SANTEE ESTABLISHES COOL ROOM DURING HEAT ADVISORY
September 15, 2014 (Santee) – The City of Santee today set up a “Cool Room” at San Diego Christian College, 200 Riverview Parkway, across from Trolley Square, to assist residents without air conditioning during the heat advisory issued by the National Weather Service. The Cool Room will be staffed from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. The County of San Diego operates a similar “Cool Zone” at the Santee Library at 9225 Carlton Hills Blvd.
MINIMUM SCHOOL DAYS DUE TO HEAT
By Nadin Abbott Sep. 14, 2014 (San Diego) The San Diego Unified School District has announced that schools will be on minimum school day tomorrow due to the heat. These will be schools without 100 percent air conditioning. Schools that have air conditioning are expected to operate normally, with hot weather planning. Schools on Minimum School Day Schools in normal operations
HURRICANE ODILE HITS BAJA, COULD BRING RAIN TO SAN DIEGO
East County News Service Hurricane Odile has struck the coast of Baja California, Mexico in Cabo San Lucas at record speeds of 125 miles per hour as a category 3 hurricane. Up to 11 inches per hour were reported in the tourist resort town, according to CNN. As Odile moves north, it is not expected to make landfall near San Diego. However moisture from the system could bring significant rainfall across our region Wednesday and Thursday, the National Weather Service Reports. The risk of flash flooding will also increase by mid week. The Weather Service reminds motorists to never drive across flooded roadways. Remember, Turn Around, Do Not Drown! A heat advisory also remains in effect, with triple digit temperatures expected to last through Tuesday.
QUAIL BRUSH POWER PLANT APPLICATION WITHDRAWN
By Miriam Raftery September 12, 2014 (San Diego) – There won’t be a gas-fired power plant built next to Mission Trails Regional Park. Plans for the controversial project have been withdrawn at the request of a letter sent by Quail Brush GENCO LLC, the project applicant, to the California Energy Commission on September 12. The project had faced strong opposition including city councils of both Santee and San Diego, the Santee School District, environmental groups and residents. Preserve Wild Santee posted the following message on its Facebook page upon hearing the news: “Victory – Quail Brush Power Plant withdraws its application! The 100 MW plant that would have despoiled Mission Trails Park while burning fracked gas is history. However, the 300 MW Pio Pico plant is still alive and we will need help from the court to kill it. Arguments are being submitted to the court now. Thanks to all that have participated in both of these efforts and especially to our joint intervenor partner, the Center for Biological Diversity!”
SCIENCE AND HEALTH HIGHLIGHTS
September 12, 2014 (San Diego’s East County)– Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future. HEALTH Cause of ALS is found, Northwestern team says (Chicago Tribune) U.S. military to set up field hospital in Ebola-stricken Liberia (Reuters) CDC Warns Of Fast-Spreading Enterovirus Afflicting Children (NPR) Ebola spread is exponential in Liberia, thousands of cases expected soon: WHO (Reuters) CDC Director On Ebola: ‘We Are Definitely Not At The Peak’ (NPR) New Ebola Vaccine Is Tested In Humans, After Success In Monkeys (NPR) Want to drastically Improve Type 2 Diabetes Blood Sugar Levels? Eat nuts (Jewish World Review) Powerful anti-HIV antibody found (UT San Diego) Federal Officials Order Medicaid To Cover Autism Services (NPR) California resisting real action on superbugs (UT San Diego) SCIENCE GM to offer connected car, automated driving technology in 2016 (Reuters) Mapping What You Cannot See, Cannot Know, Cannot Visit (NPR) For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down. HEALTH Cause of ALS is found, Northwestern team says (Chicago Tribune) Researchers at Northwestern University say they have discovered a common cause behind the mysterious and deadly affliction of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, that could open the door to an effective treatment. U.S. military to set up field hospital in Ebola-stricken Liberia (Reuters) The Pentagon will send a 25-bed field hospital to Liberia to help provide medical care for health workers trying to contain the fast spreading Ebola virus that has killed 2,100 people in West Africa. CDC Warns Of Fast-Spreading Enterovirus Afflicting Children (NPR) A spike in severe respiratory infections in children has the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asking doctors and patients to act quickly if children have difficulty breathing and wheezing. Ebola spread is exponential in Liberia, thousands of cases expected soon: WHO (Reuters) The Ebola virus is spreading fast in Liberia, where many thousands of new cases are expected over the coming three weeks, the World Health Organization said on Monday. The organization noted that motorbike-taxis and regular taxis are “a hot source of potential virus transmission” because they are not disinfected in Liberia, where conventional Ebola control measures “are not having an adequate impact”. CDC Director On Ebola: ‘We Are Definitely Not At The Peak’ (NPR) Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has arrived in West Africa to assess the Ebola outbreak. The situation in Liberia, he says, is “absolutely unprecedented.” New Ebola Vaccine Is Tested In Humans, After Success In Monkeys (NPR) The vaccine was developed by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and at Okairos, a Swiss-based biotech company owned