Earth ChangesS


Better Earth

Californians urged to cut water after driest year

Jill Serjeant
Reuters
Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:52 UTC
LOS ANGELES - Southern Californians, fond of their private pools, golf courses, garden sprinklers and the ubiquitous car wash, are being urged to reform their water-guzzling ways after the region's driest year on record.

A mere 3.2 inches of rain -- less than a quarter as much as usual -- fell on downtown Los Angeles in the year beginning on July 1, 2006, the lowest since records began 130 years ago.

A hot summer of short showers is forecast to follow.
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Cloud Lightning

Flooding forces Kansas town's evacuation

STEVE BRISENDINE
AP
Mon, 02 Jul 2007 05:47 UTC
Even after sunshine returned to southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri, rivers swollen by days of heavy rain inched dangerously upward across the Plains.

©Orlin Wagner (AP)
The Marais Des Cygnes River flows over the U.S. 59 bridge in Ottawa, Kan., Sunday, July 1, 2007. Closed flood gates protect the downtown business district. Flooding worsened across southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri Sunday as high water levels forced more people from their homes and forecasters said it could be days before area rivers begin returning to normal. Among the hardest hit regions was Osawatomie, Kan., in Miami County, where the Kansas National Guard was deployed to help with a mandatory evacuation of the city as workers struggled to reinforce a levee on the Marais des Cygne.
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Cloud Lightning

It's not just the UK - weird weather is worldwide!


Daily Mail
Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:00 UTC
This year is on track to be the world's second warmest on record, experts warned yesterday.

The heavy flooding here this week and the heatwave in Greece may herald even greater disruptions from global warming, they said.

Their comments came as the European Commission advised leaders to 'adapt or die' in the face of climate change.

©Unk
Firefighters in Greece tackle forest fires caused by extremely hot and dry conditions.
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Red Flag

Firefighters Battle Utah Blaze


Associated Press
Sun, 01 Jul 2007 18:28 UTC
NEOLA, Utah - A federal firefighting team took over direction of efforts Sunday to halt a fast-moving wildfire that had killed three people and charred about 42 square miles in northeastern Utah.
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Snowman

Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny

James M Taylor
Chicago Sun-Times
Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:28 UTC
In his new book, The Assault on Reason, Al Gore pleads, "We must stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We must insist on an end to the cynical use of pseudo-studies known to be false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public's ability to discern the truth." Gore repeatedly asks that science and reason displace cynical political posturing as the central focus of public discourse.
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Attention

Update! Floods follow drought in eastern Australia, worst in 40 years


Physorg / AFP
Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:29 UTC
Residents of a previously drought-stricken area of southeastern Australian were Friday being evacuated to safety as rising floodwaters threatened to swamp homes and farmland.

Scores of people have already been evacuated by army helicopters and police from homes in Gippsland in the east of Victoria state as officials warned that the deluge could worsen as rivers peak.

Jeff Amos, deputy mayor of the Wellington Shire Council, said it was ironic that residents who had recently battled savage bushfires and a long-standing drought had been confronted almost overnight with a flood emergency.

"It was a fair deluge during the past week which has put an end to the drought in one way," Amos told AFP. "But unfortunately it's probably going to do more damage than good.

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Light Sabers

Coral Reef Fish Starve Themselves to Maintain Social Order

Scott Norris
Nationa Geographic
Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:14 UTC
Some coral reef fish starve themselves to avoid getting into fights with their larger, dominant neighbors, researchers have found.

Emerald coral gobies live in small groups in which social rank is strictly determined by body size. Within each group only the largest, dominant female mates with the one resident male.

Rather than competing for the top spot, subordinate female gobies often limit their own growth to remain non-threatening to higher-ranking fish.

Underlying this strategy of peaceful coexistence is fear of being kicked out and left to die, the researchers say.

Each goby group of up to 17 individuals occupies a single coral colony that provides food and shelter.
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Cloud Lightning

Syberia: Rescuers warn about heavy showers and thunderstorms at weekend


NewsLab
Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:58 UTC
Rescuers declared a storm warning in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Saturday and Sunday are forecast to bring blasts of Northern wind reaching 40-50 mph, the regional agency for civil defense and emergencies reported.
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Attention

Weather extremes wither LA, drown Texas

JOHN ANTCZAK
AP
Sat, 30 Jun 2007 02:55 UTC
Barring a surprise arrival of the kind of gully washers Texas is getting these days, Los Angeles' driest year in 130 years of record-keeping will go into the books this weekend.
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Cloud Lightning

Flashback "Night-shining" clouds bring mystery; Once confined to Earth's poles, the bizarre clouds have now been spotted above central Colorado

Katy Human
The Denver Post
Thu, 05 Apr 2007 07:27 UTC
Since their discovery 120 years ago, strangely luminescent clouds called noctilucent clouds have been creeping slowly toward the equator.

©Denver Post
This hauntingly beautiful noctilucent cloud was photographed over the Juneau, Alaska, ice field in 1998. Once confined to Earth's poles, the clouds have been spotted above Colorado.
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