NASA scientist James Hansen issued an urgent warning in his speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., June 23. The occasion was the 20th anniversary of his landmark 1988 testimony before a Senate panel, in which he warned that global warming was here and we were causing most of it. Now he’s being just as forceful, but the outlook is worse. “We really are in a planetary emergency,” Hansen said. Greenhouse gas emissions (mostly carbon dioxide) have continued basically unabated since 1988, he noted, and atmospheric levels are now at 385 ppm (parts per million) — and we’re adding 2 ppm per year. At 450 ppm there would be no ice left on the planet, which would mean major changes in climate and sea level. At the world’s current rate of emissions, we could hit that point 33 years from now.

Posted by Zoov on 30 Jun 2008
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Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen leaves Tuesday night on an overseas trip that will take him to Israel, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. The trip has been scheduled for some time but U.S. officials say it comes just as the Israelis are mounting a full court press to get the Bush administration to strike Iran’s nuclear complex.

Posted by Zoov on 25 Jun 2008
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It’s only the fourth day of summer and already eight people have contracted West Nile virus in the United States. So far five states reported the virus in humans, and nine states reported animal cases. Since the first U.S. case of West Nile virus was diagnosed in 1999, incidents of the disease have spread across the country. In 2007, 3,630 people were diagnosed and 124 of them died. Authorities said that flooding in the Midwest left behind a lot of standing water that, when combined with rising summer temperatures, could lead to a bumper crop of West Nile-carrying mosquitoes.

Posted by Zoov on 24 Jun 2008
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Top Two Air Force Officials Ousted, Failures in Oversight Of Nuclear Arms Cited. Gates Accepts Air Force Resignations
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Thursday that he has accepted the resignations of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne.

Posted by Zoov on 06 Jun 2008
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