Hey kids! What time is it? That's right, it's CRISIS TIME!

Crises - they're not just for the Middle East any more.

From the Education Guardian:

Britain is facing a chronic shortage of geophysicists as fewer students choose to study geophysical science at university and leading scientists in the field retire, a new study reveals.

The problem has reached crisis point and if the current rates of decline continue there will be no geophysics undergraduates by 2030, the British Geophysical Association report warns.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev says it's "five minutes to midnight" in terms of the global environmental crisis, with little if any time left to fix the damage already caused.

Delivering a final ominous warning during the last day of the Earth Dialogues forum in Brisbane, the man credited with bringing an end to the Cold War said the world's only option was to take immediate action.

The planet was already in the grip of an "environmental crisis" that may be too late to fix.

From the BBC:

The German government is about to trigger a new crisis in Europe's flagship climate policy, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

BBC News understands the German cabinet is likely to agree a deal that will reduce carbon emissions from industry by only 0.6% between 2004 and 2012.

The decision is likely to influence other EU countries, including the UK, which still have to set their own caps.

Environmental groups describe the target as "pathetic and shameful".

"These figures are unbelievably unambitious," said Regina Gunther from WWF Germany. "It is shameful that our environment minister has agreed to this."

Climate analysts now fear a meltdown of EU climate leadership.

From The Guardian:

Radical moves to tackle obesity crisis
Controls on junk food advertising could be extended to websites, text messaging, computer games, cinemas and posters under radical plans being drawn up by the government, the Guardian has learned.

Ministers fear that plans to clamp down solely on TV advertising would be undermined without a more ambitious approach and are putting together a range of measures to tackle the problem.

They plan to encourage shops and supermarkets to offer extra loyalty card bonus points to customers buying healthy foods low in salt, sugar and fat. And GPs may be monitored to see whether they are prioritising obesity among children.

From The Orange Leader:

Over the last week, there have been three fatal alligator attacks in Florida.

The attacks were all on women and are part of 17 confirmed fatal attacks on people in 58 years. That means there are three less lives and three families crushed due to the actions of a highly effective reptilian predator and probably due to the careless actions of humans.

Why all of the attacks all of a sudden?

This is breeding season and alligators are a lot more active now than during other times of the year, but there is more to the story than that.

The Gulf region has been heading toward a crisis level with alligator populations over the last decade and what happened in Florida is a sign of things to come from Tallahassee to Texas if we maintain the status quo of dealing with these potentially dangerous reptiles.

From the New York Daily News:

Thousands of furious Queens residents spent their fourth day without power yesterday as Mayor Bloomberg visited the crisis-hit area - and Con Ed expected no immediate end to the blackout.

Officials at the utility remained stumped about what knocked out juice to one of New York's most densely populated neighborhoods. Workers doling out bags of ice told residents it could be Monday before they're reconnected.

From the South African Independent Online:

Cape Town - Animal and plant species are dying off rapidly around the world due to climate change, but scientists are struggling to monitor the decline due to a lack of data, top scientists said on Wednesday.

Scientists say just a fraction of the earth's plant and animal species have so far been identified, while millions more may have already been lost. There was also little information of those identified.
Martin Sharman, head of the biodiversity sector of the European Commission's Directorate General for Research, said the world was in a crisis, with catastrophic change slowly happening.


And, from the BBC again:

Many of the world's 25 biggest food firms only pay lip service to their duty to help fight the global diet crisis, a report on the issue says.

It found that the response of most companies to World Health Organisation guidelines on fighting obesity, cancer and heart disease was "lukewarm".

Most firms appeared not to care "a jot", the report by London's City University suggested.

Had enough yet? There's more but I'll spare you. See, everything's in crisis all the time, so I hope I have helped you to achieve that state of low grade panic, hopelessness, and/or despair that the media obviously desires for all of us.

You're welcome.