Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Tropical Storm Karl Hits Mexico

Isela Serrano
Reuters
Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:35 UTC
Image
© NOAA via AFP - Getty Images This satellite-based image taken Thursday morning shows Tropical Storm Karl just before it re-emerged into the Gulf of Mexico.
Tropical Storm Karl hit Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday and could reach hurricane strength once it enters the Gulf of Mexico, where it could swing past major Mexican oil installations.

Hundreds of mostly Mayan villagers were evacuated as Karl dumped rain and brought strong winds to the Yucatan, civil protection authorities said.

The storm also knocked out power to tens of thousands of people throughout the mainly rural area. Majahual, home to a large cruise ship port, bore the brunt of the storm as it made landfall but no serious damage was reported.

Mexico's state-run oil giant Pemex has not curtailed any operations but said it would monitor Karl's progress as it approached operations in the Bay of Campeche, where the bulk of Mexico's 2.55 million barrels per day of oil is produced.
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Arrow Down

Thailand: Apology After Tsunami False Alarm


Reuters
Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:53 UTC
The Thai government apologized Tuesday to a region where thousands died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami after a botched warning drill this week caused hundreds to flee their homes, convinced another wave was coming.

Hundreds of villagers in southwestern Phang Nga province fled to higher ground Monday after warning sirens went off intermittently, 30 minutes after a scheduled drill was completed in Ban Nam Khem, a village devastated by the 2004 tsunami.

The false alarms were the latest hiccup in Thailand's efforts to build a tsunami warning system since the towering waves battered Thailand's Andaman coast on December 26, 2004, leaving 5,398 people dead and nearly 3,000 missing.

The Indian Ocean tsunami, one of history's worst natural disasters, killed more than 226,000 people in 13 countries, including many foreigners lured by the region's pristine islands and beaches.
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Bizarro Earth

Europe is Expected to Have the Worst Winter in the Last 1000 Years


eWorldPost
Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:56 UTC
Gulf Stream
© eWorldPost

If we hoped for a soft winter, a warning from Polish meteorologists gives us creeps. They believe this winter will be the coldest in the last 1000 years.

In the 2010-2011 we can freeze more than ever.

All this because the change of oceanic current Gulfstream, that keeps a climatic equilibrum on Earth. Soon, the hot waters transported by Gulf Stream won't fight the cold air from the Arctic Ocean. The first signs of the phenomena can already be seen in the Scandinavian Peninsula, the specialists say.

Gulf Stream or Gulf's Current works as a 'radiator' for the north part of Europe, and this disappearance or even a slight diminish can have as a consequence a new Ice Age.

Such a catastrophe might be hurried by the explosion of the petrol platform from Gulf of Mexico, just the place were Gulf Stream is formed. Then over 700k tons of petrol were discharged into the Ocean. The situation can change dramatically. A part of the petrol passed from Caribean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean, reducing the speed of Gulfstream, that transports less warm water.
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Binoculars

New York: 10,000 Birds Trapped in Twin Towers Memorial Light

Nick Allen
The Telegraph, UK
Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:21 UTC
Image
© WiredFlying around the Tribute in Light are birds, pulled from their migratory path by the light
More than 10,000 confused birds were trapped by the beams of memorial lights switched on to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York.

Two beams emanating from Manhattan, known as the Tribute of Light, had to be turned off five times to allow the migrating birds to continue on their journey last week.

The birds were on their way from Canada to the warmer climate of the Caribbean and South America.

They do not always fly over New York and the last time their migratory path coincided with September 11 was in 2004.

The Tribute of Light is turned on by the Municipal Art Society every year on the anniversary of the attacks.

Monitors from New York City Audubon, a conservation organization, observed this year's tribute and alerted organizers to the confused birds.
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Binoculars

New Zealand: Kiwi Egg Hatches After Buffeting by Earthquake


The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 13 Sep 2010 06:52 UTC
Image
© Agence France-PresseA newly born kiwi chick at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch
An endangered New Zealand kiwi has hatched safely, in a boost to conservation efforts.

Named Richter, after the scale of the 7.0-magnitude quake this month, the chick hatched at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch.

