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Polar bears face threats to survival because of too little global warming

Katie Pavlich
Townhall.com
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 16:54 UTC
Polar Bears
© Townhall.com
When the polar bear was put on the endangered species list back in 2008, it became the first species to be put on the list based on what might happen with the environment and their habitat. Environmental groups argued that global warming served as a major threat to the polar bear and therefore it must be added to the endangered list just in case someday it actually becomes endangered due to climate change.

Now just a few short years later, polar bears in Alaska are facing a major problem: too much ice. CNSNews has the details:
Five meters of ice - about 16 feet thick - is threatening the survival of polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea region along Alaska's Arctic coast, according to Dr. Susan J. Crockford, an evolutionary biologist in British Columbia who has studied polar bears for most of her 35-year career.

That's because the thick ice ridges could prevent ringed seals, the bears' major prey, from creating breathing holes they need to survive in the frigid waters, Crockford told CNSNews.com.
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Cloud Lightning

Parts of western South Dakota getting heavy snow

Dirk Lammers
Associated Press
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 14:43 UTC
South Dakota snow
© Tom Griffith, AP
A system that brought deadly weather to the central and southern U.S. over the weekend dumped heavy snow in western South Dakota late Sunday and early Monday.
A system that brought deadly severe weather to parts of the central and southern U.S. over the weekend dumped heavy, wet snow in western South Dakota late Sunday and early Monday.

"It's all kind of tied together," National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Mathews told The Associated Press. "This is the back side of that system."

The weather service posted a winter storm warning for the northern Black Hills early Monday, and nine inches of snow fell three miles southeast of Deadwood. Elementary, middle and high school classes were canceled in the Lead-Deadwood School district.

Interstate 90 and other major roads in the area remained open Monday but drivers were advised to reduce speed and watch for scattered slippery spots and sloppy wet slush.
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Windsock

Mayflower Arkansas: Deadly tornado destroyed everything in its path


RT
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 15:21 UTC
Image
© Reuters
A damaged vehicle is seen amid debris after a tornado hit the town of Mayflower, Arkansas around 7:30 pm CST, late April 27, 2014
Fourteen people have been confirmed dead after a swarm of tornadoes swept through the US Midwest and South, leaving a trail of destruction. More stormy weather is expected in the coming hours.

At least 31 tornadoes were reported by the National Weather Agency to have hit Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Arkansas was the worst affected - with a three-quarter of a mile-wide tornado instantaneously leveling buildings caught in its way. At least 14 people have died in the state, local officials said on Monday. Previously, it was reported that as many as 18 had died.
RT to show your support & prayer for all of those devastated by yesterday's#tornado #PrayForArkansas @liamkfisher pic.twitter.com/2tRjfJszdM

- allys_sons (@allys_sons) April 28, 2014
"It's been a truly awful night for many families, neighborhoods and communities, but Arkansans always step up to help each other recover," Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe tweeted, ahead of his visit to the affected areas on Monday morning.
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Bizarro Earth

Mysterious 'man-eating' holes appear in sand dune

Marc Lallanilla
Live Science
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 11:54 UTC
Mystery Holes
© NPS
A number of deep holes have appeared in the shifting sands of Mount Baldy, Indiana, then disappeared within a day.
Last summer, 6-year-old Nathan Woessner was walking across the sands of Mount Baldy in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore when he suddenly disappeared into a deep hole.

It took a team of rescuers about three hours to pull Woessner to safety from beneath 11 feet (3.4 meters) of sand and sediment, according to the Chicago Tribune.

More holes have appeared in Mount Baldy, forcing officials with the National Park Service (NPS) to close part of the park, located 55 miles southeast of Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan. But why are these dangerous holes suddenly appearing in the sand dunes?

"We don't know exactly what's going on out there," Ken Mehne, law enforcement specialist for the park, told the Tribune. "We can't let folks out onto the area until we know it's safe."
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Snowflake

Army rescues 2,000 tourists stranded by sudden snowfall in East Sikkim, India


The Economic Times
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 13:00 UTC
Image

Around 2,000 tourists stranded at Thegu in East Sikkim due to sudden snowfall were rescued and evacuated by the Army personnel.
Around 2,000 tourists stranded at Thegu in East Sikkim due to sudden snowfall were rescued and evacuated by the Army personnel of Black Cat Division, Army said today.

250 tourist vehicles with around 2,000 tourists were stranded at Thegu, below Nathu La, due to unexpected and sudden snowfall on Saturday, an Army press release said.

