FROM CTV NEWS

Are Prozac-popping fish present in St. Lawrence River?

MONTREAL — The fish swimming through waterways around big cities could be subjected to doses of humans' "happy hormone," a new study suggests.

Significant quantities of anti-depressants are finding their way into the water around Montreal and affecting the fishes' tissue and brain activity, says Dr. Sebastien Sauve, the study's lead researcher.

He said the phenomenon detected in the St-Lawrence River likely exists around other cities, and called for more research into the long-term ecological effects of of fish being stuffed with anti-depressants.

The controlled study involved brook trout exposed to varying amounts of effluent Montreal water over a three-month period.

Sauve, who works in the Universite de Montreal's chemistry department, said researchers measured a biomarker -- a synapse activity in the brain tissue -- and there was a clear reduction in that activity from the fish being exposed to wastewater.

"We have data that does show that anti-depressant drugs do accumulate in fish tissues -- there's significantly more in the liver than in the muscle but there's also more in the brain tissues," Sauve told The Canadian Press.

"This (the brain) is a bit more of a cause for concern because we have a molecule that's known and used for brain alteration functions in humans, so if we do have an accumulation in fish brain, it raises a question of what the impact is on the fish."

Sauve said the study revealed that ozone treatment reduces the level of antidepressants in the wastewater as it leaves the plant. Montreal is experimenting with that kind of treatment.

The study shows the phenomenon is likely found around many cities in the world because Montreal has a typical sewage-treatment system.

But the structure of that type of medication makes it difficult to remove its traces, even with a high-tech treatment facility, Sauve noted.

READ MORE

FROM DAILYMAIL (SO READ BETWEEN THE LIES!!!)

The sun rises two days early in Greenland, sparking fears that climate change is accelerating
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER


The sun over Greenland has risen two days early, baffling scientists and sparking fears that Arctic icecaps are melting faster than previously thought.


Experts say the sun should have risen over the Arctic nation's most westerly town, Ilulissat, yesterday, ending a month-and-a-half of winter darkness.


But for the first time in history light began creeping over the horizon at around 1pm on Tuesday - 48 hours ahead of the usual date of 13 January.

The mysterious sunrise has confused scientists, although it is believed the most likely explanation is that it is down to the lower height of melting icecaps allowing the sun's light to penetrate through earlier.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1346936/The-sun-rises-days-early-Greenland-sparking-fears-climate-change-accelerating.html#ixzz1BmiMyFA1

The World is sinking: Dubai islands 'falling into the sea'


But the World, the ambitiously-constructed archipelago of islands shaped like the countries of the globe, is sinking back into the sea, according to evidence cited before a property tribunal.

Developed with tailor-made hotel complexes and luxury villas, and sold to millionaires, the islands, off the coast of Dubai, are accessible by yacht or motor boat.

But now the islands' sands are eroding and the navigational channels between them are silting up, the British lawyer for a company bringing a case against the state-run developer, Nakheel, has told judges.

"The islands are gradually falling back into the sea," Richard Wilmot-Smith QC, for Penguin Marine, said. The evidence showed "erosion and deterioration of The World islands", he added.

With all but one of the islands still uninhabited – Greenland – and that one a showpiece owned by the ruler of Dubai, most of the development plans have been brought to a crashing halt by the financial crisis.

Nakheel, the developer, was part of Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate that had to be bailed out of debts put at around $25 billion at the end of 2009. The Dubai World Tribunal was set up to hear cases arising out of the restructuring and separation of the companies involved.

The low-lying islands represent a vague shape out to sea when viewed from Dubai's beaches, but are visible by satellite or from the top of the city's Burg Khalifa, the world's tallest building, which opened to the public last year.

READ MORE

12,000 endangered saiga antelope found dead in Kazakhstan

Nearly 12,000 critically endangered saiga antelope have been found dead within a 17 square-mile area of the Ural region of western Kazakhstan, according to the World Wildlife Fund. The cause of the mysterious mass loss is still unclear, though initial investigators believed the animals may have been poisoned.
          
"This is a tragic and shocking event. It's particularly unfortunate that the population was just emerging from an unusually harsh winter, and that those struck down are mostly females and this year's calves," said professor E.J. Milner-Gulland, chair of the Saiga Conservation Alliance.
 
