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South Africa's floral riches at risk - But 1,400 species are thought to be critically endangered and close to extinction. Now, conservationists have worked out a plan to protect the area against the multiple threats it faces. - BBC Earth Summit: Looking back, Looking ahead - “Land use change is causing an unprecedented imbalance in Amazonia,” Carlos Nobre, general coordinator of temperature and climate studies at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, said in a recent report... He warned that the logging, fires and farming in the Amazon could create “biodiversity losses of unknown magnitude.” ... Such fears of the Amazon’s destruction extend to possible regional temperature rises, less rainfall and accelerated rates of “desertification,” whereby land becomes parched and useless. - MSNBC Record Number of Tornados Stuns Weather Observers - Last week tornadoes struck Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. “Just in those five days, there were more than double the average number of October tornadoes,” says McCarthy. “The average number of tornadoes in October since the National Weather Service began tracking tornadoes in 1950 is 29 events. The previous record for the first half of any October was set in 1998, when 47 confirmed tornadoes hit various parts of the nation.” 83 in just the first two weeks of this October is obviously a phenomenal weather event. - Strieber Unexpected High-Speed Antarctic Warming - They suggest three possible causes: changing ocean currents may have brought warmer deep water onto the continental shelf, reducing sea-ice; warmer air may have come into the region; or a unique sea-ice-atmosphere feedback may be at work. Not knowing which theory is the correct one, the authors say they cannot predict the future. But they describe what has happened as “a profound climatic change, an order of magnitude greater than global mean warming.” - Strieber Coral Reefs are Shrinking Fast - The most comprehensive mapping yet of the "rainforests of the oceans," prepared by the United Nations Environment Program, showed the world's reefs covered between a half and one-tenth of the area of previous studies. - CNN Undersea Landslide Could be US, Europe Threat - The East Coast of the United States could be hit by giant ocean waves if a dormant volcano on the other side of the Atlantic erupts. An eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands could cause a massive landslide that would generate massive waves that would sweep across the Atlantic, inundating coastal areas from Maine to Florida. - Strieber Possible Danger Signals in Far North Heatwave- The far north town of Iqaluit in Canada is experiencing extraordinary heat. Temperature spikes in the far north are a sudden climate change danger signal, and the situation in this area is highly unusual. - Strieber Volcano Could Drown Town -The geologists believe the lake that has formed in the crater could release as much as 13 billion gallons of water. Combined with soil, ash and volcanic debris, it could generate a huge mudslide. Aid agencies estimate that about 46,000 people living in the town below Pinatubo could be at risk. There are also people living on the upper slopes of the volcano who have returned to their homes since the volcano last erupted, believing the area to be safe. - Strieber Deadly
Silences - The authorities grossly understated the death toll from hurricane
Andrew, the worst natural disaster in US history, and left thousands of
survivors to die in a zone contaminated by radiation. Man vs Animals Invincible Fire Ant Warning - The South American Fire Ant, which packs a potentially lethal sting, will cause an environmental catastrophe if allowed to spread, Queensland Authorities in Australia warned yesterday - Independent Scientists rush to study Gulf sperm whales - Scientists are surprised that 500 endangered sperm whales, along with killer whales and rare pilot whales, have quit the open ocean to congregate year-round near the mouth of the busy Mississippi River. - CNN Orcas face troubling ocean threats - The irony of what’s happening is where it’s happening. The Pacific Northwest is home to the clean, clear waters of Puget Sound — from Seattle to British Columbia. It’s usually thought to be a pristine place. But beneath the surface, PCB’s — a poisonous chemical banned in the U.S. 25 years ago, its residue still settling on the ocean floor. In the big fish eats small fish scenario, with whales at the top of the food chain, blubber samples show big doses of PCB.... Peter Ross of the Institute of Ocean Sciences says, “We discovered to our surprise that the resident killer whales here can now be considered the most contaminated marine mammals anywhere in the world.”... Another threat to the orcas: starvation. With wild salmon in decline, scientists worry there may not be enough of the whales favorite dish to satisfy its 200-pound a day appetite.... Yet a third threat is man’s appetite to see the sea’s giants. 300,000 tourists a year in 60 whale-watch boats create water noise that registers at rock concert levels. Boat propellers may also interfere with the orca’s sophisticated senses, which are used to hunt, navigate and communicate. - MSNBC Crusade to save Indonesia orangutans - “At the moment we have a crisis situation,” says Carel van Schaik, a professor of biological anthropology at Duke University. “The numbers are plunging like never before, and if current trends continue we might be looking at the extinction of the wild orangutan in 10 to 20 years.” - MSNBC Fishing has Decimated the Sea - Centuries of overharvesting, the researchers report in the current issue of the journal Science, have in turn left organisms vulnerable to disease, pollution and climate change. “We already knew about commercial fishing, but we were stunned at how much humans have affected these systems all the way back through history,” says marine biologist Bob Warner of the University of California, Santa Barbara. - MSNBC Mass Extinction - The human race’s efficiency at hunting large marine animals and shellfish has disrupted food chains and destroyed ecosystems to such an extent that the seas have been changed forever, according to the research project involving historians and scientists. - The Times Illegal Animal Market - In reality, wildlife experts said, the profits from the sale of endangered animals are often greater than those for drugs. A parrot bought for $5 in the jungles of Chiapas can sell for as much as $1,500 on the streets of New York. Mexico is also the world's leading supplier of endangered cacti and reptiles. - Boston Globe World Wildlife Warning! A report by two international scientific groups says global wildlife faces the greatest extinction risk since the dinosaurs disappeared... It says conservation strategies are failing, with nearly half the world's major nature reserves being heavily used for agriculture. - BBC Planet Busters
