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The Autoimmune Epidemic Donna Jackson Nakazawa See book keywords and concepts

Eighteen months later, work would be published directly linking fatal blood clots with exposure to the airborne particulate matter in forest fires. And in 2006, a shocking study based on hospital data from thirty-four cities over a fourteen-year span would show that people with autoimmune inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and lupus are at a substantially increased risk of death when they are exposed to particulate air pollution, or soot, for a substantial period of time.

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Mark Lynas See book keywords and concepts

In bad burning years, these Asian forest fires are the greatest single cause of greenhouse gas emissions apart from fossil fuel use. It does not therefore require much imagination to understand why 'deforestation diesel' almost certainly has a worse impact on global warming than its conventional mineral counterpart: estimates have suggested that biodiesel based on palm oil feedstock can be ten times more carbon-intensive than fossil fuels.

Siberia, after all, is already hot enough in summer to see extreme heatwaves and forest fires.) One modelling study, indeed, looking specifically at global food production, found that even northern Canada and the former Soviet Union exhibited agricultural production declines in the five-degree world. One solution might be to concentrate populations and new farming colonies on Arctic coasts of Russia and in the Canadian islands, where the moderating maritime influence should keep summer temperatures at tolerable levels.

Mediterranean sunburn Perhaps the most striking images from 2003's hot summer came from Portugal, where gigantic forest fires swept through the tinder-dry landscape, destroying orchards, torching houses and killing eighteen people. In total an area almost the size of Luxembourg was devastated. The conflagrations were so huge that they cast palls of smoke right over the North Atlantic, with both fires and smoke easily visible from space.

The heatwave and drought also devastated the agricultural sector: crop losses totalled around $12 billion, whilst forest fires in Portugal caused another $1.5 billion of damage. Major rivers such as the Po in Italy, the Rhine in Germany and the Loire in France ran at record low levels, grounding barge traffic and causing water shortages for irrigation and hydroelectric production. Toxic algal blooms proliferated in the denuded rivers and lakes.

In 1998 a strong El Nino helped generate severe droughts in Amazonia and East Asia, leading to gigantic forest fires which blanketed whole continents in smog. In the Amazon basin alone, 400 million tonnes of carbon were released, equivalent to 5 per cent of human emissions from fossil fuel burning for that whole year. Surprisingly, the Amazon forest ecosystem turns out to have been remarkably resilient to past climate changes. Even during the chilly depths of the last ice age, the forest persisted relatively undisturbed, despite cooler temperatures and lower rainfall.

As the entire Amazon basin gradually dried out in the worst drought for forty years, massive forest fires began to lay waste to this formerly pristine tropical wilderness. Yet this was not a natural disaster. 'The Amazon is a canary in a coal mine for the earth,' the ecologist Dan Nepstad told a reporter from Reuters. 'As we enter a warming trend we are in uncertain territory' Nepstad should know. An acknowledged world expert on the Amazon, he has spent years investigating the impact of drought on the rainforest ecosystem.

Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes Michael J. Panzner See book keywords and concepts

Indeed, because of the multiplicity of risks, markets, and counterparties involved, the situation might be akin to the disastrous forest fires that swept across the West Coast of the United States in recent decades. Often, there were simply too many hot spots to tackle at once, and wide swaths were left ablaze until they eventually burned themselves out. Few areas of the financial system will be unaffected when the meltdown rages. In the insurance sector, for example, debt downgrades and defaults will occur at a quickening pace.

The Autoimmune Epidemic Donna Jackson Nakazawa See book keywords and concepts

David felt that Jan's asthma must be acting up, too; recent forest fires had plagued Montana's wooded areas and some neighborhoods, and the noxious smoke clouds had grown closer and more visible as the couple had neared the Idaho-Montana border. Still, severe chest pain was not usually indicative of asthma. Could asthma coupled with esophageal spasms produce so much pain? That was their best educated guess at one o'clock in the morning in the middle of nowhere.

Health Begins in the Colon Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN See book keywords and concepts

Levels of arsenic in the environment can increase with natural events such as volcanic activity, rock erosion, and forest fires; but human actions can also release arsenic, often in extremely hazardous amounts. Every year, industrial pollution accounts for the release of thousands of pounds of the deadly chemical. Wood preservatives account for 90 percent of the arsenic used in American industry, but it can also be found in paints, metals, prescription and recreational drugs, soaps, and fertilizers, and occurs as a byproduct of mining, copper smelting, and coal burning. < X Fig.

The Autoimmune Epidemic Donna Jackson Nakazawa See book keywords and concepts

At numbers four, five, and six, we cannot go back in time and travel with Jan's cells to say definitively what prompted Jan's sudden and rapid onset of antiphospholipid antibody syndrome or prove whether those forest fires had a thing to do with it. It is all supposition, yes, but it is a very good guess. THE STORY INTHE NUMBERS If you were to look today at a chart detailing incidence rates of autoimmune disease versus heart disease and cancer, you would see that while cancer and heart disease rates are, more or less, flatlin-ing, autoimmune diseases are continuing in a steady upward climb.

