Earth ChangesS

Bizarro Earth

Strong earthquake shakes Tajikistan


Al Jazeera
Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:38 UTC
At least 10,000 people have been left homeless in Tajikistan after an earthquake hit the Gorno-Badakhshansky region in the east of the country.

The Emergency Situations and Civil Defence Committee said no casualties were reported after the magnitude 5.3 quake struck about 10 villages in the Pamir Mountains.

Azimdzhon Shamsiddinov, the deputy head of the Vanj district, on Sunday, said: "1,050 residential buildings were destroyed in our region."
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Cloud Lightning

Snow paralyses Beijing as China braces for big chill


Agence France-Presse
Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:43 UTC
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© Agence France-PresseTemperatures could fall as low as -16 degrees in Beijing over the next few days
A freezing front swept over much of northern China Sunday with snowstorms snarling road and air traffic, schools set to stay closed, and some of the lowest temperatures in decades forecast in coming days.

Snow storms were expected to continue through Monday and the mercury was set to plunge in the next 48 hours when China returns to work following a three-day New Year holiday, the Beijing meteorological station said.

Gale force winds sweeping down from Siberia could result in temperatures as low as minus 16 degrees Celsius (three degrees Fahrenheit) in the capital on Monday and Tuesday, it added.

In some parts of northern China temperatures were expected to drop as low as minus 32 degrees Celsius.
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Bizarro Earth

Australia: Wild Thunderstorms Lash Victoria

Amelia Harris
The Herald Sun
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:59 UTC
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© Ben SwinnertonLightning lashed Melbourne for two consecutive nights.
Wild thunderstorms have lashed Victoria for the second night in a row, causing flooding and lightning to strike houses.

Areas northwest of Melbourne received up to 60mm of rain, while the storms also brought down trees and power lines.

Gisborne, about 50km northwest of Melbourne, was worst affected, with the State Emergency Service receiving more than 60 calls for flash flooding.

SES operations manager Tim Wiebusch said extra crews were needed to help clean up.

"The word back we've had from the crews is it's large storm water drains that aren't coping with the downpour,'' Mr Wiebusch said.
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Bizarro Earth

Storm Pounds Canadian Maritimes


CBC News
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:34 UTC
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© CBC NewsA snowplow clears streets in downtown Halifax on Saturday.
A storm is battering most of the Maritimes, wreaking havoc on travel and power lines.

Snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and rain have been falling most of the day in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I., creating treacherous road conditions in some areas.

High winds are also being experienced right across the region, resulting in blowing snow and whiteouts.

No major accidents have been reported, but RCMP on Saturday reminded motorists to drive carefully.

Confederation Bridge officials were restricting certain types of vehicles from crossing the bridge linking Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, effective 6:30 p.m. local time, due to high winds.
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Bizarro Earth

Ocean Storm Brings Deep Snow To New England


KOCO 5
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:42 UTC
An ocean storm was backing into northern New England on Saturday, and forecasters said it will likely stick around through the weekend.

It's expected to bringing bursts of heavy snow to Maine and the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire, with accumulations up to a foot and a half in places.

Meteorologist David Glenn said most storms approach the area from the south, but because this one is coming in from the east, it will likely hang around longer.

The snow was expected to increase in intensity throughout the day and so were the winds. Forecasts called for gusts up to 45 mph Saturday night that could create drifting snow, while coastal areas were seeing higher tides than normal and could get some flooding.
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Cloud Lightning

Hundreds Flee Australia Flooding


BBC News
Sun, 03 Jan 2010 05:00 UTC

More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from an outback town in the Australian state of New South Wales, after days of flooding.

Two areas of the state have been declared natural disaster areas after days of heavy rains swelled rivers and left farms cut off.

As water levels threatened to reach 5.5m (18ft), up to 1,200 people were moved from the town of Coonamble.

It comes after summer wildfires wreaked havoc on the other side of the country.
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Bizarro Earth

Lightning Strikes Sleeping Woman


ABC News
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:26 UTC
A woman has been taken to hospital after her house was struck by lightning in Melbourne's east last night.

She was sleeping in her home in Glencairn Avenue, Ringwood when the lightning struck about 10pm (AEDT).

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade's (MFB) Alan Hunter says the bolt hit the roof, travelled down into the house and into a wardrobe.
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Snowman

U.S. East Coast Faces Deep Freeze; Florida Oranges Threatened

Dan Hart
Bloomberg News
Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:06 UTC
The U.S. East Coast faces the coldest night of the season as frigid air spills south and threatens agriculture in Georgia, Alabama and the orange crop in Florida.

Freeze warnings were posted by the National Weather Service as far south as the Orlando area, which may be as many as 20 degrees below normal tonight, the National Weather Service said. The advisory alerts growers that subfreezing temperatures are imminent and may kill crops or other sensitive vegetation.

Tampa and others cities in the central part of the state are under a freeze warning from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. local time tomorrow. Temperatures may fall below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (zero Celsius) for more than three consecutive hours, the National Weather Service in Tampa said on its Web site.
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Snowman

Climategate: You should be steamed

Neil Frank
Houston Chronicle
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:59 UTC
Now that Copenhagen is past history, what is the next step in the man-made global warming controversy? Without question, there should be an immediate and thorough investigation of the scientific debauchery revealed by "Climategate."

If you have not heard, hackers penetrated the computers of the Climate Research Unit, or CRU, of the United Kingdom's University of East Anglia, exposing thousands of e-mails and other documents. CRU is one of the top climate research centers in the world. Many of the exchanges were between top mainstream climate scientists in Britain and the U.S. who are closely associated with the authoritative (albeit controversial) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Among the more troubling revelations were data adjustments enhancing the perception that man is causing global warming through the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Particularly disturbing was the way the core IPCC scientists (the believers) marginalized the skeptics of the theory that man-made global warming is large and potentially catastrophic. The e-mails document that the attack on the skeptics was twofold. First, the believers gained control of the main climate-profession journals. This allowed them to block publication of papers written by the skeptics and prohibit unfriendly peer review of their own papers. Second, the skeptics were demonized through false labeling and false accusations.
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Mr. Potato

Michael Mann: Science Journals Must Be Unpolluted by Politics

Michael Mann
Wall Street Journal
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:48 UTC
In his Dec. 18 op-ed "How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus," Patrick J. Michaels of the Cato Institute falsely claims that work by him (and other fossil-fuel-funded climate change contrarians) has been unfairly blocked by me and others from appearing in mainstream science journals because the peer review process is supposedly biased against climate science deniers.

In truth, the only bias that exists at such publications is for well-reasoned writing that is buttressed by facts.

That is why climate skeptics such as Richard Lindzen of MIT or John Christy of the University of Alabama - who are widely regarded as credible and whose work contributes meaningfully to the scientific discourse - have no problem publishing their work in mainstream scientific journals.

And what about those who are not being published? Every scientist dealing with a major public issue must decide if he or she is going to be a scientist or a de facto politician.
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