Cold weather puts a bite on west nile virus - Northern News - Ontario, CA

"This is the quietest year we have ever had," said Flannigan.

Late August and early September is usually a prime time for the virus once 100 or more days with the mercury topping 18.3 C are recorded. But this year, there's less than 50 such days noted with the end of August just a week away and more cool days forecast for mid-week.

Wonk Room » Global Boiling: ‘Global Warming Is A Medical Emergency’

As the debate over rising health care costs reaches a fever pitch, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) warns that “global warming is a medical emergency.” In a press teleconference unveiling a new report on the human cost of increased heat waves, PSR executive director Peter Wilk, M.D. described global warming as “one of the gravest health emergencies facing humanity today”

Germany's climate-change plan: Starting in 2050, everyone holds their breath - Full Comment

Uh, Fishbreath, maybe we should talk this over. Your vision appears to consist of a) driving the auto industry out of business; b) letting the road system deteriorate; c) abandoning nuclear and other sources of power in favour of marginal wind projects and d) hoping that all the people who lost their jobs in manufacturing, construction and the energy industry will somehow find work repairing windmills.

Carbon [fraud] legislation would heat up finance hiring - Career Management - fins.com

With healthcare reform on its death-bed, Congress is turning some attention back to carbon cap-and-trade legislation -- proposals that would cultivate a massive new market and the heap of jobs that go with it.

"This is poised to be the largest commodity market on planet earth, and I don't think that's something that any i-bank can ignore," said Tom Marcello, a carbon analyst at New Energy Finance, a UK-based advisory.

Marcello's employer is a good example of the upside of cap-and-trade. Formed in 2005, New Energy now has 125 analysts worldwide. In the past year, the company has almost doubled its New York staff, hiring Marcello and about seven other analysts.

[Some Manitoba farms saw only one frost-free month this year?]

Frost has been an issue all year, as we were subjected to it early in the seeding season, through May and into June, and now in August in northern parts of the Prairies. The possibility of further frost damage throughout the U.S. and Western Canada due to the lateness of the crop has many concerned.

It's predicted that the next real frost threat will probably occur around the next full moon cycle, between September 4 and 11. For crops that are two to three weeks late maturing, that doesn't leave enough time for them to escape damage from a killing frost.

There's still time to plan your preharvest strategy if you're thinking about desiccating or swathing before the full moon.