Earth ChangesS


Umbrella

Hurricane Earl May Skim North Carolina as Strong Storm

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© Ricardo Arduengo, APA boy in Puerto Rico takes cover from a wave driven by Hurricane Earl on Monday.

"Excellent chance" it'll be a Category 3 as far north as New Jersey, expert says.


Hurricane Earl is on a path that could take it near North Carolina's Outer Banks (map) late this week - and unusually warm Atlantic waters mean the storm could stay a major hurricane as it travels northward along the U.S. East Coast.

As of 11 a.m. ET today, Hurricane Earl's strongest winds were blowing at 135 miles (217 kilometers) an hour, making it a Category 4 storm.

Butterfly

Famed Tasmanian devil euthanized after tumor found

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© AP Photo/Rob GriffithIn this Wednesday, May 21, 2008 file photo, a Tasmanian devil searches for food in his enclosure at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. The Tasmanian devil population has plummeted by 70 percent since Devil Facial Tumor Disease was first discovered in 1996.
A Tasmanian devil named Cedric, once thought to be immune to a contagious facial cancer threatening the iconic creatures with extinction, has been euthanized after succumbing to the disease, researchers said Wednesday.

The death of the devil - previously heralded as a possible key to saving the species - is another blow for scientists struggling to stop the rapid spread of the cancer, which is transmitted when the furry black marsupials bite each other.

"It was very disappointing indeed," said scientist Alex Kreiss of the Menzies Research Institute in Hobart, Tasmania, which has led the studies on Cedric. "It's just made us more determined to keep the research going."

The Tasmanian devil population has plummeted by 70 percent since Devil Facial Tumor Disease was first discovered in 1996. The snarling, fox-sized creatures - made famous by their Looney Tunes cartoon namesake Taz - don't exist in the wild outside Tasmania, an island state south of the Australian mainland.

In 2007, Menzies researchers injected Cedric and his half brother Clinky with facial cancer cells. Clinky developed the disease, but Cedric showed an immune response and grew no tumors - giving researchers hope that he could help them create a vaccine.

But in late 2008, Cedric developed two small facial tumors after being injected with a different strain of the cancer, which causes grotesque facial growths that eventually grow so large, it becomes impossible for the devils to eat. Current estimates suggest the species could be extinct within 25 years due to the prolific spread of the cancer.

Cloud Lightning

Earl could force US evacuations ahead of Labor Day

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© AP Photo/Todd VanSickleA boat is battered by waves in Sopers Hole during the passage of Hurricane Earl near Tortola, British Virgin Islands, Monday Aug. 30, 2010. The Category 4 hurricane was expected to remain over the open ocean before turning north and running parallel to the U.S. coast, potentially reaching the North Carolina coastal region by late Thursday or early Friday.
Raleigh, North Carolina - A powerful Hurricane Earl threatened to sideswipe much of the East Coast just ahead of Labor Day, worrying countless vacationers who planned to spend the traditional last week of summer at the beach.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency warned people along the Eastern Seaboard to prepare for possible evacuations and islanders in the Turks and Caicos hunkered down in their homes Tuesday as the Category 4 hurricane steamed across the Caribbean with winds of 135 mph.

Earl was expected to remain over the open ocean before turning north and running parallel to the East Coast, bringing high winds and heavy rain to North Carolina's Outer Banks by late Thursday or early Friday. From there, forecasters said, it could curve away from the coast somewhat as it makes it way north, perhaps hitting Massachusetts' Cape Cod and the Maine shoreline on Friday night and Saturday.

Bizarro Earth

Scientists Ponder Dolphin Mystery

Victoria, British Columbia: -- Canadian scientists say they are puzzled why dolphins, which normally stay in offshore waters, are showing up close to shore and in inlets on Vancouver Island.

Dolphins started moving closer to land in the mid-1980s but the reason is still unknown, researchers said. It could have been a result of a food shortage or changing water temperatures.

"They just keep increasing," Echo Bay, British Columbia, resident Billy Proctor told the Vancouver Sun. "I guess their population is probably exploding because there's tons of babies everywhere. I don't think they're supposed to be here."

Proctor said he sees hundreds of them daily hanging out close to shore.

Bug

Possible Breakthrough in Breeding Parasite-Resistant Bee


A British beekeeper says he may have discovered a strain of honey bee immune to a parasite that has been gradually wiping out populations of the vital insect worldwide.

Scientists have been trying to find a way to fight the pesticide-resistant Varroa mite.

But now a retired heating engineer who spent 18 years searching for a mite-resistant breed may have found a breakthrough.

Ron Hoskins, 79, from Swindon in southern England, says he has managed to isolate and breed a strain of bees which "groom" one another, removing the mites.

