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originally posted by: FlyersFan
#7 Bananas Going Extinct?
Bananas are a food staple in poor Western countries. Also - I have at least one or two a day. (I have a very limited diet). They are good for the heart. To me, this could have major implications for the diet of the poor as well as economically for the regions that grow them. And dangit .. I like bananas!
Bananas aren't about to be swept from the face of the earth by a deadly pestilence poised to wipe them out (and more than ten years has elapsed since that original report, yet bananas are still with us). There are about 300 varieties of the fruit, and the reported fear applied to only one of them, the Cavendish. Granted, the Cavendish is our banana of choice, but it isn't the only banana out there. Even if the Cavendish were lost to us, we would still not be singing "Yes, We Have No Bananas."
...
Lack of genetic diversity does place the banana in a precarious position, and the danger posed by Race 4 to the Cavendish is real. (Sigatoka, while serious, provides less of a threat in that it can be successfully combated.) Yet according to scientists and banana experts who attended the three-day seminar on conventional and alternative handling of common banana diseases held 7-10 August 2003 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, bananas are still far from global extinction. Disease control alternatives such as the development of "plants resistant to the main diseases," the employment of "friendly-bacteria, fungi and other micro-organisms," and the increasing use of organic practices have contributed greatly to the successful control of feared banana plagues, they say. This echoes what was said in February 2003 by a plant pathologist with the American Phytopathological Society (APS) in response to the controversial New Scientist article that brought the plight of the Cavendish to the public's attention:
#8 The Number Of Earthquakes Is Increasing
Something is going on. But again ... something is ALWAYS going on. Keeping an eye on it. I'd be more worried if they said that Yellowstone was rising or that Mt. St. Helens or Mt. Rainier were expanding.
We continue to be asked by many people throughout the world if earthquakes are on the increase. Although it may seem that we are having more earthquakes, earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater have remained fairly constant.
A partial explanation may lie in the fact that in the last twenty years, we have definitely had an increase in the number of earthquakes we have been able to locate each year. This is because of the tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world and the many improvements in global communications. In 1931, there were about 350 stations operating in the world; today, there are more than 8,000 stations and the data now comes in rapidly from these stations by electronic mail, internet and satellite. This increase in the number of stations and the more timely receipt of data has allowed us and other seismological centers to locate earthquakes more rapidly and to locate many small earthquakes which were undetected in earlier years. The NEIC now locates about 20,000 earthquakes each year or approximately 50 per day. Also, because of the improvements in communications and the increased interest in the environment and natural disasters, the public now learns about more earthquakes.
According to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 17 major earthquakes (7.0 - 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year.
originally posted by: Krazysh0t
I wanted to address two of the claims that are bogus.
originally posted by: SirKonstantin
It's Just Not Doomy Enough....