Earth ChangesS


Cow Skull

US forces drop dead drug-poison killer mice from helicopters

Lewis Page
The Register
Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:01 UTC
Gloves come off in Pacific jungle conflict

The United States military is waging war in the Pacific on invading jungle snakes - by dropping dead mice stuffed with household headache remedies on them from helicopters.
deadmicehelicopter
© The RegisterIn you go, Fluffy

Stars and Stripes reports on the airborne murine drug-zombie campaign being waged around US bases on the tropical island of Guam. Guam has been plagued since World War II by an invasion of brown tree snakes, which have swarmed through the local jungles eating everything they can catch and wiping out several kinds of bird.

The snakes are thought to have reached Guam aboard military transports, and the US authorities there are concerned that they might travel on by similar means to invade other Pacific islands and devastate more exotic ecosystems. Island life typically has no defence against predators introduced by human activity.
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Attention

Speeding Train Kills Seven Elephants in Eastern India

Manik Banerjee
The Associated Press
Thu, 23 Sep 2010 10:00 UTC
A speeding freight train struck a herd of elephants in a densely forested region in eastern India, killing seven, an official said Thursday.

The herd was crossing the tracks in Banarhat forest in West Bengal state at around midnight Wednesday when the train plowed into it, said Sumita Ghatak, a district forest officer.

"This is the first incident in the state when so many elephants have been killed in a single accident. It is really shocking," Ghatak said.

Outraged wildlife activists said they had complained to railroad authorities many times, asking them to divert trains to other routes or avoid running trains through forests at night.

Animesh Basu, who runs the Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation, said conservationists have been urging railways to instruct drivers to slow down while traveling in forest areas.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Flooding Forces Mass-Evacuation of Wisconsin City Homes


The Associated Press
Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:10 UTC
A powerful storm system passing through the upper Midwest has flooded a small Wisconsin city where police are urging more than half of residents to leave their homes for higher ground.

Arcadia City Clerk Angela Berg says officials are going door to door to tell up to 1,500 of the city's 2,500 residents to evacuate their homes. Berg says about 15 businesses were closed downtown due to flooding.

Classes in Arcadia schools have been canceled and two highways leading into town have been closed.

Berg says two creeks burst their banks in the city, which sits along the Trempealeau (TREMP'-eh-loh) River.
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Bizarro Earth

Typhoon Fanapi Kills 54 in China


Agence France-Presse
Thu, 23 Sep 2010 06:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse79,000 people have been evacuated due to Fanapi, according to Xinhua news agency
Typhoon Fanapi, one of the strongest storms to hit China in years, has left 54 people dead and 42 missing in flooding and landslides in the south of the country, state media said on Thursday.

Xinhua news agency said 79,000 people had been evacuated due to Fanapi, which hit China on Monday a day after raking Taiwan with heavy rains, killing two people and leaving more than 100 injured on the island.

All of China's deaths occurred in the southern province of Guangdong, which has been battered by its worst rains in a century, it said.

Authorities in Guangdong had to use helicopters to air-drop relief supplies to victims in some areas, it added, quoting provincial flood control authorities.

Of those missing, 25 people disappeared in a rain-triggered mudslide, state media reports had said.
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Bizarro Earth

Indian Floods Wash Away Thousands of Homes


The Guardian, UK
Thu, 23 Sep 2010 05:43 UTC
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© Stringer/ReutersPeople stand on a damaged bridge on an overflowing canal in Haridwar, India. Thousands of homes have been washed away.
At least 17 people killed and some 2 million forced to evacuate as rain triggers floods in Uttar Pradesh

Floods triggered by heavy rain in northern India have killed at least 17 people, washed away thousands of homes and forced the evacuation of some 2 million people in a 24-hour period.

A swath of Uttar Pradesh state has been covered by floodwaters spilling over the banks of several rivers that crisscross the region, the state spokesman Diwakar Tripathi said. Soldiers and paramilitary troops were working to evacuate people from marooned villages and move them to relief camps.

"At least 17 people have died overnight. More than a thousand houses have been washed away. Large areas are under water," Tripathi said.

Northern India has experienced unprecedented rain since August, according to the India Meteorological Department. Most rivers are flowing above the danger mark, including the Yamuna and Ganges that run through Uttar Pradesh.
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Arrow Down

Peru: Vampire Bats Kill Five Children


The Telegraph, UK
Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:42 UTC
Image
© PhotoLibraryRabid vampire bats have attacked more than 500 people in Peru's Amazon, killing five children
At least five children living in Peru's northern Amazon jungle region have died after being bitten by rabid vampire bats, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

At least five children living in Peru's northern Amazon jungle region have died after being bitten by rabid vampire bats, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The victims, all aged between five and 10, were members of the Awajun and Wampis communities living in the province of Condorcanqui, 620 miles north of Lima on the border with Ecuador.

Fernando Borjas, a medical doctor with the health directorate in the regional capital Chachapoyas, said that the rabies outbreak has been going on for several months.

Health authorities have sent teams with vaccines to the remote jungle villages, but after a 15 hour river trip they often arrive too late.
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Frog

Three Species of "Extinct" Frogs Rediscovered


Mother Nature Network
Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:06 UTC
Image
© Jos Keilgast/Conservation InternationalHyperolius sankuruensis: Last seen in 1979, a redfrog was rediscovered 186 miles west of where it was first found, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Worldwide search to find 100 frogs that haven't been seen in decades yields results.

A global quest to find several "lost" species of amphibians has rediscovered three species that have not been seen for decades, conservation groups announced.

The so-called Search for the Lost Frogs is attempting to find 100 species of amphibians that had been thought extinct, but that scientists believe may be surviving in small populations.

The three animals that have been rediscovered so far include a Mexican salamander not seen since it was discovered in 1941, a frog from the Ivory Coast (the Mount Nimba Reed Frog) missing since 1967 and another frog from the Democratic Republic of Congo (the Omaniundu Reed Frog) lost since 1979.

"It's pretty extraordinary to think about just how long it has been since these animals were last seen," said search organizer Robin Moore, of Conservation International. "The last time that the Mexican Salamander was seen Glen Miller was one of the world's biggest stars, while the Mount Nimba Reed Frog hasn't been seen since the year the Beatles released Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band and the Omaniundu Reed Frog disappeared the year that Sony sold its first-ever Walkman."
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Bizarro Earth

56 Pilot Whales Die After Stranding on New Zealand Beach


The New York Times
Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00 UTC
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© 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.
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Igloo

Evidence of Solar Scientists Raise Fears of Imminent Ice Age

John O'Sullivan
Suite101
Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:11 UTC
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.
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Arrow Down

US: North Dakota Lake Swallows Land and Buildings

Dave Kolpack
The Associated Press
Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:00 UTC
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© 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.
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