Newspaper

More People Flee Homes as Volcano Erupts in Indonesia

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© Xinhua/AFPMount Sinabung volcano spews smoke in the district of Tanah Karo outside the city of Medan, North Sumatra August 28, 2010.
The number of evacuees in volcano eruption in Indonesia climbed to over 21,000 on Monday and was expected to rise, spokesman of National Disaster Management Agency Priyadi Kardono said.

The rise of over 9,000 evacuees from that on Sunday has caused overload on shelters, the spokesman said.

Some of the evacuees have suffered from diseases, he said.

"The problems at the shelters now is overload and it may become severer as the people keep flocking on the refugee centers. Besides some of the evacuees have got disease, most of them have respiratory problem," Priyadi told Xinhua by phone.

Cloud Lightning

Newborn Hurricane Earl threatens north Caribbean

Hurricane Danielle
© Associated Press/Weather UndergroundThis NOAA satellite image taken Saturday, Aug 28, 2010 at 03:00 AM EDT shows clouds associated with Hurricane Danielle as it begins to track northeastward as a Category 3 storm. It may regain Category 4 status on Saturday, but will weaken as it remains away from any major landmasses. Tropical Storm Earl is to the southeast of Hurricane Danielle and is moving westward. Clouds in the Gulf of Mexico are producing some showers along the Gulf Coast
Islanders set up emergency shelters and cancelled flights on Sunday as newly born Hurricane Earl churned toward the northern Caribbean. Cruise lines diverted ships to avoid the storm's path.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said that Earl, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), could hit the northern Leeward Islands as soon as Sunday night. It could become a major hurricane by Tuesday - probably while north of Puerto Rico.

People on several islands stuffed shopping carts with bottled water, canned food, milk, candles and batteries, while some tourists scrambled to board flights home. Others enjoyed the beach while they could.

"I'm just trying get a good suntan in while the weather is still co-operating," said Linda Curren of New York City, sunbathing on San Juan's Ocean Park beach as a few surfers paddled into pounding waves.

Bizarro Earth

The Ballooning Shortage of Helium

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© Pete Erickson/AP PhotoKent Couch, the lawn chair balloonist, feels the lift of helium balloons over Oregon in 2007.
We usually think of it as the funny, lighter-than-air gas that makes balloons float and our voices squeak.

But those helium-filled party balloons are about to get a lot more expensive. Like uranium and oil, helium is running out. Created over billions of years, the earth's supply could be gone in 25 to 30 years if we continue to waste it at its current rate, experts say.

The news has touched off a crisis in the science world, where the nontoxic, nonflammable substance holds the key to a myriad of scientific wonders, from modern medical diagnostics to the Large Hadron Collider.

Binoculars

South Africa: Drunk Baboons Plague Cape Town's Exclusive Suburbs

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© AP PhotoEach day, dozens of Cape Baboons gather to strip the ancient vines
The sun is setting over South Africa's oldest vineyard and the last of the wine-tasting tourists are climbing onto their buses. But one large family group has no intention of leaving - and there is little the management can do about it.

Groot Constantia, in the heart of Cape Town's wine country, can deal with inebriated holidaymakers - but it is invading baboons which have developed a taste for its grapes that the wine makers are struggling with.

Each day, dozens of Cape Baboons gather to strip the ancient vines - the sauvignon blanc grapes are a particular favourite - before heading into the mountains to sleep. A few, who sample fallen fruit that has fermented in the sun, pass out and don't make it home.

"They are not just eating our grapes, they are raiding our kitchens and ripping the thatch off the roofs. They are becoming increasingly bold and destructive," said Jean Naude, general manager at the vineyard, which is celebrating its 325th birthday this year. Guards banging sticks and waving plastic snakes have been deployed with only limited success, and not even a blast of a vuvuzela, the plastic horn made famous at the World Cup, seems to frighten them.

Magnify

South Pacific Sea Levels - Best Records Show Little or No Rise?

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© UnknownSea levels: The El Nino / tropical storm anomaly in 1997-1998 is clear. A long sustained rise is not.
Are the small islands of the South Pacific in danger of disappearing, glug, under the waves of the rising ocean? Will thousands of poor inhabitants be forced to emigrate, as desperate refugees, to Australia and New Zealand? Has any of this got anything to do with man-made emissions of CO2?

By looking closely at the records, it turns out that the much advertised rising sea levels in the South Pacific depend on anomalous depressions of the ocean during 1997 and 1998 thanks to an El Nino and two tropical cyclones.

The Science and Public Policy Institute has released a report by Vincent Gray which compares 12 Pacific Island records and shows that in many cases it's these anomalies that set the trends... and if the anomaly is removed, sea levels appear to be more or less constant since the Seaframe measurements began around 1993.