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
Earth Changes
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.
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.
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.
Santa Paula - Police have shot and killed a mountain lion in a Santa Paula neighborhood, and they believe five more could be in the area.
A family called police this morning after spotting a mountain lion in their yard in the community 50 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
Police Chief Steve MacKinnon says officers attempted to set up a perimeter and capture one mountain lion when a second smaller lion came out of the bushes.
A family called police this morning after spotting a mountain lion in their yard in the community 50 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
Police Chief Steve MacKinnon says officers attempted to set up a perimeter and capture one mountain lion when a second smaller lion came out of the bushes.
© Heikki Kotilainen/Helsingin Sanomat
Our numbers are growing... The number of lynx in Finnish forests is said to be at the highest level for a hundred years.
Our numbers are growing... The number of lynx in Finnish forests is said to be at the highest level for a hundred years.
"The bigger the amount of lynxes, the sooner they get used to people, and the animal begins to trust humans", says special researcher Ilpo Kojola from the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute.
"The number of lynxes in Finland is about 1,500 individuals", Kojola adds.
A lynx can appear in a backyard when the day grows dimmer.
"There it may be seen sitting and observing its surroundings in a seemingly carefree manner, even if the garden lights are switched on", Kojola notes.
© Jim Schubitzke
Jim Schubitzke shot this image of a cougar using a trail camera triggered by movement in August 2007 near Floodwood, Minn. The Minnesota DNR said it is one of only a half dozen confirmed wild cougar sightings in the state over the past 20 or 30 years, despite hundreds of reports.
Jim Schubitzke shot this image of a cougar using a trail camera triggered by movement in August 2007 near Floodwood, Minn. The Minnesota DNR said it is one of only a half dozen confirmed wild cougar sightings in the state over the past 20 or 30 years, despite hundreds of reports.
Call it a feline frenzy.
Reports of mountain lions in Minnesota keep rolling in.
Just last month several mountain lions, also called cougars, were reported roaming the woods and fields near Elk River. Last fall came the report that a pair of big cats munched a deer shot by hunters in northern Minnesota.
And this winter, via the Internet, came an eye-popping photo of a huge 190-pound cougar reportedly killed in December in southeastern Minnesota.
Dozens of big cats have been spotted prowling around Denbighshire and the surrounding counties.
In the last seven years, people have reported panther and lynx like creatures across the region.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that 45 big cat sightings have been recorded by North Wales Police.
Seven separate incidents were logged from people claiming to have seen a panther.
In the last seven years, people have reported panther and lynx like creatures across the region.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that 45 big cat sightings have been recorded by North Wales Police.
Seven separate incidents were logged from people claiming to have seen a panther.
© Tim McClanahan
According to a recent study by WCS and other organizations, coral reefs next to "middle class" communities in Eastern Africa have the lowest fish levels. In contrast, reefs next to villages of low and high socio-economic levels had higher fish levels.
According to a recent study by WCS and other organizations, coral reefs next to "middle class" communities in Eastern Africa have the lowest fish levels. In contrast, reefs next to villages of low and high socio-economic levels had higher fish levels.
The economy isn't just squeezing the middle class on land, it's also affecting fish. Wealthy areas and least developed regions have healthiest fish populations, while those in the middle are suffering.
According to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other organizations, researchers discovered a surprising correlation between "middle class" communities in Eastern Africa and low fish levels. Curiously, areas with both low and high socio-economic levels had comparatively higher fish levels.
Appearing in the latest edition of Current Biology, the study examined reef systems, human population densities, and socio-economics among villages in 30 fished and unfished study sites in five countries along Africa's Indian Ocean coast.
Calgary, Alberta - A Canadian house cat not known for being affectionate is being credited with alerting its owner in Calgary, Alberta, about a cancerous tumor in his lung.
Lionel Adams, 59, told the Calgary Sun his 8-year-old orange tabby called Tiger began some unusual behavior late last summer.
"He would climb into bed and take his paw and drag it down my left side -- he was adamant there was something there," Adams told the Sun. "And it was right where the cancer was."
Lionel Adams, 59, told the Calgary Sun his 8-year-old orange tabby called Tiger began some unusual behavior late last summer.
"He would climb into bed and take his paw and drag it down my left side -- he was adamant there was something there," Adams told the Sun. "And it was right where the cancer was."
© University of Georgia
Unexploded munitions.
Unexploded munitions.
During a research trip to Puerto Rico, ecologist James Porter took samples from underwater nuclear bomb target USS Killen, expecting to find evidence of radioactive matter - instead he found a link to cancer. Data revealed that the closer corals and marine life were to unexploded bombs from the World War II vessel and the surrounding target range, the higher the rates of carcinogenic materials.
"Unexploded bombs are in the ocean for a variety of reasons - some were duds that did not explode, others were dumped in the ocean as a means of disposal," said Porter. "And we now know that these munitions are leaking cancer-causing materials and endangering sea life."
These findings will be presented at the Second International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions on February 25-27 in Honolulu. Data has been gathered since 1999 on the eastern end of the Isla de Vieques, Puerto Rico - a land and sea area that was used as a naval gunnery and bombing range from 1943-2003. Research revealed that marine life including reef-building corals, feather duster worms and sea urchins closest to the bomb and bomb fragments had the highest levels of toxicity. In fact, carcinogenic materials were found in concentrations up to 100,000 times over established safe limits. This danger zone covered a span of up to two meters from the bomb and its fragments.
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 -
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.
CO2 after R.A. Berner, 2001 (GEOCARB III)
Source: GeoCraft
Additional graphic of historic CO2 concentration from 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)
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.