Events Counter: 549
2/10/2021
The 7 most devastating climate disasters of summer 2021
(CNN) - The climate crisis ravaged the United States this summer. As the West struggled with unrelenting drought and dozens of wildfires, a deadly heat wave seared the Northwest in June. Months later, back-to-back hurricanes -- Henri and Ida -- slammed the Northeast, breaking all-time rainfall records.
Beyond the US, China and Germanyexperienced deadly flooding events in July, as Canada and southern Europe battled pernicious wildfires of their own. Meanwhile, precipitation at the summit of Greenland fell as rain and not snow for the first time on record.
"It was impossible to ignore climate change this summer," Rachel Licker, a senior climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, told CNN. "And unfortunately, this isn't a one-time thing ... this is what we can expect more of, especially if we don't get off fossil fuels and invest in measures to build our resilience as soon as possible."
After months of deadly extremes, Americans' feelings on the climate crisis has evolved dramatically. For the first time, a majority of Americans now believe that the US is facing the consequences of a warming world, according to a new pollfrom the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
7. Hurricane Henri
The storm set a new record for the most rain in a single hour in New York City -- nearly two inches of rain fell in Central Park from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. on August 21, according to the National Weather Service. Nearly 5 inches of rain fell in New York City the following day, which also set a record for the date.
Tens of thousands of homes were left without power across the Northeast, with more than 42,000 customers left powerless in Rhode Island alone.
Extreme rainfall rates are becoming more common because of human-caused climate change, scientists say. Scientists reported in August that "the frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events have increased since the 1950s over most land area."
6. Tennessee flash flooding
In the same week Hurricane Henri unleashed a torrent in the Northeast, a staggering amount of rain, unrelated to the hurricane, led to flash flooding in Tennessee that destroyed more than 270 homes and killed at least 21 people.
5. Water shortage declared
While flooding tore through the East, a water shortage was declared in the West.
Plagued by extreme, climate change-fueled drought and increasing demand for water, the federal government in August declared a water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time, triggering mandatory water consumption cuts for states in the Southwest beginning in 2022.
Two of the nation's largest reservoirs fed by the Colorado River -- Lake Powell and Lake Mead -- have been draining at alarming rates. California's Lake Oroville dropped so low that the reservoir's hydroelectric power plant was shut down for the first time since it opened in the 1960s.
Brad Udall, senior water and climate scientist at Colorado State University, told CNN that the West should prepare for more shortages as the climate crisis intensifies.
4. Bootleg, Dixie and Caldor Fires
A summer of record-breaking, triple-digit heat and severe drought fueled more than a hundred large wildfires in the West. The three largest fires of 2021 have burned roughly 1.6 million acres, an area half the size of Connecticut.
In July, the Bootleg Fire scorched more than 410,000 acres in southern Oregon, making it the second largest wildfire in the country this year.
At the same time, the Dixie Fire in California was slowly growing and later surpassed Bootleg as the largest fire in the US this year, charring nearly a million acres and making it the second largest fire in California history.
A few weeks later, the Caldor Fire torched its way through the El Dorado National Forest, and its smoke led to exceptionally poor air quality in Lake Tahoe in California and Reno, Nevada. It is now the third largest fire this year.
"It was shocking to me that huge tracts of the country spent weeks under air quality alerts from the large wildfires in the West and Canada," Licker said. "No matter where you were, you couldn't avoid climate change."
3. The Pacific Northwest heatwave
Scientists say the unprecedented heatwave that killed hundreds the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia in late June would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change.
Experts told CNN the normally temperate region is generally unprepared for extreme heat events. Hundreds of people died from heat-related illness in Oregon and Washington, while many visited emergency departments or urgent-care clinics.
Across the border in British Columbia, the same heat wave fueled a fast-moving wildfire that obliterated the town of Lyttonjust one day after the temperature soared to 121 degrees and broke Canada's record.
Scientists say the punishing heat also cooked billions of shellfish alive.
This summer was the hottest on record in the US, tied with the Dust Bowl summer of 1936, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
2. Hurricane Ida
In late August, Category 4 Hurricane Idadestroyed homes, uprooted trees and cut off power to more than 1 million residents in Mississippi and the already storm-ravaged state of Louisiana.
Ida checked all the boxes of how climate change is making hurricanes more dangerous, according to scientists: producing more rainfall, moving slower once they make landfall and generating larger storm surges along the coast.
As the storm made its way inland, Ida's remnants triggered flash flood emergencies in the Northeast. The storm broke Henri's single-hour rainfall record in Central Parkand gave Newark its wettest day ever. The flooding killed at least 50 people in the region, many of whom drowned in basement apartments.
1. The West's historic drought
Amid all the acute disasters, the Western US has been in the grips of a historic, multi-year drought, which scientists say is a clear sign of how the climate crisis is affecting not only the weather but water supply, food production and electricity generation.
More than 93% of the West is in drought this week, according to the US Drought Monitor, with six states entirely in drought status: California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Montana.
In southern Oregon, the drying of the Klamath Basin exploded into a water warthis year that has pitted local farmers against Native American tribes, government agencies and conservationists. It's reflective of the dire situation engulfing the West.
The drought has "definitely made it a lot harder for us to get by year after year, and it's making an already tight margin a lot tighter," Tricia Hill, a 4th-generation farmer, told CNN in June. "For all of us, we've got families, employees, customers -- people we have to figure out how to take care of."
Origin: CNN.com
30/9/2021
80 million European households struggle to stay warm. Rising energy costs will make the problem worse
(CNN) - Millions of people across Europe may not be able to afford to heat their homes this winter as gas and electricity prices soar.
Recent research led by Stefan Bouzarovski, professor at the University of Manchester and chair of energy poverty research network Engager, found that up to 80 million households across Europe were already struggling to keep their homes adequately warm before the pandemic.
Now, price hikes are putting even more households at risk of being disconnected from power and gas grids because they can't pay their bills. Many are vulnerable because their incomes dropped and bills rose during the pandemic.
The pandemic made the problem even worse, said Sunderland, because many people are spending more time at home, increasing their energy consumption.
At the same time, energy prices are rising because gas suppliers are struggling to replenish stocks depleted by high demand for heating last winter and air conditioning over the hot summer. That scarcity has pushed consumer and wholesale prices to record levels.
"The risk of falling into energy poverty within the European population is at double the risk of general poverty," Bouzarovski told CNN Business.
Between 20% and 30% of Europe's population is facing general poverty, while up to 60% are suffering from energy poverty in some countries, he said.
Bulgaria has the highest proportion of energy poor people in Europe at 31% of the population, followed by Lithuania at 28%, with the relatively warmer Cyprus at 21% and Portugal at 19%. Switzerland's population is the least vulnerable to energy poverty at 0.3%, followed by Norway's 1%.
Observers are also warning of the possibility of political unrest if governments don't take action to help households.
"There could be a rise in 'Gilet Jaunes'-type movements across Europe," Bouzarovski said, referring to protests that rocked France in recent years.
Origin: CNN.com
17/9/2021
The planet is on a 'catastrophic' global warming path, UN report shows
(CNN) - The planet is careening toward warming of 2.7 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- far above what scientists say the world should be targeting -- according to a report on global emissions targets by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Scientists have said that the planet needs to slash 45% of its emissions by 2030 to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century. But under current emissions commitments from countries there will be a 16% increase in emissions in 2030 compared to 2010 levels, according to the report.
That would lead the planet to warm to 2.7 degrees above pre-industrial levels, the report says.
Scientists have said global temperatures should remain below 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels to stave off the worse consequences of the climate crisis. A UN report in August showed global temperature is already around 1.2 degrees of warming.
In a statement about today's report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the planet's current path "catastrophic."
"This is breaking the promise made six years ago to pursue the 1.5-degree Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement," Guterres said. "Failure to meet this goal will be measured in the massive loss of lives and livelihoods."
The report comes after a summer filled with climate change-fueled extreme weather around the world: While the Western US has been battered by wildfires, worsened by unrelenting drought, flooding events and hurricanes, China and Germanyexperienced deadly flooding events in July as Southern Europe battled wildfires of its own.
"This report is clear: ambitious climate action can avoid the most devastating effects of climate change, but only if all nations act together," Alok Sharma, incoming COP26 President, said. "Those nations which have submitted new and ambitious climate plans are already bending the curve of emissions downwards by 2030."
"But without action from all countries, especially the biggest economies, these efforts risk being in vain," Sharma added.
"We have the tools to achieve this target," Guterres said. "But we are rapidly running out of time."
Origin: CNN.com
16/9/2021
The ozone hole over the South Pole is now bigger than Antarctica
(CNN) - The hole in the ozone that forms every year over the South Pole is now larger than Antarctica, scientists from the European Union's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said Thursday.
The ozone depletes and forms a hole over the Antarctic in the Southern Hemisphere's spring, which is from August to October. It typically reaches its largest size between mid-September and mid-October, according to Copernicus.
After growing "considerably" in the past week, the hole is now larger than 75% of previous years' ozone holes at the same stage of the season since 1979 and is now bigger that the continent it looms over.
"This year, the ozone hole developed as expected at the start of the season," Vincent-Henri Peuch, Copernicus director, said in a statement.
"Now our forecasts show that this year´s hole has evolved into a rather larger than usual one."
Last year's hole also began unexceptionally in September, but then turned into "one of the longest-lasting ozone holes in our data record," according to Copernicus.
The ozone hole is related to the Antarctic polar vortex, a band of swirling cold air that moves around the Earth. When temperatures high up in the stratosphere start to rise in the late spring, ozone depletion slows, the polar vortex weakens and finally breaks down, and by December, ozone levels usually return to normal.
Copernicus monitors the ozone layer using computer modeling and satellite observations, and although the ozone layer is showing signs of recovery, Copernicus says it would not completely recover until the 2060s or 2070s.
A study published in the Nature journal last month said the world would be on course for an additional 2.5 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures and a collapse of the ozone layer if CFCs had not been banned by the protocol.
Origin: CNN.com
28/8/2021
'Time is not on our side.' Gulf Coast braces for Sunday arrival of Hurricane Ida, potentially a Category 4 storm
(CNN) - After slamming Cuba twice in less than 24 hours, Hurricane Ida is expected to pummel Louisiana on Sunday, forcing evacuations in New Orleans and the surrounding coastal region.
On Saturday morning, Ida was moving away from Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico, where it is expected to rapidly intensify over the next 24 to 36 hours prior to landfall across the Louisiana coast on Sunday afternoon or evening.
Ida is anticipated to reach at least Category 4 strength before landfall, the National Hurricane Center said, maintaining its earlier forecast.
"Ida is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane when it approaches the northern Gulf Coast on Sunday," National Hurricane Center forecasters said Saturday morning. At 8 a.m. ET, the storm sustained winds of 85 mph.
Officials throughout the state implored people to evacuate, with some issuing mandatory orders to do so.
"The city cannot issue a mandatory evacuation because we don't have the time," Cantrell said Friday at a news conference, speaking about areas inside the levee system. "We do not want to have people on the road, and therefore, in greater danger because of the lack of time."
A dangerous storm surge of 10 to 15 feet is expected from Morgan City, Louisiana, to the mouth of the Mississippi River on Sunday as Ida makes landfall, the NHC said.
Rainfall can amount to 8 to 16 inches, with isolated maximum totals of 20 inches possible across southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi through Monday-- which will likely lead to significant flash and river flooding impacts.
In Louisiana, a hurricane watch is in effect from Cameron to west of Intracoastal City and the mouth of the Pearl River to the Mississippi-Alabama border. Tropical storm warnings and watches are also issued stretching east to the Alabama-Florida border.
The city is anticipating impacts from damaging winds of up to 110 mph, according to Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
"If you are going to evacuate, you know that's a responsibility that you take on -- do so as soon as possible," he said. "You do not want to be stuck on the road, when the storms impacts arise."
If Ida makes landfall in Louisiana, it would be the fourth hurricane to do so since last August and Louisiana's third major hurricane landfall in that span.
Sunday, which is the forecast landfall day, is also the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a devastating Category 3 storm with winds near 127 mph that caused severe flooding to cities along the Gulf Coast, from New Orleans to Biloxi, Mississippi. More than 1,800 people were killed in the Gulf region directly or indirectly from the storm and in the days after, according to a NOAA report.
"We're not recovered. Not by a long shot," the governor said of Hurricanes Laura and Delta impacts last year. "We still have businesses boarded up from the last (hurricane.) Homes have not yet been repaired and reoccupied. Or if they are damaged to the point where they need to be demolished and removed, in many cases that hasn't happened either."
Origin: CNN.com
26/8/2021
'Southern Blob' of hot ocean is causing a megadrought thousands of miles away in Chile
(CNN) - In the southwest Pacific Ocean, there's a huge region of unusually warm water covering an area about the size of Australia, known as "the Southern Blob."
Several thousand miles away, the South American nation of Chile has been experiencing a megadrought for more than a decade, with dwindling rain and water supplies.
On the surface, these two events have nothing to do with each other -- but, a new study found, they are linked by invisible forces of global atmospheric pressure and circulation.
The drop in rainfall affected atmospheric circulation in the region, creating wind patterns that changed how warm and cold currents flow in the ocean -- guiding more warm water to the Blob while pushing cold water deeper down.
The warm surface water that makes up the Blob then heats the air above it -- and as the atmosphere warms, it expands into a "big, broad area of high pressure," known as a high pressure ridge, said Kyle Clem, co-author of the study and lecturer in climate science at the Victoria University of Wellington.
This ridge, which stretches across the South Pacific, changes the path that storms usually take as they move across oceans, known as "storm tracks." Because of the ridge, storm systems shifted south toward Antarctica and away from the west coast of South America.
South America's coastal region -- including central Chile, Argentina and parts of the Andes mountains -- relies on those winter storms to replenish freshwater supplies before the summer dry season. With the storms now redirected to Antarctica, Chile has been plunged into serious drought conditions since 2010, with widespread damage to the environment and people's livelihoods.
This is Chile's longest drought on meteorological record, according to NASA. The last megadrought of this scale probably took place in the region more than 1,000 years ago, according to René D. Garreaud, a scientist at the University of Chile and one of the study co-authors.
But global warming has caused the Blob to expand and grow much hotter over the past decade -- and the drought has become one continuous, unending stretch. During the winter season in the southern hemisphere, the Blob warms about three times faster than the global average in other parts of the ocean, Clem said.
"So this thing started in the central tropical Pacific, get some warming, the pattern continues for 40 years -- then you just have added heat being pumped into it from increasing greenhouse gases," Clem said. "That's what has allowed the Blob to reach such extreme rates of warming ... which is why we're seeing a drought that is so unprecedented."
The prolonged drought has devastated farms throughout Chile, with crop failures and mass deaths of livestock. Reservoirs are at critically low levels, and residents in some rural areas now rely on water deliveries from tanker trucks.
The Blob's knock-on effects have also been felt elsewhere. Because the shift causes warmer air to move toward the Antarctic, it has caused a reduction in Antarctic sea ice -- which in turn threatens the region's delicate ecosystems, and could have far-reaching consequences in altering global weather patterns.
"One of the most fascinating things about this is, we have this anthropogenic (human-caused) signal in the climate system, which is the Blob, sitting out there in the middle of nowhere," Clem said. "But because of the way the ocean's circulations are configured, it has the ability to influence regional climates where huge amounts of people live, tens of thousands of kilometers away."
"What our study shows is that, with human-induced climate change, what happens in one place does not necessarily stay there."
Origin: CNN.com
22/8/2021
The Southwest's most important river is drying up
(CNN) - For farmers in the deserts of central Arizona, success and failure is defined by who has water and who does not. At the moment, Dan Thelander is still among the haves!
On the patchwork of brown desert and green farmland in front of us, Thelander points out the parcels of land where he and his brother, son and nephew grow cotton, alfalfa and several other crops.
About half the water he uses to irrigate his land is pumped out of ancient aquifers deep beneath the desert floor. The other half, however, originates hundreds of miles away at the headwaters of the Colorado River.
Today, this river system supplies 40 million people in seven western states and Mexico, and irrigates more than 5 million acres of farmland on its way into Mexico and the Gulf of California.
Las Vegas relies on the river for 90% of its water supply, Tucson for 82% and San Diego for around 66%. Large portions of the water used in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Denver also come from the river, and experts say these booming metropolises would not have been possible without its supply.
But a crisis is unfolding, and farmers, scientists, water managers and policy makers across the Southwest are increasingly alarmed.
Water managers have long recognized that the river is plagued by overuse. But over the last two decades, demand for the river’s water has often outstripped its supply. Since 2000, the river’s flows have shrunk by roughly 20% compared to the 20th century average, due in large part to the human-caused climate crisis. At the same time, its two main reservoirs — the savings account for the entire system in times of drought — have drained rapidly.
Lake Mead — the largest manmade reservoir in the US, which is fed by the Colorado River — recently sunk to its lowest levels since the lake was filled in the 1930s. Its water levels have fallen more than 146 feet since their peak in January of 2000, and the lake is now just 35% full. Lake Powell, the river’s second largest reservoir, sits at 32% of its capacity. As water levels drop, billions of kilowatt hours of hydroelectricity that power homes from Nebraska to Arizona are also at risk.
On Monday, the US Bureau of Reclamation declared the first-ever official shortage, which will trigger the largest mandatory water cuts to date in the Colorado River Basin. And after decades of receiving water from the Colorado River, the spigot could soon be turned off on many farms here, including Thelander’s.
While the farmers knew this day would come, a harsh reality is setting in: To stay in business, they’ll need to pull more water from below ground.
The current Colorado River guidelines expire in 2026, and early negotiations are already getting underway for a new framework to determine how to divvy up its water. But by the time officials from the states, Mexico, Native American tribes and the federal government convene, it is likely that the river’s water supply will be even more tenuous than it is today.
Scientists and water policy experts say that the science is clear: The Colorado River’s supply will likely shrink further as the planet warms. Given what we know, many say we will have to use even less water in the future.
“[The Colorado River] is the lifeblood of the American Southwest,” says Jeff Kightlinger, who led Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District for 15 years before his recent retirement. “None of these cities would be possible but for the Colorado River and the development of it for all of these regions.”
Arizona farmers like Dan Thelander have known for years that their supply of Colorado River water would eventually be phased out. They just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.
A drought that began more than two decades ago, along with the effects of higher temperatures due to global warming, have rapidly sapped the river’s flow. And in the long-term, scientists and water policy experts say those problems pose a threat to users far beyond the farms of Pinal County.
Origin: CNN.com
22/8/2021
The Middle East is running out of water, and parts of it are becoming uninhabitable
(CNN) - The ferries that once shuttled tourists to and from the little islets in Iran's Lake Urmia sit rusty, unable to move, on what is rapidly becoming a salt plain. Just two decades ago, Urmia was the Middle East's biggest lake, its local economy a thriving tourist center of hotels and restaurants.
Lake Urmia's demise has been fast. It has more than halved in size -- from 5,400 square kilometers (2,085 square miles) in the 1990s to just 2,500 square kilometers (965 square miles) today -- according to the Department of Environmental Protection of West Azerbaijan, one of the Iranian provinces where the lake is located. There are now concerns it will disappear entirely.
Such problems are familiar in many parts of the Middle East -- where water is simply running out.
The region has witnessed persistent drought and temperatures so high that they are barely fit for human life. Add climate change to water mismanagement and overuse, and projections for the future of water here are grim.
Some Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Iraq and Jordan, are pumping huge amounts of water from the ground for irrigation as they seek to improve their food self-sufficiency, Charles Iceland, the global director of water at the World Resources Institute (WRI), told CNN. That's happening as they experience a decrease in rainfall.
"They're using more water than is available routinely through rain. And so groundwater levels are consequently falling because you're taking water out faster than it's being replenished by the rainfall," he said.
"Both declining rainfall and increasing demand in these countries are causing many rivers, lakes, and wetlands to dry up," Iceland said.
The country is experiencing some of the driest conditions in five decades, according to the country's meteorological service.
The Middle East's winters are projected to get drier the more the world warms, and while the summers will be wetter, the heat is expected to offset its water gains, according to scientists' latest projections published earlier this month by the UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change report.
"The problem is, with this whole temperature rise, whatever rainfall will come will evaporate because it is so hot," Mansour Almazroui, director at the Center of Excellence for Climate Change Research at Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz University, told CNN.
"The other thing is, "This rain is not necessarily going to be usual rain. There's going to be extreme rainfall, meaning that floods like those happening in China, in Germany, in Belgium, these floods will be a big problem for the Middle East. This is really a big climate change issue."
Kiomars Poujebeli, who farms tomatoes, sunflowers, sugar beet, eggplant and walnuts near the lake, told CNN that the salty water has been disastrous.
"The day the soil will become unfarmable is not far away," he said.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that Jordanians will have to halve their per capita use of water by the end of the century. Most Jordanians on lower incomes will live on 40 liters a day, for all their needs -- drinking, bathing and washing clothes and dishes, for example. The average American today uses around 10 times that amount.
Groundwater levels in parts of the country are dropping by well over one meter a year, studies show, and waves of refugees from many countries in the region have put extra pressure on the already stressed resource.
It's a transboundary problem also seen in other parts of the region along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, as well as in northern Africa along the Nile.
Origin: CNN.com
22/3/2021
Parts of Australia declare natural disaster during 'once in 100 years' floods
(CNN) - The Australian government has declared a natural disaster in large swaths of New South Wales (NSW) as heavy rains batter the state and force thousands to evacuate.
Rains have been inundating communities since Thursday, but parts of the east coast tipped into crisis on Saturday as a major dam overflowed, adding to swollen rivers and causing flash flooding.
The NSW and federal government have signed 16 natural disaster declarations in areas spanning the central and mid-north coast, from Hunter Valley near Sydney to Coff's Harbour, said NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliott in a news conference on Sunday.
There have been no deaths reported yet -- but, Elliott warned, "we are moving closer and closer to the inevitable fatality."
"We cannot say it enough: do not put yourself in danger, do not put the agencies that are there to assist you in the event of a flood rescue in danger," he said.
Some families were forced to evacuate in the middle of the night as rivers rose to dangerous levels, and 4,000 more people -- primarily in the Hawkesbury region -- may have to evacuate on Sunday, said state Premier Gladys Berejiklian at the news conference.
"This is nothing like we've seen since the 1960s," Berejiklian said. In parts of the state that have been hit harder, this is a once-a-century event; in other regions like the Hawkesbury area, it's a "one-in-50-years" event, she said.
Berejiklian urged residents to follow local guidance, stay off the roads, and heed evacuation orders if needed -- even for those who live in flood-prone areas and may have experienced flooding before. "This is different," she warned. "What we're going through is different to what you've been through for the last 50 years. So please take it seriously."
Heavy rains are expected to continue in the upcoming week, with a rain band forecast to move across the state from the west, bringing significant rainfall to he northern inland and northwestern slopes, said Agata Imielska of the Bureau of Meteorology. The worst-affected areas could see rain totals more than four times the March monthly average falling in just two days.
Origin: CNN.com
22/3/2021
Parts of Australia declare natural disaster during 'once in 100 years' floods
(CNN) - The Australian government has declared a natural disaster in large swaths of New South Wales (NSW) as heavy rains batter the state and force thousands to evacuate.
Rains have been inundating communities since Thursday, but parts of the east coast tipped into crisis on Saturday as a major dam overflowed, adding to swollen rivers and causing flash flooding.
The NSW and federal government have signed 16 natural disaster declarations in areas spanning the central and mid-north coast, from Hunter Valley near Sydney to Coff's Harbour, said NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliott in a news conference on Sunday.
There have been no deaths reported yet -- but, Elliott warned, "we are moving closer and closer to the inevitable fatality."
"We cannot say it enough: do not put yourself in danger, do not put the agencies that are there to assist you in the event of a flood rescue in danger," he said.
Some families were forced to evacuate in the middle of the night as rivers rose to dangerous levels, and 4,000 more people -- primarily in the Hawkesbury region -- may have to evacuate on Sunday, said state Premier Gladys Berejiklian at the news conference.
"This is nothing like we've seen since the 1960s," Berejiklian said. In parts of the state that have been hit harder, this is a once-a-century event; in other regions like the Hawkesbury area, it's a "one-in-50-years" event, she said.
Berejiklian urged residents to follow local guidance, stay off the roads, and heed evacuation orders if needed -- even for those who live in flood-prone areas and may have experienced flooding before. "This is different," she warned. "What we're going through is different to what you've been through for the last 50 years. So please take it seriously."
Heavy rains are expected to continue in the upcoming week, with a rain band forecast to move across the state from the west, bringing significant rainfall to he northern inland and northwestern slopes, said Agata Imielska of the Bureau of Meteorology. The worst-affected areas could see rain totals more than four times the March monthly average falling in just two days.
Origin: CNN.com
20/3/2021
Earthquake of 7.0 magnitude hits Japan near devastating 2011 disaster epicenter
(CNN) - A 7.0 preliminary magnitude earthquake has struck Japan off the coast of Ishinomaki, a city located just 65 miles (104 km) from Fukushima, the site of a devastating 9.0 magnitude quake 10 years ago.
Latest information from USGS shows the earthquake has a depth of 54 kilometers (34 miles). CNN teams in Tokyo felt the tremor.
A tsunami warning was issued earlier Saturday but has now been downgraded to a "tsunami forecast" of slight changes in sea level, a Japanese government website showed. The US Tsunami Warning System says there is no warning, advisory, watch or threat of tsunami associated with the Japan quake.
Japan experienced a deadly quake a decade ago that caused the country's worst nuclear disaster on record. More than 20,000 people died or went missing and a tsunami with 30-foot waves damaged several nuclear reactors in the area.
More than 100,000 people were evacuated and authorities have spent the past 10 years cleaning up the area -- a massive effort that experts say will take decades to complete.
A powerful earthquake that hit Japan last month was an aftershock of the 2011 event, according to the national Meteorological Agency.
Origin: CNN.com
27/2/2021
Reversal of Earth's magnetic poles may have triggered Neanderthal extinction -- and it could happen again
(CNN) - The reversal of Earth's magnetic poles, along with a temporary breakdown of the world's magnetic field about 42,000 years ago, could have triggered a raft of environmental changes, solar storms and the extinction of the Neanderthals, according to a new study.
The Earth's magnetic field protects us, acting as a shield against the solar wind (a stream of charged particles and radiation) that flows out from the sun. But the geomagnetic field is not stable in strength and direction, and it has the ability to flip or reverse itself.
Some 42,000 years ago, in an event known as the Laschamp Excursion, the poles did just that for around 800 years, before swapping back -- but scientists were unsure exactly how or if it impacted the world.
Now, a team of researchers from Sydney's University of New South Wales and the South Australian Museum say the flip, along with changing solar winds, could have triggered an array of dramatic climate shifts leading to environmental change and mass extinctions.
Scientists analyzed the rings found in ancient New Zealand kauri trees, some which had been preserved in sediments for more than 40,000 years, to create a timescale of how Earth's atmosphere changed over time.
Using radiocarbon dating, the team studied cross sections of the trees -- whose annual growth rings served as a natural time stamp -- to track the changes in radiocarbon levels during the pole reversal.
'End of days'
Researchers found that the reversal led to "pronounced climate change." Their modeling showed that ice sheet and glacier growth in North America and shifts in major wind belts and tropical storm systems could be traced back to the period of the magnetic pole switch, which scientists named the "Adams Event."
"Effectively, the Earth's magnetic field almost disappeared, and it opened the planet up to all these high energy particles from outer space. It would've been an incredibly scary time, almost like the end of days," Turney said.
Researchers say the Adams Event could explain many of Earth's evolutionary mysteries, including the extinction of Neanderthals and the sudden widespread appearance of figurative art in caves worldwide.
"We essentially had no magnetic field at all -- our cosmic radiation shield was totally gone," Turney said.
The weakening of the magnetic field meant that more space weather, such as solar flares and galactic cosmic rays, could head to Earth.
"Unfiltered radiation from space ripped apart air particles in Earth's atmosphere, separating electrons and emitting light -- a process called ionisation," said Turney in a statement. "The ionised air 'fried' the Ozone layer, triggering a ripple of climate change across the globe."
During this time, Earth's inhabitants would have been subjected to some dazzling displays -- northern and southern lights, caused by solar winds hitting the Earth's atmosphere, would have been frequent. Meanwhile, the ionized air would've increased the frequency of electrical storms -- something that scientists think caused humans to seek shelter in caves.
"The common cave art motif of red ochre handprints may signal it was being used as sunscreen, a technique still used today by some groups," Alan Cooper, honorary researcher at the South Australian Museum, said in a statement.
In the paper, published in the journal Science, experts say there is currently rapid movement of the north magnetic pole across the Northern Hemisphere -- which could signal another reversal is on the cards.
"This speed -- alongside the weakening of Earth's magnetic field by around nine per cent in the past 170 years -- could indicate an upcoming reversal," said Cooper.
"If a similar event happened today, the consequences would be huge for modern society. Incoming cosmic radiation would destroy our electric power grids and satellite networks," he said.
Human activity has already pushed carbon in the atmosphere to levels "never seen by humanity before," Cooper said.
"A magnetic pole reversal or extreme change in Sun activity would be unprecedented climate change accelerants. We urgently need to get carbon emissions down before such a random event happens again," he added.
Origin: CNN.com
27/2/2021
New climate pledges 'far short' of meeting Paris Agreement goals, UN warns
(CNN) - The planet is on "red alert" because governments are failing to meet their climate change goals, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday.
