Earth Changes

Australia: Drought-crippled farmers devastated by flooding

Kerrin Binnie
ABC News
Sun, 05 Dec 2010 04:31 UTC

© ABC Local Radio : Laurissa Smith
In New South Wales alone an estimated half a million dollars has been wiped off the value of the winter crop

The State and Federal governments are under pressure from farming groups to continue drought funding while farmers recover from the floods.

Recent flooding has devastated farmers also who, after 10 years of drought, have now seen crops lost to rain.

The New South Wales Farmers Association's chairman Charlie Armstrong says farmers are devastated and struggling financially.

"We've got this enormous mental stress that is now following what was a buoyant boom expectations of a bumper crop, followed now by some pretty dire circumstances as to how to even get the next crop in the ground," he said.

In New South Wales alone an estimated half a million dollars has been wiped off the value of the winter crop.

UK: Food Shelves Empty and Petrol Running Out as Icy Roads Make Deliveries Impossible

Sara Nelson
The Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:44 UTC

Two pensioners die after collapsing in their gardens

Milder temperatures expected tomorrow but falling again on Sunday

Short-haul flights from Gatwick cancelled until 5pm

Petrol forecourts run dry as deliveries are held up

Rail networks cancel services for the third day running

Petrol forecourts were today running dry and food stores were struggling to replenish their shelves as icy conditions halted deliveries.

'Critical' shortages of petrol have been reported by the RMI Petrol Retailers Association, with remote areas being particularly badly affected.

Some fuel stations have also been accused of 'cashing in' on the crisis by increasing their prices - with one garage in Surrey putting up the cost of diesel per litre from £1.24 to £1.28 within the past four days.

The news came as snowfalls eased but temperatures plummeted even further, dropping -20.1C in Scotland and -7C in London and Birmingham overnight.

Tungurahua volcano prompts evacuation in Ecuador

BBC
Sat, 04 Dec 2010 16:20 UTC

© Agence France-Presse
View from Cotalo, Ecuador, of the Tungurahua volcano in eruption on 4 December, 2010 Scientists say pyroclastic flow from the volcano could threaten some of the villages on the slopes

The authorities in Ecuador have begun evacuating people from the slopes of the Tungurahua volcano after it started spewing ash.

Scientists say fast-moving currents of extremely hot gas and rock could be seen flowing from the volcano's crater.

Tungurahua, some 135km (85 miles) southeast of the capital, Quito, has been in an active state since 1999.

But experts say there has been a rapid increase in its seismic activity since Saturday morning.

Scientists with the Ecuadorean Institute for Geophysics say the number of explosions has increased. They say the ash cloud has reached 2km (1.2 miles) in height.

People living on the slopes reported the ground and buildings shaking, and a rumbling sound coming from the volcano.

Cancun Sun Speeds Decay of Global Warming

Rex Murphy
National Post, Canada
Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:46 UTC

This global-warming/climate-change stuff is a great racket.

Over in England right now, they're locked in the jaws of a very early freeze-up. The roads are iced, the plows overworked, and people are angry. But there's a precious subset of the English population that are not enduring the frigid and premature torments of a northern winter. They're the climate-change activists, bureaucrats, politicians, puppeteers and NGOs - the class of professional alarmists who've been banging on about global warming for close on two decades now. This bunch has exempted itself from the rigors of English November, traded their sackcloth and ashes for sun-wear and tropical breezes.

They're toasting their pasty, righteous, caterwauling epidermi on the golden hot sands of Cancun, Mexico, flopped out amid the bikinis and barbeques while they attempt to spell out a future of rationing and want for all the rest of us. Flown there on taxpayer or foundation money, meeting up with all their buddies from the bust that was Cophenhagen, the grim, grey priesthood of "sustainable" living are convening in one of the great sybaritic strips of the entire Western world. The monks are in the cathouse.

But hey, if you're going to do Armageddon - do it in Cancun. The Apocalypse at the All You Can Eat Buffet. Parasailing to Armageddon.

Australia: Hundreds evacuated in widespread NSW floods

Herald Sun
Sat, 04 Dec 2010 14:01 UTC

Hundreds of flood-hit residents are being evacuated with parts of NSW's natural disaster zones braced for more rain. The Bureau of Meteorology issued flood warnings for swathes of the state's central west as people in Eugowra and Dubbo were forced to flee their homes amid the havoc.

Residents living near all western flowing NSW rivers from the Namoi south to the Murrumbidgee were warned their homes were at risk. With more rain forecast for the remainder of Saturday, additional flooding is expected in the Namoi, Castlereagh, Macquarie and Bogan river catchments.

Parts of NSW were declared disaster zones on Friday, with millions of dollars damage being caused. Residents of the Poplar Caravan Park were being evacuated on Saturday after intense localised rainfall in the Dubbo area.

Evacuation orders were also issued by the State Emergency Service for Eugowra. Residents of 11 properties and six businesses have been forced to pack up and leave.

Seven trapped in Yorkshire pub for last Eight days under 16 feet drifts

Daily Mail
Sat, 04 Dec 2010 11:24 UTC

The Lion Inn pub in Blakey Ridge, North Yorkshire, where seven people have been trapped for eight days

While thousands braved the cold to begin their Christmas shopping, seven people in North Yorkshire are praying for better weather after being snowed into a pub for eight days and counting.

