Earth Changes
Western areas of the country were hit overnight by heavy rain and strong winds while favourable winds pushed the temperature in Kaikoura to 21degC early this morning.
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| ©Unknown |
| Located in Northeastern Tanzania, the Serengeti National Park has the greatest concentration of large mammals in the world |
Wild lion populations can generally tolerate a certain level of parasites and disease. But new research shows that extreme climate conditions - such as severe droughts - can cause infection rates to skyrocket, resulting in mass die-offs. Véronique LaCapra reports.
With Tempe in the grip of a suffocating heat wave, flooding might be the last thing on your mind.
But as recent flooding in the Midwest proves, not only can the worst case happen, sometimes the unthinkable happens.
But as recent flooding in the Midwest proves, not only can the worst case happen, sometimes the unthinkable happens.
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geophysicists have been working this week to survey a dozen Global Positioning System sites atop Haleakala as part of a routine check on what is still considered an active volcano.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 10,000-foot volcano last erupted about 400 years ago. It was thought that the volcano last spewed lava around 1790, a date based largely on comparisons of maps made during the voyages in the late 18th century by French explorer Jean Francois de Galaup, Compte de La Perouse and British Capt. George Vancouver.
But recent carbon dating of lava flows at Haleakala put the date of the last eruption in the 1600s, according to the USGS.
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| ©Maui News File Photo |
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 10,000-foot volcano last erupted about 400 years ago. It was thought that the volcano last spewed lava around 1790, a date based largely on comparisons of maps made during the voyages in the late 18th century by French explorer Jean Francois de Galaup, Compte de La Perouse and British Capt. George Vancouver.
But recent carbon dating of lava flows at Haleakala put the date of the last eruption in the 1600s, according to the USGS.
Psychiatrists have detected the first case of "climate change delusion" - and they haven't even yet got to Kevin Rudd and his global warming guru.
Writing in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Joshua Wolf and Robert Salo of our Royal Children's Hospital say this delusion was a "previously unreported phenomenon".
"A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood . . . He also . . . had visions of apocalyptic events."
(So have Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery, Profit of Doom Al Gore and Sir Richard Brazen, but I digress.)
Writing in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Joshua Wolf and Robert Salo of our Royal Children's Hospital say this delusion was a "previously unreported phenomenon".
"A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood . . . He also . . . had visions of apocalyptic events."
(So have Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery, Profit of Doom Al Gore and Sir Richard Brazen, but I digress.)
Edgartown, Mass. - The island where "Jaws" was filmed had a real-life shark scare Thursday, when an unconfirmed sighting of a great white forced the closure of two beaches.
South Beach on Martha's Vineyard was closed for a short time, and swimmers were kept out of the water at State Beach in Edgartown, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation said.
South Beach on Martha's Vineyard was closed for a short time, and swimmers were kept out of the water at State Beach in Edgartown, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation said.
Endangered wild orangutan (Pongo spp.) populations are declining more sharply in Sumatra and Borneo than previously estimated, according to new findings published this month by Great Ape Trust of Iowa scientist Dr. Serge Wich and other orangutan conservation experts in Oryx - The International Journal of Conservation.
Something very strange is happening in a favorite crocodile haunt, the Olifants Gorge, in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Crocodiles are dying en masse, and a local television documentary has showed, recently, the many carcasses floating in the river or lying dead in the sun on the river bank.
In the month of June alone, 30 carcasses were counted in the Olifants River area alone. This figure has subsequently risen to 50.
In the month of June alone, 30 carcasses were counted in the Olifants River area alone. This figure has subsequently risen to 50.
The papers presented at the Lavoisier Group's Workshop Rehabilitating Carbon Dioxide held in Melbourne on 29th and 30th June 2007, covered the two most important scientific issues at the heart of the current debate over global warming and its causes. The first is the influence, if any, of atmospheric carbon dioxide on the earth's climate. The second is the very well documented correlation between sunspot activity and climate changes during the last 1500 years or more.
A third of reef-building corals around the world are threatened with extinction, according to the first-ever comprehensive global assessment to determine their conservation status. The study findings were published today by Science Express.
Leading coral experts joined forces with the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) -- a joint initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) -- to apply the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria to this important group of marine species.
"The results of this study are very disconcerting," stated Kent Carpenter, lead author of the Science article, GMSA Director, IUCN Species Programme. "When corals die off, so do the other plants and animals that depend on coral reefs for food and shelter, and this can lead to the collapse of entire ecosystems."
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| ©Conservation International |
Leading coral experts joined forces with the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) -- a joint initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) -- to apply the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria to this important group of marine species.
"The results of this study are very disconcerting," stated Kent Carpenter, lead author of the Science article, GMSA Director, IUCN Species Programme. "When corals die off, so do the other plants and animals that depend on coral reefs for food and shelter, and this can lead to the collapse of entire ecosystems."
Comment: The dots are being connected by more and more respectable scientists, yet the Global Warming circus goes on. Qui bono?