Earth ChangesS


Phoenix

Wildfires blaze in parched northwest Colorado

Tegan Hanlon
The Denver Post
Fri, 03 Aug 2012 20:56 UTC
Fires blazed in northwest Colorado Friday night amid low humidity and gusty winds.

Dry thunderstorms and lightning sparked three fires on Bureau of Land Management land in Moffat and Rio Blanco counties, according to a release issued by the Northwest Colorado Fire Management Unit.

The Wolf fire, located about 5 miles south of Elk Springs, is at an estimated 700 acres and "is burning actively in sagebrush and pinon and juniper trees," the release said.

Spokeswoman Lynn Barclay said the fire was reported at 12:16 p.m. Friday. Winds up to 35 mph drove the fire throughout the day.
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Bizarro Earth

Worldwide Transport of Dust Particles May Have Impact on Storms, Temperatures and Other Weather Patterns

Emily Sohn
Discovery News
Thu, 02 Aug 2012 01:00 UTC
Image
© NASA/Earth ObservatoryA dust storm can be seen over Turkmenistan, Central Asia, in this photograph from the International Space Station in 2009.
THE GIST
  • High up in the atmosphere, half of the dust over North America comes from Asia and elsewhere.
  • Dust particles can have large but still poorly understood impacts on weather.
  • Future climate models will need to incorporate the movement of dust around the world.
Three miles above the United States, the atmosphere is filled with dust that has blown thousands of miles from Asia and elsewhere.

The discovery, which used data from a new satellite that provided a three-dimensional view of the air from above, suggests that the transport of tiny dust particles around the world may be having an unexpectedly large impact on storms, temperatures and other weather patterns.
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Attention

Spectacular Noctilucent Clouds Photographed Over Iceland


SpaceWeather
Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:47 UTC
A bank of electric-blue noctiluent clouds swept across Iceland on August 2nd, producing a vivid display of luminous ripples and tendrils over Reykjavik:

Noctilucent Clouds
© Iurie Belegurschi

"These are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere, located at altitudes of around 76 to 85 kilometres," says photographer Iurie Belegurschi. "It was a beautiful display."

New data from NASA's AIM spacecraft prove that noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are seeded by space dust. The tiny ice crystals that NLCs are made of nucleate around "meteor smoke" wafting through the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere. Not only do these clouds look alien, they really are alien. A new video from NASA explains the research.
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Stop

Whale Is Found Dead In Australia Swimming Pool

Jonathan Samuels
Sky News
Wed, 01 Aug 2012 07:06 UTC
The dead body of an 11m-long whale has been discovered in an open-air swimming pool in Australia.


Early morning swimmers discovered the humpback whale, which had been washed into the ocean pool in Sydney by heavy seas.

The 30-tonne young adult mammal was washed up at Newport beach, ending up in the man-made swimming baths which are filled with sea water.

"It does have some external injuries but there's no way of knowing whether they were ante-mortem or post-mortem," said Wendy McFarlane from the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA).

Ms McFarlane said one possible explanation for the otherwise seemingly healthy animal to die at sea could be that it had been struck by a ship.

It is thought the whale died several days ago.

The beach has now been closed due to the risk of sharks being attracted to the area by the rotting carcass.

The authorities are now deciding how best to remove the whale.

They may try to wash it back out to sea at high tide, or resort to the least preferred option of cutting it up and removing it in sections.
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Cloud Lightning

21 Killed in Xinjiang Mudslide


Xinhua
Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
Xinyuan, Xinjiang - The bodies of three additional victims have been pulled from an iron ore mine that was buried by a mudslide in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 21 thus far, local authorities said Wednesday.

Seven people remain missing in the mine, according to Xue Weichang, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee of Xinyuan county.

The fatal mudslide, which occurred at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday in the township of Araltobe, Xinyuan county in the Kazak autonomous prefecture of Ili, trapping 28 workers in the mine.

More than 500 rescuers are working to carry out search and rescue operations.

A survey conducted by the local land resource authorities found that the disaster was a result of downpours that hit Xinyuan on Sunday.

