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6,000 Rare Dolphins Found in South Asia


Live Science
Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:24 UTC
Image
© Irrawaddy dolphin
Although not considered an acrobatic animal, the Irrawaddy dolphin occasionally leaps into the air.
A huge population of rare dolphins threatened by climate change and fishing nets has been discovered in South Asia.

Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society estimate that nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins, marine mammals that are related to orcas or killer whales, were found living in freshwater regions of Bangladesh's Sundarbans mangrove forest and adjacent waters of the Bay of Bengal.

There has been hardly any marine mammal research done in this area up to this point.

Each discovery of Irrawaddy dolphins is important because scientists do not know how many remain on the planet. Prior to this study, the largest known populations of Irrawaddy dolphins numbered in the low hundreds or less.
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Better Earth

Rainforests may pump winds worldwide

Fred Pearce
New Scientist
Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:54 UTC
Image
© Kim Eijdenberg/Flickr/Getty
The rainforests may be the heart as well as the lungs of the planet.
The acres upon acres of lush tropical forest in the Amazon and tropical Africa are often referred to as the planet's lungs. But what if they are also its heart? This is exactly what a couple of meteorologists claim in a controversial new theory that questions our fundamental understanding of what drives the weather. They believe vast forests generate winds that help pump water around the planet.

If correct, the theory would explain how the deep interiors of forested continents get as much rain as the coast, and how most of Australia turned from forest to desert. It suggests that much of North America could become desert - even without global warming. The idea makes it even more vital that we recognise the crucial role forests play in the well-being of the planet.

Scientists have known for some time that forests recycle rain. Up to half the precipitation falling on a typical tropical rainforest evaporates or transpires from trees. This keeps the air above moist. Ocean winds can spread the moisture to create more rain. But now Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva of the St Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in Russia say that forests also create winds that pump moisture across continents.
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Magic Hat

Rise of sea levels is 'the greatest lie ever told'

Christopher Booker
Telegraph UK
Sat, 28 Mar 2009 05:52 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Computer-model based political scaremongering, as it turns out
The uncompromising verdict of Dr Mörner is that all this talk about the sea rising is nothing but a colossal scare story.

If one thing more than any other is used to justify proposals that the world must spend tens of trillions of dollars on combating global warming, it is the belief that we face a disastrous rise in sea levels. The Antarctic and Greenland ice caps will melt, we are told, warming oceans will expand, and the result will be catastrophe.

Although the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) only predicts a sea level rise of 59cm (17 inches) by 2100, Al Gore in his Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth went much further, talking of 20 feet, and showing computer graphics of cities such as Shanghai and San Francisco half under water. We all know the graphic showing central London in similar plight. As for tiny island nations such as the Maldives and Tuvalu, as Prince Charles likes to tell us and the Archbishop of Canterbury was again parroting last week, they are due to vanish.
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Nuke

NASA: Deep Solar Minimum

Dr. Tony Phillips
NASA
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:07 UTC
Sunspot graph
© NASA/MFSC/Hathaway
The sunspot cycle from 1995 to the present. The jagged curve traces actual sunspot counts. Smooth curves are fits to the data and one forecaster's predictions of future activity.

The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower.

2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days: plot. Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008.

Maybe not. Sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of the year's 90 days (87%).

It adds up to one inescapable conclusion: "We're experiencing a very deep solar minimum," says solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

"This is the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century," agrees sunspot expert David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Comment: Note on this NASA article from Joseph D'Aleo of IceCap:
Still some level of uncomfortable denial on the part of Hathaway who in late 2006 had proclaimed solar minimum and that solar cycle 24 was underway. It is at the very least like the cycles of the early 1900s but may be more like the early 1800s, the Dalton Minimum. As they said, time will tell.
Solar Cycle length
© unknown

sunspot cycle compares dalton minimum with current
© unknown
Comparison of sunspot cycles, Dalton Minimum to current sunspot cycle.


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Bizarro Earth

US: More snow, more blizzards on the way

Alex Sosnowski
AccuWeather
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:34 UTC
Snow weahter map April
© AccuWeather

Storms with paralyzing snow will continue to roll in off the Pacific Ocean, through the Northwest and Rockies and onto the Plains through the weekend. The new storms will continue to impact travel and shipping as a result.