"Today's interim report from the UNFCCC is a red alert for our planet. It shows governments are nowhere close to the level of ambition needed to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement," said Guterres in a statement.
Under the 2015 Paris climate accord, countries committed to reduce their carbon output and halt global warming below 2 degrees Celsius -- and if possible, below 1.5 degrees Celsius -- by the end of the century to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Experts have repeatedly warned that exceeding the threshold will contribute to more heatwaves and hot summers, greater sea level rise, worse droughts and rainfall extremes, wildfires, floods and food shortages for millions of people.
According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the population must reduce its 2030 CO2 emissions by about 45% from 2010 levels and reach net zero by 2050 to ensure this temperature limit goal is reached.
It shows that the revised climate action plans -- which cover 40% of countries party to the 2015 Paris Agreement that account for 30% of global emissions -- would only deliver a combined emissions reduction of 0.5% from 2010 levels by 2030.
"...it's time for all remaining Parties to step up, fulfil what they promised to do and submit their NDCs as soon as possible," Espinosa said. "If this task was urgent before, it's crucial now."
Origin: CNN.com
16/1/2021
Powerful earthquake in Indonesia's Sulawesi kills dozens, injures hundreds
Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) - At least 34 people were killed and hundreds more injured after a 6.2-magnitute earthquake hit Indonesia's Sulawesi island early Friday, the country's disaster mitigation agency said.
The epicenter of the quake, which struck at 1:28 a.m. Jakarta time, was six kilometers (3.7 miles) northeast of Majene city at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency
In Majene, at least eight people died, 637 were injured and 15,000 residents have been displaced, according to the country's National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB). In the neighboring Mamuju area, an additional 26 deaths were reported, BNPB said.
Thousands of residents fled their homes to seek safety following the quake, which could be felt strongly for five to seven seconds and damaged at least 300 houses in Majene, BNPB said.
Other buildings have also been badly damaged, including a military command office in Majene, and hotels and government buildings in the neighboring Mamuju area.
Many people are still trapped under collapsed buildings, according to local search and rescue teams.
Nearly half of the buildings in Mamuju have been wiped out by the quake, he added.
"Most...of [the] people in Mamuju city are now displaced. They are afraid to stay at their houses."
The communications chief also said the quake had damaged four of Mamuju's largest hospitals.
"Mitra Manakara [Hospital] is flattened by this earthquake, while three others, Mamuju Central Hospital, Bhayangkara Hospital and Regional Hospital are also in [a] bad situation," he said.
"We need more extrication equipment and more personnel to work fast [on] saving victims trapped under the building."
"Our obstacle here is that we don't have heavy equipment to rescue them," Saidar Rahmanjaya, head of the Local Search and Rescue Agency of Mamuju, West Sulawesi, told local television.
Shalahuddin said he worried that many people were trapped under the debris of the Mitra Manakara private hospital, an eight-floor structure that had been flattened by the quake.
Meanwhile, thousands of people who were able to flee have chosen to stay away from their homes out of fear of another earthquake or tsunami, said West Sulawesi's Police Grand Commissioner Syamsu Ridwan.
"Some of them are going to the higher place to avoid tsunami, although we have a confirmation that we have no tsunami after this big earthquake," he said.
The earthquake also triggered a power outage and caused three landslides along the main road connecting Majene and Mamuju.
Hours earlier on Thursday, a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck in the same district damaging several houses.
Straddling the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," Indonesia, a nation of high tectonic activity, is regularly hit by earthquakes.
In 2018, a devastating 6.2-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami struck the city of Palu, in Sulawesi, killing thousands of people.
Origin: CNN.com
30/12/2020
Croatia hit by 6.4 magnitude earthquake, leaving at least 7 dead
Zagreb, Croatia (CNN) - At least seven people were killed and dozens were injured after a powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck central Croatia on Tuesday, according to the US Geological Survey and Croatian officials.
Emergency crews, assisted by the military, were still digging through the rubble in several towns as night fell and electricity remained out.
The quake, which struck just after noon local time about 30 miles southeast of the capital Zagreb, could be felt across the Balkans. It is the largest quake to hit Croatia this year, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
A girl in the town of Petrinja, a man found inside a collapsed church in the village of Žažina, and five men in the village of Majske Poljane, were among the dead, according to Croatia's Interior Ministry and local media reports.
"The destructive earthquake has taken human lives, destroyed homes, and we deeply sympathise with every person and every family that has been harmed."
Petrinja Mayor Darinko Dumbovic told CNN affiliate N1 that the town of nearly 25,000 residents was "going through hell" after the tremor, and had no running water or electricity. He has requested emergency aid.
"I feel that both its center and its soul have been destroyed," Dumbovic said. "We have no electricity, no water. Everything is broken. We are here in darkness, in ruin, searching for people," he added.
HEP, the state electricity provider, said it had managed to restore power to parts of the quake-hit area; however Petrinja and its hospital remain dark, N1 reported. HEP said it was hoping to restore some power during the evening.
Footage from inside the hospital showed medical staff working by torchlight as they awaited the evacuation of some patients.
In an earlier interview with N1, Dumbović described scenes of "panic" in the aftermath of the tremor.
Origin: CNN.com
6/12/2020
First nor'easter of the season leaves 180,000 power outages, treacherous roads in its wake
(CNN) - Strong winds and heavy wet snow from the season's first nor'easter rolled through the northeast, dumping more than a foot of snow in some areas and knocking out power for about 180,000 in New England.
"A lot of the storms' precipitation initially fell as heavy rain but it quickly changed to snow once the cold air ushered in behind it. Strong winds accompanied the heavy, wet snow that fell," CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said. "Not an ideal situation considering the treacherous conditions that have been left in the storms' wake."
The most severe effects of the storm were felt in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. Shapleigh, Maine, and Derry, New Hampshire, saw around 8 inches of snow while Paxton, Massachusetts, received 12.5 inches.
Across the three states, there were about 180,000 customers without power on Sunday afternoon, including about 147,000 outages in Maine, according to poweroutage.us, a website that tracks electricity use nationwide.
The region is now navigating "treacherous roads and widespread power outages," the National Weather Service in Portland/Gray Maine said on Twitter Saturday night.
Origin: CNN.com
29/11/2020
The Antarctic ozone hole is one of the largest and deepest in recent years
(CNN) - The ozone hole that typically grows over the Antarctic each September and October has become one of the largest and deepest in recent years -- just one year after scientists recorded its smallest size since it was discovered.
The 2020 ozone hole grew rapidly from mid-August and had grown to about 9.2 million square miles when it peaked in early October, according to a statement from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The ozone layer in our atmosphere protects the Earth from ultraviolet radiation.
"There is much variability in how far ozone hole events develop each year. The 2020 ozone hole resembles the one from 2018, which also was a quite large hole, and is definitely in the upper part of the pack of the last fifteen years or so," said CAMS Director Vincent-Henri Peuch in a statement.
The depletion is directly related to the temperatures in the stratosphere, where the ozone layer sits, because the polar stratospheric clouds that play an important role in the process only form at temperatures below -78 degrees Celsius (-108.4 Fahrenheit).
Ice crystals in the clouds react with compounds in the atmosphere that can then rapidly destroy ozone when they are exposed to sunlight, the WMO said.
Peuch said this year's data confirms the need to continue enforcing the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which banned the emission of ozone depleting chemicals.
It banned chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were common in refrigerators, aerosol cans and other products before scientists realized they were damaging to the ozone layer.
A 2018 report by the UN Environment Programme and the WMO predicted that ozone values over Antarctica would return to pre-1980s levels by 2060.
Origin: CNN.com
15/11/2020
Tropical Storm Iota forecast to hit storm-ravaged Central America as a major hurricane early next week
(CNN) - Tropical Storm Iota could strengthen into a major hurricane in the Caribbean and slam into Central America early next week -- the very region already devastated by Hurricane Eta earlier this month -- forecasters say.
Iota, which formed Friday at sea, was centered in the Caribbean about 495 miles east-southeast of the Nicaragua-Honduras border with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph as of 10 a.m. ET Saturday, the US National Hurricane Center said. It is forecast to rapidly strengthen over the next 24 hours.
Iota is expected to continue heading west and make landfall somewhere in Central America, potentially near the Honduras-Nicaragua border by late Monday or early Tuesday, CNN meteorologist Tyler Mauldin said.
The storm is forecast to be at or near major hurricane strength prior to making landfall across Central America, according to the NHC. A major hurricane is a hurricane with winds of at least 111 mph.
Besides delivering damaging winds, Iota could drop 8 to 16 inches of rain on Honduras, northern Nicaragua, eastern Guatemala and southern Belize through Thursday, the NHC said -- unwelcome news for a region pummeled by Hurricane Eta last week.
"This rainfall (from Iota) would lead to significant, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, along with landslides in areas of higher terrain," the NHC said.
Iota is 30th named storm in the Atlantic this year -- the most ever for an Atlantic hurricane season.
Central America devastated by Hurricane Eta
Eta crossed into northern Nicaragua on November 3 as a Category 4 hurricane, and pounded that country and Honduras, Guatemala and Belize for days with heavy rain. It caused landslides and serious flooding, and left scores of people dead or missing.
The full scope of the damage from Eta likely won't be known for a while. But the powerful storm, combined with the coronavirus pandemic, may be remembered as one of the worst natural disasters to hit the region.
Even before the storm, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala had poor public health systems that were struggling against Covid-19.
With thousands in shelters, and social distancing hard to do, many fear that the disease will spread. Hospitals there now also face the burden of combating other illnesses related to the storm and flooding, from dengue to cholera to yellow fever.
Origin: CNN.com
11/11/2020
In Central America, a devastating storm and an uncertain future
(CNN) - Central America's battle with Hurricane Eta could leave some countries scarred for generations.
Eta made landfall in the region last week as a Category 4 hurricane. High winds were always expected, but the storm hovered for days over Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, seemingly unwilling to leave three countries extremely ill-equipped to handle the disaster. Torrential rainfall came in unceasing waves and the subsequent flooding wiped entire communities off the map.
Dozens of people in the remote Guatemalan village of San Cristobal are still missing after a landslide swept through last week, leaving mud 50 feet deep in some places. Some of their relatives already think their loved ones are gone.
"There was a great tragedy here," village resident Roland Calchak told Reuters. "I lost 23 members of my family. My father, my mother, my wife, my three children, grandchildren, sisters, sisters-in-law."
Dozens have been killed so far, and that number is expected to rise. The true fallout from this storm, though, might only be beginning.
For the storm's survivors, a deadly danger remains. Health authorities in Central America are deeply concerned about the potential spread of Covid-19 in Eta's wake.
In Honduras, some shelters for storm refugees are crowded and poorly ventilated, and social distancing is often impossible.
"Just bringing them to safe ground has been a challenge," said Mauricio Paredes of the Red Cross. "Now you have all these people together, so it's a double challenge of not only protecting the people who have been effected but also protecting the first responders."
Even before the storm, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala had poor public health systems that struggled in the fight against Covid-19. Local hospitals will now face the additional burden of other illnesses related to the storm and the flooding from dengue to cholera to yellow fever.
And while children are usually spared the worst from Covid-19, that will not be the case with other diseases. "We're going to get a perfect storm or a pandoras box of diseases that predominantly affect children," said Mark Connolly, the UNICEF representative in Honduras speaking to CNN.
Rebuilding in many of these communities will be extremely slow, if non-existent. With no jobs, no homes, and no clear vision of what the future holds, there will be little choice for many but to leave. The destination is obvious.
"Lots of these families lost everything," said Connolly. "So, now their only hope might be to get a loan for a few thousand dollars and migrate north to Mexico and the United States."
Adults will try to go back to work, try to get food and water on the table. But for the region's children, there is another looming crisis. Millions of kids have already been out of school since the spring due to Covid-19 closures. Now, getting back in the classroom will be even more uncertain.
"The situation in Honduras, for example, was that before [the storm] there were about 6,000 schools without running water," said Connolly. "Now you can multiple that by several times because the water systems have collapsed in multiple areas."
The true damage from Eta likely won't be known for a while. But a powerful storm combined with the worst pandemic in 100 years will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit the region.
And the situation might soon get worse. The National Hurricane Center says it is very likely a hurricane will develop in the Caribbean in the next few days with most models in agreement that it will make landfall next week in Northern Honduras.
Origin: CNN.com
30/10/2020
Powerful earthquake jolts Turkey and Greece, killing at least 26
Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) - At least 26 people were killed in Turkey and Greece when a powerful earthquake hit the Aegean Sea on Friday afternoon, sending buildings crashing down and triggering what authorities have called a "mini tsunami."
Officials said 24 people were killed in coastal areas in Turkey's west, while two teenagers -- a boy and a girl -- died on the Greek island of Samos after a wall collapsed on them.
In Turkey, at least 20 buildings in the city of Izmir alone were destroyed, Mayor Tunc Soyer told CNN Turk. Images showed vehicles crushed under the buildings and people digging through the rubble in search of survivors.
At least 804 people have been injured in Turkey, said the country's disaster agency. Dozens were saved by rescue teams using diggers and helicopters to search for survivors.
A total of 196 aftershocks have been recorded, 23 of which were over 4.0 magnitude, the agency added. Search and rescue operations continue in 17 buildings, four of which have collapsed, said Murat Kurum, Turkey's Environment and Urbanization Minister.
TV footage showed water flooding through the streets of Cesme and Seferihisar in parts of Turkey's wider Izmir province, as well as on the Greek island of Samos, in what officials described as a "mini tsunami." No tsunami warnings were issued.
Idil Gungor, who works as a journalist and runs a guesthouse in the Turkish town of Siğacik in Izmir province, said that the area was damaged more by the force of the water than the quake itself.
"Everybody is calm but shocked and we're wondering what will happen, if there's a second tsunami coming or not," Gungor said.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured the tremor's magnitude at 7.0, while Turkish authorities said it was 6.6. The quake struck 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) northeast of the town of Néon Karlovásion on Samos, the USGS reported, at 1:51 pm Greek time (7:51a.m. ET).
But it hit at a relatively shallow depth of 21 kilometers (13 miles), the USGS reported, making its impact powerfully felt at ground level around the epicenter.
In Greece, Samos Deputy Mayor Giorgos Dionisiou told Greek media that some old buildings had collapsed on the island.
People have been told by Greek authorities to stay away from the shore and buildings, and to be on alert for high waves as aftershocks continue.
Origin: CNN.com
29/10/2020
At least 25 dead and scores missing after Typhoon Molave lashes Vietnam
(CNN) Vietnam deployed hundreds of soldiers and heavy machinery on Thursday to search for survivors after landslides triggered by torrential rains from Typhoon Molave, one of the strongest typhoons in the region in decades, the government said.
The landslides, which hit remote areas in the central province of Quang Nam a day earlier, killed 13 with 40 missing as rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather at the tail end of the storm, the government said.
"We can forecast the storm path or the amount of rain, but can't predict when landslides happen," deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung said in a statement.
"The road is covered under deep mud and heavy rains are still lashing the area, but rescue work has to be carried out quickly."
Since early October, Vietnam has been battered by storms, heavy rains and floods which have affected more than a million people.
The government said Typhoon Molave -- also known as Quinta -- had left millions of people without electricity and damaged 56,000 houses.
Molave has weakened to a tropical depression after making landfall on Wednesday and is expected to reach Laos later on Thursday.
Heavy rain of up to 700 millimeters (27.5 inches) will continue in parts of central Vietnam until Saturday, Vietnam's weather agency said.
Origin: CNN.com
27/10/2020
Vietnam prepares to evacuate 1.3 million people as Typhoon Molave approaches
(CNN) Vietnam is preparing to evacuate nearly 1.3 million people ahead of Typhoon Molave, which is expected to make landfall on Wednesday.
Typhoon Molave, with wind speeds of 125 kilometers (77 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 150 kph (93.2 mph), left the main Philippine island of Luzon earlier on Monday, with heavy rain causing seven landslides and floods in 11 areas, the disaster agency said.
Molave, known as Typhoon Quinta in the Philippines, was the 17th typhoon to hit the country this year.
It will be the fourth storm to hit Vietnam in a tumultuous month, during which floods and landslides have killed 130 people and left 20 missing in the central region. When Molave makes landfall, wind speeds are forecast to reach 135 kph (83.8 mph).
"This is a very strong typhoon that will impact a large area," Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said, urging provinces and cities in Molave's path to prepare for its impact.
Phuc compared Molave to Typhoon Damrey in 2017, which killed more than 100 people in central Vietnam. He ordered boats ashore and told the security forces to get ready.
"Troops must deploy full force to support people, including mobilizing helicopters, tanks and other means of transportation if needed," Phuc said in a statement.
Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and flooding due to its long coastline. About 11.8 million people in Vietnam's costal provinces are exposed to the threat of intense flooding, with 35% of settlements located on crowded and eroding coastlines, a World Bank report said last week.
October is rainy season in Vietnam, but for weeks the country has been hit by particularly poor weather which has impacted agriculture, irrigation, and transport.
The region as a whole has suffered particularly heavy rainfall amid the onset of a La Nina weather system, which is characterized by unusually cold temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
Earlier this month, tropical storm Nangka left scores of people dead, missing and displaced in Vietnam and Cambodia. Almost immediately afterward, tropical storm Saudel lashed the Philippines, causing flooding and forcing thousands to evacuate, before heading for Vietnam.
Origin: CNN.com
13/10/2020
Dozens killed in floods across Southeast Asia as tropical storm Nangka approaches
(CNN) – Nearly 40 people have died in Vietnam and Cambodia and scores more were missing, including rescuers, due to prolonged heavy rain and flash flooding as tropical storm Nangka edged towards the Vietnamese coast on Tuesday.
Heavy rains since early October have caused deadly floods and landslides in several provinces in central Vietnam and displaced thousands of people in western Cambodia, officials and state media said.
The floods are expected to worsen over the coming days, with tropical storm Nangka forecast to dump more rain as it makes landfall in Vietnam on Wednesday.
Nangka, packing wind speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour), will trigger heavy rain of up to 400 millimeters (16 inches) in parts of northern and central Vietnam from Wednesday through Friday, its weather agency said.
Ongoing flooding has killed at least 28 people in Vietnam, and 11 in Cambodia, where almost 25,000 houses and 84,000 hectares of crops have been damaged, according to local media.
Vietnamese disaster management authorities said over 130,000 houses have been impacted.
Seventeen construction workers were missing following a landslide at the site of a hydropower dam project in the central Vietnamese province of Thua Thien Hue, state media reported.
An additional 13 people sent to rescue the workers are also missing, the state-run Nhan Dan newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Vietnam's Prime Minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, has instructed the defense ministry to send more rescue troops to the site of the landslide, according to a government statement.
As of Tuesday morning they were unable to reach the site, the statement added, because of high water levels, heavy rains, and additional landslides.
Origin: CNN.com
26/9/2020
A rare hurricane force wind warning was just issued for Alaska
(CNN) - The National Weather Service office in Anchorage issued a rare Hurricane Force Wind Warning for the Northern Gulf of Alaska on Saturday.
Parts of the Gulf could experience hurricane force winds and waves as high as a three-story building on Sunday into early Monday, the NWS said. The warning extends up to 100 nautical miles out, including Kodiak Island and Cook Inlet.
A deepening area of low pressure in the Gulf will approach the coast beginning late Saturday night. By then, winds will begin to approach 60 mph with seas building from 6 to 16 feet.
The system will rapidly intensify through Sunday, with peak winds approaching hurricane force (75 mph) in the afternoon. By late Sunday, seas could build to 27 feet, NWS said.
The biggest impact to the coast will be felt just northwest of Juneau.
In addition to the wind and waves, heavy rainfall is expected along the coast, with some places seeing between 4 to 6 inches.
Hurricane Force Wind Warnings mean sustained winds of at least 64 knots (73 mph). These warnings are not common in the Gulf of Alaska and are more typical in farther west locations, such as the Bering Sea and along the Aleutian Islands.
One category down from that is the Storm Force Wind Warning, which is more common in the Gulf. These have winds of at least 48 knots (55 mph), and occur 1 to 2 times per year, on average.
Origin: CNN.com
13/9/2020
Antarctica's colossal Thwaites Glacier is melting fast -- and scientists may have discovered why
(CNN)Deep channels discovered under the Antarctic's so-called "Doomsday glacier" may be allowing warm ocean water to melt the underside of ice, according to scientists collecting data from an area crucial to understanding sea-level rise.
The findings published in The Cryosphere journal show the ocean floor is deeper than previously thought, with more deep channels leading towards the grounding line, where the ice meets the bed.
Ice draining from the gigantic Thwaites Glacier into the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica already accounts for about 4% of global sea-level rise, and scientists say it is highly susceptible to climate change.
Over the past three decades, the rate of ice loss from Thwaites, which is about the size of Great Britain or the US state of Florida, and its neighboring glaciers has increased more than five-fold.
If Thwaites were to collapse, it could lead to an increase in sea levels of around 25 inches (64 centimeters) -- and the researchers are trying to find out how soon this is likely to happen.
Scientists from the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) collected data by flying over the glacier in a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Twin Otter aircraft and mapping the sea floor from the US Antarctic Program icebreaker RV Nathaniel B. Palmer.
The cavities hidden beneath the ice shelf are likely to be the route through which warm ocean water passes underneath the ice shelf up to the grounding line, they said.
"Thwaites Glacier itself is probably one of the most significant glaciers in West Antarctica, because it's so large, because we can see it's changing today," Dr. Tom Jordan, an aero-geophysicist at BAS who led the airborne survey, told CNN.
"And also, we know that its bed dips down, and it gets deeper and deeper underneath the ice sheet, which means that, theoretically, you can get a process called marine ice sheet instability. And once it starts to retreat, it will just keep retreating."
Jordan said the next phase was to incorporate the data from the channels, some of them 2,600 feet (800 meters) deep, into simulations of how the ice sheet will respond into the future.
Jordan said that suggestions of geoengineering and blocking the channels is not logistically feasible at such a remote site. A simpler solution would be to "tackle climate change."
"At the end, we will be able to say to governments and policy-makers, this is what's going to happen ... we will actually have a proper, well-constrained estimate of what's going to happen to Thwaites Glacier," said Jordan.
Once scientists can demonstrate the expected sea-level rise relating to West Antarctica, he said, they will have more evidence when calling for action to mitigate climate change.
Origin: CNN.com
13/9/2020
Tropical Storm Sally forms in the Gulf of Mexico
(CNN)Tropical Storm Sally is now the 18th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.
Sally -- also the earliest 18th named storm on record -- has already brought heavy rain and gusty winds to Florida Saturday as the storm moved into the Gulf of Mexico today.
Flood watches are in effect through Sunday for areas of Florida's west coast including Tampa, Bradenton, Port Charlotte and Fort Myers. In these areas, 2 to 4 inches of rain is expected through the weekend.
Hurricane Watches and Tropical Storm Watches have already been issued along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana through the panhandle of Florida.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Saturday evening ahead of Tropical Storm Sally.
"While we ultimately don't know where Sally will make landfall, much of Southeast Louisiana is in the storm's cone and the risk of tropical storm force or hurricane strength winds continues to increase. This storm has the potential to be very serious," Edwards said in a news release.
"The cyclone will likely become a hurricane in 2 to 3 days, although an increase in vertical shear could slow the rate of intensification over the northern Gulf of Mexico," according to the National Hurricane Center.
Once it reaches that area of the Gulf Coast the steering patterns break down and the system meanders near the coast.
Whether the meandering is offshore prior to a landfall or onshore will not make much of a difference in terms of rainfall. In either case, because of the slow forward movement along the Gulf Coast significant flooding is possible.
Another system, Tropical Storm Twenty, has formed in the central tropical Atlantic, according to the NHC. Twenty has sustained winds of 35 mph.
Twenty is expected to strengthen to a tropical storm by tomorrow and a hurricane by next week, and if so, will be named Teddy. The previous record for the earliest 19th named storm is October 4, 2005.
So far this season, we have seen 18 named storms. The average for an entire season is 12. Early in the season, forecasters called for a very active season.
Many storms broke records for being the earliest named to date, including Cristobal was the earliest named "C" letter storm in recorded history and Hanna was the earliest "H" letter storm. All but three named storms (Arthur, Bertha and Dolly) set records for being the earliest named storm for their respective letter.
Sally is just one of several systems in the Atlantic. The NHC is currently watching six areas: two tropical storms, two tropical depressions, and two tropical disturbances. Thursday marked the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season.
"Tropical Storm Paulette is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane today," says Haley Brink, CNN Meteorologist. "Paulette is forecast to track toward Bermuda and potentially make landfall early Monday morning as a category 2 storm. A hurricane watch is in effect for Bermuda with hurricane conditions possible within 48 hours. Tropical storm conditions will begin to impact Bermuda by Sunday afternoon and hurricane conditions will begin Sunday night."
Another system to watch is a broad area of low pressure southwest of the Cape Verde islands. This system is now Tropical Depression 20. After Sally there are only three names left on this year's official list: Teddy, Vicky, and Wilfred. After that the NHC will move on to using the Greek alphabet.
La Niña is officially here
On Thursday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced they are issuing a La Niña Advisory, meaning La Niña conditions are present in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
In a typical El Niño phase, much of the Pacific Ocean is characterized by warmer waters, whereas La Niña features a cooling of those same Pacific waters. In the case of hurricanes, La Niña weakens high atmospheric winds, which allows warm air pockets to grow vertically and develop into hurricanes.
Origin: CNN.com
13/9/2020
28 people have been killed and dozens more are missing as fires ravage the West Coast
(CNN)Deadly wildfires have blanketed swaths of the West Coast with unhealthy smoke, complicating efforts to fight the blazes and find dozens of missing people, and compounding the misery of thousands who've been displaced.
"You just never believe it's all going to go up in flames," Marian Telersky, who lost her home in the southern Oregon city of Talent, told CNN affiliate KOBI. "It's a lot to handle."
Fires have killed at least 28 people in the three contiguous West Coast states since mid-August, including 19 in California, many of them in the past few days.
Thousands have fled their homes in Oregon alone, including Lori Johnson, who was awakened in the middle of the night by law enforcement shortly before fire consumed her home in Mill City.
"I got out with no socks, no nothing -- literally, the clothes on our backs," she told CNN affiliate KATU from Salem, where she and her family are staying temporarily while trying to figure out what do next.
Across the West, 97 large fires were burning Saturday, including 12 in Idaho and nine in Montana, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Federal air quality monitors are warning that smoke is making for unhealthy air Saturday in most of California, Oregon and Washington and parts of Idaho. That smoke could make people more vulnerable to Covid-19, doctors say.
In California, three of the five largest wildfires in the state's history are burning now, officials say. Little rain, high temperatures and strong winds helped set the stage for the flames and fuel them. And officials say it may take a long time for them to stop.
At least eight of Oregon's wildfires are expected to burn "until the winter's rains fall," Oregon Department of Forestry Fire Chief Doug Grafe said Friday.
Oregon prepares for 'mass fatality incident'
In Oregon's Clackamas and Marion counties south of Portland, smoke was so thick that it was difficult to see more than 10 feet ahead Saturday morning.
Nailah Garner's dream home in Vida, Oregon, was reduced to ashes. She and her husband left their home on Monday after receiving a "Go now" alert on their phone while still in bed, according to CNN affiliate KOMO. She only found out about her home because her friend called her.
"It's all gone and it's like, it looks like a war zone hit it," Garner told KOMO through tears. "She had sadness in her voice, I could totally tell."
The state is preparing for a "mass fatality incident" based on how many structures have been charred, Oregon Emergency Management Director Andrew Phelps said Friday.
The Beachie Creek Fire is the largest in the state and has no containment, officials say. Firefighters are racing to slow the blaze down before it merges with the nearby Riverside Fire, which has burned more than 130,000 acres.
About 500,000 people in Oregon are under some type of evacuation alert. Actual evacuation orders have been issued for more than 40,000, according to the governor.
'Never seen anything like this'
Just northeast of Los Angeles, the Bobcat Fire is tearing through the mountainous Angeles National Forest -- and contributing to smoky air in the area.
"Thirty-plus years ago, I quit smoking. But I've started again in the last six days just from (breathing) the air," Mike Day, of nearby Monrovia, told CNN on Saturday.
Fires in the state have burned more than3.2 million acres so far, many times higherthan what was burned by this time last year, according to Cal Fire. More than 4,000 structures have been destroyed this year, fire officials said.
John Tripp, who evacuated his home in Butte County, says he has no idea what he'll find when he returns.
"I'm from Miami. I've been through hurricanes. I've been through tornadoes. I've never seen anything like this," he told CNN affiliate KCRA. "It's just hard not knowing if you have anything."
80% of buildings in eastern Washington town destroyed
The past five days in Washington have made for the state's second worst fire season in history, the governor said Friday. As of Saturday, 15 major fires were burning in the state.
"My heart breaks for the family of the child who perished in the Cold Springs fire. I am devastated. The DNR family is devastated. The pain that family is going through is unfathomable," Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said in a statement on social media Friday.
Earlier this week, Gov. Jay Inslee visited Malden, a small town in eastern Washington, where 80% of the city's buildings -- including the fire station, post office, city hall and library -- were completely destroyed.
"It looked like a bomb went off," city officials said, according to CNN affiliate KIRO.
"First we had to deal with the Covid and the shutdown," Darwish said. "Then all of a sudden, we've got fires and smoke. It's a very sad situation for everybody all around."
Origin: CNN.com
26/8/2020
Australian bushfires likely to happen again -- and they could be even worse, inquiry warns
(CNN) Australia's record-breaking 2019-20 bushfires were likely made worse by climate change, an inquiry has found, warning that such devastating wildfires are likely to happen again.