"Our first egg hatch this year is one breakage that is a welcome relief after the recent quakes," Kate Wilkinson, the country's Conservation Minister, said.

The ground-dwelling kiwi, the avian symbol of New Zealand, is threatened by a host of introduced predators including rats, cats, dogs, ferrets and possums.

Rory Newsam, a Department of Conservation spokesman, said there were fewer than 70,000 kiwis left in New Zealand and the rowi, the subspecies to which Richter belongs, numbered only 300.
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Binoculars

Wood-Eating Catfish Discovered in Peru

Fiona Govan
The Telegraph, UK
Tue, 14 Sep 2010 07:54 UTC
Image
© Paulo PetryPaulo Petry, a zoology professor at Harvard University, said the fish was found in an area bursting with biodiversity but also under threat from development
A new species of armoured catfish that eats wood with spoon-shaped teeth has been discovered in a remote area of the Amazonian jungle in Peru.

Scientists from the US National Science Foundation made the discovery during an expedition last month to a national park in the Alto Purus area of northeastern Peru.

The fish, which reaches 70cm long (2ft 3 ins), have evolved "spoon-shaped teeth" specialised in scraping tree logs that fall into the river waters.

The indigenous people have long eaten the fish which they catch by shooting them in the water, but it is the first time a specimen has been caught alive to be studied by scientists.

Paulo Petry, a zoology professor at Harvard University, said the fish was found in an area bursting with biodiversity but also under threat from development.
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Binoculars

Australia: Bats "Have Regional Accents"


The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:11 UTC
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© AlamyScientists have been able to tell whereabouts in New South Wales the bats are from
Bats can be identified by their different regional dialects, researchers in Australia have discovered.

A team of scientists in Australia found that the creatures develop dialects depending on where they live.

The information can help identify, assess and protect different species.

Scientists had long suspected bats had distinctive regional calls - as studies have shown with some other animals - but this was the first time it had been proven in the field.

Researchers took 4,000 bat calls and used a custom-made software program to develop identification keys for bat calls in different parts of New South Wales.
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Frog

Another Oil Disaster, This Time in the Caribbean

Osha Gray Davidson
Onearth
Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:00 UTC
oil fire
© John SmithFire at Bonaire oil storage terminal
A still-smoldering fire that raged out of control for two days at an oil storage facility on the Caribbean island of Bonaire has left residents shaken and wondering how island wildlife, which drives tourism, will fare in the aftermath. And with echos of the BP Deepwater Horizon, they wonder how such a disaster, consuming 20,000 barrels of oil products at a Venezuelan-owned terminal called BOPEC, could continue unabated for so long.

Island broadcaster and environmentalist Sean Paton suggested that the facility's safety plan was lacking. "One might ask," added Paton, "'What safety plan?'"

A lightning strike reportedly started the fire on Wednesday, sending black clouds billowing 10,000 feet over this small Dutch-ruled island, which is one of the hemisphere's most popular dive locations and home to several rare species of plants and animals.
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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Are We Witnessing the Death of Our Planet?

Howard Beale
Activist Post
Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:00 UTC
dead fish
© na
It seems that we are witnessing the death of our planet right before our very eyes. The extreme weather, Gulf oil disaster and use of deadly dispersants, to decades of agrichemical and synthetic medicines leeching into water ways, and general human pollution resulting in having to now map the North Atlantic Garbage Patch (not to be confused with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) -- has resulted in major breaches to our interdependent life system.

Here are a few recently-reported disturbing indicators that our life support system may be nearing critical condition:
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Phoenix

US: Colorado fire commander says next 36 hours pivotal


Associated Press
Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:07 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Ed AndrieskiA slurry bomber drops retardant on a burning ridge as the sun sets behind it as a wildfire burns west of Loveland, Colo., on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010.
Loveland - Officials say the next 36 hours are pivotal for crews to make headway against a fire burning very dry trees and grass in steep terrain of northern Colorado foothills.

Incident team manager Jim Thomas says warm, dry weather is helping fuel the nearly 1,000-acre wildfire near Loveland, and crews are also expecting winds to pick up later Tuesday and into Wednesday.

More than 400 firefighters have been assigned to fight the fire. The team that led the fight against a wildfire that's now contained near Boulder has taken over.
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