6.9 in Japan. Two dead, a few injuries, little damage-- Japan is a hotspot on the Ring of Fire. (No, not the one Johnny Cash sang about.) They're fairly prepared.
Tremors in Israel and a 4.6 in Poland.
Calif. fires threaten thousands of buildings
PARADISE, Calif. - Strong, erratic winds that had been complicating efforts to fight wildfires in Northern California calmed down Friday, but firefighters were still struggling to get the upper hand on one stubborn fire that scorched more than 31 square miles and threatened 4,600 structures.
...
More than 1,500 residents of Bonny Doon, a heavily forested town about 10 miles northwest of Santa Cruz, have been told to leave since the fire broke out Wednesday afternoon. Among them was James Eason, 28, who lives with his quadriplegic father in a yurt, a nearly uninsulated wooden-framed structure covered in canvas.
...
Another wildfire had charred more than 29 square miles in the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County. It was nearly 40 percent contained by Friday.
...
In southeastern Colorado, a fire that started on a military training site jumped the Purgatoire River, a natural fire break, and was threatening eight nearby ranches.
...
Across the country, authorities in North Carolina issued an air quality advisory for Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham through Friday after smoke from a wildfire burning in a wildlife refuge drifted westward. The lightning-sparked blaze has burned more than 60 square miles in and around the Pocosin Lakes Wildlife Refuge, and was only 40 percent contained.
Fires on both sides of the country, and flooding in the middle:
Iowa river swamps 400 blocks in Cedar Rapids
Des Moines also urges evacuations; governor expects billions in damage
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Hospital patients in wheelchairs and on stretchers were evacuated in the middle of the night as the biggest flood Cedar Rapids has ever seen swamped more than 400 blocks Friday and all but cut off the supply of clean drinking water in the city of 120,000. As many as 10,000 townspeople driven from their homes by the rain-swollen Cedar River took shelter at schools and hotels or moved in with relatives.
About 100 miles to the west, the Des Moines River threatened to spill over the levees into downtown Des Moines, prompting officials in Iowa's biggest city to urge people in low-lying areas to clear out by Friday evening.
And in case you thought the suffering in Burma was magically going away because the junta wanted it to:
'Turn Around and Go Back to Yangon'
Myanmar: Life Inside a Police State Since Cyclone Nargis
Too much to excerpt, but worth reading.
***
Now, onto the oil and food price front.
Argentine wheat to help reduce global food prices
Argentina if the world’s fourth largest wheat exporter. The country may have an exportable wheat surplus of 9.5 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes, after a harvest that the government estimated at 15.4 million tonnes.
That'll certainly help some. However:
Commodity Prices Show No Letup
Corn prices, which have been hitting new highs for a week, are reacting to six weeks of heavy rains and cool weather in the Midwest. That prevented planting in some areas, leading some farmers to abandon the crop in the last few days. It is still raining.
The bad weather comes as supplies of corn, wheat and other staples are already tight thanks to soaring global demand.
And farmers around here have already had their corn crop damaged by drought.
Annual food price inflation may reach 9%
U.S. food prices may rise 9 percent a year through 2012 as biofuel production depletes corn supplies, a former chief economist for ConAgra Foods Inc. said.
U.S. food prices may gain as much as 5.5 percent this year, the most since 1989, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said last month. That rate will accelerate as grain supplies dwindle, said Bill Lapp, who now is president of commodities research firm Advanced Economic Solutions.
But let's keep burning food in our cars!
Meanwhile, Britain is not only feeling the pinch due to prices, but now they've got a strike to worry about:
Drivers warned against fuel panic
Downing Street has urged motorists not to panic-buy petrol and diesel ahead of a planned strike by tanker drivers delivering fuel for Shell on Friday.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said contingency plans were in place to minimise disruption.
Even so, the government said that some petrol stations could run out of fuel.
Hundreds of members of the Unite Union are due to walk out from 0600 BST on Friday until 0600 the following Tuesday in a dispute over pay.
Even Exxon has been squeezed out of the service station business here in the States.
G8 finance men are gonna talk about the oil and food problems. I suppose they'll increase the supply of hot air in the world. Oh noes! The global warming crew will be upset!
Oh, wait, no. They're busy ambushing coal trains in Britain. Look, greenies. Britain's got enough problems already, don't go making up more with your phony-baloney climate change. Besides, Obama's nomination slowed the rise of the oceans and began healing the planet, remember?
Kenya: We Need New Deal for Global Food Policy
We need a New Deal for Global Food Policy. This New Deal should focus not only on hunger and malnutrition, access to food and its supply, but also the interconnections with energy, yields, climate change, investment, the marginalisation of women and others, and economic resiliency and growth.
Food policy needs to gain the attention of the highest political levels, because no one country or group can meet these interconnected challenges.We should start by helping those whose needs are immediate. The UN's World Food Programme requires at least $500 million of additional food supplies to meet emergency calls.
Creepy? It is to me. But then, I've been researching some stuff for a long post this weekend maybe.
***
Taliban Free 1,200 in Attack on Afghan Prison
In a brazen attack, Taliban fighters assaulted the main prison in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Friday night, blowing up the mud walls, killing 15 guards and freeing around 1,200 inmates. Among the escapees were about 350 Taliban members, including commanders, would-be suicide bombers and assassins, said Ahmed Wali Karzai, the head of Kandahar’s provincial council and a brother of President Hamid Karzai.
“It is very dangerous for security. They are the most experienced killers and they all managed to escape,” he said by telephone from Kandahar.
Well, yippee. :(
And if you didn't think the world has gone mad, I offer you this:
West to offer Iran help in building nuclear industry
Britain and the world's leading powers will offer today to help Iran build civil nuclear power stations if Tehran obeys the United Nations and stops enriching uranium.
A delegation of diplomats will arrive in Tehran for talks in an effort to reach agreement on the future of Iran's nuclear programme.
During meetings with key officials, representatives from Britain, Russia, China, France and Germany will lay out exactly what Tehran stands to gain if uranium enrichment is abandoned.
Yes, I'm sure if Iran continues, it will receive a Stern Verbal Warning, to be followed up with a Sternly Written Letter of Disapproval.
And it's not just Iran; Syria and Turkey want in on the nukes, too!
No comments:
Post a Comment