Earth Changes

Dog viciously mauls a two-year-old girl in Suwannee, Florida

Amber Vann
Suwannee Democrat
Thu, 19 Mar 2015 19:40 UTC

UF Health in Gainesville.

A two-year-old girl was viciously attacked by a dog on Wednesday, March 18, marring her face and upper body with severe wounds that may require cosmetic surgery, according to reports. The attack happened near the intersection of 177th Rd. and 120th Rd. in Western Suwannee County. The girl, Marina Aldama, was treated by medics at the scene until she was life flighted to UF Health in Gainesville. She was in stable condition when she was transported, according to Public Safety Director James Sommers.

"It was a significant dog attack," said Sommers. "She will probably need cosmetic surgery to reattach everything. Her face, shoulders, upper torso, and back of the head were wounded."

According to a report from the Suwannee County Sheriff's Office, Marina was with her mother in a van with the side door open waiting for her father to get lunch around 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Marina was pulled out of the van and attacked by a dog, the report states. The attack was unprovoked, according to the report.

Bark beetles are decimating our forests which may be a good thing

Maddie Oatman
Mother Jones
Thu, 19 Mar 2015 06:15 UTC

© www.motherjones.com
Into the woods...
They gobble up trees and send politicians into a frenzy. But do the bugs know more about climate change than we do?

There is an eerie feel to this grove of lodgepole pines that I can't quite put my finger on as entomologist Diana Six tromps ahead of me, hatchet in hand, scanning the southwestern Montana woods for her target. But as she digs the blade into a towering trunk, it finally hits me: the smell. There's no scent of pine needles, no sharp, minty note wafting through the brisk fall air.

Six hacks away hunks of bark until she reveals an inner layer riddled with wormy passageways. "Hey, looky!" she exclaims, poking at a small dark form. "Are you dead? Yeah, you're dead." She extends her hand, holding a tiny black oval, maybe a quarter of an inch long. Scientists often compare this insect to a grain of rice, but Six prefers mouse dropping: "Beetle in one hand, mouse turd in another. You can't tell them apart." She turns to the next few trees in search of more traces. Pill-size holes pock their ashen trunks—a sign, along with the missing pine scent, of a forest reeling from an invasion.

These tiny winged beetles have long been culling sickly trees in North American forests. But in recent years, they've been working overtime. Prolonged droughts and shorter winters have spurred bark beetles to kill billions of trees in what's likely the largest forest insect outbreak ever recorded, about 10 times the size of past eruptions. "A doubling would have been remarkable," Six says. "Ten times screams that something is really going wrong."

Comment: "Misguided science, out-of-control logging, bad public policy and hundred years of fire suppression created a volatile geography that released the world's oldest forest manager from all natural constraints." - Andrew Nikiforuk

Have we not learned it is a disaster to mess with the natural processes and genomics of Mother Nature? Myopic-thinking scientists and politicians are so short-sighted they can't see the forest for the trees. If nothing else, they should at least comprehend the concept that NOTHING stands alone, all are interconnected and are this way for specific purposes and ecological balances. Unless, of course, you are trying to commit human-induced suicide for the whole planet.

To read full article.

Wolf attacks a dog in Duluth, Minnesota

Kevin Jacobsen
northlandsnewscenter.com
Wed, 18 Mar 2015 18:34 UTC

A wolf.

A Duluth woman has a warning for pet owners after she says her dog was attacked by a wolf.

Maureen Zupancich says her 11-year-old dog Max was attacked Tuesday morning at their home on the Portage Road in Piedmont Heights.

She says the pooch suffered puncture wounds and bruises and had to get stiches and staples.

Zupancich says her husband saw the dog being carried away by the wolf.

Tourist attacked by polar bear in Arctic Norway

townhall.com
Thu, 19 Mar 2015 17:56 UTC

Arctic campsite.

A Czech tourist suffered minor injuries when a polar bear attacked the tent he was sleeping in on the remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norwegian authorities said Thursday.

Police spokesman Vidar Arnesen said the man was among a group of six that was on a combined ski and snow scooter trip on the remote islands more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of the Norwegian mainland. The group was camping north of the main town of Longyearbyen.

The man, Jakub Moravec, told local media he hoped to be out of the hospital later Thursday.

"Now I am fine. I have some scratches in the face, on one arm and on the back. But I feel fine," he told the Svalbardposten newspaper.

Lightning bolt kills six boys in Odisha, India

Subrat Das and Lelin Kumar Mallick
The Telegraph (India)
Thu, 19 Mar 2015 17:03 UTC

© Telegraph
School students get treatment at Capital Hospital after lightning struck them at Jaripada village in Khurda district.

Tragedy struck young cricket enthusiasts ahead of India's crucial World Cup tie against Bangladesh as lightning killed six youths at Jaripada village in Khurda district, 70km from here. The youths were playing a cricket match when the incident occurred.

Thirteen others were injured in the incident, which happened when a thunderstorm, accompanied by lightning, hit the area.

