Earth ChangesS


Question

Romania: A Second Wave of Dead Birds

dead dove
Hundreds of birds died in Romania, for the second time in a month

Hundreds of dead or agonizing crows have brought terror to a town in the Eastern part of Romania. Since Saturday, the locals of Roman, a town of 80.000 people, have noticed that hundreds of crows fell to the ground dead or in agony in one of the local parks. On Monday, dozens of birds were struggling with death, unable to fly. Local experts suspect that the crows may have been poisoned, but no verdict can be given before a forensic study is conducted.

Some three dozens starlings have also been found dead in Constanţa, by the Black Sea, in Romania, on January the 8th. Veterinarians concluded that the starlings died of cold and alcohol intoxication.

Bizarro Earth

US: Pelicans turn up sick, dead off Jacksonville coast

pelican
© Will Dickey/The Times-UnionA sick pelican dries out inside an enclosure at BEAKS on Big Talbot Island, one of hundreds around Mayport in need of treatment.
Hundreds of Eastern brown pelicans, some with missing wings and frostbite, have been injured or killed in the St. Johns River the past couple of weeks in the Mayport area.

The exact reason is unknown but the cold weather could have caused hypothermia when the birds landed in the water. The pelicans have been losing a protective coating they have on their body to shield their feathers from becoming saturated by water.

Cindy Mosling, co-founder of the Bird Emergency Aid and Kare Sanctuary on Big Talbot Island, thinks chemicals in the water could be the culprit.

X

Canada: Mysterious infection is killing British Columbia salmon

Carleton Professor Part of Team Investigating Mysterious Fish Infection

Ottawa - The Globe and Mail published the following story. Carleton Professor Steven Cooke was one of the 15 scientists involved in this research. He developed the biopsy technique that enabled the collection of non-lethal tissue samples from fish. His lab was involved with fish tagging and tissue collection in the wild.

Mysterious infection is killing B.C. salmon

By Mark Hume

Large numbers of sockeye salmon are dying in the Fraser River, before spawning, because of a mysterious virus, new research suggests.

Historical records show that some fish always die en route to their spawning beds, but since the early 1990s the problem has become increasingly acute - with more than two million fish dying in some years. Researchers have long puzzled over what was causing the seemingly healthy fish to suddenly stop swimming and turn belly up.

A large team of researchers from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and three Canadian universities has now found most of the fish that die before spawning have a common "genomic signature" - or a pattern that shows changes have taken place in an array of genes activated to fight infection.

"Our hypothesis is that the genomic signal associated with elevated mortality is in response to a virus infecting fish before river entry and that persists to the spawning areas," says the report published in the journal Science on Thursday.

Question

New Zealand: Mourning Dolphin Carries Dead Calf Around Harbour

Dead Dolphin Calf
© Orca Research TrustAn adult female dolphin with a dead calf in the Whangarei Harbour.

A female dolphin carrying a dead calf has been spotted swimming in Whangarei Harbour.

Northland orca researcher and whale expert Ingrid Visser was on the water last Thursday and managed to take photos of the female dolphin, known as Potato, with the dead calf.

"The dead baby was very decomposed, most bones gone, blubber floating at the surface when she stopped carrying it, for moments only. She was carrying it on her dorsal fin, across her pectoral fins and across her tail flukes," Dr Visser said.

The dolphin managed to travel up to 8 knots and went to the bow of Dr Visser's boat at one stage.

"There is concern for her in terms of the decomposition of the carcass - having it near her eyes, mouth and blowhole when it is full of bacteria is not a good option."

Dr Visser said they could only get close during the two hours they tracked the dolphin.

Bizarro Earth

Brazil Landslide and Flood Toll Reaches 665

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© AFP/Getty Images
The death toll from flooding and mudslides in southeastern Brazil climbed to at least 665 people, as public outcry turned toward authorities' ongoing struggle to reach still-isolated areas and their failure last week to have warned residents of the danger of gathering storms.

Relief workers continued to unearth victims on Monday, even as rescue crews managed to reach survivors who have been trapped by earth and floodwaters since the downpours hit the state of Rio de Janeiro almost a week ago. In addition to those killed, nearly 14,000 people have been displaced from destroyed or damaged homes. An unknown number of people remain missing.

