Earth ChangesS


Camcorder

Horrifying footage as mass stranding of over 150 pilot whales hits Hamelin Bay, Western Australia

Victoria Laurie
The Australian
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 09:27 UTC
More than 150 short-finned pilot whales stranded en masse at Hamelin Bay, 10km north of Augusta, WA, early this morning.
© Parks and Wildlife ServiceMore than 150 short-finned pilot whales stranded en masse at Hamelin Bay, 10km north of Augusta, WA, early this morning.
A mass stranding of more than 150 pilot whales overnight has led to the deaths of most of those animals, in one of the largest beachings on Western Australia's southwest coast in several years.

After being alerted by a fisherman early this morning, wildlife officers discovered about 75 short-finned pilot whales already dead, with around 50 still alive but beached on the sand at Hamelin Bay, 10km north of Augusta on the state's southwestern tip.

But many whales have since died, according to senior marine operations officer for Parks and Wildlife John Edwards. At midday, volunteers and conservation officers were struggling to save 15 whales still swimming in shallow waters by guiding them back out to sea.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development issued a shark advice and warned people to avoid the area.

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House

Mysterious rumble shakes homes in San Diego, California


NBC7
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:52 UTC
Mystery boom in San Diego, CA
© NBC News
Several residents in San Diego County reported witnessing a strong rumble that shook their homes Monday morning.

NBC 7 first heard calls from locals wondering what it could be just after 9 a.m. Other San Diego County residents have written on the NBC 7 Facebook page that they also noticed the strange occurrence.

"My front door started rattling with no discernible wind," commented Pilar Shepard. "I thought maybe we'd had a small earthquake."
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Attention

France's bird population undergoing catastrophic collapse from pesticides


The Guardian
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 20:50 UTC
Eurasian Skylark
© HBW AliveEndangered Eurasian Skylark
Bird populations across the French countryside have fallen by a third over the last decade and a half, researchers have said. Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, the scientists said in a pair of studies - one national in scope and the other covering a large agricultural region in central France.

"The situation is catastrophic," said Benoit Fontaine, a conservation biologist at France's National Museum of Natural History and co-author of one of the studies. "Our countryside is in the process of becoming a veritable desert," he said in a communique released by the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), which also contributed to the findings.

The common white throat, the ortolan bunting, the Eurasian skylark and other once-ubiquitous species have all fallen off by at least a third, according a detailed, annual census initiated at the start of the century. A migratory song bird, the meadow pipit, has declined by nearly 70%.

The museum described the pace and extent of the wipe-out as "a level approaching an ecological catastrophe". The primary culprit, researchers speculate, is the intensive use of pesticides on vast tracts of monoculture crops, especially wheat and corn.

The problem is not that birds are being poisoned, but that the insects on which they depend for food have disappeared. "There are hardly any insects left, that's the number one problem," said Vincent Bretagnolle, a CNRS ecologist at the Centre for Biological Studies in Chize.

Comment: Humans destroy nature's balance and expect it to be better.

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Snowflake Cold

Late cold weather grounds hundreds of frozen storks in Bulgaria


The Guardian
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 15:44 UTC
Safet Halil holds a stork in his farm backyard. He found five of the stranded birds, took them home and lit a stove to warm them up, before feeding them fish.
© Dimitar DilkoffSafet Halil holds a stork in his farm backyard. He found five of the stranded birds, took them home and lit a stove to warm them up, before feeding them fish.
What would you do if you encountered scores of distressed storks covered in ice lying in a snow-covered field? In Bulgaria, people have been taking them home.

A cold snap in the north-east of the country has stranded hundreds of the migrating birds this week, covering their wings in ice and grounding them.

"I found five frozen storks near the village road the day before yesterday," Safet Halil, 53, from the village of Zaritsa, near the town of Dulovo said on Wednesday. "I took them home, lit a stove to warm them and fed them fish."

Halil, a road maintenance worker, sparked a wave of support on social media on Monday and others in the region followed his example, with more than 40 birds sheltered inside people's homes, garages or barns.

Experts said the frozen wings had forced the birds to spend the night on the ground instead of perched on trees as usual.
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Attention

Hundreds evacuated and 30 people are sent to hospital as Ijen volcano spews toxic sulphuric gas in Indonesia

Sara Malm
The Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 15:13 UTC
Mount Ijen is seen the day after the crater was closed to visitors and many residents living on its slopes were forced to flee to avoid toxic gas near Bondowoso, East Java, Indonesia
Mount Ijen is seen the day after the crater was closed to visitors and many residents living on its slopes were forced to flee to avoid toxic gas near Bondowoso, East Java, Indonesia
Some 200 people have been evacuated with 30 needing hospital treatment after an Indonesian volcano belched thick clouds of sulphuric gas on Wednesday.

