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Millions Face Starvation as Niger Prays in Vain for Rain

Alastair Stewart
The Independent
Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© AP Photo
Nomadic tribal chief Ibrahim Mangari walks past a cow that died of hunger, in Gadabeji
Urgent aid is needed to avert a catastrophe in west Africa.

To the north of Niger, the creeping Sahara; to the south, oil rich and agriculturally lush Nigeria - this nation straddles the Sahel - dry, hot and cruel. It has suffered catastrophic droughts - 1974, 1984 and 2005. And now, another.

Five times the size of the United Kingdom, Niger is one of the poorest nations on earth with child mortality worse than Afghanistan. The absence of regular rainfall throughout 2009 has led to poor harvests, lack of grazing for animals and food reserves exhausted.

Hungry people have started adding "bitter" berries to their diet - this is survival food, normally unpalatable but when starving, the unpalatable becomes welcome - essential.
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Better Earth

Lone Whales Shout To Overcome Noise


Terra Daily / SPX
Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:07 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Currently right whales
are monitored to determine the health and size of the population. The northern and southern right whales are on the endangered species list.
Just like people in a bar or other noisy location, North American right whales increase the volume of their calls as environmental noise increases; and just like humans, at a certain point, it may become too costly to continue to shout, according to marine and acoustic scientists.

"The impacts of increases in ocean noise from human activities are a concern for the conservation of marine animals like right whales," said Susan Parks, assistant professor of acoustics and research associate, Applied Research Laboratory, Penn State. "The ability to change vocalizations to compensate for environmental noise is critical for successful communication in an increasingly noisy ocean."

Right whales are large baleen whales that often approach close to shore. They may have been given the name because they were the right whales to hunt as they are rich in blubber, slow swimming and remain afloat after death. Consequently, whalers nearly hunted these whales to extinction.
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Hourglass

Are Deepwater Relief Wells a Guaranteed Fix?

Mark Strassmann
CBS News
Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:59 UTC
"There's no doubt that the ultimate solution is a relief well," BP CEO Tony Hayward said.

Since 1969, oil companies have drilled seven deepwater relief wells in the Gulf of Mexico - all but one of them successful - although BP's current drilling would be the deepest ever.

"They're not reinventing the wheel, if you will," said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen. "It's something they've done before."

BP's challenge? Make it work, without making it worse. Around the clock, the two relief wells sink lower, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann. Both run parallel to the gushing well. One is two weeks ahead of the other, now 17,000 feet below the Gulf's surface. Nine hundred feet lower, electromagnetic sensors will find the best spot for a diagonal cut into the broken well bore, the most precise step of all. Then four pumps will push in heavy mud, to overcome the broken well's ferocious upward pressure. And finally, cement, to plug it permanently.
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Hourglass

NOAA Models Long-Term Oil Threat to Gulf and East Coast Shoreline


Noaa News
Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:37 UTC
shoreline threat
© NOAA
Click to Enlarge
NOAA has used modeling of historical wind and ocean currents to project the likelihood that surface oil from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill will impact additional U.S. coastline. This modeling, part of NOAA's comprehensive response to the unprecedented Gulf oil disaster, can help guide the ongoing preparedness, response and cleanup efforts.

"This NOAA model shows where oil may be likely to travel, thereby giving coastal states and communities information about potential threats of shoreline impacts. This kind of information should assist in the preparation of adequate preparedness measures," said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "NOAA is strongly committed to providing reliable information to the public and to responders at all levels."
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Hourglass

Tar Mat Washes Up on Central Florida Beach


Floridaoilspilllaw.com
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:21 UTC
Chris Davis tar
© Florida Today
Chris Davis was on Melbourne Beach when he spotted a glob of tar
Officials await tests this week to determine whether a pancake-sized tar mat, picked up on Melbourne Beach, came from the BP oil spill or is just usual gunk that occasionally washes up.

Cindy Leckey, a supervisor for Brevard Environmental Health Services, called it "highly unlikely" the tar is from the spill.