Amid the relief and recovery efforts, Brazilians are increasingly expressing outrage at local, state, and federal officials.

In addition to criticism that authorities had turned a blind eye toward construction in areas known to be vulnerable to flooding, they are now asking why the government, despite modern weather and communications systems, were unable to alert victims of the pending danger. Southern Brazil, after all, has been subject to frequent flooding in recent years, including downpours and landslides that killed hundreds of people during last year's rainy season.

Igloo

Extreme cold, snow kills 4 in northwest China

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© Reuters
100,000 homes flattened or damaged by storms

Beijing - Rescue workers evacuated thousands of rural residents from parts of northwestern China after extreme cold and blizzard conditions killed four people and left half a million snowed under, meteorologists said Monday.

In neighboring Mongolia, an official appealed for help from the international community as his country battles the most severe winter it has seen in three decades.

Storms in China's far western Xinjiang flattened or damaged about 100,000 homes and more than 15,000 head of livestock were killed by the cold front that set in Sunday night.

Herders moved thousands of others to safer pastures at lower altitudes ahead of the latest storm front, which is expected to last through Wednesday.

Cloud Lightning

Scientists warn California could be struck by winter 'superstorm'

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© Unknown
A group of more than 100 scientists and experts say in a new report that California faces the risk of a massive "superstorm" that could flood a quarter of the state's homes and cause $300 billion to $400 billion in damage. Researchers point out that the potential scale of destruction in this storm scenario is four or five times the amount of damage that could be wrought by a major earthquake.

It sounds like the plot of an apocalyptic action movie, but scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey warned federal and state emergency officials that California's geological history shows such "superstorms" have happened in the past, and should be added to the long list of natural disasters to worry about in the Golden State.

The threat of a cataclysmic California storm has been dormant for the past 150 years. Geological Survey director Marcia K. McNutt told the New York Times that a 300-mile stretch of the Central Valley was inundated from 1861-62. The floods were so bad that the state capital had to be moved to San Francisco, and Governor Leland Stanford had to take a rowboat to his own inauguration, the report notes. Even larger storms happened in past centuries, over the dates 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, and 1605, according to geological evidence.

Comment: Is there a possibility these scientists are wrong in their view of the atmosphere warming? Perhaps the atmosphere is cooling while the planet itself is warming?




Radar

Hundreds of dead seals in Labrador

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© unk
People on the north coast of Labrador say scores of dead seals have been washing ashore since early December.

A conservation officer with the area's Inuit government estimated late last week that hundreds of adult and young seals have died in the area between Hopedale and Makkovik this winter.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is testing the carcasses, but Nunatsiavut conservation officer Ian Winters said many people in the area believe DFO hasn't acted quickly enough.

Blackbox

Best of the Web: Fall of Roman Empire Linked to Wild Shifts in Climate

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© Carlos Gotay/GettyOutlook is bleak
Centuries of unpredictable climate may have been partly to blame for the fall of the western Roman Empire. A detailed record of 2500 years of European climate has uncovered several links between changing climate and the rise and fall of civilisations.

Climate fluctuation was a contributing factor alongside political failures and barbarian invasions, says Ulf Büntgen of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research in Birmensdorf, Switzerland, who led the project.

Büntgen used tree rings to build up a history of European climate. Using nearly 9000 samples from oak, pine and larch, Büntgen and colleagues were able to reconstruct how temperatures and rainfall in western Europe changed over the last 2500 years.

Radar

At least 39 dead in South African floods

Johannesburg - Floods have killed or left missing at least 39 people in South Africa and destroyed thousands of homes in neighboring Mozambique, officials said on Monday.

Heavy rains from late December and through most of January have led to floods in the two countries, with torrential downpours at the weekend again swelling rivers.

South Africa's Cooperative Governance Ministry estimated at least 32 have been killed while police said on Monday another seven went missing in Centurion, near Pretoria, after they were swept away by high waters.

The army has been placed on stand-by to evacuate people from areas near major dams.

"All disaster management structures in the country have been put on high alert," the cooperative governance ministry said.