A wooden boat is stranded on the riverbed of the Dawuhan Dam during drought season in Madiun, Indonesia's East Java province, on Oct. 5, 2015. Siswowidodo | Antara Foto | Reuters
November 18, 2015 - UNITED NATIONS - The El Nino climate pattern, which is expected to strengthen
further through the end of the year, is on track to be one of the three
strongest such patterns in almost 70 years, according to the United
Nations weather agency.
Severe droughts and flooding are already underway in the tropics and subtropical regions of the world, and they bear all the marks of the pattern, said the head of the U.N. World Meteorological Organization at a news conference on Monday. The current El Nino is likely to be among the "worst ever," the U.N. said, though the organization pointed out that the world is better prepared for the fallout than in the past.
U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said that 11 million children could suffer from hunger, disease and a lack of water in eastern and southern Africa due to the weather disruptions related to El Nino.
The U.N. World Food Program also estimated that 2.3 million people in Central America will need food aid, as a result of El Nino's effects on agriculture there.
Another report from the U.N. said "unusually heavy and widespread" rains in northwest Africa, and the area around the Horn of Africa and Yemen could trigger surges in locust populations. The wet conditions are ideal for the insects' breeding.
The pattern is also worsening an ongoing drought in Indonesia that is hindering authorities' efforts to fight the roughly 1,200 wildfires burning across the country.
While the pattern's link to global climate change is unclear, El Nino is "turning up the heat even further" on already record surface temperatures, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a news conference in Geneva.
"It's not entirely clear how El Nino interacts with the changing climate," said Jarraud. "Even before the onset of El Nino, global average surface temperatures had reached new records."
Leaders from around the world are scheduled to meet in Paris beginning on Nov. 30 to discuss commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The WMO reported last week that greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high in 2014. - CNBC.
Experts can’t get close enough to determine how deep the mysterious hole is.
April 10, 2015 - CHINA - A blazing sinkhole in northwest China terrified locals, attracting
tourists as well as researchers and prompting questions about its
origin. The temperature on top of the burning crater was estimated to be
792 degrees Celsius (1,457 degrees Fahrenheit).
Due to the deadly heat, scientists have been unable to come close
enough to the crater to measure how deep it really is.
Located in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, near Urumqi, in
northwest China, the sinkhole is 0.9 meters (3 feet) wide.
Screenshot from YouTube user GooNooNews
The hole appeared recently after locals noticed the ground nearby getting warmer.
The temperature has been measured at 792C – but that was from two metres away.
Branches and grass that are held near the hole immediately catch fire from the intense heat.
It is hot enough to light up branches and other objects placed next to it. Various tourist videos show people setting things on fire.
Locals have dubbed it a “gateway to hell.” Many have told the Chinese media that the ground in the area has been hot for some time now.
There is no volcanic activity in the region, which led scientists from the Xinjiang Meitian Geological Bureau to believe that the sinkhole was created out of coal seam spontaneously combusting.
WATCH: Mysterious Sinkhole Spewing Fire Appears In China.
The area was reportedly used for mining in the 1970s, China Central TV cited a supervisor from Xinjiang Meitian Fire Engineering Bureau, Chen Long, as saying, the Daily Mail reported.
“Primitive mining and extinguishing techniques caused coal to burn deep under the ground,” Chen said. “Operators didn’t seal the mines properly after business discontinued and this leads the underground fire to burn towards the surface of the earth.”
Similar phenomena on a larger scale were spotted in Turkmenistan and America’s Pennsylvania.
The former, referred to as the “the door to hell,” is a gas crater that has been burning in a Turkmen desert for more than 40 years. The one in Pennsylvania is a coal mine fire that has been burning since May 1962. - RT.
The Four Corners area (red) is the major U.S. hot spot for methane emissions in this map showing how much emissions varied from average background
concentrations from 2003-2009 (dark colors are lower than average; lighter colors are higher). The hot spot, near the Four Corners intersection
of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, covers only about 2,500 square miles.
April 9, 2015 - U.S. SOUTHWEST - A small 'hot spot' in the U.S. Southwest is responsible for producing the largest concentration of the greenhouse gas methane seen over the United States - and is the subject of a major new investigation to find out why.
The hot spot, near the Four Corners intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, covers only about 2,500 square miles (6,500 square kilometers), or half the size of Connecticut.
A recent Nasa map shows is produces more than triple the standard ground-based estimate - and researchers say they don't know why.
METHANE AND GLOBAL WARMING
Methane is very efficient at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
Like carbon dioxide, it contributes to global warming.
To calculate the emissions rate that would be required to produce the observed concentration of methane in the air, the authors performed high-resolution regional simulations using a chemical transport model, which simulates how weather moves and changes airborne chemical compounds.
Researchers from several institutions are now in the Four Corners region of the U.S. Southwest with a suite of airborne and ground-based instruments, aiming to uncover reasons for a mysterious methane 'hot spot' detected from space.
'With all the ground-based and airborne resources that the different
groups are bringing to the region, we have the unique chance to
unequivocally solve the Four Corners mystery,' said Christian
Frankenberg, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
California, who is heading NASA's part of the effort.
Other
investigators are from the Cooperative Institute for Research in
Environmental Sciences (CIRES) in Boulder, Colorado; the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Last fall, researchers including
Frankenberg reported that a small region around the Four Corners
intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah had the highest
concentration of methane over background levels of any part of the
United States.
An instrument on a European Space
Agency satellite measuring greenhouse gases showed a persistent
atmospheric hot spot in the area between 2003 and 2009.
The amount of methane observed by the satellite was much higher than previously estimated.
The satellite observations were not detailed enough to reveal the actual sources of the methane in the Four Corners.
Likely
candidates include venting from oil and gas activities, which are
primarily coalbed methane exploration and extraction in this region;
active coal mines; and natural gas seeps.
