Earth ChangesS

Binoculars

Australia is worst nation on Earth at preserving wildlife

Kathy Marks
The Independent on Sunday
Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:15 UTC


Karak
©Unknown

Ten unique creatures face extinction as country finally tries to turn its appalling conservation record around.

Australians love their wildlife - after all, who could fail to warm to a koala, or a wombat, or a kangaroo? But few Australians know that they have the worst record on the planet for conserving their beautiful and unusual animals.
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Arrow Down

UK: Honey bees 'wiped out in 10 years': beekeepers demand ยฃ8m for research, government denies

Robin McKie
Guardian/The Observer
Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:57 UTC
Beekeepers have warned that most of the country's honey bees could be wiped out by disease in 10 years unless an urgent research programme is launched to find new treatments and drugs. They are to launch a nationwide campaign, including protests, to force the government to fund the ยฃ8m research project which they say is needed to save the nation's bees.

honey bee
©John Severns

Comment: The disappearance of bees will ultimately bring the disappearance of human kind. Albert Einstein observed that:
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."
So why aren't the governments alert and rushing to fund research to save the bees AND human kind? SOTT focus editorial To Bee or not to Be, answers this question.

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Target

Australia: Earthquake shakes homes in southern NSW


news.com.au
Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:53 UTC
A minor earthquake in southern NSW today shook homes but caused no injuries or damage, seismologists say.

The tremor, measuring 2.8 on the Richter scale, occurred at 3.41pm (AEDT) near the town of Yass, Geoscience Australia said.
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Target

Moderate Quake Rattles Iran


Associated Press
Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:50 UTC
Tehran, Iran - A moderate earthquake and several aftershocks rattled a remote area in eastern Iran on Sunday morning, cracking walls and forcing some to seek shelter in tents, state media reported. No injuries were immediately reported.
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Target

Nevada, US: 3.0 earthquake shakes Mogul area

Steve Timko
Reno Gazette-Journal
Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:44 UTC
A string of recent earthquakes has hit the Mogul area and the biggest so far arrived early Saturday, reaching magnitude 3.0.

The earthquake at 2:07 a.m. followed a swarm of magnitude 1.2 to 2.2 quakes between Feb. 28 and Monday.
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Better Earth

Study helps predict big Mediterranean quake


Reuters
Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:42 UTC
London - Scientists have found evidence that an overlooked fault in the eastern Mediterranean is likely to produce an earthquake and tsunami every 800 years as powerful as the one that destroyed Alexandria in AD 365.
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Hourglass

Greece: African dust cloud warning


eKathimerini
Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:08 UTC
A thick cloud of dust from Africa is expected to engulf parts of central and southern Greece today, causing traffic problems by reducing visibility and aggravating allergies.
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Sherlock

UK: Holy Grail castle in bats mystery


BBC
Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:25 UTC
A Scottish keep that appeared in the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail has become caught up in a mystery about where bats hibernate.

Experts have been intrigued about where pipistrelle, which roost in large numbers in Doune, Central Scotland, in summer, spend the winter.

Just over 30 have been counted in Doune Castle, which was used in the film.

Meanwhile, bat watchers in the far north are monitoring for a species which may spread with global warming.

Image
©PA
Pipistrelle come in two varieties - soprano and common
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Bulb

Mathematics Explains Mysterious Midge Behavior

Kenneth Chang
The New York Times
Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:03 UTC
Here's a place that's unlikely ever to be a vacation spot for Yankee pitcher Joba Chamberlain: Lake Myvatn, in Iceland.

Myvatn, translating from Icelandic to English, means Midge Lake.

Midges, baseball fans recall, are the gnat-like insects that rose from Lake Erie last October and descended upon Chamberlain in the bottom of the eighth inning of a playoff game against the Cleveland Indians, distracting him into throwing two wild pitches. Cleveland scored the tying run without a hit. The Yankees eventually lost the game and eventually the series.

Image
©Arni Einarsson
A Lake Myvatn midge.
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Snowman

Mysterious "Rain on Snow" Events Tracked in Arctic

Graeme Stemp-Morlock
National Geographic News
Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:13 UTC
A few warm, springlike days might sound appealing if you live in the frigid Arctic Circle.

But a rise in temperature can spell doom for native peoples and the caribou, musk-oxen, and reindeer that they depend on in Earth's northernmost regions.

That's because a mysterious phenomenon known as "rain on snow," when sudden warm air turns northern snows to rain or slush, can cause animals to starve.

Image
©Norbert Rosing/NGS
Musk-oxen huddle together during a snowstorm in Canada's frigid Northwest Territories.

A strange phenomenon known as a "rain on snow" event, in which warm rain freezes into a solid layer of ice on the ground in winter, killed off a quarter of the region's musk-oxen population in 2003.

Scientists are still working to figure out why and when these elusive incidents occur.
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