One storm has already cleared the Northwest and is pushing through Colorado and the central Plains tonight. The storm can bring up to half a foot of travel snarling snow along Interstate 70 in portions of western and northern Kansas and much of Colorado.

Gusty cross winds in the southern and central Plains and Rockies associated with the storm can create tricky handling and a challenge to inexperienced drivers of small cars and 18-wheelers.
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Evil Rays

US: Denver Blizzard Potential

Jim Andrews
AccuWeather
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:16 UTC
March April Blizzards severe weather US
© AccuWeather

What a remarkable string of major snowstorms! Three blizzards in a row, two for the northern Plains and one for the southern Plains. Now a fourth storm will bring snow, but no blizzard, to parts of the central and southern Plains on Wednesday night into Thursday.

As if all this were not enough, still another storm will cut a path across the Rockies to the Great Plains, this time at week's end. It will bring snow and, at its worst, could whip up yet another blizzard.

However, one thing will be different this time. This storm will target the stretch of Plains crossed by Interstate 80, mostly over Nebraska and eastern Wyoming and it will reach south into Colorado along I-25 to at least Denver. At its worst, this storm will leave a windswept snowfall of 6-12 inches, which could be disruptive enough to interrupt travel along the major highways in this region.

Comment: The waves and waves of cold and snow keep coming. Along with it are many spring all time record cold and record snow amounts.

You can see some of them here:

Record snowfall March 27, 2009

Record Low Minimum Temperatures March 27, 2009

      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

US: Blizzard pummels Southern Plains


MSNBC
Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:54 UTC
March blizzard plains
© Stephen Spillman / Amarillo Globe-News
This stretch of Interstate 40 in Amarillo, Texas, was among those shut down Friday by blizzard conditions.

Dallas - A major spring blizzard plodding eastward over the Southern Plains shut down major highways and paralyzed the region as residents braced Friday for up to a foot of snow, freezing 45 mph winds and massive snowdrifts.

Schools and government offices were closed and hundreds of travelers were stranded by the storm, which left some areas in a coat of ice. The snowfall was expected to be unprecedented for this time of year in Oklahoma, and the National Guard was called out in the Texas Panhandle, where snowdrifts as high as 11 feet were predicted before the storm moves on Saturday.

"It's blowing furiously," said Jerry Billington of Faith City Ministries in downtown Amarillo, which was under whiteout conditions. The 200-bed shelter was one of several setting up extra beds and encouraging homeless people to come in off the street.
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Bizarro Earth

Two mild earthquakes measuring 5 and 4.1 hit northern Nicaragua


Xinhua
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:56 UTC
Two earthquakes measuring 5 and 4.1 on Richter scale shook on Tuesday the north zone of Nicaragua, damaging 28 houses and affecting 81 people.

Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER) said that the 5-magnitude quake was felt at 11:50 a.m. local time (1750 GMT). The epicenter was located 62.7 km underground and some 154 km north of Managua. The second earthquake was registered at 11:57 a.m. local time (1757 GMT), its epicenter was located 78.1 km underground.

Secretary from the Municipal Council of San Juan del Rio Coco, Carla Solis, said that the towns of La Dalia, Barrio Nuevo, San Lucas and San Pedro de las Canas were the most affected.
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Bizarro Earth

Strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake hits Papua New Guinea coast


Agence France-Presse
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:54 UTC
A strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Papua New Guinea's northern coast on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or tsunami activity. The quake hit at 1:55pm (0355 GMT) with an epicentre about 31 kilometres (19 miles) east-southeast of the coastal town of Wewak, at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles), the USGS said.

The tremblor was not expected to generate a tsunami, said assistant director of the PNG government's Geological Survey Department Chris McKee.

"I've had no reports of any damage and a 6.3 magnitude quake is unlikely to generate a tsunami," he told AFP.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Underwater earthquake rattles western Indonesia


The Star Online
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:50 UTC
An underwater earthquake rocked western Indonesia on Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the preliminary magnitude of the quake at 5.5. It struck 160 miles (260 kilometers) south of Bengkulu, a city on Sumatra island, around 20 miles (35 kilometers) below the ocean floor.

Residents along the coast said they did not feel the afternoon tremor.

The country's geophysics agency put the magnitude at a much higher 6.1. Such discrepancies - though large - are not considered unusual here.
      Read More...
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