shortage Archives - Good News!

RED CROSS BLOOD SUPPLY DROPS 25% IN JULY Blood Donors Needed in Emergency Blood Shortage

Austin Tang — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 19:57:53 +0000

Listen to “RED CROSS BLOOD SUPPLY DROPS 25% IN JULY Blood Donors Needed in Emergency Blood Shortage” on Spreaker.

RED CROSS BLOOD SUPPLY DROPS 25% IN JULY
Blood Donors Needed in Emergency Blood Shortage

This summer’s record setting heat is a significant contributor to recent blood collection challenges impacting more than 100 blood drives in the last month — in nearly every state where the American Red Cross collects blood. The extreme temperatures have exacerbated traditional seasonal obstacles to blood donation, such as vacation travel and summer activities, creating an emergency blood shortage.

Blood donations are going out the door faster than they are coming in, causing the Red Cross national blood inventory to plumet 25% in July. The Red Cross is working with hospitals around the clock to meet the blood needs of patients. However, due to the supply of type O blood being so low, distributions of this vital blood type are reduced below what hospitals count on.

Dr. Baia Lasky, divisional chief medical officer at the American Red Cross to discuss the need for blood donors to address the emergency blood shortage, how donated blood helps patients in need of lifesaving medical care and how to set up an appointment.

“Having type O blood products readily available is vital to providing timely and lifesaving care to patients in need,” says Dr. Lasky. “In fact, for a patient suffering massive blood loss, like an individual in a car accident or a mom experiencing a severe postpartum hemorrhage, group O is the most commonly transfused blood type.

More than a quarter of all blood products each year are used in critical care and emergency room situations — those transfusions are only available because of the generosity of blood and platelet donors.”

The Red Cross urgently calls on blood and platelet donors of all types—especially those with Type O blood—to give now. As a thank you, everyone who comes to donate blood in August will receive a $20 Amazon.com Gift Card by email.

Interview is courtesy: Nonprofit American Red Cross

The post RED CROSS BLOOD SUPPLY DROPS 25% IN JULY Blood Donors Needed in Emergency Blood Shortage appeared first on Good News!.

? Future Trends — White Compensation, Food Shortages, Mass Vaccinations

Austin Tang — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 02:34:05 +0000

TUESDAY 04 AUGUST 2020

Introducing another week of Future Trends — tracking current global news stories that provide insight into the future. This week: economies see record drops, tech giant keeps employees working from home, Serbia buys Chinese missiles and Russia prepares for mass vaccination campaign.

ECONOMICS

Mexican, German and US economies see record drops in GDP. Both the US and German economies shrank 10% in the last quarter, while Mexico contracted by 17%. The US economy is now 33% lower than the same time last year.
More than one million Chileans seek to withdraw pensions amid pandemic. More than one million Chileans have asked to withdraw a portion of their pension funds to tap into retirement savings to buffer the economic impacts of COVID-19.
Zimbabwe’s white farmers awarded USD $3.5 billion compensation. This is widely considered as a positive move. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said “It brings closure and a new beginning in the history of the land discourse in Zimbabwe”. The payments will be made in long-term bonds, owing to the nation’s lack of capacity to honour the commitment immediately.

SOCIAL

Chilean dogs sniff out COVID-19 in early stages. Chilean police are training sniffer dogs to detect the coronavirus in people’s sweat at an early stage, after a similar trial in the UK showed encouraging results.
Google will keep 200,000 employees in home offices until July 2021. This makes the search engine giant the first large US company to adopt such an extended schedule in view of the coronavirus pandemic. This sets a precedent and will likely put pressure on other tech companies.
New Japanese batteries will produce up to 10 times more energy. Japanese startup 3Dom says its lithium metal battery can currently produce twice the amount of energy than a Li-ion power source of similar weight, with advances expected in the technology in the near future.
A billion surveillance cameras will be in operation worldwide next year. China hosts 18 of the 20 most camera-controlled cities in the world. London is in 3rd place with 67.4 cameras per thousand citizens, while Hyderabad in India is in 16th place with 29.9 cameras per thousand citizens.

POLITICS

Serbian purchase of missile defense system shows ties deepening with China. Serbia has bought a new generation of medium-range, radar-guided surface-to-air missiles from China in a new sign of deepening cooperation between Beijing and Belgrade.
India freezes out Chinese companies from government bidding. Restrictions on Chinese companies seeking to supply goods or services to the government have been tighten in retaliation against Beijing over the border conflict in the Himalayas.
US Democrats on House antitrust panel scored biggest ‘Big Tech’ donations, but Republicans do well too. The CEO’s of Amazon, Facebook and Google testified before the US House committee dedicated to antitrust. They addressed lawmakers to whom their companies and employees have given donations in this election cycle. Total lobbying expenses for the last quarter by Amazon were $4.4 million.
Iran looks to partner with China, as the West steps back. The proposed 25-year cooperation deal between Iran and China is partly a result of Tehran’s disappointment at the EU’s failure to stand up to the United States.
Pakistani separatist groups unite to target China’s Belt and Road. The alliance is aimed at attacking Chinese interests in a development likely to increase security costs for Belt and Road Initiative projects in Pakistan.

