Earth ChangesS


Binoculars

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

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© 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.

Binoculars

New Zealand: Kiwi Egg Hatches After Buffeting by Earthquake

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© 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.

Binoculars

Wood-Eating Catfish Discovered in Peru

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© 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.

Binoculars

Australia: Bats "Have Regional Accents"

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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.

Frog

Another Oil Disaster, This Time in the Caribbean

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.

Bizarro Earth

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

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:

Phoenix

US: Colorado fire commander says next 36 hours pivotal

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© 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.

Sun

Lake Mead's Water Level Plunges as 11-Year Drought Lingers

Lake Mead, Hoover Dam
Lake Mead, the enormous reservoir of Colorado River water that hydrates Arizona, Nevada, California and northern Mexico, is receding to a level not seen since it was first being filled in the 1930s, stoking existential fears about water supply in the parched Southwest.

Heightening those concerns are recent signs that the region's record-breaking, 11-year drought could wear on for another year or longer. July not only saw the lake drop to 1956 levels but also brought cooling temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that signaled a developing La Niña system, historically a harbinger of more hot and dry weather.

The La Niña "appears to be strong, and it might even last two years," said Brad Udall, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Western Water Assessment program at the University of Colorado.

In the 75 years since the workers began to hold back the Colorado River behind the Hoover Dam, the lake's water has taken two precipitous plunges: first during the prolonged drought of the 1950s, which ranks second only to the current dry spell, and again in the mid-1960s, when water managers began filling Mead's cousin 250 miles upstream, Lake Powell.

Neither dip was as severe or prolonged as that of the past decade. Nearly full in 1999, Mead has shrunken to 40 percent capacity, causing the ominous, bleach-white bathtub ring on the surrounding mountainsides to grow taller by the year. In the past five months, the lake steadily shed another 15 feet, to about 1,087 feet above sea level today. Four more feet and the lake surface will hit what would be the lowest mark since 1937 -- something the government projects will happen in October.

Sun

'Permanent Drought' Predicted for American Southwest

Dust bowl farm
© Argent Editions
If you're one of the tens of millions of people who live in the southwestern United States, get ready for drier weather. That's the message from Richard Seager, a climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The American Southwest, says Seager, is soon likely to experience a "permanent drought" condition on par with the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

That rather frightening prediction is the most likely scenario for the region, given the global warming now underway. "It is a matter of simple thermodynamics," says Seager. "The region will face a considerable increase in aridity over the coming decade."

Cloud Lightning

Hurricanes Igor, Julia spin in Atlantic

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© REUTERS/NOAA/HandoutThis 1145Z GOES imagery shows Igor east of the northern Leeward Islands, and Tropical Storm Julia located south-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.

Tropical Storm Julia grew in the far eastern Atlantic into the fifth hurricane of the storm season, while Hurricane Igor weakened slightly but remained a dangerous Category 4 storm, forecasters said on Tuesday.

Neither hurricane posed an immediate threat to land or energy interests, but Igor could threaten Bermuda by the weekend.

Julia reached hurricane status and then continued to strengthen, with top sustained winds of 85 miles per hour. It was about 355 miles west-northwest of the Cape Verde Islands at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Julia was moving west-northwest as a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, forecasters said. Its projected path would keep it out to sea.

Julia could strengthen slowly over the next two days, forecasters said. But as it gets closer to the more powerful Igor, strong upper-level winds flowing out from Igor could shear off and weaken Julia.

Farther west in the Atlantic, Hurricane Igor weakened slightly but still packed a punch, the center said.

Igor was about 710 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands with maximum sustained winds at 135 mph, the center said.