Earth Changes
© Unknown
1995 total solar eclipse
Commencing Tuesday, three eclipses - a lunar eclipse, a solar eclipse and another lunar - will take over the skies, a phenomenon which although experts say is not rare, will nevertheless be nature's grand spectacle.
On July 7, a penumbral lunar eclipse will occur as the moon rises over Australia and sets in western north and south America in the early pre-dawn hours, said C.B. Devgun, director of Science Popularization Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE).
The eclipse, however, will not be visible over India.
"The penumbral eclipse will be so slight - just about eight percent - that it will not be visible to those in India," Ajay Talwar of the Amateur Astronomers Association told IANS.
Watching whales is far more profitable than eating them, concludes a report published last week by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). It found that revenues from whale watching in 2008 reached $2.1 billion - double the amount earned a decade ago.
"It's clearly the most sustainable use of whales," says Patrick Ramage of the IFAW. "You can watch the same whales dozens of times, but you can only kill a whale once."
Globally, whale watching has grown by 3.7 per cent each year in the last decade. Last year, 13 million people observed whales in 119 countries, supporting 13,000 jobs.
Joe Moszczynski and Brian T. Murray
The Star LedgerMon, 06 Jul 2009 15:45 UTC
VERNON -- Police say it was an "attack." At this point, New Jersey wildlife officials say, it was an "incident."
Either way, Henry Rouwendal, who was nursing a head injury, dislocated shoulder and other injuries at his Vernon home last night, says his run-in with a hungry black bear was "a pretty wild ordeal."
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Costa Rica's local farmers markets, proof of a green ecological footprint
Latin America tops a global ranking of ecological efficiency positioning Costa Rica as the world's happiest place to live.
The
Happy Planet Index reveals a surprising picture of the relative wealth and progress of nations.
Latin America tops the Index with Costa Rica being termed the greenest and happiest country. Nine of the ten highest-scoring nations are Latin American.
The Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, Vietnam, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Brazil and Honduras stand second to tenth on the table of the happiest places of the planet.
A strong earthquake measuring a magnitude of six shook Panama early Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of casuaties or damage, the US Geological Survey reported. The epicenter of the tremor, which occurred at 1:49 am (0649 GMT), was located 97 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of the capital Panama City.
Tom Miles
ReutersSun, 05 Jul 2009 09:25 UTC
Beijing - Flooding and heavy rain in southern China have forced 550,000 people to evacuate their homes and killed at least 15, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.
The heavy rains that have raged for four days across southern provinces have destroyed houses, flooded crops, cut power, damaged roads and caused rivers to overflow.
XinhuaFri, 03 Jul 2009 07:25 UTC
Northeastern Mexico's Sea of Cortez region was rocked by an earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale at around 5 a.m. local time (1100 GMT) on Friday.
By press time, there have been no reports of injuries or property damage. This was partly because the epicenter was out at sea, said the National Seismology Service, which is a unit of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Cities in the region, Baja California Sur capital La Paz and tourist town Los Cabos, felt a moderate tremor.
XinhuaFri, 03 Jul 2009 07:23 UTC
An earthquake of moderate intensity shook central Colombia early Friday morning, with no reports of casualties or damage, said the National Seismological Network of Colombia (NSNC).
The NSNC said the epicenter of the earthquake, measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale, was located in the municipality of Chaparral in the central department of Tolima, at a depth of 30 kilometers, which was considered superficial.
"Most cities in central Tolima, the southwestern departments of Valle del Cauca and Huila, and the mid-western departments of Risaralda and Quindio felt relatively strong shakes when the earthquake took place at local time 5:04 a.m. (1004 GMT)," said a spokesman of the NSNC.
Alan Harten
Fair HomeSat, 04 Jul 2009 19:31 UTC
Scientists made their 25th visit to the Scottish Island of Hirta in the Outer Hebrides to complete a study and made a stunning discovery; the sheep on the island were shrinking, literally.
Each year of the study the sheep shrank by 81g, about 5% of their body mass, and scientist think that this is because of climate change rather than natural adaptation.
Natural changes would have led to larger body sizes, not the smaller body mass that was exhibited.
Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, had an op-ed in Monday's New York Times in which he called anyone who's skeptical of man-made global warming a "traitor to the Earth."
Now, I don't have a PhD in Economics (although I do have one in another field), nor do I have a Nobel Prize, but that accusation seems a bit over the top. Perhaps it's just another example of the growing societal acrimony frequently discussed on Minyanville.
I'd like to take a look at the evidence for global warming resulting from increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere: The argument is that more infrared radiation released by the Earth is captured given the higher concentration of CO2 in the air, thereby warming the planet. However, if you're looking for scientifically rigorous experiments linking CO2 to increased temperatures, I have bad news for you: It doesn't exist.