Troops stationed nearby, quickly rose to the occasion and helped to push the tourist vehicles across the steep slopes and rescued the tourists.

The weather deteriorated further in the evening and despite heavy snowfall and hailstorm, the troops cleared all the tourist vehicles by 7 PM on Saturday, the release said, adding all the tourists safely returned to Gangtok by nightfall.

Source: Press Trust of India
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Attention

Deadly tornadoes devastate US states


BBC News
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 10:03 UTC
Image
© BBC News
Buildings were destroyed while vehicles and caravans were thrown into the air
At least 17 people have been killed by tornadoes as a huge storm system swept across the central and southern United States.

Sixteen of the victims were in several suburbs of Little Rock in Arkansas, officials said.

One other person was killed in the town of Quapaw in the north-east of Oklahoma where officials said many buildings were badly damaged.

Tornadoes also struck in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri.
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Bizarro Earth

Former NASA Scientist: Global warming is nonsense

Nick Hallett
Breitbart London
Sat, 26 Apr 2014 12:55 UTC
Flood
© Breitbart, London
A former NASA scientist has described global warming as "nonsense", dismissing the theory of man-made climate change as "an unsubstantiated hypothesis" and saying that it is "absolutely stupid" to blame the recent UK floods on human activity.

Professor Les Woodcock, who has had a long and distinguished academic career, also said there is "no reproducible evidence" that carbon dioxide levels have increased over the past century, and blamed the green movement for inflicting economic damage on ordinary people.

Professor Woodcock is Emeritus Professor of Chemical Thermodynamics at the University of Manchester and has authored over 70 academic papers for a wide range of scientific journals. He received his PhD from the University of London, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a recipient of a Max Planck Society Visiting Fellowship, and a founding editor the journal Molecular Simulation. (h/t Climate Depot)
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Bizarro Earth

Eastern North Carolina tornadoes confirmed


ABC News11 - Raleigh-Durham
Sun, 27 Apr 2014 07:50 UTC
Image
© WTVD/Amber Roberts, WCTI-TV
The National Weather Service is confirming multiple tornado touchdowns in eastern North Carolina, and an emergency management director reports more than a dozen people were taken to the hospital as a result.

Meteorologists said Saturday that while its survey is continuing, they have confirmed EF-2 tornadoes touched down in Pitt and Beaufort counties on Friday. A final assessment is expected late Saturday.

Specifically, the meteorologists said a low-end EF-2 struck near Chicod in Pitt County. A moderate EF-2 hit near Chocowinity and a high-end EF-2 struck Whichards Beach.

On the enhanced Fujita scale, an EF-2 has winds of between 111 mph and 135 mph for a 3-second gust.
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Snowflake Cold

Flagstaff hit by late spring snow in Arizona

Lauren Vargas
abc15.com
Sat, 26 Apr 2014 09:40 UTC
Image
© Kathryn C. Bolinger
From Hidden Meadow Ranch in the White Mountains.

Flagstaff is blanketed in white after the National Weather Service confirms at least five inches of snow fell on Saturday.

Flagstaff hasn't seen this much snow since Christmas.

Conditions were most dangerous on the highways in the afternoon, with low visibility and blowing snow and winds up to 50 miles an hour in some spots.

In downtown Flagstaff, the aftermath left parked cars covered in snow, and locals breaking out the winter wardrobe again.

The huge temperature drop caught some people off-guard.

"It's snowing here, it's crazy!" said Sherry Neimier, who just moved to Arizona two weeks ago from Florida. "I didn't think I'd see snow, but I love it. It's cold as can be but it's awesome."

But some locals say they'll see snow on the mountains sometimes as late as July, so they're prepared for a storm anytime during the year in Flagstaff.
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Dominoes

Ohio confirms "probable connection" between fracking and earthquakes

Lindsay Abrams
Salon.com
Fri, 11 Apr 2014 18:54 UTC
Image
© SDubi/Shutterstock
State regulators announced stricter rules to help prevent future quakes

When Russell Gold, the senior energy reporter for the Wall Street Journal, spoke with Salon about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, he emphasized that one of the biggest problems is the speed at which the industry is moving - drilling almost 100 wells per day, and leaving little time to assess the potential impact of their activity. Often, it's only long after something bad has happened - methane is leaked into the atmosphere, or local air and water is polluted - that regulators (sometimes) push for more caution.

Case in point: last month, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources temporarily suspended drilling at a number of wells in the northeastern part of the state out of concern that it may have been responsible for a series of earthquakes.
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