Next time, the fires could even be "potentially worse," according to the report, which was released Tuesday.
The New South Wales (NSW) Bushfire Inquiry was formed in January and examined the worst Australian fire season on record.
The report categorized the fires as "extreme, and extremely unusual," but warned "it is clear that we should expect fire seasons like 2019-20, or potentially worse, to happen again."
It also said climate change "clearly played a role in the conditions that led up to the fires and in the unrelenting conditions that supported the fires to spread, but climate change does not explain everything that happened."
Fires burned through forested regions at a rate never before seen in recorded history, according to the report. There were 89 fire-generated firestorms -- extremely dangerous phenomena that cause lightning, tornadoes and extreme winds -- a 50% increase from the 2018-19 season.
Extreme dryness in forested regions; large amounts of fuel load, such as leaf litter; and dry, hot weather spurred the fires, which spread quickly over large areas, according to the report.
"There were unprecedented conditions coupled with the drought, the fuel loads in some areas, but moreover that the climate is changing and we have to accept and expect that part of the ferocity we saw was a combination of those things," Berejiklian said, reports CNN affiliate 7News.
Origin: CNN.com
22/8/2020
Oh, great: NASA says an asteroid is headed our way right before Election Day
(CNN)Well, 2020 keeps getting better all the time.
Amid a pandemic, civil unrest and a divisive US election season, we now have an asteroid zooming toward us.
On the day before the presidential vote, no less.
Yep. The celestial object known as 2018VP1 is projected to come close to Earth on November 2, according to the Center for Near Earth Objects Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Its diameter is 0.002 km, or about 6.5 feet, according to NASA's data. It was first identified at Palomar Observatory in California in 2018.
NASA says there are three potential impacts, but "based on 21 observations spanning 12.968 days," the agency has determined the asteroid probably -- phew! -- won't have a deep impact, let alone bring Armageddon.
CNN has reached out NASA for any additional or updated information but has not heard back.
Origin: CNN.com
18/8/2020
Japan's heat wave continues, as temperatures equal highest record
Temperatures in central Japan tied for a national record on Monday, as the country sweltered under a scorching summer heat wave.
The mercury rose to 41.1 degrees Celsius (105.98 degrees Fahrenheit) in the central city of Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka prefecture on Monday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, matching the highest temperature ever recorded in the country, which was set in Kumagaya, a city near Tokyo, in July 2018.
Japan has been enduring an intense heatwave since the middle of last week, with multiple cities and prefectures nearing 40°C (104°F) for several consecutive days.
To compare, the average daytime temperature in August for Hamamatsu between 1898 and 2010 was 31.3°C (88.34°F), the JMA said. Last year, average temperatures in Japan reached the highest level since records began in 1898, and were almost a degree warmer than a typical year, according to the JMA.
"Monday was a scorching hot day (like) I've never experienced, I was wearing a mask outside and drenched in sweat in the heat," said Satoru Shoji, who works at the Hamamatsu tourism office.
On Monday, cities in Nagano, Gifu, Nara, Kochi and Miyazaki prefectures -- covering central and southwestern Japan -- saw temperatures above 39°C (102.2°F).
Residents in the capital Tokyo broiled in 36.5°C weather, and have endured three straight days of temperatures above 35°C. Meanwhile, Osaka posted a high of 37.1°C (98.7°F) on Monday, and the popular tourist town of Kyoto reached 38.7°C (101.6°F).
Of the country's 921 observation spots, 655 locations saw 30°C (86°F) weather, and 265 observed temperatures of over 35°C (95°F) on Monday.
Another Hamamatsu resident who works at an eel teriyaki restaurant and gave her name as Ms. Ota, said, "I could not believe the temperature reached that high, but it feels as if a hot wind was blowing."
The hot weather is set to continue. The agency has forecast extreme highs for much of the country's south on Tuesday, with some areas forecast to reach 39°C (102.2°F).
As of 11 a.m. local time, 512 locations were already over 30°C (86°F) and 41 had observed 35°C (95°F) or more.
Forecasts show the heat is expected to stay until the weekend over southern Japan.
CNN Meteorologist Michael Guy said a ridge of high pressure set up in the mid-upper portions of the atmosphere was blocking other weather systems -- such as a cold front -- from pushing into the region, creating a "dome effect."
"The dome effect basically creates a lid similar to a cake dish or a greenhouse and once the shortwave radiation from the sun comes through it doesn't allow for the long wave radiation to escape, allowing the heat to build over a few days," Guy said.
There are also concerns that masks worn outside to help stop the spread of coronavirus could contribute to heat-related illnesses.
Japan's record temperatures come on the same day that Death Valley National Park, in California, potentially recorded the hottest temperature in the world since 1913.
The hottest, driest and lowest national park in California and Nevada recorded a preliminary high temperature of 54.4°C (130°F) on Sunday, according to the United States National Weather Service (NWS). The all-time high of 56.6°C (134°F), reported over 100 years ago, was also recorded in Death Valley.
Searing summer heat waves are among the dangerous consequences of human-caused climate change.
A study published in February projects that without steps to rein in heat-trapping gas pollution, as many as three-quarters of summer days across much of the Northern Hemisphere could feature nearly around-the-clock extreme heat by 2100.
Some scientists say these nearly nonstop sweltering temperatures will stretch our ability to adapt and in some places, could test the limits of human survivability, especially among vulnerable populations.
Origin: CNN.com
18/8/2020
Death Valley just recorded the hottest temperature on Earth
Death Valley was the hottest place on Earth on Sunday. If verified, it could be the hottest temperature recordedin the world since 1913.
The hottest, driest and lowest national park in California and Nevada recorded a preliminary high temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The all-time high of 134 degrees, reported over 100 years ago, was also recorded in Death Valley.
It'll be just as hot on Monday in Death Valley with a predicted high of 129 degrees, per the NWS. The agency is warning people who live in eastern California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah to limit their time outside to between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m.
Nearly 60 million people in the US, from Arizona up to the US-Canada border, are under a heat advisory, watch or warning this week, CNN meteorologist Tyler Mauldin said.
Usually, the West and southwestern US experience the North American monsoon during this time of year, said Daniel Berc, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.
But the monsoon hasn't developed as it typically does so instead of heavy rainfall Death Valley is getting hotter under high pressure, Berc told CNN.
It's been a sweltering summer for much of the US -- last month was the hottest July on record for seven states along the East Coast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Origin: CNN.com
16/8/2020
A cargo ship leaking tons of oil off the Mauritius coast has split in two
A ship that has leaked tons of oiloff the coast of Mauritius has split apart, authorities said on Saturday.
"At around 4.30 pm, a major detachment of the vessel's forward section was observed," the National Crisis Committee of Mauritius said in statement.
The Japanese-owned ship, MV Wakashio, ran aground at Pointe d'Esny in late July and began leaking tons of oil into a pristine Indian Ocean lagoon last week.
A massive clean-up operation involving thousands of local volunteers had been underway. But a crack inside the hull of the ship expanded earlier this week, according to the ship's operator Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, a Japanese company.
Tal Harris, a communications coordinators for Greenpeace Africa International, told CNN that authorities have "decreed the area a forbidden zone" and volunteers have been asked to ceased activities.
It's unclear how much oil was removed before Saturday. Earlier this week, the operator, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, said about 1,180 metric tons of oil had leaked from the vessel's fuel tank -- with about 460 tons manually recovered from the sea and coast. The ship was carrying about 3,800 tons of Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil and 200 tons of diesel oil, according to the operator.
"We are in a situation of environmental crisis," Kavy Ramano, the country's environment minister, had said.
The spill is close to two environmentally protected marine ecosystems and the Blue Bay Marine Park reserve. Nearby are a number of popular tourist beaches and mangrove plantations.
Origin: CNN.com
22/7/2020
Tropical Storm Gonzalo sets a record as it churns toward the Caribbean
Tropical Depression Seven strengthened into Tropical Storm Gonzalo on Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
"Given the increased organization of the system and its small size, Gonzalo's (pronounced gohn-SAH-loh) likelihood of becoming a hurricane is rising. Small storms are prone to more significant fluctuations in intensity, both up and down," CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward said.
Strengthening will continue in the next day as the storm is expected to become the season's first hurricane by Thursday, the NHC said.
The center is forecasting the storm to weaken slightly before moving over the Windward Islands. The storm may even fizzle after it moves over the islands, as many models are indicating, or it could continue to intensify into next week. It's still a little too early to tell exactly what it will do after it moves into the Caribbean.
This is the earliest that a storm has received a name starting with the letter "G" since the United States began using a named-storm system in 1953. On average, the seventh named storm in a season is on September 16.
The previous record for the earliest seventh named storm formation in the Atlantic was Gert on July 24 during the busiest hurricane season on record, 2005.
"While 2020 may beat 2005 to the 7th named storm, 2005 had already had 3 hurricanes and 2 (of those were) major hurricanes (Dennis and Emily) by July 21. 2020 has yet to have a named storm reach hurricane strength," tweeted Philip Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State University.
"The tropical Atlantic looks extremely conducive for an active season," Klotzbach told CNN.
So far in July, he said, the ingredients needed for an active season remain in place.
"So, while we haven't seen any hurricanes yet, I certainly think that we will soon."
The active part of hurricane season is still a few weeks away and it looks likely we will have the busy season experts have been predicting.
Origin: CNN.com
15/7/2020
Teenage boy dies from bubonic plague after eating marmot
A 15-year-old boy has died from bubonic plague in western Mongolia, according to government health officials.
The teenager caught the plague after hunting and eating marmot, according to Dorj Narangerel, spokesperson for Mongolia's Ministry of Health. He died on Sunday.
Marmots are large ground squirrels, a type of rodent, that have historically been linked to plague outbreaks in the region.
Tests confirmed the teenager had contracted bubonic plague and authorities imposed quarantine measures in the Tugrug district of Gobi-Altai province.
The quarantine, which began on Sunday, will run until Saturday, and authorities have already isolated 15 people who came into contact with the teenager. All of them are healthy.
Plague killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe during the Black Death pandemic in the Middle Ages, but modern antibiotics can prevent complications and death if administered quickly enough.
Bubonic plague, which is one of plague's three forms, causes painful, swollen lymph nodes, as well as fever, chills and coughing.
Mongolia has recorded 692 cases of marmot plague from 1928 to 2018. Of those, 513 died of the disease, equivalent to a mortality rate of just over 74%.
The plague has recently made a comeback, and the World Health Organization has categorized it as a re-emerging disease.
Anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 people get the plague every year, according to the WHO, but that estimate does not account for unreported cases.
Origin: CNN.com
12/7/2020
The hunger crisis linked to coronavirus could kill more people than the disease itself, Oxfam warns
The coronavirus pandemic has already claimed over half a million lives across the world, with case numbers continuing to rise. A new report by Oxfam now warns that the hunger crisis worsened by the pandemic could potentially kill more people each day than the infection itself.
An estimated 12,000 people per day could die from hunger linked to Covid-19 by the end of the year, Oxfam said. By comparison, data by Johns Hopkins University shows that the pandemic's deadliest day so far was April 17, when 8,890 deaths were recorded.
"The pandemic is the final straw for millions of people already struggling with the impacts of conflict, climate change, inequality and a broken food system that has impoverished millions of food producers and workers," Oxfam's Interim Executive Director Chema Vera said in a release.
According to Oxfam, the coronavirus pandemic "has added fuel to the fire of an already growing hunger crisis."
World Food Programme data cited by Oxfam estimates that in 2019, 821 million people were food insecure and 149 million of them suffered "crisis-level hunger or worse." Current projections say the number of people experiencing crisis-level hunger might reach 270 million in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, an increase of over 80% from the previous year.
Oxfam's briefing singles out 10 extreme hunger hotspots around the world where the pandemic is worsening already critical situations. They are: Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the West African Sahel, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Haiti.
But the negative effects of the pandemic on food security are also felt in middle-income countries such as Brazil, India and South Africa, where "people that were just about managing have been tipped over the edge by the pandemic," according to Oxfam.
Hunger is rising globally, and the United States is no exception.
Over the last week, 1.3 million people filed initial claims for unemployment benefits, and according to Feeding America, an additional 17 million people in the United States could be food insecure in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. That would bring the total number of Americans struggling to put food on the table to around 54 million people, or one in six, the organization estimates.
"To end this hunger crisis, governments must also build fairer, more robust, and more sustainable food systems, that put the interests of food producers and workers before the profits of big food and agribusiness," Vera added.
Origin: CNN.com
6/7/2020
Chinese authorities confirm case of bubonic plague in Inner Mongolia
Authorities in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia are on high alert after a suspected case of bubonic plague, the disease that caused the Black Death pandemic, was reported Sunday.
Plague, caused by bacteria and transmitted through flea bites and infected animals, is one of the deadliest bacterial infections in human history. During the Black Death in the Middle Ages, it killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe.
Bubonic plague, which is one of plague's three forms, causes painful, swollen lymph nodes, as well as fever, chills, and coughin
Bayannur health authorities are now urging people to take extra precautions to minimize the risk of human-to-human transmission, and to avoid hunting or eating animals that could cause infection.
"At present, there is a risk of a human plague epidemic spreading in this city. The public should improve its self-protection awareness and ability, and report abnormal health conditions promptly," the local health authority said, according to state-run newspaper China Daily.
Bayannur authorities warned the public to report findings of dead or sick marmots -- a type of large ground squirrel that is eaten in some parts of China and the neighboring country Mongolia, and which have historically caused plague outbreaks in the region.
Though that epidemic was contained within a year, marmot-related plague infections have persisted decades later. Just last week, two cases of bubonic plague were confirmed in Mongolia -- brothers who had both eaten marmot meat, according to Xinhua.
Last May, a couple in Mongolia died from bubonic plague after eating the raw kidney of a marmot, thought to be a folk remedy for good health. Two more people got pneumonic plague -- another form of the disease, which infects the lungs -- months later across the border in Inner Mongolia.
But while modern medicine can treat the plague, it has not eliminated it entirely -- and it has made a recent comeback, leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to categorize it as a re-emerging disease.
Anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 people get the plague every year, according to the WHO. But that total is likely too modest an estimate, since it doesn't account for unreported cases.
The three most endemic countries -- meaning plague exists there permanently -- are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru.
There is currently no effective vaccine against plague, but modern antibiotics can prevent complications and death if given quickly enough. Untreated bubonic plague can turn into pneumonic plague, which causes rapidly developing pneumonia, after bacteria spreads to the lungs.
Origin: CNN.com
6/7/2020
Japan floods kill at least 18 people after record-breaking rainfall
Rescue workers in Japan are beginning a desperate search for survivors after dozens were left dead or missing following widespread flash flooding triggered by record rainfall on the southern island of Kyushu.
Local authorities confirmed at least 18 people had died and 14 were missing in the prefectures of Kumamoto and Kagoshima, with images from the hardest-hit areas showing houses completely destroyed by the strength of the flood waters.
Japan's Meteorological Agency issued a warning Saturday for unprecedented rainfall, calling for residents in Kyushu to take "maximum caution." At least 270,000 people were told to evacuate in four prefectures across the island.
Kuma Village in Kumamoto saw a record-breaking 83.5 mileometers of rainfall in one hour on Saturday morning, according to the meteorological agency, while Kanoya city in Kagoshima had 109.5 mm in an hour on Monday, its highest ever.
Japan's Self Defense Forces and security authorities are continuing search and rescue operations in Kumamato and Kagoshima prefectures. Efforts have been complicated by conditions on the ground, however, with flooding and landslides cutting off contact to hundreds of communities in the highly-mountainous region.
Origin: CNN.com
22/6/2020
Temperatures in an Arctic Siberian town hit 100 degrees, a new high
An unprecedented heatwave in one of the coldest places on Earth just reached a distressing milestone.
Temperatures in the small Siberian town of Verkhoyansk hit 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, according to public-facing weather data. It's a record-high temperature in one of the fastest-warming places in the world.
Verkhoyansk sits on the Yana River in the Arctic Circle and, during the winter, is considered one of the world's coldest towns -- in 1892, temperatures dropped to -90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Average June temperatures in Verkhoyansk reach a high of 68 degrees Fahrenheit, so the new record-high temperature is alarming.
Distressing signs continued Monday, when satellite footage showed multiple wildfires in Siberia near the Arctic Circle.
Ice in Siberia's rivers broke up "exceptionally early" in May, which was the hottest May on record in the area since records began in 1979, C3S reported.
Also in May, permafrost that melted beneath tank supports resulted in a "massive" diesel spill in the region, which could spill into the Arctic Ocean.
The dramatic swings in temperature in northwest Siberia last month would happen only once in 100,000 years if it weren't for climate change, climate scientist Martin Stendel said.
Arctic ice melt has accelerated, which leads to seasonal snow cover that isn't as white and absorbs more sunlight, which leads to more warming, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA).
That's significant for the rest of the world, too. Melting ice in the Arctic leads to higher sea levels, and not just in the Arctic Ocean. With fewer sections of ice to reflect sunlight, the world's oceans will warm.
Plus, NOAA's 2019 Arctic Report Cardfound that thawing permafrost in the Arctic could be releasing up to 600 million tons of net carbon into the atmosphere per year.
Origin: CNN.com
23/6/2020
7.4 magnitude earthquake hits southern Mexico
A 7.4 magnitude earthquakeoccurred Tuesday along the southern coastline of Mexico.
The earthquake occurred at 10:29 a.m. local time (11:29 a.m. ET), with an epicenter located 11 kilometers southwest of Santa María Zapotitlán in Oaxaca state.
Earlier estimates put the magnitude of the earthquake at 7.7, but that has been revised down to 7.4 (and additional revisions are possible).
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that hazardous tsunami waves are possible within 1,000 kilometers of the epicenter, including along the coasts of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Origin: CNN.com
23/5/2020
Millions of cicadas are expected to emerge after 17 years underground because, of course, it's 2020
As if we didn't have enough to worry about with giant murder hornets invading the US and a global pandemic, millions of 17-year cicadas will emerge from the ground this year.
As many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre may emerge, and people living in Southwest Virginia, parts of North Carolina and West Virginia could witness this unique phenomenon, Virginia Tech says in a news release.
Luckily, cicadas are harmless to humans. At most, the noise they make could become a nuisance.
However, they are a danger to orchids, vines and trees due to the egg-laying habits of its females.
Cicadas are large, cleared-winged insects that occur either annually or periodically. It's a mystery as to why periodical cicadas only emerge every 13 or 17 years, but it's been theorized that it's to avoid syncing up with predator cycles.
Origin: CNN.com
23/5/2020
The sun is experiencing a less active phase called 'solar minimum,' but it won't cause an ice age
At the center of our solar system, the sun is a constant force keeping planets in orbit, providing Earth with just the right amount of light and warmth for life and even governing our daily schedules. While we're used to the sun rising and setting each day, the sun itself is incredibly dynamic.
And just like us, it goes through phases and changes. Over time, those changes in our star have become more predictable. Currently, it's going through a less activephase, called a solar minimum.
The sun experiences regular 11-year intervals including energetic peaks of activity, followed by low points.
During the peak, the sun showcases more sunspots and solar flares.
In a solar minimum, the sun is much quieter, meaning less sunspots and energy.
In the next few decades, some solar scientists think that we could go into a "Grand Solar Minimum." The last time this occurred was between 1650 and 1715, during what's known as the Little Ice Age in Earth's Northern Hemisphere, "when combination of cooling from volcanic aerosols and low solar activity produced lower surface temperatures," according to NASA's Global Climate Change blog.
But this solar minimum won't spark another ice age, they say. And that's likely due to climate change.
"The warming caused by the greenhouse gas emissions from the human burning of fossil fuels is six times greater than the possible decades-long cooling from a prolonged Grand Solar Minimum," they wrote.
"Even if a Grand Solar Minimum were to last a century, global temperatures would continue to warm. Because more factors than just variations in the Sun's output change global temperatures on Earth, the most dominant of those today being the warming coming from human-induced greenhouse gas emissions."
Even when the sun is quiet during the solar minimum, it can be active in other ways, like coronal holes that open in the sun's atmosphere and send out blazing streams of energized particles flying through the solar system on rapid solar wind.
Much like solar flares, these streams of particles during a solar minimum can disrupt the communication and GPS we rely on from satellites.
Origin: CNN.com
18/5/2020
A powerful cyclone that formed in the Bay of Bengal is headed directly for the India-Bangladesh border, bringing with it the potential for major destruction and upheaval in two countries that are still battling the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cyclone Amphan has strengthened to the equivalent of a strong Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, or a super typhoon in the West Pacific. Amphan is packing winds of 150 mile per hour (240 kilometers per hour), though forecasters expect the storm will weaken before making landfall late Wednesday near the Ganges River Delta.
Even if the storm hits after weakening, it could cause significant damage. Amphan is forecast to make landfall near poor, densely populated areas with notoriously unreliable infrastructure. If it lands in the low-lying delta, there is also the potential for major storm surges, perhaps even as high as 30 feet (9 meters).
Natural disasters are tragically common in this part of the world, but this could be the first powerful storm ever to hit India and Bangladesh amid a global health emergency.
As of Monday morning, Bangladesh had identified at least 22,268 Covid-19 cases and 328 virus-related deaths, while India had counted at least 96,169 patients and 3,029 fatalities, according to the global list compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Juggling two disasters will be hard, especially when the measures for saving lives during a storm -- such as setting up densely packed evacuation centers -- are difficult to do while following social distancing measures.
The storm could also bring heavy rains to the world's largest refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, where almost 1 million Rohingya refugees live after fleeing violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
A storm could be particularly devastating in the camp, especially when considering that the first known Covid-19 cases were confirmed there just last week. One human rights advocate said that a novel coronavirus outbreak in the camp would be a "nightmare scenario."
Origin: CNN.com
12/5/2020
Billions of people could live in areas too hot for humans by 2070, study says
If the planet continues to warm at current levels over the next 50 years, up to 3 billion people could be living in areas that are too hot for humans, a new study has found.
For every 1°C (1.8°F) of warming, 1 billion people will either have to migrate to cooler regions or adapt to extreme heat conditions, the study found.
Most of the world's population live in areas with a mean annual temperature of between 11 and 15 degrees Celsius (51.8 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit).
The Earth is currently on track for 3°C of warming by 2100. The study suggests that because land areas are warming faster than the oceans, temperatures experienced by humans are likely to rise by about 7.5°C by 2070.
And it could have severe consequences for food production, access to water sources, conflict and disruption caused by migration."It's reasonable to conclude that if something has been reasonably stable for 6000 years, we're not going to change it painlessly or quickly," Kohler said.
Among the hottest places on Earth is the Sahara region of Africa, which experiences annual mean temperatures above 29°C (84.2°F). These extreme conditions cover 0.8% of the earth's land area.
However, researchers said that those extreme heat areas are expected to spread to 19% of the Earth's surface, affecting 3.5 billion people by 2070.
The study's projection of 3.5 billion possible climate migrants goes far beyond the World Bank estimates, which suggested 143 million people across South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America were at risk of being displaced.
It's a dire warning of what could happen if the climate crisis is left unchecked.
"The worst case scenario can be largely avoided if effective cut of greenhouse gas emissions is achieved," Chi said. "Many effective measures of climate mitigation and local adaptation would help to alleviate the negative influence of climate change on human societies."
Origin: CNN.com
13/4/2020
Deadly tornadoes in the South cause 'catastrophic' damage
Tornadoes in Mississippi and Louisiana have caused "catastrophic" damage and at least six deaths after touching down Sunday, emergency officials say.
So far, officials say hundreds of structures have been damaged by the storms.
Two people are dead in Lawrence County, Mississippi, according to Monticello Fire Chief Lyle Berard, saying there were reports of two tornadoes in the area.
"It's pretty bad," he said "We have downed trees and multiple homes with major damage."
"This is not how anyone wants to celebrate Easter Sunday," Reeves said in a statement. "The state and our first responders are working around the clock and will not rest until this is over. We are mobilizing all resources available to protect our people and their property."
"Where there were houses, they are no longer there," Sanford said, describing the reports of damage in the tiny community of Mount Horeb.
Candice Pitts rode out the storm in a small hallway at the Soso Volunteer Fire Station.
"All I had was my arms to put over my son and mother-in-law," she said. "Was near a solid glass door that blew out and the roof in many places tore off or collapsed. My car was park(ed) under a shed that is now blown over in a yard nearby. It's mangled."
As of 9:30 p.m. ET, the weather service has 25 reports of tornadoes across the South on Easter Sunday. More than 95 million people in almost 20 states in the South and East are facing the threat of severe weather on Easter Sunday and Monday, with tornado watches issued across areas of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
"There was a tornado emergency in effect at the time and this tornado was likely on the ground for nearly 100 miles. The Southeast remains under the threat for more multiple, dangerous and destructive tornadoes into the evening as tornado watches are in effect through midnight and will likely be extended eastward by Monday," Norman said.
The mayor of Monroe, a city in north-central Louisiana of about 50,000 people, says hundreds of structures in his community were damaged by a Sunday afternoon twister.
"At least 200-300 houses have been damaged here in the city of Monroe alone," Mayor Jamie Mayo said. "We also have had damage throughout Ouachita Parish."
The threat from the storms coincided with the dangers from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Officials in Mississippi said most county safe rooms were equipped with hand sanitizer and advised residents to still wear masks in the rooms.
As of 9:30 p.m. ET, more than 250,000 customers in the South were without power as severe weather pummeled the region.
There were 103,027 customers without power in Texas, 75,865 customers without power in Arkansas, 64,141 customers without power in Alabama, 37,842 customers without power in Louisiana, and 15,920 customers without power in Mississippi, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks power outages in the United States.
Flash flooding is expected in some states in the mid-South, including Tennessee, North Carolina and parts of northern Georgia and Alabama, where rainfall totals could reach up to 8 inches.
Most other areas will receive 3 to 6 inches.
Meteorologists warn that after a storm passes, residents shouldn't let their guards down.
"For Georgia, we're expecting two possible waves of activity: The first will be in the afternoon on Sunday as a warm front moves through the area," said Kyle Thiem, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Atlanta. "The second wave of storms will likely come through overnight as the main system moves eastward."
Origin: CNN.com
2/4/2020
Tornadoes touch down in Alabama and Mississippi
At least three tornadoes touched down in multiple locations across the Southeast Tuesday as the National Weather Service issued tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings urging people to seek shelter.
There was significant damage, but no deaths, in the Basin Refuge area and in Agricola, areas just south of the city of Lucedale, Mississippi.
Two other tornadoes touched down in Alabama: one in Eufaula, according to the Eufaula Police Department, and one in Troy, according to the Pike County Sheriff's Department. Information on damage and potential fatalities was not immediately available.
"Thunderstorms may produce occasional damaging wind, a few tornadoes, and isolated large hail, mainly from southern portions of Alabama and Georgia to parts of the Florida Panhandle and extreme southern South Carolina," the NWS said.
Origin: CNN.com
25/3/2020
Croatian capital hit by its biggest quake in 140 years, according to PM, causing damage and injury
A strong earthquake has shaken the Croatian capital, Zagreb, bringing much of the population on to the streets after social distancing regulations to prevent the spread of coronavirus had been put in place.
The quake, which struck shortly after 6am local time on Sunday, caused widespread damage, including to the city’s cathedral, and the evacuation of hospitals.
The epicentre was 4 miles north of Zagreb, 6 miles above the centre of the 5.3-magnitude earthquake, which was followed by a number of smaller tremors. The prime minister, Andrej Plenković, said the earthquake was the biggest in Zagreb in the last 140 years.
Many buildings in the capital cracked and walls and rooftops were damaged. Streets were littered with debris. Concrete slabs fell on cars and chimneys landed in front of building entrances.
The health minister, Vili Beroš, urged people to keep comply with social distancing measures even as they were trying to deal with the quake damage. “Earthquakes are dangerous but coronavirus is even more so,” he said.
Croatia has had 235 confirmed cases of coronavirus to date. In measures aimed at halting the spread of the virus, Croatians had been told to avoid public areas such as parks and public squares and much of Zagreb’s public transport network had been closed.
“We have two parallel crises that contradict each other,” the prime minister said after an emergency meeting of Croatia’s top officials.
Footage showed mothers dressed in nightgowns hugging their newborn babies in a car park in freezing temperatures after a damaged maternity hospital was evacuated. The women and children were moved along with incubators to a new location with the help of the army.
The interior minister, Davor Božinović, said the situation was complicated by the virus-related measures. “There are rules for when there is an earthquake, but when there is an earthquake at the same time when there is a global pandemic then it’s a much more complex situation,” he told the state news agency Hina.
Origin: theguardian.com
14/2/2020
Australia's climate crisis has been building for years but no one listened
Australia was already grappling with extreme heat and one of the worst droughts on record when devastating bushfires tore through the bone dry land.
For months, the infernos have raged through Australia's southeast, leaving parts of the country choking under some of the worst air pollution in the world.
Since September, more than 18 million hectares (44 million acres) of bush, land and forest have been burned. At least 28 people have died, around 3,000 homes have been destroyed and about one billion animals could have been affected.
Scientists had warned for more than a decade that an extreme bushfire season was coming -- and that the climate crisis was to blame.
While natural climate drivers created a perfect storm of hot and dry conditions this year, the sheer scale and intensity of the recent fires have led some experts to claim the world has now reached a turning point.
