The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere keeps going up and up, but public interest in climate change is sinking. Environmentalists are trying to come up with new ways to make the issue sexy. But shock tactics can backfire all too easily.

Climate change used to make headlines. But these days the issue appears to have largely fallen off the radar.

World leaders recently negotiated a new climate agreement at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, but public interest in the issue was limited. It was a marked contrast to the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, which had been declared of historic importance in the runup to the meeting, only to then fail spectacularly. The theft of e-mails from the University of East Anglia had badly damaged the image of climate research shortly before the summit.

First, more than 1,000 dead birds fell out of the sky in Arkansas. Then, an estimated 100,000 fish washed up dead on the shore of the Arkansas River.

We don't know what exactly caused the bird and fish die-offs. But we do know that usually, these seemingly mysterious animal die-offs can be explained after science, zoology and environmental experts take a closer look.

Surge Desk found five other examples of similar die-offs.

1. The disappearance of the honeybee.
   
   When an estimated 20 percent to 40 percent of the U.S. honeybee colonies began disappearing in 2006, environmentalists were alarmed. After all, the honeybee is a pivotal part of the North American ecosystem, pollinating many of our agricultural products.
   
   Status: Solved -- maybe.
   In late 2010, a team of military scientists and bee experts announced that they had identified the possible culprit behind the bee disappearance: a fungus combining with a virus. But not everybody accepts this explanation. Other proposed causes include pesticides, climate change, weakened immune systems and malnutrition.

Military aircraft are flying supplies into the Australian city of Rockhampton, where rising flood waters have cut off all but one access route.

Waters have been gradually submerging parts of the city.

More than 20 towns in Queensland have been cut off or flooded across an area larger than France and Germany, with more than 200,000 people affected.

Authorities have now confirmed three deaths caused by flood waters in the past few days.

Alex Finlayson is an English teacher from Emerald in Queensland. He has finally been allowed to return to his flood-damaged home.

Large numbers of penguins and other seabirds are dying of starvation on New Zealand beaches because of a La Nina climate pattern affecting the nation this year, the government said.

Dead birds have started washing up on the nation's North Island after calmer seas made it harder for them to find food, Department of Conservation vet Kate McInnes said in a statement. There could be thousands of deaths over the summer due to the weather event, the statement said.

The bird deaths are the latest natural shocks in New Zealand to be blamed on environmental factors. Scientists said that a bacterial disease that started spreading through kiwifruit orchards in November was likely awakened by weather conditions. Earlier this month, the government said that Pacific oysters in the North Island were being killed by a herpes virus triggered by warmer sea temperatures.

Could it be related to 7.0 in Argentina?

Date-Time:
Monday, January 03, 2011 at 12:06:36 UTC

Monday, January 03, 2011 at 05:06:36 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
38.247°N, 112.340°W

Depth:
5.4 km (3.4 miles)

Region:
Utah

Distances:
10 km (6 miles) NW (325°) from Circleville, UT

10 km (6 miles) W (277°) from Junction, UT

14 km (9 miles) WNW (288°) from Kingston, UT

61 km (38 miles) ESE (105°) from Milford, UT

203 km (126 miles) ENE (69°) from Caliente, NV

281 km (175 miles) S (188°) from Salt Lake City, UT

Grey and beige colored snow fell in several areas of the Russia's southeastern city of Samara on the New Year's eve, a spokesman for the local branch of the Emergencies Ministry said on Sunday.

Experts believe that the anomaly was caused by sandstorm from Kazakhstan as the colored snow contained mixture of clay and sand. The snow does not threaten the health of the residents of Samara, the spokesman said.

Situation Update No. 2


Arkansas game officials hope testing scheduled to begin Monday will solve the mystery of why up to 5,000 birds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve. The birds -- most of which were dead -- were red-winged blackbirds and starlings, and they were found within a one-mile area of Beebe, about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said. Birds fell over about a one-mile area, the commission said in a statement. As of Saturday, between 4,000 and 5,000 birds had been found dead, said Keith Stephens with the commission. "Shortly after I arrived, there were still birds falling from the sky," said commission wildlife officer Robby King in the statement. He said he collected about 65 dead birds. The commission said it flew over the area to gauge the scope of the event, and no birds were found outside of the initial one-mile area. Karen Rowe, an ornithologist for the commission, said the incident is not that unusual and is often caused by a lightning strike or high-altitude hail. A strong storm system moved through the state earlier in the day Friday.

"It's important to understand that a sick bird can't fly. So whatever happened to these birds happened very quickly," Rowe told CNN Radio on Sunday. "Something must have caused these birds to flush out of the trees at night, where they're normally just roosting and staying in the treetops ... and then something got them out of the air and caused their death and then they fell to earth," Rowe added. Officials also speculated that fireworks shot by New Year's revelers in the area might have caused severe stress in the birds. Rowe said Sunday there was evidence that large fireworks may have played a role. "Initial examinations of a few of the dead birds showed trauma. Whether or not this trauma was from the force of hitting the ground when they fell or from something that contacted them in the air, we don't know," Rowe said. The dead birds will be sent for testing to labs at the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission and the National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin. The necropsies will begin Monday, Stephens said, and the findings should be available sometime this week. The city of Beebe has hired U.S. Environmental Services to begin the cleanup and dispose of the dead birds, the commission said. The firm's workers will go door-to-door and pick up birds still in yards and on rooftops.

Just before folks in Beebe rang in the New Year, many witnessed an uncanny resemblance to the Hitchcock movie The Birds. About 2,000 black birds fell from the sky off Windwood Drive, leaving quite the mess to clean up.

Folks Today's THV spoke with initially thought the birds were poisoned because they are what they call a nuisance around this time every year, but they are surprised to hear it is more of a mystery.

Stephen Bryant recalls, "Millions, millions fly over every night. You look up at the sky and it's just black and then last night at about 10:30 I came out here and saw a bird drop."

In a matter of hours on New Years Eve thousands of birds fell from the sky to their death.

Environmental service workers finished picking up the carcasses on Sunday of about 2,000 red-winged blackbirds that fell dead from the sky in a central Arkansas town.

Mike Robertson, the mayor in Beebe, told The Associated Press the last dead bird was removed about 11 a.m. Sunday in the town about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock. He said 12 to 15 workers, hired by the city to do the cleanup, wore environmental-protection suits for the task.

The birds had fallen Friday night over a 1-mile area of Beebe, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area. The workers from U.S. Environmental Services started the cleanup Saturday.

Robertson said the workers wore the suits as a matter of routine and not out of fear that the birds might be contaminated. He said speculation on the cause is not focusing on disease or poisoning.

Several hundred thousand red-winged blackbirds have used a wooded area in the town as a roost for the past several years, he said. Robertson and other officials went to the roost area over the weekend and found no dead birds on the ground.