Earth ChangesS


Phoenix

US: Wildfire erupts near Yosemite National Park

John Coté
San Francisco Chronicle
Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:31 UTC
Here we go again.

Fire crews were working feverishly to contain a swiftly moving wildfire near the western border of Yosemite National Park that increased its size 16-fold on Saturday, forcing about 300 homes to be evacuated near the community of Midpines and threatening up to 2,000 residences.

The developments came as officials announced the death of an 18-year-old firefighter who was struck and killed by a falling tree Friday while helping to contain a wildfire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest about 50 miles west of Redding.
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Snowman

Global cooling: Anchorage could hit 65 degrees for fewest days on record

George Bryson
Anchorage Daily News
Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:47 UTC
The coldest summer ever? You might be looking at it, weather folks say.

Right now the so-called summer of '08 is on pace to produce the fewest days ever recorded in which the temperature in Anchorage managed to reach 65 degrees.

That unhappy record was set in 1970, when we only made it to the 65-degree mark, which many Alaskans consider a nice temperature, 16 days out of 365.

This year, however -- with the summer more than half over -- there have been only seven 65-degree days so far. And that's with just a month of potential "balmy" days remaining and the forecast looking gloomy.

Comment: Right after a record cold winter, we have a record cool summer. And yet, the global warming crowd still try to find justification for their theory. It really makes one wonder if there is a hidden motive for that.

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Cloud Lightning

Severe storm hits New Zealand's upper North Island

Sun Yunlong
Xinhua
Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:36 UTC
A severe storm continued to lash the top half of New Zealand's North Island on Saturday, with strong wind warnings in place for most areas of the North Island. The storm toppled power lines and trees, closed roads and caused extensive power outages, Radio New Zealand reported on Saturday.

MetService predicted the storm, which began on Saturday morning, will last about 24 hours. The storm hit Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty on Saturday evening and was expected to be felt in East Cape by late Sunday morning.
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Attention

A Shortage Of Honey Bees in the US


WHKP.com
Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:08 UTC
There's a definite shortage honey bees this Summer...all across North Carolina, and in many other parts of the country as well. Honey bees are, of course, vital to many types of pollination...and are critical to everything from food to flowers to cattle.

One cattle farmer in the Mills River community said he's seen only a few honey bees this Summer, and they were fluttering around in his vegetable garden. Most local flower gardeners say they're seeing almost NO honey bees around their Summer flowers.
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Alarm Clock

Mexico finds dozens of dead sea turtles


Associated Press
Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:08 UTC
ACAPULCO - Environmental officials in Mexico say dozens of dead sea turtles apparently killed in fishing nets have washed up on beaches in recent days.
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Cloud Lightning

Flashback New Zealand: Lightning blasts a hole in airliner as bad luck strikes again

Steve Creedy
The Australian
Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:21 UTC
People who believe bad things come in threes may have second thoughts about flying with Lan Chile after the airline suffered a second rare accident on its Sydney-Santiago run.

The airline made international headlines last year when flaming pieces of a re-entering satellite came within five nautical miles (9.2km) of an Airbus A340 travelling from Santiago to Auckland and Sydney.

And last week, lightning punched a hole in the nose of a Lan Chile Airbus carrying almost 300 people as it approached Auckland from Sydney. A New Zealand report quoted a witness as saying the strike caused a hole "the size of a dinner plate", although the plane landed safely.
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Phoenix

Forest fire spreading on Rhodes


BBC
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:16 UTC
Firefighters are trying to extinguish a big forest fire raging on the Greek holiday island of Rhodes, while a blaze north of Athens has been contained.

Water-bombing aircraft are tackling the blaze on Rhodes, which has burnt at least 1,000 hectares of forest. It has not reached any tourist resorts.

France and Italy have sent planes to central Rhodes to help fight the fire, the French news agency AFP reports.
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Bug

US: Tarantulas, fire ants lurk in Texas floodwaters

Christopher Sherman
Associated Press
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:44 UTC
South Texans eager to salvage what they can from waterlogged homes struck by Hurricane Dolly have another problem: The floodwaters they're slogging through are laced with stinging fire ants, snakes and even deadly tarantulas.

"You don't want to wade in this water," state Health Services Commissioner David Lakey said during a visit to the Rio Grande Valley Friday. "You don't want to play in this water. You want to stay out of this water."

It was timely advice, but residents in many neighborhoods with waist-deep water had little choice as they sifted through the mess left by the Category 2 storm that hit the eastern Texas and Mexico coasts Wednesday. In eastern Hidalgo County, as much as 12 inches of rain fell in six hours, turning neighborhoods into coffee-colored lakes.

Image
©AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo
A man wades through a flooded street after Hurricane Dolly hit the area in Matamoros, Mexico, Thursday, July 24, 2008. Officials said no deaths were reported in Mexico from Dolly, which struck land just north of the border in Texas Wednesday. It ripped off roofs, flooded roads and downed power lines, but the Rio Grande levees held strong.
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Cloud Lightning

Powerful New Hampshire storm leaves death, devastation

Christopher J. Baxter and Peter Schworm
The Boston Globe
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:02 UTC
EPSOM, N.H. - A violent thunderstorm with tornado-like winds tore through New Hampshire yesterday, killing one person in a collapsed house and causing heavy damage in its 21-mile path through 11 small towns in the center of the state.
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Bizarro Earth

Rising energy, food prices major threats to wetlands as farmers eye new areas for crops

Terry Collins
EurekAlert!
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:05 UTC
700 leading experts meeting in Brazil urge policy makers to resist pressure to convert wetlands.

Critical food shortages and growing demand for bio-fuels and hydro-electricity due to high fossil fuel prices rank among the greatest threats today to the preservation of precious wetlands worldwide as farmers and developers look for new areas for agriculture, energy crop plantations and hydro dams.

However, resisting pressures to convert wetlands is vital to avoid destroying ecosystems that provide a suite of services essential to humanity, including safe, steady local water supplies, preserving biodiversity and the large-scale capture and storage of climate warming greenhouse gases, according 700 leading world experts concluding a week-long meeting in Cuiaba, Brazil.
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