Earth ChangesS


Snowman

Balkans snow crisis isolates thousands


Focus News Agency
Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:54 UTC
It is snowing not only in Bulgaria, but also in other countries in the region. The Balkans expect low temperatures, frosty streets and bad weather over the next days as well.

The snow caused hundreds of road accidents in Serbia. Over the last 24 hours 289 road accidents have been registered. 2 people died and 44 were injured. The regional highways and roads are covered with a thin layer of snow, under which there is frosty sections. More than 30 villages are blocked. There are communities where power has been cut off. The situation is very serious in Central, Western and Southern Serbia.

The snow is 3 meters deep in some regions in Albania. At least five municipalities and some 10,000 people are blocked. Morina- Kukes highway is closed. There might be stranded cars.

The heavy snowfall hampers the traffic along the roads in Macedonia. For now railway and air transport do not encounter problems.
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Bizarro Earth

'Red tide' sent seabirds to their deaths

Catherine Brahic
New Scientist
Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:12 UTC
In November 2007, hundreds of dead and bedraggled seabirds washed up on the shores of Monterey Bay in California. There were no cuts on their bodies and no signs of a struggle. Now it appears that that it was killer foam that sent them to their deaths.

The birds, washed ashore in three distinct incidents, were covered in a slimy, pale yellow-green material. The material, whose pungent smell reminded researchers of linseed oil, dried out to leave a pale yellow crust. Cleaning the feathers of the survivors, feeding them and placing them in warm water helped them recover within 10 days.

The suspicion initially was that the mysterious deaths might be related to the Cosco Busan oil spill in San Francisco Bay the same month, or to controversial aerial insecticide spraying on the Central Coast to control the light brown apple moth.
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Better Earth

Antibiotic Resistance: A Rising Concern In Marine Ecosystems


National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:27 UTC
Scientists Find Threats As Well As Cures In Ocean

A team of scientists, speaking today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, called for new awareness of the potential for antibiotic-resistant illnesses from the marine environment, and pointed to the marine realm as a source for possible cures of those threats.

The group stated that newly completed studies of ocean beach users point to an increasing risk of staph infections, and that current treatments for seafood poisoning may be less effective due to higher than expected antibiotic resistance. The group also asserts that new research has identified sponge and coral-derived chemicals with the potential for breaking down antibiotic resistant compounds and that could lead to new personalized medical treatments.
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Bizarro Earth

Large Dust Storm over Syria and Iraq


Earth Snapshot
Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:30 UTC
An intense dust storm is spreading sands from Syria to the Iraq.

The dust is blowing north out of the Syrian Desert in Iraq, Syria and Kuwait.
dust storm
Dust storm over Syria
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Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: Mystery as sparrows drop dead

Leighton Keith
Stuff.co
Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:58 UTC
Hundreds of sparrows littered New Plymouth's main street yesterday, shocking business owners arriving at work and baffling a bird expert.

Sparrow
© MARK DWYER/Taranaki Daily NewsBIRD IN THE HAND: SPCA field officer Jackie Poles-Smith said she could not believe it when the birds arrived.
The drenched birds were dropping like flies from two trees on the Hill on Devon St West after a deluge of rain.

Autopsies will be done on some of the dead birds to see if foul play was involved.

The Shampoo Shop and Salon owners Jane Moodie and Jan Bocock said waterlogged birds lined their shop front as they arrived at work about 8.15am.
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Better Earth

US: Rare sea otter confirmed at Depoe Bay

Terry Richard
The Oregonian
Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:11 UTC
Sea otter
© Morris Grover/Oregon State Parks rangerA rare sea otter floats in the water below the U.S. 101 bridge in Depoe Bay.
Oregon has a rare visitor -- a sea otter that can be easily seen from the sea wall at Depoe Bay.

A federally protected endangered species, sea otters went extinct off the Oregon coast in 1906 when the last one was confirmed killed. A reintroduction attempt failed in the early 1970s.

Since then, solo sea otters have been confirmed at Yaquina Head in the 1990s and at Cape Arago in February 2003.
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Black Cat

England: Giant cat seen by two tree surgeons


Daily Mail
Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:49 UTC
Big cat paw print
Tree surgeons John Vine and Nick Cole captured this image of a paw print which they say was left by a giant cat
Two tree surgeons have today spoken of their shock and amazement after claiming to have seen a cat 'the size of a labrador' emerge from under the willow they were felling.

John Vine and Nick Cole were trimming the tree near Gloucester, when they saw the creature come out of thicket.

They managed to photograph the big cat's paw print following the sighting earlier this week.

Mr Vine, 49, said: 'I was working 50ft up in tree when Nick shouted to me to look down to my left.
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Butterfly

New Butterfly Discovered with Mustache Disguise


LiveScience
Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:07 UTC
Butterfly
© Natural History Museum, LondonThe Splendeuptychia ackeryi butterfly, or Magdalena valley ringlet, whose distinguishing feature is unusually hairy mouthparts.
A mustache on a butterfly has tipped off curators at the Natural History Museum in London that a specimen in their collection for 90 years actually belongs to a new species.

A curator found the disguised insect, initially collected from the dry Magdalena valleys of Colombia, among the 3 million butterfly specimens at the museum where it had lain undiscovered.

Blanca Huertas compared the mustachioed specimen with a recently found wild specimen, allowing her to identify the older specimen as Splendeuptychia ackeryi, or Magdalena valley ringlet, whose distinguishing feature is unusually hairy mouthparts. (The name ackeryi is dedicated to Phil Ackery, the former collection manager of the butterfly collections at the museum.)
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Cloud Lightning

There's the snow ... now for rain


New Zealand Herald
Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:00 UTC
Great Wall
© APTourists get a cool view of the Great Wall
Beijing - China's normally dry capital lay covered in a white blanket for a third day yesterday, with Beijing residents and tourists basking in an unusual, artificially produced snowfall.

The snow was a product of cloud-seeding, a method used by the Government to induce rain to try to end a three-month drought that has gripped at least 12 Chinese provinces.
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Fish

US: "Right" Whales Battling Back from Edge of Endangerment

Gary Davis
Associated Content
Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:38 UTC
Strong Population of 400 Gets Constant Monitoring

Right whale
© Wikipedia Commons/Public DomainDrawing of Northern Pacific Right Whale
When I first saw the term "right whale," I immediately thought of the term "left whale." Reading that I was wrong, I considered the "right whale" may be the "correct whale" and I was "right." Well, not the right "whale" but just plain right. Now I'm confused.

John D. Sutter of CNN.com has posted an article, "Volunteers, scientists guard endangered whales," that reports that researchers, volunteers and scientists are routinely standing guard on beaches to identify right whales.
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