Earth ChangesS

Bizarro Earth

Mongolia: Harsh Winter Weather Wiping Out Livestock

Forzen Landscape
© Andrew CullenA lone man walks in the western Mongolian countryside in the Hovd province. Most of Mongolia is covered by snow this winter and 19 of 21 provinces have been hit by harsh winter conditions.
While international attention has been focused on earthquake-ravaged Haiti, a quiet, prolonged catastrophe is playing out in Mongolia.

Known locally as a "dzud," the unfolding disaster stems from naturally occurring factors that are combining to wipe out livestock. The summer of 2009 was particularly dry, hampering the ability of many herders to gather sufficient supplies of fodder and hay. And this winter is proving to be one of the harshest in living memory, with heavy snowfall, chilling winds, and temperatures averaging minus 35 Celsius (-31 Fahrenheit). Weakened by hunger, many animals -- especially cashmere goats revered for their soft, valuable wool -- are succumbing to the elements.

The fierce weather so far is responsible for the deaths of over 2 million animals since the start of winter, says Rana Flowers, the United Nations' Acting Resident Coordinator. Nomadic herders account for approximately one-third of Mongolia's labor force. Unlike tsunamis or earthquakes, dzuds are not instantaneous disasters. "The dzud is still unfolding. It's very difficult to predict just how severe it will be further down the track. Spring will be the assessment time," said Flowers.

The devastation could cause an acceleration of migration from rural areas to urban centers. As it stands already, cities and towns are struggling to provide jobs and services to former herders who have abandoned the traditional nomadic lifestyle. Many Mongolians point to climate change and desertification as the main factors behind the demographic shift.

Bizarro Earth

Wild storms lash Sydney

A massive amount of rain has fallen in Sydney overnight, causing flash flooding in some areas.

More than 700 calls were made to the State Emergency Service due to severe thunderstorms sweeping across New South Wales.

The biggest falls were in Sydney's north, with 88 millimetres of rain falling in Hornsby and 73 millimetres coming down on Mona Vale in just one hour.

Weather forecaster Chris Webb says Sydney experienced one of the highest rainfall events of the last decade.

"For the city we recorded 65 mills of rainfall in the evening, and that's about a one in five - ten year event," he said.

Bizarro Earth

Rare Snowflakes Start Falling from Mississippi to Florida

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© AP Photo/The Town Talk, Melinda MartinezGrace Hamilton, left, her brother Robert Hamilton and neighbor Abigail Rivers build a New Orleans Saints snowman in the Rivers front yard in Pineville, Louisiana, Friday morning Feb. 12, 2010.
It took back-to-back blizzards to paralyze the nation's capital, but in the Deep South it only takes a couple inches of snow.

Flakes were falling - or threatened - Friday from Texas to the Florida Panhandle and then up along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina, bringing a rare white landscape to spots that haven't seen snow in a decade or longer. The storm crawled out of Texas, where it left the Dallas area with more than a foot of snow, nearly 200 traffic accidents, thousands without power and hundreds of canceled flights.

Children in cities better known for stifling humidity took to throwing snowballs and building snowmen, while snow dusted the kudzu vines so prevalent in warm Southern climates.

Just the anticipation of an inch of snow was enough to close schools in the Florida Panhandle, while classes also were canceled in parts of Alabama and Georgia. Districts in Louisiana and Mississippi, also closed.

Bizarro Earth

Montserrat Volcano Shoots Ash 9 Miles into Sky

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© Wayne Fenton / AP file
San Juan, Puerto Rico -- A volcano on Montserrat shot ash some nine miles (15 kilometers) into the sky Thursday, one of its most dramatic events since a devastating 1997 eruption that drove away half the Caribbean island's population.

The partial collapse of the dome in the volcano's crater also unleashed flows of hot gas and rocks, triggering sirens for the evacuation of about 20 people from a nearby village.

Paul Cole, director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, said it appeared to be the most material ejected by the volcano in about four years. He estimated 10 percent to 15 percent of the hardened lava dome had collapsed.

"When we're looking at the lava dome now, there's a large scoop out of it that's missing," Cole said.

The dome has crumbled several times since the volcano became active in 1995, and Cole said it is possible activity will settle down as the dome builds itself up again. He said there is no immediate cause for concern about more dangerous eruptions.

Bizarro Earth

Mild earthquake rattles Chicago area

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© Stacey Wescott/TribuneThis farm field on Plank Road in Elgin near Hampshire was the epicenter of an overnight earthquake in Illinois, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A mild earthquake shook northern Illinois this morning.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 3.8-magnitude quake at 3:59:33 a.m. centered in a farm field on Plank Road in Elgin near Hampshire and 3.1 miles underground. Initially, it had reported the magnitude as 4.3 with an epicenter about 5.5 miles east of Sycamore.