Researchers
from CIRES, NOAA's Earth Systems Research Laboratory and Michigan are
conducting a field campaign called TOPDOWN (Twin Otter Projects Defining
Oil Well and Natural gas emissions) 2015, bringing airborne and
ground-based instruments to investigate possible sources of the methane
hot spot.
Shiprock, New Mexico, is in the Four Corners region where an atmospheric methane "hot spot" can be seen from space.
Researchers are currently in the area, trying to uncover the reasons for the hot spot.
The JPL team will join the effort on April 17 and fly two complementary remote sensing instruments on two Twin Otter research aircraft.
The Next-Generation Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRISng), which observes spectra of reflected sunlight, flies at a higher altitude and will be used to map methane at fine resolution over the entire region.
Using this information and ground measurements from the other research teams, the Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES) will fly over suspected methane sources, making additional, highly sensitive measurements of methane.
Depending on its flight altitude, the NASA aircraft can image methane features with a spatial resolution better than three feet (one meter) square. In other words, it can create a mosaic showing how methane levels vary every few feet, enabling the identification of individual sources.
Hotspot of total column methane anomalies centered over the Four Corners region from 2003 to 2009, when a satellite-based methane-measuring instrument was
operational. The April study will focus on verifying the hotspot and determining the methane sources producing
the exceptionally elevated methane concentrations.
With the combined resources, the investigators hope to quantify the region's overall methane emissions and pinpoint contributions from different sources. They will track changes over the course of the month-long effort and study how meteorology transports emissions through the region.
The research team also includes scientists from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder; the U.S. Bureau of Land Management; and the state of New Mexico.
In each of the seven years studied from 2003-2009, the area released about 0.59 million metric tons of methane into the atmosphere.
This is almost 3.5 times the estimate for the same area in the European Union's widely used Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research.
In the study published online today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers used observations made by the European Space Agency's Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) instrument, which measured greenhouse gases from 2002 to 2012.
The atmospheric hot spot persisted throughout the study period.
A ground station in the Total Carbon Column Observing Network, operated by the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, provided independent validation of the measurement.
To calculate the emissions rate that would be required to produce the observed concentration of methane in the air, the authors performed high-resolution regional simulations using a chemical transport model, which simulates how weather moves and changes airborne chemical compounds.
Research scientist Christian Frankenberg of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, first noticed the Four Corners signal years ago in SCIAMACHY data.
'We didn't focus on it because we weren't sure if it was a true signal or an instrument error,' Frankenberg said.
The study's lead author, Eric Kort of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, noted the study period predates the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, near the hot spot.
This indicates the methane emissions should not be attributed to fracking but instead to leaks in natural gas production and processing equipment in New Mexico's San Juan Basin, which is the most active coalbed methane production area in the country.
Natural gas is 95-98 percent methane.
Methane is colorless and odorless, making leaks hard to detect without scientific instruments.
'The results are indicative that emissions from established fossil fuel harvesting techniques are greater than inventoried,' Kort said.
'There's been so much attention on high-volume hydraulic fracturing, but we need to consider the industry as a whole.'
In just one place in the United States do four states meet. The borders of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona intersect at Four Corners,
west of the confluence of the Mancos and San Juan Rivers.
Coalbed methane is gas that lines pores and cracks within coal.
In underground coal mines, it is a deadly hazard that causes fatal explosions almost every year as it seeps out of the rock. After the U.S. energy crisis of the 1970s, techniques were invented to extract the methane from the coal and use it for fuel. By 2012, coalbed methane supplied about 8 percent of all natural gas in the United States.
Frankenberg noted that the study demonstrates the unique role space-based measurements can play in monitoring greenhouse gases.
WATCH: Methane bubbles get popped and ignited with a match.
'Satellite data cannot be as accurate as ground-based estimates, but from space, there are no hiding places,' Frankenberg said.
In March 2014 the Obama Administration announced a strategy to reduce methane emissions under its Climate Action Plan.
The strategy includes improving the measurement and monitoring of methane emissions and assessing current methane emissions data. - Daily Mail.
March 25, 2014 - UNITED KINGDOM - UK hospitals have incinerated over 15,000 aborted babies to heat their
buildings while telling mothers their aborted babies were "cremated," an
investigative report has shockingly uncovered.
Image: Natural News.
The aborted babies were
shoveled into "waste-to-energy" ovens that combust biomass to generate
heat in the same way that heating oil or coal generates heat. This was
all apparently done with the full knowledge of hospital administrators,
government regulators and medical doctors.
"The bodies of
thousands of aborted and miscarried babies were incinerated as clinical
waste, with some even used to heat hospitals," reports The Telegraph.
"At least 15,500 fetal remains were incinerated by 27 NHS trusts over
the last two years alone, Channel 4's Dispatches discovered."
"Health
officials in the U.K. face scrutiny after it came to light that state
run hospitals have been incinerating fetuses along with their garbage,"
reports the International Business Times.
Stillbirths also incinerated in giant ovens to heat hospitals
It's
not just aborted babies that are combusted to generate heat, either:
there are over 4,000 stillbirths each year in the UK, and those babies
are also incinerated in large ovens to generate heat for hospitals.
In addition to babies,
these "waste-to-energy" programs also incinerate other tissues, organs
and even limbs removed during surgery. Anything removed from a patient
during surgery or an abortion becomes fair game tissue that surgeons can
toss into the "incineration" pile. From there, hospital workers feed
the body parts into massive ovens.
The absolute disgrace of modern medicine: babies as fuel for the furnace
What this practice shows is that, to the conventional medical system, the value of a living human baby is no more than that of a lump of coal.
An
institution that claims to help save lives is actually in the business
of routinely terminating them and shoveling the dead bodies in massive
ovens to lower their own heating bills. This must make hospital
administrators especially happy, knowing they can lower their operating
costs (and boost profits!) by incinerating aborted babies to turn skin,
bones, brain tissue and once-beating hearts into BTUs. Christmas bonus,
anyone?
