According to the Annie. E Casey Foundation an annual analysis suggests that child poverty rates in the United States have been rising since the early 2000’s. The annual report is called the Kids Count Data Book, it has the results from a survey of the well being of children in 50 states and it ranks the states on 10 core indicators and overall well being.

This was the 25th edition of the survey and it is devastating to see that the results suggest 23% of American children in 2012 were living below the poverty line.

An interesting observation is that poverty rates in the US dropped from the 1990’s to 2000 and then saw a steady increase from the early 2000’s to now.

Patrick McCarthy, the CEO of the foundation suggests that these low income families still haven’t been able to recover from the Great Recession. Since not many resources are made available by the government programs and transportation, housing and food costs are increasing which not only makes it difficult to survive but fuels the cycle of poverty so the poor either stay poor or keep getting worst.

Another thing that the report suggests is the disparity of statistics between different regions of the United States and the different races. The general finding was that Southern States were relatively lacking on the children’s well being as opposed to the Northern States. The five Southern states which are lowest in children’s well being ratings are Arizona, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico and Mississippi. The top five states happen to be Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Minnesota.

Patrick McCarthy points out that some of the biggest racial disparities are in poverty. Latino, African American and Native American groups suffer from poverty much more than the rest of the ethnic groups and form some of the poorest communities in the US. McCarthy also referred to another horrible reality which is just devastating. He says that around half of the African American kids live in households where there is no stable income. Lets hope this report helps in some productive reflection from the concerned authorities.

URBANA — It is announced by officials of county’s emergency dispatch center, text to 9-1-1 service is still not available. It is a reminder to if anyone with emergency; they should place voice call to 911.

Main problem is, facility of receiving messages is still not available. Therefore Champaign County dispatch center is still not well equipped. Residence in emergency still need to place call to reach 911.

According to the officials; they are working on the facility of text service to 911, as the matter of fact all the equipment and funds still needed to be assess.

Over announcement that as of from 15th May, 2014; text service to 911 will be available, but actually this service is still not available.

Obama administration’s recent climate report which said the U.S. is already being harmed by global warming declined by an independent group comprises of 15 scientists and meteorologists. They have put forward a scathing rebuttal to the report.

“As independent scientists, we know that apparent evidence of ‘Climate Change,’ however scary, is not proof of anything,” said by the group of scientists.

Scientists doubting that mankind are causing the Earth’s climate to change. They said that such claims are based on false philosophies and defective models. According to the “The White House report is a “masterpiece of marketing” that is trying to scare people into action”.

global-warming-sfSpan

“National Climate Assessment” (NCA) of White House, released a report last week and call for that the U.S. was already being affected by the global warming. This results in warmer temperatures and increasing extreme weather events.

Contradictory, the 15 incredulous scientists said that, “The White House is trying to lay the blame for global warming at the feet of the fossil fuels industry when there is little evidence to back up that claim. The Earth’s climate is very cyclical and has gone through many changes in the past, the scientists said, without humans emitting carbon dioxide.

NCA warned in its report that if the situation remains the same and no remedy would opt for Global Warming the U.S. average temperature could rise 4 degrees Fahrenheit in the coming decades. The report suggests a swing of regulatory solutions from cap-and-trade to green energy grants to alleviate global warming effects.

Satellite

The incredulous scientists denied and stated that, “Global Warming’ has not been global and has not set regional records where warming has occurred. For example, over the last fifty years, while the Arctic has warmed, the tropical oceans had a flat trend and the Antarctic cooled slightly.”

Salamander are a number of species from the amphibian family that fall within the order Caudata. Recent reports from North America suggest that its largest Salamander, the eastern hellbender has been progressively decreasing.

The eastern hellbender is two feet long and is known to be the third largest salamander in the world. The numbers have been decreasing at such an alarming rate that the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service has started to consider placing the eastern hellbender salamander to the endangered list.

Even though scientists are uncertain as to the exact reason for the disappearance of these exotic amphibians it doesn’t require much contemplation to conclude that us humans might have something to do with it.

Many experts believe that the decrease in hellbender salamander population could have something to do with the unsafe rivers and streams which are the habitat of the animal.
The safety of the rivers and streams has been jeopardized mainly due to pollution and fungus. Construction projects including dams and the like also disrupt the water flow and interfere with the speeds of the rivers consequently making the water unappealing for the animals.

Rod Williams, an associate professor of herpetology from Purdue University who has also been tracking Indiana’s hellbenders for quite some time points out that these fascinating creatures live up to 30 years, so a substantial decrease in their population over a short time is indicative of problem with the water quality.
The Ozark hellbenders which are said to be a close relative of the eastern hellbenders have already been labeled as endangered and their numbers have decreased at an astounding rate.

Many researchers have tried to motivate people to help increase or at least sustain the current hellbender population by planting trees at the edges of the rivers which causes the water quality to improve. Perhaps that will lead to a decrease in the progressively declining hellbender population. However to avoid such incidents all together a conscious paradigm shift of the human race is required. We need to stop looking at nature as a combination of resources that we can control and start viewing it as an intricate, intelligent and unimaginably wise system in which each life form holds its own purpose.