Earth ChangesS


Life Preserver

Australia: Disaster in Brisbane as water keeps coming

flood, Brisbane
© ABC News / Giulio SagginThe CBD in Brisbane was a ghost town on Wednesday.
Brisbane residents have been told it is not too late to evacuate as a once-in-a-century flood threatens 20,000 homes tonight.

More than 50 suburbs are expected to be flooded when the Brisbane River hits an expected peak of 5.2 metres at about 4:00am on Thursday.

Already thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes after the swollen river burst its banks and rose past 4 metres on Wednesday.

Premier Anna Bligh is warning despite a slight revision in the expected flood peak, Brisbane residents are going to wake up to a scene of widespread devastation.

"We will wake tomorrow to an image of Brisbane ... that will shock many of us and I do say to people that we need to be ready for that," she said.

Igloo

Major Winter Storm Wallops U.S. Northeast

Image
© David Tulis/Athens Banner-HeraldSteven Smith, president of Verity Bank, shovels snow and ice from the bank parking lot in Winder, Ga., after a weekend snowstorm.
The U.S. Northeast was hit by its second major winter storm of the season, which was expected to dump up to a foot of snow on New York City by Wednesday evening and create chaos for commuters and travelers.

Airlines pre-emptively canceled hundreds of flights and companies were advising some employees to work from home, while oil prices jumped 2 percent on expectations the cold weather would boost demand for heating oil.

The storm could give New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg a chance to make up for his much-criticized response to the blizzard that paralyzed New York less than two weeks ago.

He declared a weather emergency late Tuesday that urged the public to avoid driving, granted authorities the right to tow cars blocking snow plows and allowed emergency services to "take all appropriate and necessary steps" to ensure safety.

"We didn't do the job that New Yorkers rightly expect of us in the last storm and we intend to make sure that that does not happen again," Bloomberg told a news conference.

Bizarro Earth

US: Dozens Of Dead Birds Found Near Sullivan, Missouri


Dozens of dead birds are discovered near Sullivan, Missouri about an hour southwest of St. Louis. People in and around Sullivan are calling the whole thing a little weird. The scene is just east of Sullivan along the I-44 south service road at Winsel Creek. The Missouri Department of Conservation is looking into the situation.

It was discovered on Monday.

Experts there and with the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park say the dead birds are Starlings. Starlings are among the dead birds that have been found in several other states recently.

It started new years when thousands of Red Winged Blackbirds were found dead in Arkansas.

The reason why all of this is happening is still unclear but a spokesperson with Missouri Department of Conservation does have some theories.

Snowflake Cold

Best of the Web: US: Snow In 49 States Right Now (MAP)

A map of snowfall in the United States is revealing right now: 49 states have snow on this 1/11/11 and only one does not.

From the southern snow storm heading north, which is affecting air travel, to the pending storm in New York City, and flurries out west, there's plenty of white stuff going around.

The lone state without a flake? It's the Sunshine State...Florida. Locals are celebrating the fact, though interestingly, parts of the state saw snow just days ago.

Even Hawaii has snow, in Mauna Kea on the Big Island.

Have a look at the map for yourself:

map
© Google
CNN meteorologist Angela Fritz calls this "extremely unusual," though notes that statistics aren't generally kept on how many states have snow at the same time.

Gear

Spin, Span, Spun: Now it's "Climate Challenges"

spin span spun graphic
© wattsupwiththat.com
The term "climate change" could be replaced by "climate challenges" if a federal commissioned marketing study is taken onboard.

The study of attitudes to climate change among farmers, commissioned by the Agriculture Department, found only 27 per cent of those surveyed believed human activity was causing climate change, compared with 58 per cent of urban dwellers.

As well, primary producers are "very resistant to carbon trading". "It fills them with dread, and there were strong negative reactions towards it," the report says.

Handed to the department late last year, the report warns that terminology that fails to take into account the attitude of primary producers towards human-induced climate change risks failure. The term "climate change" sets up negative reactions among primary producers for a number of reasons, from scepticism through to perceptions that they are being held solely responsible for causing climate change, it says.

"Preferred terms such as 'climate challenges', 'prolonged drought' and 'risk management' are accepted, better understood and more likely to motivate change."

Cloud Lightning

Residents to be Evacuated as Mt. Anak Krakatau Spews Ash

Anak Krakatau
© Volcano World/Robert W. DeckerAnak Krakatau
The South Lampung Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) is set to evacuate tens of thousands of residents in seven districts in the regency following continuous volcanic ash emissions from Mount Anak Krakatau over the past several days.

