Earth ChangesS


Better Earth

Earthquake felt in Florence, Bologna


The Age
Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:56 UTC
An earthquake in central Italy measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale was felt in the cities of Florence and Bologna, news reports said.

No injuries to people or damage to buildings were immediately reported in the earthquake which struck early Saturday, the ANSA news agency said.
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Snowman

Global warming sceptics buoyed by record cold

Catherine Elsworth
Telegraph
Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:54 UTC
Global warming sceptics are pointing to recent record cold temperatures in parts of North America and Asia and the return of Arctic Sea ice to suggest fears about climate change may be overblown.

According to the US National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the average temperature of the global land surface in January 2008 was below the 20th century mean (-0.02°F/-0.01°C) for the first time since 1982.
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Arrow Down

Avalanche kills five in Kyrgyzstan


RIA Novosti
Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:37 UTC
An avalanche in the Issyk-Kul district in northern Kyrgyzstan, has left five people dead, the Central Asian state's emergencies ministry said on Friday.

The tragedy occurred on Thursday evening near the mountainous resort of Lake Issyk Kul. Rescuers have managed to recover three of the bodies while the search is continuing for the others, a spokesman said.
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Arrow Down

Avalanche hits Russian passenger train in Urals


RIA Novosti
Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:35 UTC
An avalanche hit a passenger train overnight injuring the driver and blocking the track in the Chelyabinsk district, a South Urals railways spokesman said on Friday.

"The locomotive and the first two carriages, one of which was a freight wagon, took the brunt of the impact. The driver was hospitalized with leg fractures, but no passengers were injured," the spokesman said.
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Bug

Famed geneticist creating life form that turns CO2 to fuel


Agence France Presse
Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:45 UTC
A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said Thursday he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel.
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Snowman

Global Warming? New Data Shows Ice Is Back

Phil Brennan
Newsmax.com
Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:41 UTC
Are the world's ice caps melting because of climate change, or are the reports just a lot of scare mongering by the advocates of the global warming theory?

Scare mongering appears to be the case, according to reports from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that reveal that almost all the allegedly "lost" ice has come back. A NOAA report shows that ice levels which had shrunk from 5 million square miles in January 2007 to just 1.5 million square miles in October, are almost back to their original levels.
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Snowman

Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling

Michael Asher
DailyTech
Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:59 UTC


World temperature chart
©Hadley Center for Climate Prediction
World Temperatures according to the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction. Note the steep drop over the last year.

Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming
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Bizarro Earth

Polluted Prey Causes Wild Birds To Change Their Tune


sciencedaily.com
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:40 UTC
Considerable attention has been paid to the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals in aquatic environments, but rather less attention has been given to routes of contamination on land. A new study by researchers at Cardiff University, reveals that wild birds foraging on invertebrates contaminated with environmental pollutants, show marked changes in both brain and behaviour: male birds exposed to this pollution develop more complex songs, which are actually preferred by the females, even though these same males usually show reduced immune function compared to controls.

European starling
©iStockphoto/Andrew Howe
European starling feeding a fledgling. Researchers found that those birds exposed to environmentally-relevant levels of synthetic and natural estrogen mimics developed longer and more complex songs compared to males in a control group.
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Question

Enormous 'Sea Monster' Fossil Found in Norway


Red Orbit
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:05 UTC
Scientists from the University of Oslo announced their discovery of a fossilized, 150 million-year-old "sea monster" on Spitspergen, in the Arctic island chain of Svalbard.

The 50 ft. sea reptile, nicknamed "The Monster", is the biggest on record, and is one of 40 such fossils discovered on the island. A prior field expedition in the area revealed remains of another large pliosaur that is thought to be among the same species as "The Monster".
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X

Cold kills 1,300 in Afghanistan


RIA Novosti
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:58 UTC
Around 1,300 people have died as freezing weather continues to cause havoc in Afghanistan with heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures hitting 17 of the country's 34 provinces, local authorities said Wednesday.

This winter is the coldest in the last 30 years in war-torn Afghanistan, with temperatures reaching lows of -30 degrees Centigrade (-22 Fahrenheit). Some northern regions have been without food and medical supplies for over two months.

On February 20, the death toll since the cold struck in December had risen to over 1,100 with around 200 dying in the past week and hundreds losing their limbs from severe frostbite, the country's Ministry for Emergency Situations said.

More than half of the casualties have been reported in the western province of Heart, but with so many regions cut off it is hard to get a true picture of the devastation.
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