"I think the size and the intensity of these fires, coupled with the drought, have really just pushed Australia into a place that doesn't feel like home anymore." said Linden Ashcroft, lecturer in climate science and science communication at Melbourne University's School of Earth Science. "It doesn't feel safe anymore."
Australia has been getting hotter and drier for decades.
Since 1910, the country has warmed by just over 1°C -- on par with global levels -- and this has meant more frequent and more intense heatwaves. Last year was the hottest and driest year ever recorded in Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
On top of extreme heat, there has been a long-term decline in southern Australia's rainfall, which mainly comes during the winter months. Drought-stricken towns of New South Wales, for example, are suffering with severe water shortages as the state has received less than 125 mm (5 inches) of rain every year since 2017.
That has never happened before.
Without the rains, the dry bush provided the fuel for this year's fires. All that was needed was the spark.
"The signs are that this will become more common. We did have a perfect storm of events this year. But I don't think it's too much of a stretch to imagine that this is this is what our summers will look like in future, which is really quite confronting," Ashcroft said.
"What we're seeing now is that natural variability is occurring on top of the long-term, human-induced climate changes, and that we're seeing the extremes becoming even more extreme," said Nerilie Abram, professor at the Australia National University Research School of Earth Sciences in Melbourne.
A climate phenomenon called the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) had a big role. You're not alone if you've never heard of the IOD, but you might know about its counterpart in the Pacific Ocean, El Nino. El Niño is a warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, mainly along the Equator, and it can change circulation patterns around the globe.
The IOD describes changes in sea surface temperatures between the opposing eastern (near Indonesia) and western (near Africa) parts of the Indian Ocean, and it has three phases: neutral, positive and negative.
A positive IOD -- which is what we've seen in recent months -- is a sustained warming of the waters near the Horn of Africa while water to the northwest of Australia becomes unusually cool. This cuts off one of Australia's key sources of moisture, leading to less rainfall and higher than normal temperatures.
Last year was one of the strongest positive IOD events on record, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, meaning Australia experienced extremely hot and extremely dry conditions, on top of long-term warming.
Another climate system called the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) also contributed to Australia's dry weather conditions this year. The SAM is the movement of a belt of westerly winds that are pushed either north toward Australia or south toward Antarctica, and its impact on Australia differs depending on the season.
There has been a long term trend of the SAM becoming more positive, Abram said, which means that the westerly winds between Australia and Antarctica are shifting further southwards. As a consequence, the southern parts of Australia that receive winter rainfall from those winds are not receiving as much.
"These climate drivers acted to not only enhance fire dangers, but also suppress the thunderstorm activity that we would normally expect to impact eastern parts of Australia during spring and summer," said Diana Eadie, meteorologist for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's Extreme Weather Desk.
Scientists say that rising greenhouse gas emissions are distorting those natural climate drivers.
Since the 1960s, positive Indian Ocean Dipole events have been becoming more common and stronger, according to Abram, and climate models suggest that trend is likely to continue.
"If we continue on a high greenhouse gas emission pathway, then we would expect these events to be three times more frequent in the 21st century compared to the 20th century because of the human-induced climate change," she said.
Abram, one of the signatories of the letter, said it had been "disheartening" as a climate scientist to have correctly made predictions for years and for governments to have basically ignored them.
"This is what climate change looks like -- it is actually here now, it's affecting us now. And it is going to get worse unless we dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Abram added.
Along with increased risk of fire, more intense droughts, heatwaves, prolonged summers and less rain are in store for Australia if the world doesn't limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Global C02 emissions are currently track to warm the earth by 3°C or more by the end of the century.
"There probably needs to be some discussion about where it is safe to live or where it is safe to build," Ashcroft said. "(But) I don't think that Australia will get to a point where it'll be a Mad Max anarchy kind of thing. I believe that we have the ability to adapt and to change what we do."
Australia needs to take a two-pronged approach to survive the coming decades, experts say: Adapt to warming global temperatures and mitigate against them and their affects. Moving away from fossil fuel energy sources will be key.
Origin:CNN.com
11/2/2020
Sydney's heaviest rain in 30 years put out bush fires that have been burning for months
Heavy rainfall in Australia's New South Wales has forced the evacuation of several towns and the closure of more than 50 schools, but also extinguished some of the persistent bush fires that have devastated the state.
The country's Bureau of Meteorology said the region has seen more than 200 millimeters (7.9 inches) of rainfall in the past 24 hours. In Sydney, preliminary information from the bureau showed that 391.6 millimeters (15.4 inches) of rain fell over the past four days -- the city's heaviest rainfall since 1990.
Scores of schools were temporarily closed by the Department of Education in New South Wales on Monday because of heavy flooding. The Bureau of Meteorology also issued a number of warnings for heavy rains, wind and further flooding on Monday.
According to New South Wales Rural Fire Service media officer James Morris, the torrential rain helped put out the Currowan fire on Saturday. That particular fire burned 499,621 hectares of land over 74 days.
Origin:CNN.com
11/2/2020
US cities are losing 36 million trees a year. Here's why it matters and how you can stop it
If you're looking for a reason to care about tree loss, this summer's record-breaking heat waves might be it. Trees can lower summer daytime temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a recent study.
But tree cover in US cities is shrinking. A study published last year by the US Forest Service found that we lost 36 million trees annually from urban and rural communities over a five-year period. That's a 1% drop from 2009 to 2014.
If we continue on this path, "cities will become warmer, more polluted and generally more unhealthy for inhabitants," said David Nowak, a senior US Forest Service scientist and co-author of the study.
Nowak says there are many reasons our tree canopy is declining, including hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, insects and disease. But the one reason for tree loss that humans can control is sensible development.
More than 80% of the US population lives in urban areas, and most Americans live in forested regions along the East and West coasts, Nowak says.
"Every time we put a road down, we put a building and we cut a tree or add a tree, it not only affects that site, it affects the region."
The study placed a value on tree loss based on trees' role in air pollution removal and energy conservation.
Nowak lists 10 benefits trees provide to society:
Heat reduction: Trees provide shade for homes, office buildings, parks and roadways, cooling surface temperatures. They also take in and evaporate water, cooling the air around them.
Air pollution reduction: Trees absorb carbon and remove pollutants from the atmosphere.
Energy emissions reduction: Trees reduce energy costs by $4 billion a year, according to Nowak's study. "The shading of those trees on buildings reduce your air conditioning costs. Take those trees away; now your buildings are heating up, you're running your air conditioning more, and you're burning more fuel from the power plants, so the pollution and emissions go up."
Water quality improvement: Trees act as water filters, taking in dirty surface water and absorbing nitrogen and phosphorus into the soil.
Flooding reduction: Trees reduce flooding by absorbing water and reducing runoff into streams.
Noise reduction: Trees can deflect sound, one reason you'll see them lining highways, along fences and between roads and neighborhoods. They can also add sound through birds chirping and wind blowing through leaves, noises that have shown psychological benefits.
Protection from UV radiation: Trees absorb 96% of ultraviolet radiation, Nowak says.
Improved human health: Many studies have found connections between exposure to nature and better mental and physical health.
Wildlife habitat: Birds rely on trees for shelter, food and nesting. Worldwide, forests provide for a huge diversity of animal life.
Nowak says we can design and manage tree canopies in our cities to help "affect the air, to affect the water, to affect our well-being."
"We think we pay for our house, and so we must maintain it. But because we don't pay for nature, we don't need to. And that's not necessarily true."
Origin:CNN.com
10/2/2020
Bahamas struggle to recover before the next hurricane season is upon them
There are signs of recovery in the Abaco Islands, five months after Hurricane Dorian decimated this part of the Bahamas.
In Marsh Harbor, for example, work crews and volunteers are gutting homes, repairing roofs and clearing streets.
But in other parts of town, stray dogs are the only signs of life, and only the distant sounds of chainsaws and hammers pierce the eerie quiet.
In fact, some of the areas devastated by the storm appear untouched since the hurricane made landfall, without a person in sight.
Utilities have been slow to come back.
"We expect power in Abaco to be fully restored by early summer," reports Katherine Smith from the Bahamas Disaster Reconstruction Authority.
Thoughts of the 2020 hurricane season are adding an urgency to the recovery.
With so many homes destroyed, there aren't enough people currently living on the island to rebuild quickly.
With a few months to go before the new hurricane season begins this summer, piles of debris that are still sitting along the streets could turn into deadly projectiles if the wind picks up.
Grand Bahama also suffered severe devastation from Dorian. Storm surges up to 20 feet submerged vast parts of the island, swamping more than 4,200 homes, according to Smith.
"Some of these homes might partially still be standing, but are not safe to stay in," explains Katie Wiles, an American Red Cross spokeswoman. "One of the top needs here is also for long-term shelter."
There's also a shortage of drinkable water; the storm surges dramatically raised the salinity of Grand Bahama's water supply.
"After Dorian, the water became extremely salty. Currently, 65% of households are compromised," reports Iram Lewis, the Bahamas' minister of state for disaster management and reconstruction. "By March, that number should be down significantly and completely gone by the end of the summer."
Yet the devastation to infrastructure and business has crippled the economy. Unemployment for Grand Bahama remains high, and the damage to infrastructure renders tasks beyond meeting the day-to-day needs difficult.
"So many have to now walk on foot through the debris just to receive drinkable water. The everyday challenges they face make it difficult to rebound from this and rebuild," Wilkes explains. "The level of devastation is so big that it will take a long time for the Bahamas to recover. And they can't do it alone."
Origin:CNN.com
10/2/2020
An Oregon woman told neighbors she wanted to wait out the floods. She was found dead days later
More than 50 people have been rescued from flooded areas in eastern Oregon since Thursday, authorities said.
Parts of Umatilla County have experienced significant flooding since Thursday, leaving many residents trapped in their homes or vehicles.
On Friday, Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency in Umatilla, Union, and Wallowa counties due to the severe flooding conditions.
"We've had two days of rain," said Kevin Jeffries, a spokesman for the Umatilla County Joint Information Center. "Usually it's snow this time of year."
The rain created a massive snow melt in the mountains leading to "some pretty wild flooding," Jeffries added.
Origin:CNN.com
9/2/2020
Antarctica just registered its hottest temperature ever
The hottest temperature ever recorded in Antartica was measured on Thursday at a remote station on the continent's Northern tip, scientists said.
The temperature was nearly 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 Celsius) at Argentina's Esperanza research station, scientists from the country's meteorological agency said.
That surpassed the previous record of 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit (17.5 Celsius) set on March 24, 2015 at the same location. Temperature records from Esperanza date back to 1961.
This means that the temperature at Esperanza was practically identical to what was felt Thursday afternoon in San Diego, California.
To be fair, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere. But it's not typical that the temperatures in Antarctica -- one of the coldest places on Earth -- are nearly the same as those in Southern California.
The Antarctic region is heating up rapidly due to heat-trapping gas pollution from humans. And the warming observed here has serious global consequences, especially for the millions of people living on the world's coasts who are vulnerable to sea level rise.
The Antarctic peninsula where the record-breaking temperature was measured is one of the fastest warming places on Earth, with temperatures rising nearly 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) in just the last 50 years, according to the WMO.
Studies have shown that many of Antarctica's massive glaciers are melting rapidly due to global warming. And all told, Antarctica's ice sheet contains enough water to raise global sea levels by nearly 200 feet, the WMO says.
Origin:CNN.com
9/2/2020
Storm Ciara lashes Britain with high winds and rain
Storm Ciara is expected to make landfall in the United Kingdom this weekend, bringing heavy rain and winds of up to 80mph (130km/h).
Forecasters warn that Storm Ciara, named by the British Meteorological Office (Met Office) on Wednesday, could disrupt transport and damage buildings over the weekend.
Frank Saunders, Met Office chief meteorologist, said: "Storm Ciara will bring damaging winds and heavy rain across the UK this weekend and we have issued a range of severe weather warnings giving people time to prepare for potential impacts of the storm."
Saunders added that gales of up to 60mph are expected inland, while stronger winds of 80mph or more will hit coastal areas in England and Scotland.
The Met Office has also warned that southern Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will suffer heavy rain over the weekend -- with between 60 and 80 millimeters of rain falling in some places.
Origin:CNN.com
8/2/2020
Bumblebees are going extinct because of the climate crisis, but there are easy ways to help
Some people might recall dodging flying bumblebees as kids, or finding the bees flitting around flowers in their front yard.
If those moments seem few and far between these days, it's because in North America and Europe the effects of climate change have reduced the odds of seeing a bumblebee by more than 30% on average since the 20th century, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Science.
Their findings highlighted that as climate change causes temperatures and precipitation to increase beyond what bumblebees can tolerate, so does their risk for extinction.
Bumblebees tend to prefer cooler, slightly wet climates in which there's a variation in seasons. Declines in their populations are associated with increasing frequency of hotter temperatures and drying out of habitats, which raises bumblebees' risk for extinction and diminishes their chances of colonizing a new area and creating more species.
Climate across the US and Europe has changed drastically due to human activity during the time periods the authors analyzed. In the past few hundred years, we have warmed the planet to 1.3 degrees Celsius -- close to the 1.5 degrees that's considered a critical warming threshold.
The loss of bumblebees can contribute to decreasing biodiversity and impairment of ecosystem services, which impact food and water supply; the control of climate and disease; and supporting nutrient cycles and oxygen production.
Bumblebees pollinate plants such as cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, blueberries and melon.
"Bumblebees are among the best pollinators we have in the wildlife system," said Peter Soroye, co-author and PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa. "[They're] out for really long periods of the year in a lot of different weather conditions and they visit a really broad range of flowers. They're really a critical piece of these natural landscapes that we like to enjoy."
However, there are still "different and distinct conservation actions that can help combat these drivers of extinction," Soroye said.
Those include reducing the use of pesticides, planting a diverse array of flowers and shrubs to prevent habitat loss and providing bumblebees with occasional shelter from the sun "during extreme weather events that they're being subjected to more frequently because of climate change," Soroye said.
The authors suspect that their findings can also be applied to other species facing extinction, such as butterflies and birds.
"There are things we can do and recovery is a feasible thing," Kerr said. "We're not saying that what we all need to do is immediately start living in a hut in the woods to recover the situation. It points to a hopeful direction if we choose to intervene."
Origin:CNN.com
5/2/2020
Scientists find another threat to Greenland's glaciers lurking beneath the ice
Scientists have long known that higher air temperatures are contributing to the surface melting on Greenland's ice sheet.
But a new study has found another threat that has begun attacking the ice from below: Warm ocean water moving underneath the vast glaciers is causing them to melt even more quickly.
The survey revealed an underwater current more than a mile wide where warm water from the Atlantic Ocean is able to flow directly towards the glacier, bringing large amounts of heat into contact with the ice and accelerating the glacier's melting.
"The reason for the intensified melting is now clear," said Janin Schaffer, an oceanographer from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany who led the team of researchers, in a release about the findings.
Mass loss from Greenland's ice sheet is currently the single largest driver of sea level rise globally, and according to a study published in December in the journal Nature, Greenland's ice sheet is currently melting seven times faster than it was in 1992.
This ice sheet holds enough water to raise global sea levels by more than 24 feet.
Much of the Arctic experienced record temperatures last summer, which caused Greenland's ice sheet to lose 11 billion tons of surface ice to the ocean in just one day, scientists said. That is the equivalent of 4.4 million Olympic swimming pools.
Water temperatures also broke records in 2019. A study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences says the ocean temperature last year was 0.075 degrees Celsius above the 1981-2010 average. The study's authors said the heat absorbed today by the world's oceans is now equivalent to dropping roughly five Hiroshima bombs into them every second over the past 25 years.
Warmer oceans as a result of the climate crisis also make extreme weather events such as hurricanes capable of producing more rainfall.
And ocean heat impacts the stability of sea life, which could lead to declining fish catches in many parts of the world dependent on the ocean as a primary food source.
Origin:CNN.com
29/1/2020
Magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes off the coast of Jamaica and is felt as far away as Miami
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Tuesday about 80 miles from Jamaica, shaking people in the Caribbean and as far away as Miami.
A tsunami of 0.4 feet was recorded in the Cayman Islands at George Town, but no tsunami was observed at Port Royal, Jamaica, or Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
There were several aftershocks, including one the US Geological Survey said had a magnitude of 6.1.
"Based on all available data, there is no significant tsunami threat from this (6.1) earthquake. However, there is a very small possibility of tsunami waves along coasts located nearest the epicenter," the National Weather Service's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
The quakes come three weeks after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck Puerto Rico.
A tsunami threat alert was lifted Tuesday afternoon, a few hours after the quake.
Alec Pultr, who lives in Ogier, Grand Cayman, said it wasn't the first earthquake he's experienced but it was the biggest "by far."
"We were simply working and things started to sway," he told CNN.
As the swaying and shaking became more violent, most people started to run; the ones who stayed behind got under their desks.
People in Miami, 440 miles from the epicenter, felt shaking.
The earthquake appears to have been a "strike-slip earthquake," in which tectonic plates slide against each other. This limits the threat of a devastating tsunami, which are more associated with "thrust earthquakes," where a portion of the earth is thrust upward and causes the water to push up and outward, creating the tsunami.
The earthquake also was felt as far away as Havana. Some people in the Cuban capital were evacuating taller buildings. Cuba's state media reported the earthquake was felt across the island in Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas, Cienfuegos, Pinar del Río, Havana and the Isle of Youth.
Origin:CNN.com
28/1/2020
The Pacific Ocean is so acidic that it's dissolving Dungeness crabs' shells
The Pacific Ocean is becoming more acidic, and the cash-crabs that live in its coastal waters are some of its first inhabitants to feel its effects.
The Dungeness crab is vital to commercial fisheries in the Pacific Northwest, but lower pH levels in its habitat are dissolving parts of its shell and damaging its sensory organs, a new study found.
Their injuries could impact coastal economies and forebode the obstacles in a changing sea. And while the results aren't unexpected, the study's authors said the damage to the crabs is premature: The acidity wasn't predicted to damage the crabs this quickly.
"If the crabs are affected already, we really need to make sure we pay much more attention to various components of the food chain before it is too late," said study lead author Nina Bednarsek, a senior scientist with the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project.
The ocean is acidifying because it's absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which lowers pH levels in the water.
Ocean acidification changes the coasts, releasing excess nutrient that can create algae blooms and increasing sea temperatures and salinity, according to NOAA.
But for crustaceans and coral that rely on carbonate ions, which are less abundant in more acidic waters, to build their shells and coral skeletons, it becomes more difficult to build strong shells.
It's not just crabs, either: Oysters, clams and plankton all rely on the same carbonate ions to strengthen themselves. And humans and sea creatures alike rely on them -- some for food, others for economic security.
The tiny hair-like structures crabs use to navigate their environments were damaged by the low pH levels, too -- something scientists had never seen before. Crabs without these mechanoreceptors could move more slowly and have difficulty swimming and searching for food.
"We found dissolution impacts to the crab larvae that were not expected to occur until much later in this century," said Richard Feely, study co-author and NOAA senior scientist.
As for the acidifying ocean, NOAA proposes two methods of attack: Reducing our overall carbon footprint to reduce the carbon dioxide absorbed by the sea, or teach wildlife and the people who rely on it to adapt to how the sea will change.
Origin:CNN.com
23/1/2020
Prince Charles: We need a new economic model or the planet will burn
Only a revolution in the way the global economy and financial markets work can save the planet from the climate crisis and secure future prosperity, Prince Charles warned on Wednesday.
"We can't go on like this, with every month another record in temperatures being broken," he told CNN in an exclusive interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "If we leave it too long, and we have done, just growing things is going to become difficult."
"Do we want to go down in history as the people who did nothing to bring the world back from the brink in time to restore the balance when we could have done? I don't want to," he told the audience at the WEF's 50th annual meeting.
"And just think for a moment — what good is all the extra wealth in the world, gained from 'business as usual,' if you can do nothing with it except watch it burn in catastrophic conditions?"
Just this year, huge forest fires exacerbated by climate change have devastated vast areas of land in Australia and killed millions of animals. Recent research shows that the world's oceans are absorbing as much heat as that generated by five atomic bombs every second. Toxic smog continues to choke India's cities despiterepeated promises of cleaner air from the government, and the last decade was the warmest in recorded history.
The Prince of Wales used Wednesday's address to launch his "Sustainable Markets Initiative." He said urgent action was required to reconfigure markets to put people and the planet "at the heart of global value creation."
Britain's next head of state, who gave his first speech on the environment in 1968, said bold and imaginative action was needed to tackle the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. He outlined a 10-point plan to put the natural world at the heart of the business world.
"Nature's contribution to the global economy is estimated to be worth $125 trillion annually," he said. "Nature is, in fact, the lifeblood of our financial markets and, as such, we must — rapidly — realign our own economy to mimic nature's economy and work in harmony with it."
The steps advocated by the prince include reversing damaging subsidies, investing in technological innovation, creating new sustainable products and services, and giving consumers much greater transparency about supply chains.
"I intend to do my utmost to ensure that the message of urgency, systemic change, collaboration and integration is heard," he said. "We simply cannot waste any more time — the only limit is our willingness to act, and the time to act is now."
Origin:CNN.com
25/1/2020
At least 22 dead, more than 1,000 injured in Turkey earthquake
At least 19 people died and more than 600 were injured in eastern Turkey after an earthquake rattled the region on Friday evening, according to authorities.
The 6.7-magnitude quake struck near the town of Sivrice, in eastern Elazig province, collapsing at least 10 buildings, Turkish Interior Minister Sulyman Soylu said.
Thirteen people were killed in Elazig province, four in Malatya, one in Diyarbakir and one in another area, the country's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) says.
About 650 people were injured, but the number could rise.
Video from Turkey's IHA Broadcasting Services shows emergency crews rescuing injured people from a collapsed building. Search and rescue operations were underway for 30 missing people in the Elazig city, Soylu said.
Preliminary reports say the earthquake lasted 40 seconds, AFAD said.
Fifteen aftershocks have been felt in the wake, with the strongest registering at 5.4 magnitude, Soylu said. The quake struck at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles), according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), which enhances the shaking felt at the surface.
About 500,000 people felt strong to very strong shaking, the USGS reported. The earthquake was felt in several other countries, including Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Origin:CNN.com
21/1/2020
Climate refugees cannot be sent back home, United Nations rules in landmark decision
Refugees fleeing the effects of the climate crisis cannot be forced to return home by their adoptive countries, a United Nations panel has ruled, in a landmark decision that could open the door to a flood of legal claims by displaced people around the world.
The UN's Human Rights Committee was making a judgment on the case of Ioane Teitiota, who applied for protection from New Zealand after claiming his life was at risk in his home country of Kiribati. The Pacific island is at risk of becoming the first country to disappear under rising sea levels.
The committee ruled against Teitiota on the basis that his life was not at imminent risk -- but it also outlined that countries could violate people's international rights if they force them back to countries where climate change poses an immediate threat.
"Without robust national and international efforts, the effects of climate change in receiving states may expose individuals to a violation of their rights," its ruling said.
Droughts, crop failure and rising seas are expected to force tens of millions to move to other areas in the coming years. A 2018 study by the World Bank found that 143 million people across South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America are at risk of becoming climate migrants.
In its ruling, the committee cited articles 6 and 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which ensure an individual's inherent right to life.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Teitiota's home nation of Kiribati as one of the six Pacific Island countries most threatened by rising sea levels. The report claims that, due to coastal erosion and freshwater contamination, Kiribati could become uninhabitable as early as 2050.
It has been among a group of Pacific nations sounding the alarm over climate change in recent years but has run up against resistance from nearby Australia.
Origin:CNN.com
23/1/2020
First fires, then floods. Now Australians need to watch out for deadly funnel-web spiders, experts say
Australia has already dealt with extreme fires, flooding and hail this year. Now experts are warning people to watch out for deadly funnel-web spiders due to "perfect conditions" for the arachnid to thrive.
Native to the moist forest regions of eastern Australia, several funnel-web species are known for their highly toxic and fast-acting venom. On Wednesday, the Australian Reptile Park -- based in Somersby, in New South Wales state -- said spider activity had increased in recent days.
"Funnel-web spiders are potentially one of the most dangerous spiders on the planet, in terms of a bite towards humans, and we have to treat it very seriously."
Australia has been ravaged by the worst wildfires seen in decades, with large swaths of the country devastated since the fire season began in late July. At least 28 people have died nationwide -- and in the state of New South Wales alone, more than 3,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged.
Severe thunderstorms delivered relief to some areas late last week, although flash flooding created new risks. Parts of southeastern Australia were also pelted by hailstones the size of golf balls, big enough to smash car windows and injure birds, less than 24 hours after the region was hit by massive dust storms.
"Their venom is pretty toxic and can kill someone," he said. "The funnel-webs are now out with the recent rains, (and) they can go into people's houses on the ground or from the roof."
Origin:CNN.com
20/1/2020
Dust storms and golf ball-sized hail are battering southeastern Australia
Parts of southeastern Australia are being pelted by hailstones the size of golf balls, big enough to smash car windows and injure birds, less than 24 hours after the region was hit by massive dust storms.
The hailstorms arrived in the national capital Canberra on Monday afternoon, covering the ground with white balls of ice and leaves that have been stripped from trees. People ran for cover, and drivers pulled off the road to try and find underground parking for fear of hailstone damage.
The hailstorm is now headed east toward the coastal cities of Sydney, Wollongong, and Newcastle, according to the Australia Bureau of Meteorology. The bureau warned that the cities could see "damaging winds (possibly destructive), large hailstones (possibly giant) and heavy rainfall."
The hailstorm comes less than 24 hours after massive dust storms swept through New South Wales late Sunday afternoon, blanketing entire towns and blacking out the sun.
Images from the ground showed huge, rolling clouds of dust, at least ten stories high. The dust storm moved fast, engulfing neighborhoods in minutes and obscuring what previously was a blue sky.
The storm wasn't just tall, it was long -- videos show a dust storm that appears to stretch for miles, surrounding the perimeter of Narromine.
The dust storms were likely kicked up by ferocious winds in the area -- wind gusts measured up to 95 kilometers per hour (59 miles per hour) in Parkes and 107 kph (66.5 mph) in Dubbo, according to the Australia Bureau of Meteorology. The state has been suffering from drought for several years, meaning the land is parched and the soil loose -- making it easier for dust to be whipped up into the air.
Rain brought some relief Sunday evening, washing away the dust in Dubbo and Parkes. It was especially welcome for these drought-stricken towns, which have only seen light sprinklings of rain since 2017; as the rain fell on Sunday, children ran outside to celebrate, cheering and whooping.
But the rains weren't enough to put out the flames, and likely won't be enough to end the drought. Some have warned that as long as the drought continues, dust storms could continue happening with increasing frequency.
The dust storm on Sunday was the second one in central New South Wales in a week; another giant dust storm hit the town of Forbes, south of Dubbo, last Thursday, Nine News reported.
The wildfires and dust storms have been exacerbated by extreme heat and drought -- which experts say are symptoms of Australia's climate crisis.
Australia's bush has been drying out since January 2017 -- the worst drought on record. New South Wales has received less than 5 inches (25 millimeters) of rain each year for the past three years, which has never happened before.
The drought has hit rural towns hard. The town of Murrurundi, northwest of Sydney, has not seen significant rain in three years. Water is supplied to towns by trucks that make 10 to 20 trips a day; if the trucks stopped, the town would be completely dry in three days.
The drought has worsened natural phenomena like Sunday's dust storm -- and has also devastated livelihoods. Cattle and sheep farmers have seen their lands turn cracked and bone-dry in recent years, and many are struggling to keep their livestock alive.
"It's not just dry on the surface," said cow farmer James Galbraith. "It's dry right the way down. So what we're seeing are trees suffering as well as pastures. For us farmers, we're just holding on."
Many have pointed to this disastrous weather as a sign that Australia urgently needs climate action. Tens of thousands of people participated in protests around the country earlier this month, calling on the government to do more to combat the climate crisis.
Origin:CNN.com
19/1/2020
Millions remain in the path of a large-scale winter storm as it tracks through the Northeast
A dangerous winter storm that's walloped the upper Midwest is pushing toward the Great Lakes and the Northeast, threatening heavy snow, freezing rain and treacherous travel conditions for tens of millions on Saturday.
About 6 to 12 inches of snow could fall from parts of Michigan to New England through Sunday, the National Weather Service says.
Further south, a wintry mix is expected to hit parts of the Midwest and the northern Mid-Atlantic states, with up to a half-inch of ice accumulations possible.
At the storm's back end, blizzard conditions -- high wind gusts and blowing snow -- still are possible into Saturday afternoon for parts of the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa, where the weather has created havoc on some roads since Friday.
The snow should wrap up for the Midwest by early afternoon. Much of Minnesota, Michigan and northern Iowa could be left with a foot of snow.
Eastern cities like New York, Boston and Philadelphia will get a quick shot of snow during the afternoon.
Areas farther inland have a better chance of remaining in the snow and will likely see slightly greater amounts.
Interior portions of the Northeast could see 8 to 12 inches for upstate New York and up to 6 inches in northern Maine.
Road travel will be treacherous as well. Windy conditions will create blowing snow and near-whiteout conditions in some of the hardest-hit areas across the Midwest.
"Winds across these regions may gust to over 50 mph, producing considerable blowing and drifting of snow and life-threatening travel conditions," according to the weather service
Origin:CNN.com
19/1/2020
Taal volcano eruption poses deadly dilemma for people living in its shadow
Maria Evangeline Tenorio Sarmiento struggles to wade through ankle-deep mud and debris to reach her house that's been inundated with thick sludge.
