Earth ChangesS


Radar

Mysteriously High Tides on East Coast Perplex Scientists

Alexis Madrigal
Wired Science
Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:02 UTC
Image
© UnknownJersey Pier
From Maine to Florida, the Atlantic seaboard has experienced higher tides than expected this summer. At their peak in mid-June, the tides at some locations outstripped predictions by two feet.

The change has come too fast to be attributed to melting ice sheets or anything quite that dramatic, and it's a puzzle for scientists who've never seen anything quite like it.
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Bizarro Earth

5.1 Earthquake Strikes Eastern Indonesia


Xinhua
Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:00 UTC
An earthquake with magnitude of 5.1 rocked eastern parts of Indonesia on Thursday, no initial report of damage or casualty, Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said here.

The quake hit at 15:06 Jakarta time (0806 GMT) with epicenter at 210 kms southwest Saumlaki of Maluku province and at 87 kms in depth, the agency said.

Indonesia with over 230 million population is laid on a vulnerable quake-hit zone so called the Pacific Ring of Fire, where two continental plates stretching form Western hemisphere to Japan meet, a cause often triggers seismic and volcanic movements.
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Cow

Rare Bald Songbird Discovered in Asia


Xinhua
Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:00 UTC
A bald-headed songbird, or bulbul, with a nearly featherless, pink face has been discovered in a rugged region of Laos, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WSC) said on Thursday.

It marks Asia's first description of a new species of bulbul -- a family of about 130 species -- in over 100 years. Besides, the thrush-sized bird is noteworthy because it is the only known bald songbird in mainland Asia.

A description of the new species, dubbed the Bare-faced Bulbul, is published in the latest issue of the Oriental Bird Club's journal Forktail.

The bird is said to be found in an area of sparse forest on rugged limestone karsts -- a little-visited habitat known for unusual wildlife discoveries.
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Arrow Down

Californians' global warming concern cools: US poll

Peter Henderson
Reuters
Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:24 UTC
The tough economy has undermined the environmental enthusiasm of Californians, hitting the U.S. state that pioneered climate change legislation just as the federal government is taking on the issue, a survey showed on Wednesday.

The poll by the Public Policy Institute of California shows support for urgent action on climate change has split on political lines, with a third of respondents from the more conservative Republican Party now saying global warming will never happen.

Total support for the state's climate change law, a model for federal bills being debated, dropped to 66 percent from 73 percent last year. Meanwhile, the state has been reduced to issuing IOUs as unemployment has spiked to a new high.
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Compass

World's Largest Science Group 'Startled' By Outpouring of Scientists Rejecting Man-Made Climate Fears!

Marc Morano
Climate Depot
Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:22 UTC
An outpouring of skeptical scientists who are members of the American Chemical Society (ACS) are revolting against the group's editor-in-chief -- with some demanding he be removed -- after an editorial appeared claiming "the science of anthropogenic climate change is becoming increasingly well established."

The editorial claimed the "consensus" view was growing "increasingly difficult to challenge, despite the efforts of diehard climate-change deniers." The editor now admits he is "startled" by the negative reaction from the group's scientific members. The American Chemical Society bills itself as the "world's largest scientific society."

The June 22, 2009 editorial in Chemical and Engineering News by editor in chief Rudy Baum, is facing widespread blowback and condemnation from American Chemical Society member scientists. Baum concluded his editorial by stating that "deniers" are attempting to "derail meaningful efforts to respond to global climate change."

Dozens of letters from ACS members were published on July 27, 2009 castigating Baum, with some scientists calling for his replacement as editor-in-chief.

The editorial was met with a swift, passionate and scientific rebuke from Baum's colleagues. Virtually all of the letters published on July 27 in castigated Baum's climate science views. Scientists rebuked Baum's use of the word "deniers" because of the terms "association with Holocaust deniers." In addition, the scientists called Baum's editorial: "disgusting"; "a disgrace"; "filled with misinformation"; "unworthy of a scientific periodical" and "pap."
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Cloud Lightning

UK: Scorcher? July's a washout

James Pilditch
Daily Express
Thu, 30 Jul 2009 05:18 UTC
Experts predicted temperatures would top 86F (30C) while rainfall was likely to be "near or below average".

But the latest Met Office figures released yesterday show that July has been a washout - with almost a month's rain in the first two weeks alone.

