Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Russia declares state of emergency as hundreds of wildfires race across northern interior


NASA.gov
Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:03 UTC
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© Katrina Jackson, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Russia has declared a state of emergency in several eastern regions due to hundreds of wildfires. NASA's Terra satellite captured this image of fires and smoke in north central Russia on June 15, 2012, at 05:50 UTC (1:50 a.m. EDT) The red spots are where the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard the Terra satellite detected heat signatures. Dry conditions, agricultural burning, lightning and human involvement have contributed to many wildfires across Siberia over the last few weeks.

Click here for larger image.

To learn about smoke from Siberian fires crossing the Pacific Ocean, visit here.
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Umbrella

Duluth in State of Emergency after Torrential Rains Sweep City, North Shore


Pioneer Press
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 01:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press/The Duluth News-Tribune/Bob KingA car fell into a huge sinkhole in Duluth, Minn. on Wednesday, June 20, 2012.
Major flooding struck in and around Duluth on Wednesday after up to 10 inches of rain fell overnight across northeastern Minnesota, leaving neighborhoods isolated, zoo animals drowned and state parks closed.

Steady, torrential rain kept up into Wednesday morning, June 20, closing Interstate 35 and a tunnel into downtown Duluth. Police said sinkholes and washouts made travel dangerous.

Residents of the far west Duluth neighborhood of Fond du Lac, near the rising St. Louis River, were asked to leave their homes. Seventy people arrived at shelters opened by the Red Cross, officials said.

State emergency management officials set up an operations center in response to the flooding across Aitkin, Carlton, Cook, Lake and St. Louis counties, including the Duluth area.

Gov. Mark Dayton declared a state of emergency and directed the Minnesota National Guard to help the region cope with the disaster.

Dayton planned to travel to Duluth on Thursday morning.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries, though an 8-year-old boy was swept about six blocks through a culvert near Duluth. The boy suffered scrapes and bruises but was fine, St. Louis County Undersheriff Dave Phillips said, calling it a "miracle out of this whole disaster."

Minnesota Department of Public Safety officials cited Duluth police reports that half of the Fond du Lac neighborhood was under evacuation and the town of Thomson was partially evacuated.
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Arrow Down

Duluth Roads Collapse, Sinkholes Swallow Cars

Alan Hoglund
WDIO Eyewitness News
Thu, 21 Jun 2012 03:05 UTC

Minnesota, US - The damage is breathtaking. "The roads are just a disaster around here," Greg Vogt, with Expert Tire in Duluth said.

In and around Duluth, roads collapsed and sinkholes swallowed cars. On East Skyline Drive a car sits 10 feet below the surface of the road, in a massive sinkhole.

Deep water left some vehicles totaled, like a Volvo behind Expert Tire, and a Chevy Tahoe near the interstate.

"Water was all the way up to the retaining wall," Matt Kebhart said, talking about a three-foot wall in front of the interstate.

Kebhart works at an auto body shop on London Road. Behind it, a dumpster sat in a deep pool of standing water. "That dumpster, I don't even know where it came from," he said.
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House

Sinkhole Swallows Another Florida Home

Mary Kenney
Tampa Bay Times
Thu, 21 Jun 2012 02:59 UTC
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© Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay TimesA sinkhole swallows the back half of Susan Minutillo’s home
Florida, US - Susan Minutillo, 79, climbed out of her dark gray Mercury and saw the emergency trucks outside her house in Beacon Woods East. She'd left about half an hour before to run an errand for a friend, leaving a crew to do a survey of her home, checking for sinkholes. The survey was routine. Just like her day was supposed to be.

"I never thought this would happen to me," she said Wednesday afternoon, sitting at the kitchen table in her neighbor's home, voice thick with unshed tears. "I don't know where I'll go now."

At about 3 p.m., a sinkhole under the back half of her home began to collapse. Forty-five minutes later, half the house was gone, and county officials plastered a dark orange sign with black block letters spelling "condemned" on the garage door.

Emergency vehicles from the Sheriff's Office, Pasco County Ground Inspections, the Fire Department and others circled the property, surrounding the house with yellow tape and shutting off the electricity and water still pumping into the broken home.
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Phoenix

Deadly Colorado wildfire surpasses 100-square-mile mark

Keith Coffman
Reuters
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 07:31 UTC
plane
© Reuters/Rick Wilking
A deadly, stubborn wildfire that ranks as the most destructive on record for Colorado has scorched more than 100 square miles (259 square km) of rugged mountain terrain northwest of Denver, but a cool snap on Wednesday gave fire crews a chance to take the offensive.

The so-called High Park Fire already is blamed for one death and has consumed 189 homes in the 12 days since it was ignited by lightning at the edge of the Roosevelt National Forest, and authorities say they expect property losses to climb once more damage assessments are made.

