Earth ChangesS


Bad Guys

Global Warming Fraud Hits a New Low! Scientists Outraged Over Australia's Cull Plans For Farting Camels


Herald Sun
Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:11 UTC
Image
© AAPCamels emit 45kg of methane, the equivalent of one tonne a year in carbon dioxide (CO2) a year
The world's association of camel scientists fought back angrily over Australian plans to kill wild dromedaries on the grounds that their flatulence adds to global warming.

The idea is "false and stupid... a scientific aberration", the International Society of Camelid Research and Development (ISOCARD) said yesterday, adding the animals were being made culprits for a man-made problem.


Comment: Not even a man-made one. The whole Global Warming scam is nothing but a big farce.


"We believe that the good-hearted people and innovating nation of Australia can come up with better and smarter solutions than eradicating camels in inhumane ways," it said.

The kill-a-camel suggestion is floated in a paper distributed by Australia's Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, as part of consultations for reducing the country's carbon footprint.

The scheme is the brainchild of an Adelaide-based commercial company, Northwest Carbon, a land and animal management consultancy, which proposes whacking feral camels in exchange for carbon credits.
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Stop

New York, US: Wild boars invade farms, attack pets

Ray Sanchez
Reuters
Fri, 29 Jul 2011 09:49 UTC
Image
© Reuters
Wild boars are invading the farms of central New York state, attacking livestock, killing family pets and chasing people, experts warned on Friday.

The feral swine are a non-native species suspected of escaping from game farms. As many as a couple of hundred are roaming the state, said Paul Curtis, a natural resources professor at Cornell University in Ithaca.

While an exact picture of the wild boar population in New York State is unclear, a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said the swine were successfully breeding in the three counties and producing litters averaging four to six piglets.
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Bizarro Earth

6.5 Quake Hits Fukushima Prefecture, 7 People Hurt


Jot Zoom
Sun, 31 Jul 2011 07:46 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Early morning on Sunday, local time, a quake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale hit the Fukushima prefecture. The quake was centered about 60 miles south/southeast of Fukushima City.

There were no reports of major damage. Also, no tsunami warning was issued.

Officials say that aftershocks continue in the region with often multiple 4.0 or higher aftershocks felt each day.

Area fire and rescue organizations say that 7 people were hurt during the latest quake, 1 person in Sendai, 2 people in Koriyama, and another 4 people from Ibaraki prefecture.

Officials at the Fukushima nuclear plant say the nuclear plant sustained no new damage from today's quake.
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Bizarro Earth

Mount Etna In Sicily Erupts, Seventh Eruption This Year

Mark Dunphy
Irish Weather Online
Sun, 31 Jul 2011 22:54 UTC
The Mount Etna volcano on the southern Italian island of Sicily erupted this weekend spewing ash and volcanic debris more than 300 metres into the air and sending lava down its slopes.

This is the seventh time that Mount Etna has erupted in 2011. The weekend eruption was the fourth and largest in July. The last eruption occurred on 19 July.

Italian officials had since said the 11,000-foot-tall volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, had calmed down after more that two weeks of activity. Residents in surrounding areas had been warned however, that the Sicilian volcano might have fallen back into a short-lived slumber and another "active phase may just be around the corner."

Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of activity.

On 12-13 January 2011 lava fountaining occurred from the vent on the east flank of Etna's Southeast Crater cone, lasting more than 1.5 hours. Italian Authorities were forced to temporarily close airports for a couple of hours while the ash cloud cleared.
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Binoculars

Giant Fungus Discovered in China

Matt Walker
BBC News
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:38 UTC
Image
© Yu-Cheng DaiSmall fragments have broken off the single giant fungus
The most massive fruiting body of any fungus yet documented has been discovered growing on the underside of a tree in China.

The fruiting body, which is equivalent to the mushrooms produced by other fungi species, is up to 10m long, 80cm wide and weighs half a tonne.

That shatters the record held previously by a fungus growing in Kew Gardens in the UK.

The new giant fungus is thought to be at least 20 years old.

The first example of the new giant fungus was recorded by scientists in 2008 in Fujian Province, China, by Professor Yu-Cheng Dai of the Herbarium of biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenyang and his assistant Dr Cui.

