Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Happy #$&*!? Earth Day


M4gw
Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:40 UTC
Earth Day
© m4gw
Well it's earth day again, and here in Minnesota we are supposed to get 6 to 9 inches of global warming over the next 24 hours. We are breaking all kinds of snow and cold records in this state, it was 14 degrees below zero in Embarrass Minnesota Saturday morning and Duluth Minnesota got 41.7″ of snow in April (so far) making it the snowiest April ever.

Meanwhile the Greeny Weenies are having an Earth Day Rally at the capital in St. Paul Minnesota pushing for carbon taxes to stop, you guessed it, GLOBAL WARMING!!
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Boat

Did a rogue wave kill 4 fishermen?

Marc Lallanilla
LiveScience
Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:29 UTC
Rogue Wave
© Captain Roger Wilson, NOAA National Weather Service CollectionRogue wave reaching a height of 60-foot plus hit a tanker headed south from Valdez, Alaska, in February 1993. The ship was running in about 25-foot seas when a monster wave struck it broadside on the starboard side.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced on Sunday (April 21) that it was suspending the search for four fishermen whose boat is believed to have been destroyed by a rogue wave.

The 50-foot Nite Owl vessel was tied to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico about 115 miles (185 kilometers) southeast of Galveston, Texas, in rough weather on Friday morning (April 19), according to the Associated Press.

But in the early morning darkness, "a rogue wave, a freak wave or something hit the side of the boat," John Reynolds, the sole survivor of the accident, told the AP.

The wave "tore the wheel house and canopy off the boat," Larry Moore, owner of the commercial fishing vessel, told the Beaumont Enterprise from his home in Golden Meadow, La. "Everyone was asleep when it happened." The shattered craft sank within two minutes."

Rogue waves, sometimes called "freak waves," are extremely large waves that occur far out at sea in apparent isolation and without any obvious cause. The waves can easily reach 100 feet (30 meters) or more in height.
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Arrow Down

Which way is up? According to leading experts, Global Mean Temperature has dropped 1°C since 1990!

P Gosselin
No Tricks Zone
Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:49 UTC
Climate science/renewable energy critic Rainer Hoffmann has researched the literature on mean global surface temperature.

Stunningly, he shows that something is not right with the figures coming from the world's leading climate experts. The figures tell us the mean global surface temperature has dropped 1°C over the last 25 years. At that rate, we'll be in an ice age by the year 2100!
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Bug

Cocktail of multiple pressures combine to threaten the world's pollinating insects


sciencedaily.com
Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:46 UTC
Apr. 22, 2013 - A new review of insect pollinators of crops and wild plants has concluded they are under threat globally from a cocktail of multiple pressures, and their decline or loss could have profound environmental, human health and economic consequences.

Image
© Daniel Prudek / FotoliaGlobally, insects provide pollination services to about 75% of crop species and enable reproduction in up to 94% of wild flowering plants
Globally, insects provide pollination services to about 75% of crop species and enable reproduction in up to 94% of wild flowering plants. Pollination services provided by insects each year worldwide are valued at over US$200 billion.

The review, published April 22, 2013 in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, was carried out by an international team of 40 scientists from 27 institutions involved in the UK's Insect Pollinators Initiative (IPI), a £10M research programme investigating the causes and consequences of pollinator decline.

Dr Adam Vanbergen from the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and science coordinator of the IPI led the review. He said, "There is no single smoking gun behind pollinator declines, instead there is a cocktail of multiple pressures that can combine to threaten these insects. For example, the loss of food resources in intensively-farmed landscapes, pesticides and diseases are individually important threats, but are also likely to combine and exacerbate the negative impacts on pollinators."
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Cloud Lightning

Storm kills 10 thousand birds in Jhenidah, Bangladesh


The Independent, Pakistan
Sun, 21 Apr 2013 06:16 UTC
About ten thousand birds of various species were killed when a storm with heavy rainfall lashed them at village Madanpur and Hatfazilpur under Shoilakupa Upazila in the district on Friday night. The birds were living at the branches of Mahogany trees there. As no one from the livestock department visited the spot even after a day, it had created dissatisfaction among the villagers. The dead birds might pollute the environment in the locality, it is apprehended by the locals and health departmental officials.

Even on Saturday morning, large number of birds were found lying there. Shalik, ghughu, bulbuli, tuntuni, crowm, stork, masranga, sprow, babui, suichora and others species were among the dead birds.There were a number of rare species among the dead, some locals said.
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Question

Wales: Worry over marsh horses 'dropping dead like flies'

Richard Youle
South Wales Evening Post
Sat, 20 Apr 2013 05:22 UTC
Horses have been "dropping like flies" on the Loughor Estuary, according to a lifeboatman.

