Earth Changes
April has been a freakishly cold month across much of the northern USA, bringing misery to millions of sun-starved and winter-weary residents from the Rockies to the Midwest. "The weather map ... looks like something out of The Twilight Zone," Minneapolis meteorologist Paul Douglas of WeatherNation TV wrote on his blog last week. Record cold and snow has been reported in dozens of cities, with the worst of the chill in the Rockies, upper Midwest and northern Plains. Several baseball games have been snowed out in both Denver and Minneapolis.
Cities such as Rapid City, S.D.; Duluth, Minn.; and Boulder, Colo., have all endured their snowiest month ever recorded. (In all three locations, weather records go back more than 100 years.) In fact, more than 1,100 snowfall records and 3,400 cold records have been set across the nation so far in April, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Unfortunately for warm-weather lovers, after some mild temperatures the past few days, the chill is forecast to return as the calendar turns to May: Accumulating snow is forecast overnight Tuesday night and Wednesday in Denver and in Minneapolis-St.Paul by Wednesday night and Thursday, said AccuWeather meteorologist Mark Paquette.
Springtime in Minnesota: the sun, the beach, the ice.
Wait, what?
Despite temperatures climbing to almost 80 degrees on Sunday, beachgoers to a lake in eastern Minnesota saw spiky mounds of ice in almost volcanic-looking formations along the edge of the beach.
Wait, what?
Despite temperatures climbing to almost 80 degrees on Sunday, beachgoers to a lake in eastern Minnesota saw spiky mounds of ice in almost volcanic-looking formations along the edge of the beach.
Prof Warns Mini Ice Age has Started
German meteorologists say that the start of 2013 is the coldest in 208 years - and now German media has quoted Russian scientist Dr Habibullo Abdussamatov from the St. Petersburg Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory, who says it is proof that we are heading for a "Mini Ice Age."
Talking to German media, the scientist said that based on his sunspot studies, we are now on an "unavoidable advance towards a deep temperature drop."
Building on observations made by English astronomer Walter Maunder, Dr Abdussamatov said he had found that the Earth cools and warms in a 200-year cycles.
The last big freeze, known as the Little Ice Age, took place between 1650 and 1850 which he said coincided with Maunder's findings that there had been no sunspots between 1645 and 1715.
"The last global decrease of temperature (the coldest phase of the Little Ice Age) was observed not only in Europe, North America and Greenland, but also in any other part of the world during the Maunder minimum of sunspot activity and of the total solar irradiance in 1645 - 1715 years," says Abdussamatov.
German meteorologists say that the start of 2013 is the coldest in 208 years - and now German media has quoted Russian scientist Dr Habibullo Abdussamatov from the St. Petersburg Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory, who says it is proof that we are heading for a "Mini Ice Age."
Talking to German media, the scientist said that based on his sunspot studies, we are now on an "unavoidable advance towards a deep temperature drop."
Building on observations made by English astronomer Walter Maunder, Dr Abdussamatov said he had found that the Earth cools and warms in a 200-year cycles.
The last big freeze, known as the Little Ice Age, took place between 1650 and 1850 which he said coincided with Maunder's findings that there had been no sunspots between 1645 and 1715.
"The last global decrease of temperature (the coldest phase of the Little Ice Age) was observed not only in Europe, North America and Greenland, but also in any other part of the world during the Maunder minimum of sunspot activity and of the total solar irradiance in 1645 - 1715 years," says Abdussamatov.
© Joe Bastardi
He starts by showing the global temperature for the last 4 years: "...you can see the fall that is occurring; it's very plain to see".
Image left: Snapshot of Joe Bastardi's Saturday Summary (4/20).
Of course four years do not make a trend. But they do come after 11 years of stagnation. After 11 years of no warming, one would think the warming would finally resume. Instead just the opposite has occurred - and it has been cooling amazingly fast (almost 0.4°C) - thus completely defying the models. Boy, the oceans must have one big appetite!
Spain has been struck by unseasonal weather which has seen snow falling across the country.
Extreme weather warnings are in place in 18 provinces, with small roads blocked as temperatures continue to hover around freezing.
Simon McCoy reports.
© AP Photo/ Houston Chronicle
Reports indicate that at least 80 cars were stranded in the surrounding area of Houston, Texas after heavy storms battered the South over the weekend
Reports indicate that at least 80 cars were stranded in the surrounding area of Houston, Texas after heavy storms battered the South over the weekend
The onslaught of storms have dumped more than seven inches in some areas and flood warnings were still in effect around Houston, Texas until Sunday morning.
