TOP STORY

World on Swine Flu Alert

"The United States declared a "public health emergency" yesterday as countries from New Zealand to Scotland investigated suspected cases of illness that they feared might be a strain of swine flu that has been identified in Mexico, the United States and Canada."  This new flu strain, which is a dangerous combination of human, avian, and swine viruses, has infected over 1,000 people and killed at least 68.  Officials at the World Health Organization warn that this outbreak could become a global pandemic.  [Washington Post]

Related:

• "Swine flu outbreak linked to Smithfield factory farms."  Tom Philpott makes the link between the outbreak's origins and the world's largest pork packer and hog producer.  [Grist]
• "Contagion on a Small Planet."  Andy Revkin on how "an urbanizing planet  knitted by transportation is an extraordinarily welcoming world for infectious disease, particularly easily transmitted viruses like the flu."  [Dot Earth-NY Times]
• Interactive timeline of swine flu outbreak. [The Guardian]

Related Video

  [Wall Street Journal]

RECOMMENDED READING

California Passes First Low Carbon Fuel Standard

"California became the first state in the nation Thursday to mandate carbon-based reductions in transportation fuels in an attempt to cut the state's overall greenhouse gas emissions." The so-called "Low Carbon Fuel Standard" will initiate reductions in 2011, aiming for 10% reduction in carbon pollution from transportation sector by 2020. The nation's first attempt at such a plan, it's seen as a blow to the traditional oil industry, Alberta's oil sands development, and even domestic ethanol production.  [Sacramento Bee]

Related:

• Press release: "First Low Carbon Fuel Standard in U.S. Brings Cleaner Air to California"  [NRDC] 

SCREENING

Al Gore calls climate change deniers "the Bernie Madoffs of global warming."

Money quote:

The largest corporate carbon polluters in America, 14 years ago, asked their own people to conduct a review of all of this science. And their own people told them, "What the international scientific community is saying is correct, there is no legitimate basis for denying it." Then, these large polluters committed a massive fraud far larger than Bernie Madoff's fraud. They are the Bernie Madoffs of global warming. They ordered the censoring and removal of the scientific review that they themselves conducted, and like Bernie Madoff, they lied to the people who trusted them in order to make money.

FROM THE BLOGS

• "On Global Warming, LIke Evolution, the GOP is stuck in the Pre-1859 Past" [The Intersection] 
• "Quit arguing with [conservative politicians] that everyone hates" [Grist]