The quake was felt over a wide area -- from Wisconsin to Tennessee -- but there were no reports of any damage so far, according to the Kane County and DeKalb County sheriff's departments, which are closest to the epicenter.

"We got hundreds of calls," said DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott. "But we have no reports of damage or injuries."

The magnitude and epicenter were revised after the U.S. Geological Survey studied the "wave forms" from the quake, said Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist with the geological survey in Golden, Colo.

Fish

Florida's Wildlife Freezing to Death

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© Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation CommissionMore than 200 manatees have washed ashore since January, and carcasses are still turning up.
Manatees, sea turtles and fish in the Sunshine State are dying in record numbers because of the unusually long cold snap.

With temperature in central Florida dipping down again this week, conservationists are bracing for more animal and plant deaths due to unusually long winter cold snaps that have resulted in record wildlife losses.

Manatees have been among the hardest hit, with over 200 killed in January alone, and carcasses continuing to wash ashore. The highest number of manatee deaths for a single calendar year in Florida waters is 429, so local officials are closely monitoring these endangered marine mammals.

"Manatees can experience what is known as cold stress syndrome when they are exposed to water below 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degree Celsius) for long periods," Florida's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute spokesperson Carli Segelson told Discovery News. "This can result in death, or weaken manatees, leaving them more vulnerable to other health issues later."

Igloo

Climate Modification Schemes: Are Mad Scientists Trying to Induce an Ice Age?

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© Kathleen Smith/LLNL A schematic representation of various geoengineering and carbon storage proposals: are such schemes selected on the basis that they assist in precipitating an Ice Age?
If human activities could change climate, why not change it on purpose, to suit us better? From 1945 into the 1970s, much effort went into studies of weather modification. American entrepreneurs tried cloud-seeding to enhance local rainfall, Russian scientists offered fabulous schemes of planetary engineering, and military agencies secretly explored "climatological warfare." The hopes and fears promoted basic research on climate change by raising large sums of government money and a few provocative ideas. In the mid 1970s the visionary projects were abandoned. Research turned instead to controversial "geoengineering" schemes for interventions that might restrain global warming if it started to become unbearable.
"Intervention in atmospheric and climatic matters . . . will unfold on a scale difficult to imagine at present. . . . this will merge each nation's affairs with those of every other, more thoroughly than the threat of a nuclear or any other war would have done." - John von Neumann1

Comment: Given that global warming has not in fact been happening, and presuming the chief scientists involved in these military geo-engineering projects are aware of this fact to one degree or another, what does that tell us about the real objective behind the drive to "counter the effects of global warming" while blaming ordinary humanity?


Snowman

Croatian Scientist Warns Ice Age Could Start in Five Years

A top scientist in Croatia has warned Europe to prepare for an ice age instead of talking about global warming.

Physician Vladimir Paar suggests one would not need to cross the sea when travelling from Ireland or UK to Croatia via the rest of Europe.

"A majority of Europe will be under ice, including Germany, Poland, France, Austria, Slovakia and part of Slovenia", Paar said in an interview on Croatian news website Index.

Snowman

US: Enough already: Snow breaks mid-Atlantic records

Washington - Worst winter ever? The second blizzard in less than a week buried the most populous stretch of the East Coast under nearly a foot of snow Wednesday, breaking records for the snowiest winter and demoralizing millions of people still trying to dig out from the previous storm.

Conditions in the nation's capital were so bad that even plows were advised to get off the roads, and forecasters were eyeing a third storm that could be brewing for next week.

Arrow Down

Avalanches near Afghan capital kill over 60

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© Bullit Marquez/Associated PressAfghan commuters walk after emerging from the Salang Tunnel in this 2002 file photo, taken two days after a similar avalanche killed four people.

Rescuers locate hundreds of injured in mountain pass.

Avalanches in a mountain pass north of Kabul have killed at least 60 people and injured more than 400, Afghan officials say.

The avalanches Monday followed heavy snow in the Salang Pass that links the Afghan capital with the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Rescuers worked through the night to save 430 injured, with 180 taken by coalition helicopters to Bagram Airbase for medical treatment, the Defence Ministry said. The remaining 250 people were treated at a local hospital.

Interior Minister Hanif Atmar said Tuesday that rescuers have already recovered 24 bodies, but fear more than 40 others have already died. Some 2,500 people have already been rescued from their snow-blocked vehicles, he said.