Earth ChangesS


Attention

Resident warns of raccoon attacks in Vancouver; 3 in the region this year

Raccoon
Raccoon
One of the furry raccoons living in Vancouver's West End has an area resident concerned for others — after one attacked him while he was out walking his dog on Davie near Nicola.

"I have a lot of elderly neighbours here. It could have been someone walking with a toddler. I don't know what would have happened if it had been someone different."

Mark Stahl is six feet tall and can handle himself. But when the animal charged and bit him Tuesday morning he lost his footing and fell.

The animal managed another bite as he rolled over to protect his small dog.

"It was just this little raccoon - you don't think of them being a danger - but it was super aggressive and it was an unprovoked attack."

Comment: See also: Pack of raccoons attack couple in San Francisco


Attention

Man in stable condition following possible bear attack in Campbell County, Tennessee

Image
A Campbell Co. man is hospitalized after he was attacked by an animal overnight. Investigators believe it was a bear, and are searching for it.
A Campbell County man was sent to the University of Tennessee Medical Center on Friday morning after he was attacked by a "large animal with dark coarse hair."

Michael Savage, 27, of LaFollette sustained "severe and significant injuries," according to Sheriff Robbie Goins. A spokesperson with the University of Tennessee Medical Center said Savage was in stable condition.

Matthew Cameron with TWRA said at a news conference Friday afternoon that authorities could not confirm the animal was a bear. Cameron said the man doesn't know what attacked him.


Attention

High number of dying seabirds found in San Francisco Bay Area

Image
An alarming number of dead or dying sea birds are washing up on Bay Area beaches and bird rescue centers say they're being inundated with a particular species. ABC7 News traveled to the Marin headlands where many of them are washing up.

Beach goer Holly Barbarisi recently found 20 dead murre sea birds along Rodeo Beach on the Marin headlands. She also found one alive flapping in the surf.

Barbarisi told ABC7 News, "And it was obviously disabled and unable to fend for itself, so I did take it into Wild Care."

That bird and many other survivors are transferred to the International Bird Rescue Center in Fairfield.


Comment: See also these similar recent reports of dead seabirds found along the western seaboard of North America: Hundreds of seabirds wash up either dead or dying along the Oregon and Southwest Washington Coast

Dozens of dead seabirds found on beaches around Homer, Alaska


Cloud Lightning

Three people struck dead by lightning in India

Image
Three persons were struck dead by lightning in separate incidents at Sattenapalli mandal on Friday.

Two farm labourers -- Bollapalli Mariyamma (43) and Ekula Nagaratnamma (50) were killed after being struck by lightning. Revenue officials said there was a spell of heavy rain in the rural parts of the Sattenapalli and the incident took place while the women were engaged in farm work.

In another incident, a farmer Popuru Venkateswarlu belonging to Batluru village was struck dead by lightning.

The revenue and police officials after conducting the post-mortem handed over the bodies to the relatives of the deceased.

Attention

Glyphosate is spreading like a cancer across the U.S.

Image
American growers sprayed 280 million pounds of glyphosate on their crops in 2012, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. That amounts to nearly a pound of glyphosate for every person in the country.

The use of glyphosate on farmland has skyrocketed since the mid-1990s, when biotech companies introduced genetically engineered crop varieties (often called GMOs) that can withstand being blasted with glyphosate. Since then, agricultural use of the herbicide has increased 16-fold.

This image above shows the year-to-year change in glyphosate use on American farmland from 1992 to 2012.

Comment: US: Glyphosate Pollutes Air, Rain and Rivers:


Cloud Lightning

Lightning hits whiskey factory, creates 'firenado' in Kentucky

Image
The Weather Channel said a firenado required a very rare set of circumstances to combine at the right time
A Jim Beam warehouse in Kentucky was struck by lightning releasing 800,000 gallons of bourbon into a nearby lake. Then, the lake was hit by a 'firenado' setting the inflammable liquid alight.

The firenado was caused when a bolt of lighting hit the ground setting a fire which was in the path of a tornado, which sucked up the flames, creating a terrifying spiralling inferno.

A video of the dramatic scenes has been viewed more than four million times on the internet.


Cloud Precipitation

Flash flood hits Menorca and egg-sized hailstones strike Aragon, Spain

Image
© CEN Extreme weather brought flash floods to Spain
Heavy rain struck the island of Menorca and caused dangerous flooding in the streets.

Tourists had to take refuge in bars and restaurants to avoid being swept away by flash floods as thunderous rain hit the island.


The Spanish region has been decimated by adverse weather in recent days as hailstones the size of eggs rained down on the northern Spanish region of Aragon.


Storms have affected a wide area of the country following weeks of scorching sunshine.

Mahon in Menorca suffered more than 50 litres per square metre of rainfall in the space of a few hours.

Attention

Shark mauls 65-year-old man near Forster, Australia

Image
© Peter StoopMr Quinlivan arriving at John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, after he was attacked at Black Head Beach.
A 65-year-old man was mauled by a shark off Australia's most populous state on Friday, but managed to get back on his surf ski and get help for a serious leg injury, police said.

David Quinlivan was paddling a surf ski near the New South Wales state town of Forster, 300 kilometres north of Sydney, when he was attacked, police said. They said he fell into the water but got back on the surf ski and managed to get closer to shore, where bystanders were able to help him from the water.

One of those bystanders, Warren Thompson, said he and others ran into the surf to help Quinlivan.

"He had lost his paddle but was able to climb back onto the ski and caught a wave to the shore," Thompson said.

Thompson added: "It looked to us like he was having a heart attack. When we reached him, he told us to stay out of the water."


Windsock

Waterspout seen off the coast of Point Grey in Vancouver, Canada

Image
Instagram user @tlcrodeostar posted this picture of a funnel cloud spotted over Richmond Friday, a rare occurence in Metro Vancouver according to Environment Canada.

A waterspout was spotted in open water just off the coast of the Vancouver Westside earlier this morning.

According to Environment Canada, the unusual weather occurrence, paired with a brief period of torrential rain, happened at approximately 10 a.m.

The federal agency has issued a marine-based waterspout watch warning for the South Coast due to a potent low pressure system. The notice says waterspouts are possible today over the Strait of Georgia, Howe Sound and Haro Strait. The marine-based warning is in effect until 5 p.m. today.

Snowflake

A week after heatwave, Bavaria receives snowfall

Image
© DPAZugspitze, Germany's highest mountain.
From 30C to snow in under a week? It's possible in Germany where seven centimetres of the white stuff fell at the top of the Bavarian Alps on Friday.

It might seem like summer was only last week in Germany - and that's because it was.

With blazing sunshine and temperatures topping 30C over the weekend, the onset of winter couldn't have been further from most Germans' minds.

But in the Bavarian Alps, autumn has been skipped out altogether.

At Zugspitze - Germany's highest peak, at 2,962m - seven centimetres of snow have already fallen, reports the Münchner Merkur.