Earth ChangesS

Cloud Lightning

Think Tank: Climate change 'may put world at war'

Charles Clover
Telegraph
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:14 UTC
Climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars but lasting for centuries unless the problem is controlled, a leading defence think tank has warned.

The Royal United Services Institute said a tenfold increase in research spending, comparable to the amount spent on the Apollo space programme, will be needed if the world is to avoid the worst effects of changing temperatures.

However the group said the world's response to the threats posed by climate change, such as rising sea levels and migration, had so far been "slow and inadequate," because nations had failed to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

Comment: Climate change may indeed prove to be catastrophic but not necessarily because of global warming.

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Cloud Lightning

US, Maryland: Lightning strikes three houses in county

Marge Neal
Frederick News-Post
Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:14 UTC
When lightning hit Don and Ellen Noland's house Sunday morning and caused a fire, Don's quick use of water and then a fire extinguisher may have saved his house from going up in flames.

"The firemen told me that whole house would be gone if I hadn't done that," he said Sunday as he and his wife prepared to move temporarily to a hotel.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Planes struck by lightning


Examiner.com
Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:00 UTC
Washington - Two planes landed in Maryland and Virginia after being struck by lightning on Sunday morning. No one was injured.

Both incidents occurred around 10:30 a.m., according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac.
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Cloud Lightning

US, Minneapolis: Bolt from above: three workers survive lightning strike at Twin Cities International


kare11.com
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:48 UTC
A construction worker got hit in the head by a lightning bolt Monday night at Twin Cities International, and survived.

In fact, he's not even in the hospital.



1lightning
ยฉUnknown

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Cloud Lightning

US, Missouri: Lightning strike damages motel

Jeff Martin
The Examiner
Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:26 UTC
Guests at the American Inn on Noland Road near Interstate 70 spent a portion of their stay outdoors Monday night.

Approximately 35 guests were evacuated from 22 rooms after lightning struck an attic area of the hotel, spokesperson Pam Hayward said Tuesday.
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Better Earth

East Timor shaken by strong earthquake, meteorologists say


Associated Press
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:47 UTC
Jakarta, Indonesia - Meteorological agencies say a powerful earthquake has rocked part of East Timor. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

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Bizarro Earth

Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh

Phil Chapman
The Australian
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:04 UTC
THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.

What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot.

Image
©SOHO

Comment: Chapman has it only partly right. He excludes the evidence for cometary dust loading that contributed to the last ice age (and most likely previous ones). The increased depositional flux evidenced from Gabrielli's paper shows that it was not the sun alone that caused the last ice age:

Depositional Fluxes
©Nature

And from Victor Clube's talk:
You first take the modern sky accessible to science, especially during the Space Age, and you look at its' darker debris with a view to relating its behavior to the more accessible human history which we can, in principle, really understand. And by this approach you discover from the dynamics of the material in space which I'm talking about that a huge comet must have settled in a Taurid orbit some 20,000 years ago, whose dense meteor stream for 10,000 years almost certainly produced the last Ice Age.
Now the question must be asked, Is there a relationship between the sun's missing spots and a 100,000 year ice age cycle coupled with cometary debris entering the solar system?

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Better Earth

Whatever happened to our ice age?

Sarah Lewis
The Argus
Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:45 UTC
Today scientists are warning of a warming planet - but didn't they claim a new ice age was on the way just 40 years ago? SARAH LEWIS gets in a time machine and takes a look at the science of the 1970s.

In the 1970s, scientists predicted an ice age.

Nearly 40 years later, there is worldwide alarm as we are repeatedly warned of catastrophic warming to our climate.
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Better Earth

Scientists study Arctic haze for clues to rapid melting

Dan Joling
Associated Press
Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:57 UTC
FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- Visitors to Alaska often marvel at the crisp, clear air. But the truth is, the skies above the Arctic Circle work like a giant lint trap during late winter and early spring, catching all sorts of pollutants swirling around the globe.

In recent weeks, scientists have been going up in government research planes and taking samples of the Arctic haze in hopes of solving a mystery: Are the floating particles accelerating the unprecedented warming going on in the far north?
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Better Earth

Sudden oak death sleuthing pays off

Lisa M. Krieger
Mercury News
Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:54 UTC
The Sudden oak death epidemic that has killed more than a million trees throughout coastal California started in two sites: Scotts Valley and on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, a new genetic analysis reveals.

Through genetic detective wok, scientists found that pathogens at both locations - separated by 62 miles - share identical DNA footprints, indicating that they are related, probably through the nursery trade, said lead investigator Matteo Garbelotto of the University of California Berkeley.

"Our study reconstructs the Sudden oak death epidemic," Garbelotto said."Having multiple introductions explains why it is so extensive."
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