But she and other officials warned beachgoers to leave any tar-like substance they see to those trained to handle it.

"Nobody should be touching anything," Leckey told Local 6 News partner Florida Today. Dial 211 to report it instead, she said.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Video: Former Exxon Worker Blames Cough on Clean-Up

Drew Griffin
CNN
Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:00 UTC
After the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, Exxon sealed the health records of workers who were sickened during the cleanup. Drew Griffin investigates whether BP is trying to hide the risks to cleanup workers now?

      Read More...
Fish

Scientists Claim Fish "Talk" to Each Other

Paul Chapman
The Telegraph
Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:00 UTC
Image
© Ian Jones
Goldfish were found to be good listeners
Fish communicate with each other in a secret language of grunts, growls, chirps and pops, researchers in New Zealand have discovered.

Far from being a place of deep silence, the underwater world is abuzz with the sound of fish sweet-talking the opposite sex, warning others of danger, giving directions, and general background chatter.

Predators may even hunt out prey by intercepting fish talk, researcher Shahriman Ghazali of Auckland University said.

"All fish can hear but not all can make sound -- pops and other sounds made by vibrating their swim bladder, a muscle they can contract," he said.

Mr Ghazali, who is presenting a paper on his research to fellow marine scientists in Wellington this week, hopes to decipher the contexts for different types of communication.
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Igloo

Mega new climate science: 'Runaway' effect exaggerated

Lewis Page
The Register
Tue, 06 Jul 2010 03:53 UTC
Global warming models set for shake-up by new data

Top international boffins, having crunched vast amounts of climate data, say that the effect of "carbon feedback" - thought likely in some quarters to cause imminent runaway global warming followed by the end of human civilisation - has been exaggerated.

"Our key finding is that the short-term temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration to air temperature is converging to a single, global value," says Miguel Mahecha of the Max-Planck Institut für Biogeochemie, lead boffin on the new science.

"Contrary to previous studies, we show that the sensitivity of ecosystem respiration to temperature variations seems to be independent from external factors and constant across ecosystems."
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Cloud Lightning

Mexico, Texas evacuate homes as Rio Grande floods

Jorge Vargas
Associated Press
Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:18 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Miguel Tovar
Trucks sit in a flooded street in the town of Ciudad Anahuac, in the Mexican northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, Wednesday, July 7, 2010. About 18,000 people were evacuated Tuesday from Ciudad Anahuac, where authorities opened a dam's floodgates for fear it would overflow from rains that accompanied Hurricane Alex.
Nuevo Laredo - Reservoirs along the U.S.-Mexico border rose to their highest levels in decades after days of drenching rain, forcing officials to close two border bridges Wednesday, dump water into flooded rivers and evacuate tens of thousands from homes, with yet another storm on the way.

The dramatic rise of the Rio Grande caused by Hurricane Alex and continuing rains forced the closure of one major border crossing between downtown Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and another crossing known as the Colombia Bridge, about 20 miles upriver.

Officials evacuated the flood-threatened Vega Verde subdivision in Del Rio, Texas, some 110 miles (180 kilometers) upstream from Laredo, while high waters in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila have already damaged some 10,000 homes - many swamped in waist-deep water.

"That means there are 40,000 people who don't have any place to sleep," Gov. Humberto Moreira told the Televisa network Wednesday.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake Magnitude 5.4 shakes Southern California

Dan Whitcomb
Reuters
Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:50 UTC
Image
© USGS
Los Angeles - A magnitude 5.4 earthquake shook the Southern California desert east of Los Angeles on Tuesday, rattling nerves across the region but causing no serious damage or injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the moderate quake, which struck at 4:53 p.m. PDT, was centered 15 miles north-northwest of the desert resort community of Borrego Springs, about 133 miles east of Los Angeles.

Tall buildings swayed in downtown Los Angeles and the rolling quake was felt as far away as San Diego to the south and Santa Barbara to the north.
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