Blogging the End of the World™
By John Timmer5 May 2011 With all the focus on the potential future impacts of climate change and ocean acidification, it’s possible to lose track of the fact that the CO2 concentrations and temperatures have already risen significantly, and that we might already be seeing the impacts of climate change. In fact, plenty of evidence, […]
By Jeff MastersMay 05, 2011 The largest tornado outbreak and greatest one-day total for tornadoes in history occurred during last week’s historic super tornado outbreak, said NOAA in a press release on Wednesday. They estimate 190 tornadoes touched down during the 24-hour period from 8:00 a.m. EDT April 27 to 8:00 a.m. EDT April 28 […]
By Ben Mitchell and Mike Hornby, PA5 May 2011 Hundreds of firefighters are continuing to battle heathland fires which have been burning in locations across the UK for several days. … The hottest April on record, which saw only 21% of the expected rainfall in England and Wales, has caused vast areas of parched, tinder-dry […]
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE3 May 2011 BOISE CITY, Okla. — While tornadoes and floods have ravaged the South and the Midwest, the remote western edge of the Oklahoma Panhandle is quietly enduring a weather calamity of its own: its longest drought on record, even worse than the Dust Bowl, when incessant winds scooped up the […]
[This horrifying video shows harp seals being slaughtered with hakapiks; not for the faint of heart.] The Canadian seal hunt opened this week with fewer animals being killed. Record-low ice kept sealers at home, with only four boats on opening day killing 1200 seals. Even though Canada has set the limit high, the slaughter has […]
By MARK KAPCHANGA4 May 2011 The International Monetary Fund is warning that poverty levels will rise in Africa, unless the current spike in food and fuel prices is arrested. In its latest world economic outlook on Africa, the Washington-based institution says the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be probably be delayed as […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia is preparing to greenlight the construction of several highways through a park that has one of the world’s few viable populations of wild tigers, conservationists warned Thursday. The move would be especially alarming, they said, because it would come just months after the government signed a deal in Russia promising […]
By Stephen Messenger, Porto Alegre, Brazil 3 May 2011 In the forests of Italy’s Abruzzo National Park live one of the rarest creatures on Earth: the Marsican brown bear. For the last several decades the species has been on the brink of extinction — with current estimates putting their population at less than 50 individuals, […]
Villa Inflamable, Argentina (AFP) May 3, 2011 – Along the Riachuelo river, one of the world’s most polluted waterways lying south of Argentina’s capital, many residents suffer from skin and lung problems and lack drinking water or sewers. “This is what’s killing us all,” said Eduardo, an inhabitant of the poor neighborhood of Villa Inflamable, […]
Date of freeze-up (day of year) for Wales/Bering Strait from passive microwave satellite data (Kapsch and Eicken, unpublished data). The time series shows a delay in onset of freeze-up (statistically significant at the 95% level) parallel to the substantial changes in summer minimum ice extent observed over the same time period. State of the Arctic […]
