Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Aftershock Rattles Haiti's Capital; Violence Fears Ease

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© Wolfgang Rattay/ReutersTears run down the cheeks of four-year-old Aikta as she waits for treatment at a makeshift hospital run by B-FAST (Belgian First Aid and Support Team) in a suburb of Port-au-Prince.
A new earthquake shook the devastated Haitian capital on Wednesday morning, creating panic among survivors of last week's devastating quake camped out in the streets but apparently causing no new destruction.

The powerful 6.1 magnitude aftershock at daybreak sent shrieking Haitians running away from buildings and walls in the shattered city fearing a repeat of the magnitude 7 earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people eight days ago.

"It felt really strong. Each aftershock is frightening. We feel it right here (pointing at his stomach) because after last Tuesday you never know how strong it is going to be," said Lenis Batiste, camped out on some grass with two children.

Bizarro Earth

Another strong earthquake hits Haiti

Port-au-Prince was hit on Wednesday by a strong earthquake measuring 6.1 on the moment magnitude scale, eight days after the Haiti capital was razed by a 7.0 quake.

The quake struck 59km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, according to the US Geological Survey.

It followed the much more powerful quake on January 12 that is thought to have killed 100,000 to 200,000 people.

Residents reported a low vibration followed by a brief but more powerful rumbling shake at 6.03am (2203 AEDT).

AFP reporters in the city said there was no immediate sign of damage or casualties, but a crashing sound could be heard suggested that an already damaged building may have collapsed.

In nearby Petionville AFP staff said the quake was felt for around 10 seconds.

The US Geological Survey initially measured Wednesday's quake at 6.0.
It struck at a depth of 9.9km, it said.

Gear

Pachauri: there's money in them glaciers

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© UnknownSyed Hasnain
Syed Hasnain (pictured), the scientist at the centre of the growing controversy over melting Himalayan glaciers (not), is now working for Dr R K Pachauri's TERI as head of the institute glaciology team, funded by a generous grant from a US charity, researching the effects of the retreat.

Highlighted in The Sunday Times yesterday, Dr Hasnain was the scientist responsible for claiming that the world's glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035. This was picked up by the New Scientist and then by a 2005 WWF report, and subsequently published as a definitive claim in the IPCC's 2007 fourth assessment report, masterminded by Dr R K Pachauri.

But, while Dr Hasnain, who was then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, has admitted that the New Scientist report was based on "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research, he is now a direct beneficiary of that speculation.

Monkey Wrench

Insurance Group Says Stolen E-Mails Show Risk in Accepting Climate Science

A major trade group for the insurance industry is warning that it is "exceedingly risky" for companies to blindly accept scientific conclusions around climate change, given the "serious questions" around the extent to which humans cause atmospheric warming.

The assertion was made in a letter (pdf) to insurance regulators, who will administer the nation's first mandatory climate requirements on corporations in May. Large insurers will have to answer about a dozen questions related to the preparations they are taking to safeguard themselves from climatic hazards.

Bad Guys

How Al Gore and the United Nations became involved in global warming

The segment tells the story of Roger Revelle, Al Gore, Maurice Strong and the UN IPCC. Revelle did early research on carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. He then had Gore as a student where Gore heard of the idea of global warming for this first time. Late scientist and teacher Revelle realized that CO2 is not a significant greenhouse gas, but Gore dismissed Revelle as senile and refused to debate. The UN's Maurice Strong fell into the trap of the same bad science and now the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change holds on to its global warming claims despite the failure of its computer models to verify.


Attention

Weather Channel founder John Coleman sues Al Gore for fraud on behalf of over 30,000 scientists

Weather Channel founder John Coleman speaks to Fox News about the absurd claims by Al Gore and the Global Warmists that the planet is heating up due to increased man-made CO2.

Note the comment by the anchor towards the end regarding the real threat climate change presents us with: the imminent return to an ice age.


Attention

Best of the Web: Cooked! US government's central role in fudging the data behind 'global warming'

Breaking News! Climategate comes to the United States! Meet the two men who have dug through several layers of computer codes to uncover manipulation of the world temperature data to support the claims of global warming. This is a major climate scandal involving United States government agencies.

John Coleman, KUSI Meteorologist


Igloo

Climategate Redux: NASA and NOAA have been falsifying climate reports for years

Climate-gate part I occurred in early December when a still-unknown person posted thousands of e-mails and documents on a scientific website. The e-mails showed that scientists at the leading "global warming" research institute in the world, East Anglia University's Climate Research Unit (CRU) had "changed" weather data to prove their climate-warming theories, and squelched dissenting opinions from skeptical scientists to maintain credibility for their fraud.

Climate-gate part II begins now: The scientists with Icecap.us website announced findings late last week that not only was the CRU involved in producing fraudulent weather data, but two United States agencies, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have also been falsifying climate reports for years. NOAA, the report concludes, is actually "ground-zero" for the fraud of global warming, not the East Anglia Institute.

Igloo

Historic Cold Wave in Key West, Florida

Public Information Statement, National Weather Service, Key West, Florida

The last several days have seen one of the longest and most intense periods of cold weather ever recorded in Key West. Temperatures dropped well below normal in the wake of a strong cold front on January 2nd and have remained more than 10 degrees below normal each day since then, up through January 12th. The coldest temperatures during this period were observed on January 10th and 11th, after a powerful reinforcing Arctic cold front moved through the region.

Below are the high and low temperatures, along with the departure from normal of the daily average temperature, recorded at Key West airport each day since the cold wave began:

Cloud Lightning

US: Tornado Warning Issued in Los Angeles

Los Angeles - A storm moving through Central and Southern California has brought high winds, waves and lightning, prompting a tornado warning and pier closures.

Los Angeles County firefighters report minor street and building flooding in some areas of Los Angeles County on Tuesday but there are no reports of major damage or injuries.

Officials shut down piers in Ventura, Seal Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach because of 15-foot waves.