Earth ChangesS

Better Earth

Ladybugs Help New York As Pest Killers

It sounds like a horror movie: 720,000 ladybugs on the attack in Manhattan.

In this real life story, however, the red-and-black bugs have been unleashed on the 80-acre grounds of one of New York's biggest apartment complexes with a mission: eat pests infesting the neatly landscaped property.

The ladybugs from Bozeman, Mont., arrived at the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex on Manhattan's East Side on Thursday afternoon, packed in boxes shipped by a natural gardening company.

Bizarro Earth

South Africa: Iceberg off St Francis Bay

An iceberg, 25 meters in length and 20 metres in height, has been spotted south-east of St Francis Bay, Eastern Cape, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said on Monday.

"This is very unusual and in fact we don't know of anything in recent history that has being reported this close to South African waters," said NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon.


Cloud Lightning

Flood hits provinces in NE, central Thailand

Flood has hit a number of northeastern, lower northern and central provinces in Thailand, local media reported Thursday.

The northeastern border province of Buri Ram declared nine districts as disaster zones. The damages by flood are initially estimated at more than one million baht (about 29,400 U.S. dollars), according to the Thai News Agency.

Question

Burst canal devastates Welsh village

A Welsh village has been devastated by a 'tsunami' wave of water even though it is 20 miles from the sea.

Ten people were rescued and three homes evacuated when a canal burst its banks - sending a 4ft wave surging through the country village.

©INS
There is still mystery surrounding why the village's canal burst it's banks trailing tonnes of mud and debris into villagers' homes.

Bizarro Earth

Two strong quakes hit Bengkulu, Indonesia

Two strong tectonic quakes hit Bengkulu province of Indonesia's Sumatra island Sunday evening, but no casualties or injuries were reported.

The first struck at 19:34 hours (1234 GMT) with a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter Scale, and the second at 19:40 with a 5.5 magnitude, Antara news agency Monday quoted the coordinator of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Bengkulu, Adjat Sudrajat, as saying.

Cloud Lightning

Cyclone cuts off electricity to almost 200,000 people in Primorye, Russia

The cyclone raging in the Primorsky Territory has left about 100 populated areas of almost 200,000 people without electricity, the head of the press service of the Far Eastern regional centre for emergencies, Olga Alkina, told Itar-Tass.

Repair teams continue to work day and night there, but it is difficult for them to reach some areas because of the heavy snowfall. While some electro-transmission lines are repaired, new line breaks occur, she said.

Bizarro Earth

Fiery Wind Fueling 1000-Acre Malibu Blaze in California

A wildfire driven by powerful Santa Ana wind threatened a university and forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes in the Malibu Hills on Sunday, authorities said. Flames destroyed a church and several homes, one of them a landmark castle.

Question

Flashback Bee deaths wane, cause unknown in Minnesota

It's an unsolved mystery that has entomologists, horticulturalists and beekeepers buzzing.

Honeybees are, or were, dropping like flies, according to Marla Spivak, associate professor at the University of Minnesota's Department of Entomology in St. Paul.

No Entry

Global warming accelerating: Oceans are 'soaking up less CO2'

The amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the world's oceans has reduced, scientists have said.

University of East Anglia researchers gauged CO2 absorption through more than 90,000 measurements from merchant ships equipped with automatic instruments.

Results of their 10-year study in the North Atlantic show CO2 uptake halved between the mid-90s and 2000 to 2005.

Comment: With the quicker warming the Earth's glaciers will melt faster, diluting the salty water in the Atlantic ocean. This has already caused the Gulf Stream to slow down substantially affecting the weather during the last winter as reported on our website. This may lead to an eventual shutdown of the Gulf Stream and a cooling of the climate in the Northern Eurasia and America, paradoxically plunging Earth into another ice age, as some scientists speculate, that is, if a cycle of cometary showers doesn't do it first.


Red Flag

Pressure rises at Indonesian volcano

BLITAR, Indonesia - Pressure at a simmering Indonesian volcano on Java island escalated Friday, a geologist warned, as armed police forced some defiant villagers to evacuate ahead of a potential eruption.

©AFP
Indonesian youths wear masks to guard against poisonous gases, as they wait to be evacuated from their village