Earth ChangesS


Better Earth

Earthquake jolts Greece

Athens, Greece -- A powerful earthquake measured at magnitude 6.1 and centered about 75 miles southwest of Athens startled residents of southern Greece Sunday morning, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

©USGS

Better Earth

Two quakes rattle Canada's west coast

Two strong earthquakes shook the West Coast in the Queen Charlotte Islands region early this morning. There is no tsunami warning in effect for the area.

Cloud Lightning

More Than One Million Lose Power in California Storm



©AP Photo/Tony Avelar
Tree service worker Ramiro Bautista cuts the remaining tree that fell and on power lines that cut off service to homes in Felton, Calif., Friday, Jan. 4, 2008.

Sacramento, California - Howling winds, pelting rain and heavy snow pummeled California on Friday, toppling trees, flipping big rigs, cutting power to more than a million people and forcing evacuations in mudslide-prone areas.

Flights were grounded and highways closed in Northern California as gusts reached 80 mph during the second wave of an arctic storm that sent trees crashing onto houses, cars and roads. Forecasters expected the storm to dump as much as 10 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada by Sunday.

Cloud Lightning

California hunkers down for major storm

A fierce arctic storm pounded California on Friday, threatening to soak mudslide-prone canyons already charred by wildfires and to paralyze the mountains with deep snow.

Beer

Drunken flies get hypersexual

Chronic boozing sends male flies chasing after any and every potential mate.

From the annals of insect biology comes a cautionary tale for those recovering from their post-New Year's celebration: heavy boozing has been shown to send male fruitflies, like their human counterparts, into a lusty fog.

©Getty
Fruit flies get amorous under the influence of constant booze.

Attention

Indonesia mud volcano breaches barrier, sparks panic

A mud volcano that forced more than 15,000 people to abandon their homes on the Indonesian island of Java in 2006 has breached the barriers built to contain it, causing further damage, police said.

Residents in Porong in East Java province fled from their homes in panic late on Thursday when hot, foul-smelling mud began to flow into the area, covering the nearby railway tracks and a main road.

Attention

Alaskan sea drilling plans criticized

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The federal government will open up nearly 46,000 square miles off Alaska's northwest coast to petroleum leases next month, a decision condemned by enviromental groups that contend the industrial activity will harm northern marine mammals.

Snowman

Global cooling soon to replace global warming

Stock up on fur coats and felt boots! This is my paradoxical advice to the warm world.

Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases.

Snowman

State of emergency: Heavy snow blankets Romania and Bulgaria

Heavy snow blanketed Romania and Bulgaria on Thursday, cutting power to hundreds of towns and villages, blocking roads and forcing Bucharest's two airports and some Black Sea ports to close.

Meteorologists said the snow, which had been falling for two days, was expected to continue throughout Romania until late on Thursday, with temperatures expected to fall as low as minus 16 degrees Celsius (3 degrees Fahrenheit).

Butterfly

Australia: Wet and wild conditions continue to lash Queensland

Wet and wild conditions are continuing across Queensland, with severe weather warnings issued, including flash flooding and damaging winds. A new low pressure system forming off the Sunshine Coast is due to intensify the stormy weather which has lashed the southern coastline for the past week.