By Adam Voiland18 April 2015 (NASA) – In a reminder of the interconnectedenss of our atmosphere, smoke that originated in Siberia had reached the West Coast of North America when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) captured this image on April 18, 2015. The smoke likely came from wildfires burning in the steppe of southern […]
By Virginia Morell16 April 2015 (Science) – In an unprecedented move, an expert panel that advises the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC’s) Scientific Committee has rejected Japan’s latest plan for resuming the killing of minke whales in the Antarctic. Japan, however, says it will continue with its whaling plans. The panel’s nonbinding finding, released this week, […]
By Scott Sistek 19 Apr 2015 (KOMO News) – The scenes have almost felt like they’re out of Hollywood imagination — brilliant red sunrises and sunsets the last couple of days around Western Washington. Why so red? It’s a byproduct of the massive wildfires that recently burned a large area in Siberia. The atmospheric winds […]
By Alexa Lewis17 April 2015 (AccuWeather.com) – The Dead Sea is disappearing at an alarming rate, leaving behind thousands of sinkholes that are chipping away at the coastline’s vibrant and touristy atmosphere. The Dead Sea – which is actually a lake – is known for being almost 10 times as salty as the ocean and […]
By Anna Liesowska16 April 2015 (The Siberian Times) – Fire is still raging in part of Siberia as the death toll from this week’s two massive outbreaks rises to 33. In Khakassia, people are slowly beginning to piece together their lives after the devastating wildfire that killed at least 29 people is finally extinguished. But […]
18 April 2015 (NBC News) – Tony Azevedo’s a third-generation farmer in California’s Central Valley. For decades, his family has grown cantaloupes. This year, he won’t — and he’ll leave a third of his 11,500-acre farm fallow. “This field would have been cantaloupes, had we had the water,” he explained, pointing to some of his […]
By Bruce Douglas17 April 2015 Rio de Janeiro (The Guardian) – Below the open arms of the statue of Christ the Redeemer, and not far from the upmarket neighbourhood of Ipanema, the Rodrigo de Freitas lake is usually a popular spot for Rio’s cyclists, joggers and coconut sellers. But over the last few days the […]
OL PEJETA CONSERVANCY, Kenya, 16 April 2015 (Cox Media Group) – After 50 million years, the northern white rhino is one death away from extinction. The last living male of the species is now under armed guard 24/7 at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. His name is Sudan. There is hope that Sudan, elderly […]
[cf. “Climate oscillations and the global warming faux pause” –Des] 14 April 2015 (Scripps News) – Atmospheric greenhouse gases have continued to rise during recent years, yet global mean surface temperature has shown no clear warming since about 2000. This slowdown in surface warming, often referred to as the global warming “hiatus,” is in sharp […]
By Jonathon Gatehouse and Amanda Shendruk16 April 2015 (Maclean’s) – The captain of the MV Thunder didn’t go down with his ship. Instead, he stood cheering and applauding in a life raft as the 62-m fishing trawler sank beneath the glassy surface of the Atlantic, 200 km off the coast of Gabon. Then he and […]
