The Living Planet
03:50:21 EST Dec 28, 2005
MATT CURRY
03:50:21 EST Dec 28, 2005
MATT CURRY
Wed, 28 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
KENNEDALE, Texas (AP) - Rancher Dean Dillard was able to save his 72-year-old mother's home by soaking the land before fires roared through his hometown. Many of his neighbours weren't as lucky.
Wildfires fuelled by dry brush and driven by gusty wind damaged scores of homes as they raced across Texas and Oklahoma Tuesday, leaving one person dead and forcing a small town to evacuate.
"It looked like we had been bombed in a big war, the whole city was on fire everywhere," said Dillard, whose town of Cross Plains, about 240 kilometres southwest of Dallas, had 25 homes and a church burned. The town's 1,000 residents were told to leave.
Associated Press
Ankara (Turkey), December 28, 2005
Associated Press
Ankara (Turkey), December 28, 2005
Wed, 28 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
Moderate earthquake shakes central TurkeyA moderate earthquake shook central Turkey early on Wednesday, the Kandilli Observatory said. No injuries or damage were reported.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 4.2, struck near the town of Kastamonu at 04.11 am, the observatory said.
Quakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies atop the active North Anatolian fault. Two devastating earthquakes killed about 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey in 1999.
Tue Dec 27, 2005 11:24 PM GMT168
Tue Dec 27, 2005 11:24 PM GMT168
Wed, 28 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala's Volcano of Fire erupted on Tuesday, sending rivers of lava down its slopes and a huge cloud of ash and smoke into the sky.
About 25,000 local residents were put on alert. Emergency teams said there was no immediate need for evacuations but they might be necessary if there were more eruptions.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAFF
By CHRISTOPHER GRAFF
Tue, 27 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
MONTPELIER, Vt. - A series of rock slides dumped boulders the size of cars across a downtown street Monday, forcing about 50 people to evacuate as debris spilled up to their doorsteps.
Comment: Comment: Two HOURS of rocks tumbling??? Cold and rain?
Last Updated Tue, 27 Dec 2005 08:13:55 EST
Last Updated Tue, 27 Dec 2005 08:13:55 EST
Tue, 27 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
Many parts of Eastern Canada are being told to expect little or no relief Tuesday as they continue to feel the punishing effects of a rampaging winter storm.
"It's a very slow-moving system that has caused all kinds of problems," says the CBC's Colleen Jones.
"It's going to be a really messy, dirty day."
All this comes after many areas in Eastern Canada were hit with heavy snow, winds, and rain on Monday.
PARIS
PARIS
Tue, 27 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
In the space of a year, a tsunami, an earthquake, brutal storms and floods have claimed more than 300,000 lives and cost at least 100 billion dollars in damage.
Humans prefer to view these catastrophes as the result of misfortune, of randomness, of the unfathomable forces of Nature, of the whim of gods or of God.
But the exceptional disasters of the past 12 months raise a far more difficult question.
Could mankind be to blame?
www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-24 09:31:58
www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-24 09:31:58
Sat, 24 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
QUITO, Dec. 23 (Xinhuanet)-- An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale rocked the center of Ecuador and shook buildings in Quito, Ecuador's capital city in the north of the country, Ecuador's Geophysical Institute said on Friday.
The earthquake occurred at 16:47 local time (21:47 GMT). The epicenter was close to Puyo, capital of Pastaza province, 161 km southeast of Quito.
Only people at the top of tall buildings felt the quake, which caused scant damage.
The institute said that a collision between the Nazca ocean plate with the Ecuadorian continental plate caused the quake, forcing a noisy phenomenon called subduction.
newscientist
17 Dec 2005
Editorial
newscientist
17 Dec 2005
Editorial
Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
AS DAWN heralded Saturday morning in Montreal, the latest international climate conference closed in a mood of euphoria. There were tears in the corridors. The UK's environment secretary Margaret Beckett proclaimed a "diplomatic triumph" in which she had achieved all that she had hoped for. Even normally hard-boiled environmental campaigners and journalists were misty-eyed. "Historic," said Greenpeace. "A big step forward...the US has been shamed," said The Guardian in London (see "Small green victory").
Get a grip. Last-minute deals are always exciting, especially after overnight negotiations. But in the cold light of day we have to ask what exactly was achieved. The answer looks like little more than an agreement to carry on talking - and even that is hedged in places by promises to talk about very little that is meaningful.
Meanwhile, every square metre of the planet's surface is absorbing about 1 watt more heat than it can release into space. That may be only slightly more than the power of a Christmas tree light bulb. But it matters.
Comment: Comment: Read this article carefully. Politics may be hastening the "End of The World"... as we know it. Notice the following particularly:
At this magazine we regularly meet climate and Earth-system scientists who harbour real fears for themselves and their families about what the 21st century will bring. Jim Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and George Bush's top climate modeller, is not alone in thinking that we have, as he said last week, "at most 10 years"...
This isn't science fiction, folks. It isn't some whacked out woman wearing a copper pyramid on her head claiming that the Planet Nibiru is gonna clean house in the Solar System. No indeedy...
21 Dec 2005 08:39:47 GMT
Source: Reuters
21 Dec 2005 08:39:47 GMT
Source: Reuters
Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
JAKARTA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - An undersea earthquake of magnitude 6.3 rocked parts of eastern Indonesia on Wednesday, causing some panic, but there no immediate reports of casualties or damage, officials said.
21 December 2005
By ANNA CHALMERS
New Zealand News
21 December 2005
By ANNA CHALMERS
New Zealand News
Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
Hundreds of Farewell Spit residents and tourists have joined conservation workers in a frantic battle to help 123 stranded whales, and more rescue attempts are planned today.
The pod of pilot whales began beaching themselves at Puponga at midday yesterday and by last night were strewn the length of the beach, at the top of the South Island, the Conservation Department's Golden Bay area manager, John Mason, said.
Three had died by early last night. "They have basically thrashed themselves to death," Mr Mason said.
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