South Lampung BPBD head Abdul Shomad said his office had coordinated with the Lampung provincial administration, Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency and the Mount Anak Krakatau observation station in Hargopancuran village in South Lampung.

"We have taken anticipatory measures because ash continues to flow, while the seismograph used to monitor Mount Anak Krakatau could not provide data on its activities. This has caused fear among residents," said Shomad on Monday.

The seven districts are Kalianda, Rajabasa, Katibung, Sidomulyo, Ketapang, Sragi and Palas.

Shomad added the South Lampung regency administration had mapped out tsunami-prone areas around the mountain, generally located along coastal areas facing the Sunda Strait, as one anticipatory measure.

"The coordination is aimed at ascertaining the height of the tidal wave in the event of a massive eruption," said Shomad.

As of Monday, volcanic ash from Mount Anak Krakatau is still covering residential areas in parts of Banten province and South Lampung, while the observation posts in Hargopancuran, Rajabasa, South Lampung, and Pasauran, Banten, have not yet been able to monitor volcanic activities because equipment installed around the volcano is still out of order.

Umbrella

Best of the Web: Australia: Amazing footage of Toowoomba Flash Flood

Amazing footage of East Creek near Chalk Drive / Chalk Lane rising and washing away lots of cars during Flash Flood in Toowoomba on Monday 10 January 2011. This is some of the best footage I have seen of the Flood and was taken from the second floor of our office which backs onto Chalk Lane.

It shows just how fast the creek turned into a torrent and quickly flooded Chalk Drive and Chalk Lane.

I also got some video of where the creek crosses Neil Street and some video of the aftermath and the huge amount of cars damaged and piled on top of one another in the Chalk Drive car park.

Bizarro Earth

10 Magnitude Earthquakes Possible in Azerbaijan

Seismic Recorder
© News.am

Dangerous 10 points seismic zone was for the first time determined on a seismic map of Azerbaijan.

"The studies conducted on the basis of a new technique in Shamakhi-Ismayilli zone, revealed a zone on the territory from Shamakhi to Gonagkend. It can create seismic hazard measuring 10 points. Another area in the territory of Azerbaijan, with possible seismic hazard measuring 10 points, is on north of Sheki-Oguz region, in the border region with Russia," Tahir Mammadov, head of the department on seismological and geodynamic studies of the National Seismological Service Center at the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences, told Trend news agency.

Black Cat

US: New dead bird and dead fish events today in California and Chicago - odd twists

globe
© Getty Images New dead bird and dead fish reports today with odd twist

Dead birds and dead fish events are happening again today. Dead birds are found along the highway in California and thousands of dead fish are surfacing along Chicago's lakefront.

The birds were found along Highway 101 in California, according to the Huffington Post, the birds were intact with no sign of being shot. In Chicago, thousands of Gizzard Shad, a member of the herring family, are floating in Chicago's harbors.

A strange twist to the dead fish in Chicago is that the Canadian Geese and mallard ducks are feeding off these dead fish, which is not a normal part of these bird's diet.

Fish

US: Thousands of fish washed up dead in Chicago in latest bizarre mass animal deaths

dead fish
© Dale Bowman ~For the Sun-TimesOne of the thousands of young dead gizzard shad found frozen in the ice of Chicago harbors, including DuSable Harbor on Friday

A bizarre scene is evolving on the Chicago lakefront, with Canada geese and mallard ducks gulping down dead or dying gizzard shad.

A major die-off of what appears to be the 2010 class is happening in Chicago harbors. Thousands, perhaps far more than that, of dead gizzard shad in the 3- to 5-inch range are frozen in the ice of Chicago harbors or floating around in open patches of water.

"Gizzard shad are pretty sensitive,'' Lake Michigan Program biologist Dan Makauskas said. "On the toughness scale, the herrings are pretty soft.''

Gizzard shad, members of the herring family, are more sensitive to drops in oxygen levels than most fish. And thick ice came early to Chicago harbors in December.

The massive die-off was first documented Thursday by Carl Vizzone, a North Side fisherman who sits on the board of Perch America. What caught his eye was Canada geese and mallards eating dying shad at open water by DuSable and Diversey harbors. "This is not normal,'' he said.

He's right, agreed naturalist Joel Greenberg, author of A Natural History of the Chicago Region. Canada geese and mallards normally don't eat fish, but, Greenberg said, "They are opportunistic."

Other species of fish do not appear to be involved in the die-off.

Makauskas, who speculated that the young shad may not have built up enough reserves to survive the early onslaught of extreme cold, agreed the die-off is abnormal.