According to local affiliates quarter-size hail and winds up to 60 mph were reported in South Texas.
The stretch of bad weather extended all the way to Tennessee, where a number of stray animals were 'on the loose.'
The Fayette Country Animal Rescue was damaged by the storm sending an unknown number of animals into the area near Interstate 40.
© AP Photo/ Houston Chronicle
Officials with the Houston Fire Department were encouraging individuals to stay home during the storms
Officials with the Houston Fire Department were encouraging individuals to stay home during the storms
The loudest proponents of GE are the ones who stand to profit the most, and they don't seem terribly concerned about the human or environmental costs.
What do we know for certain? We know genetic engineering is riddled with unpredictable effects... so we should expect the unexpected.
You may not realize that this reckless genetic experimentation is not limited to your food supply. Besides being used to create drugs and "Frankenfish," they've also created vaccine-containing bananas, goats that produce spider silk in their milk, venomous cabbage, chemotherapy chicken eggs, and even glow-in-the-dark cats.1
As creepy as some of these things are, the application that may have the greatest potential for global disaster are GE trees created to serve the desires of the paper industry.
Deforestation is already an enormous problem, and the last thing we need is to further stress our precious native forests and the flora and fauna that depend on them.
The documentary featured above discusses how GE trees may adversely impact ecological systems on a grand scale, with potentially catastrophic effects. A Silent Forest: The Growing Threat, Genetically Engineered Trees is hosted by Dr. David Suzuki,2 an award-winning geneticist and author of 52 books. (article continues below video)
A Kenya Wildlife Services ranger stands guard in front of an illegal ivory stockpile in Nairobi on July 20, 2011. Poaching on an "industrial" scale has slashed the elephant population in the countries of central Africa by nearly two-thirds, a group of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said on Friday.
"A recent study shows that the population of forest elephants has dropped by almost two-thirds or 62 percent in the past 10 years, victims of large-scale ivory poaching," the group of eight NGOs said in a statement.
"The situation is dramatic and worrying. It's very dangerous," Jerome Mokoko, assistant director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, told reporters at a news conference in Brazzaville.
"Nearly 5,000 elephants have been lost in the northern zone of Congo between 2009 and 2011," said Mokoko.
He added there were 80,000 elephants in the Central African Republic just 30 years ago but their number has been reduced to just a few thousand.
"The Democratic Republic of Congo alone is home to 70 percent of the elephant population of central Africa. But now there are only between 7,000 and 10,000 elephants in the DRC," Mokoko said.
Robins
Local wildlife officials have determined an estimated one to two hundred dead robins and other similar bird species that have been found in the area died of starvation due to the recent snowstorms.
It is unclear whether the birds were resident birds of the area or early migrators that were traveling through the area and were caught in the recent snowstorms.
"It's not uncommon in robin populations to have a wide up and down, it's actually rather typical," said District Wildlife Manager Mike Crosby. "Nature always persists." The robin population should have no problem recovering from the incident, he said.
It is believed the recent snowfall covered the bird's food source and caused the birds to starve.
Robins survive mostly on insects, Crosby said. And due to the snow they were not able to get to the ground to retrieve food to keep up with their energy demands and subsequently starved to death.
© CHRISTOPHER ARNOLD, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers
Since July and 2012, a total of 220 manatees have died in the lagoon in Brevard County, about 100 of them under mysterious circumstances; and since February, between 250 and 300 dead pelicans have been found in the same area.
Since July and 2012, a total of 220 manatees have died in the lagoon in Brevard County, about 100 of them under mysterious circumstances; and since February, between 250 and 300 dead pelicans have been found in the same area.
Since July and 2012, a total of 220 manatees have died in the lagoon in Brevard County, about 100 of them under mysterious circumstances; and since February, between 250 and 300 dead pelicans have been found in the same area.
Thomas R. "Tom" Reinert, a research administrator with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told members of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program Advisory Board on Wednesday that researchers have been stumped in their efforts to find the cause - or causes.
Asked if the mysterious deaths could migrate south into the lagoon along the Treasure Coast, Reinert replied, "I can't answer that. The cases seem to be localized, with the zone in Brevard County from Sebastian to Titusville being where the deaths are concentrated. And it appears it will remain that way."
In March alone, Reinert said, 56 sea cows died from unknown causes in Brevard County, where the annual manatee death count from all causes averages 111.
