Earth ChangesS


Attention

The Big Question: Why are honey bees disappearing, and what can be done to save them?

Why are we asking this now?

Because yesterday Britain's beekeepers, an eminently peaceful and undemonstrative group of people, felt steamed up enough about the issue to mount a lobby of Parliament, bending the ears of peers and MPs.

What are they lobbying for?

They want the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to carry out an urgent research programme into the diseases that seem increasingly to be threatening honey bees in Britain and in other parts of the world. The beekeepers have costed the programme at £8m over five years. The Food and Farming Minister, Lord Rooker, accepts that bees are facing serious threats. In fact, he himself has warned that honey bees could be wiped out in Britain. But he says that Defra simply doesn't have the cash to fund the research.

Comment: We note that 8 million pounds sterling is peanuts compared with what the British government is spending on false flag operations.


Better Earth

Strong earthquake startles Brazilians

An earthquake measuring 5,2 on the Richter scale shook southern Brazil overnight, scaring many but causing no significant damage or casualties, officials and media said.

It was the strongest temblor to hit the region in a century, the news group Globo said.

Question

Volcanic Eruption Of 1600 Caused Global Disruption

The 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina in Peru had a global impact on human society, according to a new study of contemporary records by geologists at UC Davis.

The eruption is known to have put a large amount of sulfur into the atmosphere, and tree ring studies show that 1601 was a cold year, but no one had looked at the agricultural and social impacts, said Ken Verosub, professor of geology at UC Davis.

Question

Midwest quakes poorly understood, different from West Coast temblors

Champaign, Ill. - Scientists say they know far too little about Midwestern seismic zones like the one that rumbled to life under southern Illinois Friday morning, but much of what they do know is striking.

The fault zones beneath the Mississippi River Valley have produced the largest modern U.S. quakes east of the Rockies, a region covered with old buildings not built to withstand seismic activity.

And, when quakes happen, they're felt far and wide, their vibrations propagated over hundreds of miles of bedrock.

Cloud Lightning

India: One killed in lightning strike

Kasaragod: One person was killed in a lightning strike in the district early on Sunday morning. The deceased was identified by the police as K. Kunhikkannan, 58, of Poinachi here.

Cloud Lightning

Think Tank: Climate change 'may put world at war'

Climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars but lasting for centuries unless the problem is controlled, a leading defence think tank has warned.

The Royal United Services Institute said a tenfold increase in research spending, comparable to the amount spent on the Apollo space programme, will be needed if the world is to avoid the worst effects of changing temperatures.

However the group said the world's response to the threats posed by climate change, such as rising sea levels and migration, had so far been "slow and inadequate," because nations had failed to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

Comment: Climate change may indeed prove to be catastrophic but not necessarily because of global warming.


Cloud Lightning

US, Maryland: Lightning strikes three houses in county

When lightning hit Don and Ellen Noland's house Sunday morning and caused a fire, Don's quick use of water and then a fire extinguisher may have saved his house from going up in flames.

"The firemen told me that whole house would be gone if I hadn't done that," he said Sunday as he and his wife prepared to move temporarily to a hotel.

Cloud Lightning

US: Planes struck by lightning

Washington - Two planes landed in Maryland and Virginia after being struck by lightning on Sunday morning. No one was injured.

Both incidents occurred around 10:30 a.m., according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac.

Cloud Lightning

US, Minneapolis: Bolt from above: three workers survive lightning strike at Twin Cities International

A construction worker got hit in the head by a lightning bolt Monday night at Twin Cities International, and survived.

In fact, he's not even in the hospital.



1lightning
©Unknown


Cloud Lightning

US, Missouri: Lightning strike damages motel

Guests at the American Inn on Noland Road near Interstate 70 spent a portion of their stay outdoors Monday night.

Approximately 35 guests were evacuated from 22 rooms after lightning struck an attic area of the hotel, spokesperson Pam Hayward said Tuesday.