Earth ChangesS

Butterfly

Flashback Chill out on global warming

Al Gore's cinematic sermons on inconvenient truths to the contrary notwithstanding, it is becoming clearer by the day that major cracks are appearing in the supposed consensus among scientists that global warming caused by carbon emissions is an urgent problem that government must address with drastic measures. Among the most significant cracks are these:

Cloud Lightning

Flashback The Real Link Between Solar Energy, Ocean Cycles And Global Temperature

This article expands and updates my previous articles and should be read with them. Failure of IPCC to properly consider Solar Influence which is about the failure of the IPCC to properly consider solar influences and The link between solar cycle length and decadal global temperature which explains that according to real world observations the matter of solar cycle length is very significant.

Variations in solar energy as a driver for global climate change have been wholly discounted by the IPCC and climate modelers on the basis that something they call Total Solar Irradiance has not changed enough between 1975 and 1998 to make a significant contribution to the climate warming observed during that period.

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Earthquake prediction is written in the clouds

Can clouds predict earthquakes? YouTube has footage of strange multicoloured clouds seen just before the recent earthquake struck Sichuan province in China.

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Microbial Stowaways: Are Ships Spreading Disease?

Ships are inadvertently carrying trillions of stowaways in the water held in their ballast tanks. When the water is pumped out, invasive species could be released into new environments. Disease-causing microbes could also be released, posing a risk to public health, according to an article in the May issue of Microbiology Today.

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©iStockphoto/Brian Raisbeck
When water held in the ballast tanks of ships is pumped out, disease-causing microbes could be released into new environments, researchers warn.

"There is no romantic adventure or skullduggery at work here," said Professor Fred Dobbs from Old Dominion University, Virginia. Ships pump water in and out of ballast tanks to adjust the waterline and compensate for cargo loading, making the ship run as efficiently as possible. These tanks can hold thousands of tonnes of water. "Any organisms in the water are likely to be released when it is next pumped out."

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Cameras catch glimpse of world's rarest rhino

Hidden cameras in the jungles of Indonesia's Java island have captured rare footage of the world's most threatened rhino, boosting efforts to save it from extinction, conservationists said Thursday.

Two camera traps set up in the remote Ujung Kulon national park yielded new footage of the endangered Javan rhinoceros, said Adhi Hariyadi, leader of the project by the environmental group World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

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Exxon to cut funding to climate change denial groups

The oil giant ExxonMobil has admitted that its support for lobby groups that question the science of climate change may have hindered action to tackle global warming. In its corporate citizenship report, released last week, ExxonMobil says it intends to cut funds to several groups that "divert attention" from the need to find new sources of clean energy.

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'Climate Change Already Affecting U.S. Water, Land, And Biodiversity' Report Finds

The U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) has released "Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3 (SAP 4.3): The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States." The CCSP integrates the federal research efforts of 13 agencies on climate and global change. This report is one of the most extensive examinations of climate impacts on U.S. ecosystems.

The report finds that climate change is already affecting U.S. water resources, agriculture, land resources, and biodiversity, and will continue to do so.

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US: Lightning strike leaves area powerless

Thousands of people in the Danbury area were without power for much of Tuesday afternoon after lightning hit a transmission line, officials said.

Mitch Gross, a spokesman for Connecticut Light & Power, said the lightning strike set off a chain reaction that resulted in the loss of power at six substations.

The outage affected such a wide area, Gross said, that officials could not say exactly where it occurred.

"We believe it was a lightning strike that hit a transmission line," Gross said. "That, in turn, created problems at substations in the area."

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UK: Lightning triggers power cuts

Residents in almost 3,000 homes and businesses in Yarmouth and Lowestoft woke to find they had no electricity this morning after a lightning strike on an overhead cable.

The strike happened at 3.58am, leaving 2,766 customers unable to boil the kettle for a morning cuppa.

Power was restored to most people by 7.37am, but EDF Energy engineers are still working to reconnect the final 163 customers in Bradwell and Belton.

Arrow Down

New campaign takes cocaine impact to Europe

London - A picture campaign highlighting the devastation caused in Colombia by the production of cocaine for markets in Europe and America came to London on Wednesday before heading across Europe.

Shared Responsibility, a collection of photographs with captions showing the wholesale destruction of the rainforest for plantations of coca plants, aims to raise the guilt factor among cocaine users.