The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World Lynne McTaggart See book keywords and concepts

For three months in the first quarter of 1998, forest fires raged out of control in the Amazonian state of Roraima, 1,500 miles northwest of Brasilia, devastating the rain forest. It had not rained for months—an effect blamed on El Nino—and the ordinarily humid rain forest was bone-dry, perfect kindling for the fire that had by that time scorched 15 percent of the state. The rains, usually so copious in this part of Brazil, remained elusive. The UN termed the fire a disaster without precedent on the planet.

Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown David Steinman See book keywords and concepts

Malaysia sought crisis talks with its bigger neighbor as much of peninsular Malaysia, including the capital, had been shrouded in thick smog for a week, presenting the country with its worst pollution crisis since 1997, when smoke mainly from Indonesian forest fires blocked out skies across Southeast Asia. Asthma attacks soared, and tourists were holing up in their hotels or seeking refuge in air-conditioned shopping malls at one of the busiest times for the country's tourism industry. Talk about the right climate for world terrorism.

The Autoimmune Epidemic Donna Jackson Nakazawa See book keywords and concepts

As one doctor explained, "You've had several forest fires, and each time it's harder and harder to get healthy regrowth." It was the second time in four years that my work as a journalist came to a sudden halt. Deadline after deadline passed. I was simply too weak to sit in front of a computer, let alone tap out words on the keyboard. I tried to get to the bathroom one night on my own, using my walker, without waking my husband to help steady me, but misjudged my stamina. On the way back I crashed into a window and fell in a heap on the floor, unable to get up on so much as one elbow.

Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes Michael J. Panzner See book keywords and concepts

Even the Federal Reserve, which long ago acquired the seemingly unrelenting habit of putting out economic and financial forest fires by turning on the monetary liquidity spigot full blast, will likely fail to come to grips with the disaster. And if it does realize what is occurring, its response will be uncharacteristic, to say the least. After a long span enabling credit and various other bubbles, odds are high that the Fed will suddenly get what might be referred to as central bank "religion" and adopt a substantial measure of restraint, ironically perhaps, at just the wrong time.

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century James Howard Kunstler See book keywords and concepts

Throughout France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, and the Balkans, the intense heat and dry conditions sparked devastating forest fires. The heat wave was accompanied by an unprecedented drought that devastated crops. France's wheat loss was 20 percent, England's 12 percent, and Ukraine's a staggering 80 percent. In the previous year, 2002, Central Europe had been afflicted with unprecedented floods, called the worst in five hundred years and resulting in more than $15 billion in damage.

Reinheriting the Earth: Awakening to Sustainable Solutions and Greater Truths Brian O'Leary See book keywords and concepts

We now have additional reasons for doing that, not the least of which are preventing floods, erosion, desertification, forest fires, droughts, escalating carbon production, and climate change while preserving water, food, lumber, paper, oil and mineral resources. But there is also the quality of life of directly experiencing these habitats in harmony with nature. We shall need to place a value on our forests that would make it prohibitively expensive to cut more down. We must find ways to stop logging and burning pristine forests and to keep them intact as if our lives depended upon it.

Some afternoons we are greeted by a thundershower that might produce a drop or two of passing ecstacy. forest fires rage in nearby Mesa Verde National Park, blotting out the usual blue sky. Yes, global climate change is upon us as the jet stream streaks across northern Canada far away. Even during a normal, moist summer, the water here is manipulated and coaxed over to cattle rangelands, mines, golf courses, crops and growing cities downstream. According to the recent research of Lester Brown and others, a major obstacle to sustainability and adequate food is our dwindling water supply.

The Secret House : The Extraordinary Science of an Ordinary Day David Bodanis See book keywords and concepts

How then did it turn out that we're lucky enough to live on a planet with only 20 per cent free oxygen and no more; where we're not scared to light a match, where fire engines do not have to move at a cautious crawl, and there are no giant continent-covering forest fires? The answer is that such blazes did take place-whenever the oxygen level rose too high. But the result of those fires was fewer plants and trees-enough, with other factors, to help lower the oxygen production level to the stable 20 per cent.

Reinheriting the Earth: Awakening to Sustainable Solutions and Greater Truths Brian O'Leary See book keywords and concepts

The replanted forests could also provide new habitats and permaculture food sources while mitigating floods, forest fires and extreme weather. In some limited cases they could become tree farms which can be used for hard-to-substitute wood products and be replanted on a rotating basis. Then we can begin to terraform ourselves back to letting nature handle any climate change. Who, outside the monied special interests, would not be in favor of that? There's another way to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The results already include unprecedented liquid water at the North Pole, the breaking off of the Antarctic ice sheet, the melting of ice caps, glaciers and permafrost, the rise of sea level, the erosion of beaches, destroyed coral reefs, heat waves, dust bowls, forest fires, floods, mudslides, super-hurricanes, super-tornadoes, and the substantially heightened breeding and spreading of airborne diseases. By far the warmest year in historical times was 1998, a record that could go back more than 600 years.

