Earth ChangesS


Bomb

Study: Oil Spills Boost Arsenic Levels in Ocean


Common Dreams
Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:34 UTC
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© AFP/Getty Images/File/Spencer PlattOil is seen in Bay Jimmy, Grand Isle, Louisiana, June 16, 2010
Paris - Oil spills can boost levels of arsenic in seawater by suppressing a natural filter mechanism on the sea bed, according to a study published on Friday in a specialist journal.

The research was conducted in a laboratory before the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but its authors say the findings highlight the worrying long-term impact from such disasters.

Scientists at Imperial College London found that sea floor sediment bonds with arsenic. The captured toxic element is then covered by subsequent layers of sediment, which helps explain why concentrations of arsenic in the ocean are low.

But, the researchers found, crude oil acts rather like a sticky blanket, clogging the sediment and preventing it from bonding to arsenic.
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Umbrella

Saskatoon, Canada expected to seek provincial disaster assistance after deluge swamped city

David Hutton, Cassandra Kyle, Alanna Adamko & Cam Fuller
The Star Phoenix
Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:07 UTC
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© Gord Waldner, The StarPhoenixAlana Wasylenko found a quiet moment with her dog in a Hampton Village park, after the area was hit hard by Tuesday's storm
Saskatoon residents are continuing the cleanup from the torrents of water that rolled through the city early Wednesday morning, leaving hundreds of basements flooded, dozens of vehicles destroyed and a multitude of businesses mopping up in the aftermath of the worst flooding in decades.

Among the wild events: A manhole cover shot through the bottom of a moving city bus; small vehicles and garbage containers were reportedly floating down streets in Confederation Park, where flood water submerged cars; and nearly one metre of storm water rushed down streets and into businesses and offices in the city centre.

Eighty to 100 millimetres of rain fell on Saskatoon during a three-hour period, according to the city, bringing back memories of June 24, 1983. On that day, 93 mm of rain fell -- 75 mm during a 45-minute span. A woman died that day, after her car was submerged in a road underpass.
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Ambulance

Washington Governor Requests Farm Disaster Assistance For 29 Counties Reeling From Cold and Rain


kirotv.com
Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:44 UTC
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Olympia, Washington - Gov. Chris Gregoire asked U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to designate 29 counties in Washington as farm disaster areas due to weather-related losses.

The damage was the result of extreme weather conditions throughout the spring, including severe cold, high winds and excessive rains.

"Conditions this year have been difficult for our growers across Washington, from Clark County to Okanogan," Gregoire said. "Cold temperatures have harmed our tree fruit crops, while excessive rain made it difficult for bees to pollinate strawberries and other berry crops. A declaration will help our businesses absorb a difficult year and look forward."

The request includes disaster declarations for Adams, Benton, Chelan, Clark, Columbia, Cowlitz, Douglas, Franklin, Grant, Grays Harbor, Island, King, Kitsap, Kittitas, Klickitat, Lewis, Mason, Okanogan, Pacific, Pierce, San Juan, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Thurston, Wahkiakum, Walla Walla, Whatcom and Yakima counties.
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Cloud Lightning

New video of flood in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon as death toll from Hurricane Alex rises


Russia Today
Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:36 UTC
In Mexico, six people have been killed in floods from tropical storms, as a result of Hurricane Alex. The northern city of Monterrey was the worst hit as a river burst its banks, washing away cars and destroying roads. More than four thousand people were evacuated from the region. The storms had earlier torn through central America, but have now dissipated.

The incredible precipitation brought major damage to Mexico's third-largest city. Apparently the Santa Catarina river, which flows through Monterrey bisecting it, isn't usually seen for most of the year.

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Igloo

Sydney records coldest June temperature since 1949 as cold snap stretches across southeastern Oz

Amy Simmons
ABC.net.au
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:26 UTC
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People across south-east Australia are complaining about unusually chilly temperatures and experts say there will be no relief from the cold until Sunday at the earliest.

From Brisbane this morning, Miss7t7 wrote on Twitter "Still in bed, so dam cold.. What's going on Brisbane !!!!". While in Melbourne, lexandraKR tweeted "Waiting for frostbite to set in... Sooo cold in Melbourne! Too scared to get out of bed incase I get hypothermia".

Others are embracing the weather and urging those who are complaining to toughen up.