The local meteorological department said heavy rains will continue to pound the region from Aug. 2 to 4.
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Holly

Blackberries fruiting at record late time of the year in UK

Martin Wainwright
The Guardian
Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:07 UTC
Image
© Barry Lewis/AlamyAnother sign of impending food shortages
Rowan and elderberry also affected as dismal weather delays wild trees and shrubs' fruiting season

The devil is set to get into the blackberries later than ever before this century, according to early reports from the UK's annual survey of wild trees and shrubs' fruiting season.

The traditional phrase for the fruit over-ripening and losing its crisp taste is unlikely to be bandied around until mid or late August, if first reports from the mass exercise prove to be a consistent pattern.

Early indications from the army of amateur naturalists - or "citizen scientists" as they are now called by the project's organisers at the Woodland Trust - show a delay of eight days over all previous first sightings dating back to the year 2000. Similar setbacks, almost certainly due to the dismal weather since late March, are also affecting rowan and elderberry.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.3 - New Ireland Region, Papua New Guinea


US Geological Survey
Thu, 02 Aug 2012 14:39 UTC
PNG Quake 020812
© USGS
Date-Time
Thursday, August 02, 2012 at 09:56:44 UTC

Thursday, August 02, 2012 at 07:56:44 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
4.706°S, 153.228°E

Depth
70.6 km (43.9 miles)

Region
NEW IRELAND REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Distances
34 km (21 miles) SE of Taron, PNG

114 km (70 miles) ESE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea

304 km (188 miles) WNW of Arawa, Papua New Guinea

354 km (219 miles) ENE of Kimbe, Papua New Guinea
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Dollar

Best of the Web: Market insider encourages investors to buy up farms and food as scarcity war escalates

Jonathan Burton
MarketWatch
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:27 UTC
Image
The worst US drought in 50 years is having a significant effect on global food prices
The road to Dystopia is paved with dust and hardship.

Such is the gloomy worldview of Jeremy Grantham, chief investment strategist of Boston-based institutional money manager GMO LLC. He envisions a future of scarce resources, where food and the means to produce it is the coin of an unstable realm.

"We are five years into a severe global food crisis that is very unlikely to go away," Grantham wrote in a letter to GMO clients, published late Tuesday.

"It will threaten poor countries with increased malnutrition and starvation and even collapse," Grantham predicted. "Resource squabbles and waves of food-induced migration will threaten global stability and global growth. This threat is badly underestimated by almost everybody and all institutions with the possible exception of some military establishments."


Comment: Yes, you can rest assured that the Pentagon is at least aware enough of the reality of the situation to have preparations in place to cope with the social and political turmoil to follow.

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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 - Central Peru


US Geological Survey
Thu, 02 Aug 2012 14:33 UTC
Central Peru Quake_0200812
© USGS
Date-Time
Thursday, August 02, 2012 at 09:38:31 UTC

Thursday, August 02, 2012 at 04:38:31 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
8.379°S, 74.245°W

Depth
143.3 km (89.0 miles)

Region
CENTRAL PERU

Distances
34 km (21 miles) E of Pucallpa, Peru

143 km (88 miles) SE of Contamana, Peru

191 km (118 miles) WSW of Cruzeiro Do Sul, Brazil

219 km (136 miles) ENE of Tingo Maria, Peru
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Bell

Fears grow for rise in food prices

Jack Farchy in London and Heba Saleh in Cairo
Financial Times
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:11 UTC
Image
© moriab.blogspot.com23 July 2012 - City of Neyshabour, Iran - A new round of protests begin, this time against food prices.
The increase in grain prices is already being felt around the world. In Indonesia, the tofu industry has threatened to strike over rising soyabean prices; in Mexico, the cost of corn tortillas is on the rise; and Iran last week witnessed a rare protest over the cost of chicken.

But the economic effects of the sharp rise in agricultural commodities have barely begun. A jump of 30-50 per cent in benchmark corn, wheat and soyabean prices has revived memories of the world's last food crisis in 2007-08, and large consumers from Egypt and Morocco to South Korea and Taiwan are bracing for a renewed bout of food inflation.

Marc Sadler, head of agriculture risk management at the World Bank, says: "For sure there is growing concern across the world from developing countries about what this may mean for them."

The biggest impact is likely to be on countries dependent on agricultural imports. How they react to the rise in prices will be crucial, analysts say: if, as in 2007, they respond by stockpiling or panic-buying, that could add fuel to the rally.
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