Heavy snow showers and strong winds have left the group stuck in the Lion Inn pub in Blakey Ridge, Kirkbymoorside since last Friday, with little chance of an escape.

Drifts of up to 16ft blocked the inn's doors and windows, with the surrounding roads impassable, and to make matters worse, the stranded seven's cars are buried under nine foot of snow.

The group's predicament in the fourth highest pub in England continues as forecasters warned Britons to expect icy conditions for at least another week, with temperatures falling as low as -10C in the South East of England overnight.

Katie Underwood, 18, who has been a waitress at the Lion Inn for four years, said: 'It was really novel at first, and quite exciting.

'The snow is immense. Most of the windows in here are blocked up, but we've got a door open at the back to get some air when we need to.'

European Winter Blast Blamed For 40 Deaths While Flooding Devastates Balkan Countries

CBC News
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 10:46 UTC

© Phil Noble/Reuters
A motorist drives through heavy snow in Manchester, northern England, December 1, 2010. The snow and freezing temperatures continued to cause major problems for road, rail and air services on Wednesday

Unseasonably cold weather and heavy snow in parts of northern Europe have killed at least 40 people in several countries this week and caused major travel disruptions.

The frigid weather is expected to linger through the first half of next week, CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe said.

"A 'blocking pattern' high-pressure system has set up over Greenland and Iceland, basically leading to an atmospheric traffic jam," Wagstaffe said. "This high is steering Atlantic warmth away from Europe and instead directing Arctic cold down from the North."

In Poland, officials said at least 12 people - many of them homeless - died overnight, bringing the death toll in Poland alone to 30 over the past three days. People have also died from the cold in Russia, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, local media reported.

Before the sand: Ancient Mega-Lake Found in Egyptian Desert

Larry O'Hanlon
Discovery News
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:50 UTC

One of the driest places in the world was once home to a lush lake nearly the size of Lake Michigan.

* A mega-lake in today's hyper-arid western Egypt might have been fed by the earliest Nile floods.

* The discovery helps explain fish fossils in the desert.

* An alternative hypothesis is that the mega-lake fed the Nile, not the other way around.

An ancient lush mega-lake would explain the longstanding puzzle of the fossilized fish found in the desert.

The hyper-arid deserts of western Egypt were once home to a lush mega-lake fed by the Nile River's earliest annual floods.

Snowstorm churns across U.S. Plains, Midwest

Andrew Stern
Reuters
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:56 UTC

A snowstorm forecast to bring up to half a foot of snow to the northern Plains and Midwest churned across North Dakota on Friday, while the eastern shore of Lake Erie was hit by more lake effect snow.

The heavy lake effect snow that shut down sections of the New York state Thruway on Thursday, stranding scores of motorists, had abated and the highway was open, a Thruway spokeswoman said. However, another three to five inches of lake effect snow will blanket sections of the snow belt around Buffalo, New York, the National Weather Service said.

Lake effect snow occurs when cold winds whip up storm clouds off warmer lake waters, and can dump heavy amounts of snow along the coastline.

Snow was falling across North Dakota and the Weather Service declared a winter storm warning in effect through Friday in southern Minnesota, southwest Wisconsin and northwest Iowa.

New Zealand - Mystery Illness Hits Oyster Stocks

ONE News
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 07:31 UTC

Scientists are trying to determine the cause of a mystery illness hitting oyster stocks on North Island farms.

The disease, which kills juvenile oysters, or spat, has been found on farms in Northland, Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

A 20-strong MAF team is working around the clock, testing the DNA of dead spat for traces of lethal pathogens.

Over 500 tissue samples have been taken and MAF hopes to have an answer next week.

New Zealand exports millions of Pacific oysters to Asia and Australia, bringing in around $30 million each year.

.. .. Hey, Los Alamos-stein-etes! Did you really nuke Larry's twin towers?

Jibrish

IMO, this is not how you 'pay back' the 'elites'. It makes the rest of them more jumpy and gives them an excuse to do even stupider draconian...

beherenow

Bring on the comets...please.

Unkl Brws

This article is irrelevant. Hunter Biden was scheduled to be executed through hanging on Friday Oct. 15 at GITMO. Wake Up SOTT.net! [Link]

rbeltz48

The Duke gave the credit for the Royal family's decades-long interest in the environment to his late grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, who he...

LadyRad

Earth Changes

Australia: Drought-crippled farmers devastated by flooding

UK: Food Shelves Empty and Petrol Running Out as Icy Roads Make Deliveries Impossible

Tungurahua volcano prompts evacuation in Ecuador

Cancun Sun Speeds Decay of Global Warming

Australia: Hundreds evacuated in widespread NSW floods

Seven trapped in Yorkshire pub for last Eight days under 16 feet drifts

European Winter Blast Blamed For 40 Deaths While Flooding Devastates Balkan Countries

Before the sand: Ancient Mega-Lake Found in Egyptian Desert

Snowstorm churns across U.S. Plains, Midwest

New Zealand - Mystery Illness Hits Oyster Stocks

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