Earth ChangesS


Bug

US: Cicadas Invade South After 13-Year Sleep

cicada
© UnknownThe last cicada swarm in the US was in Virginia in 2004
Another natural phenomenon has hit the Southern States as swarms of cicadas return after 13 years hibernating underground.

Every 13 years the inch-long insects emerge from their underground lairs to plague America's Deep South in a feeding and breeding frenzy.

It adds to the natural phenomena the region has battled with after tornadoes last month and floods in Mississippi this week.

Apart from their intense 120-decibel mating racket and the frustration of finding them in hair, clothes and lunch-boxes, they're completely harmless to humans.

Bizarro Earth

Namibia: Residents Face The Fury of Raging Floods

Namibia Floods
© UNICEF / Africa ReviewA settlement in North-Central Namibia totally cut off by flood waters .
The waters of the raging floods in North-Central and North-Eastern Namibia might have subsided drastically over the last couple of weeks, but it would seemingly take more to restore the lives of an about 220 000 people estimated to have been affected by the floods.

According to the United Nation's Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Namibia, Kari Egge, the figure is based on the assumption that about 15 per cent of residents of the country's seven flood hit regions would carry the consequences of the disaster.

The floods resulted in the loss of lives and severe damage to properties and infrastructure; led to the closure of school and clinics, and disrupted the daily routines of those it affected. Over 100,000 learners in 324 schools were affected by flooding, of which 163 were closed, and 22 health clinics were either submerged or completely surrounded by water.

The fact that the areas prone to the annual flooding hosts more than half of Namibia's total population did not ease the burden on government. Preliminary assessments showed that the priority requirements were food, shelter, transport and education.

Control Panel

France heat wave could rival deadly '03 crisis

Image
© Unknown
Joseph Menard, a dairy farmer in Brittany, says the country's driest spring in half a century has left him with just two weeks of animal fodder in stock.

"There hasn't been enough water for the grass to grow," Menard, who is also president of the agricultural office for Brittany's Ille-et-Vilaine region, said. "We get one or two hours of sporadic rain, but that's not enough to grow enough feed for both daily use and stock for the summer."

Unseasonably high temperatures that resulted in the second-warmest April since 1900 and the driest spring in about 50 years have prompted France to restrict water use in some areas.

The weather is raising prospects for a repeat of the 2003 heat wave, which resulted in more than 14,000 deaths in France and left Europe's agricultural and forest industries with about $18.5 billion in losses. Adverse global weather, ranging from the flooding of the Mississippi River to droughts in Kansas, Oklahoma and parts of Europe, is damaging farms and crops.

While the growing season is early in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, corn futures almost doubled in the past year as U.S. stockpiles headed for a 15-year low. Wheat prices rose about 64 percent in the same period.

X

US: Second Wave of Mystery Pelican Deaths Hits Topsail Beach, North Carolina

Image
© WWAY YV
A second wave of mysterious pelican injuries and deaths has occurred in the past several weeks at Topsail Island in North Carolina following earlier incidents about six months ago in which about 250 pelicans died as a result of still undetermined causes.

Necropsies in the fall of 2010 performed at the University of Georgia on the first group of Brown Pelicans were inconclusive as to cause of injury though there was no evidence of toxicological causes such as poisons. The newly found birds have also been sent to the university for analysis.

This recent incident involves about 30 pelicans that washed up on the shores either dead or so badly injured that they had to be euthanized. In an interview with WNCT-TV, Toni O'Neil of the Possumwood Acres Wildlife Sanctuary commented on the injuries to one bird "... [it] looks like a bomb has gone off in the wing. It's that shattered and smashed so completely".

Bizarro Earth

Quakes Hit Italy, But None in Rome Despite Myth

Image
© AFP / Getty ImagesThousands of alarmed Italians are fleeing Rome amid rumors that a seismologist predicted that a devastating earthquake will strike the Eternal City.
More than 22 earthquakes struck Italy by noon on Wednesday, as is normal for the quake-prone country. But none was the devastating temblor purportedly predicted by a now-dead scientist to strike Rome.

Despite efforts by seismologists to debunk the myth of a major Roman quake on May 11, 2011 and stress that quakes can never be predicted, some Romans left town just in case, spurred by rumor-fueled fears that ignore science.

Many storefronts were shuttered, for example, in a neighborhood of Chinese-owned shops near Rome's central train station. And an agriculture farm lobby group said a survey of farm-hotels outside the capital indicated some superstitious Romans had headed to the countryside for the day.

