Earth ChangesS


Extinguisher

Tasmania wildfires leave hundreds homeless


Guardian
Sat, 05 Jan 2013 10:00 UTC
Image
© Photograph: Chris Kidd/EPAThe scale of bushfire damage is seen from a helicopter over Dunalley, Tasmania.
Town of Dunalley, east of Australian island's capital, Hobart, worst-hit with police station and school consumed by blaze.

Wildfires on the Australian island of Tasmania have destroyed at least 100 homes, leaving hundreds of people homeless or stranded amid scorching temperatures and high winds.

The small town of Dunalley, east of the Tasmanian capital of Hobart, was worst hit by a blaze that destroyed around 80 buildings, including the school, police station and bakery.

The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, said the federal government was working with local and state authorities to support those affected by the fires. "For those who have lost their homes, a devastating experience, ... we will be working with them, as will the state government to support people through," she said.

"There are media reports that a life has been lost - I'm not in a position to confirm that, but bushfires are very dangerous things."
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Target

7.5 earthquake strikes off coast of Alaska; tsunami warning canceled


CNN
Sat, 05 Jan 2013 09:55 UTC
Image
A strong earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska on Saturday, January 5, 2013.
A tsunami warning was canceled early Saturday for portions of British Columbia, Canada, and southeastern Alaska, officials said.

The warning was issued following a 7.5-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Alaska 63 miles west of Craig, a town on Prince of Wales Island, and 208 miles south of the capital of Juneau, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The size of the temblor, which struck at 3:58 a.m. ET, off the coast of Alaska was downgraded by the USGS from 7.7 to 7.5.

There were no initial reports of damage but the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said a small tsunami of about six inches was observed near the southeastern Alaskan town of Port Alexander on Baranof Island.

A tsunami watch for the coastal areas of the British Columbia-Washington border was also canceled.
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Cloud Grey

Incredible "double helix DNA cloud" appears in the Moscow sky

Greg Newkirk
WhoForted
Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:25 UTC
Watchful Moscow residents with their eyes to the sky were giv
DNA Cloud_1
© WhoForted
en an interesting view on Christmas Eve, as a huge "celestial spiral" closely resembling a strand of DNA appeared over the city.

In a batch of photos posted to the photo sharing session of Russian website Netall.ru, one of the strangest cloud formations ever is detailed in a handful of images snapped around a 20 mile stretch of the city. As you can imagine, this has stirred up some interesting conversation as to what could be the cause of such an event.

As of now, sky-savvy internet sleuths believe the strange clouds were caused by contrails, or thin artificial cloud formations caused by the water exhaust emitted from aircraft. You've more than likely seen them in the sky on a regular basis, but rarely in such a striking form.

We're not saying it was aliens, but well.. you know.

Have a look at some of the best shots below:
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Blue Planet

European birds catch a ride to Massachusetts on Hurricane Sandy, but can they survive the cold?

Todd Feathers
boston.com
Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:00 UTC
Image
© Wikipedia
Three Northern lapwings, European shore birds that seldom stray into the Western hemisphere, were apparently blown across the Atlantic into Massachusetts by the chaotic winds of Hurricane Sandy and are now in danger of succumbing to the cold New England winter, a bird expert said.

The rare birds, with their colorful plumage and odd-looking head feathers, have drawn bird enthusiasts from across the country.

Two of the birds have taken up residence in a Nantucket pond and one has been sighted by the side of several Bridgewater roads, said Wayne Petersen, director of Mass Audubon's Important Bird Areas Program.

Petersen, who has seen the Bridgewater bird several times, said it was in severe danger of starving because snow covering the frozen ground makes it nearly impossible for the bird to find worms and other food.
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Cow Skull

How monoculture threatens the future of food

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:16 UTC
Image
A recent NPR article1 highlights the truly frightening environmental effect of monoculture. NPR commentator and science writer Craig Childs decided to replicate a photo project by David Liittschwager, a portrait photographer who spent years traveling the world dropping one-cubic-foot metal frames into gardens, streams, parks, forests, and oceans, photographing anything and everything that entered the frame.

Around the world, his camera captured thousands of plants, animals, and insects within the cubes, with entirely different "worlds" of plants and animals living as little as a few feet away from each other.

Childs recruited a friend, and together they set out to replicate Littschwager's "critter census" in a corn field in Grundy County, Iowa.

But whereas Littschwager's camera captured several dozens of insects wherever he set up his frames, Childs and friend found nothing stirring among the genetically engineered corn stalks on the 600 acre farm in Iowa, where they spent an entire weekend crawling around on the ground. No signs of life with the exception of an isolated spider, a single red mite, and a couple grasshoppers.
"It felt like another planet entirely," Childs said. "I listened and heard nothing, no birds, no clicks from insects. There were no bees. The air, the ground, seemed vacant."
"Yet, 100 years ago, these same fields, these prairies, were home to 300 species of plants, 60 mammals, 300 birds, hundreds and hundreds of insects," Robert Krulwich writes2. "This soil was the richest, the loamiest in the state. And now, in these patches, there is almost literally nothing but one kind of living thing. We've erased everything else."
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Fish

Thousands of snapper washed up on New Zealand beaches since New Year's Eve.

