Earth ChangesS


Question

Crows invade downtown Portland, Oregon

Joel Iwanaga
koin.com
Thu, 26 Dec 2013 11:35 UTC
City: '1st time' for 'such large numbers' of birds

Bird-dropping deluge hits downtown park


Benches and walkways are covered in bird droppings in Chapman Square. It's just one of many areas in Portland's downtown hit hard by roving bands of crows. KOIN's Joel Iwanaga reporting.

Benches and walkways are covered in bird droppings in downtown's Chapman Square. It's just one of many areas in Portland's downtown hit hard by roving bands of crows.

Portland leaders said they were caught by surprise by the city's influx of crows. And with the influx came droppings -- lots of them.

"It's as bad as I've ever seen," said tourist Joe Goodman on Thursday.

Those looking for a place to sit in downtown's Chapman Square were about out of luck Thursday afternoon.

"This is too bad," said Betsy Nesbit.

Nesbit moved to Portland 20 years ago for its beauty and cleanliness. Sure, nature is part of the allure -- but what these crows are leaving behind these days has much of downtown Portland looking "uncared for, just uncared for," she said.

Bird droppings were everywhere, covering the sidewalk and the park benches. It's what holiday tourists such as Joe Goodman, from Philadelphia, found as they were checking into downtown hotels, shopping and walking through the downtown parks.
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Cow

Mystery of Maasai Cattle Deaths in Kenya

Cherri Megasko
voices.yahoo.com
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 11:20 UTC
Image
© Cherri MegaskoA young Maasai boy stands beside his dead calf.
Drought can be a devastating economic blow to anyone engaged in agriculture. But for the Maasai people of East Africa, it can threaten a centuries-old way of life. Cattle mean more than just food to this primitive tribe that still lives life in much the same way as their distant ancestors. Cows represent status, act as currency, provide a means of social interaction and are even necessary for marriage.

On a recent visit to the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, East Africa, wildlife abounded. But for every giraffe, elephant and zebra I saw I also saw a dead Maasai cow. Dozens of dying, dead and decaying Maasai cattle littered the landscape, not only of the Maasai villages and surrounding lands, but inside the boundaries of the Reserve as well.

When the rains failed to come in late October, herds of cattle that were already on the brink of starvation from the dry season became even weaker and began to die. The Maasai, whose entire culture is centered around their cows, began sneaking their herds onto the protected lands of the Park under the cover of darkness. "Wilson," the son of a Maasai chief in a village adjacent to the Reserve, explained to me that there the cattle can graze freely - although illegally - until just before sunrise, when they sneak them back out of the Reserve before they are discovered by Park rangers. Unfortunately, the Maasai do not always return with the same number of cows they entered with.
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Bizarro Earth

Earthquakes in Oklahoma: 2 on 29 Dec.


ABC News
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 09:15 UTC
Image
© USGS
The U.S. Geological Survey says a 4.1 magnitude earthquake rattled an area about 30 miles north-northeast of Oklahoma City early Sunday and was followed by a smaller quake hours later in the state. There were no reports of any injuries or damages from either temblor.
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning kills eight worshippers in Malawi church

Tiisetso Motsoeneng
Reuters
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 08:48 UTC
A lightning bolt struck a church in Malawi, killing eight worshippers and injuring several others, local media reported.

Several members of the Seventh Day Adventist church in the capital Lilongwe were admitted to hospital after Saturday's strike, the Nyasa Times said, citing witnesses, police and health officials.

It was not immediately clear whether they were injured by the lightning or in the panic to escape.
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Arrow Down

Berezniki, a Russian city riddled with giant sinkholes

Andrew E. Kramer
The New York Times
Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© EnglishRussia.comA giant hole appeared right in the middle of Russian town Berezniki and has been growing ever since.

Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Russian fertilizer tycoon who in February bought the most expensive apartment ever sold in New York City - the $88 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West - may have done a lot for real estate values there. But here in this old mining city in the Ural Mountains, where he made his fortune, not just property values, but properties too, have been plunging.