Inside, the 52-year-old mother of two finds the roof over her kitchen has collapsed under the weight of ashfall.
"How can we rebuild our lives? How can we start again? I don't have money to use as capital again," she said.
It's a bleak prospect faced by many families in Batangas and Cavite who lost their homes and livelihoods when the Taal volcano -- one of the Philippines' most active -- began erupting last Sunday, spewing ash up to 14 kilometers (9 miles) into the air and generating volcanic lightning.
Heavy charcoal-like ash rained down on towns and villages, blanketing everything. Houses and trees buckled under the weight of it. Affected areas had no power or fresh water.
Outside Sarmiento's hourse, the once bustling markets are empty, the fields left untended, the lush trees now gray and lifeless.
The volcano, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of the capital Manila on the island of Luzon, is like a time bomb. Volcanologists warn a bigger eruption could be yet to come -- but no one can predict when, or if, it will explode or settle back down.
Thousands like her fled their homes when Taal suddenly rumbled into life. Caught off guard, many sought shelter in temporary evacuation centers carrying only the clothes they were in with little to no possessions.
Seismic activity had been recorded at the volcano since March 2019, but that morning the alert level was at one -- meaning a hazardous eruption was not imminent.
"The speed of escalation was unexpected," said Mark Timbal, spokesperson for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
By 7:30 p.m. the alert was raised to four, with Philippine authorities warning that an "explosive eruption" could happen in the coming hours or days. It prompted authorities to urge a "total evacuation" of people within a 14 kilometer (8.7 miles) danger zone of the volcano.
An explosive eruption could be extremely lethal. Ballistic fragments of magma could be violently expelled from the volcano, pyroclastic flows -- fast-moving currents of hot gas and volcanic matter -- could swallow anything in its path, and the volcano's slope slumping into the surrounding lake could create a volcanic tsunami.
Residents would also be at risk from deadly toxic gases emitted from the eruption, and mud flows caused by ash mixing with water vapor in the atmosphere.
The lake that fills the caldera was another concern. Any water that intersects with the hot lava could immediately flash into steam and create an explosive system.
"We just had little time to prepare. From the first eruption at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday to the alert level four, we barely had time," said Francis Tolentino, Senator and former mayor of Tagaytay, which overlooks the volcano and its lake.
Another bigger eruption could potentially send ash -- which carries microscopic shards of glass -- 100 kilometers (62 miles) away or more, contaminating the air and water supplies in distant locations. More than 25 million people live within 100 kilometers of the volcano.
When the Taal volcano erupted in 1754 it lasted six months. The deadliest eruption took 1,335 lives in 1911, and it lasted a few days.
While government and NGO agencies are working to provide shelters with mats, food, water, clothing and hygiene kits, the conditions are cramped and stifling. The evacuation centers are often schools, gymnasiums, or even basketball courts and families sleep on the cold, hard floor or on folded-up cardboard boxes.
Because of the unpredictability of the volcano, no one knows how long they will have to stay there or whether there will be enough supplies to last the weeks or even months.
The alert level for the volcano remained at four out of a possible five on Saturday. Fissures caused by the pressure from magma moving below the ground have opened up in several areas and deep cracks could be seen carving through roads.
Tremors are also ongoing. Some 666 volcanic earthquakes were recorded since Sunday, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS.)
Life for millions of people living around the Ring of Fire can often be precarious as they live and work under the constant threat of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or tsunamis.
As one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world, the Philippines experiences more than its share of earthquakes, typhoons and other natural disasters.
"We have had a severe year," said Richard Gordon, Chairman of the Red Cross Philippines.
A series of deadly earthquakes between October and December rattled the southern Philippines, leaving 600,000 people in needof assistance. Two typhoons in Decemberkilled at least 26 people and caused millions of dollars of damage.
Origin:CNN.com
16/1/2020
A blob of hot water in the Pacific Ocean killed a million seabirds, scientists say
As many as one million seabirds died at sea in less than 12 months in one of the largest mass die-offs in recorded history -- and researchers say warm ocean waters are to blame.
The birds, a fish-eating species called the common murre, were severely emaciated and appeared to have died of starvation between the summer of 2015 and the spring of 2016, washing up along North America's west coast, from California to Alaska.
Now, scientists say they know what caused it: a huge section of warm ocean water in the northeast Pacific Ocean dubbed "the Blob."
A years-long severe marine heat wave first began in 2013, and intensified during the summer of 2015 due to a powerful weather phenomenon called El Nino, which lasted through 2016.
The heat wave created the Blob -- a 1,000-mile (1,600 km) stretch of ocean that was warmed by 3 to 6 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 10.8 Fahrenheit). A high-pressure ridge calmed the ocean waters -- meaning heat stays in the water, without storms to help cool it down.
Those few degrees of warming wreaked havoc on the region's marine ecosystems. There was a huge drop in the production of microscopic algae that feed a range of animals, from shrimp to whales. The warmth caused a massive bloom of harmful algae along the west coast, that killed many animals and cost fisheries millions of dollars in lost income.
Other animals that experienced mass die-offs include sea lions, tufted puffins, and baleen whales. But none of them compared to the murres in scale.
The murres likely starved to death because the Blob caused more competition for fewer small prey. The warming increased the metabolism of predatory fish like salmon, cod, and halibut -- meaning they were eating more than usual. These fish eat the same small fish as the murres, and there simply wasn't enough to go around.
The Blob devastated the murres' population. With insufficient food, breeding colonies across the entire region had reproductive difficulties for years afterward, the study said. Not only did the population decline dramatically, but the murres couldn't replenish those numbers.
During the 2015 breeding season, three colonies didn't produce a single chick. That number went up to 12 colonies in the 2016 season -- and in reality it could be even higher, since researchers only monitor a quarter of all colonies.
"The magnitude and scale of this failure has no precedent," said lead researcher John Piatt in a University of Washington press release. "It was astonishing and alarming, and a red-flag warning about the tremendous impact sustained ocean warming can have on the marine ecosystem."
The study warned that it remains unknown how long it would take for the population to recover -- or if it would recover at all, "in light of predicted global warming trends and the associated likelihood of more frequent heatwaves."
Another blob has also formed off the eastern coast of New Zealand. This blob is so big it's detectable from space -- it's about a million square kilometers (400,000 sq miles), an area larger than the size of Texas.
It's especially rare to see a patch of warm ocean water over such a large area, but scientists say global climate change is making these phenomena more common.
From 1982 to 2016, there was an 82% rise in the number of heat wave days on the global ocean surface, according to a 2018 study. That's because heat waves are increasing in both frequency and duration, with the highest level of maritime heat wave activity occurring in the North Atlantic.
Origin:CNN.com
16/1/2020
At least 77 killed and 94 injured after avalanches bury homes in Pakistan
At least 77 people have been killed and 94 injured in northeast Pakistan after a series of avalanches destroyed and buried houses.
The avalanches were triggered by heavy snowfall in the Neelum Valley, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, according to local authorities.
Dozens of houses had been wrecked and buried by the snow, with most of those killed and injured in their homes when the avalanches hit, said Ahmad Raza Qadri, state minister for disaster management and rehabilitation, on Tuesday.
The death toll may continue to rise, as there are fears that many people may still be trapped.
In the aftermath, desperate villagers conducted a search and rescue attempt to find those buried in the avalanche, carrying shovels and wading into the deep snow.
Several of the injured victims were airlifted by army helicopters to the region's capital, Muzaffarabad, for treatment, and more helicopters will airdrop food and essential supplies to residents cut off by snow.
The avalanches come during one of the harshest winters in 20 years. Daily life in Pakistan-administered Kashmir had been severely affected, with roads blocked by snow, communication services down, and disruptions to electric power supplies.
Separately, in the country's southwestern province of Balochistan, 16 people have died in 48 hours this week due to rain and snow related incidents, said Imran Zarkoon of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority.
Heavy snowfall is normal for this time of year, said Zaheer Ahmed, director of the National Weather Forecasting Centre in the capital, Islamabad. But "due to climate change, this year the intensity of cold is much higher than the previous few years."
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Origin:CNN.com
16/1/2020
China's new SARS-like virus has spread to Japan, but we still know very little about it
Fears are mounting across Asia over the cross-border spread of a new coronavirus identified in China that has killed one patient and sickened dozens, as health authorities race to identify the source of the pathogen.
The new strain of coronavirus, in the same family as the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), originated in Wuhan, the largest city in central China. It was confirmed Thursday to have been detected in Japan, a few days after Thailand confirmed its first case of infection.
The outbreak has cast a shadow over Lunar New Year celebrations and put the rest of Asia on alert. Virologists around the world are now studying its genome sequence shared by Chinese researchers, but many questions still remain.
Researchers have yet to rule out the possibility that the virus could be transmitted from person to person, and on Wednesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Watch Level 1 Alert -- the lowest of a three-tier travel health notices that warns visitors of Wuhan to "be aware and practice usual precautions."
The confirmation comes just days after Thai authorities said a Chinese tourist arriving from Wuhan had been quarantined with the new virus, the first time it had been detected outside China.
The first, and the majority, of the infected cases in Wuhan have been traced to the Nanhua Wholesale Seafood Market, which has been shut down for disinfection since January 1. Wuhan health authorities said on Wednesday that some "environmental samples" taken from the market tested positive for the virus.
Apart from fish, the market also sold other live animals, including birds, rabbits and snakes -- sparking concerns that the virus might have been transmitted to humans from animals, just like SARS and MERS.
Leo Poon, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong who was among the first to decode the SARS coronavirus, said the Thai case suggests two possibilities: the woman was either infected by an animal in another market, or by another person.
The first possibility would mean that the source of the new virus is more widespread than authorities previously believed, and the second would indicate its ability to transmit between humans -- which could turn a local outbreak into a global pandemic.
"I think the first possibility is more likely," Poon said. "This also reiterates the issue of food safety -- the risk of selling exotic animals in markets should be assessed now and new policy should be established as soon as possible."
China -- and the world -- has paid a heavy price for the consumption of wild animals. The SARS epidemic from November 2002 to July 2003 killed 774 people after spreading to 37 countries. The coronavirus was traced to the civet cat, a wild animal considered a delicacy in parts of southern China, where the epidemic began.
But Professor Poon and other experts in Hong Kong said the possibility of human-to-human transmission cannot be excluded.
The question of transmission between humans is particularly crucial as China's busy Lunar New Year travel season has recently begun. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are expected to be crammed into trains, buses and planes for family reunions. Millions of Chinese are also expected to travel overseas around Lunar New Year, which falls on January 25.
Chinese health authorities and the WHO had long maintained that there is no "obvious evidence" of human-to-human transmission, and that no health care workers have been infected by the new coronavirus. But early on Friday, while maintaining the lack of clear evidence of such a transmission, Wuhan health authorities said in an announcement that "the possibility of human to human transmission cannot be excluded."
It reported a case where a couple were infected by the new coronavirus. The husband, who caught the illness first, worked at the Nanhua Wholesale Seafood Market, but the wife said she had no direct exposure to the market. A few other infected patients also denied they had any exposure to the market.
For now, the new coronavirus appears to not be as lethal or contagious as SARS or MERS. Its symptoms are mainly fever and coughing, with a number of patients having difficulty breathing.
"Additional investigation is needed to ascertain the presence of human-to-human transmission, modes of transmission, common source of exposure and the presence of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic cases that are undetected," the WHO said in the statement. "It is critical to review all available information to fully understand the potential transmissibility among humans."
Origin:CNN.com
16/1/2020
Rain and hail pelt fire-ravaged Australian states, bringing new risks -- and potential relief
Severe thunderstorms are pelting some regions of Australia suffering from historic wildfires with powerful rain and large hail.
The storms could bring some much-needed relief to the firefighters battling some of the worst blazes the country has seen in decades. But forecasters say it's not yet clear if the rain will fall where it's needed most in the coming days, or whether there will be enough of it to make a difference in fire-ravaged and drought-stricken areas.
So far there hasn't been enough rain to put out the fires, and lightning from the storms has also sparked new blazes.
Authorities are also concerned that a massive inundation could lead to powerful flash flooding, as years of drought have left some regions so dry that rain just runs off the ground. The massive fires have also burned through some of the vegetation that would normally soak up the precipitation.
The Victoria State Emergency Service posted several images on Facebook showing damage from the storm, including a sinkhole 4 meters (13 feet) deep which had opened up.
Parts of Melbourne were hit with as much as 77 millimeters (3 inches) of rain, causing flooding and some damage, the Victoria Bureau of Meteorology said Thursday. CNN affiliate Nine News reported some neighborhoods were hit by a month's worth of rain in just hours, though not in East Gippsland, where some of the worst fires in the state are raging.
In New South Wales (NSW) to Victoria's north, more than 10,000 houses and businesses lost power Thursday due to the storm, Nine News reported. But the storms have also helped authorities battle the blazes. The NSW's Rural Fire Service (RFS) said on Twitter Thursday that "although this rain won't extinguish all fires, it will certainly go a long way towards containment."
This will be all of our Christmas, birthday, engagement, anniversary, wedding and graduation presents rolled into one," it said Monday on Twitter. "Fingers crossed."
The fires that have swept through Victoria and New South Wales all summer are some of the most powerful and damaging conflagrations Australia has seen in decades.
At least 28 people have died nationwide, and in the state of New South Wales (NSW) alone, more than 3,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged. State and federal authorities are struggling to contain the massive blazes, even with firefighting assistance from other countries, including the United States.
All this has been exacerbated by persistent heat and drought caused by climate change. Tens of thousands of people participated in protests around the country last week calling on the government to do more to combat the climate crisis.
The situation is already dire. Significant amounts of flora and fauna unique to Australia have been burned or killed. One group of ecologists estimated that perhaps a billion animals have been affected nationwide. Some towns have been running out of water. Others have gone up in flames completely.
Origin:CNN.com
14/1/2020
Another earthquake hits Puerto Rico with 5.9 magnitude
An 5.9 magnitude earthquake rattled Puerto Rico on Saturday, fueling anxiety among residents and sending them running in terror.
The quake was about 8 miles south of Indios in the Caribbean Sea, the US Geological Survey said, at a depth of 6.2 miles. The USGS first said the preliminary magnitude was 6.0.
Puerto Rico has been beset by temblors throughout the week, including a 6.4 magnitude quake Tuesday that killed at least one man, destroyed homes and left most of the island without power. A 5.2 magnitude aftershock struck on Friday afternoon.
The earthquake renewed fear and anxiety among residents in the southern towns of the island.
As the ground shook on Saturday, people at Mercedita International Airport in Ponce quickly ran outside the terminal, and a few miles away, parts of the roof and facade of a historic building collapsed.
"We don't know what we are exposed to," he said.
The US territory was expecting power to return by Saturday to its 3 million residents, and authorities had tweeted that it was 95% restored a couple of hours before Saturday's quake at about 8 a.m. ET.
The governor told reporters there is an estimated $110 million in damage caused by the quakes.
Earlier this week, Vázquez Garced had declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard.
She warned businesses against price gouging after saying there have been reports of tent prices rising.
"I urge those people to have sensitivity. We want to assure the well-being of people who lost their property, don't have a roof and are choosing to sleep in a park and need at least an awning to cover themselves from the sun and rain," the governor said in Spanish.
Thousands of families have fled their homes, fearing the structures may collapse during an aftershock. They are sleeping in mattresses, tents and tarps set up in stadiums, fields and next to highways.
A baseball stadium in Guayanilla as well as public parks and schools across the southern towns have become massive shelters in the past days. Scores of people are sleeping in cots under large white tents and dozens of portable bathroom have been set up.
Since December 28, about 500 earthquakes of magnitude 2.0 or higher have hit Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from Hurricane Maria in 2017.
That storm killed almost 3,000 people, and left millions of Americans without power, water or shelter. Recovery has been slow and hard.
Origin:CNN.com
13/1/2020
Oceans are warming at the same rate as if five Hiroshima bombs were dropped in every second
The world's oceans are now heating at the same rate as if five Hiroshima atomic bombs were dropped into the water every second, scientists have said.
A new study released on Monday showed that 2019 was yet another year of record-setting ocean warming, with water temperatures reaching the highest temperature ever recorded.
An international team of 14 scientists examined data going back to the 1950s, looking at temperatures from the ocean surface to 2,000 meters deep. The study, which was published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, also showed that the oceans are warming at an increasing speed.
While the past decade has been the warmest on record for global ocean temperatures, the hottest five years ever recorded all came in the last five.
"The upward trend is relentless, and so we can say with confidence that most of the warming is man-made climate change," said Kevin Trenberth, distinguished senior scientist in the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The study shows that while the oceans warmed steadily between 1955 and 1986, warming has accelerated rapidly in the last few decades. Between 1987-2019, ocean warming was 450% greater than during the earlier time period.
"There are no reasonable alternatives aside from the human emissions of heat trapping gases to explain this heating," Cheng said, adding that to reach this temperature, the ocean would have taken in 228,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 -- or 228 sextillion -- joules of heat.
"The Hiroshima atom-bomb exploded with an energy of about 63,000,000,000,000 Joules," Cheng said. "I did a calculation ... the amount of heat we have put in the world's oceans in the past 25 years equals to 3.6 billion Hiroshima atom-bomb explosions," he added.
That's equivalent to dropping roughly four Hiroshima bombs into the oceans every second over the past quarter of a century. But because the warming is speeding up, the rate at which we are dropping these imaginary bombs is getting faster than ever.
"We are now at five to six Hiroshima bombs of heat each second," said John Abraham, one of the authors of the study and a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
But just because people live on land doesn't mean they are immune from the effects of the warming waters. Ocean warming has a profound impact on the entire world.
"If you want to understand global warming, you have to measure ocean warming," Abraham said.
For instance, both Hurricane Harvey, which killed at least 68 people in 2017, and Hurricane Florence, whose torrential rains flooded large parts of the US East Coast, were influenced by abnormally high temperatures.
While scientists say man-made climate change isn't solely to blame for tropical storms, studies have shown that higher temperatures can make them wetter and more damaging.
The warming is also changing currents and altering weather systems at a speed wildlife cannot keep up with.
"It is critical to understand how fast things are changing," Abraham added.
The scientists said that while the damage done to the oceans is in many ways irreversible, there is hope for the future.
"We will see continuous increase in ocean heat content in this century even if we can keep the global mean surface temperature (rise) well below 2 degrees Celsius (the goal of the Paris Agreement)," Cheng said.
However, he added that the speed of warming is entirely dependent on the world's actions on climate change.
"If we can reduce emissions, we can reduce the warming level, and then reduce the associated risks and loses," he said.
Origin:CNN.com
13/1/2020
Philippines warns of 'explosive eruption' after Taal Volcano spews ash near Manila
Philippine authorities have urged a "total evacuation" of nearly half a million people near the capital Manila, after a volcano spewed ash up to nine miles (14 kilometers) into the air Sunday prompting warnings of a possible "explosive eruption."
The Taal Volcano, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of the capital Manila on the island of Luzon, is one of the country's most active. Images from the scene on Monday showed streams of lava beginning to gush out the volcanic vent, the sky above still thick and dark with ash and steam.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) has raised the alert level to four, meaning an "explosive eruption" could happen in the coming hours or days. Its highest alert level is five, indicating an eruption is taking place.
Taal Volcano isn't actually very big -- but it's considered among the world's most dangerous, owing to the number of people that live in its immediate vicinity, said Erik Klemetti, a volcanologist at Denison University.
PHIVOLCS has requested a "total evacuation" of everyone within a 17-kilometer (10.5 miles) radius around the volcano. This area, considered a volcanic danger zone, is home to more than 450,000 residents, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The lava now beginning to erupt is dangerous, Klemetti said, as it's creating "a big lava fountain" that could then spill into nearby towns. But volcanic ash is the biggest danger, said Joseph Michalski, director of the Earth and Planetary Science division at the University of Hong Kong.
"The ash is what will kill you, not the lava," Michalski told CNN. "The ash flow from an exploding volcano can travel hundreds of kilometers an hour."
Other threats include deadly toxic gases emitted from the eruption, and mud flows caused by ash mixing with water vapor in the atmosphere, Michalski added.
If it erupts again, the ash -- which carries microscopic shards of glass -- could potentially be carried 100 kilometers (62 miles) or more, contaminating the air and water supplies in distant locations. More than 25 million people live within 100 kilometers of the volcano.
"(The shards of glass) are hazardous to lungs," Michalski said. "You don't want stuff like that in your lungs. It can get lodged in there and make you quite ill."
Photos from the aftermath on Sunday show ash mixing with rain, creating a thick black sludge that blanketed cars, streets, and homes in some towns. Ash is even heavier than snow, meaning excessive pile-ups, especially when mixed with rain, can cause roofs to collapse.
The volcano has seen powerful eruptions before -- one eruption in 1754 lasted six months, and its deadliest eruption took 1,335 lives in 1911. It erupted again in 1965, killing 190 people, and continued to have four more minor eruptions in the years since.
Origin:CNN.com
13/1/2020
More than 20 million people under flood watch after killer storms power through Midwest, East
More than 20 million people were under a flood watch Saturday as severe weather responsible for at least nine deaths continue to pound parts of the country.
The storms also brought damaging tornadoes to Alabama, Kentucky and Mississippi.
Hundreds of thousands of customers lost power as winds whipped and trees fell.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service say temperatures over much of the East Coast will remain well above average, even after a cold front moves through.
Across the central US and the South, severe storms marched east, impacting the entire Mississippi River and Ohio River valleys.
Tornadoes were reported in Kentucky, Arkansas and Alabama, and five million people were still under tornado watches. The National Weather Service issued a watch Saturday afternoon for parts of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina until midnight EST.
In Alabama: Storms killed three people in Pickens County, in the western part of the state, Sheriff Todd Hall said. The severe weather also wiped out the homes the people were, the sheriff added. The deaths happened near the town of Carrollton, emergency management officials said.
In Louisiana: A severe storm demolished a home in Bossier Parish on Friday night, and an elderly couple were found dead nearby, authorities said. And in Oil City, a tree fell on a home, killing a man, Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator said.
In Ohio: The Cleveland office of the National Weather Service said Saturday afternoon the strong weather front made for a 29-degree temperature difference between Cleveland's airport (70 degrees) and Lorain's airport (41 degrees), which is 20 miles away.
Heavy rain and strong winds were pounding parts of the South, downing power lines along the way. More than 350,000 homes and businesses were without power in 10 states - Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas and West Virginia -- by 7 p.m. ET, according to the online project PowerOutage.us.
Downed trees and power lines littered some Louisiana roadways.
Storms demolished a couple homes around the southwestern Missouri community of Fair Play, about a 140-mile drive south of Kansas City, CNN affiliate KOLR reported. A possible tornado was reported in the area, the National Weather Service said.
Flood warnings and watches were in effect in many states the long line of storms is hitting. Strong, damaging winds are expected Saturday across the South. Some storms could produce hail as big as small marbles.
Winter weather advisories have been issued in areas from Kansas to Michigan, with severe ice and snow in the forecast.
Snow, sleet and freezing rain are expected in parts of Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, Missouri, northern Illinois, eastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin and much of Michigan.
In Oklahoma, a man was killed Saturday after getting swept away by floodwaters in Kiowa, Oklahoma, an incident report from the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety said.
In Chicago, strong winds -- including gusts over 50 mph -- accompanied light snow and rain Saturday morning. More than 1,100 flights to or from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport were canceled Saturday, and more than 300 others were delayed, according to tracking website FlightAware.com.
Sleet, freezing rain and snow are expected around the city throughout the day. Winds were building up large waves on Lake Michigan, threatening lakeshore flooding in the Chicago area, the National Weather Service said.
In Michigan, some areas could see up to three-quarters of an inch of ice. Other areas could see anywhere from a light glaze to a half inch of ice.
"Ice storms can be extremely dangerous," CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen said. The amount of ice forecast for Michigan could bring down trees and power lines, which could cause widespread power outages.
"Power could be out for days, with temperatures below freezing," he said. "Ice storms can cause deadly travel conditions, worse than even a foot of snow. Four-wheel drive vehicles and trucks are no match for the kind of ice that is forecast."
A foot of snow could fall in Des Moines through Sunday, with at least 8 inches of snow in southern Wisconsin and northern Michigan.
Origin:CNN.com
13/1/2020
Philippines warns of 'explosive eruption' after Taal Volcano spews ash near Manila
A volcano near the capital of the Philippines erupted Sunday, forcing residents to evacuate as experts warned that another "hazardous explosive eruption" is possible.
The Taal Volcano, about 37 miles south of Manila on the island of Luzon, erupted in the afternoon.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported that the volcano exhibited a "fast escalation" in volcanic activity. Continuous eruption generated ash plumes 6 to 9 miles above the crater, spewing ashes "as far as Quezon City."
The agency raised its alert status to indicate the possibility of a hazardous eruption with lava within hours to days.
The state-run Philippines News Agency reported minor earthquakes.
Origin:CNN.com
11/1/2020
5.2 aftershock hits Puerto Rico days after earthquake
A 5.2 magnitude aftershock hit Puerto Rico's southern coast on Friday afternoon, days after an earthquake shook the island and left much of it without power.
The aftershock came as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is making aid available and assisting with damage assessment after the quake rocked the island before dawn on Tuesday. It was one of about 500 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or greater that have rattled the area since December 28, according to the US Geological Survey.
The earthquake left one man dead, caused dozens of homes and other structures to crumble and left about two-thirds of residents in the dark.
The US territory, still recovering from the damage caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017, expects to return power to all of its 3 million residents by Saturday, according to utility officials.
Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced declared a state of emergency and activated the Puerto Rico National Guard as she pleaded with residents to remain calm and prepare for aftershocks.
For many, that has meant bringing mattresses, tents and tarps into their yards to sleep, for fear of what aftershocks could do to their already damaged homes.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) has modeled three forecasts of what may be in store for Puerto Rico over the next month.
The most likely scenario, the USGS said, is that the aftershocks will continue to decrease in frequency; and though there may be medium and small quakes, there will not be another earthquake like Tuesday's in this sequence. USGS said the probability of this scenario is 84%.
There a 14% chance of what is called a doublet, which is two large earthquakes of a similar size occurring in a similar location, the USGS said. Meaning there is a case in which the region could see another quake as powerful as 6.4 magnitude.
Least likely is that Tuesday's earthquake could trigger an even larger one. While the probability is small, the impacts of that scenario would be devastating, the USGS said.
"The USGS advises everyone to be aware of the possibility of aftershocks, especially when in or around vulnerable structures such as unreinforced masonry buildings," the agency said.
But the plant that supplies about a quarter of the island's power, Costa Sur Power Plant, suffered extensive damage and could be out of commission for a year, Ortiz said in an interview aired on "CBS This Morning."
Origin:CNN.com
10/1/2020
Origin of mystery humming noises heard around the world, uncovered
In 2018, a multitude of seismic signals were detected by earthquake monitoring agencies all over the world in May and June. They created a weird humming sound and some of the signals detected in November of that year had a duration of up to 20 minutes.
The signals and humming triggered "the curiosity of the scientific community," according to a new study that explains what happened: the formation of a new underwater volcano.
The unusual amount of earthquakes were traced to the island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, one of several in the Comoros archipelago found between Africa and Madagascar.
Scientists detected 7,000 tectonic earthquakes within the scope of the study. These kinds of earthquakes occur when Earth's tectonic plates become stuck as they move alongside one another. The pressure that allows them to move on causes earthquakes.
The most severe earthquakes reached a magnitude of 5.9 in May 2018.
New seismological methods developed by the researchers helped them piece together a year-long timeline to reconstruct what happened. Their study published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The first phase involved magma rapidly rising from a reservoir in the mantle 18 miles below the Earth's surface. This opened a channel in the ocean floor, allowing the magma to flow and begin forming a new underwater volcano.
During the formation of the underwater volcano, earthquake activity dropped, and the ground of Mayotte lowered. Then, the VLP signals began.
"We interpret this as a sign of the collapse of the deep magma chamber off the coast of Mayotte," said Eleonora Rivalta, study co-author from the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ. "It is the deepest and largest magma reservoir in the upper mantle to date, which is beginning to empty abruptly."
"Since the seabed lies 3 kilometres below the water surface, almost nobody noticed the enormous eruption," said Torsten Dahm, study co-author and professor of geophysics and seismology at the University of Potsdam in Germany.
"However, there are still possible hazards for the island of Mayotte today, as the Earth's crust above the deep reservoir could continue to collapse, triggering stronger earthquakes."
Origin:CNN.com
10/1/2020
Persistent earthquakes put Puerto Rico on edge
These are difficult times in Puerto Rico.
Since December 28, the Caribbean island has been struck by more than 500 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2 or greater.
The biggest came before dawn Tuesdaywhen a 6.4 magnitude quake, centered off the southern coast, killed at least one person and destroyed dozens of homes and structures.
Aftershocks soon followed, and more are expected.
Many Puerto Ricans don’t feel safe inside their homes right now.
“People are just sleeping outside in tents or in their cars because they're afraid that another earthquake may strike and it might be a bigger one,” Báez said. “They don't want to get stuck under a roof.”
That deadly storm devastated Puerto Rico,and the disaster response was the largest and longest in US history, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But to many people Báez spoke to, the earthquakes feel worse than Maria.
“With the hurricane, you knew when and at what time it would arrive,” Guayanilla resident Tatiana Rodriguez told her. “This, you don’t know at what time it’s going to happen.”
Ashley Ramirez Pérez, another Guayanilla resident, told Báez “Hurricane Maria was nothing compared to this.”
“People who lost their homes don't know what they're going to do,” Báez said.