CONFLICT

India has become the world’s biggest arms importer. With the delivery of the first batch of French Fighter Jets, India is upgrading its military. The forward posture adopted by the Indian Air Force is key to India’s defense capabilities.
Baghdad in turmoil after protesters killed. Anti-government protesters have taken to the streets of Iraq’s capital and other cities following the funerals of two people killed during clashes with security forces the night before. The Prime Minister, who condemned the act, demanded explanations within 72 hours.
Mexico arrests ‘El Marro’, who is blamed for a surge in drug violence. The Mexican Army and state security forces have captured the notorious drug gang leader blamed for fanning a surge in violence that has severely tested the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

DEVELOPMENT

9.6 million Sudanese are facing famine. A quarter of the population of Sudan is facing severe food shortages due to escalating food prices. This is the highest in the country’s recent history.
COVID-19 disrupting vaccination programmes. 80 million children under the age of one are unprotected from diseases. The WHO and other institutions have found that COVID-19 has disrupted the vaccinations in at least 68 countries.
Russia preparing mass vaccination against coronavirus for October. Russia’s health minister is preparing a mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19 for October, local news agencies reported, after a vaccine completed clinical trials.

Thanks for reading! We’ll see you next Tuesday.

We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to info@economicsandpeace.org.

Get more from IEP by downloading our research, taking our Positive Peace Academy or becoming an IEP Ambassador.

The post ? Future Trends — White Compensation, Food Shortages, Mass Vaccinations appeared first on Good News!.

Your Pot Habit Is Contributing to a Guacamole Crisis

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 21:45:08 +0000

As California faces severe water shortages and farmers let their groves go fallow, a study finds that marijuana growers are sucking streams dry.
News on Wednesday that California’s snowpack has hit a record low of just 6 percent of normal means next-to-no spring runoff will flow into streams and reservoirs that supply water to the cities and farmers who feed much of the nation.
But before you light up a (legal) marijuana cigarette to take your mind off impending doom, consider this: With every puff you take, you could be making the epic drought even worse.
A new study finds that pot growers in the Northern California weed belt are diverting 100 percent of the water in some streams to irrigate their cash crops.
“Last summer, we went out and picked a handful of streams in the study area, and we looked at real-time stream flow,” said Scott Bauer, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Four out of those five streams went dry.”
A Humboldt County, California, pot farm.
That means no water for endangered salmon and other wildlife, not to mention people. Some avocado growers, for instance, are letting their groves go dry because of water shortages and the high price of irrigation. In other words, kiss your guacamole goodbye.
Agency scientists focused on illegal pot operations in Humboldt County, the epicenter of California’s marijuana industry. Greenhouses dot the hillsides, and the pot plants inside are thirsty: Each uses about six gallons of water per day, compared with the 3.3 gallons wine grapes consume.
Wildlife officials started receiving calls about stream diversion in 2009, said Bauer, who is based in the Humboldt town of Eureka. “A number of us started going out with game wardens called out to grow sites and our focus was to document the environmental damage,” he said.
The scientists noticed significant problems—stream diversion, hillsides graded to make level growing fields, and dirt being dumped into waterways.
“We started to realize this was a real problem,” said Bauer.
In 2012, as the drought began to take hold, the researchers used Google Earth to count all the plants and figure out how many are in greenhouses, and to compare the number of plants with stream flow data.
They chose four areas, all surrounded by forests, and all with streams containing endangered salmon. The scientists estimated that the growing operations were using between 138,200 and 191,265 gallons of water a day. People in Northern California, for comparison, use an average 172 gallons of water per day per person.
Marijuana growers were taking 100 percent from three of the streams studied and 25 percent of a fourth stream.
Those streams aren’t just picturesque—they’re critical to the survival of the coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead trout.
Will there be a movement for sustainably grown pot?
“I think if people understand what’s going on, hopefully they’ll asking questions about how green is their product,” Bauer said. “If they’re concerned about our state’s natural resources, they should be asking those questions. Is this something that isn’t harming California’s resources?”

The post Your Pot Habit Is Contributing to a Guacamole Crisis appeared first on Good News!.