Just like Nazi crematoriums
If the image of
bodies being incinerated in massive ovens seems familiar, that's because
the same atrocity took place during another dark era of human history:
the Nazi-run Holocaust and attempted extermination of the Jews.
In concentration camps like Auschwitz, human bodies were incinerated in massive ovens, just like it has long been done in UK hospitals:
Auschwitz crematorium, or UK hospital? They look the same and accomplish the same task.
Massive ovens have long been used to dispose of bodies after they were murdered. The "innovation" of modern medicine
is to make the process of murder and incineration more "green" by
turning dead bodies into heat so that the very doctors who perform these
procedures can carry out their procedures in the comfort of a warm
room.
Yes, burning aborted babies
is a "green energy" practice, didn't you know? Burning babies is clean
energy, we are supposed to believe. The mental derangement necessary to
justify such grotesque atrocities is beyond explanation.
This practice makes my soul scream out in justified anger against the mass murderers of babies
Of course, if it's heat these cretins are after, they won't have to wait long. Hell is even hotter than a baby-combusting oven, and there' no escaping that because unlike human bodies, souls are eternal.
Such
philosophical discussions seem to be of no concern to those who run the
UK conventional medical system, of course. They just want to keep their
hospitals comfy, and they have no hesitation whatsoever using aborted
babies as a source of convenient fuel. Besides, it's not only "green"
it's also "renewable" as long as women keep having abortions! GREEN AND
RENEWABLE! Sounds like utopia!
By the way, if you are reading
this article and do not feel extreme anger and disgust, you are simply
not human. A living human baby is a sacred being. A medical system that treats these once-living beings as nothing more than fuel for the ovens is a system of pure evil that knows no bounds.
Modern medicine is a life-destroying institution of pure evil
We
already know the medical system is pure evil, of course. It exists
primarily to destroy life, not to save it: Toxic pharmaceuticals,
mercury-laced vaccines, the psychiatric drugging of children,
brain-destroying chemotherapy treatments and radiation-emitting
mammograms all have one thing in common: they destroy life and create
disease, suffering and death.
If our medical system were truly
interested in helping people achieve lasting health, it would be based
on nutrition, patient empowerment and education, the removal of all
toxic heavy metals from vaccines, and the nurturing of healthy children
through healthy childbirth, breastfeeding and responsible parenting.
Hitler's
Holocaust reportedly killed six million innocents, yet today's medical
system kills over 780,000 people each year in America alone! Globally,
conventional medicine kills millions each and every year, dwarfing even
the Holocaust in terms of lives destroyed and bodies disposed.
And
yet it is one of the most profitable industries on the planet, largely
because the medical system is able to figure out all sorts of creative
ways to turn bodies into profit. False cancer diagnosis is one of the
primary ways this is done, but burning aborted babies to save money on
heating fuel is yet another.
What we are witnessing in today's
medical system is beyond sick. It is beyond derangement. It is a
reflection of nothing less than pure, destructive evil and an intense
desire to desecrate all life.
We deserve better. We deserve a
medical system that holds life sacred and exercises compassion toward
expectant mothers. We will only get such a system when we finally expose the true evil of conventional medicine and replace it with a system that serves life rather than destroying it. - Natural News.
March 02, 2014 - EARTH - The following constitutes the latest incidents of mass fish die-offs across the Earth:
Large Fish Die-Off In Ponds In Foshan City, China.
Boat cut through the water, paddle flip between, often touching one of
the dead tilapia. The huge ponds, one round rancid attracted flies.
Yesterday, with the weather gets warmer, a town of more sophisticated
version of the village began large pond froze to death surfaced.
Yesterday afternoon, the main wheat Jian Wei insisted ponds loaded with tilapia boat, slowly move closer to the shore, filled with dead weight of the bow is almost flat with the surface of the water phase. - Shuichan. [Translated]
Hundreds Of Fish Wash Up Dead On Beaches On Reunion Island, Near Madagascar.
Unusual sight Wednesday morning on the west coast: hundreds of fish were found dead on the beaches of the west, lying on the sand ... These victims spend almost unnoticed because it is small "macabis". The heat of recent days could explain the carnage but at present, several assumptions are considered but no assurance can be advanced.
This morning the lifeguards (MNS) Boucan Canot and Roches Noires found these macabis stranded on the sand. Swimmers were surprised by observing this phenomenon.
This phenomenon was seen for the first time Monday, February 24 at the Hermitage password. Marine Reserve was immediately alerted. The Obseratoire marine advance an initial explanation following the carnage: the heat could kill tens of fish, causing "a fairly rapid decline in the amount of oxygen in water, which can cause the death of these animals water ". According Marine Observatory, the same phenomenon was observed last year. - Linfo. [Translated]
January 23, 2014 - EARTH - It was another notable year for
all-time heat records in 2013, with six nations and three territories
tying or setting records for hottest temperature on record. No nations
set an all-time cold record in 2013. For comparison, five countries and
two territories set all-time hottest temperature records in 2012, and
the most all-time national heat records in a year was twenty nations and
one territory in 2010.
Since 2010, 45 nations or territories have
set or tied all-time heat records, but only one nation has set an
all-time cold temperature record. Since each of those years ranked
as one of the top eleven warmest years in Earth's recorded history, and
2010 was the warmest year on record, this sort of disparity in national
heat and cold records is to be expected. Most nations do not maintain
official databases of extreme temperature records, the national
temperature records I report here are in many cases not official. I use
as my source for international weather records Maximiliano Herrera, one
of the world's top climatologists, who maintains a comprehensive list of
extreme temperature records for every nation in the world on his website.
New all-time national heat records set in 2013
Heard and McDonald Islands (uninhabited territory of Australia) set a new all-time heat record of
26.1°C (79°F) at Split Bay on 1 March. Previous record: 21.6°C set at
the same station in April 1992.
