TOP STORY

Valley Fever Fueled by Warming Southwest

Valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, is a fungal disease endemic to the southwestern United States.  Cocci spores are propelled by the wind and fine airborne particulates, and health experts are saying that "global warming will multiply the incidence due to increased airborne dust and sandstorms."  The numbers show this endemic disease is already on the rise: "Higher wind speeds and drought upped Arizona’s yearly count from 33 cases of valley fever per 100,000 in 1998 to 43 per 100,000 in 2001...The number of cases in Arizona more than quadrupled from 1997 to 2006, according to a Mayo Clinic study. During that same period, incidence rates in California jumped from 2.5 to 8.4 cases per 100,000 people."  [Daily Climate]

LISTENING BOOTH

India's Green Revolution, launched more than 40 years ago, ushered industrialized agriculture into the northern state of Punjab.  Through the national program "Indian farmers started growing crops the American way — with chemicals, high-yield seeds and irrigation."  Recent studies show "show the Green Revolution is heading for collapse," as water tables drop, soil is destroyed, and the economics are landing more and more farmers in debt.   [Morning Edition-NPR]

RECOMMENDED READING

Greenpeace Names New Director

Greenpeace USA yesterday announced the appointment of Philip Radford, 33, as its new executive director.  Radford has run the organization's grassroots campaign since 2003, and "was behind the launch of the "Frontline" initiative that nearly doubled the organization's annual budget to $30 million."  The chair of Greenpeace USA's board said that Radford, "has helped make Greenpeace more robust, more powerful, and more technologically savvy...This is not your father's environmental movement."  [Greenwire-New York Times]

Related:

Kate Sheppard talks with Radford.  A highlight: "There are huge shifts across the country, massive shifts in the environmental community.  You have a realization in the environmental community that for too long we have played on the fringes and haven’t had political power...What’s missing right now is what Obama figured out and what other people figured out, which is in political campaigns in the past there just wasn’t enough money invested in on the ground organizing and using the internet really strategically to mobilize people."  [Grist]

Big Wind in Texas

Texas has again been recognized as the country's leading producer of wind power.  An American Wind Energy Association report revealed that the Lone Star State installed "almost 2,700 megawatts of wind power last year. Only two countries in the world installed that much wind in 2008."  In fact, a single (Republican) district in the state's northwest now produces 10% of U.S. wind energy, and as much as all of Denmark.   [Environmental Capital- Wall Street Journal]

Food Allergies On The Rise

Forty percent of people in Britain suffer from food allergies, and "the number of children with food allergies has tripled in the past decade, with millions being diagnosed with severe immune system disorders."  Researchers are looking into the the wider availability of "exotic" foods as a cause.  [Telegraph]

FROM THE BLOGS

• New Study Shows that a 70 Percent Cut in CO2 Could Stabilize Climate [Worldchanging]

• British Police Pre-Emptively Arrest 114 Anti-Coal Activists [ItsGettingHotInHere]

FROM THE TUBE

You know things are bad when notorious curmudgeon Andy Rooney turns his gripes towards global warming and resource depletion:

Watch CBS Videos Online[60 Minutes]