Residents were treated for vomiting and breathing difficulties after Mount Ijen in East Java province began spewing out noxious gas.

A popular tourist and mining site on the slopes of the mountain had to be closed until further notice.

'Because of this incident, the public - tourists or miners - are not allowed near the crater until further notice,' said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency.
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Cloud Precipitation

Storm and floods leave 3 dead and 1,000 displaced in São Paulo, Brazil

Richard Davies
Floodlist
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 14:45 UTC
Flooding in São Paulo
Flooding in São Paulo
A heavy rainstorm in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, 20 to 21 March 2018, left 3 people dead, dozens of homes destroyed and more than 1,000 people displaced.

The storm began during the afternoon of 20 March and brought lightning strikes and strong winds, as well as heavy rain.

Brazil's Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia (INMET) says that around 50 mm of rain was recorded in Sao Paulo's Mirante de Santana weather station between 20 and 21 March 2018.

The storm downed more than 80 trees across the city. São Paulo Civil Defense reported over 50 incidents of flooding. Levels of the Pinheiros river that runs through the city remain high after the storm.
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Map

'Weird trumpet sounds' heard in the skies of Antwerp, Belgium


Sott.net
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 14:05 UTC
Trumpet sounds in Belgium
© YouTube/Aslan Argunskiy
At 10am on March 5, 2018, YouTube user 'Aslan Argunskiy' uploaded footage of trumpeting sounds he heard in Antwerp, Belgium.

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes kill 5 across Cambodia

Mom Kunthear
Khmer Times
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 13:48 UTC
LIGHTNING
Five people were killed and one was injured by lightning in four difference provinces this week while many houses were affected by rainstorms as well.

According to a National Police report, four men and a four-year-old girl were struck and killed by lightning in Prey Veng, Koh Kong, Battambang and Kratie province on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The report said Doung Sarath, 50, was killed on Wednesday evening in Prey Veng province's Peamchor district when he was walking to a rice field about 800 metres from his home to bring his cow in from the rain.

Comment: As reported on the 21st of March several lightning strikes have also killed 4 people in Uttar Pradesh, India:
Four persons were killed and three others injured in separate incidents of lightning strikes in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district on Wednesday, police said.

The weather suddenly changed around noon and lightning struck at many places

The weather suddenly changed around noon and lightning struck at many places, an official said.

In Rupadih village, Sonal (21) and Tunnu (22) were killed while three others were seriously injured.

The other incident occurred at Shastri Nagar where Reena Gupta had gone to the roof to pick up clothes as it was about to rain. She was struck by lightning and died on the spot.

In Tabad village, Sanjeev (35) was killed when lightning struck him in a forest where he had gone to pick up wood.


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Stock Down

Lloyd's of London reports £2bn loss after natural disasters in 2017

Caitlin Morrison
The Independent
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 14:20 UTC
Hurricane Irma damage
© Chris Wattie/ReutersLocal residents look inside a collapsed coastal house in the wake of Hurricane Irma in Vilano Beach, Florida.
Lloyd's of London reported a £2bn loss after a year of natural disasters

Lloyd's of London has posted its first loss in six years, after what the insurer described as "one of the costliest years for natural catastrophes in the past decade".

The iconic insurance market reported an overall pre-tax loss of £2bn for last year, down from a profit of £2.1bn the year before, despite gross written premiums climbing to £33.6bn from £29.9bn.

Major claims in 2017 were more than double the cost of the previous year, at £4.5bn, which led to an underwriting loss of £3.4bn, compared with profit of £500m in 2016.

This led the group's combined ratio to deteriorate to 114 per cent from 97.9 per cent - a combined ratio of less than 100 per cent means a firm is profitable.

A series of huge storms in the second half of 2017, including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, left homes and businesses across the south coast of the US and the Caribbean destroyed.

Earthquakes in Mexico and wildfires in California added to the financial losses due to natural disasters, with one study putting the total cost of global disasters last year at $306bn (£218bn).

Comment: The costs of natural disasters are likely to increase in the coming years. See also: World sees rapid upsurge in extreme weather says report

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills 2 people, injures 5 in Malawi

Chikondi Magalasi
Malawi24
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 13:23 UTC
LIGHTNING
Two people have been killed and five others are battling for their lives after they were hit by a lightning in Mulanje district.

According to the Police Public Relations Officer for Mulanje, Gresham Ngwira, the deceased are Frank Smart and James Lipenga who both hail from Mothiwa Village in the area of senior chief Mabuka in Mulanje.

Ngwira has told Malawi24 that the incident occurred on Tuesday 20th March 2017 in the noon hours and the two were pronounced dead upon arrival at Mulanje District Hospital.

"The incident happened Tuesday at around afternoon at Lauderdale trading centre following rains accompanied by thunder and lightning.
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