Ghana tied its all time
highest temperature record with 43.0°C (109.4°F) at Navrongo on 6 March;
the same value had also been recorded on 25 February 2010 and 19 April
2010 at the same location. The United States tied its
highest undisputed temperature at the Furnace Creek Visitors Center,
Death Valley California, with 53.9°C (129°F) on 30 June. The only higher
temperatures ever recorded on the planet occurred in Death Valley on
July 10, 12, and 13, 1913, when readings of 134°F, 130°F, and 131°F were
recorded. These 100-year-old official hottest temperatures in Earth’s
history have many doubters, though, including Mr. Burt, who noted in a
2010 blog post that "The
record has been scrutinized perhaps more than any other in the United
States. I don't have much more to add to the debate aside from my belief
it is most likely not a valid reading when one looks at all the
evidence. St. Pierre et Miquelon, a French territory
off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, set its all time highest
temperature record with 28.3°C (82.9°F) at the St. Pierre Airport on 6
July. Previous record: 28.0°C at St. Pierre town in August 1876 and
August 1935.
A moose takes a dip to cool off
in a backyard pool in this photo taken in Big Lake, Alaska on June 17,
2013, by Lonea Moore McGowen (Courtesy KTUU-TV.) Bentalit Lodge, Alaska
hit 36.7°C (98°F) on June 17, tying the mark set in Richardson on 15
June 1969 for hottest undisputed temperature in Alaska history. The
official heat record for Alaska remains the 100°F registered at Fort
Yukon on June 27, 1915. However, there are questions concerning this
figure as outlined by our weather historian, Christopher C. Burt.
Greenland, a territory of Denmark, set a new
all time highest temperature with 25.9°C (78.6°F) at Maniitsoq Airport
on 30 July. Previous record: 25.5°C at Kangerlussuaq on 27 July 1990.
There is a claimed 30.1°C measurement at Ivigtut on 23 June 1915, but
this is almost certainly a mistake, since the reading doesn't fit at all
with the hourly data of that day, and the station in over a century has
never recorded any temperature above 24°C.
Austria set a
new national record of highest temperature with 39.9°C (103.8°F) at
Dellach im Drautal on 3 August, which beat the old record of 39.7°C set
at the same location on 27 July 1983. The 3 August 2013 record was
beaten again on 8 August 2013, with a 40.5°C (104.9°F) reading recorded
at Bad Deutsch-Altenburg.
Slovenia also set a new all time
heat record on 8 August, with 40.8°C at Cerklje Ob krki. Previous
record: 40.6°C set at Crnomelj on 5 July 1950.
Japan set a
new all-time heat record with 41.0°C (105.8°F) at Shimanto on 12
August. Previous record: 40.9°C at Tajimi and at Kumagaya on 16 August
2007.
Comoros tied its national record of highest
temperature at the Hahaya Int. Airport with 35.6°C (96.1°F) on 19
November; the same value was recorded at the former Moroni Airport (its
location looks to have been very close of the current international
airport) on 31 December 1960.
Notable global heat and cold records set in 2013
The official Furnace Creek, Death
Valley maximum recording thermometer for the maximum temperature
measured on June 30th, 2013. The 129.2°F (54.0°C) reading was the
highest June temperature ever measured on Earth. Photo courtesy of Death
Valley National Park and NWS-Las Vegas. Note, though, since only whole
Fahrenheit figures are official in the U.S., the value was registered as
129°F.
Hottest temperature in the world in 2013: 53.9°C (129°F) at Death Valley, California, June 30 Coldest temperature in the world in 2013: -81.7°C (-115°F) at Dome A, Antarctica, July 31 Hottest temperature in the Southern Hemisphere: 49.6°C (121.3°F) at Moomba Aero, Australia, January 12 Coldest temperature in the Northern Hemisphere: -64.2°C (-83.6°F) at Summit GEO, Greenland, March 4
Number of major world stations which set their all time highest temperature in 2013: 389 Number of major world stations which set their all time lowest temperature in 2013: 12
On
27 February, 2013, a new February all-time heat record for the Northern
Hemisphere was set with 44.5°C (112.1°F) at Abu Na' Ama (Sudan).
Previous record: 44.4°C with two former record holders: Kayes in Mali,
and Kiffa in Mauritania.
A day for the history books: European heat wave of 8 August 2013
An
incredible heat wave over Central Europe on 8 August 2013 was a day for
the history books of world climatology, with two nations and three
world capitals setting all-time heat records on the same day. Dozens of
stations in six European countries also set all-time heat records that
day. The three capitals that set new all-time heat records on 8 August:
Vienna, Austria reached 39.5°C (103.1°F), beating the previous city record of 38.9°C which was recorded in July 1957.
Bratislava, Slovakia reached 39.4°C (102.9°F), beating the previous city record of 38.9°C set in July 2007.
Ljubljana, Slovenia
reached as high as 40.2°C (104.4°F), beating for the FIFTH TIME IN SIX
DAYS the old record of 38.0°C set in June 1935. This is particularly
amazing, since the city has about 150 years of data. This is the
sequence:
3 August 38.3°C 4 August 38.4°C 6 August 38.6°C 7 August 39.5°C 8 August 40.2°C
One other world capital set an all-time heat record in 2013: Bangkok, Thailand,
which reached 40.1°C (104.2°F) in the Metropolis Station on 26 March,
beating the previous record of 40.0°C set in April 1979 and April 2012. - Wunderground.
January 15, 2014 - AUSTRALIA - Up to 500 flying foxes died at Yarra Bend Park yesterday after the extreme heat decimated the colony.
Michele Phillips says that her
Oakleigh South Animal Shelter has been inundated with heat stressed
wildlife, including this possum, and urgently needs donations of food
and hydrating fluid. Picture: Valeriu CampanSource: News Limited
Animal rescuers are tending the animals on both the Boroondara and Darebin sides of the river, with rescuers describing the sight as "horrific".
The South Oakleigh Wildlife Shelter's Michele Phillips said the extreme heat had caused the creatures to literally "drop out of the trees".