"I am in love with this cold weather. Melbourne reminds me of Paris at the moment. How can that be a bad thing?" wrote hannahjtoy. "Is it seriuosly newsworthy that sydney temps are in the low single digits? seriuosly? it not cold! suck it up!" FilthiAssistant tweeted.
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Evil Rays

Best of the Web: New Study: Cell Phones Kill Honey Bees, Specific Frequency Located.

Jessica Harthorn
NBC25/ConnectMidMichigan
Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:34 UTC

A recent study has found that radiation from cell phones may be killing the honey bee population.

In a recent report in the journal Current Science, scientists are claiming that mobile phones are behind the disappearance of honey bees in Europe and North America.

They say radiation from cell phones is getting in the way of honey bees' navigation senses, making them so confused they lose their way home.

This new research may explain why the bee population has declined for years in what's being called Colony Collapse Disorder.
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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Overwhelmed by Oil and Toxic Pollutants: The Destruction of an Entire Coastline


Global Research
Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:20 UTC
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"The sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours ...
For this, for everything, we are out of tune."

(William Wordsworth, 1770-1850.)
For the people of the Gulf and the region - watching some of the most toxic pollutants known to man, being sprayed to disperse one of the most toxic pollutants known to man, unleashed as a result of man's fallibility, in a near-global addiction to consumerism - it must be an environmental apocalypse now. One dispersant Corexit 9500, is four times as toxic as oil, and also disrupts the reproductive systems of organisms.

There is magic about those sun-sparkled coasts, translucent, shimmering, sapphire sea, later turning peach, apricot, deep blush, then seeming near blackberry as the sun falls and the dusk, then dark, takes over. Then the great pelicans sit sentry, on remains of old breakwaters, silhouetted against the moon's silvered light.
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People

SOTT Focus: All For One and One For All

Laura Knight-Jadczyk
laura-knight-jadczyk.blogspot.com
Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:00 UTC
All for One
© UnknownAll for One and One for All
The issue of methane and outgassing has occupied me to quite some extent for the past few years particularly after writing New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection. I even asked the SOTT.net editors to keep their eyes open for news items about anything that might be related to outgassings. There's quite a collection in the database if you search. And now, with the recent news about the methane involvement in the BP Gusher, and that news getting more dire every day, I started digging around for some data I knew I had written about and, after finding a few things, I thought: how interesting that this "Mother of all Gushers" may give birth to the "Mother of all Storms." You'll understand what I mean in a minute!

First, read this bit that is current on SOTT: The Real Consequences of An Ocean Floor Collapse.

Note that it says:
The two possible scenarios are either a complete collapse of the ocean floor right above the Deepwater Horizon well and surroundings or a partial collapse in the form of a mud slide on one side of the well.
In this article I wrote back in 2007: Fire and Ice The Day After Tomorrow there's a bunch of collected articles which includes one about The Lake Nyos Gas Explosion, Cameroon 1986 where we read:
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Bad Guys

The Toxic Truth About Mega-Farms

Steve Boggan
The Daily Mail
Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:54 UTC
Mega_Farm1
© SWNS'Mega-farm': Cows by the thousand live on concrete and rarely get to see the sun, they never actually graze and their lives are shortened by round-the-clock milking.
Aside from the times when he worried that his children might never wake up at all, Jeff Brouse remembers the worst nights as the ones when they woke up screaming. Hot nights were the most frightening.

That was when warm air would rise and the gas - hydrogen sulphide, heavier than air - would roll on down the hill to his pretty farmhouse as if heralding the arrival of some demon in a horror movie.

Then the smell would overpower them. The headaches and sickness would begin, the nausea and dizziness.

And, over and over again, Jeff and his wife Lesley would scoop up their little children, Brooklyn, then aged five, and Jackson, four, and, in Jeff's words, get the hell out of there, far enough away as to be able to breathe.
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Alarm Clock

Migrating birds' rest stop could be deathtrap

Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
Sun, 04 Jul 2010 11:39 UTC
With a massive seasonal migration about to begin, the number of birds falling victim to oil could soon increase.

Over the 10 weeks crude has been gushing into the Gulf, more than 2,000 pelicans, cormorants, gannets and water birds have been plucked from gooey slicks and blackened shorelines -- about 60 percent of them already dead.

Those numbers could soar, starting as early as this weekend. In the coming months, birds begin migrating from as far north as the Arctic into the coastal marshes, estuaries and beaches. For many, the seasonal rest and refueling stop could wind up a deathtrap.
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