Earth ChangesS


Bulb

Scientists Find Details of Tumors Killing Off Tasmanian Devils

Thomas H. Maugh II
Los Angeles Times
Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:57 UTC
Tasmanian Devil
© Cameron Wells, Walter and Eliza Hall InstituteThis Tasmanian devil, photographed at Healesville Sanctuary, is part of the Save the Devil program that has been established to help protect Australia's Tasmanian devils which are at risk of extinction from devil facial tumor disease.
The facial cancers that are devastating populations of Tasmanian devils in Australia are a nerve tumor that escaped its original host and became a parasite of the cultural icon, passing from one devil to the next by bites when the animals are fighting or mating, researchers reported Thursday.

A genetic analysis of tumors from Tasmanian devils widely separated geographically shows that all the tumors are virtually identical and distinct from the animals' own genomes, researchers in the United States and Australia reported in the journal Science. The tumors probably arose from Schwann cells, which normally play a role in protecting and cushioning nerves.

The analysis provides clues to a way to diagnose the disease early and represents a major step toward the development of a vaccine that could protect the remaining animals in the wild, said biologist Elizabeth P. Murchison of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., and the Australian National University in Canberra, lead author of the paper.
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Light Sabers

China's stonewalling at Copenhagen: Is its leadership aware that the planet is actually cooling?

Lenore Taylor
The Australian
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:02 UTC
Image
© AFP Snow fell as temperatures plummeted outside the conference halls
There were 45,000 people at the Copenhagen summit and more than 100 world leaders, but in the end it came down to an extraordinary personal showdown between the leaders of the world's two superpowers and biggest greenhouse gas emitting countries, China and the US.

The deal itself was anything but historic. But the implications of how the Chinese handled this negotiation well might be.

In a disastrous result for the world's environment and for 19 years of difficult and painstaking environmental diplomacy, China undoubtedly won.

Chinese chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua said China was leaving Copenhagen "happy", before walking out of the Bella conference centre late on Friday night with his clearly cheerful team .

In a statement, Xie, who is also vice-chairman with China's National Development and Reform Commission, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was also happy with the agreement.
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Fish

Famous San Francisco Sea Lions Leave in Droves

Evelyn Nieves
The Associated Press
Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:09 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Ben MargotTourists watch sea lions on boat docks at Pier 39 in San Francisco.
Two mysteries surround a huge herd of sea lions that were hanging out on a pier in San Francisco Bay: Why did so many show up, and why did so many leave at once?

Just last month, Pier 39, famous in San Francisco for its sea lions and the throngs of tourists they attract, was groaning under the weight of more than 1,500 of the animals. The record number delighted tourists and baffled experts.

Marine experts suspect the sea lions came and stayed for the food, then left largely for the same reason.

"Most likely, they left chasing a food source," said Jeff Boehm, executive director of the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, which runs an information center and gift shop at Pier 39. "It's probably what kept them here in the first place."
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Bizarro Earth

5.5 Earthquake Jolts Northeast India


NetIndian News Network
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:00 UTC
An earthquake of moderate intensity, measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale, jolted parts of India's North-East today.

This was the second quake in the region in the past three days, after a tremor, measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale, had rocked some parts of the North-East on December 29.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said today's quake was felt at 1527 hours and had its epicentre at latitude 27.3 N and longitude 91.4 E in Bhutan at a depth of seven km below the earth's surface.

There were no reports of damage to life or property.
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Bug

To a Mosquito, Matchmaking Means "Singing" in Perfect Harmony

Cathleen Genova
Cell Press
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:00 UTC
Researchers have new insight into the sex lives of the much-maligned mosquitoes that are responsible for the vast majority of malaria deaths, according to a report published online on December 31st in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. In finding a partner of the right species type, male and female mosquitoes depend on their ability to "sing" in perfect harmony. Those tones are produced and varied based on the frequency of their wing beats in flight.

"Everyone must be familiar with the maddening whine a mosquito makes as it hones in for a bite," said Gabriella Gibson of the University of Greenwich at Medway. "There's no doubt many of us have wondered why it makes its presence so obvious - surely, after all of these centuries of blood-feeding, selection should have favored a more stealthy approach that would leave mosquitoes less vulnerable to the defensive attacks of its unsettled host. Our findings suggest that mosquitoes rely on the sounds they make to attract a mate of the right species, a behavior that is far more vulnerable to selection than avoiding the risk of being squashed by the rare host that is still awake at feeding time."

The Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes in fact include a considerable amount of genetic diversity, representing a complex of seven species and several chromosomal forms. And that diversity comes with real consequences for humans, explained Gibson and Ian Russell of the University of Sussex. The complexity of malaria epidemiology and control is due in part to the mosquito's remarkable genetic plasticity, enabling its adaptation to a widening range of human-influenced habitats.
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Cloud Lightning

Extreme Northern Plains Cold Sweeping Northern US

Eric Reese
AccuWeather.com
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:15 UTC
Image
An arctic chill will slam the northern Plains over the next couple of days with subzero temperatures. The core of the coldest air will be across North Dakota and Minnesota, where daytime highs will be in the single digits and overnight lows could reach as low as minus 25 degrees.

Typical high temperatures this time of year are in the low to middle 20s, but with an arctic boundary pushing across the region, temperatures will be 20-25 degrees below normal. Friday will be the coldest of the next two days with highs in northern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota below zero.

Nights will be frigid with furnaces getting a workout. Temperatures will be 10-20 degrees below normal for overnight lows. When normal lows are in the single digits to begin with, anything below normal is bitterly cold.
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Igloo

877 new snowfall records set or tied in the USA in the last week


Watts Up With That?
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:47 UTC
And that's not all, for the week ending Dec 13th, there were 815 new snowfall records set. December 2009 is shaping up to be quite the snowmaker. Here's a map showing continental USA records:

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Continental USA Snowfall Records 12/20/09-12/27/09
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Cloud Lightning

Six killed as Big New Year Freeze takes deadly grip of Britain

Paul Sims
UK Daily Mail
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:31 UTC
Image
© Nigel BennettPolice block off access to the M62 motorway after the fatal crash which claimed the lives of three men
Three men have died in a crash on a snow-affected motorway and two killed by an avalanche as Britons were told to prepare for New Year's Eve weather chaos.

The men killed in the crash, who are believed to be from the Preston area, died after their Mitsubishi left the westbound carriageway of the M62 near Huddersfield in snowy conditions and collided with the nearside barrier.

Britain's deep freeze also claimed the lives of two climbers in an avalanche on Ben Nevis. It was one of three to hit Scotland within a matter of hours. The second, in Torridon, Wester Ross, claimed the life of a 53-year-old climber from Derbyshire. He had been found alive but died later from internal injuries in hospital.

The deaths came as forecasters warned temperatures are set to drop below freezing on New Year's Eve with sleet, snow and rain almost certain to plunge the country into chaos once again.
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Cloud Lightning

Mother Nature Exacts Her Revenge: It was so warm it snowed

Phil Brennan
Newsmax.com
Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:09 UTC
Beyond the old margarine commercial's warning that "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature," we're now learning that it's also dangerous to fool with her.

She doesn't take kindly to puny old mankind's absurd attempts to manage the climate through laws and treaties.

A case in point is Mother Nature's icy blast on the heels of the Denmark conference on global warming, a gigantic hoax now known as "climate change," because it starting getting colder around what the superior class calls the fin de siecle - a Frenchified way of saying the turn of the century.

As the delegates met and dined well and drank well - thanks to the generosity of their country's national treasuries - while hearkening to the wisdom of former Vice President Al Gore, in the words of the old song, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. The weather outside [was] frightful."
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Bad Guys

Conflict of Interest: IPCC Chairman Pachuri's services to Big Business

Richard North
EU Referendum
Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
R.K. Pachuri
© Unknown
Seek and ye will find, as Bishop Hill notes. Our friendly part-time chairman of the IPCC, Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, is quite a remarkable man. As well as his onerous post with the UN's IPCC, it seems he has a considerable number of other interests.

Dr Pachauri's main day job is, of course, Director-General of The Energy Research Institute (TERI) - which he has held since April 2001, having become its Director and head in 1981 when it was the Tata Energy Research Institute.

Intriguingly, for such an upstanding public servant though, he is also a strategic advisor to the private equity investment firm Pegasus Capital Advisors LP, which he became in February of this year. However, this is by no means Dr Pachauri's only foray into the world of finance. In December 2007, be became a member of the Senior Advisory Board of Siderian ventures based in San Francisco.
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