"It's a nightmare. We lost so many yesterday," Ms Phillips said.
Rescuers are rallying at the Kew park with water spray and rehydrating fluid, trying to save thousands of remaining flying foxes.
"When they drop to the ground we are trying to rehydrate them, and we are spraying the ones still in the trees," Ms Phillips said.
Victorian Advocate of Animals spokesman Lawrence Pope said rescuers were finding many dead animals, and others barely alive.
"I just had one instance where I saw a mother trying to revive her baby and the baby literally died while I was standing there," Mr Pope said.
"It's completely due to the heat. The animals can't cope, especially the young ones."
Mr Pope said Parks Victoria and the Department of Primary Industries staff had joined the rescue mission and clean up.
"I think we've managed to save as many as we've found dead," Mr Pope said.
"Spraying (is) keeping the animals cool, but it is a delicate balancing act and we have to use our judgment as we don't want to disturb the colony too much."
"We will have people here over the next three days continuing to monitor the situation."
Ms Phillips, a wildlife rescue volunteer, said she was caring for about 70 heat-stressed animals and birds.
She said she had been inundated with calls from residents across Melbourne's southeast, including Bayside and Glen Eira, with heat-stressed wildlife, and in the last 24 hours had collected dozens of ill animals and taken them to vets.
"I have possums in every room, and brought all my birds from my 15 aviaries inside," Ms Philips said.
She appealed to people to put bowls of water outside for wildlife, and shade their gardens.
"If you find (wildlife) on the ground, put them into a box, try to give them water and ring me," she said.
She urged people not to hose down animals and birds, as it would stress them too much. - Herald Sun.
November 12, 2013 - SPACE - The most luminous objects in the universe keep getting more mysterious.
Astronomers have discovered a new type of quasar — an incredibly bright galactic core powered by a supermassive black hole — that current theory fails to predict.
One theory of a newly discovered type of black-hole quasar suggests gas
flows into a central black hole.
More frequent particle collisions close
to the black hole make the gas hot in regions that are closer to
the
center (shown in blue and white). Regions further away are cooler
(yellow and orange).
York University/Patrick Hall
Models predict that a quasar's light and heat should push nearby gas out from the center and toward the fringes of the host galaxy. The newly found quasars do demonstrate this behavior, but, surprisingly, some of the gas also appears to be falling back to the center, researchers said.
"Matter falling into black holes may not sound surprising," study lead author Patrick Hall, an astronomer at York University in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. "But what we found is, in fact, quite mysterious and was not predicted by current theories."
So far, astronomers have found 17 of these objects, which are thought to make up just 0.01 percent of all quasars.
Gas flow in and around quasars can be calculated by examining its Doppler shift, or the change in the wavelengths of light that are produced as the gas moves. On Earth, humans can hear the Doppler shift in action when a car toots its horn as it zooms by. As it comes towards you, the sound waves are compressed and the horn's pitch sounds higher. After it passes, the sound waves lengthen and the pitch drops.
Particles of gas in a distant galaxy emit light at expected wavelengths. This changes as the gas moves toward Earth or away from it. Gas receding from Earth is shifted to the red edge of the light spectrum (which has longer waves), while gas moving toward Earth appears more blue.
Quasar light is easy to track because it is astonishingly bright, producing "enough light to be seen across the observable universe," York University officials said in a statement. The appearance of these newfound quasars, however, generated a mystery.
"The gas in the disk must eventually fall into the black hole to power the quasar, but what is often seen instead is gas blown away from the black hole by the heat and light of the quasar, heading toward us at velocities up to 20 percent of the speed of light," Hall said.
"If the gas is falling into the black hole, then we don't understand why it's so rare to see infalling gas," he added. "There's nothing else unusual about these quasars. If gas can be seen falling into them, why not in other quasars?"
One theory suggests the gas is not descending into the black hole but instead is circling it after the quasar pushes it away. This means that some particles of gas in the galaxy would be moving toward Earth, while others are moving away.
"To make an analogy: Imagine an ant on a spinning merry-go-round, crawling from the center to the edge," Hall said. "You will see the ant moving toward you about half the time and away from you about half the time. The same idea could apply to the gas in these quasars. In either case, the gas in these quasars is moving in an unusual fashion."
Astronomers found the quasars using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III), which examines large swaths of the sky. Scientists expect quasar models will have to be revisited, so the researchers plan follow-up surveys using the Gemini Observatory.
The research was published Sept. 1 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - Huffington Post.
October 08, 2013 - UNITED STATES - In August of 2013, more than 100 elk were found dead on a range to
the north of Las Vegas. They are believed to have all died within a 24
hour period. The mysterious deaths have left the New Mexico Department
of Game and Fish baffled over what caused the animals to die.
The death of livestock is not in itself a rare occurrence. Poachers,
predators, disease, toxins, starvation, drought, heat and even
lightening can wipe out herds of animals. Wildlife officials have,
however, dismissed these possibilities.
Anthrax poisoning, which occurs following ingestion of the organism,
was suspected as causing the deaths. In 2000, more than 150 livestock
animals in North Dakota died of anthrax. The bacteria also exists
naturally in the New Mexico region.
However, according to a report in Live Science, tests for anthrax came back negative. (1)
Pesticides have also been responsible for killing livestock. Cattle
will eat grass that has been sprayed with pesticides such as calcium
arsenate powder and liquid arsenate herbicide. These substances are
highly toxic to livestock. If arsenic is ingested, it can damage small
blood vessels, which affects the blood supply to the major organs, as
stated by the LSU AGCenter. (2)
There does, however, seem to be no evidence of any pesticide use in
the area and officials have ruled out the use of heavy pesticides as
being the reason for the mass killings.
