Earth Changes
© Danish Meteorological Institute
Arctic Temperatures 2009.
The average arctic temperature is still not above (take your pick) 32°F 0°C 273.15°K - this the latest date in fifty years of record keeping that this has happened. Usually it is beginning to level off now and if it does so, it will stay near freezing on average in the arctic leading to still less melting than last summer which saw a 9% increase in arctic ice than in 2007.
There is a webcam at the "North Pole" (at least it starts out very near there) that reports via satellite data uplink at regular intervals. They also have a weather station with a once weekly data plot. Note it is still below zero centigrade there.
Jennifer Stanonis
WKBW.comWed, 24 Jun 2009 02:48 UTC
Many bee farm owners say there's once again a bee shortage this year. "The bee population this year seems to be better than it was two and three years ago so there's some recovery being noted, but still we have a ways to go," bee farm owner Mike Potoczak said. "We're still losing 20% to 30% a year and that's way too much. One third of our food supply is because of their pollinating activities and that's why bees are protected by the government."
Potoczak owns a bee farm in Corfu and he's part of the Western New York Honey Producers group. He says his farm is still seeing a loss of bees and there's no solid explanation for it, but researchers are looking into possible reasons. "The name given to this situation is Colony Collapse Disorder, that's because they don't know what's doing it, the {bee} colony just collapses," Potoczak said. "The bees are there one week and then it just goes downhill... the bees disappear, they're gone and there's nothing left."
Petr Josek
ReutersSun, 28 Jun 2009 10:07 UTC
Husinec - Heavy rain swept the southern Czech Republic on Sunday causing further flooding and bringing the death toll for the last week to 13, rescue teams and Czech media reported.
Meteorologists said rains would continue into the next week, keeping the east and southwest of the central European country on flood warning until Wednesday.
© Associated Press
According to the world's leading expert on polar bears, their numbers are higher than they were 30 years ago
Over the coming days a curiously revealing event will be taking place in Copenhagen. Top of the agenda at a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group (set up under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature/Species Survival Commission) will be the need to produce a suitably scary report on how polar bears are being threatened with extinction by man-made global warming.
This is one of a steady drizzle of events planned to stoke up alarm in the run-up to the UN's major conference on climate change in Copenhagen next December.
But one of the world's leading experts on polar bears has been told to stay away from this week's meeting, specifically because his views on global warming do not accord with those of the rest of the group.
ForbesFri, 26 Jun 2009 06:57 UTC
The varroa mite parasite that's been killing bees across the country is spreading on the Big Island, threatening local fruit and macadamia nut industries. The tiny bug has escaped a quarantine area around Hilo and spread to Hamakua and Puna.
The varroa mite became established on the mainland in the 1980s. Since then, it's destroyed more than half of some beekeepers' hives and devastated most wild honeybee populations. Mainland bees have also been hit by another illness called colony collapse disorder, which causes adult bees to abandon their hives.
Hawaii's first varroa mite was found in 2007 on Oahu, where it is now widely established.
The heat is not the only thing Panhandle residents need to be careful of this summer. Bubonic plague is affecting animals, and at least one person has contracted West Nile virus in the region.
A prairie dog town in northeast Hansford County was wiped out by bubonic plague in the past few weeks, said Ron Antalek, the county's emergency management coordinator. He suggested being on alert for signs of other die-offs, controlling pets to prevent them from getting the fleas that carry the disease and not directly handling dead rodents.
An earthquake measured at 3.6 on the Richter scale has hit Garfield County in northwestern Oklahoma.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake occurred about 4:23 p.m. Friday. It was centered seven miles east-northeast of Covington, 10 miles southeast of Garber and 23 miles east-southeast of Enid.
The survey records about 50 earthquakes in Oklahoma each year, although few are reported as being felt by residents. The last earthquake in Garfield County happened on Feb. 22.
There were no reports of damage from Friday's quake.
Covington-Douglas High School principal and football coach Brian Smith says he felt and heard "a loud rumble" that sounded like thunder, but that the tremor didn't knock anything off shelves.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter scale hit the popular Greek holiday island of Santorini in the early hours Saturday, causing residents and tourists to run out of their homes and hotels in a panic.
The epicentre of the quake was at sea. Two smaller earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.9 and 3.7 had struck the island earlier in the evening.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
XinhuaSat, 27 Jun 2009 14:00 UTC
Eight earthquakes shook New Zealand's central North Island over a 12-hour period on Saturday, causing no casualties or damage, the GNS Science said.
The quakes began at 1:01 a.m. (13:01 GMT Friday), with a tremor measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale, 10 km north-west of Turangi, at a depth of 3 km.
Six further quakes shook the same location with the last at 10:54 a.m., according to New Zealand's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science (GNS Science). All were at a depth of 5 km or less.
At 12:40 p.m., an earthquake struck within 5 km of Turangi, measuring 3.4 on the Richter scale.
XinhuaSat, 27 Jun 2009 15:49 UTC
An earthquake with magnitude of 4.9 degrees on the Richter scale shook the central Chile Friday, without reports of casualty and damage.
The earthquake occurred at 9:06 a.m. local time (1306 GMT), its epicenter was located 29 km west to Illape, in Coquimbo region, according to the Seismological Service from the University of Chile.
According to the National office of Emergencies (Onemi), the earthquake has a maximum intensity of III grade in Mercalli scale in the cities of Illapel, Canela, Salamanca, Punitaqui, Los Villos and La Ligua.
