Earth ChangesS

Solar Flares

What Solar Activity Looks Like Entering a Mini Ice Age

Global cooling prediction
© YouTube/Adapt 2030 (screen capture)
With Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) decreasing, galactic cosmic rays increasing causing more cloud cover globally and measurable decreases in out put of our Sun, it is apparent that the new mini ice age / grand solar minimum has commenced. David Evans also predicts a 0.3C drop beginning 2017 to occur, which will leave the IPCC in serious damage control as the planet wont be the warmest year ever. We need to look to the Electric Sun model to explain the changes and begin the discussion of how we as species are going to adapt to the changes that repeat every 400 years.


Comment: The Electric Universe model and impact of the Sun's reduced activity on our planet is discussed, with other important information pertaining to climate change, in Pierre Lescaudron's book, Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.


Blackbox

Siberian Crater Mystery: Are Exploding Gas Pockets Really to Blame?

crater on the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia
© Itar-Tass/ZumaA crater on the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia. Scientists aren't sure what caused these craters to form in the Siberian Arctic, where the permafrost is thawing.
Is the Siberian permafrost exploding? Recent reports out of the Arctic Circle suggest that methane pockets are erupting and causing huge craters, but scientists aren't so sure that these features are necessarily the result of detonations โ€” or that they are even new.

A Siberian Times article suggested that 7,000 underground gas bubbles are set to "explode" on the peninsulas of Yamal and Gydan as a result of melting permafrost. The article differentiates these small gas bubbles from enormous craters in the tundra landscape, but asserts that the huge craters are the result of subsurface methane gas exploding as global warming heats up Earth. That is far from certain, scientists told Live Science. In fact, the craters may be thousands of years old.

"These craters are recently discovered by scientists," said Katey Walter Anthony, a biogeochemist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who studies methane release from permafrost. "It doesn't mean they are new."

Comment: Is there something much bigger happening on our planet? Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection


Binoculars

World's rarest, most ancient dog has been rediscovered in the wild

wild dog
© NGHWDFNew Guinea Highland Wild Dog
After decades of fearing that the New Guinea highland wild dog had gone extinct in its native habitat, researchers have finally confirmed the existence of a healthy, viable population, hidden in one of the most remote and inhospitable regions on Earth.

According to DNA analysis, these are the most ancient and primitive canids in existence, and a recent expedition to New Guinea's remote central mountain spine has resulted in more than 100 photographs of at least 15 wild individuals, including males, females, and pups, thriving in isolation and far from human contact.

"The discovery and confirmation of the highland wild dog for the first time in over half a century is not only exciting, but an incredible opportunity for science," says the group behind the discovery, the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation (NGHWDF). "The 2016 Expedition was able to locate, observe, gather documentation and biological samples, and confirm through DNA testing that at least some specimens still exist and thrive in the highlands of New Guinea."
dog variants
© NGHWDFWild dog sightings.

Fire

Dramatic videos show wildfires blazing across the west of Ireland

The fire rips through the rural Gaeltacht areas of Galway last weekend.
© Enda Cunningham/TwitterThe fire rips through the rural Gaeltacht areas of Galway last weekend.
Dramatic videos have captured the scenes as wild fire ripped through gorse in rural West of Ireland areas over the weekend.

Fire and Rescue teams in Co. Galway were called to two areas of the Gaelteacht, Toureen yesterday and Baile na hAbhainn on Saturday, March 25 as they were engulfed by wildfire.

Although the Toureen and Baile na hAbhainn fires were captured on video, fire services also attended blazes in Loughrea, Clifton, Costello Connemara, Tuam, and Gort.
Thank you to Galway Fire and Rescue for their difficult work last night in tackling the gorse fires and preventing spread to homes. pic.twitter.com/H3jJIMRTNm
โ€” Enda Cunningham (@endacunningham) March 26, 2017

Attention

Surfer bitten by shark off New Smyrna Beach, Florida

shark attack
A 58-year-old surfer was bitten in the foot by a shark Monday morning off of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, according to Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue.

