Environment

Storms hit the US South, Southwest and Midwest over the Christmas holiday weekend, unleashing deadly floods and tornadoes that claimed the lives of at least 43 people, flattened buildings and created havoc for travelers. The severe weather conditions have prompted  Missouri and New Mexico to declare states of emergency. RT reports: At least 13 people perished in flash flooding in Missouri and Illinois, where up to six inches of rain fell over the weekend, while in Texas at least 11 people were killed in the Dallas area by tornadoes.

Five hundred extra soldiers have been brought in to deal with “unprecedented” flooding in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Another thousand are on stand-by after David Cameron vowed to help people in “their hour of need”. Rescue teams have been evacuating homes in York where the water levels are still rising. Thousands of people in north-west England are without power. Rescue teams evacuating residents The BBC reports: There are scores of flood warnings in England, Wales and Scotland – more than 20 severe, meaning danger to life.

A new UC Berkeley paper reveals that children exposed to pesticides may have breathing problems later in life.  The study linked the levels of organophosphate pesticide metabolites in the urine of 279 children living in California with decreased lung function. Berkeley.edu reports: Each tenfold increase in concentrations of organophosphate metabolites was associated with a 159-milliliter decrease in lung function, or about 8 percent less air, on average, when blowing out a candle. The magnitude of this decrease is similar to a child’s secondhand smoke exposure from his or her mother.

Record breaking landslides could be taking place right now that are not being registered. One of the largest landslides in over 30 years went unnoticed in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. Motherboard reports: One such event occurred last October, when 200 million metric tons of rock—the equivalent to the weight of 1,104,972 blue whales—slid off the side of a remote mountain in Southeast Alaska, sending debris flying and launching a tsunami large enough to be measured by a tidal gauge nearly 100 miles away.

Defeating ISIL in Iraq requires coordination between the Sunni tribes and the Shiite dominated Iraqi government. The problem is however that the U.S is empowering both the Shiites and the Sunnis and thus is able to direct the course of events. The Sunni tribes were the ones who defeated the original Al-Qaeda in Iraq and are now the ones capable of eradicating ISIL. They need to be free of the threat of sectarianism in order to free their own towns and villages.