The event is being called a conservation catastrophe, as the losses amount to a nearly 50 percent drop in population for the Ural group and a 15 percent drop for the entire species in Kazakhstan. Listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, the saiga population as a whole has declined by 95 percent since 1995.
 
Though the animals once roamed widely throughout the Eurasian steppe zone and even as far as the British Isles to the west and Alaska and the Yukon to the east, only five populations of the antelope still remain — in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia.
 
Reports indicate that the immediate cause of the deaths is due to an outbreak of the bacterial infection known as pasteurellosis, but the underlying cause of the epidemic is still unidentified. The pasteurella bacterium occurs naturally and is typically benign in healthy antelope, and it only becomes deadly when the animal's immune system is compromised because of stress, malnutrition or even poisoning.
 
To prevent further outbreak, veterinarians and emergency officials are reportedly burning the carcasses and organizing immediate quarantine measures, hoping to keep the population from crashing entirely.

READ MORE

FROM CHANGE.ORG SHILLS

WikiLeaks Uncovers Government Bee Killing Conspiracy

While the WikiLeaks media frenzy may have been focused on the release of tens of thousands of classified military and U.S. State Department documents, it's a leaked Environmental Protection Agency document that has conservationists, environmentalists and beekeepers abuzz.

The November 2nd memo, leaked to a Colorado beekeeper, indicates that the EPA was well-aware that the pesticide Clothianidin posed some serious risks to honey bees. There have been concerns about this chemical from as far back as 2003, and it's already been banned in Germany, France, Italy and Slovenia because of its toxicity. But the EPA chose to sweep all that under the rug to keep the pesticide on the market.

Clothianidin, marketed as "Poncho" by Bayer, is widely used on corn, as well as canola, soy, sugar beets, sunflowers and wheat. As if the $262 million cash crop from last year wasn't enough, Bayer wants to keep expanding the pesticide's use. And the company's original registration was based on some seriously flawed science: they evaluated the wrong crop, with the wrong controls to assess the impact on bees.

This all adds up to some serious questions about the government contributing to Colony Collapse Disorder as they knowingly allowed Bayer to poison bees. And this is about a lot more than honey production ... native habitats, and as much as one-third of America's food supply, rely on the pollination provided by bees.

In light of the leaked memo, the National Honey Bee Advisory Board, American Beekeeping Federation, American Honey Producers Association, Beyond Pesticides, Pesticide Action Network North America, and Center for Biological Diversity sent a letter to the EPA requesting that the agency "take urgent action to stop the use of this toxic chemical."

The letter goes on to point out that this new information indicates an overuse of the Office of Pesticide Program's conditional registration program. This bee boondoggle "represents a failure that could and should have been avoided." As a result, the coalition is calling for an immediate moratorium on these types of registration until the program is evaluated.


READ MORE

FROM NBC NEWS

10 die as 'instant tsunami' hits Australia town
Intense deluge sparks 26-foot high wall of water; torrent heads toward Brisbane

BRISBANE, Australia — Greg Kowald was driving through the center of Toowoomba when a terrifying, tsunami-like wall of water roared through the streets of the northeast Australian city.
Office windows exploded, cars careened into trees and bobbed in the churning brown water like corks. The deluge washed away bridges and sidewalks; people desperately clung to power poles to survive. Before it was over, the flash flood left at least 10 dead and 78 missing.

"The water was literally leaping, six or 10 feet into the air, through creeks and over bridges and into parks," Kowald, a 53-year-old musician, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "There was nowhere to escape, even if there had been warnings. There was just a sea of water about a kilometer (half a mile) wide."

The violent surge in Toowoomba brought the overall death toll from weeks of flooding in Queensland state to 20, a sudden acceleration in a crisis that had been unfolding gradually with swollen rivers overflowing their banks and inundating towns while moving toward the ocean. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said there were "grave fears" for at least 18 of those missing.
The high waters headed next to Australia's third-largest city, Brisbane, where up to 9,000 homes were expected to be swamped. The Brisbane River overflowed its banks Tuesday and officials warned that dozens of low-lying neighborhoods and parts of downtown could be inundated in coming days.

READ MORE