Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Massive winter storm to hit Ireland tonight and tomorrow

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A massive winter storm is set to hit Ireland with hurricane-like winds and flooding on Sunday night and Monday authorities say.

Coastal areas are expected to be hardest hit and major flooding alerts have been issued for counties Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Clare and Galway.

The surprise winter storm will pack a real punch say Irish weather forecaster,s who have issued an early alert of severe flooding and dangerous driving conditions.

Binoculars

Pink River Dolphins At Risk from Drought

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© Kevin Schafer/Barcroft USA
An endangered species of pink dolphin has suffered devastating declines in its population due to a drought in the Amazon.

Numbers of the rare pink river dolphin, or Bufeo as it is known to indigenous people, have almost halved over the past year, according to a survey by conservation experts.

They say severe drought that has been moving down the Amazon basin from the upper reaches of the river in Peru have caused fish populations to plummet.

This has left the Amazon river dolphins, which can grow to more than 9 feet in length, struggling to find enough food. Surveys conducted in the Peruvian Amazon have revealed a 47 per cent drop in numbers.

Dr Richard Bodmer, an ecologist from the University of Kent and the Wildlife Conservation Society who has been working with environmental charity Earthwatch to monitor changes in the area, said extremely low water levels in tributaries to the Amazon River had dramatically impacted on dolphin numbers.

Binoculars

UK: Churches Suffering from Bats

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© CorbisThe number of bats roosting in churches has grown as woodland has been destroyed and it has become increasingly popular to convert barns into homes
Bats in the belfry are an age-old phenomenon - but they are increasingly moving into the aisles and naves, presenting a growing threat to thousands of churches.

Now, the Church of England is to hold its first summit to examine how to save its buildings from bats, which are estimated to nest in more than a third of all parish churches.

Experts will meet next week at Lambeth Palace, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to develop a national strategy to tackle a problem costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The number of bats roosting in churches has grown as woodland has been destroyed and it has become increasingly popular to convert barns into homes.

Some rural churches are struggling to stay open as the problem is particularly acute in the countryside, where the congregations tend to be much smaller.

Bizarro Earth

Whales found dead on Donegal beach

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© RTE
Thirty-five whales have beached and died on an island off Burtonport in Co Donegal. The whales were discovered this afternoon on a beach on Rutland Island and are understood to be pilot whales, mostly mothers and calves.

The whales had been seen feeding in the area around Aranmore Island since Tuesday. Pilot whales have a tendency to beach themselves in large numbers and a similar incident occurred in Co Mayo some years ago.

Bizarro Earth

Volcanic Activity Forces Airlines to Cancel Flights to Indonesian Capital

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© AP PhotoPassengers enter a terminal as an information screen shows cancelled international flights at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010.
Mount Merapi - International airlines cancelled flights into Indonesia's capital Saturday after a volcano hundreds of kilometres to the east unleashed its most powerful eruption in a century, incinerating villagers as they fled a searing gas cloud.

The number of people killed by Mount Merapi in the past two weeks climbed to 138, as a tiny hospital at the foot of the mountain struggled to cope with survivors, some with burns on up to 95 per cent of their bodies.

The only sign of life in one man, whose eyes were milky grey in colour and never blinked, was the shallow rising and falling of his chest. Others, their lungs choked with abrasive volcanic ash, struggled to breathe.

Indonesia's most volatile mountain unleashed a surge of searing gas, rocks and debris Friday that raced down its slopes at highway speeds, mowing down the slope-side village of Bronggang and leaving a trail of charred corpses in its path.

Better Earth

Extinct bears found underwater

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© Guillermo de Anda Alanis/Yucatan Autonomous University
Underwater archaeologists have discovered the skulls of four Arctotherium - a genus of short-faced bear that went extinct 11,300 years ago - 42 metres down in a submerged cave on the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico.

The 25-30 cm long skulls belong to two adult bears - one of each sex - and two bears that had not reached full maturity. Guillermo de Anda Alanis and his team from the Yucatan Autonomous University discovered them whilst diving in a cavern. Skeletal remains of five humans were also found nearby. Dating of the human skeletons will establish if the two finds are related.

The skulls will force a rethink of bear biogeography in the Americas - Arctotherium was previously known to only reside in South America. The only representative of the short-faced bear family alive today is the spectacled bear of Venezuela.

Nuke

Washington, US: Radioactive Rabbit Waste Found At Ex-Nuclear Facility

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© Stoiber
Rabbit droppings found in southeast Washington contain a radioactive material.

The animal waste was found within 100 yards of a facility recently demolished as part of the environmental cleanup at the Hanford Site. The 586-square-mile site produced nuclear materials for the U.S. government from the 1940s until the late '80s.

Bizarro Earth

Cascading volcanic ash sets homes ablaze

Mount Merapi
© Beawiharta / ReutersMount Merapi volcano spews smoke as seen from Sidorejo village in Klaten, near the ancient city of Yogyakarta, on Nov. 3. The latest eruption was the biggest yet, causing evacuees to move their shelters even further from the mountain.
Mount Merapi, Indonesia - A deadly surge of blistering gases cascaded down the slopes of Indonesia's most volatile volcano Friday, torching houses in one mountainside village. At least 48 people were killed in the latest inferno and scores of others injured.

Men with ash-covered faces streamed down Mount Merapi on motorcycles followed by truckloads of women and crying children, following the massive eruption just before midnight Friday.

Even staff at the mountain's main monitoring post were told to move farther from the glowing crater.

Hospital spokesman Heru Nugroho said 48 bodies were brought in after the inferno. More than 65 others were injured, many of them critically.

Cloud Lightning

Costa Rica landslide kills at least 20 as storm hits

Costa Rica landslide
© ReutersVolunteers search for landslide victims in the San Antonio de Escazu district
A landslide in Costa Rica caused by heavy rain has killed at least 20 people in a suburb of the capital, San Jose, officials say.

A number of people are still missing following the landslide in the western district of San Antonio de Escazu.

A hillside gave way, sending tons of rock and earth onto the houses below.

The Costa Rican government is considering declaring a national emergency.

Cloud Lightning

Cholera-Hit Haiti Braces for Looming Storm

Haiti
© AFPHaitian refugees await word of Caribbean storm Tomas at a tent city in Port-au-Prince
Haiti reeled from a spike in cholera deaths as authorities planned mass evacuations from squalid tent cities ahead of a major storm set to lash the Americas' poorest nation beginning Thursday.

Tropical Storm Tomas was barreling toward Haiti, threatening a direct hit early Friday as a hurricane bringing "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides over mountainous terrain," according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

A hurricane warning was issued, which means hurricane conditions are expected in the affected area within 24 to 36 hours, while tropical storm-force winds and rain were expected to buffet the Caribbean nation from late Thursday.

"These conditions make outside preparations difficult or dangerous, and preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the Miami-based center warned.