Sinkholes are common hazards in mining regions, plaguing areas where miners have burrowed into layers of soluble minerals and accidental floods have followed. But in Berezniki, as often happens in Russia, the problem has been magnified by past practices in which safety was not always the foremost concern.

In the West, mines are usually located far from populous areas, to reduce the risks of sinkholes to homes and other buildings. But Berezniki, a city of 154,000 that began as a labor camp, was built directly over the mine - a legacy of the Soviet policy of placing camps within marching distance of work areas.

And so Berezniki is afflicted by sinkholes, yawning chasms hundreds of feet deep that can open at a moment's notice. So grave is the danger that the entire city is under 24-hour video surveillance. On a screen in the command center late last year, one such hole appeared as a small dark spot in a snowy field in the predawn hours, immediately threatening to suck in a building, a road and a gas station.

"I looked and said, 'Wow, a hole is forming,' " recalled Olga V. Chekhova, an emergency services worker who monitors the video. This was a small one by the standards of Berezniki, which has had three in the past four years. In fact, it has since been called "The Tiny One."

Comment: Another Russia city, Samara, is also being 'eaten alive' by giant sinkholes.

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Eye 2

Summer of the snake -- and other exotic pets

Kate Schwass-Bueckert
Toronto Sun
Sat, 28 Dec 2013 11:40 UTC
Image
© FacebookNoah Barthe, 5, left, and Connor Barthe, 7, right, with their mother, Mandy Trecartin. Noah and Connor were killed by an African rock python.
Snakes and exotic pets dominated headlines in 2013, particularly in August after two young brothers died when an African rock python escaped its enclosure and suffocated them as they slept.

Bry Loyst, curator of the Indian River Reptile Zoo near Peterborough, Ont., said at the time the snake must have been confused when it encountered four-year-old Noah Barthe and his brother Connor, 6. The two boys had been at a petting zoo earlier in the day, and may have still smelled like the animals, which is likely why the snake decided to constrict the two boys while they slept.

"Potentially dangerous animals of any kind - whether it be tigers, lions, bears, cobras, rattlesnakes, large pythons - shouldn't be kept in a private residence," Loyst said.

"This was an accident waiting to happen."

Since then, authorities have been removing illegal or mistreated snakes, alligators and other exotic animals from homes across the country, and the federal government, provincial leaders and municipalities are all looking at new regulations to protect animals and keep residents safe.

Ontario has asked for at least 36 separate studies looking into the issue, while in December, the New Brunswick government passed a motion by the Opposition Liberals calling for a complete review of the province's Fish and Wildlife Act, which oversees exotic animals.

Comment: See also: Snakes alive! Countless reports of snakes turning up in weird places

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Bullseye

Earthquake 5.8 hits Turkey, Egypt and Cyprus

Michael Smith
Guardian Liberty Voice
Sat, 28 Dec 2013 11:02 UTC
Middle east map
An Earthquake registering 5.8 on the Richter Scale violently hits Turkey, Egypt, and Cyprus and it was reported to have happened at 3:21 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

The center of the earthquake appears to be just off the coastline of Turkey, South to SSW from Antalya. The quake was felt as far away as Egypt where the tremors also reached 5.8 on the Richter Scale. Cyprus, which is 195 miles away from the quake's center also reported 5.8 scale tremors.

Egypt, which is 695 miles away, reported the same Richter Scale measurement at the same time that the report was received from Turkey. At this point no damage reports from any of the countries have been made public.
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Binoculars

Bird watchers flock to Portland, UK after a rare Arctic Brunnich's Guillemot spotted

Rachel Stretton
Dorset Echo
Sat, 28 Dec 2013 10:34 UTC
Image
© Debby Saunders The Brunnich's Guillemot
Bird lovers are flocking to Portland after a rare Arctic visitor was spotted in the harbour.