The surfer was bitten just before 10 a.m. when he was 30-40 yards out in the ocean. The injury was considered minor and the surfer was not transported to the hospital.

In 2016, Volusia County (Daytona Beach area) had the largest number (15) of unprovoked shark bites among Florida counties, nearly doubling Volusia's recent five-year average of eight attacks per year.

University of Florida researchers say that the higher number of shark bites off the east coast of Central Florida is attributable to high aquatic recreational use by both Florida residents and tourists, including large numbers of surfers, and to the rich nature of its marine fauna.

Sun

Sun halo awes visitors to Anhui province in China

Sun halo in China
© VCG
On March 26, a solar halo appeared in the sky above the historic city of Huangshan, in east China's Anhui Province.

According to local media, the halo appeared at around 11am and lasted for almost two hours.

Photographers were able to snap some stunning pictures, as the bright halo rings reflected rainbow colors.

China Meteorological Administration describes solar halos as optical phenomena that form when hexagonal ice crystals in cirrus clouds refract and reflect the sun light.

Solar halos often appear in spring and summer. This was the first solar halo to be observed in Huangshan's Shexian county since 2012.

Comment: Rare double sun halos appeared the same day in Yongzhou City, central China.

Double sun halo China
© Central China Television



Bizarro Earth

Rivers of lava flow onto slopes of Mount Etna after eruption

Mount Etna lava flow
© Ruptly
Scorching lava can still be seen flowing onto the slopes of Mount Etna, more than one week after the Italian volcano dramatically erupted. Stunning Ruptly footage shows huge amounts of magma oozing from the 3,329 meter-high mountain.

The fast-flowing lava was filmed on Tuesday, seemingly proving that Europe's most active volcano has little desire to settle down after erupting twice in less than one month.

Arrow Down

Farmland bird population in Netherlands decreased by 70 percent in 50 years

Skylark.
© Diliff / Wikimedia CommonsSkylark.
The number of farmland birds in the Netherlands decreased by over 2.5 million since 1960, which means about 70 percent of the total population disappeared. Some species are almost impossible to find in the Netherlands any longer, Statistics Netherlands revealed on Monday.

An estimated 750 thousand of the 1.1 million skylark breeding pairs disappeared. The partridge population dropped by 93 percent, the summer dove population by 92 percent, the tree sparrow population by 93 percent and the black tailed godwit by 68 percent.

Statistics Netherlands attributes the decrease partly to agricultural land in the Netherlands being replaced with housing or roads. An increase in fertilization and mowing of the land also reduces the amount and diversity of insects these birds eat. Bird nests are also often damaged or destroyed by intense fertilization or mowing.

Comment: For more about the widespread decline of farmland birds across Europe, see: The Vanishing: Europe's farmland birds down 55% in the last 3 decades


Attention

Dead whale removed from beach in Cape Town, South Africa

The whale carcass being dragged onto the beach for removal.
© NSRIThe whale carcass being dragged onto the beach for removal.
A beached whale carcass has been removed from a beach between Strandfontein and Muizenberg.

On Wednesday afternoon last week the NSRI Strandfontein duty crew and two NSRI Strandfontein rescue swimmers were dispatched to help at Sonwabi beach where officials of the City of Cape Town were dealing with the whale carcass in the breaker surf line.

There were no incidents and the City workers removed the whale from the beach.

Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills couple in Mindanao, Philippines

LIGHTNING
As heavy rains and strong winds battered Cotabato City and nearby towns on Sunday, a couple was reportedly killed by lightning, while more than dozen houses in open fields were destroyed

Spouses Kabasalan and Maisa Minulan were killed when lightning struck through their shanty in Barangay Nalinan in Sultan Kudarat town, reported the Philippine Star.

"They were killed instantly according to investigators in the Sultan Kudarat municipal police station," Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police was quoted to have said in the report.