“In some cases, the people live in public housing, so they're waiting on the engineers to check out the structures and tell them if it's safe or not,” Báez said.
“They have no idea when they're going to be returning.”
Nicole Oquendo, a Ponce resident, lost her home and recalled the devastation after Tuesday’s big quake.
“It was horrible. I’ve never felt something like it,” she told Báez.
“Everyone was outside crying, screaming. Many people were trapped inside their apartments when doors wouldn’t open. People passed out, too.”
She took her children to the refuge center in Ponce.
“I have to stay strong because I have to take care of my three boys,” she said. “Our only option is to live one day at a time, because if we think about the future we'll be in despair.”
Origin:CNN.com
9/1/2020
Australian couple returns 'home' to find smoking ruin where their house once stood
Bushfires have raged across several Australian states for months, but high temperatures and strong winds have pushed the danger level to "severe" in the past week.
Huge blazes have edged closer to towns, national parks and the pockets of dense bushland that people had cleared for their homes.
In the tiny community of Pericoe, Bruce Honeyman and Julie-Ann Grima left their home of 10 years on New Year's Eve, when the sky started to glow a deep red.
On the patio table, they left a handwritten note for firefighters: "Evacuated to Eden."
Monday was the first chance they had to see what had become of their home.
The couple realized their home was gone before they saw the ruins of the building.
"I get a lump in my throat sometimes seeing people ... who come and have to confront this. It makes me think of how I would feel if it was me," Bradley Clint, the senior deputy captain of the Rural Fire Service at Rockey Hall brigade, told CNN.
Up a steep, potholed dirt track, the mud brick structure was still standing, but the intense heat had smashed the kitchen windows and the sheet metal roof that covered the back of the house lay buckled in the ash.
"I had a reasonable idea this was going to be the outcome," Honeyman said, as he steeled himself against tears. "The ferocity of this sort of fire is unbelievable. We made the right decision to evacuate. For that I'm thankful," he said, turning to hug Grima.
"We've just been unlucky," Honeyman said.
Around 2,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged across Australia during what has become the worst bushfire season on record.
Since September, the fires have prompted nearly 9,000 insurance claims totaling 700 million Australian dollars ($483 million) in the states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, according to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA).
"Twelve months ago this whole valley was green," Grima said. "That's how dry it's been."
The couple is taking time to think about what they do next.
Origin:CNN.com
8/1/2020
Puerto Rico residents sleeping outside as aftershocks rock region hit by deadly earthquake
Puerto Rico residents spent the night outside as aftershocks rocked the island following a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that knocked out power and water services in some areas.
The quake was the strongest and likely the most damaging of hundreds of temblorsthat have struck the island since December 28. It hit before dawn Tuesday, leaving a man dead and causing dozens of homes and structures to crumble.
Terrified of sleeping indoors as aftershocks continue, neighbors put mattresses in their front yards while others spent the night Tuesday under white tents and tarps.
Riko Gonzalez and his parents were asleep in their home in Yauco, near Indios, when the quake struck. They scurried out of the house as dishes tumbled to the kitchen floor, he said.
"People are afraid to go to bed, to then be woken up to worse earthquakes than the day before," Gonzalez said.
Much of Puerto Rico is still without power Wednesday as engineers work to restore it in phases.
"We lost the largest plant in the entire system," said Jose Ortiz, executive director of the Electric Power Authority.
The earthquakes come after Hurricane Maria devastated the US territory in September 2017. Many in southern Puerto Rico said the earthquakes' damage was worse.
"There's no warnings for this," Puerto Rico Police Commissioner Henry Escalera said of the earthquakes. "A hurricane gives us time to plan ahead."
When asked what concerns him the most about the quakes' aftermath, he said, "That homes will not be safe to live in and the possibility of a collapse that will cause a person's death or serious injuries."
Origin:CNN.com
8/1/2020
Two earthquakes strike near Iran nuclear plant
Two earthquakes struck near a nuclear power plant in southwestern Iran on Wednesday morning, just over a week after another quake hit the region.
The first quake, measuring 4.9 magnitude, struck just before 9.00 a.m. local time in Bushehr province, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Around 30 minutes later a second quake, this time measuring 4.5 magnitude, struck the same province which runs along the Iranian coastline.
The quake epicenters were within 20 kilometers of the city of Borazjan -- a short distance from the country's Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Another earthquake, measuring 5.1 magnitude, struck the same region less than two weeks ago.
Iran is no stranger to tectonic activity. The country sits on a major fault line between the Arabian and Eurasian plates, and has experienced many earthquakes in the past.
In November, at least five people died and 330 others injured when a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Iran.
A quake that struck near the Iran-Iraq border in November 2017 killed at least 452 people.
The deadliest quake this century occurred in 2003, when a magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck the southeastern Iranian city of Bam, killing some 26,000 people.
Origin:CNN.com
8/1/2020
Fires, storms and floods cost $150 billion in 2019. More disasters are on the way
Hurricanes, wildfires and floods cost the world $150 billion in 2019 and losses for business and the economy are only expected to increase, because of a decade-long rise in natural catastrophes with direct links to climate change.
Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, said Wednesday that it expects to see an increase in the frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters in certain parts of the world.
"We expect 2020 to be part of this trend towards increasing losses from weather-related disasters, a trend that we have been observing over the last decade," Ernst Rauch, Munich Re's chief climatologist, told CNN Business.
The Insurance Council of Australia said in a statement Tuesday that insurance losses from bush fires this season stood at $700 million Australian dollars ($481 million).
Insurers have received nearly 9,000 claims since September and "many more" are expected to be lodged in coming days and weeks, the Insurance Council said. At least 26 people have died in the fires, according to Australian police.
There were 820 natural catastrophes in 2019, slightly below the previous year but well above the long-term average of 520, according to Munich Re. In 2018, losses from natural disasters amounted to $186 billion.
Japan's typhoons Hagibis and Faxai together accounted for the largest overall losses ($26 billion) last year, followed by Typhoon Lekima, and floods in India and China.
Natural disasters cost the insurance industry $52 billion in 2019, below the previous year but above the 30-year average. This is partly due to lower cover for flood losses in developed countries, Rauch said.
Disasters such as Mozambique's Cyclone Idai — which caused $2.3 billion in losses and more than 1,000 deaths — were almost completely uninsured, he said.
An increase in losses from weather-related disasters will cause premiums to rise and make it more expensive for business and property owners to buy insurance, he said.
Origin:CNN.com
7/1/2020
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hits Puerto Rico, killing 1 a day after another quake rocked the island
A 6.5 magnitude earthquake rocked Puerto Rico early Tuesday morning, just one day after a 5.8 magnitude quake shook the island, according to the United States Geological Service earthquake map.
The 6.5 quake struck at 3:24 a.m. local time about 10 kilometers south of Indios, Puerto Rico USGS said.
The Authority of Electrical Energy, the power company for Puerto Rico, said that power plants have activated an auto protective mechanism and are out of service following the earthquake.
No tsunami is expected following the earthquake, the US National Tsunami Warning Center said.
There were no immediate reports of damage following Tuesday's quake.
Geologists warned that more earthquakes, known as aftershocks and tremors, would follow Monday's quake.
"When there are more earthquakes, the chance of a large earthquake is greater which means that the chance of damage is greater," the USGS said.
On Monday, the early morning quake in the same area caused some damage, including a home collapse in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, Director of Emergency Management Carlos Acevedo said.
Acevedo also said that rock slides along Route 2 were reported.
Origin:CNN.com
5/1/2020
Mass evacuations, banned BBQs, sports events at risk. Deadly fires are threatening Australia's way of life
Deadly blazes have torn through huge swaths of Australia's east and south for months now, in the most brutal fire season seen there in years. Across the country, 23 people have been killed and about 6 million hectares (23,000 square miles) of bushland -- around the same size as Croatia -- have burned out.
The devastation and persistent clouds of toxic smoke hanging over major towns and cities are begging the question, can Australia's way of life go on?
Most Australians want tougher action on climate change, according to the Australian Institute's Climate of the Nation survey. Some 81% of Australians are concerned that global warming will result in more droughts and flooding, while 64% think Australia should have a national target for net zero emissions by 2050.
Australia's political inaction on climate change can be hard to understand. Famous for its natural beauty, the country suffers annual fires and intense drought. It is regularly smashing heat records, and its rain patterns are becoming less predictable. Its seasons are beginning to look a little back to front -- wildfires began in 2019 at the end of August, during the Australian winter.
About 85% of Australians live within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of the coast, so projected sea level rises would have a dramatic impact on the way Australians live, studies show. Many Australians have also never experienced such intense fires as close to the coast as they have this summer. The country's biggest city, Sydney, has been shrouded in smoke more than 10 times hazardous levels on several days in the past two months. Its capital, Canberra, had the worst air quality in the world on Thursday, according to air pollution indexes.
If Australians want to retain their quality of life, they must consider climate change policies that not only address fires, but also other pollutants, such as traffic and industry, according to Ilan Kelman from the University College of London's Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction.
"People make the decision to live in a mega-city, whether Sydney or London, and we know these risks come. And if we choose to live there, we should be convincing our politicians, and electing our politicians, who will deal with air quality, as London has done," he said. "Otherwise, they'll have to accept all these life impacts which bad air brings."
Origin:CNN.com
4/1/2020
There's a fire in Australia the size of Manhattan
Three fires have combined to form a single blaze bigger than the New York borough of Manhattan, as Australian firefighters battle what has been predicted to the most catastrophic day yet in an already devastating bushfire season.
The fires joined overnight in the Omeo region in Victoria state, creating a 6,000-hectare (23 square mile) blaze, according to Gippsland's Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
In neighboring New South Wales state, a fire in the Wollondilly region south of the capital Sydney remains "out of control," according to the Rural Fire Service. It has burned 264,000 hectares (1,020 square miles) of land in recent months.
Weather conditions are deteriorating rapidly on Saturday, with the country's Bureau of Meteorology warning that winds are picking up and temperatures increasing. "Today will be a day of severe to extreme fire danger through many districts," the bureau said.
The death toll is rising as conditions worsen -- Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday that 23 people had been killed nationwide, up from 18 from earlier in the week. More than 1,500 homes have also been destroyed since the fire season began in September.
All three branches of the ADF -- the navy, army, and air force -- have been working this week to rescue residents from fire-threatened areas and isolated towns cut off by closed roads. On Friday, the navy evacuated about 1,000 people from the Victoria beach town of Mallacoota, Morrison said.
Some residents have chosen to stay and defend their homes, even with authorities urging people to get out while they can. Matt Runko, a homeowner in Moruya, NSW, departed late Friday -- but was forced to leave his neighbor behind.
Some of the biggest fires have been burning for months, but the real danger on Saturday is the wind. Not only does it make the fires grow faster and bigger, but the wind can carry embers far distances and start entirely new fires in new locations.
These winds will change directions once the cold front passes -- making the fires even more difficult to control. Some rain is expected by the end of the weekend heading into Monday, but won't be enough to extinguish the large ongoing blazes, according to CNN meteorologists.
"We can't stop the fires, all we can do is steer them around communities," he told CNN.
Origin:CNN.com
2/1/2020
New Zealand glaciers turn brown and 'could melt faster because of Australia's bushfires'
Smoke and ash drifting from the Australian bushfires have caused New Zealand's glaciers to turn caramel brown, with one expert fearing this could increase the risk of them melting faster this year.
A jet stream transporting large amounts of smoke and ash this week from the blazes in Victoria and New South Wales deposited them along the way in New Zealand's South Island as they traveled east, according to CNN meteorologist Michael Guy.
Guy added that this year, glacier melt may quicken "since the color will be a little darker than true white."
While it's too early to say exactly how the particles will affect the glaciers in New Zealand, scientists have found that forest fires in the Amazon have caused glaciers in the Andes mountains to melt faster, with pollutants such as black carbon and dust lodged in the ice, reducing the glacier's ability to reflect sunlight.
Origin:CNN.com
2/1/2020
Jakarta floods leave dozens dead and 60,000 displaced
Severe flooding in Jakarta that's left swaths of the capital underwater has killed at least 30 people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, according to Indonesia's disaster agency.
Torrential rains have been pounding the greater Jakarta region since New Year's Eve, causing 62,453 people to be evacuated to temporary shelters, the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management said in a statement Thursday.
Most of the victims died in Bogor district and East Jakarta, the agency said. Among the dead, 17 were swept away by the floods, five were buried by landslides and five were electrocuted.
Images from Jakarta's greater metropolitan area, which is home to about 30 million people, showed residents wading through chest-high flood waters as they attempted to retrieve items from their waterlogged homes.
The flooding is the worst the city has seen in decades. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency measured 15 inches of rain at an East Jakarta airport on January 1, the highest flood reading since 1996, Reuters reported.
In a separate statement, the disaster management board implored residents in affected areas, who chose to stay and protect their homes, to evacuate.
Jakarta, which is prone to flooding, is one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world. Last year, the government announced that it is relocating the megalopolis -- a project estimated to cost the equivalent of around $34 billion.
Origin:CNN.com
30/12/2019
Residents warned it's 'too late to leave' parts of Australia's Victoria state as fires rage
Residents of several towns in the picturesque southeastern Australian state of Victoria are being warned to "take shelter indoors immediately," as devastating wildfires continue to rage across the region.
Tens of thousands of residents and people on vacation were urged to evacuate Sunday, as authorities had forecast that several factors could make it an incredibly dangerous day in terms of fire risk.
"The extreme fire dangers, the strong winds that were forecast, and the very hot temperatures have all come as we thought," Andrew Tupper of the Victoria Bureau of Meteorology said at a news conference on Monday.
Several emergency warnings have been put in place throughout Victoria, meaning people in those areas are in "imminent danger," according to Victoria Emergency. Victoria Emergency have issued several warnings on Twitter telling people in a handful of villages in remote parts of the state "it is too late to leave" and advising them to stay inside.
The Australia Bureau of Meteorology said that fires in the region "exhibited very dangerous behavior overnight" that are "likely to worsen today."
A fire in nearby Mallacoota also has authorities worried. Crisp said the blaze began Sunday afternoon, and as winds changed direction it quickly shifted directions and traveled some 24 kilometers (15 miles) in about four hours, he said. The smoke columns from the fire rose some 14 kilometers (9 miles) high, and have begun generating their own weather systems.
"There's lightning coming out of these columns," he said.
Australia has dealt with a series of fires this summer that authorities have described as historic, unprecedented and "catastrophic." The deadly blazes have largely been caused by record-breaking heat and dry conditions.
Monday in Victoria was forecast to be particularly bad. The dry conditions, high temperatures -- parts of the state could reach above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) -- strong winds and thunderstorms all combine to greatly increase the risk of existing fires spreading or new ones sparking, Victoria Emergency said.
Lightning started 16 blazes in the state on Sunday, CNN affiliate 7 News reported.
Origin:CNN.com
28/12/2019
There's a Texas-size area of hot sea water off the coast of New Zealand
In the South Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand, satellite imagery shows a massive area of ocean water at well-above-average temperatures.
The water in the area is about 5 degrees Celsius (about 9 degrees Fahrenheit) "warmer than average for the latitude and time of year," said James Renwick, a professor and head of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.
The hot blob on the Pacific surface is detectable from space and is the largest area of above-average water temperature on Earth right now.
The patch of sea is about a million square kilometers (400,000 square miles), covering an area of ocean larger than the size of Texas.
"The ocean surface doesn't vary that wildly," Renwick said. "One degree (Celsius) is big. So, five degrees is huge."
It's especially rare to see over such a large area, but scientists say global climate change is making these phenomena more common.
"The ocean surface does what the air above tells it," Renwick said.
That area has received a lot of sunshine, and there's been a lack of westerly wind to blow area away the warm area hovering above the sea surface, he said.
"If it's warm somewhere, it may be cold somewhere else," Renwick said. Just east of the abnormally warm area, the water is about 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than then average.
These warm blobs happen at various points around the world's oceans. A few months ago, oceanographers observed a similar warm patch of ocean off Alaska, which Renwick attributed to the loss of Arctic sea ice.
That study showed that from 1925 to 2016, there was a 54% rise in the number of marine heat wave days each year. That was because heat waves were increasing in both frequency and in duration, with the highest level of maritime heat wave activity occurring in the North Atlantic.
Between 1982 and 2016, scientists saw a more alarming trend as the number of heat wave days on the global ocean surface had increased 82%.
The article said the data could "largely be explained by increases in mean ocean temperatures, suggesting that we can expect further increases in marine heatwave days under continued global warming."
Origin:CNN.com
27/12/2019
Magnitude 5.1 earthquake strikes Iran near nuclear power plant
A 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Iran early Friday morning in a region which houses the country's first nuclear power plant.
The quake occurred just after 5 a.m. local time, 44 kilometers (27 miles) southeast of the city of Borazjan in Bushehr province, at a depth of 38.3 kilometers (23.7 miles), according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The Bushehr nuclear plant is located on the Iranian coastline to the southwest of Borazjan, not far from the epicenter of the earthquake.
Iran is no stranger to tectonic activity. The country sits on a major fault line between the Arabian and Eurasian plates and has experienced many earthquakes in the past.
In November, at least five people were killedand 330 others injured after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Iran.
Last year, a quake that struck near the Iran-Iraq border in November killed at least 361 people.
More than 400 people were killed and thousands injured when a powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck near the Iran-Iraq border in November 2017.
The deadliest quake this century occurred in 2003 when a magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck the southeastern city of Bam, killing some 26,000 people.
Origin:CNN.com
26/12/2019
200 homes destroyed as forest fires tear through historic Chilean city
At least 200 homes have been destroyed after forest fires swept through a residential area in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso on Christmas Eve.
Hundreds of firefighters struggled to control the fast-moving blaze, which continued into Christmas Day and was made worse by dry weather and strong winds.
Military units and helicopters were deployed to help battle the flames and residents were evacuated to shelters.
Images show dozens of houses completely destroyed by the flames and residents tried to salvage any belongings.
"Progress has been made in containing the fire, but unfortunately more than 200 homes are already destroyed," Blumel posted on Twitter.
"This isn't just about the numbers -- there are families behind this to whom we have to answer," Chilean Housing Minister Cristian Monckeberg said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Located about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of the capital Santiago on Chile's coast, Valparaiso is a popular tourist destination known for its colorful houses, idyllic hills and its historic old town.
The city has been ravaged by wildfires in the past. In 2014, at least 12 people diedand 2,000 homes were destroyed when fires tore through the city.
Origin:CNN.com
26/12/2019
Typhoon Phanfone kills at least 16 as it hits the Philippines on Christmas Day
A typhoon that lashed the central Philippines on Christmas Day has killed at least 21 people and caused damage to homes and tourist areas.
Typhoon Phanfone, known locally as Typhoon Ursula, first made landfall on Eastern Samar province on Tuesday, bringing heavy rain and storm surges. It hit as the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane, packing sustained wind speeds of 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour, with gusts of 195 kilometers (121 miles) per hour.
Phanfone continued to sweep West across the islands of the Eastern Visayas region, southern Luzon and Western Visayas on Wednesday, toppling electricity pylons and trees, tearing off roofs, damaging homes and causing widespread travel disruption over the busy Christmas period.
Images from the area showed debris blocking roads, downed lamp posts, crumpled houses and people huddling in evacuation centers.
Earlier this month Typhoon Kammuri, the twentieth to hit the country this year, killed 13 people and damaged more than 8,000 houses.
Origin:CNN.com
24/12/2019
In Asia Pacific the climate crisis is happening now, not in the future
The world's most disaster-prone region felt the harsh reality of the climate crisis in 2019.
Toxic smog shrouded Asian megacities, hundreds died in flooding and landslides, cyclones battered coastlines and bushfires, droughts and deadly heatwaves led totowns and cities almost running out of water.
Far from being anomalies, scientists say the climate crisis is causing more extreme weather events -- and it's having devastating consequences in Asia and the Pacific.
"This is a sign of things to come in the new climate reality."
But while many people in developed countries see the climate crisis as an urgent but future problem, for millions living in Asia-Pacific, it's already touching every part of life.
The Asia-Pacific region, home to 60% of the world's population, is one of the most vulnerable areas to the climate crisis.
Compounding the problem is rapid urbanization in many Asian nations, with the pace of development often overtaking proper infrastructure planning.
Population booms and the mass migration of people to cities for work is putting strain on water and food supplies.
Many big Asian cities, including Mumbai, Shanghai, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Jakarta, are coastal and low-lying, making them susceptible to sea level rise and other extreme weather events.
As material wealth grows, so too does the consumer market and demand for emissions-producing conveniences such as air-conditioning, cars and disposable goods.
While wealthier cities like Hong Kong can afford to disaster-proof -- to an extent. At the other end of the scale, poverty-stricken populations are living in some of the most environmentally precarious places on Earth, where extreme weather events could prove disastrous for lives, food production, water sources, economies and infrastructure.
"If we do not take urgent climate action now, then we are heading for a temperature increase of more than 3°C by the end of the century, with ever more harmful impacts on human wellbeing," said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, in a statement. "We are nowhere near on track to meet the Paris Agreement target."
"Sea level rise is speeding up," said Cooper-Halo, who is Director of Climate Change Resilience at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). "We expected sea level rise in about 20 years to be showing the changes. But we are seeing it already now."
In a landmark report this year, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that global sea levels are rising faster than expected.
Increasing greenhouse gas emissions, warming temperatures, melting glaciers and disappearing ice sheets could cause sea levels to rise more than two meters (6.6 feet) by the end of this century if emissions continue unchecked, a study released in May found.
A rise of two meters would displace 187 million people, mostly from Asia, and swamp major cities such as Shanghai. Another study suggested that in Southeast Asia, parts of southern Vietnam and Bangkok could be underwater by 2050.
About 2.4 billion people -- about half the population of Asia -- live in areas vulnerable to extreme weather events.
This year, flooding and landslides, triggered by torrential monsoon rains, swept across India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, leaving devastation in each country and hundreds of deaths.
China, Vietnam, Japan, India, Bangladesh, South Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, were all hit by tropical storms and typhoons -- or cyclones -- in 2019, causing dozens of deaths, hundreds of thousands displaced and millions of dollars in damage.
The climate crisis is expected to create higher storm surges, increased rainfall and stronger winds.
About 2.4 billion people -- about half the population of Asia -- live in areas vulnerable to extreme weather events.
This year, flooding and landslides, triggered by torrential monsoon rains, swept across India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, leaving devastation in each country and hundreds of deaths.
China, Vietnam, Japan, India, Bangladesh, South Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, were all hit by tropical storms and typhoons -- or cyclones -- in 2019, causing dozens of deaths, hundreds of thousands displaced and millions of dollars in damage.
The climate crisis is expected to create higher storm surges, increased rainfall and stronger winds.
"Whenever an extreme weather event happens, we lose our basic human right to safe, decent, and dignified life."
Seven out of 10 disasters that caused the biggest economic losses in the world from 1970 to 2019 are tropical cyclones, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Preparing for more extreme weather costs money and there are calls for rich nations to provide smaller economies with finance and technology to recover from the impacts of the climate crisis.
Sustento said fossil fuel companies also need to do their part -- by speeding up the shift to renewable energy.
"We should not allow the fossil fuel industry to continue with business as usual, while we are left with no choice but to live with the 'new normal', to count our dead, to search for the missing, and to fear for our future," she said.
As the climate crisis makes rainfall and the annual monsoons -- vital for the region's agriculture -- more erratic, droughts and water shortages will become more severe.
The past five years have been the hottest on record and blistering heatwaves -- felt this year in Japan, China, India, Pakistan, and Australia -- are becoming so intense that a group of MIT researchers suggested some places could become too hot to be inhabitable.
"We have an economy where there's a population that's growing and industry that's growing. So you need 40% more water for industry, you need more water for more people. You need more water for everything," said Jyoti Sharma, founder and president of FORCE, an Indian NGO.
"Water stress is the biggest crisis no one is talking about. Its consequences are in plain sight in the form of food insecurity, conflict and migration, and financial instability," said Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute.
Origin:CNN.com
20/12/2019
A storm brought some of the largest waves ever recorded off the California coast last week. One was 75-feet tall
The bomb cyclone that pounded the West Coast last week brought with it some of the tallest waves ever recorded off the California coast.
A monstrous 75-foot wave was recorded about 20 miles off the coast of Cape Mendocino in northern California, according to the University of California, San Diego's Coastal Data Information Program.
In the 15 years the program has operated a station in that location, the significant wave height -- or the average height of the tallest third of waves that occur over 30 minutes -- typically doesn't exceed 10 feet tall during the winter.
The 75-footer was the tallest of the waves recorded in that period, which averaged around 43 feet tall. Still, that's "definitely unusual" for this time of year, program manager James Behrens told CNN.
"These kinds of really large waves are usually only detected way out in the middle of the ocean, when winds are being generated," he said.
The program's buoys had only measured taller waves at one other station, located in the remote North Pacific Ocean where extreme waves are expected to form on occasion, he said.
Bomb cyclones are storms that strengthen rapidly, causing pressure to drop quickly. Lower pressure yields stronger winds, though it's unusual for waves this tall to be tracked so close to the coast, Behrens said.
The bomb cyclone that dumped rain and snow on the West set low-pressure records in northern California and parts of Oregon, the National Weather Service said.
Hurricane-strength winds were recorded in Cape Blanco, Oregon, on November 26, the same day the 75-foot wave was recorded.
Gusts there topped out at 106 mph.
The program's buoys are only three feet in circumference, but they're designed to "measure waves to the highest precision." Behrens said the oceanographers share the data with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to improve their measurements.
The buoys are outfitted with acceleration sensors that help oceanographers recreate the motion of the wave, its height and direction. They can sense how long a wave takes to move and locate the direction of wind chops and sea swells, he said.
"It's often just a game of chance," Nicolini said. "If they came at a peak time, they would've caused significant damage."
Origin:CNN.com
20/12/2019
New South Wales declares state of emergency as Australia bushfires rage
A state of emergency has been declared in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) for the second time in two months, as firefighters battle nearly 100 active fires amid a record-breaking heat wave.
The fires have been burning for two months now, exacerbated by rising temperatures. Wednesday broke the record for the hottest day nationwide, with the average maximum temperature hitting 41.9 degrees Celsius (107.4 Fahrenheit). That beat the previous record of 40.9 Celsius (105.6 Fahrenheit) -- which had been set just the day before.
One particularly large fire is burning in the Wollemi National Park Area, northwest of Sydney -- it's more than 417,000 hectares in size and "is out of control," the Rural Fire Service said. It warned residents that "It is too late to leave," and to take shelter from the heat of the fire.
A total of six people have died and nearly 800 homes have been destroyed by the fires this season, according to the NSW government.
Earlier this week, the city of Perth in Western Australia experienced three consecutive days above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) -- which had never happened in December, according to CNN meteorologists.
The heat wave began largely concentrated in South Australia, but is now moving east into Victoria and NSW. Authorities have warned that temperatures could rise even higher over the course of the week.
Origin:CNN.com
20/12/2019
Earth's magnetic north pole is heading for Russia and scientists are puzzled
The north magnetic pole has been slowly moving across the Canadian Arctic toward Russia since 1831, but its swift pace toward Siberia in recent years at a rate of around 34 miles per year has forced scientists to update the World Magnetic Model -- used by civilian navigation systems, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and US and British militaries -- a year ahead of schedule.
The World Magnetic Model 2020 forecasts that the pole will continue on its path to Russia, but now the speed is slowly decreasing to about 24.8 miles per year. Since its discovery in 1831, the pole has traveled 1,400 miles.
The magnetic field reverses its polarity every several hundred thousand years, where the magnetic north pole resides at the geographic South Pole. The last reversal took place 770,000 years ago.
In a new study, researchers discovered that the last field reversal took 22,000 years to complete -- much longer than anticipated or expected, the researchers said.
Although some believe reversals could happen over the course of a human life, the findings don't support that theory.
"Reversals are generated in the deepest parts of the Earth's interior, but the effects manifest themselves all the way through the Earth and especially at the Earth's surface and in the atmosphere," said Brad Singer, study author and University of Wisconsin-Madison geologist. "Unless you have a complete, accurate and high-resolution record of what a field reversal really is like at the surface of the Earth, it's difficult to even discuss what the mechanics of generating a reversal are."
Our planet's magnetic field is created by an interaction between the liquid iron outer core spinning around the solid inner core. When a reversal happens, the normally strong magnetic field weakens.
Radioisotope dating of lava flows and continuous magnetic readings from the ocean floor and Antarctic ice cores helped recreate a picture of the last reversal for the researchers.
Argon can be measured from the lava flows as the radioactive decay of potassium occurs in the rocks, while beryllium can be measured in the ice cores. A weakened magnetic field allows more cosmic radiation from space to strike our atmosphere, which creates more beryllium.
The actual reversal took less than 4,000 years -- a drop in the bucket when compared to Earth's timeline so far. But leading up to that reversal were 18,000 years of instability, including two temporary and partial reversals. This is twice as long as expected.
The magnetic field decreases in strength about 5% each century and signs of weakening in the field point to an upcoming reversal -- but it's hard to know when that reversal will happen.
If a reversal happened during our lifetime, it could impact navigation, satellites and communications. However, the researchers believe that we would have generations to adapt for long periods of instability in the magnetic field.
"I've been working on this problem for 25 years," Singer said. "And now we have a richer record and better-dated record of this last reversal than ever before."
Origin:CNN.com
15/12/2019
6-year-old girl among 3 killed as 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocks southern Philippines
A six-year-old girl was among three people killed when a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the southern Philippines island of Mindanao on Sunday.
