Australian Bush Fire

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/22/world/asia/australia-fires/

This article I found is on the wildfires in Australia from CNN.com. I thought this would be an interesting topic to blog about because we are learning about wildfires in our disaster class.

Unfortunately, Australia is suffering from over 70 wildfires across its states and 29 of the fires are uncontained. These fires are moving fast and are now threatening the western side of the state of Sydney. These fires are ranging across a 1,000-mile line. Australia’s Rural Fire Services are trying to stop the fires or at least make them less intense. One of the deputies even said that if they don’t succeed in their strategies to stop the fire or the weather worsens, it could be devastating. Hundreds of homes have been lost and more are expected to disappear. We learned in class how dangerous wildfires can be and how they are started. One of the ways wildfires are started is from the weather. When there is high relative humidity, strong winds, and high temperatures, wildfires are more likely to start up. This article talks about how bad the weather conditions are in Australia at this time. This wild fire has already caused one death; therefore, the fire officials are urging residents to evacuate. People are worried that these fires will join together and make one big mega-fire. People are also coming together as a community to help stop the fires. “The state of emergency issued by authorities gives firefighters and police the authority to carry out measures such as cutting off water, power and gas and ordering mandatory evacuations of areas at risk.”

Another way wildfires are started is by humans. This fire in particular is still under investigation by officials. We learned that humans start most wildfires and officials are saying that this fire could have been started by a military training exercise. Another unfortunate fact that this article reported was that an 11-year-old and a 15-year-old were arrested for started a bush fire that spread more than 12,000 acres.

Response to Parker Byun:

http://byunp.wordpress.com/

Parker,

I have not studied earthquakes and I feel like I don’t hear about them very often so it was interesting to read about the earthquake in the Philippines. I like how you formatted your blog post. First, you gave me a nice summary of the article. Then, you gave your own analysis of what you think of the earthquake and its damages. You gave a good argument and I definitely saw how passionate you were about this topic. Good job!

What are the potential impacts for climate change in the UK?

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/08/potential-impacts-climate-change-uk

This article starts off talking about the main reasons why the UK would see a change in the next couple of decades. With rising temperatures since the last decade and global warming being a threat, the UK expects to be impacted by the climate change. The UK understands that they can cut some emissions to help, but in reality there is not much they can do to stop the climate change from happening. This article did a good job of explaining the effects of climate change and the risks UK would face. 

            Most people know the effects of global warming and what it could do to our environment. One of the effects it would have on the UK would be the risk of major flooding. Flooding would especially be the risk for the winter months. The UK would be expected to have extreme wet winters from heavy downpours and the risk of sea level rise. The government is also expecting 300,000 more properties to be at risk of flooding than before by the year 2080. The confusing part about this article is that even though it talks so heavily on the risk of flooding in the winters, it talks about the risk of drought in the summer. These are two extreme risks that the UK could face in the next couple of decades and would have a huge impact on their environment and society. The other risks the UK could face are water security and supply, ecosystem hazards, wildlife dangers, and economic problems. The article also talks about a few benefits from the climate change that include new crop life and certain wildlife survival.

            Global warming has been a topic for many years now of debate and there have been many suggestions put in place to help this trend slow down and lessen the environmental effects it will have. I really like how this article ends saying, “Climate policy to cut global greenhouse gas emissions could have a tangible effect on future climate impacts, not only offering governments a way to avoid the most extreme impacts, but also providing them with more time to prepare and adapt to those that are unavoidable.” This just shows that things can be done to help and even though it may not stop climate change from happening, it would slow down the process giving them more time to prepare.

            The only thing I didn’t like about this article is that it didn’t elaborate on things the UK can do to help. Instead of talking about all of the risks maybe it should talk about daily things the UK residents can do to help their environment and society. 

Comment to classmate:
http://tylerspires.wordpress.com/
I love how he utilized pictures in his blog. Pictures are the way of catching someone's eye and I felt this was easy on the eye as well in terms of reading. Hurricanes are something I am very interested in and I love hearing what is a risk for the US right now! This was a great blog on Hurricane Karen and the possible path and impacts it has. Great job!

Anesthesia Turns ACL Surgery into a Nightmare

16-year-old Holly Sealey went into St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond, VA on a Thursday morning to get a standard out-patient procedure on her knee and came out five days later after having a brain seizure and cardiac arrest. 

On her winter break trip to the mountains, Holly lost control while skiing and injured her knee. She was told she had torn her ACL and her only way to recover was knee surgery.

"Okay I'm going to give you an alcohol wipe and then I'm going to give you the shot and that's going to be the anesthesia for your leg and then we will go get Mom and Dad and bring them back in here... the last thing I remember is the alcohol swipe." 

The anesthesiologist administered the anesthesia and what Holly thought would take a couple hours turned into a couple of days. 

A few seconds after the anesthesia, Holly went into cardiac arrest and had a brain seizure. She didn't have a heart beat for four minutes and it took the doctors 10 minutes to get her heart rate back to normal. 

"I woke up they took like I was on catheter, and they had given me food through an IV, and fluids, and breathing tube and they started taking one by one things off and then at that point I just wanted, I had been in the hospital for four or five days and I was just ready to go home." 

Luckily Holly did not experience any brain damage from the incident and a month later she successfully got her ACL surgery.  

Now 20 years old, Holly enjoys running outdoors and other physical activities.