Hundreds of people from all over the country headed to Portland Marina to get a glimpse of a Brunnich's Guillemot (or Thick-billed Murre ) which is usually found in colder, northern climates including Russia and Norway.

Crowds of enthusiasts are still there today trying to photograph the bird.

Debby Saunders, of Portland, first saw the vagrant, which is believed to have been blown off course in the recent bad weather, on Boxing Day.

She said: "It is really exciting. It is the first time this species has been seen this far south in the UK."

Debby was bird watching with her husband Pete when she saw the Brunnich's in the distance.

Comment: See also: Ice Age Cometh: Snowy Owl invasion coming in North America?

Maine experiencing a Canadian owl invasion

Incredible Hawk Owl invasion in Estonia!

Huge Snowy Owl invasion becomes official in Canada and U.S.

Thousands of Hawk Owls descend on Finland as food in northern Russia runs out

Ice Age Cometh: Unprecedented influx of Arctic Ivory Gulls into UK

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Ice Cube

Antarctic rescue mission by Chinese icebreaker faces setback


South China Morning Post
Sat, 28 Dec 2013 08:30 UTC
MV Akademik Shokalskiy, a Russian scientific research vessel
© AFPThe MV Akademik Shokalskiy, a Russian scientific research vessel, awaits rescue while trapped in the ice off Antarctica.

A Chinese icebreaker en route to rescue a ship trapped in Antarctic ice was forced to turn back on Saturday after being unable to push its way through the heavy sea ice.

The Snow Dragon icebreaker came within 11 kilometres of the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which has been stuck since Christmas Eve, but had to retreat after the ice became too thick, said expedition spokesman Alvin Stone.

The Akademik Shokalskiy, which has been on a research expedition to Antarctica, got stuck on Tuesday after a blizzard's whipping winds pushed the sea ice around the ship, freezing it in place. The ship wasn't in danger of sinking, and there are weeks' worth of supplies for the 74 scientists, tourists and crew on board, but the vessel cannot move.

Comment: The expedition is being led by Chris Turney, "climate scientist", who has "set up a carbon refining company called Carbonscape which has developed technology to fix carbon from the atmosphere and make a host of green bi-products, helping reduce greenhouse gas levels." The purpose of the expedition is "to discover and communicate the environmental changes taking place in the south."

As Anthony Watts remarks, Antarctic Sea Ice is more than 2 standard deviations above normal:

Antarctic seaice
© NSIDC
Will the good climate change professor, Chris Turney take note of the "environmental changes taking place in the south", or will he go home and seek comfort in the climate change models based on the GIGO principle (Garbage In, Garbage Out), that predict the melting of the polar regions?

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Ice Cube

Update! Chinese icebreaker cancels rescue mission to save expedition in Antarctica 'because sea ice is too thick'

Alok Jha
The Guardian
Sat, 28 Dec 2013 08:17 UTC
Image
© Laurence Topham for the GuardianThe Chinese icebreaker Xue Long has had to abandon its rescue mission of the Akademik Shokalskiy
The Guardian's man on the icebound vessel reports on the freezing conditions as the expedition waits for assistance

Cape de la Motte, East Antarctica: the Xue Long appeared as a dot on the horizon, against a bright blue sky, to the starboard side of our ice-locked ship just after dinnertime on Friday evening, local time.

After two days of intense blizzards, with biting cold that had forced us to spend all our time below decks, the break in the weather and the approaching rescue had put the crew and passengers of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy in good spirits.

With temperatures at a pleasantly bearable -1C, some of the crew went on to the ice surrounding the ship in all directions and killed time by making igloos. The rest remained on board and watched the Chinese icebreaker through binoculars as it appeared to make steady progress, silently zigzagging through the ice, from the upper deck of the ship.

As we waited, penguins, apparently confused by the sudden appearance of a solid mass caused by the compacting of ice floes around our vessel, wandered past at regular intervals, looking for the shoreline.

Comment: Global warming? Antarctica hit a new all-time coldest temperature record of -135 degrees Fahrenheit TWICE in last three years

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