Is the Weather to Blame? Thunderstorms and lightning are a common occurrence in the New Mexico
area, particularly during the summer months. In fact, according to the
Severe Weather Climatology for New Mexico report, because the state has
one of the highest storm frequencies in the United States, it has the
highest lightning fatalities per capita in the US. (3)
Lighting does represent a significant hazard to large animals and the
natural world and, given the frequency of lightning in the area, death
by lightning was another slim possibility. However, this premise was
ruled out by officials at the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
primarily because it would be highly unlikely that lightning strikes
would lead to the deaths of 100 animals. Contamination and Disease as Possible Causes
Contaminated well water is another possible cause of the mystery
deaths but no toxins have been identified in the water. An unidentified
disease has also been mentioned as being a potential cause but has also
been dubbed as being unlikely due to the implausibility that so many
animals would all die so quickly.
Another possible culprit is Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD), which is carried by insect bites.
“With EHD, an elk could get a fever. It’s usually a
pretty fast illness, and up to eight to 36 hours later the animals go
into shock, and then they die,” said Rachel Shockley, spokesperson for New Mexico Game and Fish department. (4)
Theories and Other Examples of Sudden Animal Deaths This is not the first time large groups of livestock have simultaneously died and the cause of the deaths is unconfirmed and remains a mystery.
In the 1980s, a mysterious wasting disease killed 280 cattle on a
farm near the Dry Run Landfill in West Virginia. The incident eventually
led to a Class Action lawsuit against DuPont, a US chemical company.
DuPont was blamed for contaminating the drinking water supplies at the
farm with C8.
The contamination was said to have originated from the DuPont
Washington Works facility in Wood County. According to the Fluoride
Action Network Pesticide Project, the farmers sued DuPont for the death
of their cattle and the ill health of their family and farm workers.
The cause of death was never conclusively associated with the
chemical contamination of drinking water stemming from the DuPont
facility. The company did settle for an “undisclosed amount” in light of
the allegations. (5)
In 2010, a more fantastical theory was pinned as the cause of deaths
of more than 300 goats in rural Mexico. Shepherds and ranchers in the
area were convinced that el chupacabra – goat sucker in Spanish – a
Hispanic vampire beast was responsible for the livestock killings.
“Shepherds in Puebla State are frightened by the
attacks on their flocks by either the chupacabra, wild dogs or some
other wild creature that they’ve been unable to hunt down, and which has
caused the deaths of over 300 goats for some 50 days,” reporter Pedro Morales noted in a report. (6)
As for the fated elks, EHD seems like the most probable cause. As
Rachel Shockley says, EHD is most dangerous at this time of the year
when temperatures are hot and the animals stay close together at water
supplies.
Both water samples from the streams and creeks and tissue samples
have been sent off for testing. Until EHD has been confirmed, the death
of so many elk in a 75,000-acre ranch remains a mystery.
September 23, 2013 - IRELAND -
Two major fish kills in Irish waters that also wiped out large numbers of globally endangered white-clawed crayfish are being blamed on rivers and lakes getting too warm, the Sunday Independent has learned.
Native white-clawed crayfish.
Unseasonal high temperatures, combined with compromised water quality and low levels after a dry spell sucked the oxygen out of a river in Longford and a Leitrim lake.
More than 2,000 fish – including brown trout, roach, pike, eel and white-clawed crayfish – were among the species found dead on a 6km stretch of the Camolin River, a Shannon tributary, downstream from Longford town.
Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) officers are also investigating an incident of fish mortalities at Lough Keeldra outside Mohill in Co Leitrim.
The incident was reported to IFI on September 10. Considerable numbers of dead perch were recorded at the lake site. Live fish observed in the lake were in distress.
Blue/green algae has recently bloomed in the lake. As Lough Keeldra is a designated bathing area, Leitrim Co Council has banned swimming until the cause of the fish kill is fully identified.
"After a prolonged period of low flow levels and unseasonably high water temperatures, all aquatic life but especially fish are extremely vulnerable to the slightest deterioration in water quality," a spokeswoman told the Sunday Independent.
The loss of white-clawed crayfish was a particular blow. Ireland is a world sanctuary for the freshwater crustacean that resembles a small, three-inch lobster.
Elsewhere is Europe, including England and Wales, the species are being wiped out by the invasive American signal crayfish – originally imported to be farmed.
Not only does the aggressive signal crayfish devour our small native species, but it also carries a virulent infection called crayfish plague. The signal crayfish is immune to the fungal infection, but the plague kills white-clawed crayfish within weeks.
Julian D Reynolds of Trinity College is a worldwide expert on the white-clawed crayfish. He told the Sunday Independent: "We are the only country in Europe which does not have signal crayfish, which means our population of white-clawed crayfish is globally important.
"There's a big problem with these species being brought in elsewhere and we have to be so vigilant, especially since there may be a route into the country from Northern Irish waters. - Independent.
September 15, 2013 - UNITED KINGDOM - Britain's trees are set to lose their leaves early this year as a result of the driest summer in seven years.
Cities: Trees in areas like St James' Park (pictured) are expected to suffer the drop in leaves first.
This means a 'fools' Autumn will take place in some parts because trees are trying to save their water supplies.
Trees in towns and cities will drop their leaves in the coming weeks, because they have a restricted supply of water, according to the Woodland Trust
The effects will also be more evident in Scotland, which has seen its driest August in ten years.
Estimates from the Met Office suggest this summer was the driest since 2006, with only 7.45in of rain fall between June and August, about 78 per cent of the UK average.
Rory Syme, a spokesman from The Woodland Trust in Scotland said: 'In effect, we'll experience two Autumns.
'True Autumn colour is triggered by the fading sunlight and cold temperatures. Leaves lose chlorophyll that makes them green, revealing spectacular yellow and red pigments.
'Fool's autumn colour is different. It's caused by trees still struggling to cope with a dry summer.
Autumn: Yellow leaves and berries are still on the branches of this Rowan tree in Aviemore, Cairngorms National Park.
'They wilt and drop their leaves early to save water. The effect can be seen particularly in species that are less tolerant of drought such as birch, or those where water supply is restricted, for example, street trees.'