Maryanne Twentyman, Elton Smallman & Stacey Kirk
Fairfax NZ News
Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:10 UTC
Dead Snappers
© Stuff.co.nzWashed Up: Dead snapper litter the Coromandel Peninsula from Port Jackson to Fantail Bay.

A massive clean-up of rotting fish is underway on the Coromandel Peninsula where thousands of snapper have washed up since New Year's Eve.

Fisheries officials have warned people not to eat the fish as Thames-Coromandel District Council staff try to work out how they came to be dumped at the popular holiday spot.

TCDC communications manager Benjamin Day said the dead fish were beginning to ''rot and smell'' so the decision was made to begin the clean-up immediately.

"With the DOC campsites full and boaties launching from the beach, we want to get the place cleaned up for our visitors as fast as possible,'' he said.

The clean-up will concentrate on an area 100 metres either side of Granite Wharf, situated at Paritu, north of Colville.

It is not the first time this has happened at the small settlement.

Thousands of dead snapper also washed ashore in 2011 at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay, causing residents to wonder at the time whether they were starving or poisoned, although that was deemed unlikely.

The Ministry of Fisheries investigated that incident as well but it still remains unsolved.

Fisheries compliance manager Brendon Mikkelsen said the Ministry for Primary Industries was investigating the latest incident but could not confirm the number of dead fish found on the shore.

But local residents said the dead fish numbered in the "thousands".
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Igloo

More than 100 dead as cold snap hits India


Australian Associated Press
Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:34 UTC
India Cold Snap
© AAP Police say more than 100 people, many homeless or poor, have died as a cold snap hits India.
Police say more than 100 people have died of exposure as northern India deals with historically cold temperatures.

Police spokesman Surendra Srivastava said on Thursday at least 114 people have died from the cold in the state of Uttar Pradesh, at least 23 of them in the previous 24 hours.

Srivastava said many of the dead were poor people whose bodies were found on footpaths or in parks.

The weather department said temperatures in the state were 4 to 10 degrees below normal.

Temperatures in New Delhi, which borders Uttar Pradesh, hit a high on Wednesday of 9.8 degrees Celsius, the lowest maximum temperature in the capital since 1969.
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Igloo

Beijing gripped in cold snap

An
Xinhua Net
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:50 UTC
Cold Snap in Beijing
© Xinhua/Shen JizhongA citizen walks in snow on a street in Yantai, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 2, 2013. Yantai witnessed the first snow in this year on Wednesday.
Beijing gripped in a cold snap is experiencing one of the coldest New Year periods in the local meteorological history, according to the municipal observatory on Wednesday.

The observatory issued the yellow low-temperature weather alert on Tuesday afternoon. The warning is second only to red alert.

It forecast that the cold snap in accompany with powerful wind would drive down the lower temperature to minus 14 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, approaching the extreme record of minus 16 degrees Celsius.

The temperature in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the north of Beijing has dropped to minus 40 degrees Celsius with snow on ground piling up 50 centimeters in some areas of the Greater Hinggan Mountains.

The rare winter cold caused frost on expressways in eastern Shandong Province, which has also issued yellow icy road alert. The provincial observatory said the cold snap is likely to linger till Friday.
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Igloo

Record cold snap grips Korean Peninsula


YonHap News Agency
Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:44 UTC
Cold Snap in Korea
© Yonhap News Agency
Seoul -- A prolonged cold spell sent the mercury plummeting nationwide on Thursday, with temperatures dropping to their lowest levels in decades, the country's weather agency said.

The South Korean capital city of Seoul recorded a temperature of minus 16.5 C in the morning, the lowest in 27 years since a minus 16.9 C was recorded in 1986, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said.

A cold wave watch for Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi Province, and a cold wave alert for the central part of the country have been issued, the agency said.

The morning low dropped to minus 24.3 C, the lowest temperature in the country, in Cheorwon, a mountainous town near the inter-Korean border, according to the KMA. Temperatures were recorded at minus 24.1 C in Paju, a border town in Gyeonggi Province, and minus 22.6 C in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.
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Bizarro Earth

40 seafloor gas seeps found off U.S. east coast

Douglas Main
OurAmazingPlanet
Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:02 UTC
Gas Seeps
© NOAATwo different perspectives of the seeps, made by bouncing sound waves off rising plumes of gas.
A research cruise has discovered 40 previously unknown gas seeps on the seafloor off the U.S. East Coast. The plumes of gas are almost certainly methane, also known as natural gas, according to government scientists.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas due to its ability to absorb heat, but the released gas is not likely to reach the ocean surface in significant quantities and affect the climate, said Carolyn Ruppel, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey, which collaborated in the research. Neither is the amount of gas likely to warrant commercial interest, she said.

The seeps were found in four clusters, three of them about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Nantucket, Mass. The other cluster, consisting of 17 of the seeps, was mapped about 90 miles (147 kilometers) east of Cape Henry, Va., according to a release from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which led the expedition.

Methane seeps are important to find and study since they involve the transfer of carbon from the ground to the atmosphere, which is important for getting an accurate picture of climate change in terms of how much gas is emitted naturally and how much is emitted by humans, Ruppel told OurAmazingPlanet. Methane also can oxidize in water and contribute to ocean acidification, she said.
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