As the storm hit the area, the youths, in the age group between 14 and 20, took shelter in an under-construction building at the village. But, the lightning struck there, killing three of them on the spot. Three others died on way to Tangi hospital.

The injured have been admitted to hospitals in Khurda and Bhubaneswar. "The condition of the injured is stable, and they have been referred to private hospitals in Khurda and Bhubaneswar," said a doctor of Tangi hospital.

Around 30 people, including children, were watching the match when the thunderstorm, accompanied by lightning, struck. The deceased have been identified as Bibhuti Parida, 19, Rahul Naik, 15, S.K. Okil, 14, Ajit Behera, 15, Shahrukh Khan, 20, and Santosh Pradhan, 15.

Huge sinkholes open up as the Dead Sea shrivels

Molly Hunter
abcnews.go.com
Thu, 19 Mar 2015 16:07 UTC

Thousands of sinkholes are taking over the Dead Sea.

There are more than 3,000 sinkholes on the banks of the Dead Sea -- and they're multiplying exponentially, according to environmentalists, as the body of water dries up.

"It's nature's revenge," said Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli Director at EcoPeace Middle East, an organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists to protect their shared environmental heritage.

"These sinkholes are a direct result of the inappropriate mismanagement of water resources in the region."

More than 1,400 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on land. The first sinkhole was spotted in the 1980s. By 1990, there were 40, and 15 years later new chasms are breaking open every day.

"They could develop overnight. Or over time," Bromberg said. "Making them unpredictable. And very dangerous."

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Sinkhole plagues motorists in museum district of Richmond, Virginia

Shelby Brown
WVTR.com
Mon, 16 Mar 2015 23:40 UTC

Here is a heads up for bikers and drivers traveling along North Belmont Avenue in the city. There are bright orange cones and barrels are surrounding a sinkhole.

Neighbor Judy Dart did not realize how bad it was until Sunday when she spotted a biker stopped in the area.

She went over because she thought he had been hurt.

"He said he was putting a cone there because there was a big hole, so I went over to see" Dart explained.

That's why she contacted the city.

Dart says like that biker, her husband also placed cones around the sinkhole to alert others.

"My concern is traffic coming down the street and someone hitting it and that could possibly hurt somebody" Dart said.

Treyvon Miller works at a nearby restaurant and tells us he has heard customers talking about the sinkhole.

"I don't really drive but I have noticed it. It's bad. I think they need to fix something like that immediately" Miller said.

CBS 6 contacted Richmond's Department of Public utilities to find out when the work will be done. No one responded to our calls.

First day of Spring brings blanket of snow to Northern Virginia, Massachusetts

Alex Sosnowski
Accuweather.com
Wed, 18 Mar 2015 09:55 UTC

A storm spreading rain across the South this week will take a northward jog and spread snow to part of the Interstate-95 and I-81 corridors of the Northeast on Friday.

Spring officially arrives on Friday, March 20, at 6:45 p.m. EDT, but Old Man Winter may have the last laugh.

Colder air will invade the Northeast during the middle days of the week, and the atmosphere is likely to remain just cold enough for some wet snow before the week draws to a close.

Despite the colder air, temperatures will be marginal for the storm with a close call between rain and snow along the I-95 corridor in the mid-Atlantic, Long Island and along the southern coast of New England. Much of the snow that falls in this area may melt on roads. However, there will be some exceptions.

A wintry mix of rain and snow is most likely in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Wilmington, Delaware, and Trenton, New Jersey. The storm is likely to impact travel in this area, including the potential for flight delays due to poor visibility and deicing operations. Motorists and pedestrians should be prepared for delays on Friday.

Areas farther north such as Harrisburg, Allentown and Scranton, Pennsylvania; New York City and White Plains, New York; Hartford, Connecticut; and Boston are likely to be cold enough for all or mostly snow. Airline delays due to deicing and poor visibility are likely in the New York City area and perhaps as far north as Boston. Most areas within this swath will receive 1-3 inches of snow with the greatest amount on non-paved surfaces.

Comment: See the latest SOTT video summary on the extreme weather we are having on the planet.

As snowfall records are set, ferry becomes stuck in sea ice off Nova Scotia

Andrew Freedman
mashable.com
Wed, 18 Mar 2015 20:07 UTC

While the all-time snowfall record in Boston may have received most of the media attention in the U.S., Canada has had its fair share of unusually severe winter weather this season as well.

Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland have been slammed by back-to-back-to-back-to-back (you get the point) severe winter storms, producing a broad area of sea ice cover and mountainous snowbanks along the streets of cities such as Charlottetown and Saint John.

A Marine Atlantic passenger ferry with 190 people aboard was stuck in pack ice off Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, on Tuesday, with Canadian Coast Guard ships trying to free the vessel. According to the Canadian Press, the MV Highlanders ran into heavy ice on Monday night, after leaving North Sydney, Nova Scotia, for Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.

#CCG Louis S St-Laurent assisting MV Highlanders and Blue Puttees in Cabot Strait. Slow progress in very thick #ice. pic.twitter.com/Do2HeFWiVW

— DFO_NL (@DFO_NL) March 17, 2015