Zimbabwe Cholera Death Toll Rises to 1,111, UN Says

By Mike Cohen and Frank Jomo

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — The death toll from a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has risen to 1,111, while 20,581 people are suspected to have contracted the disease, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“Major causes for the current outbreak continue to be a lack of clean drinking water and sanitation, weak health services” and an absence of medical staff, some of whom find it too expensive to travel to work, the agency said in an e-mailed statement from Geneva today. …

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World’s oceans turning acidic faster than expected

Acidification caused by carbon emissions could bring some oceans to a tipping point.

By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer/ December 18, 2008

Parts of the world’s oceans appear to be acidifying far faster than scientists have expected.

The culprit: rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere pumped into the air from cars, power plants, and industries.

The Southern Ocean represents one of the most high-profile examples. There, scientists estimate that the ocean could reach a biologically important tipping point in wintertime by 2030, at least 20 years earlier than scientists projected only three years ago. Among the vulnerable: a tiny form of sea snail that serves as food for a wide range of fish. …

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