As of Wednesday, an estimated 1,000 homes remained evacuated on the western outskirts of Fort Collins, a city of more 140,000 people that lies adjacent to the national forest about 55 miles north of Denver, according to Larimer County Sheriff's spokesman John Schulz.

The only casualty reported from the fire so far was a 62-year-old grandmother whose body was found last week in the ashes of a cabin where she lived alone. She was the fourth person to die in a Colorado wildfire this year.
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Target

Monsanto Vs. Nature: The Weeds Fight Back

Jim Hightower
Alternet
Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:56 UTC
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© sneigwh.blogspot.comPigweed can grow three inches a day and reach seven feet or more. It took ten years from the first appearance of Roundup (the miracle chemical weed killer) resistant weeds for 10 super weeds to spread to 22 states infesting soybeans, corn and cotton. Common and giant ragweed, pigweed and most recently johnsongrass are all species of weeds exhibiting roundup resistant tendencies.
So much of Monsanto's poison was spread in the past decade that weeds naturally developed a resistance to it.

Rather than find ways to cooperate with the natural world, America's agribusiness giants reach for the next quick fix in a futile effort to overpower nature. Their attitude is that if brute force isn't working, they're probably not using enough of it.

Monsanto, for example, has banked a fortune by selling a corn seed that it genetically manipulated to produce corn plants that won't die when sprayed with the Roundup toxic weedkiller. Not coincidentally, Monsanto also happens to manufacture Roundup. It profits from the seed and from the huge jump in Roundup sales that the seed generates. Slick.

Comment: To learn more about The Escalating Chemical War on Weeds read the following articles:

Superweeds Go Mainstream
Monsanto's Superweeds Come Home to Roost: 11 Million U.S. Acres are Infested
Scientists say genetically engineered crops encourage stronger weeds

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Cloud Lightning

People, animals flee floods in NE Minnesota city

Amy Forliti
Associated Press
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:56 UTC
Duluth floods
© The Duluth News-Tribune, Andrew KruegerA car is stranded in floodwaters rushing down a hillside in Duluth, Minn., early Wednesday, June 20, 2012. Hours of torrential rainfall have sparked major flooding across the city and along the North Shore of Lake Superior, with some homes being evacuated due to rising water.
Residents evacuated their homes and animals escaped from pens at a zoo as floods fed by a steady torrential downpour struck northeastern Minnesota, inundating the city of Duluth, officials said Wednesday.

Police officers helped track down a polar bear that got out of its enclosure overnight at the low-lying Lake Superior Zoo where several animals drowned.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness declared a state of emergency after the deluge of up to 9 inches of rain that he said caused extensive damage to the port city of about 86,000. Some neighboring communities did the same. Ness said the order would start the process to obtain federal aid, and Gov. Mark Dayton said he would travel to Duluth on Thursday to discuss how the state can help.
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Cloud Lightning

11 killed in landslide as heavy rains pound Indonesia


Business Ghana
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:53 UTC
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© Unknown
Authorities in eastern Indonesia were searching for a missing 13-year boy Wednesday still missing after a landslide in eastern Indonesia.

"We have recovered 13 people, two of them were still alive and now recovering in hospital. Eleven people are confirmed dead," the head of the regional disaster management body Broery Tjokro told dpa.

The landslide hit a residential area early Tuesday, in Ambon, the capital of Maluku province. The boy was the only person still unaccounted for.
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Cloud Lightning

Heavy Rains Cause Major Flooding, Sinkholes in Eastern Minnesota


CBS Minnesota
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 09:56 UTC
Duluth Mayor Don Ness says he plans to declare a state of emergency because of serious flooding in his northeastern Minnesota city.


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    Bizarro Earth

    Long-grumbling Alaska volcano has explosive ash burst


    MSN Money
    Wed, 20 Jun 2012 03:54 UTC
    Anchorage - A remote Aleutian volcano that has been restless for the past year rumbled to life on Tuesday, shooting a thin cloud of ash several miles into the sky, which could pose a slight hazard to aircraft, Alaska scientists said.

    Cleveland Volcano, a 5,676-foot (1,730 meter) peak on an uninhabited island 940 miles southwest of Anchorage, had an explosive eruption at about 2:05 p.m. local time, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported.

    A pilot flying in the area estimated that the ash cloud rose to 35,000 feet above sea level, reported the observatory, which is a joint federal-state organization that monitors Alaska's numerous active volcanoes.

    However, satellite imagery shows only a weak ash signal, suggesting a thin cloud that dissipated quickly, said Stephanie Prejean, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist at the observatory in Anchorage

    "It was just one explosion, which was very typical of the thing Cleveland has been doing in the last year," Prejean said. It is possible that the cloud rose to less than 35,000 feet, as the height was just one pilot's estimate, she said.

    Pilots have been advised of potential risks from Cleveland, which might explode again, Prejean said. "It could do that any time," she said.
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