Death in the rainforest: fragile creatures give the world a new climate warning
Amphibian and reptile numbers fall by 75% in reserve meant to save them
A protected rainforest in one of the world's richest biodiversity hotspots has suffered an alarming collapse in amphibians and reptiles, suggesting such havens may fail to slow the creatures' slide towards global extinction.
Earth Changes
Coin-sized hailstones and winds of 100 kilometres (60 miles) per hour whipped across southwest China's Sichuan province, affecting 1.7 million people, state media said Tuesday.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from flooded homes Monday and refrigerators and trucks floated downstream as a fierce nor'easter drenched the Northeast with record rainfall, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
People were evacuated from flooded homes Monday and hundreds of thousands had no electricity as a fierce nor'easter drenched the Northeast with record rainfall.
Residents in at least one New York City neighborhood paddled through streets in boats. And in suburban Mamaroneck, Nicholas Staropoli said a truck near his home "actually floated up on the riverbank."
Rain was still falling Monday morning in the New York area and New England after it began early Sunday along the East Coast from Florida to New England. The National Guard was sent to help with rescue and evacuation efforts in the suburbs north of New York City.
Firefighters plucked Kathleen Reale and her twin boys from their window in suburban Mamaroneck using a front-end-loader. Water reached up to her knees in her garage and basement and her family was evacuated to a shelter.
Residents in at least one New York City neighborhood paddled through streets in boats. And in suburban Mamaroneck, Nicholas Staropoli said a truck near his home "actually floated up on the riverbank."
Rain was still falling Monday morning in the New York area and New England after it began early Sunday along the East Coast from Florida to New England. The National Guard was sent to help with rescue and evacuation efforts in the suburbs north of New York City.
Firefighters plucked Kathleen Reale and her twin boys from their window in suburban Mamaroneck using a front-end-loader. Water reached up to her knees in her garage and basement and her family was evacuated to a shelter.
"It would be a real shame if we lost it."
Comment: That is an understatement!
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| ©AP Photo/Cheryl Senter |
| Local police attend to a car that has spun off the road on RTE 9 |
NEW YORK - A powerful nor'easter pounded the East with wind and pouring rain Sunday, grounding airlines and threatening to create some of the worst coastal flooding some areas had seen in more than a decade.
Hundreds of people in a village in Vietnam's central highlands fled their homes in panic early Monday when a suspected earthquake hit the area.
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| ©AP |
| Melting moment ... Ian Plimer says processes which end in ice caps crashing down start as long as 800 years ago |
Mankind is naive to think it can influence climate change, according to a prize-winning Australian geologist.
Humans are reducing numbers of pollinators like bees and butterflies by destroying habitats, spraying pesticides and emitting pollution. Now, a University of Kansas researcher and a world-famous crop artist are behind a nationwide campaign to publicize the peril faced by species that transfer pollen between flowers.
"This is serious," said Orley "Chip" Taylor, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at KU. "We're losing six thousand acres of habitat a day to development, 365 days a year. One out of every three bites you eat is traceable to pollinators' activity. But if you start losing pollinators, you start losing plants."
Taylor works with the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC). That group has successfully worked with the United States Department of Agriculture and U.S. Senate to designate June 24 through June 30, 2007, as "National Pollinator Week." The NAPPC also has convinced the United States Postal Service to issue a block of four "Pollination" stamps this summer depicting a Morrison's bumble bee, a calliope hummingbird, a lesser long-nosed bat and a Southern dogface butterfly.
"This is serious," said Orley "Chip" Taylor, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at KU. "We're losing six thousand acres of habitat a day to development, 365 days a year. One out of every three bites you eat is traceable to pollinators' activity. But if you start losing pollinators, you start losing plants."
Taylor works with the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC). That group has successfully worked with the United States Department of Agriculture and U.S. Senate to designate June 24 through June 30, 2007, as "National Pollinator Week." The NAPPC also has convinced the United States Postal Service to issue a block of four "Pollination" stamps this summer depicting a Morrison's bumble bee, a calliope hummingbird, a lesser long-nosed bat and a Southern dogface butterfly.
Ambushing locals as they return home from work, foreign invaders are dismembering French natives and feeding them to their young.
This horror scenario is playing out in France's beehives, where an ultra-aggressive species of Asian hornets - who likely migrated in pottery shipped from China - may be threatening French honey production.
The hornets are thought to have reached France in 2004 after stowing away on a cargo boat, said Claire Villemant, a lecturer at Paris' Natural History Museum.
This horror scenario is playing out in France's beehives, where an ultra-aggressive species of Asian hornets - who likely migrated in pottery shipped from China - may be threatening French honey production.
The hornets are thought to have reached France in 2004 after stowing away on a cargo boat, said Claire Villemant, a lecturer at Paris' Natural History Museum.
Comment: Yep, this is serious. If you have been following the signs you would know that normal bees are also drastically disappearing.