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Around the world, scientists are now beginning to examine samples of the virus with a significant question in mind: Could this strain of the disease cause a global pandemic? This international network of scientists keeps constant watch for good reason. In 1918 and 1919, a flu pandemic killed between 20 million and 40 million people, more than the total death toll of World War I, more in a year than the Black Death of 1347 to 1351. More recently, an H1N1 swine flu pandemic was blamed for more than 284,500 human deaths worldwide between April 2009 and August 2010. So...

That rapidly growing wind power development kills birds in ever increasing numbers is clear. That it also kills whales and other marine mammals is becoming clear. So the policy question is how much killing is enough, before we stop killing more? This question seems not to be asked. The stampede to build huge amounts of wind power, on land and at sea, is potentially devastating to a great many species. Our focus has been on the growing threat to whales and other marine mammals from offshore industrial wind. But this is just part of a much deeper pattern of runaway...

New Jersey has chosen a Danish company to build a wind energy project off the coast of Atlantic City that could power half a million homes. The state Board of Public Utilities on Friday chose Ørsted to build a project that would generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity. The company says the work could be completed by 2024. The BPU said the project will cause an estimated monthly bill increase of $1.46 for residential customers, $13.05 for commercial customers and just over $110 for industrial customers. […] Murphy, a Democrat, wants New Jersey to produce all its energy from clean sources...

FRANKLIN, La. (AP) - St. Mary Parish could be the site of the state's first commercial wind farm of energy-producing turbines under a plan by a Metairie company. The Advocate reports Southern States Renewable Energy is proposing a $40 million project that, under the current plan, would bring eight 498-foot-tall wind turbines to an isolated patch of coastal land near the Port of West St. Mary.

DACONO, Colo. (CBS4) – Colorado is now on the list of states where birds are mysteriously dying. CBS4 You Reporter Stacia Shane sent in pictures of dozens of dead birds she found on I-25. The birds were found near Dacono. More than one hundred birds were found and most of them were under trees. Health investigators picked up the birds and will try to determine how they died.

State officials say they are investigating a "very large" fish kill in the Chesapeake Bay, but suspect cold temperatures killed them, rather than any water-quality problems. An estimated 2 million fish have been reported dead from the Bay Bridge south to Tangier Sound, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment, which investigates fish kills. The dead fish are primarily adult spot, with some juvenile croakers. Agency spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus said bay water quality appears acceptable, and biologists believe "cold-water stress" the likely cause of the fish kill. Spot are susceptible to colder water, she said, and normally leave the...

LABARRE — Hundreds of dead and dying birds littered a quarter-mile stretch of highway in Pointe Coupee Parish on Monday as motorists drove over and around them. State biologists are trying to determine what led to the deaths of the estimated 500 red-winged blackbirds and starlings on La. 1 just down the road from Pointe Coupee Central High School. The discovery of the dead birds — some of which were lying face down, clumped in groups, while others were face up with their wings outstretched and rigid legs pointing upward — comes just three days after more than 3,000 blackbirds...

CNN) -- Arkansas game officials hope testing scheduled to begin Monday will solve the mystery of why up to 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve. The birds -- most of which were dead -- were found within a one-mile area of Beebe, about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said. The blackbirds fell over about a one-mile area, the commission said in a statement. As of Saturday, between 4,000 and 5,000 blackbirds had been found dead, said Keith Stephens with the commission. "Shortly after I arrived, there were...

OAKLAND - An Alameda County Superior Court judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed against wind-power companies over the deaths of thousands of protected birds may proceed. The suit filed Nov. 1 seeks a remedy for the killings of raptors in the wind turbines of Altamont Pass in alleged violation of state and federal wildlife protection laws. The Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the suit with co-plaintiff Peter Galvin, claims an estimated 880 to 1,330 golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls and other birds of prey have been killed each year during the past two decades by the turbines...

Must see TV this morning to see if Katie Couric is showing her "bitter main stream media" face this morning as she discusses the Iraqi elections. It'll be curious to see if her sad angry steely eyed gaze will be worse than back on November 3rd after Kerry's loss.