Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Ban on mountaintop mining overturned

Even as public opinion in the US turns against coal, judges have overturned a ban on blasting away mountaintops to get at seams.

In the central Appalachians, including West Virginia, mining companies have lopped up to 300 metres off hundreds of mountains, destroying biologically diverse hardwood forest. The debris is often dumped into valleys, sometimes burying streams in the process.

A lawsuit filed by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) based in Huntington, West Virginia, argued that such valley fills violate the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and a US district court ruled in their favour in March 2007. But on 13 February, a Court of Appeals panel voted 2:1 to reverse the decision.

Bizarro Earth

Lake Michigan Fish Populations Threatened by Decline of Tiny Creature

The quick decline of a tiny shrimp-like species, known scientifically as Diporeia, is related to the aggressive population growth of non-native quagga mussels in the Great Lakes, say NOAA scientists.

As invasive mussel numbers increase, food sources for Diporeia and many aquatic species have steadily and unilaterally declined.

A recent research study from NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Laboratory published this week in Freshwater Biology documents the recent decline of Diporeia and the explosive growth of quagga mussels in Lake Michigan. Over the past five years quagga mussels have displaced native Diporeia as the dominant bottom dwelling organism, leading to a major disruption in the lake's food web.

"Quagga mussels have displaced other more energy-rich food sources and leave fish and other aquatic species with fewer food options," said Tom Nalepa, NOAA research biologist. "The invasive mussels are low in calories and their shell has no nutritional value. Fish feeding on quagga mussels expend considerable energy crushing and passing the indigestible shell."

Attention

3rd Earthquake In As Many Weeks Rattles New Jersey

For the third time in three weeks, a small earthquake has rattled an area of north-central New Jersey.

No damage or injuries were reported from the 2.3 magnitude quake, which was recorded shortly before 1:42 a.m. Wednesday.

Scott DiGiralomo, a coordinator with the county's office of emergency management, says the epicenter was just over a mile outside Dover. It was felt mostly by people in Denville and Randolph.

The quake is the third to hit Morris County since Feb. 2.

Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake Rattles Nevada Town

A small earthquake rattled nerves in Wells last night, but otherwise caused no damage or injuries. The 3.5 magnitude temblor was reported at 7:12 p.m. and was centered 7 miles northeast of the small eastern Nevada community along Interstate 80.

Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake reported west of Maplesville, Alabama

An earthquake measuring 2.2 on the Richter scale occurred about 11 miles west of Maplesville early yesterday morning.

No damage was reported as a result of the earthquake, which the U.S. Geological Survey recorded at 2:14 a.m. An earthquake of such a slight magnitude is generally not felt by the public, but is recorded by seismic instruments. The actual location of the earthquake was in a rural area, 32.805°N, 87.069°W, according to the USGS Earthquake Center.

Bizarro Earth

US: Morris County, New Jersey earthquakes puzzling for geologists

Minor earthquakes, including three in Morris County during a 15-day span, are relatively common in the northeastern United States but puzzle geologists because the nearest active fault line is hundreds of miles away under the Atlantic Ocean.

"The cause of these earthquakes is really a big mystery because they really don't fit in with the geologist image of plate tectonics," said Catherine Riihimaki, a geologist who teaches at Drew University in Madison.

Comment: Is there a connection? US: Lights over Morris County, New Jersey skies once again


Sherlock

Glimmer of hope for consensus climate honesty is short-lived

For one giddy, almost magical moment, I thought the "consensus" climate science community, or at least a small portion of it, had finally come to its senses. I should have known better.

The almost-magical moment came on reading a headline in the U.K. Guardian online. It read: "Scientists must rein in misleading climate change claims: Overplaying natural variations in the weather diverts attention from the real issues." The article was by Dr. Vicky Pope of the British Meteorological (Hadley) Centre, one of the four major centres monitoring climate.

Finally! I thought. The consensus climate scientists who believe, passionately but with almost no scientific evidence beyond computer models, that the planet is warming, that it's all humanity's fault, and that we're heading for oblivion, are willing to admit they've been wildly exaggerating the threat of warming to places like the Arctic.

Comment: Looks like there are more people all the time practicing their seeing skills.

Paul MacRae and SOTT pretty much nailed this one.

See: "Apocalyptic Climate Predictions" Mislead the Public, Say Experts


Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 7.0 Earthquake - Kermadec Islands

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 21:53:49 UTC

Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 09:53:49 AM at epicenter

Location 27.374°S, 176.445°W

Depth 62.2 km (38.7 miles)

Distances 250 km (155 miles) NE of Raoul Island, Kermadec Islands

510 km (315 miles) NNE of L'Esperance Rock, Kermadec Islands

1335 km (830 miles) NE of Auckland, New Zealand

1740 km (1080 miles) NNE of Wellington, New Zealand

Crusader

Philosophy Fellow Becomes Climate Change Expert Amidst Australian Bushfires

The disaster challenges the Government to accept evident truths.