Image from The Barringer Crater Website The Asteroid Threat -Scientists believe the danger is all too real. - Independant Huge, Ancient Chesapeake Impact Crater Continues To Raise Questions - Scientists aren't certain whether the meteor was a comet, made mostly of ice, or an asteroid, a lump of stone or iron. At 2 to 3 miles in diameter, it was only a third the size of the Mexican dinosaur-killer. But when it crashed into the ocean here at 60,000 mph, it did awesome damage... The splash-down caused a massive tidal wave that surged far inland into the Appalachian foothills. Such a wave, known as a super-tsunami, can tower more than a thousand feet, Poag said, as it roars into shallow water near the shore... In addition, a hail of white-hot debris flung outward by the impact turned the Eastern United States into a wasteland. A cloud of dust encircled the globe, darkening the sky for months. The world's climate rapidly warmed and then cooled, perhaps contributing to a mass extinction of sea creatures a million years later... "Life on Earth would have been shocked, vaporized, pulverized, barbecued, blinded, irradiated, acidified, drowned, starved and frozen," Poag wrote in his book, "Chesapeake Invader." "A similar strike in Chesapeake Bay today would wipe out all the major East Coast cities, killing tens of millions. The scale of annihilation is appalling to contemplate." - Sightings Giant Wave 'Will Flatten Britain At 500 MPH' - Britain faces a natural disaster that will flatten the Atlantic coastline for several miles inland, a scientist predicted this week.... A massive landslide caused by a volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands would create a giant wave that would hit the coast at up to 500mph.... The largest mega-tsunami ever seen would be generated when an eruption of Cumbre Vieja on the island of La Palma caused a part of a mountain twice the size of the Isle of Man to plunge into the Atlantic. "The first impact will be when 330ft waves crash into the west Saharan coast of Morocco," said Simon Day, of the Benfield Greig hazard research centre at University College London.... "It is not a question of if it will happen, only when it will happen. It could be in the next few decades; it could be hundreds of years hence."... Devastation from the tsunami was also highly likely in Florida, Brazil and the Caribbean. There the wave would reach heights of 130ft to 164ft - higher than Nelson's column - and could sweep four and a half miles inland.... Dr Day said: "It is a geologically definite process, a bit like a pressure cooker, with the volcano heating up the ground water and pressure building up inside the mountain." - Sightings Summer Meteor Spotlights Hunt for Killer Asteroids - The scene of a fiery meteor streaking across the daytime skies of the northeastern United States this summer gave a once-in-a-lifetime thrill to those lucky enough to witness it. But one day, scientists warn, a similar celestial display over a highly populated region of Earth could be a harbinger of death and devastation for millions on the ground, if the meteor happens to be an asteroid as small as 99 feet in diameter."It would destroy a city just like a nuclear bomb would, but for a lack of radiation," said Jim Scotti, a planetary scientist who hunts asteroids and comets for the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory near Tucson. "On the other hand, there's the potential for civilization ending, because larger objects — a kilometer (0.62 mile) or so in diameter — are big enough to change climate on a global scale. And objects larger still, say 10 or 20 kilometers (6.2-12.4 miles) in diameter, could cause mass extinction." - Discovery The Sun Grew Dark - Scholars have been searching for years to find out what caused a worldwide catastrophe in the middle of the 6th century. A cryptic entry in the Winchester manuscript of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle notes that on Feb. 15, 538 AD “the sun grew dark from early morning until 9 a.m.” - Strieber The Killer Wobble - The extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago may have been caused by a kind of astronomical "wobble" in Earth's and Mercury's solar orbits, according to a new theory by a group of California scientists. - CNN Disease
Ebola May Spread - Health authorities fighting an Ebola outbreak in Gabon said on Saturday they feared the deadly virus could spread to neighboring countries as some patients had moved away from the main affected area.- Reuters Aids Will Kill 700,000 South Africans A Year - "The number of Aids deaths can be expected to grow within the next 10 years to more than double the number of deaths due to all other causes, resulting in 5m to 7m cumulative Aids deaths in South Africa by 2010," the report said. - Sightings West Nile Virus is Spreading - Experts at the U.S. Geological Survey say its highly significant. The virus has spread farther and faster than anticipated. The rapid expansion of the virus is a public health concern because in the South, the mosquito transmission season is year-round in some places. Senior citizens are considered a vulnerable population and many seniors migrate the South for the winter. Also, West Nile infects horses and could have a substantial impact on the equine industry. - CNN Warning - Most Salmonella Is Now Resistant To Antibiotics - Most cases of salmonella food poisoning are now resistant to antibiotics, according to a new report. - Sightings Oral sex HIV warning - The risk of contracting HIV from oral sex may be greater than previously thought... It has long been known that the virus can be transmitted through oral sex - but the risk was thought to be minimal. - BBC 22 Million Dead - The United Nations marked the 20th anniversary of the first reported cases of AIDS with a warning that the epidemic, despite having claimed 22 million lives already, was just in its early stages... The U.N.'s joint program on HIV-AIDS, UNAIDS, said the disease had emerged as the most devastating epidemic ever and that the world had to act now to turn back the tide... ``AIDS has become the most devastating epidemic in human history. On a global scale we are only at the beginning,'' UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot told Reuters. - Sightings |
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