Dr Kate Lethwaite, project manager for the Woodland Trust's nature calender which tracks the passage of the season told The Times the two autumns will arrive about a month apart .
She added areas in London will see it more clearly and said 'I wonder how they manage to survive at all, stuck in tarmac.'
Data from the Met Office shows that parts of England such as Norfolk and West Sussex have had less than half their usual rainfall in August.
Edinburgh and the surrounding Aviemore region saw a third of its usual levels while some experienced as little as a fifth. - Daily Mail.
September 13, 2013 - UNITED STATES - Officials with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish are puzzling
over the mysterious deaths of more than 100 elk, apparently all within a
24-hour period, in rural New Mexico.
An elk gets a drink from a BLM watering hole. Credit: Bureau of Land Management Colorado
The elk were found Aug. 27 on a 75,000-acre ranch north of the city of Las Vegas. Livestock deaths, by themselves, are not unusual — there are many things that can fell large animals, including predators, poachers, a natural or man-made toxin, disease, drought, heat, starvation, and even lightning.
But so far wildlife officials have seemingly ruled out most of these possibilities: The elk weren't shot (nor taken from the area), so it was not poachers. Tests have come back negative for anthrax, a bacteria that exists naturally in the region and can kill large animals. There seems to be no evidence of any heavy pesticide use in the area that might have played a role in the die-off.
Though lightning strikes are not uncommon in the Southwest and in New Mexico specifically, killing over 100 animals at one time would be an incredibly rare event. It might be an as-yet unidentified disease, though killing so many at once — and so quickly — would be very unusual. Another possibility is some sort of contamination of the well or water tanks, but so far no toxins have been identified.
Wildlife officials are hopeful that they will be able to identify the cause of death — if for no other reason that it would give peace of mind to ranchers and hunters.
Mass animal deaths are not uncommon. In just the past few weeks, massive die-offs of various animals have made news around the world. China's Fuhe River was clogged last week with over 100 tons of dead silvery fish. Officials attributed the deaths to toxic levels of ammonia dumped into the river from a local chemical factory. Around the same time, scientists finally solved the riddle of what had mysteriously begun to kill off a type of salamander in the Netherlands beginning in 2010. The culprit turned out to be Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, a contagious fungus that eats the salamander's skin.
Odd livestock attacks also abound. Last December, an unknown animal attacked livestock in Shelby County, Ky., leaving many of the victims with gnawed or detached ears, including a goat named Polka-dot. In 2010, the Hispanic vampire beast el chupacabra (of course, never proven to exist) was blamed by some for the deaths of more than 300 goats in rural Mexico. The real cause: Officials found feral canines were the real culprits.
Whatever killed the New Mexico elk was apparently neither a chemical spill nor a flesh-eating fungus, though the deaths remain a genuine mystery, at least so far. Tissue and blood samples are still being analyzed, and scientists hope to have answers soon. - Live Science.
September 09, 2013 - UNITED STATES - As an intense wheel of heat spins across the central and southern Plains, a cold front slowly dropping down from Canada will push the highest temperatures into the Midwest early this week.
In the wake of weekend storminess, Chicago cooled down into the 70s for Sunday, but the respite from summerlike warmth will be short-lived.
Extreme temperatures Sunday from Goodland, Kan., into McCook, Neb., will make a surge into the Midwest on Monday into Tuesday.
On Monday, highs will hit the middle and upper 90s from Omaha, Neb., into Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Saint Louis, Mo. Some spots may even reach the 100-degree mark.
On Tuesday, the heat will make its way into Chicago, with high temperatures nearing the record of 95 degrees, set on Sept. 10, 1983.
Interestingly, one has to go back to Sept. 26, 1998, to find the last time a record high was observed in Chicago for the month of September.
If you have any other outdoor plans the next few days, here are a few helpful ideas for staying safe in the heat from Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital:
- Stay Hydrated. The most important tip is to remember to drink
plenty of water. Sports drinks can also restore body fluids,
electrolytes, and salt balance.
- Avoid Midday Rays. Stay indoors if possible during peak temperatures, which are typically between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
-
Dress Appropriately. Wear loose clothing that allows your body to
breath, such as cotton and protect your head and face from the sun by
wearing a hat with a brim.
- Limit Intense Activity. Refrain from intensive outdoor activity in high humidity, which can hinder sweat from evaporating quickly and prevent the body from releasing heat effectively.
A strong cold front will cut its way through the sweltering heat on Wednesday, triggering showers and thunderstorms. Much cooler and more refreshing air will arrive late this week into the weekend. - AccuWeather.
September 09, 2013 - UNITED STATES - If bugs make you squeamish, be thankful you don't live in Oklahoma.
Swarms of crickets have invaded the Sooner State recently, prompting
grossed out Oklahomans to share photos of the harmless, chirping
insects.
Oklahoma State University entomologists say a combination of heat and drought this summer has fueled the cricket invasion, reported NewsOn6. Yet there actually fewer crickets than last year.
“These outbreaks seem to occur after periods of prolonged dry weather in spring and early summer
followed by rainfall in July and August,” said OSU's Rick Grantham in a
university press release. “Extensive soil cracking may be an important
factor.”
September 02, 2013 - MEXICO - Up to 15 percent of the cattle herd in Matamoros has died because of the drought and rains that occur at this time are not enough to feed them, said Victor Garcia Garcia, President of the local livestock Association.
"This was nothing but a soft drink, the cows are thirsty, was just a breath though if it continues raining we would benefit much dams are still empty", said.
He explained that to solve water supply to meet the needs of livestock require 6 to 8 inches of rain water and past rainfall were barely two inches.
Farmers representative mentioned that they have a record of 18,000 head of cattle, although it confirmed the loss is from an average of two thousand, five hundred animals.
