Daily Briefing: Wed.

BLACKOUT BLUES: The lights are back on in Brazil and Paraguay this morning, following a widespread power outage overnight that cast some of South America's biggest cities in darkness for hours. The blackout began when Brazil's Itaipu dam — which provides 20 percent of the country's electricity and is the second-largest hydroelectric dam on Earth — was knocked offline by transmissions problems, which Brazilian authorities say were caused by storms. Millions of people were left helpless as Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and several other major cities lost power for more than two hours early Wednesday morning, and the entire nation of Paraguay also went dark, albeit only for half an hour. Brazilian authorities say lightning and wind are the most likely culprits, pointing out that the Itaipu dam remained operational and there were no dips in power generation. But the blackout nonetheless wreaked havoc — airports shut down, subways screeched to a halt and traffic lights blinked off, while beaches and skylines faded to black — and revealed major infrastructure issues in a country that's planning to host several million visitors during the Summer Olympics in 2016. (Sources: Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News)

 

KOALA CATASTROPHE: 2009 was already shaping up to be a bad year for koalas, with everything from climate change to chlamydia making life miserable — and sometimes impossible — for the bearlike marsupials. But this week, they're getting the worst news yet: Koalas could be extinct in 30 years, a conservation group said Tuesday, unless they're granted protections as an endangered species. A recent survey by the Australian Koala Foundation showed their population may have dropped by more than half in the last six years, shrinking from 100,000 to as few as 43,000. Habitat loss from human development and fires is one major factor, and Australia's brush fires are expected to continue worsening in coming years as climate change intensifies. Rising temperatures are also pushing out the eucalyptus tree, which is the preferred food of the notoriously picky eaters. Sexually transmitted diseases are another threat, highlighted by the death of Sam the koala — who was famously saved from a brush fire in February — in August from chlamydia. (Sources: AFP, BBC News)

 

SHARK C-SECTION: Visitors to a New Zealand aquarium were recently treated to a rare, possibly unprecedented sight — one shark giving another shark a caesarean section. Staff at Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in Auckland were skeptical as witnesses first came running to report the bizarre scene, but when they arrived at the tank, they found four baby sharks spilling out of a gaping bite wound in a female shark's abdomen. Wild and domestic sharks are known to bite chunks out of each other, a scientist at the aquarium tells the New Zealand Herald News, but adds that she's never heard of sharks performing surgery on each other. "It had to bite a certain part to let them out," says aquarist Fiona Davies, "and do it without killing [the babies] or [the mother]." The fly-by C-section probably saved the baby sharks' lives, Davies adds, since the aquarium staff didn't know the mother was pregnant. If she had given birth naturally, which would probably have happened at night, the newborns would have been devoured by adult sharks and stingrays before the staff could find them. Instead, they were rescued and placed in a "nursery tank," before they're eventually released into the wild. (Sources: New Zealand Herald News, London Independent)

 

LOW ENERGY: The world's current energy policies and habits are unsustainable, the world's leading oil-forecasting agency warned on Tuesday, suggesting that an overhaul of the way we use energy is needed to prevent catastrophic climate change. The International Energy Agency's annual World Energy Outlook is closely followed by governments around the world — and was criticized Tuesday by a report in the Guardian, citing an anonymous source who claims the agency is regularly pressured by the United States to sugarcoat its reports. But the IEA's 2009 report is more cautionary than in past years, issuing the following ultimatum: "Continuing on today's energy path, without any change in government policy, would mean rapidly increasing dependence on fossil fuels, with alarming consequences for climate change and energy security." The timing of this warning is poignant, since world leaders from 190 countries are preparing to meet in Copenhagen in just a few weeks in hopes of drafting a new global climate treaty to reduce humanity's dependence on fossil fuels. (Sources: New York Times, Los Angeles Times)

 

BPA AND SEX: Men who are exposed to high levels of bisphenol-A in the workplace are more likely to suffer from reduced sexual function, according to a new Kaiser-Permanente study published in the journal Human Reproduction. The five-year study followed 634 factory workers in China, comparing those working in BPA manufacturing facilities with those in a control group where no BPA was present. Workers in the BPA factories had four times the risk of erectile dysfunction and seven times the risk of ejaculation difficulty, although they were exposed to 50 times the BPA levels that average American males encounter. This was the first study to examine BPA's effects on human reproduction, but previous studies have shown that it can interfere with the male reproductive system in mice and rats. BPA is a common organic compound widely used in plastic products and linked to a variety of health concerns, including breast cancer, brain damage and even obesity. The researchers report that it's a likely endocrine disruptor in both males and females, suggesting it could have similar reproductive effects in women. (Source: e! Science News)

 

— Russell McLendon