The number of Americans who lacked health insurance for at least part of the year reached 52 million in 2010, report the Commonwealth Fund and Bloomberg News.

That number is roughly 40 percent higher than the 38 million who went without health insurance in 2001, according to the non-profit think tank’s Biennial Health Insurance Survey.

The steep recession that began in December 2007 led to 9 million Americans losing their job-based health insurance coverage.

‘This survey tells a story of millions of Americans who lost their jobs during the recession, lost their health benefits too, and had essentially no place to turn for affordable healthcare coverage–putting their health and financial security at risk,’ said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis.

Most of the uninsured were from low- and moderate-income households earning up to $44,100 per year. The average unweighted rate of uninsured was 47 percent, compared to a 13 percent rate of uninsured from higher-income households.

Davis noted that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act should guarantee that fewer individuals lose their healthcare coverage during another economic downturn.

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Researchers snooping on complex signals emanating from a remote lake in the have detected what they say is an unmistakable warning of the impending collapse of the lake’s aquatic ecosystem, EurekAlert has reported.

The finding from a Wisconsin lake, reported today April 29 in the journal Science by a team of researchers led by Stephen Carpenter, a limnologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the first experimental evidence that radical change in an ecosystem can be detected in advance, possibly in time to prevent ecological catastrophe.

‘For a long time, ecologists thought these changes couldn’t be predicted. But we’ve now shown that they can be foreseen. The early warning is clear. It is a strong signal,

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Republican Governor Mitch Daniels released a statement Friday afternoon saying he will sign legislation stripping federal funds from Planned Parenthood in Indiana, the first state to make such a move.

The statement reads:

‘I will sign HEA 1210 when it reaches my desk a week or so from now. I supported this bill from the outset, and the recent addition of language guarding against the spending of tax dollars to support abortions creates no reason to alter my position. The principle involved commands the support of an overwhelming majority of Hoosiers, as reflected in greater than 2:1 bipartisan votes in both legislative chambers.

‘I commissioned a careful review of access to services across the state and can confirm that all non-abortion services, whether family planning or basic women’s health, will remain readily available in every one of our 92 counties. In addition, I have ordered the Family and Social Services Administration to see that Medicaid recipients receive prompt notice of nearby care options. We will take any actions necessary to ensure that vital medical care is, if anything, more widely available than before.

‘Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving […]

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MANILA — Soaring global food prices threaten to push tens of millions of Asians into extreme poverty and cut the region’s economic growth this year, the Asian Development Bank warned in a report on Tuesday.

Coupled with skyrocketing oil prices, the spike poses a serious setback for developing Asia after having rebounded rapidly and strongly from the 2008 global economic crisis, said chief ADB economist Rhee Changyong.

‘Left unchecked, the food crisis will badly undermine recent gains in poverty reduction made in Asia,’ Rhee said in a statement.

Domestic food inflation in developing Asian nations hit 10 percent at the start of this year, with double-digit rises in the price of wheat, corn, sugar, edible oils, dairy products and meat, the Manila-based institution said.

If this rate continues, as is likely, 64 million people in developing Asia could be pushed into extreme poverty and economic growth could be reduced by up to 1.5 percentage points this year, the bank warned.

Vietnam has been one of the hardest hit nations in terms of rice inflation, despite being a major exporter, according to the ADB.

It has has seen domestic rice retail prices shoot up 36.7 percent since June last year, while Indonesia and Sri Lanka have endured […]

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It’s difficult to imagine how a guy who spends most of his time looking at endless columns of temperature records became a ‘fucking terrorist,’ ‘killer,’ or ‘one-world-government socialist.’ It’s even harder when you meet Michael Mann, a balding 45-year-old climate scientist who speaks haltingly and has a habit of nervously clearing his throat. And when you realize that the reason for all the hostility is a 12-year-old chart, it seems more than a little surreal.

Back in 1999, Mann-then a newly minted Ph.D. (PDF)-and a pair of colleagues constructed a chart that plotted historical climate data, spanning from 1000 to 1980. Because recorded temperatures only begin in the late 19th century, Mann and his team largely relied on so-called proxy records-measurements of tree rings, coral, and ice cores whose variations illustrate temperature changes over the years. The graph showed that after nearly 900 years of relatively stable temperatures, there was a sharp uptick starting in the 20th century.

You may have seen a version of the graph, known as the ‘hockey stick,’ in the film An Inconvenient Truth-the rise in carbon dioxide levels* is so steep, Al Gore uses a mechanical ladder to reach the most recent readings. The graph was featured […]

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