Spotlight on green news & views: Warnings from the birds; media drop the ball on climate change

OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES 

Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The most recent Spotlight can be seen here. More than 24,175 environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.

Long-duration Mississippi River Flood event underway written by terrypinder: “Heavy rains from Christmas week have drained into the Mississippi, forcing it to rise substantially.  This is a significant Mississippi River flood from about St. Louis southward. This flood will last well into January. I’ve constructed a chart based on this site so you can know when the flood crest will pass your location, if you live anywhere along the Mississippi all the way to its mouth at the Gulf. The full chart is at the link. [...] It is very likely the Army Corp will open a number of spillways above New Orleans metro to lower the flood crest as it passes the city, otherwise this crest will be on 1/20 at 17 feet. This is just the Mississippi. The Ohio and the Arkansas, both of which empty into the Mississippi, are also both in flood, cresting not until early next week.”

Virus Outbreak in Brazil linked to Babies with Tiny Brains could spread to Southern U.S. written by FishOutofWater: “The Zika virus that is terrifying expectant mothers in Brazil could spread to the southern United States. Brazilian health officials have reported 2,782 cases of very tiny heads, known as microcephaly, in newborns this year to date, five times more than 2010. The sudden increase in babies with tiny brains has expanded with the outbreak of the Zika virus, but scientists haven’t found out what is causing the microcephaly. Brazilian officials officially reported a direct link between Zika and microencepahly after Zika Virus was found on autopsy in the tissues of the tiny brain of the baby of an infected mother. How Zika might cause microcephaly is unknown, but expectant parents in Brazil are near panic. [...] Zika has spread rapidly in South America because the mosquito that carries the virus, Aedes aegypti, is well adapted to cities and warm humid tropical and subtropical environments. The natural range of this mosquito includes the southern United States. Yellow fever epidemics once reached the southern U.S. through this mosquito vector. Successful campaigns eliminated the vector and yellow fever epidemics ended in the south. The success against yellow fever led to the end of campaigns of mosquito control. Now Aedes aegypti is back.”