"But the type collection was not huge," Prof Dai told BBC Nature.

However, "we found [the] giant one in Hainan Province in 2010."
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Bizarro Earth

Papua New Guinea - Earthquake Magnitude 6.8


USGS
Sun, 31 Jul 2011 20:32 UTC
PNG Quake_310711
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 23:38:57 UTC

Monday, August 01, 2011 at 09:38:57 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
3.569°S, 144.844°E

Depth:
16.8 km (10.4 miles)

Region:
NEAR NORTH COAST OF NEW GUINEA, P.N.G.

Distances:
134 km (83 miles) E of Wewak, New Guinea, PNG

211 km (131 miles) NNW of Madang, New Guinea, PNG

701 km (435 miles) NNW of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2787 km (1731 miles) NNW of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
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Cloud Lightning

Earthquake-Ravaged Japan Now Overwhelmed by Rain - 296,000 Evacuated


Herald Sun
Sat, 30 Jul 2011 05:43 UTC
Image
© Herald Sun Residents stand beside a flooded street caused by heavy rain in Sanjo, Japan.
Floods claimed their first victim in Japan and nearly 300,000 people were urged to flee their homes as a weather system that killed dozens on the Korean peninsula swept the country.

Local governments in the central province of Niigata and tsunami-hit Fukushima issued the guidance today after the national weather agency urged citizens to be on maximum alert against more flooding and mudslides.

Helicopter footage on NHK showed bridges over the Shinano River in Niigata partially submerged, while trees and telephone polls had been knocked down. Kamo City in Niigata was extensively flooded, with roads submerged.

Forecasters warned that the rains could continue to be torrential after reaching 1000 millimetres to date in Sanjo City, Niigata, 250km northwest of Tokyo, since they started on Wednesday.

A total of 296,000 people had been asked to evacuate their homes by this afternoon, according to public broadcaster NHK, but no compulsory orders were issued despite muddy swollen rivers, broken dykes and flooded houses.
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Fish

Australia: Thousands of dead fish have washed up along 8km of Lake Alexandrina's shore

Michael Milnes
Adelaide Now
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:26 UTC
dead fish
© The Advertiser One of the fish washed up dead on the shores of Lake Alexandrina. Picture: Michael Milnes.

With the health of the River Murray and Lower Lake system at its best in years, the mass "fish kill" is a mystery.

Point Sturt resident Dot Ratcliffe said she was alarmed to find the problem when she went kayaking on the lake yesterday morning. "I saw them (extending) about 400m out in to the lake," she said.

"It's terribly upsetting, very distressing. There are thousands of fish washed up, something you do not want to see. I have been living here for 10 years and never seen anything like this."
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Igloo

Ice Age Threat Should Freeze EPA Global Warming Regs

Shannon Goessling
The Washington Examiner
Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:16 UTC
ice
© n/a
Rather than spiraling into a global warming meltdown, we may be heading into the next ice age.

The U.S. National Solar Observatory, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and astrophysicists across the planet report that the nearly all-time low sunspot activity may result in a sustained cooling period on Earth.

The news has sent global warming theory advocates scrambling to discount and explain away the impact on global temperatures. However, the "news" is not really that new.

Many reputable scientists have been warning for decades that we are nearing the end of the 11,500-year average period between ice ages. And the last similar crash in sunspot activity coincided with the so-called "Little Ice Age" in the 1600s that lasted nearly a century.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Tropical storm heads for Texas - and the drought-hit state is overjoyed


The Daily Mail
Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:11 UTC
The prospect of a storm warning is normally cause for most American states to prepare for the worst.

But rather than bracing themselves for relentless rain and destructive cyclones, locals in Texas are welcoming the perfect storm in the hope it will end the state's months of drought.

Parts of Texas are 15 inches short of their average rainfall this year, meaning the predicted downpours from Tropical Storm Don are being actively welcomed.

Image
© AFP/ Getty ImagesOn its way: A graphic shows Tropical Storm Don brewing near the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, with the cyclone expected to hit Texas over the weekend
The storm's five to seven inches of predicted rain will help alleviate Texas's water shortages and dying crops when the cyclone sweeps in from the Gulf of Mexico.
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