Earth ChangesS


Umbrella

India: Flood toll in Punjab and Haryana reaches 40


Sify News
Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:47 UTC
Image
© AP
Two more deaths due to floods were reported in Punjab's Mansa district Friday, taking the toll to 25, officials said. With this, the collective flood toll in Punjab and Haryana went up to 40.

The flood situation remained grim in Sardulgarh area of the district with several acres inundated and various villages submerged. Rescue work was on and the army and paramilitary forces were assisting the district administration in the relief operation.

'Over 9,000 acres of agriculture land has been inundated and several villages are submerged in water in the Sardulgarh area. Floods have damaged 19,452 houses in the district,' Deputy Commissioner Kumar Rahul told IANS.

'Flood water entered five more villages, namely Mirpur Kalan, Mirpur Khurd, Bhagwanpur Hingnan, Alipur and Bern, since Thursday,' he said, adding though the water level has receded at some places, the situation is still grim.
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Arrow Down

Mystery of Britain's Vanishing Kestrels as Population Drops 20% Since the 1990s

David Derbyshire
The Daily Mail
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:30 UTC
Image
© AlamySad: There has been a 36 per cent fall in numbers of Kestrel last year
One of the country's most familiar birds of prey is vanishing at an alarming rate, experts warned yesterday.

They say numbers of kestrels, which are often seen hovering over the verges of major roads, fell by more than a third last year.

The mysterious disappearance of thousands of birds in one year follows a steady decline - the kestrel population has dropped by around 20 per cent since the mid-1990s.

Bird experts are baffled by the recent fall, but suspect the hard winter combined with their vanishing rural habitat has taken its toll.
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Newspaper

Hundreds Rescued from Overheated Trains in Germany

Verena Schmitt-Roschmann
The Associated Press
Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:35 UTC
A grueling heat wave shut down the air conditioning in three high-tech trains in Germany, leaving dozens of passengers near collapse trapped in temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), authorities said Sunday.

At least 52 people needed medical treatment and about 1,000 people had to switch trains, the national railway system, Deutsche Bahn, said.

All three modern ICE trains - whose windows do not open - were headed west from Berlin on Saturday, Deutsche Bahn spokesman Juergen Kornmann said. While two lost their air conditioning fairly close to a station and could be emptied quickly, a third heated up some distance before reaching the city of Bielefeld.

Kornmann said eight people suffering from heat exhaustion needed to be hospitalized in Bielefeld and another 44 needed medical treatment.
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Bizarro Earth

Thousands Evacuated as Storm Batters Vietnam

Ho Binh Minh
Reuters
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:56 UTC
Image
© Reuters/VNAA car drives past a wave caused by Typhoon Conson in Vietnam's northern Hai Phong city July 17, 2010.
Vietnamese troops evacuated thousands of people from their homes in the north of the country Sunday due to threats of flash flooding and landslides, as the death toll from Typhoon Conson rose to more than 70.

Typhoon Conson was downgraded to a tropical storm as it hit northern Vietnam late Saturday after battering the Philippines and the southern Chinese island of Hainan over the past week.

State-run Voice of Vietnam radio said the army had sent 3,500 soldiers to help evacuate people in coastal provinces, and others were being moved from dangerous areas in four mountainous provinces due to the threat of flooding.

The region lies far from Vietnam's Mekong Delta food basket in the south, which supplies 90 percent of rice for exports.
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Bizarro Earth

Photos Show Dramatic Shrinking of Mount Everest Glaciers

Louise Gray
The Telegraph
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:42 UTC
Image
© David Breashears/Agence France-PresseThe 2007 photograph taken by David Breashears of the Rongbuk Glacier taken from the same place as Mallory's 1921 photograph
Glaciers on Mount Everest are shrinking, according to startling new photographs.

The two pictures show an "alarming" retreat in ice over more than 80 years.

