Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Update! More than 130 feared dead after Indonesian rains

Indonesian rescuers hunted Thursday for victims of landslides and floods on Java island that have left more than 130 people feared dead and tens of thousands displaced, officials said.

Landslides hit two districts in Central Java in the early hours of Wednesday morning, engulfing entire homes and blocking roads, while floods in East Java swept away a bridge, leaving an estimated 50 missing.

Life Preserver

Saving Plants that Save Lives

Poor or non-existent collection controls are threatening the survival of many of the plant species used in traditional and modern medicines. Some estimates indicate that 15,000 of the 50,000 - 70,000 plant species used for medicinal purposes and mostly collected from the wild may be threatened, many as a direct result of unsustainable collection practices.

Three years of collaboration in which WWF has played a key role have now produced the first set of principles and criteria for the sustainable wild collection of plants.

Better Earth

Earthquake hits Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 shook the Turkish capital early Thursday, rattling furniture and rousing residents from their sleep, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Network

Powerful quake hits Alaska

A powerful magnitude 6.5 quake hit off Alaska's Aleutian Islands on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said, but it did not immediately trigger a tsunami warning.

Ambulance

Update: Landslides leave up to 81 dead or missing in Indonesia

Jakarta - Landslides and floods caused by torrential rains have left up to 81 people dead or missing in Indonesia's Central Java province, police and rescue officials said on Wednesday.

©REUTERS/Andry Prasetyo
Indonesian soldiers and villagers dig into mud to search for landslide victims in Karang Anyar district near Solo, Indonesia's Central Java province

Bizarro Earth

Venezuela Coast Shaken by Magnitude 5.0 Earthquake

Venezuela was shaken by a magnitude 5.0 earthquake today. There were no reports of damage to oil installations, the state energy company said.

Attention

CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Climate Change Gives Rise to New World Order

RIO DE JANEIRO - Once again, humanity is facing the risk of catastrophe. The terror of destruction by nuclear missiles ready to be launched at the touch of a button has given way to the disturbing possibility of global warming going past the point of no return, and this is turning traditional international coalitions and geopolitical concepts upside down.

Evil Rays

Tremor hits Iran town on anniversary of deadly quake

The ancient Iranian city of Bam was hit by a mild earthquake almost four years to the day after a catastrophic quake there killed tens of thousands of people, state media reported on Wednesday.


Arrow Down

Dozens said dead in Indonesia landslides

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Hours of heavy rain triggered landslides Wednesday that killed at least 59 people in western Indonesia, media reports said.

Better Earth

Walrus Habitat is Melting Away

Federal marine mammal experts in Alaska studying the effects of global warming on walrus, polar bears and ice seals warn there are limit to the protections they can provide.

They can restrict hunters, ship traffic and offshore petroleum activity, but that may not be enough if the animals' basic habitat - sea ice - disappears every summer.

"Ultimately it's beyond my scope," said Joel Garlich-Miller, a walrus expert for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage. "I can't make ice cubes out there."

Garlich-Miller said 3,000 to 4,000 mostly young walrus died this year in stampedes on land on the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea, the body of water touching Alaska and Russia just north of the Bering Strait. Instead of spending the summer spread over sea ice, thousands of walruses were stranded on land in unprecedented numbers for up to three months.

Anatoly Kochnev, who conducts walrus research for Russia's Pacific Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, said the loss of 3,000 to 4,000 animals this year from mostly one demographic could be disastrous.



©NOAA
A walrus rests on sea ice. Experts no fear the diminishing icy landscape of the Arctic landscape could damage walrus populations.