The fears are all thanks to a purported prediction of a major Roman quake Wednesday attributed to self-taught seismologist Raffaele Bendandi, who died in 1979. However, Paola Lagorio, president of the association in charge of Bendandi's documentation, says there's no evidence Bendandi ever made such a precise prediction.

Adam Burgess, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Kent said rumors like these tend to occur in "information vacuums," such as during war when there are situations of uncertainty. In this case, he suggested, the viral rumor-mongering about a Roman quake may reflect a lack of trust Italians feel toward their government.

Cloud Lightning

US: On the storm chase: Tornadoes possible today in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas

Image
© NOAA Storm Prediction CenterNOAA’s Storm Prediction Center forecasts a slight risk of severe thunderstorms over a large region of the central U.S. today
Pratt, Kansas - Following a sprint back south to the area (we were here for sight-seeing last week) from South Dakota, my storm chase team led by Jason Foster, and including meteorologist Mark Ellinwood, is on the road to try to find today's sweet spot of potential tornadic activity. The Storm Prediction Center is forecasting a "slight risk" of severe weather today over a large portion of the southern Plains into the upper Midwest.

It's been kind of quiet for May thus far in the Plains. Typically, this is the peak of both tornadoes in any given year, and it is also the peak for the Oklahoma and Kansas portion of Tornado Alley. Quiet days, and spreading wildfires aside, things have turned progressively more active lately, and today into tomorrow could end up making up for "lost time" last week.

Cloud Lightning

26 dead as Tropical storm leaves Philippines

Image
© AFP/FilePeople watch as waves slam into the seawall in Manila. Tropical storm Aere left the Philippines on Wednesday
The latest tally showed that Aere affected 71,267 families or 376,888 people in 464 villages, 65 municipalities, five cities, and 12 provinces in six regions nationwide.

Manila: Tropical Storm Aere left northern Luzon on Wednesday, but not before battering the Bicol region and leaving at least 26 people dead, a disaster official told Gulf News.

Most of the newly listed fatalities came from central Philippines and Metro Manila, not in central Luzon which Aure drenched and hit with rough winds from Monday to Tuesday, said Ronald Flores, acting officer in charge of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC)

Info

US: Mount St. Helens Erupts Again - This Time in 3-D

Image
© Tomaso Ongaro et alPictured from the northwest, the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption is modeled in 3-D.
First accurate simulation "a big deal," could save lives, experts say.

Volcanologists have created the first ever 3-D simulation of the cataclysmic eruption of Mount St. Helens, which happened 31 years ago this month.

The model backs up current ideas about what led to the 1980 blast, which killed 57 people. The real news, though, is that the simulation could save lives in the future by helping researchers predict how dormant volcanoes may lose their tempers.

Cloud Lightning

US: A Bad Decision - FEMA must Help Tornado Victims

Image
© UnknownBellville, Wood County
The Federal Emergency Management Agency should reconsider its decision to deny Gov. Bob McDonnell's request to declare a major disaster in parts of Southwest Virginia ravaged by tornadoes.

FEMA denied McDonnell's request for Washington and Pulaski counties over the weekend indicating the damage was not severe enough to qualify for federal assistance.

Bizarro Earth

US: Washing Away the Fields of Iowa

Image
© Environmental Working GroupSoil Erosion rates by county in 2007
To an untrained eye, the fields of Iowa have a reassuring solidity. You cannot tell that the state has lost half its topsoil in the past century. According to a new report from the Environmental Working Group, Iowa's soil is washing away at rates far higher than anyone realized.

For Iowa - and other Corn Belt states facing similar problems - this means an increasing loss of fertility that has to be replaced chemically. It marks a failure of stewardship, since these soils will have to feed future generations. And every particle that washes away causes problems downstream, including sedimentation - which can increase the risk of flooding - and the alarming dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the result of runoff of the chemical fertilizers farmers apply to make up for lost fertility.

The Agriculture Department says that a "sustainable" rate of topsoil loss for most of Iowa is 5 tons per acre per year, and the actual average soil erosion is 5.2 tons. But using Iowa State University statistics and an aerial survey, the Environmental Working Group concluded that average annual soil loss in much of Iowa is double the federal government's estimates. This pace of erosion is caused partly by an increasing number of intense storms. As the report says, it has been exacerbated by a fundamental bias in federal farm policy and supports. In the dozen years before 2009, Iowa received nearly $17 billion in subsidies that fostered high-intensity farming and less than $3 billion to support conservation. In the recent budget battles, conservation programs were the hardest-hit farm programs.