Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

56 Pilot Whales Die After Stranding on New Zealand Beach

Image
© Getty Images58 pilot whales stranded at nearby Karikari Beach in August.
Wellington, New Zealand -- Only 24 of several dozen pilot whales stranded on a remote northern New Zealand beach survived a stormy first night ashore despite rescuers' desperate efforts to save them, officials said Thursday.

Large waves and strong winds lashed Spirits Bay as rescuers struggled to move survivors above the tide-line. It was the second mass beaching in the region in a month.

''As of this morning, there have been 24 live animals moved out of the tide up onto the beach out of harms' way,'' Department of Conservation spokeswoman Caroline Smith said. ''The weather is terrible up there. We have 20 knot winds and 1.5 to 2 meter (5 to 7 foot) swells, so it is not possible to refloat them at Spirits Bay.''

The 80 animals were spread out over a three-mile (five-kilometer) stretch, Smith said. Officials were planning to use big nets to lift the creatures onto the back of trucks, and move them to more sheltered Rarawa Beach, about an hour south, where they will be refloated.

Igloo

Evidence of Solar Scientists Raise Fears of Imminent Ice Age

New York Snowstorm
© NOAA1970s New York Snowstorm.
New study by American solar experts discover a sharp fall in sunspot activity since 2007 that shows the hallmarks of a soon arriving ice age.

Solar scientists, not to be confused with climate scientists, study the most important heat engine driving our planet's temperatures-the sun.

Matthew Penn and William Livingston, solar astronomers with the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona, have found a marked decrease in sunspot activity lately. Studies show that such a marked drop in sunspots may lead to a prolonged cooling epoch or even a new ice age.

Since the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 the talk has been about global warming. But 22 years on the evidence has grown to raise fears of a catastrophic climate switch in the opposite direction. We look at the evidence that is raising some very serious questions in the scientific community.

Arrow Down

US: North Dakota Lake Swallows Land and Buildings

Image
© AP Photo/NASA Earth ObservatoryIn this photo provided by NASA's Earth Observatory is an Aug. 11, 1984, view of the surface elevation of Devils Lake, ND. The lake, about 160 miles northwest of Fargo, is the largest freshwater body in North Dakota.
It's been called a slow-growing monster: a huge lake that has steadily expanded over the last 20 years, swallowing up thousands of acres, hundreds of buildings and at least two towns in its rising waters.

Devils Lake keeps getting larger because it has no natural river or stream to carry away excess rain and snowmelt. Now it has climbed within 6 feet of overflowing, raising fears that some downstream communities could be washed away if the water level isn't reduced.

And those worries are compounded by another problem: Scientists believe the pattern of heavy rain and snow that filled the basin is likely to continue for at least another decade.

"It's a slow-moving torture," said 72-year-old Joe Belford, a lifelong resident of Devils Lake and a county commissioner who spends most of his time seeking a way to control the flooding and money to pay for it.

Arrow Down

Kuwait loses 90% of coral reefs in the Arab Gulf

Image
© Kuwait Dive Team
Head of the Kuwait Diving Team Walid Al-Fadhel said in a statement to KUNA, "this requires quick action by the competent authorities to find out the real causes, as well as solutions." He also called on frequent goers to these marine natural sites to refrain from any action that may inflict damage in the reefs or kill the creatures co-existing with them.

The comprehensive survey, conducted by the team, included the major locations of coral reefs 50 miles along the shores and 70 km from the southern coast borders, with depths ranging from 1-13 meters.

The combing covered Um Al-Maradim, Kheiran, Ras Al-Zor, Garouh, Um Diera, Teyler, Kubbar and Oraifjan with the result of 90 percent of "bleaching" of the coral reef.

At the begining of noticing this phenomenon, he added, dead fish were found floating on the water surface, or laying between the corals, yet not anymore.

Al-Fadhel said that the team does not know the causes for this disaster, but it is either a natural or human, which requires the competent authorities, whether global or local, to examine and prepare accurate studies. He noted that the diving team proceeded to contact several local and international companies (interested in this matter) and send the necessary reports with some samples of sites affected for study.

Cloud Lightning

47 killed in Indian rains and landslides

Image
© AP Photo/Anupam NathA homeless man tries to protect himself from rain with plastic sheets as he sits in a pavement in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Sept.19, 2010. Monsoon rains are active this year in most parts of India.
Heavy monsoon rains and landslides swept the hilly areas of northern India over the weekend, killing at least 47 people, officials said today.

Twenty-four people died yesterday as falling boulders crushed their homes in three villages in Almorah district in Uttrakhand state, said Prashant Kumar Tamta, a state government spokesman.

Another 23 people were either swept away by floodwaters or died when homes collapsed in landslides in Pitthoragarh, Champawat and Uttarkashi regions of state on Saturday and yesterday, Mr Tamta told The Associated Press.

Rains continued to lash the region today, threatening dozens of villages near the Tehri Dam whose water level was nearing the danger level.

