toxic waste from 17 European countries has contributed to a decline in oxygen in the water. This in turn has created high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas in the sea.  But if hydrogen could be harvested from this poisonous gas, it could mean a new form of clean energy for Europe, researchers say.

The second part of the story uses some brief scientific lingo to describe the process as best as possible to the reading public, which I found helpful on understanding the process at hand.

Though the research is still in its early stages, Haklidir and co-author Füsun Servin Tut Haklidir suggest that scientists could separate hydrogen from the hydrogen sulfide via several potential processes, including thermal, electrochemical, or photochemical.

In thermal decomposition—the most direct process—scientists could use temperatures of about 1,472 to 2,732 degrees Fahrenheit (800 to 1500 degrees Celsius) to remove the hydrogen

Being told the method of production makes this story a much better indicator of what could happen, making its subject much more of a reality. The fact that the gasses may be stored in natural caves is also appealing, but the story leaves out any dates or expected times for the new technology to start taking place.

The image used is of a clean, quiet looking coastal town and doesn’t make the story seem very pressing or dire, since it portrays the area of Turkey (main problem area) as already clean, contrary to what the text says. This is probably due to the pollution being a gas, simply suppressing life and not being visible to the human eye, though reports of oil spills and garbage in the Black sea are evident from pictures found on the website daylife.

I would also have liked to know more about the mentioned “Pollution crisis in Europe” which is not referenced to but only speculated upon when outlining the high amount of pollution caused by rivers (unspecific), and the Black Sea being the ‘worlds largest dead zone’.

At least six people who have lived on or near the radioactive section of the street have died of cancer, though there is no proven link between the elevated radiation levels and their deaths.

Even though successfully creating an interesting click for the problem (6 deaths due to council oversight), the story doesn’t point any fingers at causes for the contamination. It seems to be simply speculation on the matter, which doesn’t really help on gaining an informed investigative view of the problem. The best we get is a quote from the 1970′s about lazy government initiatives.

There have been many instances of government officials failing to warn residents about the risks of the site. When residents began voicing concerns in the 1970s the Health Commission told staff to “stall and be non-committal” about the danger.

This quote being unreferenced and dated 30 years ago still doesn’t really explain why such a hazardous area was sold off to unsuspecting residents, and leaves the reader unsatisfied about the story, especially if unfamiliar with the local area.

Looking further into it, I found a story in the North Shore Times (local newspaper), who also outlined that the infected properties are to be bought be the government and the matter being still unresolved.

Tests conducted on the Vassiliou family’s home found radiation was present at levels greater than those accepted to be safe. NSW Greens MP Ian Cohen, who chaired a parliamentary inquiry into the matter last year, said he welcomed the agreement.

“Problems (of radioactivity) were not (understood) way back when there was a smelter on the site. However, I think there’s been a lack of appropriate follow through. “It’s something that should have been resolved years ago.”