The girl was inside her family's house when the building collapsed and killed her, the province's governor, Douglas Cagas, told CNN.
The country's President Rodrigo Duterte was at his home in Davao, the largest city on the island, at the time of the quake, reported state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA). He was unhurt, although his house reportedly "sustained several cracks in the walls."
There were several aftershocks in nearby provinces, including a 5.0 magnitude, according to the US Geological Survey. It added that there was no tsunami threat, as the quake struck inland and not the water.
It's the latest in a serious of quakes to strike the island in recent months. In October another series of 6.6 and 6.5-magnitude quakes struck Mindanao, killing 14 and injuring more than 400.
Origin:CNN.com
15/12/2019
'If the climate stays like this, we won't make it' say those on the frontline of Africa's drought
Torrents of water once thundered over the precipice at Victoria Falls, on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, shrouding the area in mist.
But a multi-year drought has slowed large sections of the imposing falls to little more than a weak stream, and the lush vegetation they once nourished is hot and dry.
The parched waterfall is perhaps the most visible effect of the drought that is hammering this region. But it is not the most devastating. The World Food Program says that more than 7 million people in Zimbabwe alone are going hungry, with a further 45 million people across southern Africa at risk.
As delegates desperately search for a practical plan for cutting emissions at the COP25 meetings in Madrid, Spain, this week, this region is a stark reminder that the climate crisis is here and now -- and that countries that did the least to cause the climate crisis are already being hit the hardest.
"Our future is still ahead of us," said Nkosi Nyathi, a 16-year-old climate activist from Victoria Falls, ahead of his flight to COP25 in Madrid. "We are looking at what is already happening with the drought. What is our future going to be like? Even just 10 years down the line or 15 years down the line, it will affect us very much."
"I think Africans are fully realizing how urgent the need now is for worldwide climate action," Engelbrecht says. "The southern African region, in particular, is already hot and dry and is projected to become even hotter and drier under future climate change. In fact, the region is projected to warm at more or less double the global rate of warming."
"I wish that they could stop climate change because we are suffering," she says. "We depend on farming to survive as a family and if the climate stays like this we won't make it."
Ncube doesn't need climate science to tell her how things have changed in this part of the country. As a child, they could depend on the rains to plant their maize and sorghum, a grain used to feed livestock. But no longer.
Extreme climate events will come more frequently and on multiple fronts: Sustained droughts and heatwaves will continue; cyclones like Idai that hit Mozambique and Zimbabwe in March will get stronger; and the prospect of Day Zero water events -- like when Cape Town very nearly ran out of water last year -- are three times more likely, Englebrecht says.
Climate models project a nightmare scenario where staple crops such as maize won't survive the heatwaves and even cattle farming -- key to the livelihood of millions -- will be impossible.
"The message is simple: Guys, we are all humans, we are all breathing the same air, these countries are polluting, and we are facing the worst of it," he says.
Origin:CNN.com
4/12/2019
A massive waterfall formed on Greenland's ice sheet. Here's why it matters
What may have been the world's tallest waterfall briefly formed on Greenland's ice sheet last year, draining a meltwater lake of 5 million cubic meters of water -- equivalent to 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools -- in just five hours.
Their study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigates the link between this transfer of meltwater to the bottom of the ice and rising global sea levels. Greenland has the world's second-largest ice sheet, and is the single largest contributor to global sea-level rise, the study said.
Caused by cracks forming on the ice sheet, these cascades are responsible for dumping huge quantities of surface water to the ice bed, where it can accelerate the movement of ice towards the sea. After draining, lakes leave behind holes called moulins, which allow meltwater to continue to travel to the bottom of the ice sheet.
"When trigger lakes drain, the water lubricates the bed and the ice flow becomes faster," Christoffersen said.
Formed during the summer as the weather warms, the 'trigger lakes' such as the one the scientists observed at Store Glacier, in northwest Greenland, can cause a chain-reaction so that up to 50 or more lakes nearby can drain rapidly over the course of a few days, Christoffersen said.
At its peak, the cascade was 950 cubic meters per second, which is roughly half of the flow of Niagara Falls or one Olympic sized swimming pool every three seconds, he said. The water was plunging "pretty much exactly" 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), said Christoffersen.
"This discharge increased the ice flow from two meters per day to five meters per day as the water delivery took place. This acceleration had a sudden impact on the ice sheet in terms of stress and ice deformation, and these dynamic impacts explain why lakes situated in places where fractures do not naturally form, still drain rapidly," said Christoffersen.
Christoffersen said climate change plays a key role in the increase of meltwater production, as global temperatures rise.
"More and more melt water is being produced and melting extends to higher and higher elevations," he said. "Lakes are growing larger and more numerous and forming at higher elevations. Some as high as 2 kilometers above sea level. This means that networks of lakes draining in cascading events are likely to grow larger."
"It's possible we've under-estimated the effects of these glaciers on the overall instability of the Greenland Ice Sheet," said co-first author Tom Chudley, a PhD student at the Scott Polar Research and the team's drone pilot.
Origin:CNN.com
4/12/2019
Global emissions will hit another record high this year despite a slowdown in coal use
Carbon dioxide emissions are expected to reach another record high this year, a new report found Wednesday, with scientists warning the world is losing time to make the drastic reductions needed to avert a climate catastrophe.
In 2019, the world is projected to pump out almost 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide, driven by demand for oil and natural gas, according to an annual report from the Global Carbon Project, an international research initiative focused on sustainability.
That growth -- even if it has slowed -- means that the world is not on track to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement, which aims to cap global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
To achieve this, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said global net emissions of carbon dioxide would need to fall by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach "net zero" around 2050.
Researchers warn emissions could keep increasing over the next decade unless energy, transportation and industry policies significantly change across the world.
"We're losing time, the years and decades are marching by and carbon dioxide emissions show no signs of dropping," Jackson said.
China, the United States, Europe and India account for more than half of global emissions.
"We are witnessing a shift in the dominance of emissions sources -- coal emissions are trending down, but oil emissions continue to grow, and natural gas emissions are fast accelerating," said Dr. Pep Canadell, Executive Director of the Global Carbon Budget and Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO's Climate Science Center, in a statement.
The world is now 1.1°C degrees warmer than it was at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution -- a change that has already had a profound effect on the planet and people's lives.
Last month, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) 2019 Emissions Gap report warned that the commitments countries pledged to limit the climate crisis are nowhere near enough to stave off record-high temperatures.
At the current rate, temperatures are expected to rise 3.2 degrees Celsius by 2100, the UNEP report stated. To get the Earth back on track to the 1.5-degree goal, global greenhouse gas emissions must fall at least 7.6% every year.
Origin:CNN.com
30/11/2019
Borneo is burning How the world’s demand for palm oil is driving deforestation in Indonesia
Deep within the jungles of Indonesian Borneo, illegal fires rage, creating apocalyptic red skies and smoke that has spread as far as Malaysia and Singapore.
People are choking. Animals are dying.
This is no ordinary fire. It was lit for you.
They’re not only burning the forest, they’re destroying the peatlands that lie beneath it -- the world’s largest natural terrestrial carbon sink.
Experts say the annual infernos have ignited a climate bomb with disastrous consequences for the world in years to come.
Origin:CNN.com
27/11/2019
Countries are not doing enough to keep Earth’s temperature from rising to near-catastrophic levels, a UN report says
A new United Nations report paints a bleak picture: The commitments countries pledged to limit the climate crisis are nowhere near enough to stave off record-high temperatures. Delaying change any further will make it impossible to reach desired temperature goals.
The time for “rapid and transformational” change to limit global warming is now, the report says.
Current measures will not keep global temperature increases within the 1.5-to-2-degree Celsius range (a “safe” level to which temperatures can rise and not cause devastation, though 1.5 degrees is preferable), according to the report issued Tuesday.
Greenhouse gases reached a record high in 2018 with no sign of peaking, according to a World Meteorological Organization report released Monday. Carbon dioxide levels reached 407.8 parts per million, a unit used to measure the level of a contaminant in the air.
At the current rate, temperatures are expected to rise 3.2 degrees Celsius (5.8 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100, the UNEP report states.
Incremental change is no longer enough to stall off the potentially devastating effects of a changing climate, the report’s authors write.
What the world needs now, they say, is “rapid and transformational action.”
G20 countries account for 78% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but only five of 20 member countries have set a date to reach net-zero emissions by. Of those, only two have created legislation to enforce those goals.
The US leads G20 countries in per-capita emissions, excluding greenhouse gases from land use, at just above 20 tons of carbon dioxide per capita in 2018.
Renewable energy technology is increasingly affordable, with utility-scale solar power and wind turbines within competitive price of the operating costs of existing coal plants.
“There’s really no big argument for not going full-force at renewable energy,” she said.
Environmental recalibration will require fundamental structural changes across most of the world, the report acknowledges. It won’t be cheap.
Climate policies consistent with the 1.5-degree goal could cost up to $3.6 trillion per year globally, according to the UNEP. But the cost likely outweighs the consequences of inaction.
The adaptations humankind would need to make to survive in a world where temperatures have risen more than 1.5 degrees Celsius would seriously damage the global economy and reduce food security and biodiversity, according to the report.
“Climate protection and adaptation investments will become a precondition for peace and stability,” the report’s authors write, and will require “unprecedented” efforts to transform nearly every sector of society.
Origin:CNN.com
27/11/2019
At least 23 killed as 6.4-magnitude earthquake strikes Albania
At least eight people have been killed, several more are missing and hundreds have been injured after an earthquake struck Albania on Tuesday.
The quake, which had a preliminary rating of 6.4 magnitude, hit the European nation at an approximate depth of 20 kilometers (12 miles) early Tuesday local time, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The epicenter was in the port city of Durres, about 13 miles from the capital Tirana. Social media videos from the area show several buildings have collapsed.
Four victims died in Durres, a spokesperson for the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama told CNN. Another two died in Thumane, one person died after jumping from a building in panic in Kurbin, and another victim died while driving on a badly damaged road in Lezhe, the spokesperson added.
The health ministry had earlier confirmed that at least 325 people were injured in the quake, and the Prime Minister’s office has said that several people are still missing.
Rama said nearby countries, including Italy and Greece, have been assisting Albania with the recovery operation, while other European leaders have also offered their assistance.
Origin:CNN.com
27/11/2019
An 'unprecedented' storm is hitting the West Coast as another continues to pile snow on the Midwest
Two massive storms are pounding the US from Oregon to New York with some combination of snow, rain and high winds as millions of people take to the roads and skies ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Blizzard and high wind warnings are in effect across the West Coast states including Oregon, California, Nevada and Idaho as a "historic, unprecedented" storm began dumping rain over the region, the National Weather Service said.
It's also begun to dump heavy snow -- with some mountain ranges in eastern California measuring snow piles in feet Wednesday, the weather service said.
That storm unleashed powerful winds and dumped snow and rain over the Plains Tuesday and moved over the upper Midwest Wednesday dumping snow from Nebraska to Wisconsin, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said.
The storm system's winds -- whipping Oklahoma to New York -- have already had some disastrous effects.
In Oklahoma, officials reported at least 26 wildfires, activating the State Emergency Operations Center.
And as the fires forced some residents in two counties to evacuate their homes, more than 15,000 others across the state lost power.
Strong southwest winds pushed a "rapid spread" of fires, the weather service in Norman, Oklahoma, said.
Origin:CNN.com
23/11/2019
At least seven children among dozens killed in Kenya landslide
At least seven children are among the 29 people killed after heavy rainfalltriggered a landslide in Pokot, northwest Kenya, authorities have confirmed.
Flooded roads and bridges were swept away after the incident, hindering rescue operations, Okello added.
The landslide began around 2:30 a.m. Saturday in West Pokot County near the Ugandan border, according to President's office, causing "massive destruction" to infrastructure like bridges and roads.
State authorities have urged people living in areas prone to landslides to move to safer ground as the heavy rainfall continues.
Rainfall throughout East Africa has affected Somalia, South Sudan and Kenya over the last month.
Origin:CNN.com
23/11/2019
Hunter in China catches bubonic plague after eating a wild rabbit
Twenty-eight people are in quarantine in China's northern Inner Mongolia province after a hunter was diagnosed with bubonic plague Saturday, the local health commission said.
According to state-run news agency Xinhua, the unidentified patient was believed to have become infected with the plague after catching and eating a wild rabbit in Inner Mongolia's Huade county.
Bubonic plague is the more common version of the disease and is rarely transmitted between humans.
Pneumonic plague is the most virulent and deadly strain of the disease. It originates in the lungs and any person who is infected can spread it to another person by sneezing or coughing near them. It can be cured with antibiotics, but is always fatal if left untreated, according to the WHO.
In comparison, bubonic plague can only be spread by infected fleas or by handling an infected animal's tissue.
In May, a Mongolian couple died from bubonic plague after eating the raw kidney of a marmot, a local folk health remedy.
Although plague is inextricably linked to the Black Death pandemic of the 14th century that killed around 50 million people in Europe, it remains a relatively common disease.
At least 1,000 people a year catch the plague, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which they acknowledge is probably a modest estimate given the number of unreported cases.
The three most endemic countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru.
Origin:CNN.com
23/11/2019
Three big storms to bring snow, rain and headaches to Thanksgiving week
As Thanksgiving week starts, a record number of travelers will be dealing with three storms nationwide that will add to the holiday stress.
One storm will lash the East and will affect travel through Sunday, another one will batter the Midwest on Tuesday and a third one will move through the West on Wednesday.
Freezing rain will develop over parts of the northeast Sunday, with snow expected in the same region as the day progresses, the National Weather Service said.
Rain will move out of the northeastern region by Monday morning, but snow will linger, it said.
In the East, a storm system will bring heavy rain to various cities Sunday, from Philadelphia and New York City to Boston, while heavy snow is expected across northern New England to northern Maine.
Behind the system, temperatures will drop 5 to 15 degrees. Much of the Midwest will have highs in the upper 30s to low 40s for Thanksgiving Day, with dry conditions.
Origin:CNN.com
23/11/2019
A history of the plague in China, from ancient times to Mao -- and now
First, they felt pain all over their body.
Next, a lump -- sometimes as small as pea, other times as big as an apple -- protruded from their skin. Then, as the disease spread throughout their body, they coughed up blood.
Finally -- for many of them -- came death.
That was how people hundreds of years ago described the Black Death, which began sweeping across Europe in the 14th century, killing up to 60% of the continent's population in one of the worst pandemics in human history.
Today, many of us think of the plague as something confined to the history books -- a grim symbol of the medieval period, before doctors knew about the existence of viruses or bacteria.
But this month, three people in China were diagnosed with two different forms of plague, highlighting that while the plague is not as serious an issue as it once was, it's also not entirely a thing of the past.
For a disease that has impacted humans for centuries, there's still plenty we don't know about the plague.
Humans have been hit by three major plague pandemics over the past 2,000 years, resulting in nearly 200 million deaths. The first pandemic was in the 6th century, during the reign of Byzantine emperor Justinian I. The second -- which was known as the Black Death -- swept through medieval Europe, starting from the 14th century. The third pandemic began in China in the 19th century, and spread to other parts of Asia and the United States.
The turning point came in the 2000s, when scientists developed the ability to extract ancient DNA -- including from medieval skeletons.
When scientists analyzed the skeletons of plague victims, they found fragments of Yersinia pestis, said Black. But that only led to another question: if the disease wasn't genetically different, then why was the second pandemic so deadly?
DNA evidence extracted from the skeletons of medieval plague victims, and genetic analysis of the bacteria, suggest that the outbreak probably originated in central Asia, and moved east into China, and west into Europe via trade routes, said Black.
It's undeniable that there was this pathway of transmission from China to the outside world," said Jack Greatrex, who is working on a PhD at Hong Kong University about the history of the plague in Hong Kong.
Centuries on from the Black Death, people around the world continue to be transfixed by the plague in a way they're not by other diseases.
These days, the plague is hardly the biggest health risk facing many countries. In 2017 alone, 219 million people caught malaria and 435,000 people died of the disease. By contrast, between 2010 and 2015, 584 people died of the plague worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Origin:CNN.com
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Australia fires: Crews battle blazes across NSW and Queensland
Raging blazes: Firefighters across Australia are battling blazes that could become the worst seen in the country for decades. Dry conditions and strong winds could provide perfect conditions for dozens of fires to spread further today.
State of emergency: The states of Queensland and New South Wales have both declared a state of emergency. Sydney is at especially high risk. In some fire-affected rural areas, the state’s fire service says it is already “too late to leave.”
Casualties: Three people have been killed and more than 100 homes lost over the past week. An estimated 350 koalas have also died.
The state’s fire service is still forecasting “catastrophic fire danger” for greater Sydney — the highest level of bush fire danger.
As emergency services struggle to contain dozens of fires across eastern Australia, political battles over the blazes are also raging across the country.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the New South Wales parliament this morning to call for work to support the firefighters and more action to contain climate change.
One of New South Wales’ largest newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald, published an editorial this morning titled “Talking about climate change is not an insult to bushfire victims.”
Michael McCormack, Deputy Prime Minister in Australia’s Liberal-National coalition government, slammed people who raised climate change in relation to the fires as “raving inner city lunatics.”
It’s a rare day when both Sydney and Beijing have the same levels of air pollution. The weather in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland on Tuesday is similar to the conditions which led to the 2009 Black Saturday wildfires, an emergency expert said.
The Black Saturday blazes in the state of Victoria were the most devastating in the country’s history, killing 173 people and destroying more than a million animals over 450,000 hectares (1,111,974 acres).
A “catastrophic” fire risk rating has been issued for Sydney on Tuesday, Australia’s largest city — the highest possible ranking for the country’s emergency services.
On the official NSW Rural Fire Services website, residents in “catastrophic” fire conditions are told to make a decision about “when you will leave.”
“Homes are not designed to withstand fires in catastrophic conditions so you should leave early,” the website said. “
If anyone tells you, ‘This is part of a normal cycle’ or ‘We’ve had fires like this before’, smile politely and walk away, because they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Mullins wrote in a piece for The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday.
“It’s climate change, there’s no doubt about it. The whole of the country is going to be affected. We need to take a serious look at our future,” Sparks told the Australian Associated Press.
Origin:CNN.com
13/11/2019
Worst floods for 50 years bring Venice to ‘its knees’
An elderly man has died in the worst floods to hit Venice in more than 50 years, as local authorities in the Italian lagoon city called for a state of emergency to be imposed.
The popular tourist destination was struck by an exceptionally high tide on Tuesday night, which peaked at 187 centimeters (73.6 inches), according to a statement by Venice’s government Wednesday morning.
The historic crypt of St. Mark’s Basilica was inundated for just the sixth time in 1,200 years.
It is the worst flooding in Venice since 1966, when the city was hit by tides up to 194 cm (76.4 inches) high, according to government statistics.
“Last night after the sirens went off we were without electricity. The windows banged with gusts of strong wind,” she said. “It was a night of fear and today we are blocked here at home with reduced public transport.”
Laterza said on Monday it was impossible to walk because of the floods. “Today I’ll try to venture out to help my neighbors,” she added.
People who lived through the 1966 flood say there wasn’t the strong wind then that there is now, Laterza said.
“I’ve only witnessed this historic flood but I must say that the situation is unprecedented and our city is our land and it needs help and support from all,” Laterza added.
Venice’s Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said it would cost hundreds of millions of euros to fix the city, telling reporters at a news conference that the damage was “enormous.”
Francesco Moraglia, the Patriarch of St Mark’s Basilica Monsignor, also told reporters: “I have never seen something like what I saw yesterday afternoon [Tuesday] at St. Mark’s square. There were waves as if we were at the beach.”
More rain and strong winds are expected in the coming days, according to Luca Zaia, the President of the Veneto Region.
“It’s a real catastrophe,” Stefano Bandini, a Venetian taxi driver told CNN. “I have never seen such a high tide accompanied with such a strong, destructive wind.”
“Last night after the sirens went off we were without electricity. The windows banged with gusts of strong wind,” she said. “It was a night of fear and today we are blocked here at home with reduced public transport.”
Venice’s government announced that after the “extraordinary” tide, it would “submit a request for a state of emergency” to the country’s central government. All schools will be closed Wednesday due to the weather conditions, the local government said.
Origin:CNN.com
09/11/2019
Half a million people evacuated as cyclone approaches Bangladesh and eastern India
About 500,000 people have been evacuated from Bangladesh’s coastal region, as the nation waits for Cyclone Bulbul to hit on Saturday evening — according to the country’s disaster management minister.
The cyclone was more than 124 miles (200 kilometres) away from the Bangladesh coast and moving at a speed of 15-20 km/h, Enamur Rahman said Saturday.
“We have taken all the measures and people from coastal area — they have been moved to the cyclone shelters,” he added.
Operations at the Chittagong airport were suspended, Rahmann said, and tidal waves measuring 5-7 feet are expected to hit the coast as the cyclone makes landfall.
The cyclone is also due to hit the Indian state of West Bengal. The Indian Meteorological Department classified it as a severe cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 110-120 km/hr.
Origin:CNN.com
09/11/2019
Three dead in ‘unprecedented’ fires in Australian state of New South Wales
A series of “unprecedented” bushfires are raging through Australia’ssoutheastern state of New South Wales, with two people dead and more than 1,000 firefighters battling five emergency-level blazes and dangerous conditions.
One of those killed was found inside a vehicle, while the other had died in hospital while being treated for severe burns.
Fitzsimmons said preliminary reports suggested at least 100 homes had been destroyed in the blazes.
As of Saturday morning, there were about 70 fires across the state, with 39 burning out of control.
“If you are near these fires, your life is at risk and you need to take action to protect your life,” the NSW RFS said in a Twitter post. Some residents in Jacobs Spur near the town of Kempsey have been told it is too late to evacuate so they should take shelter immediately.
The areas most affected by the fires include Tenterfield, Armidale, Clarence Valley, Port Macquarie, Nambucca and Kempsey, according to CNN affiliate Nine News.
Alex Beckton, a resident of Old Bar on the NSW coast, told CNN he evacuated his family to the local surf club early Saturday, after watering down their home to try and keep it safe.
About 50 bushfires are also blazing in the neighboring state of Queensland. Residents in several areas there have been told to evacuate as emergency-level fires threaten homes and properties.
Queensland and New South Wales are prone to wildfires in spring and early summer, and this year’s blazes follow Australia’s hottest summer on record, which brought worsening drought, bushfires and very low rainfall.
Origin:CNN.com
07/11/2019
North England hit by torrential rain and flooding
Floods have paralyzed parts of north England, with roads and train lines shuttered and people stranded in a shopping mall, unable to leave.
As of Thursday evening, the UK Environment Agency had issued 99 flood warnings across the country, with 117 further lower level alerts indicating possible floods in place.
Sheffield, a major city in South Yorkshire, was one of the worst hit areas.
According to the National Rail, a number of train lines across South Yorkshire were disrupted by the flooding. Rail operator Northern said on Twitter that flooding had shuttered train lines between Sheffield and Gainsborough, Sheffield and Lincoln, and Sheffield and Manchester.
Origin:CNN.com
01/11/2019
Billionaire bunkers: How the 1% are preparing for the apocalypse
Say “doomsday bunker” and most people would imagine a concrete room filled with cots and canned goods.
The threat of global annihilation may feel as present as it did during the Cold War, but today’s high-security shelters could not be more different from their 20th-century counterparts.
A number of companies around the world are meeting a growing demand for structures that protect from any risk, whether it’s a global pandemic, an asteroid, or World War III — while also delivering luxurious amenities.
“They were gray. They were metal, like a ship or something military. And the truth is mankind cannot survive long-term in such a Spartan, bleak environment.”
Many of the world’s elite, including hedge fund managers, sports stars and tech executives (Bill Gates is rumored to have bunkers at all his properties) have chosen to design their own secret shelters to house their families and staff.
Developers of community shelters like these often acquire decommissioned military bunkers and missile silos built by the United States or Soviet governments — sites that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build today.
Our clients are sold on the unique advantage of having a luxury second home that also happens to be a nuclear hardened bunker,” says Hall, who is already starting work on a second Survival Condo in another silo on site.
“This aspect allows our clients to invest in an appreciating asset as opposed to an expense.”
The Survival Condo has several different layouts, from a 900-square-foot half-floor residence to a two-level, 3,600-square-foot penthouse that starts at $4.5 million.
While many might see the luxury amenities at these facilities as unnecessary, the developers argue that these features are critical to survival.
“These shelters are long-term, a year or more,” Vicino says. “It had better be comfortable.”
Origin:CNN.com
01/11/2019
5 million children to get face masks as New Delhi battles heavy pollution
Five million New Delhi children will be given face masks by the government as the city battles heavy smog so toxic that it threatens to force schools to shut.
India’s capital — which has been ranked the most polluted city in the world — experienced hazardous levels of pollution on Friday afternoon, shooting up to as high as 743 particles of PM2.5 per cubic meter on the air quality index in some areas. Any level above 100 is considered unhealthy.
If air pollution stays at this level for more than 48 hours, authorities will implement emergency measures for the first time this year, a Central Pollution Control Board official told CNN. Those measures include shutting schools, stopping construction work, banning trucks from entering the city, and imposing a rule whereby cars with odd and even number plates can only drive on alternate days.
On Friday, Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that authorities had started to distribute 5 million face masks to schoolchildren in the city, which is home to over 18 million people.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal hit out at the governments of Punjab and Haryana, which he said contributed to New Delhi’s pollution as farmers in those areas burned crops despite bans.
New Delhi is home to more than 8.8 millionregistered motor vehicles, more than any other Indian city, according to government figures from 2016.
And those cars appear to be a big part of the problem. A 2006 study — which was quoted by an official government report released in 2016 — found that cars contributed to 72% of New Delhi’s pollution. The government hasn’t released more recent figures.
Origin:CNN.com
01/11/2019
Dramatic images show impact of deadly earthquakes in Philippines
At least 14 people have died after a series of earthquakes rattled the southern Philippines.
A 6.5 magnitude quake struck on Thursday morning, local time, in the Tulunan area of Cotabato province on the southern island of Mindanao. That jolt came only two days after a deadly 6.6 magnitude quake.
The quakes have left 14 people dead and 403 injured, according to a report released Thursday by the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
Two people are still missing. There are currently more than 12,000 people sheltering in 19 evacuation centers, and over 2,000 houses have been totally or partly damaged, NDRRMC said.
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology specialist Erlinton Olavere said that five active faults in the area had caused the quakes, according to the report. Authorities are still assessing the damage.
Origin:CNN.com
29/10/2019
Strongest tropical cyclone in 12 years barrels across Arabian Sea
A rare tropical cyclone barreling across the Arabian Sea has reached the intensity of a Category 4 hurricane, becoming the strongest storm recorded in the area for 12 years.
Currently a couple of hundred miles off the coast of Oman, Tropical Cyclone Kyarr reached peak strength in the past two days, with winds of around 250kph (155mph).
There are only around 1-2 tropical cyclones per year in the Arabian Sea, but storms this strength are very rare.
Kyarr has reached wind speeds equivalent to a super typhoon in the Pacific Ocean. Tropical Cyclone Kyarr is the strongest storm in the Arabian Sea since Tropical Cyclone Gonu in 2007. Kyarr’s peak sustained winds hit 250 kph, whereas Gonu’s peak winds reached around 270kph.
Kyarr is the 4th hurricane — or typhoon — strength storm in the Indian Ocean basin so far in 2019, the most ever recorded by this point in the year.
The Indian Ocean storms have also accumulated more energy than any other year on record — dating back to 1972 — according to Phil Klotzbach, tropical meteorologist at Colorado State University.
In June 2019, Tropical Cyclone Vayu hit wind speeds of around 170 kph (100 mph).
India evacuated almost 300,000 people and closed schools and colleges in preparation for the storm.
Vayu was the most powerful storm to impact the Saurashtra Peninsula in north-west India since 1998, when a tropical cyclone with winds of 195 kph (120 mph) killed around 10,000 people.
Origin:CNN.com
14/10/2019
Japan launches major search operation after deadly typhoon kills dozens
A major search and rescue operation is underway in Japan after deadly Typhoon Hagibis brought widespread flooding and landslides, destroying buildings and leaving dozens dead.
The storm — which came as Japan hosts the Rugby World Cup for the first time — made landfall on Saturday evening local time on the Izu Peninsula, southwest of Tokyo, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
At least 49 people were killed, with 200 injured and at least 14 people still missing, the country’s public broadcaster NHK reported Monday.
More than 110,000 personnel are involved in search and rescue operations, including 13,000 police, 66,000 fire department staff and 31,000 self-defense force staff, chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a press conference Monday. More than 230,000 people were evacuated ahead of the storm, and emergency orders were issued for many cities around the greater Tokyo area. As of Monday, more than 84,000 households in Tokyo, northern Japan and mountainous areas in the center of the country were still without power, according to electricity companies.
Typhoon-hit regions are bracing for more rain on Monday which could exacerbate flooding, prompting authorities to caution people to stay away from rivers and mountain slopes.
On Saturday, ten bags of soil from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster were found drifting in a river amid storm debris in Tamura city, about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.¨
Following a March 2011 earthquake, three reactors at the Fukushima plant melted down, releasing radioactive materials into the air and prompting more than 100,000 people to be evacuated from the area.
A total of 2,667 large, thick plastic bags containing contaminated materials from the disaster were being stored at a temporary storage site in Tamura while authorities looked for a more permanent location. Each bag weighs upwards of several 100 kilograms (220 pounds) according to NHK.