He stressed that is true become supports to solve the problems faced are not enough the serious situation occurring. - Hoytamaulipas. [Translated]
August 18, 2013 - SIBERIA - The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua
satellite detected dozens of fires burning in eastern Russia in this
satellite image captured on August 15, 2013. The fires are outlined in
red. Smoke appears as grayish, wispy air currents.
Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC
The location, widespread nature, and number of fires suggest that these
fires were deliberately set to manage land. Farmers often use fire to
return nutrients to the soil and to clear the ground of unwanted plants.
While fire helps enhance crops and grasses for pasture, the fires also
produce smoke that degrades air quality.
According to NOVA Online, "The largest area of
forests in the European region, spanning eleven time zones, is Russia.
Approximately 95 percent of Russian forests lie in the boreal zone, as
in Canada, and Russia's fire seasons closely resemble Canada's, with
most burning occurring in late summer. A majority of Russia's boreal
forests are remote and contain large amounts of accumulated fuel matter.
Unmanaged fires burn freely during the fire season.
Agricultural burning occurs in pockets of the Russian Federation, and
many of these human-set fires quickly become uncontrolled wildfires. In
recent years, fire-management teams in Russia have begun to assess ways
to limit uncontrolled fires in the boreal forests, for they are a major
source of carbon emissions; the carbon stored in these boreal forests
accounts for approximately 37 percent of the total global carbon pool. " - NASA.
August 07, 2013 - UNITED STATES - A new massive federal study says the world in 2012 sweltered with continued signs of climate change. Rising sea levels, snow melt, heat buildup in the oceans, and melting Arctic sea ice and Greenland ice sheets, all broke or nearly broke records, but temperatures only sneaked into the top 10.
Surface temperatures in 2012 compared with the temperature average from 1981 to 2010.
Dan Pisut / NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday issued a peer-reviewed 260-page report, which agency chief Kathryn Sullivan calls its annual "checking on the pulse of the planet." The report, written by 384 scientists around the world, compiles data already released, but it puts them in context of what's been happening to Earth over decades.
"It's critically important to compile a big picture," National Climatic Data Center director Tom Karl says. "The signs that we see are of a warming world."
Sullivan says what is noticeable "are remarkable changes in key climate indicators," mentioning dramatic spikes in ocean heat content, a record melt of Arctic sea ice in the summer, and whopping temporary melts of ice in most of Greenland last year. The data also shows a record-high sea level.
The most noticeable and startling changes seen were in the Arctic, says report co-editor Deke Arndt, climate monitoring chief at the data center. Breaking records in the Arctic is so common that it is becoming the new normal, says study co-author Jackie Richter-Menge of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers' Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H.
Karl says when looked at together, all the indicators show a climate that is changing over the decades. Individually, however, the story isn't as simple.
Karl says surface temperatures haven't risen in the last 10 years, but he notes that is only a blip in time due to natural variability. When looking at more scientifically meaningful time frames of 30 years, 50 years and more than 100 years, temperatures are rising quite a bit, Karl said. Since records have been kept in 1880, all 10 of the warmest years ever have been in the past 15 years, NOAA records show.
Depending on which of four independent analyses are used, 2012 ranked the eighth or ninth warmest year on record, the report says. Last year was warmer than every year in the previous century, except for 1998 when a record El Nino spiked temperatures globally. NOAA ranks 2010 as the warmest year on record.
They don't have to be records every year, Karl says.
Overall, the climate indicators "are all singing the same song that we live in a warming world," Arndt says. "Some indicators take a few years off from their increase. The system is telling us in more than one place we're seeing rapid change."
While the report purposely doesn't address why the world is warming, "the causes are primarily greenhouse gases, the burning of fossil fuels," Arndt says.
The study is being published in a special edition of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. - NBC News.
August 02, 2013 - SPAIN - British holidaymakers heading to Spain are being warned to take extra care as the country prepares to be hit by a killer heat wave.
Spanish heat: Parts of the country will swelter under 43C temperatures in a heatwave that will start today (File pic).
Scorching winds from Saharan Africa with temperatures of 43C are
forecast to sweep across the country from today and are expected to last
for a week.
The worst affected areas will be Andalucia
and Murciain in southern Spain, but even the normally cooler areas of
the north will have temperatures of at least 38 C in the shade.
Incredibly, night time temperatures across the country are predicted to be at least 25C.
The
Balearic Islands of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza will also be hit by the
warm weather and even the Canaries, out in the Atlantic, are set to see
temperatures soar.
Spanish health authorities have urged people enjoying the sun to take precautions and avoid caffeine and alcohol, which raise the body temperature. File picture.
Britain is also heading for a hot spell, with temperatures of around
32C in London today, and the rest of the week generally in the 20s -
half the temperature of some areas in Spain.
A Met
Office spokesman said: 'We will tap into that same air (as Spain) for a
short time and it will be quite humid, whereas in Spain it will quite a
dry heat.
'The heatwave in the UK won't be as prolonged as the last one.'
Spanish health authorities are advising people to take precautions,
such as staying out of the midday sun, wearing loose clothing, a hat,
using plenty of sunscreen and UV-protective sunglasses.
They also say people should avoid spicy food, alcohol and caffeine because they all raise body heat and can cause dehydration.
Those particularly at high risk from the heat are the elderly and the very young.
Muy Caliente: The regions in Spain that will swelter under temperatures of up to 42C.
They advise drinking at least two litres of water a day, as well as sports drinks to replace lost glucose and electrolytes.
People with pools or near the beach should cool down in water.
Tourists sunbath at Palmanova's beach in Mallorca in this file pic. Sun worshippers are being urged to stay out of the midday sun, wear loose clothing and a hat, use plenty of sunscreen and UV-protective sunglasses.
Heat survival tips from Spaniards include putting bed sheets in a carrier bag in the freezer for two hours before going to bed, soaking towels in water and putting then in the fridge.
They also advise splashing cold water on pulse points such as the neck, wrists, behind the knees, and on the back and shoulders. - Daily Mail.
