Earth ChangesS


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Daily Death Toll at 700 in Russian Heat Wave

Sergei L. Loiko
Los Angeles Times
Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00 UTC
Russian heat wave
© Alexander Demianchuk/ReutersA man wears a mask to protect himself from the smog in central Moscow. Forest and peat bog fires caused by the hottest weather ever recorded in the Russian capital have raised the average daily death toll to 700
Tatiana Dyment found her 70-year-old mother sitting in the bathtub, her head leaning sideways and cold water from the showerhead still streaming down her back.

"She could have been dead for two to three days, doctors suppose," said the psychologist, who had rushed back to Moscow from vacation in Croatia after she couldn't reach her mother by phone. "The windows in her apartment on the sixth floor were wide open and every piece of furniture in the apartment smelled of burning" from the thick white smoke hanging in the air outside.

Doctors say her mother, Tatiana Belskaya, died of "acute heart insufficiency." Dyment, 31, has her own idea of what killed her usually fit mother: "I think this smog from the forest fires killed her."

On Monday, Moscow health authorities announced that the number of deaths each day in the capital had nearly doubled to 700 as most of central Russia entered the seventh week of a heat wave. The high temperatures, hovering around 100 degrees, have destroyed 30% of the nation's grain crops and triggered massive peat bog and forest fires that alone have killed more than 50 people and devastated dozens of villages.
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Bizarro Earth

Russian Drought, Pakistan Floods, Chinese Landslides All Linked To Bizarre Jet Stream Change


Channel 4
Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:45 UTC

Normally the jet stream is a giant loop of high speed winds that whip round the upper atmosphere, writes science correspondent Tom Clarke.

The jet stream isn't involved in day to day weather - it's too high up - but because it pushes the atmosphere around it's very important in steering large scale weather patterns below. [...]

Comment: We find it curious that the mainstream media is widely reporting the altered jet stream to be responsible culprit behind this triple whammy of devastation.

Pakistan floods: supercharged jet stream causing flooding

Frozen jet stream links Pakistan floods, Russian fires

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Magnify

"Fearless" Aphids Ignore Warnings, Get Eaten by Ladybugs


ScienceDaily
Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Georg JanderAn aphid that is attacked by a ladybug releases an alarm pheromone that causes nearby aphids to flee from danger.
If your building has 10 false fire alarms one morning, it is human nature to ignore it when it goes off for the 11th time.

Similarly, when aphids are raised on plants genetically engineered to emit a compound that warns surrounding aphids of a predator, they become accustomed to the chemical and no longer respond to it -- even when a predator is present, according to Cornell and Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) researchers reporting Aug. 3 in an online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Under normal circumstances, when a ladybug captures and bites into an aphid, the victim releases an alarm pheromone called beta-farnesene, which prompts nearby aphids to walk away or drop off the plant. Researchers are interested in protecting plants from aphids through genetically engineered crops that produce beta-farnesene or through traditional breeding methods that cross crops with plants -- such as some wild and cultivated potatoes and peppermint -- that naturally produce the pheromone.

The findings have implications for controlling aphids in crops, which could be engineered to make aphids unresponsive to warnings of ladybugs and other predators, making them easy prey.
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Bizarro Earth

Asia Flooding Plunges Millions Into Misery

Christopher Bodeen
Associated Press
Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:20 UTC
China Flood
© AP Photo/Xinhua, Gong ZhiyongIn this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, buildings, vehicles and roads are hit by mudslides in Zhouqu county, in northwest China's Gansu Province on Sunday Aug. 8, 2010. Rubble-strewn floodwaters tore through a remote corner of northwestern China on Sunday, smashing buildings, overturning cars and killing at least 127 people.
Beijing - Rescuers searched Monday for an estimated 1,300 people left missing after rubble-strewn floodwaters tore through a remote corner of northwestern China, just one of a series of flood disasters across Asia that have plunged millions into misery.

In neighboring Pakistan, an estimated 4 million people faced food shortages amid their country's worst-ever flooding, while rescuers in Indian-controlled Kashmir raced to find 500 people still missing in flash floods that have killed 132. North Korea's state media said high waters destroyed thousands of homes and damaged crops.

Sunday's disaster in China's Gansu province killed at least 127 people and covered entire villages in water, mud, and rocks.

Crews were working to restore power, water and communications in affected areas in the southern part of the province, and it was not known how many of the missing were in danger or simply out of contact.

Hoping to prevent further disasters, demolitions experts set off charges to clear debris blocking the Bailong River upstream from the ravaged town of Zhouqu, which remained largely submerged following Sunday's disaster.

The blockage had formed a 2-mile (3-kilometer)-long artificial lake on the river that overflowed in the pre-dawn hours, sending deadly torrents crashing down onto the town. Houses were ripped from their foundations, apartment buildings shattered, and streets covered with a layer of mud and water more than a yard (meter) deep.
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Attention

Canada: Melting glacier unleashes massive slide in British Columbia

Jes Abeita and Kelly Sinosk
Canada.com
Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:24 UTC
Image
© Bonny Makarewicz/Vancouver SunThe slide path of the avalanche from the Capricorn Glacier near Meager Creek, August 6, 2010.
Vancouver - A melting glacier triggered a massive rock slide on the unstable slope of a dormant volcano near Pemberton, B.C., on Friday, diverting a river, blocking a creek and raising concern that a newly formed lake behind the slide could flood the valley below.

