From a devastating food crisis in Guatemala to water cuts in Venezuela, El Nino has compounded drought damage across Latin America this year.
The occasional seasonal warming of central and eastern Pacific waters upsets normal weather patterns across the globe and occurs on average every two to five years. Typically lasting around 12 months, El Nino reappeared once again in June.
Guatemalan authorities blamed it for the nation's worst drought in 30 years, which has left almost 500 people dead from hunger since the start of the year. Around 36,000 hectares (90,000 acres) of corn and bean crops were lost, officials said.
Earth Changes
An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale struck Jalisco, a state on Mexico's Pacific coast on Monday, the state-run National Seismology Service said.
It was recorded 8 minutes and 41 seconds after midnight as was 192 kilometers (km) southwest of Cihuatlan, a town in Jalisco. There have been no reports so far of harm to people or damage to property.
The quake was 30 km deep and was located at 18.05 degrees north and 105.88 degrees west in longitude. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the magnitude as 5.2.
It was recorded 8 minutes and 41 seconds after midnight as was 192 kilometers (km) southwest of Cihuatlan, a town in Jalisco. There have been no reports so far of harm to people or damage to property.
The quake was 30 km deep and was located at 18.05 degrees north and 105.88 degrees west in longitude. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the magnitude as 5.2.
© University of York
Kinyongia magomberae (the Magombera chameleon)
Kinyongia magomberae (the Magombera chameleon)
The specimen was collected, tested and compared to two others found by scientists in the same area and has now been named Kinyongia magomberae (the Magombera chameleon) in research published in the African Journal of Herpetology.
Dr Marshall is co-author of the study alongside researchers from the Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, the South African National Biodiversity Institute, Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Stellenbosch.
© Nancy Sefton
Ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) are voracious predators in the intertidal zone. Feeding on mussels and other mollusks, they limit the range of these species.
Ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) are voracious predators in the intertidal zone. Feeding on mussels and other mollusks, they limit the range of these species.
"Sea stars were assumed to be at the mercy of the sun during low tide," said the study's lead author, Sylvain Pincebourde of François Rabelais University in Tours, France. "This work shows that some sea stars have an unexpected back-up strategy."
The researcher is published in the December issue of The American Naturalist.
Sea stars need to endure rapid changes in temperature. During high tide, they are fully submerged in cool sea water. But when tides receded, the stars are often left on rocky shorelines, baking in the sun.
The full and devastating impact of England's worst recorded day of rain was still emerging last night as tributes were paid to a policeman swept away by floodwaters while trying to save others.
PC Bill Barker was helping motorists stranded on a bridge over the Derwent in the Cumbrian town of Workington when it collapsed. His body was discovered hours later on a nearby beach.
The Environment Agency said that the flooding across the region was so severe that such an event was likely to happen only once in 1,000 years. The rainfall, on to an already saturated terrain, was the highest level measured in England since records began. Meteorologists recorded 314mm (12in) of rain in 24 hours and flood warnings remained in place across the North West of England, parts of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
© Channel News Asia File Picture
Galeras volcano
Galeras volcano
Ashes are still falling near the Galeras volcano in the south, after Friday's eruption, but a colour-coded alert has been lowered from red to orange, the Colombia Institute of Geology and Mining (Ingeominas) said.
An orange alert means a new eruption was possible "in days or weeks," rather than imminently, it added.
Friday's eruption caused no casualties, but some 1,000 people were evacuated from around the volcano to Pasto, the capital of Narino department.
Another 8,000 people defied evacuation orders, refusing to leave their homes.
Authorities are urging people living in the Galeras foothills to leave for Pasto, 920 kilometres south of Bogota, as the danger of new eruptions is still quite high, warned Ingeominas deputy director Martha Calvache.
© Unknown
The mass loss is probably driven by processes occurring on the coast.
The mass loss is probably driven by processes occurring on the coast.
The scientists involved say they are "surprised" by the finding, because the giant East Antarctic sheet, unlike the west, has been thought to be stable.
Other scientists say ice loss could not yet be pinned on climate change, and uncertainties in the data are large.
The US-based team reports its findings in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The data comes from Nasa's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission.
Grace has previously shown that the smaller West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are losing mass.
© Universal Studios
The field of global warming is a fascinating facet of atmospheric science. Unfortunately, few are approaching the topic from an unbiased perspective -- the majority is dead set on proving it, while other are equally passionate about disproving it, or at least removing the implication that man may play a role in global warming. Both sides have been found to falsify data, withhold information, or otherwise distort views on the topic, reportedly. Notably internal investigations found that the Bush administration worked to silence climatologists at NASA who published pro-warming papers. Likewise, James Hansen, the leading climate scientist at NASA, was found to be engaging in an equally deceptive game of altering temperature data to make warming look more serious than it was.
Polar bear in the 'Plane Stupid' ad released in cinemas
When you read some of those files - including 1079 emails and 72 documents - you realise just why the boffins at Hadley CRU might have preferred to keep them confidential. As Andrew Bolt puts it, this scandal could well be "the greatest in modern science". These alleged emails - supposedly exchanged by some of the most prominent scientists pushing AGW theory - suggest:
Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.One of the alleged emails has a gentle gloat over the death in 2004 of John L Daly (one of the first climate change sceptics, founder of the Still Waiting For Greenhouse site), commenting:
"In an odd way this is cheering news."
© PhysOrg
Monarch butterflies in the Mexican state of Michoacan.
Monarch butterflies in the Mexican state of Michoacan.
Some 8,000 oyamel fir trees - the butterflies' unique mountain habitat each winter -- were cut down in July in a bid to remove beetles that threaten the Monarch's ages-old migration.
But now another small beetle has since taken to devouring the savory tree trunks, further endangering the butterflies' winter colonies.
"We are working to determine how many trees have been affected," said Homero Gomez, president of El Rosario Sanctuary, a premier migrating spot for the Monarch in the western Mexican state of Michoacan.