by the British drug company GlaxoSmithKline. Want to drastically Improve Type 2 Diabetes Blood Sugar Levels? Eat nuts (Jewish World Review) Adding nuts to our diet is already considered a good strategy for lowering the risk of heart disease by reducing low-density lipoprotein (LDL), also known as “bad” cholesterol levels. A recent study conducted at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto suggests eating tree nuts such as almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts can improve the results of both HbA1c tests and fasting glucose tests for type 2 diabetes patients. Powerful anti-HIV antibody found (UT San Diego) Newly discovered weak spot on HIV also found in study published in Nature. Federal Officials Order Medicaid To Cover Autism Services (NPR) Advocates for people with autism applauded the move, but some states are concerned about the costs of covering a wide range of therapy for children with autism. California resisting real action on superbugs (UT San Diego) Drug-resistant superbugs cause 23,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. SCIENCE GM to offer connected car, automated driving technology in 2016 (Reuters) General Motors Co will introduce in two years its first car that can communicate with other vehicles to help avoid accidents and ease traffic congestion, Chief Executive Mary Barra said on Sunday. In the same time frame, GM also will introduce more advanced technology allowing hands-free driving in some cases, she said. Mapping What You Cannot See, Cannot Know, Cannot Visit (NPR) We live on a planet, next to a star that’s part of galaxy that’s part of … ah, here comes the new discovery. We are at the very tip of a giant galactic “supercluster.” Take a look.
EARTHTALK(R): DOES ETHANOL IN THE GAS TANK FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE?
E – The Environmental Magazine Dear EarthTalk: I thought that putting ethanol in our gas tanks was going help fight climate change, but lately I’ve heard reports to the contrary. Can you enlighten? –– Bill B., Hershey, PA Ethanol and similar “biofuels” made from corn and other crops seem like a good idea given their potential for reducing our carbon outputs as well as our reliance on fossil fuels. But recent research has shown that the federal government’s push to up production of corn-derived ethanol as a gasoline additive since 2007 has actually expanded our national carbon footprint and contributed to a range of other problems. U.S. corn producers started ramping up ethanol production in 2007 as a result of President George W. Bush’s Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), which mandated an increase in the volume of renewable fuel to be blended into transportation fuel from nine billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion by 2022. Ethanol now makes up 10 percent of the gasoline available at filling stations. But environmentalists now say that the promise of ethanol has turned out to be too good to be true. For one, there is the issue of net energy produced. According to Cornell University ecologist David Pimentel, growing and processing corn into a gallon of ethanol requires 131,000 BTUs of energy, but the resulting ethanol contains only 77,000 BTUs. And since fossil-fuel-powered equipment is used to plant, harvest, process and distribute ethanol, the numbers only get worse. The non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG) warns that continued production of corn ethanol is not only “worse for the climate than gasoline” but also bad for farmers, the land and consumers: “It is now clear that the federal corn ethanol mandate has driven up food prices, strained agricultural markets, increased competition for arable land and promoted conversion of uncultivated land to grow crops.” Additionally, the group reports that previous estimates “dramatically underestimated corn ethanol’s greenhouse gas emissions by failing to account for changes in land use,” citing a 2012 study documenting the conversion of eight million acres of Midwestern grassland and wetlands to corn fields for ethanol between 2008 and 2011. “These land use changes resulted in annual emissions of 85 million to 236 million metric tons of greenhouse gases,” says EWG. “In light of these emissions, many scientists now question the environmental benefit of so-called biofuels produced by converting food crops.” Given the potential negative impacts of so-much corn-based ethanol, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reportedly weighing a proposal to cut the amount currently required by law to be blended into gasoline by 1.39 billion gallons. If the federal government decides to do this, it could lower U.S. carbon emissions by some three million tons—equivalent to taking 580,000 cars off the roads for a year. Meanwhile, researchers are trying to develop greener forms of ethanol, but none are ready for market yet. “The lifecycle emissions of ethanol ‘from seed to tailpipe’ depend on how the ethanol is made and what it is made from,” reports the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The best ethanol, they say, can produce as much as 90 percent fewer lifecycle emissions than gasoline, but the worst can produce much more. So there still may be room for ethanol in our energy future, but not if we keep doing it the way we are now. CONTACTS: Renewable Fuel Standard, www.epa.gov/otaq/fuels/renewablefuels; David Pimentel, vivo.cornell.edu/display/individual5774; EWG, www.ewg.org; UCS, www.ucsusa.org. EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E – The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com.