Earth ChangesS

Cloud Lightning

India: Lightning kills 11 in Malda & Siliguri

Lightning killed 11 persons in north Bengal as a Nor'wester raged through the region this afternoon.

Ten of the victims, including a CPM panchayat poll candidate, were from Malda.

Taking a break from a hectic campaign schedule, Habibur Rehman, 42, contesting from the Bhado gram panchayat, was sipping tea at a roadside stall, when a bolt from the sky struck him. He died on the spot.

Cloud Lightning

19 dead in Missouri, Oklahoma after new round of tornadoes



Picher tornado
©Unknown

Many have fled this depressed, pollution-scarred mining town. Those who have chosen to stay or have not yet relocated face a new heartache. A tornado ripped through a 20-block swath of Picher late Saturday afternoon, killing at least seven people. The same storm system then moved into southwest Missouri where tornadoes took the lives of at least 12 others, authorities said.

Target

6.7 undersea quake near Guam; no damage reported

The U.S. Geological Survey says an undersea earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 has shaken Guam.

There were no immediate reports of damage in the U.S. territory Saturday morning. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu says the quake failed to generate a destructive, widespread tsunami.

Ladybug

Vermont, US : Local bees skirt colony collapse

Commercially managed bee hives continue to suffer from a mysterious loss across the country, though local beekeepers say the situation in Vermont is stable.

A survey released this week by the Apiary Inspectors of America found that the nation's beekeepers lost about 32 percent of their hives since last year.

Bees play an important role in pollinating fruit trees and bushes and hive operators travel with their bees to commercial growers around the country when flowers are in bloom.

Bomb

Burma: The river of death

For the people living alongside the Payapon river - a branch of the mighty Irrawaddy - the slow-moving waters have always been a sustainer of life. The river has provided irrigation for their crops, as well as clean, sweet water for washing and bathing, and the fish from which so many of them make their livelihoods.

Bug

UK: Rare bee found 50 years after last sighting

A rare species of bee, last found in England 50 years ago, has surfaced in Thur-rock.

The tiny dufourea minuta has been seen in West Tilbury.

This has baffled scientists who have been left wondering if the bee has returned because of climate change, or whether it has been undiscovered all this time.

Magnify

Virus linked to Ontario carp deaths

A fish virus new to Ontario has been identified as one cause of the carp die-off that littered area lakes with 12,000 to 24,000 fish last summer.

John Cooper, of the Lake Erie fisheries management unit for the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), said extensive testing by the University of Guelph and the federal fish health labs confirmed finding a new fish virus to Ontario - the koi herpesvirus.

Binoculars

UK: Where did the dust come from?

Mystery surrounds sheets of grey dust which settled on cars and homes across Coventry and Warwickshire and beyond at the weekend.

The Environment Agency has sent samples of the unexplained substance to the lab after ruling out the Cemex plant in Rugby as a potential cause.

More than 80 people from as far a field as Solihull, Lichfield, and Nottingham called the agency to complain about the grimy film.

Cloud Lightning

Britain Has 'Underestimated' Flood Threats

For the last 50 years we have been concreting over our countryside, neglecting our drainage systems and busily building on flood plains.

In other words; living as if flooding is a problem that happens elsewhere.

Image
©Sky News

Document

Federal Polar Bear Research Critically Flawed, Forecasting Expert Asserts

Research done by the U.S. Department of the Interior to determine if global warming threatens the polar bear population is so flawed that it cannot be used to justify listing the polar bear as an endangered species, according to a study being published later this year in Interfaces, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

polar bear on ice float
©iStockphoto/Jan Will
Research done by the U.S. Department of the Interior to determine if global warming threatens the polar bear population is so flawed that it cannot be used to justify listing the polar bear as an endangered species, according to a new study.

On April 30, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ordered the Interior Department to decide by May 15 whether polar bears should be listed under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act.

Professor J. Scott Armstrong of the Wharton School says, "To list a species that is currently in good health as an endangered species requires valid forecasts that its population would decline to levels that threaten its viability. In fact, the polar bear populations have been increasing rapidly in recent decades due to hunting restrictions. Assuming these restrictions remain, the most appropriate forecast is to assume that the upward trend would continue for a few years, then level off.