Outsmart Your Cancer: Alternative Non-Toxic Treatments That Work Tanya Harter Pierce See book keywords and concepts

But there are also many natural control mechanisms within our bodies to keep these sparks from turning into raging forest fires of cancer. Most medical practitioners and researchers agree that, in fact, we all probably have cancer cells developing in each of us all the time, but our bodies are able to dispose of them before they rage out of control. In other words, a healthy body can normally defend itself quite well against the development of cancer because it knows how to deal with these natural occurrences.

Triggers and Deficient Control Mechanisms To understand how triggers and deficient control mechanisms contribute to the development of cancer, I'd like to use the analogy of a forest fire: What if someone were to ask the question: "What causes forest fires?" Looking for just one answer would be silly.

There are many contributing factors to cancer and many control mechanisms, as in my analogy of forest fires. These factors include countless known pollutants and toxins that are directly carcinogenic, nutritionally deficient modern diets, and other modern lifestyle habits. Yet, once cancer gets started, all cancers share common characteristics no matter where they are found in the body. These common characteristics of all cancer cells, which conventional medicine has disregarded, provide the main keys to how alternative non-toxic treatments work.

Reinheriting the Earth: Awakening to Sustainable Solutions and Greater Truths Brian O'Leary See book keywords and concepts

Similar shortsightedness also plagues Indonesia, where logging has created massive erosion, forest fires, floods, migrations and killer smogs. A few wealthy individuals made handsome profits in the short run from these practices, but the people paid dearly, and the Earth became stripped and ugly. For better results, we will need to create an enforceable international order to prevent such trashing from ever happening again. China is beginning to make progress, in spite of its own shortsightedness in preserving its timberlands.

The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America Francois Couplan, Ph.D. See book keywords and concepts

In Russia, the resin exuding from the trunks burned by forest fires was g; th-ered and traded under the name of "Orenburg gum." In autumn, larch leaves turn yellow and fall off the tree. At this stage, t ley dye wool brown. Picea (B 2) Spruce Latin name of the tree from "pix," pitch; "pissa" in Greek. N. N.Am. & Mountains. Several native and Eurasian species are planted as ornamentals. Spruces have all the edible and medicinal uses described above. Inner bark and young shoots of P. mariana, black spruce - N. N.Am. -and rubens, red spruce - N.E. N.Am.

Staying Healthy in a Risky Environment: The New York University Medical Center Family Guide Arthur C. Upton, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Small amounts of dioxins are produced naturally in volcanoes and by forest fires, but major environmental disasters such as the spraying of Agent Orange in Vietnam, contamination at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, and the explosion of the chemical plant in Seveso, Italy, have exposed thousands to potentially dangerous levels of this toxin. Routes of Exposure: Inhalation and skin absorption. Symptoms of Exposure: Exposure to TCDD may cause burning of the eyes, nose, and throat; headache; dizziness; loss of appetite; nausea; and vomiting.

PAHs are found in the air from natural sources, such as forest fires and volcanoes, but mostly from human-made sources, such as burning coal, wood, petroleum products, and oil and from coke production, burning refuse, and car exhaust. Water, soil, and air may also be contaminated. People living near oil refineries and in cities with heavy traffic may be exposed to higher levels of PAHs. Routes of Exposure: Inhalation and ingestion. Symptoms of Exposure: No significant effects have been found with acute exposure.

Dr. Cass Ingram's Lifesaving Cures Dr. Cass Ingram See book keywords and concepts

Hurricanes Georges and Mitch, devastating tornadoes in the southwestern USA, massive earthquakes in Afghanistan, Japan, and Columbia, volcanic eruptions in Mexico, the great Yangtze flood, typhoons and tempests in the South Seas, and disastrous forest fires all over the world have destroyed the lives of the people and the ecosystems. Yet, the greatest damage to humanity is forthcoming. As a result of these monstrous disasters, untold thousands more will likely suffer from potentially fatal illnesses. Disaster zones, especially flood zones, breed disease.

Empty Harvest Dr Bernard Jenson and Mark Anderson See book keywords and concepts

In this 1982 book, Hamaker accurately predicted the massive forest fires of 1987 and 1988, which were the worst in recorded history. Even as I write, 3.5 million acres of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Montana are burning to death. These fires, in turn, release even more stored carbon from the land into the air in the form of carbon dioxide (C02), accelerating the Greenhouse process, which we discuss in detail in Chapter Five.

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