It is only a couple of years since scientists first told us we could expect a whole new order of fires in south-eastern Australia, fires of such ferocity they would simply engulf the towns in their path. And here they are.

The fires we saw on Saturday were not "once in a thousand years" or even "once in a hundred years" events, as our political leaders keep repeating. They were the face of climate change in our part of the world.

These fires are simply the result of the new conditions that climate change has introduced here: raised temperatures, giving us hotter days than we have ever experienced before combined with lower rainfall giving us a drier landscape. Let's stop using the word "drought", with its implication that dry weather is the exception. The desiccation of the landscape here is the new reality. It is now our climate.


Comment: Let's stop using the fear mongering of Global Warming to incite hysteria into the public. The fact of the matter is that weather extremes are rarely the first time ever, unprecedented, or a new reality.
Longest hot spell (world): Marble Bar, W. Australia, 100° F (37.8° C) (or above) for 162 consecutive days, Oct. 30, 1923 to Apr. 7, 1924.

Comment: The current hot spell in Australia is in no way to be minimized. But the brainwashing of the Global Warming meme is very apparent in this article and the author.

For some perspective on world weather extremes -

World Record High Temps
© Pearson Education / InfoPlease
World Record Low temps
© Pearson Education / InfoPlease
World Record Rainfall
© Pearson Education / InfoPlease
Record Weather extremes
© Pearson Education / InfoPlease
The whole Climate Change (Global Warming) theory is based on man made CO2 as a driver of an overheating planet. So Freya Mathews is basically screaming in the wilderness about man made CO2 causing Global Warming.

Rather than providing any data, Freya Mathews resorts to the old "the scientists say" and "the scientists told us" definitive to tell everyone that the end is nigh.

Let's look at what "those scientists" don't tell us and what a bunch of "other scientists do tell us".

The CO2 fear mongering - The current CO2 concentration of 385ppm as being some kind of unprecedented man caused disaster is plain nonsense.


Global Temperature and Atmospheric CO2 over Geologic Time
Global Temperature and Atmospheric CO2 over Geologic Time
© geocraft
Late Carboniferous to Early Permian time (315 mya -- 270 mya) is the only time period in the last 600 million years when both atmospheric CO2 and temperatures were as low as they are today (Quaternary Period ).
Temperature after C.R. Scotese http://www.scotese.com/climate.htm
CO2 after R.A. Berner, 2001 (GEOCARB III)
Source: GeoCraft
There has historically been much more CO2 in our atmosphere than exists today. For example, during the Jurassic Period (200 mya), average CO2 concentrations were about 1800 ppm or about 4.7 times higher than today. The highest concentrations of CO2 during all of the Paleozoic Era occurred during the Cambrian Period, nearly 7000 ppm -- about 18 times higher than today.
The Carboniferous Period and the Ordovician Period were the only geological periods during the Paleozoic Era when global temperatures were as low as they are today. To the consternation of global warming proponents, the Late Ordovician Period was also an Ice Age while at the same time CO2 concentrations then were nearly 12 times higher than today-- 4400 ppm. According to greenhouse theory, Earth should have been exceedingly hot. Instead, global temperatures were no warmer than today. Clearly, other factors besides atmospheric carbon influence earth temperatures and global warming.


Additional graphic of historic CO2 concentration from NOAA's National Climate Data Center
Historic CO2 Paleo
© NOAA's National Climate Data Center

Historical Temperatures over time. The last 2 billion years has seen the Earth's climate swing between Ice Ages and Hot House climates. (Open Full Size Graph)
Paleclimate warming cooling graph
© PaleoMap Project
Here are some furhter links for perspective:

Long Range Solar Forecast - Off the Bottom of the Charts
NASA: Solar cycle may cause "dangerous" global cooling in a few years time
Solar Activity Diminishes; Researchers Predict Another Ice Age
Sunspots spell end of climate myth
2008 Now Ranks #2 Since 1900 in Number of Sunspotless Days
Sunspots, Global Warming, And An Ice Age
State of the Sun for 2008: ominously quiet - too quiet
Danger ahead as the Sun goes quiet
Drastic climate chill came exactly 12,679 years ago, happened in less than a year: study
What's Happening to the Sun? Could its unusual behavior herald a new ice age?
Are Global Warmists Pulling a Cool Fast One?
The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam

So is the planet warming or cooling? Either way, hysterical fear mongering only feeds irrationalism.


Cloud Lightning

In Peru, the hills come tumbling down

Peru mudslide
It's summer in Peru and the mudslides are back, eroding barren hillsides on the western slopes of the Andes. The huaicos, as they are known in Peru, create rivers of mud and carry giant boulders with them that knock down everything in their path, from houses to bridges.

On Sunday, on the eastern fringe of Lima, Peru's capital, three mudslides tore through the towns of Chosica and Chaclacayo. A 15-year-old teenager, Johani Lucero Vasquez, dared to wade across a slide and was swept away. Her body was found 9 kilometers downstream. Debris washed onto the country's main highway that crosses the Andes, shutting it for six hours in both directions.