John Edwards said horses have congregated at the marsh near Loughor inshore lifeboat station for years, and knew how to steer clear of the incoming tide, but that a high number of the animals had got stuck in the mud or perished.

Image
Grim sight bones found near the Loughor Estuary.
The Post has been emailed photographs which are too shocking to print of horse carcasses on the marsh. The photographer, who asked the Post not to name her, also sent this snap (left) of what she says are horse bones at the same location.

The RSPCA is investigating. Swansea Council said the dead animals were on the Carmarthenshire side of the estuary, while Carmarthenshire Council said the area was "a bit of a no-man's land".

Loughor inshore lifeboat station secretary Mr Edwards said: "I don't know what is going on. We have never had these problems before. All of a sudden they are dropping like flies."

Mr Edwards said the lifeboat had launched to help mud-trapped horses, but had to be careful not to scare the animals and make the situation worse.

"Unless they are actually in danger we won't respond," he said.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 - Izu Islands, Japan region


US Geological Survey
Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:15 UTC
Japan Quake_210413
© USGS
Event Time
2013-04-21 03:22:16 UTC
2013-04-21 12:22:16 UTC+09:00 at epicenter

Location
29.915°N 138.926°E depth=424.1km (263.5mi)

Nearby Cities
360km (224mi) SSW of Hachijo-jima, Japan
506km (314mi) SE of Shingu, Japan
523km (325mi) S of Oyama, Japan
526km (327mi) S of Shimoda, Japan
644km (400mi) S of Tokyo, Japan

Technical Details
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Bizarro Earth

Record flooding threatens Midwest, Mississippi river


RT.com
Sat, 20 Apr 2013 05:33 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Scott OlsonBicycles sit in floodwater outside an apartment building April 19, 2013 in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Torrential downpours along the Mississippi River have forced Midwesterners in half a dozen states to fight back floodwaters, which risk reaching record levels.

Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin all experienced flooding as heavy rainfalls hit the region Wednesday - posing a sharp contrast to the drought which months prior endangered commercial barge traffic on the Mississippi River.

On Friday, barge shipping was halted on parts of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers as flooding prompted the US Army Corps of Engineers to close several locks until at least the middle of next week.

Seven Mississippi River locks were closed in total between Thursday evening and Friday morning as water topped dams.

The problem is set to intensify, as crests on the rivers are expected to be reached on Sunday at the earliest in more northern areas and several days later further south.

River levels are expected to exceed flood stage by 12 feet (4 meters) in some parts of Missouri and Illinois, running the risk of inundation, mass displacement of residents, and untold property damage.
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Question

Update: More than 12,000 birds crashed in Utah's Dugway proving grounds


The Salt Lake Tribune
Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:57 UTC
The number of eared grebes rescued - and killed - after their Monday crash-landings at the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground was far higher than originally estimated.

Wildlife biologists and volunteers spent Monday and Tuesday gathering 12,800 water birds, carrying the 7,828 surviving birds by pickup trucks to ponds in the region.

The birds were migrating back to the Great Salt Lake for the summer, but apparently became disoriented by snow and fog and mistook wet roads and parking lots for water. Built for water, with legs far to the back of their bodies, they can lift off from the ground only with great difficulty.

An estimated 100 birds were taken to rehabilitation facilities, Dugway spokeswoman Paula Thomas said.

Biologists working under a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were burning and burying the birds that died or were so seriously injured they had to be euthanized.

Comment: This is not the first mysterious or odd event to have happened in recent years at the Dugway proving grounds.

Missing vial of nerve agent shuts down Dugway

US: Did meteor hit near Dugway, Utah?

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Bizarro Earth

Earth Shaken: Flurry of powerful earthquakes rattle eastern region of the planet


The Extinction Protocol
Sat, 20 Apr 2013 15:23 UTC
A strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit a remote, mostly rural and mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province on Saturday, killing at least 156 people and injuring about 5,500 close to where a big quake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008. The earthquake, China's worst in three years, occurred at 8.02 a.m. (0002 GMT) in Lushan county near Ya'an city and the epicenter had a depth of 12 km (7.5 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Image
The quake was felt by residents in neighboring provinces and in the provincial capital of Chengdu, causing many people to rush out of buildings, according to accounts on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service. State media said 156 people had been confirmed dead with more than 5,500 injured. President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang said all efforts must be put into rescuing victims to limit the death toll. After arriving at the disaster zone by helicopter, Li directed earthquake relief efforts from a plaza in Longmen Township in Lushan, Xinhua said. Li asked that a road be opened to Baoxing County, one of the most affected by the earthquake, and that rescuers "act quickly" in their efforts, Xinhua quoted Li as saying. "The current most urgent issue is grasping the first 24 hours since the quake's occurrence, the golden time for saving lives," Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying earlier. Xinhua said 6,000 troops were heading to the area to help with rescue efforts.
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