The area is 250 miles (400km) south-west of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state.

On Friday, a boat carrying mostly schoolchildren capsized in a flooded river near Faizabad, a town in Uttar Pradesh state, drowning 15 people, said Surendra Srivastava, a police spokesman.

The annual monsoon season from June to October brings rains which are vital to agriculture in India.

Bizarro Earth

New Zealand - "Unprecedented" Mass Whale Stranding

Mass Stranding
© New Zealand HeraldSeen here is a whale stranding at Karikari Beach, Doubtless Bay, August 20, 2010.

Department of Conservation (DOC) staff are calling a mass pilot whale stranding at Spirits Bay in Northland "unprecedented".

Seventy-four whales are stranded across two kilometres on the remote beach north of Kaitaia.

So far nine have been successfully refloated. There are up to 50 whales just off-shore.

When DOC were called at 11am, 32 whales were reported stranded. By the time DOC arrived 43 whales were dead.

"It started off with not many and the number has grown as the day has gone on," spokeperson Sue Campbell said.

"At the moment we're trying to get enough people to help."

Bizarro Earth

Reflections on the Coming Ice Age

South Orange, New Jersey - In the Greek myth about Cassandra, she could foresee the future, but no one believed her warnings. Her name is believed to be derived from the words for beauty and the sun.

Any number of solar scientists and others are warning that the Earth is on the brink of a new Ice Age at worst, a mini ice age at best. Dr. Achim Brauer of the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam has concluded that the next Ice Age will come on so swiftly that in barely a year much of the northern hemisphere will be encased in ice and snow.

The last Ice Age lasted 13,000 years. The Little Ice Age from around 1300 to 1850 lasted long enough to transform European society and have a profound affect on the histories of America and France. In England, they went from growing grapes to skating on a completely frozen Thames.

Bizarro Earth

Massive Solar Flare 'Could Paralyse Earth in 2013'

Solar Flare_1
© Associated PressA massive solar flare is caught on camera on September 8th. Scientists fear that the Sun's activity could cause havoc on Earth in 2013

A massive solar flare could cause global chaos in 2013, causing blackouts and wrecking satellite communications, a conference heard yesterday.

Nasa has warned that a peak in the sun's magnetic energy cycle and the number of sun spots or flares around 2013 could generate huge radiation levels.

The resulting solar storm could cause a geomagnetic storm on Earth, knocking out electricity grids around the world for hours, days, or even months, bringing much of normal life grinding to a halt.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox, who delivered the keynote address at an international conference on the vulnerability of electricity grids around the world, warned that modern societies' dependence on technology leaves them vulnerable to such events.

Attention

Scientists to Drill 13,000 Feet Into Active Volcano in Test That Could Cause Earthquake

Image
© AlamyCampi Flegrei last erupted in 1538, and recent seismic activity in the area has raised fears that it could be ready to blow again
Scientists are planning to drill 13,000ft into the heart of an active volcano in Italy in an attempt to protect the nearby city of Naples by gauging when it is likely to erupt.

But experts have warned that the project could trigger an explosion of red hot magma or even an earthquake.

The team of scientists wants to insert a borehole inside Campi Flegrei, a huge volcanic formation outside Naples, in the hope of gauging how active it is.

Also known as the Phlegraean Fields, Campi Flegrei is an eight-mile-wide caldera lying west of Naples.

It comprises 24 volcanic fissures and craters - one of which was believed by the ancient Romans to be the home of Vulcan, the god of fire - although much of it lies under water as it extends into the Bay of Naples.

Magic Wand

Ozone layer 'is no longer disappearing and will return to full strength by 2048', says UN report

The ozone layer is no longer disappearing and could be back to full strength by the middle of this century, UN scientists have confirmed.

The phasing out of nearly 100 substances once used in products like refrigerators and aerosols has stopped the ozone layer being depleted further, although it is not yet increasing, according to a new United Nations report released last week.

Comment: This was the forerunner to man-made global warming. They tried to convince us that the ozone layer was disappearing because of people's fridges. Now that the ozone layer has replenished itself, they can tell us that their measures to control our choices were successful and thus play the same game with 'global warming' aka man-made climate change.

Temperatures are plummeting in time for them to congratulate themselves on successfully "reducing carbon emissions." This self-styled "success" will spur them on to increase the draconian measures until millions, if not billions more, are starving and freezing to death.

The models used to produce these results are entirely self-referencing; very little empirical measurements taken from the real world are actually used in the production of these reports, which are thinly disguised policy documents masquerading as scientific discovery.

And it claimed that international efforts to protect the ozone layer has averted millions of cases of skin cancer worldwide.

The ozone layer outside the polar regions is projected to recover to pre-1980 levels by 2048, although the annual springtime ozone hole over the Antarctic is not expected to recover until 2073.

Ozone in the stratosphere is important because it absorbs some of the Sun's dangerous ultraviolet radiation.