The only glimmer of comfort was the fact that temperatures across the country have still been higher than an average summer.

The average UK rainfall for the first fortnight was 56.6mm (2.2in) - about 81 per cent of the normal July level.

Wales was the worst-hit area of Britain, with a total rainfall of 83.6 mm (3.3in), meaning it has already been wet enough for the whole month. North-west and north-east England both also had nearly a full month's rainfall in the first two weeks.

Central and south-east England had 37.8mm (1.5in), wetter than average, while western Scotland had two-thirds of its July downpour in the first fortnight. Eastern Scotland had nearly 90 per cent of its rain.
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Evil Rays

NASA now saying that a Dalton Minimum repeat is possible

David Archibald
Watts Up With That
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:11 UTC
NASA's David Hathaway has adjusted his expectations of Solar Cycle 24 downwards. He is quoted in the New York Times here. Specifically, he said:
"Still, something like the Dalton Minimum - two solar cycles in the early 1800s that peaked at about an average of 50 sunspots - lies in the realm of the possible."
NASA has caught up with my prediction in early 2006 of a Dalton Minimum repeat, so for a brief, shining moment of three years, I have had a better track record in predicting solar activity than NASA.
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Butterfly

US: July on track to be one of coolest on record

Kelly House
Courier-Journal.com
Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:15 UTC
Lawns are green. Electric bills are dropping. And the temperature gauge hasn't seen 90 all month.

If you're looking for the Ohio River valley's typical sultry summer weather, you're going to have wait.

With winds from the upper Midwest blowing cool Great Lakes air across the bluegrass, July's average temperatures are on track to be among the coolest ever recorded in Louisville, meteorologists said.

With cooler, rainy weather forecasted into the weekend, Louisville is on track to see its first July on record without a day in the 90s. And August may be balmier as well.

That suits bicyclist Anthony Baynard just fine.

"You don't have to worry about that 95 degree heat and humidity. I love it," said Baynard, 62, who rides several miles a day for exercise and to run short errands.

So far July's average high is the coolest on record - 80.7 degrees this month, compared with 1947's record of 82.7 degrees.
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House

US: Cool July is breaking records, but in Cleveland it's only in the Top 10 of coolest Julys

Michael Scott
The Plain Dealer
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:09 UTC
Summer water fun
© Lisa DeJong/The Plain DealerGeorge Hildebrandt, 10, of Rocky River, cools off as his neighbor Spencer Sheehan, 11, sprays him with the garden hose in Hildebrandt's front yard in Rocky River on Friday. July hasn't been a great month for frolicking in the water.

What is this, Christmas in July?

Not quite, but this unseasonably chilly midsummer month is about to break cold-weather records throughout the Midwest -- some more than 100 years old.

Meteorologists from Madison, Wis., to Chicago to Toledo, Akron and Columbus -- and dozens of cities in between -- are watching their thermometers as the month winds down.

By the end of the day Friday, they'll likely boast the coldest July on record.

In Toledo, that would fell a mark set back in 1894. In Akron, a record from 1904.

In Milwaukee, the record about to fall is older yet -- a daily average of 66.7 set in 1891.
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Mr. Potato

World Will Warm Faster Than Predicted In Next 5 Years?

Bruce McQuain
QuandO
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:50 UTC
That's what the Guardian is saying. And, it claims, that will "silence" global warming skeptics.

You mean man's link to warming has finally been proven and we will now reap what we've sown?

Well, not exactly. Here's the reason they give:
[The] [n]ew estimate [is] based on the forthcoming upturn in solar activity and El Niño southern oscillation cycles.
They then trot this out:
The hottest year on record was 1998, and the relatively cool years since have led to some global warming sceptics claiming that temperatures have levelled off or started to decline. But new research firmly rejects that argument.

The research, to be published in Geophysical Research Letters, was carried out by Judith Lean, of the US Naval Research Laboratory, and David Rind, of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The work is the first to assess the combined impact on global temperature of four factors: human influences such as CO2 and aerosol emissions; heating from the sun; volcanic activity and the El Niño southern oscillation, the phenomenon by which the Pacific Ocean flips between warmer and cooler states every few years.

The analysis shows the relative stability in global temperatures in the last seven years is explained primarily by the decline in incoming sunlight associated with the downward phase of the 11-year solar cycle, together with a lack of strong El Niño events. These trends have masked the warming caused by CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
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