The first was taken in 1921 by British mountaineer George Mallory, who later died trying to conquer Everest.

The Asia Society commissioned the same picture to be taken of the main Rongbuk glacier on the northern slope of Mount Everest in Tibet in 2007.

The new picture by mountaineer David Breashears show that the glacier is shrunk and withered.

Comment: The 'recent' photo is from 2007. Here is a report on the growing glaciers in the Himalaya from 2009:

Himalayan Glaciers Are Actually Growing

World misled over Himalayan glacier meltdown

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Attention

Coral Reefs Suffer Mass Bleaching From Heating Oceans

Richard Gray
The Telegraph
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 04:30 UTC
Image
© AlamyCoral bleaching in Maldives, Indian Ocean
Coral reefs are suffering widespread damage in what is set to be one of the worst years ever for the delicate and beautiful habitats.

The phenomenon, known as coral bleaching because the reefs turn bone white when the colourful algae that give the coral its colour and food is lost, has been reported throughout south east Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.

Divers and scientists have described huge areas of previously pristine reef being turned into barren white undersea landscapes off the coast of Thailand and Indonesia.

The popular island tourist destination the Maldives have also suffered severe bleaching. Reefs in the Caribbean could also be under threat.

High ocean temperatures this year are being blamed for the bleaching, which experts fear could be worse than a similar event in 1998 which saw an estimated 16 per cent of the world's reefs being destroyed.
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Bizarro Earth

Papua New Guinea: 2nd Earthquake Magnitude 7.3 - New Britain Region


US Geological Survey
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:50 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 13:35:02 UTC

Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 11:35:02 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
6.019°S, 150.497°E

Depth:
57.6 km (35.8 miles)

Region:
NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Distances:
65 km (40 miles) SE of Kimbe, New Britain, PNG

105 km (65 miles) ENE of Kandrian, New Britain, PNG

525 km (325 miles) NE of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2385 km (1480 miles) N of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
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Bizarro Earth

Papua New Guinea: Earthquake Magnitude 6.9 - New Britain Region


US Geological Survey
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 12:59 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 13:04:13 UTC

Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 11:04:13 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
6.116°S, 150.522°E

Depth:
57.5 km (35.7 miles)

Region:
NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Distances:
75 km (45 miles) SSE of Kimbe, New Britain, PNG

110 km (65 miles) E of Kandrian, New Britain, PNG

520 km (325 miles) NE of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2385 km (1480 miles) N of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
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Snowman

Rare July cold snap blankets half of Argentina in snow, even northern subtropical regions affected

Jill Colton
Weather Network
Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:31 UTC
Image
© UnknownKids playing in a rare snowfall - Cordoba, Argentina
Argentina is suffering from some unusually cold weather. In fact, snow fell in over half the provinces on Friday.

Snow in July? Well, that's the case for Argentina this week. It is winter in the southern hemisphere.

An arctic air mass is hovering over the middle of the country, bringing frigid temperatures and leaving snow on the ground. In Cordoba, north and east of the capital, roads and homes were blanketed in white, making driving conditions trecherous, but exciting children with the rare snowfall.

Local newspapers reported that the temperature plunged to -1.5°C in Buenos Aires, on Friday -- making it the coolest day in a decade for the capital. Even the beaches saw white powder. The coastal resort city Mar del Plata was blanketed by snow for two days straight.
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Bizarro Earth

Alaska: Earthquake Magnitude 6.7 - Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands


US Geological Survey
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 02:18 UTC
Alaska Earthquake_180710
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 05:56:49 UTC

Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 09:56:49 PM at epicenter

Location:
52.970°N, 169.504°W

Depth:
35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program

Region:
FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA

Distances:
43 km (27 miles) W (274°) from Nikolski, AK

222 km (138 miles) WSW (244°) from Unalaska, AK

277 km (172 miles) WSW (243°) from Akutan, AK

1493 km (928 miles) WSW (241°) from Anchorage, AK
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