Provincial emergency officials were assessing the danger posed by the avalanche on Capricorn Mountain, 65 km north of Pemberton, which left an earth-and-debris dam 300 metres wide and two kilometres long. It spanned nearly the entire breadth of the valley.

An evacuation alert was issued for parts of the Lil'wat First Nation's lands.

The slide stranded 13 campers who were airlifted out. There were no reports of anyone killed or injured.
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Arrow Down

127 Killed as Mudslides Devastate China Town

Peter Foster
The Telegraph
Sun, 08 Aug 2010 04:22 UTC
Image
© ReutersRescuers search for missing.
Landslides triggered by torrential summer rains in northwest China killed 127 people and left 2,000 missing in the latest of a series of flood-related disasters to befall northern China where the heaviest rains in a decade have now cost more than 1,400 lives.

A small county town in a hilly area of Gansu province was smashed by a wave of mud and debris shortly after midnight on Saturday, according to local reports, with cars being swept down streets that were instantly turned into rivers.

In parts of Zhouqu town the mud reached as high as the third storey of buildings, with many other smaller single-storey lifted from their foundations by the force of the landslide, according to China Central Television, the state broadcaster.

A nearby village of 300 households was also inundated.

"Many single-story homes have been wiped out and now we're waiting to see how many people got out," one resident of Zhouqu, a merchant called Han Jiangping said.
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Bizarro Earth

Landslides Raise Death Toll in Pakistan


The Telegraph
Sun, 08 Aug 2010 14:59 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesPrime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited flood-hit areas and has said the disaster had spiralled beyond the government's capacity
Landslides have raised the death toll in flood-hit Pakistan, cutting off roads and hampering aid efforts as rescuers battled to beat rains exacerbating the country's worst ever floods.

Washed-out roads in Pakistan's northwest made ground access to many of the 15 million flood victims impossible and many helicopters were unable to fly as heavy rains persisted, cutting off the entire Swat valley, officials said.

In the far north of the country, 28 bodies were recovered from rubble after landslides in Gilgit-Baltistan province caused houses to collapse Saturday.

Administrative official Mohammad Ali Yougwi said up to 40 people were feared dead after the landslides hit those living at the bottom of a mountain in the town of Skardu.

"We have recovered 28 dead bodies, there are more people buried under the rubble," said Yougwi.
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Cloud Lightning

Flooding kills 10 across Europe


Press TV
Sun, 08 Aug 2010 17:11 UTC
Image
© UnknownFloodwaters damage houses in Chrastava village
At least ten people have been killed and thousands of others have been evacuated as heavy rain and flooding disrupt traffic and cause power outages in central Europe.

Polish officials announced on Sunday that at least three people have been killed after rivers overflew and a dam burst, submerging towns in southwestern Poland.

"We had no warning. In less than an hour our town was totally inundated up to the first floor, many houses collapsed and we were cut off from the world," mayor of Poland's southwestern city of Bogatynia, Andrzej Grzmielewicz told TVN24news channel.

"We need amphibious vehicles and helicopters to help evacuate at least 2,000 flood victims," he added, calling on people to help the victims with blankets and food.

Torrential rain has also drowned four Czech nationals in a region bordering Poland and Germany on Saturday.

At least 1,000 people were forced to evacuate their houses and people of Chrastava and Frydlant were rescued by military helicopters from the roofs of their homes.
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Phoenix

Nice day for a white wedding: Brides brave blankets of smog caused by Russian wildfires


UK Daily Mail
Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:52 UTC
Image
© ReutersDetermined: A newly-married couple walks along Red Square amidst the heavy cloud of smog
The thick blanket of white smog which hangs over Russia was not enough to put off some determined brides from tying the knot today.

The women, barely visible in their white dresses, went ahead with their nuptials, despite the shroud of smog that has descended on the country.

The eerie cloud, which has caused a fourfold increase in airborne pollutants, including carbon monoxide, is the result of forest fires which have killed 50 people nationwide.

Flights at international airports have been grounded and visibility in the capital is down to a few dozen yards as the fires continue to tear through forests and villages.

Russians wore protective face masks as dozens of forest and peat bog fires around the city continued to burn, fanned by south-easterly winds and the country's most intense heat wave in 130 years.

More than 500 separate blazes are active today, mainly across Russia's European territory, according to the Emergencies Ministry.
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Igloo

Huge ice island calves off Greenland glacier

Timothy Gardner
Reuters
Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:42 UTC
Image
© USGS
An ice island four times the size of Manhattan broke off from one of Greenland's two main glaciers, scientists said on Friday, in the biggest such event in the Arctic in nearly 50 years.

The new ice island, which broke off on Thursday, will enter a remote place called the Nares Strait, about 620 miles south of the North Pole between Greenland and Canada.

The ice island has an area of 100 square miles (260 square km) and a thickness up to half the height of the Empire State Building, said Andreas Muenchow, professor of ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware.

Muenchow said he had expected an ice chunk to break off from the Petermann Glacier, one of the two largest remaining ones in Greenland, because it had been growing in size for seven or eight years. But he did not expect it to be so large.

"The freshwater stored in this ice island could keep the Delaware or Hudson Rivers flowing for more than two years," said Muenchow, whose research in the area is supported by the National Science Foundation.

"It could also keep all U.S. public tap water flowing for 120 days."
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