Earth ChangesS

Ambulance

Floods trigger Ecuador emergency declaration

President Rafael Correa on Thursday declared a state of emergency as Ecuador was lashed by its worst rainy season in a decade, which has sparked widespread flooding and destruction of crops.

Bulb

Migrating birds detect latitude and longitude, but how remains a mystery

Eurasian reed warblers captured during their spring migrations and released after being flown 1,000 kilometers to the east can correct their travel routes and head for their original destinations, researchers report online on January 31st in Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press.

The new evidence suggests that the birds have true navigation, meaning that they can identify at least two coordinates that roughly correspond to geographic latitude and longitude.

The findings challenge the notion held by some that birds might be limited to navigation in the north-south direction. But scientists still don't know how they do it.

Cloud Lightning

Storms batter parts of Britain



©PA
The Forth Bridge was closed for a time by the bad weather

Passengers are being airlifted from a ferry in the Irish sea as high winds batter much of the UK, with forecasters warning of blizzards to come.

Cloud Lightning

Record rainfall causes heavy flooding in Samoa

A clean up is underway in Samoa's capital, Apia, after extensive flooding caused by the highest rainfall ever recorded by the local weather bureau.

The 108 millimetres over the last four days came from a low pressure trough that emerged south of the country.

Cloud Lightning

Snow, Winds Disrupt Transport in Greece

ATHENS, Greece - Snowfall and high winds disrupted transport across Greece Tuesday, canceling some domestic flights and confining ferries to port.

Cloud Lightning

Floods claim more lives, wreak havoc in Bolivia

LA PAZ - Flooding and torrential rains have killed 40 people in Bolivia since November, wrecking highways, crops and thousands of homes in the impoverished country, officials said on Wednesday.

Nearly 400,000 people living in the Andean city of La Paz have been forced to ration their drinking water after mudslides damaged water pipes last week, and the mayor said the shortages could last until March.

Clock

Flashback Melting permafrost methane emissions: The other threat to climate change

A frozen peat bog covering the entire sub-Arctic area of Western Siberia, the size of France and Germany, contains billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas that is melting for the first time since since it was sequestered more than 11,000 years ago before the end of the last ice age.

Bizarro Earth

I am an intellectual blasphemer: A Short History of Fear

When Alexander Cockburn, author of the forthcoming book A Short History of Fear, dared to question the climate change consensus, he was punished by a tsunami of self-righteous fury. It is time for a free and open 'battle of ideas', he says.

©Spiked

Evil Rays

Turkey: Moderate quake rattles Ankara

A moderate earthquake has rattled the Turkish capital Ankara but no reports of death or damage have yet been made, officials say.

The earthquake which measured 4.9 on the Richter scale jolted Ankara, state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Snowman

Snow covers areas in northern, southern Israel

Residents of Sde Boker, Mitzpe Ramon, and other areas in southern Israel awake to fresh coating of snow. Schools in capital closed, bus service to Jerusalem canceled.

Residents of Mitzpe Ramon, Arad and Sde Boker in southern Israel awoke Thursday to a fresh coating of snow that started falling Wednesday night. Schools were closed in Arad and Mitzpe Ramon, as well as in the snow-covered capital Jerusalem.

©Reuters
Capital cloaked in white

Northern Israel, including areas in the Galilee and the Golan Heights also received their fair share of snow, leading to school closing and bus-service cancellations.

Due to the heavy snow in the capital, bus service to and from Jerusalem has been canceled, reports the Egged Bus Company spokesman. Many areas in northern Israel, including Safed and the Golan Heights, will also have no bus service due to the snow, as will Arad in the south.