Shoji Watanabe, the head of nuclear disaster measurement office, said the radiation levels of the material in the bags had decreased over time. However, he refused to say that the bags were entirely safe.
He estimated that the radiation level from the material contained in each bag was between 0.3 to 1 microsievert per hour — over the government standard of 0.23 microsievert per hour.
Although typhoons are not uncommon in Japan, Typhoon Hagibis — meaning speed in the Philippine language of Tagalog — was particularly brutal. According to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office, the typhoon brought “record-setting heavy rains and windstorms.”
Those led to widespread transport disruptions over the weekend, with flights, bullet trains and other transport canceled across Honshu, Japan’s main island.
Origin:CNN.com
13/10/2019
Recovery begins as Japan’s Typhoon Hagibis leaves trail of death and destruction
Typhoon Hagibis weakened to a tropical depression as it continued to move across central Japan on Sunday, leaving at least 10 people dead and more than 140 injured in its wake.
The storm made landfall just before 7 p.m. Saturday local time on the Izu Peninsula, southwest of Tokyo, bringing hurricane-force winds and heavy rains which led to widespread flooding. More than 230,000 people were evacuated ahead of the storm, with emergency orders issued for many cities around the greater Tokyo area.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered his “condolences for the people killed in the disaster and my sincere sympathy for the people affected by this disaster.”
“Now not only police, fire department and coast guard, but also 27,000 staff of the self-defense force are on rescue, search for missing and supporting evacuation,” Abe said Sunday. “We are to enhance the scale of operation depending on necessity.”
Tokyo’s Haneda and Narita airports were back in operation midday Sunday, but many flights remained canceled. Flag carrier Japan Airlines said it had canceled 278 domestic flights — affecting 48,340 people — and 66 international flights, affecting 11,790. ANA canceled 297 domestic flights — affecting 52,500 people — and 84 international flights, affecting 13,300.
However as many as 212,500 households in storm-affected areas remained without power on Sunday afternoon, power companies said.
Origin:CNN.com
13/10/2019
Typhoon Hagibis makes landfall in Japan, leaving at least 10 dead
At least one person has been killed and several injured as Typhoon Hagibisapproached central Japan with hurricane-force winds on Saturday.
The storm had weakened as it approached Japan but still remains highly dangerous, with maximum winds of up to 195 kilometers per hour (122 mph) — equivalent to a Category 3 Atlantic hurricane.
Hagibis is due to make landfall Saturday afternoon local time. However it is already affecting much of the central and southern parts of Honshu, Japan’s main island.
Winds between 100 and 130 kph (62-80 mph) are expected to lash southern Japan, including Tokyo, for most of the mid-morning through evening. Up to 200 millimeters (8 inches) of rainfall is also predicted to cause flooding.
Evacuation advisories have been issued throughout much of the Tokyo region, affecting tens of millions of people. The Japanese capital is in lockdown, with usually busy streets abandoned amid torrential rain.
All flights to and from Tokyo and nearby airports have been canceled until at least Sunday morning. All bullet trains between Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka are also canceled, as are most non high-speed trains.
More than 10,000 households in the Kanto, Chiba and Tokyo areas are without power, according to Japanese provider TEPCO.
Origin:CNN.com
29/09/2019
Category 3 Hurricane Lorenzo churns through the Atlantic, may hit Azores Tuesday
Hurricane Lorenzo strengthened into a Category 5 storm as it churned in the Atlantic on Saturday night.
Lorenzo’s thick core surrounded a big, clear eye as it joined the rare club of the most intense storms in recent years. “Large and powerful Category 5 Lorenzo becomes the strongest hurricane this far north and east in the Atlantic basin,” the National Hurricane Center said.
It said fluctuations in intensity are possible with a weakening forecast set to begin Sunday night. But Lorenzo is still expected to be a large and potent hurricane as is approaches the Azores in a few days.
By late Saturday night, Lorenzo was about 1,420 miles southwest of the Azores packing maximum sustained winds of 160 mph. Lorenzo’s large surf will affect parts of the northeastern coast of South America and the Lesser Antilles, and is expected to spread westward to portions of the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, Bermuda and the east coast of the United States.
Origin:CNN.com
28/09/2019
600 people are still missing in the Bahamas weeks after Hurricane Dorian
Nearly a month after Hurricane Dorian pulverized part of the Bahamas, officials say there are still 600 people missing.
Earlier figures released by the government indicated that about 1,300 people were unaccounted for. The official death toll across the Bahamas stands at 56, Minnis said.
Dorian flattened homes after it made landfall Sept. 1, leaving thousands with no power, running water and a widespread damage similar to a war zone.
Authorities fear the number of victims will skyrocket in the coming weeks.
“We know that there are considerably more lives lost because there are still 600 missing,” Minnis said at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “Because the rising then receding ocean water swept away young and old with their homes.”
A US medic team who recently went on an aid trip to Grand Bahama could smell the carnage as they drove to the east end of Grand Bahama. They said some bodies may be trapped under mountains of rubble where houses once stood. Others may have been washed away in the storm surge and their bodies only recently surfaced on land.
Origin:CNN.com
27/09/2019
‘Unprecedented’ monsoon rains leave 14 people dead in western India
The western Indian city of Pune was battered by 140 mm (5.5 inches) of rain in 48 hours this week, in what the Maharashtra state chief minister called an “unprecedented” level of monsoon rain.
“Last night in Pune there was a lot of heavy rain that developed into an unprecedented storm,” said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday, in a video he tweeted.
“Because of this, a large amount of water entered low-lying areas and caused a lot of damage. There is the possibility that some people were swept away and some people were killed after a wall collapsed over there,” he added.
At least 14 people have died, including a 9-year-old boy, according to district and state officials. Prashant Ranpise, chief fire officer of the Pune Fire Brigade, said many of the deaths resulted from buildings and walls collapsing during flash floods.
After the rains receded late Thursday, images from Pune show the aftermath — cars overturned and washed away, and the bodies of drowned cattle scattered on the road.
The death toll may rise as the full extent of the damage becomes clear.
Other cities like Kolkata, in India’s West Bengal state, are also experiencing heavy monsoon rain and floods this week.
The monsoon season usually comes in the summer, but it arrived late in June, a hard blow to drought-stricking farmers and rural residents. Even major cities like Chennai and Mumbai suffered from severe water shortages, with reservoirs drying up and government tankers bringing in emergency water every week.
When the monsoons finally did arrive, they were more intense and deadly than usual — the country as a whole is now measuring 6.5% above average in terms of rainfall for the season, according to CNN meteorologists.
The rain was so unusually heavy in Pune that in August, a dam filled for the first time in 22 years, Kumar said. It’s only September, but the Pune district has already received 180% of its annual seasonal rainfall.
This sudden, heavy rainfall has left hundreds dead or displaced. Maharashtra was battered hard in July, with at least 43 dead, and more than 150 were killed nationwide in August by monsoon-caused floods and landslides. More than 165,000 people were forced out of their homes and into relief camps in August, officials said.
As the climate crisis intensifies, India is feeling the effects, swinging from severe flooding to severe drought with little relief in between.
Origin:CNN.com
24/09/2019
Coral reefs in Hawaii could be damaged by a major marine heat wave, scientists say
A major marine heat wave in the Pacific could spell disaster for the coral reefs along the coastline of Papa Bay near Hawaii’s Big Island.
Researchers fear warming ocean waters could cause more coral bleaching, which could lead to some of the most widespread loss of coral that Hawaii has ever experienced.
Coral bleaching happens when corals are stressed by changing ocean conditions and expel the algae living in their tissues, which causes them to turn completely white. If the stress continues and the loss of algae is for a prolonged period of time, the coral will eventually die.
“Coral reefs are the most biodiverse marine ecosystems on the planet — 25% of all marine species live in association with coral reefs,” Jamison Gove, a research oceanographer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told CNN.
“Coral reefs provide habitat for fish that serve important ecosystem functions and provide sustenance for local people.”
In addition, coral reefs break up ocean waves and swell, creating a barrier that protects coastlines from storms, waves and flooding. They are also important to the economy in Hawaii, as vibrant coral reefs are a huge tourist attraction for divers and snorkelers.
For the first time ever, the NOAA will be monitoring the heat wave in real time via satellite. This will give researchers, officials and organizations the tools to better understand the circumstances that lead to coral bleaching, which could trigger coordinated response plans to better help protect the coral reefs.
Origin:CNN.com
24/09/2019
Blood-red haze engulfs Indonesian province as forest fires and smog worsen
The skies over the Indonesian province of Jambi have been turned blood red, as thetoxic haze from widespread rainforest fires continues to affect residents across the country.
Videos and images circulating on social media showed villages and highways completely blanketed by an eerie, red-colored haze in the middle of the day through the weekend and earlier this week.
More than 328,000 hectares (about 800,000 acres) of ecologically-rich land have been burned across Indonesia in recent weeks.
The raging fires have forced hundreds of residents to evacuate and led to the deployment of more than 9,000 personnel to battle the flames, according to the country”s National Board for Disaster Management.
The ominous-looking red skies were caused by a phenomenon called Mie scattering, which occurs when sunlight is scattered by tiny pollution particles in the air, the country’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) explained on Instagram. The scattering happens when the diameter of the particles is similar to the wavelength of visible sunlight, the agency said.
According to Air Quality Index (AQI) monitoring site AQICN, Jambi province reached “hazardous” levels over the weekend, which signaled that residents may experience “serious health effects.”
Neighboring Riau province declared a state of emergency Monday as air pollution continued to worsen, according to Antara media agency. Some residents have been forced to evacuate to other cities because of the hazardous air quality. The smog has also impacted neighboring countries, including Malaysia and Singapore.
Some 600 schools were also temporarily closed in the country due to unhealthy levels of air pollution.
Indonesian police said that the majority of forest fires were caused by human factors.
Fires and smog are a persistent problem during the summer months caused by slash and burn techniques to clear the land for agricultural purposes. For around two decades, large paper and palm oil plantations have farmed the rich peatlands that run along the Sumatran coast of Indonesia and the island of Borneo.
Origin:CNN.com
22/09/2019
In this crippled part of the Bahamas, US medics can smell more bodies than they can find
It takes just seconds here to be overwhelmed by the stench of death.
More than two weeks after Hurricane Dorian wiped out entire neighborhoods, East Grand Bahama still looks like a war zone.
The carnage is so widespread that even police officers can’t bear to see it.
“Police say they don’t want to go there. It’s too hard on them to go see their own people,” said Patricia Freling, a Florida nurse who’s volunteering in East Grand Bahama.
“They think there will be a lot of bodies. So we are preparing for everything.”
During the team’s hour-long drive from Freeport to the east end of Grand Bahama, the medics smell the carnage before they see it.
“That is the smell of dead bodies,” Reidy said from the back of a pickup truck.
The official death toll across the Bahamas is 52. But that number is expected to skyrocket, with 1,300 people still missing two weeks after the hurricane.
Some may be trapped under mountains of rubble where houses once stood. Others may have been washed away in the storm surge, their bodies only recently surfacing on land.
“My fear is that if no one stacked the bodies, they might still be there,” said Tanya Steinlage, an emergency pediatric nurse practitioner.
Steinlage said the bodies she encountered had most likely washed up during the storm surges because there were no standing structures anywhere in sight.
“They need to bring cadaver dogs out here to find them,” she says. “Right now, they are just (considered) missing.”
Mold isn’t the only long-term heath risk after the storm. In various parts of East Grand Bahama, the stench of sewage fills the air. There’s no running water, and the risk of infection is rampant.
Resident Patrice Higgs, 49, survived the storm in Mcleans’ Town Cay. But she cut herself sifting through the rubble.
The medics gave her bandages, antibacterial soap and clean water.
By the end of their first day in East Grand Bahama, the medics identified at least 30 locations where they smelled corpses — even if they couldn’t see them.
Helen Perry, a nurse practitioner and Army veteran, said she hopes cadaver dog teams would come and find the bodies. If they don’t, the decomposing bodies could lead to a cholera epidemic.
“You just can’t leave them,” she said.
Sean Russell is one of the luckier residents from East Grand Bahama.
“I’m alive, and that’s all that matters,” he said. “Not everyone can say that.”
But his house was destroyed, as were most of his belongings. “A loss of this magnitude is really tough.”
“No one would ever in their wildest dream would believe a storm would come like that,” he said.
Now, everything he owns fits in a small overnight bag.
On Tuesday, Russell paid $49.50 to board a ship that evacuated hurricane victims to Florida. When he stepped on the boat, he wasn’t sure exactly where he would stay in the United States.
“I don’t know what the plan is. But I’m just going by faith,” he said. “We’re starting all over again, because I lost everything.”
“After this, I really don’t think the Bahamas will be the same,” he said. “It will not be the same.”
Origin:CNN.com
22/09/2019
The Amazon burns. But another part of Brazil is being destroyed faster
The Amazon blazes have captured the attention of the world and its leaders, and for good reason — the destruction of one of the world’s major carbon stores could strike a devastating blow to the fight against climate change, and to the homes and livelihoods of indigenous communities.
But just miles away, another part of Brazil, home to 5% of the planet’s plants and animals, and a carbon store of its own, is being destroyed at a faster rate.
Brazil’s Cerrado — a “mosaic” habitat made up of savannah, grassland and forest — is the world’s most biodiverse such region, and spans around 200 million hectares.
“It is estimated that the biome has 837 species of birds, 120 of reptiles, 150 of amphibians, 1,200 thousand fish, 90,000 insects, 199 types of mammals,” Mercedes Bustamante, a biologist at the University of Brasilia told CNN.
More than 4,800 species are endemic — including giant otters, tapirs and jaguars — and of more than 11,000 plant species found in the Cerrado, nearly half are found nowhere else on earth, according to the World Wildlife Foundation.
The Cerrado is half the size of the Amazon and is 50% deforested, according to Edegar de Oliveira Rosa, director of Conservation and Restoration of Ecosystems at WWF-Brazil. “We are losing around 700,000 hectares per year,” he told CNN.
Like in the Amazon, Cerrado habitats are being cleared because of global demand for meat — to make way for cattle ranches, and later converted to grow soy which is used to feed livestock or exported to other parts of the world.
Deforestation is not new, and it doesn’t just happen in Brazil. But as global demand for meat soars, and as China turns to Brazil for its supply of soybeans amid the trade war with the US, experts worry that Brazil’s agricultural boom will come at the cost of habitats like the Cerrado.
“In the last 10 years pretty much all of the expansion of soy within Brazil has happened in the Cerrado,” Toby Gardner, director of TRASE, told CNN. “There’s really not much of the Cerrado left,” he added.
The area has fewer protections than the Amazon, where according to de Oliviera Rosa, around 50% of land remains protected. In contrast, de Oliviera Rosa added, around 8% of the Cerrado is protected.
“In absolute terms, about the same area has been cleared, but in relative terms, the Cerrado is much more threatened, with more than three times more loss than the Amazon,” Gardner told CNN.
The destruction of the habitat is also bad news for climate change: the Cerrado, the WWF says, locks up a “deceptively large amount of carbon” in its deep root systems.
“It is a forest in a different way — it is an upside-down forest, because a lot of the biomass is underground,” de Oliviera Rosa told CNN. In a recent report, Greenpeace suggested that the remaining original vegetation of the region contains a carbon store of equivalent to 13.7 gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide.
Deforestation and agriculture fuel global warming, by weakening land’s capacity to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and emitting vast amounts of greenhouse gases.
“The climate doesn’t have frontiers. Affecting biodiversity, losing species, releasing carbon chopping down forests, and burning them to grow crops adds to the climate crisis that affects us all,” Daniela Montalto, a forest campaigner for Greenpeace, told CNN.
Water resources are also suffering; according to the WWF, of 12 major hydrological regions in Brazil, six begin in the Cerrado.
“The Amazon rainforest is firmly established in the psyche of many for decades now, and rightly so — it’s suffering a desperate plight of its own,” Gardner told CNN.
“But there are other ecosystems that are disappearing, and we learn about what they are too late.”
Origin:CNN.com
21/09/2019
Albania struck by 5.6-magnitude earthquake, injuring at least 37
At least 37 people were injured on Saturday when a 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck Albania. The earthquake struck along Albania’s central coast near the port city of Durrës, according to the United States Geological Survey, about 35 kilometers west of the capital Tirana. A trauma hospital in Tirana reported 37 injuries, according to public broadcaster Albanian Radio and TV.
Origin:CNN.com
18/10/2019
Scientists just discovered ‘stormquakes’ — but don’t worry, you’re not in danger
Hurricanes and earthquakes are bad enough on their own. Now imagine them combined.
That’s kind of what a stormquake is, a phenomenon just discovered by a team of researchers led by Wenyuan Fan, a professor and seismologist at Florida State University. The findings were published Monday in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.
It’s not as scary as it sounds, though.
Fan broke it down like this. When hurricanes, (or Nor’easters, or winter storms) are in the atmosphere, they produce really large waves on the surface of the sea, which then swell and form other types of waves further down — that can reach deeper toward the seafloor. The interaction between these secondary waves and the sea floor produces a specific type of pressure force, which then creates a hammer-like effect on the seafloor.
That hammering is what is picked up by seismometers. Though previously dismissed as “seismic noise,” Fan and his team discovered that the hammering effect is actually small quakes — which they call “stormquakes” — that occur around magnitude 3.5.
“I always like to reemphasize that stormquakes happen because of storms, so when extreme storms happen, I think that’s our first concern,” he told CNN.
But that doesn’t make the findings insignificant. Fan said everything in nature is intertwined, so these stormquakes could have effects in nature that haven’t been studied yet. He also said they could have a major impact on marine activities, like if a ship is in the water, and help scientists understand the structure of the Earth a little better, too.
Fan and his team focused on the period between 2006 and 2015, discovering 14,077 stormquakes in that time frame. That equates to over a thousand each year.
Origin:CNN.com
14/09/2019
Tropical Storm Humberto gets close to Bahamian islands devastated by Dorian
Tropical Storm Humberto’s core ispassing just east of the Bahamas’ Abaco Islands, but it is still expected to bring strong winds and rain to areas ravaged by Hurricane Dorian nearly two weeks ago.
Humberto’s center was 30 miles east of Great Abaco island as of 8 a.m. ET Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said. It’s expected to whip much of the northwestern Bahamas with tropical-storm-force winds Saturday, though the winds should subside later in the day as the storm moves away.
The storm could generally drop 2 to 4 inches of rain on the Bahamas, with some isolated areas getting up to 6 inches.
Humberto’s center does not appear destined for the US Southeast coast, contrary to earlier forecasts. However, its outer bands still could drop 1 to 2 inches of rain on parts of coastal Florida and Georgia by the end of Monday, the National Hurricane Center said.
Humberto’s maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph Saturday morning. Winds of tropical-storm strength extendedup to 90 miles from its center.
After it clears the Bahamas, Humberto is expected to become a hurricane in the Atlantic by Sunday night, the hurricane center said.
But the current forecast track predicts Humberto turning away from the US coast — and possibly heading in Bermuda’s direction late next week.
The storm comes at the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, which is usually in the weeks surrounding September 10, when weather conditions favor storms forming quickly.
Meanwhile, hundreds are still missing in the aftermath of the powerful Category 5 hurricane that smashed into the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama this month.
The death toll stands at 50 but is expected to rise as search and rescue crews sift through flattened neighborhoods.
“We are a nation in mourning,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in a statement. “The grief is unbearable following the devastating impact of Hurricane Dorian, which has left behind death, destruction and despair on Grand Bahama and Abaco, our second and third most populous islands.”
About 3,900 evacuees have been processed through south Florida by air and sea so far, officials said.
Origin:CNN.com
10/09/2019
Hurricane Dorian left about 17% of Bahamians homeless, and finding refuge won’t be easy
Patrick Joachin stood in line at a police station in the Bahamian capital of Nassau, hoping to get a document that would prove he has a clean criminal record and eventually help him flee to the United States.
“I have nothing left here — no house, no job, no family,” said Joachin, who was evacuated from the Dundas Town neighborhood in Abaco on Saturday.
About 17% of all Bahamians are suddenly homeless after Hurricane Dorian wiped out neighborhoods and ripped houses off foundations. That’s 70,000 people who have lost almost everything.
So far, about 5,000 people have been able to escape the country’s hard-hit Abaco Islands. Many others remain stuck in the northern Bahamas in precarious conditions.
Residents are sleeping in houses that are still standing but aren’t necessarily safe.
“So many people here are living in homes that are not suitable to be lived in here in Freeport and in Grand Abaco,” CNN’s Patrick Oppmann said Tuesday from Freeport.
And those are the lucky ones.
In just one town, Marsh Harbour, satellite images show about 1,100 buildings have been destroyed, according to the humanitarian aid agency Map Action.
“There’s a black market for bread now and every little item that … we all take for granted.”
Tuesday, nine days after Dorian made landfall in the Bahamas with 185-mph winds, “we are still without power. Still without water,” Oppmann said.
“Understandably, many people, particularly if they have small children … they just don’t want to risk it,”
Oppmann said. “They just don’t want to live in the conditions that we’re forced to live in right now.”
Already, many Bahamians have had difficulty seeking refuge — both inside and outside the country.
By Sunday, all emergency shelters in the capital city of Nassau were full, the Pacific Disaster Center reported, according to USAID.
Over the weekend, about 119 ferry passengers hoping to evacuate Grand Bahama to Florida were told to get off a Balearia Caribbean boat if they didn’t have visas, the ferry operator said.
The official death toll from the Bahamas is now 50, police said. Authorities found 42 bodies on the Abaco Islands, and eight bodies from Grand Bahama island.
Many could be buried or trapped under mountains of rubble. Others may have been washed away by torrential storm surges and submerged.
USAID Administrator Mark Green said parts of the Bahamas looked “almost as though nuclear bombs were dropped on them.”
Origin:CNN.com
09/09/2019
Grand Bahama right now is dead’: A firsthand look at Dorian’s destruction
It’s been almost a week since Hurricane Dorian ravaged the Bahamas, but the deadly hurricane continues to haunt those of us who rode out the storm here.
At least 45 people are dead, hundreds are missing and some 70,000 are homeless. There is no power or running water. Aid is arriving slowly on the island of Grand Bahama, where Dorian parked for almost two days and caused damage one usually witnesses in a war zone.
It’s impossible to fully capture the devastation we see every day. We’re only about 80 miles from Florida, but the miles of rubble Dorian left in its wake have made this part of the Bahamas feel as remote as any place on Earth.
Late the next night, Dorian began pummeling the Abacos and Grand Bahama as an insanely powerful Category 5 Hurricane. Our weather forecasters told us that if there were a Category 6 ranking, Dorian would qualify.
The storm howled for hours in the darkness. Winds and rain pounded the building from all sides. Daylight finally came, but the sun never showed.
There was little coordination or organization to the rescue effort, but limitless bravery.
Many evacuees had held onto rafters of their flooded homes for hours, whipped by the wind and the rain. We asked where their houses were but could only make out a few roofs and trees in the distance. There were hundreds of homes there, rescuers told us, we just couldn’t see them.
As the rescued evacuees climbed off Jet Skis in the waist-deep water, many collapsed and had to be carried to safety.
Apocalyptic rubble lies where houses stood before.
Residents say the storm surge topped 30 feet in some places and tore whole houses off their foundations.
“I have no words to say how bad,” Laing said. “Maybe one in 10 houses is standing.”
Nearby a man who had lost his house took tiny sips from a bottle of water. He knew he would need to make every drop last.
Origin:CNN.com
09/09/2019
Japan typhoon leaves thousands stranded at the airport
A powerful typhoon in Japan has left more than 100 flights canceled, thousands of travelers stranded at the airport, and nearly 1 million households without power.
Typhoon Faxai, which made landfall early Monday morning in the coastal city of Chiba, brought heavy rain and winds of 120 miles per hour, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
The storm then moved over Tokyo and paralyzed transport. Major subway stations in Tokyo were crammed full of commuters on Monday morning, all stuck waiting for bullet trains and subway services that had shut down.
As of Monday afternoon, 6,800 passengers were stranded at Narita International Airport, according to an airport spokesperson. Flights are still arriving, but with highways blocked and two railways to the city center shut down, arriving passengers had no way to leave the airport.
Narita is one of two international airports in the Tokyo area.
Highways were shut down, departing ships were canceled at Tokyo Port, and rail lines closed on Sunday and Monday.
Photos show flooded streets, littered with downed trees and branches. Workers on Monday tended to signposts and lamps that had blown over, and employees at the Higashi Chiba train station inspected the roof, which was twisted and torn apart.
There are also widespread blackouts — nearly a million households are without power, according to public broadcaster NHK. The entire islands of Shikinejima and Oshima off the country’s south coast lost power, according to the Tokyo Disaster Prevention Department.
Ahead of the typhoon, JMA issued storm surge, flood, and landslide warnings, and asked the public to avoid going outdoors.
An evacuation advisory was issued Sunday night for about 150,000 people in the Kanagawa, Shizuoka, and Tokyo prefectures, with evacuation preparation information delivered to about 2.5 million people, according to NHK. Evacuation shelters were set up across Tokyo, including the city wards of Minato, Machida, Meguroand more.
Origin:CNN.com
08/09/2019
About 1,250 lightning strikes recorded in Washington within three hours
About 1,250 lightning strikes were recorded in western Washington state during a storm that caused widespread power outages Saturday night, the National Weather Service said.
A strong line of thunderstorms developed over western Washington, bringing frequent lightning, heavy rains, flooding and hail to the Puget Sound region, according to the National Weather Service’s office in Seattle.
The 1,250 lightning strikes were between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. local time, it said. Of those, 200 were recorded in the Seattle metro area from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Lightning occurs when ice particles within a cloud interact with each other through collision, causing the particles to fracture and break apart, according to NASA. The intense heat of the lightning generates a sound called thunder that is transmitted through the air at the speed of sound, it added.
Lightning and thunder happen at the same time but since light travels faster than sound, the flash of lightning is seen sooner than thunder is heard.
“When lightning strikes, a bright flash of light is generated. Light travels at a constant 186,000 miles/second, which means that we see the flash immediately as it happens,” NASA said.
At its peak, the lightning storm caused power outages to over 4,500 customers, according to Seattle City Light.
Origin:CNN.com
07/09/2019
Philippines declares a national dengue epidemic after 622 deaths
A national dengue epidemic has been declared in the Philippines, where 622 people have died of the mosquito-borne disease since January and millions more are at risk.
From the start of the year to July 20, there have been more than 146,000 cases recorded — a 98% increase from the same time period last year, according to the country’s Department of Health.
Dengue causes flu-like symptoms, including piercing headaches, muscle and joint pains, fever and full body rashes. Of the millions of people infected every year worldwide, an estimated 500,000 develop severe symptoms requiring hospitalization, and of those some 12,500 people die, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Philippines had declared a national dengue alert just last month after reporting more than 450 deaths — but officials had said the dengue was “localized,” according to CNN affiliate CNN Philippines.
With almost two hundred additional deaths in the past month, the crisis has now escalated to a national epidemic.
Epidemics have been declared in seven out of the country’s 17 regions: Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Northern Mindanao. Together, these regions are home to more than 40 million people, about 40% of the Philippines population.
“As part of our data, is 5,100 cases per week average,” said Duque at a press conferenceabout the epidemic on Wednesday. “This is really staggering. This is going to be a record number.”
Dengue cases in the Philippines have historically surged every three to four years, and the sharp increase this year is in line with expectations after a 2016 spike, Duque said last month. These spikes aren’t isolated to just the Philippines, either — last week, more than 1,000 people in Bangladesh were diagnosed with dengue in a 24-hour period, and hospitals are now overflowing with patients.
Origin:CNN.com
04/09/2019
The Amazon is burning. The climate is changing. And we’re doing nothing to stop it
Soaring in a Cessna above the Amazon canopy isn’t meant to sting your eyes with smoke, soak your shirt with sweat, and cause your pilot to climb frantically just to get visibility back. Yet the fires raging over the past fortnight conjured what you’re never meant to witness: this is what the end of the world looks like.
A week spent driving around or flying over the vastness of South America’s largest blessing, leaves you stunned at how much damage has been done, and how fast. Is the Amazon edging towards its tipping point? When the moist forest canopy becomes so dry, and the savannah spreads, that fires propagate and expand in a vicious circle? Like much of climate science, we can only get learned warnings and then watch as reality often exceeds our initially modest concerns. It seems we don’t understand the planet well enough to be guessing at the timetable for our own extinction.
I didn’t ever think I would watch the Amazon burn in my lifetime, but now fear it’s just the start of the end.
I’m used to miserable topics, but this is pretty dark.
Something extremely bad is happening very fast.
The soy they grow, the beef they farm, the wood they log, and everything else they tear from the Amazon, aren’t all used in Brazil. We buy them: Europe and central Asia about 19%, China 22%, North America 14%, according to the World Bank.
A lot of the choices we have to make to reverse course away from slow extinction are uncomfortable. They are also hard for politicians to impose on a population within a four- or five-year electoral cycle.
The climate crisis business itself does nobody any favors. This way to hell is paved with earnest expertise. The models, the lifetimes of effort and application, the time limits for action, have led to a cul-de-sac of varying theories and estimates. There is so much white noise, nobody knows with authority what is the one thing we all have to do.
And it’s harder still to make the slow degradation of oceans, or the gradual razing of forests, seem like news. It isn’t new, there’s no reason to talk about it today especially, other than we should be talking about it every hour of every day. It’s been this bad for a while, we just have preferred not to talk about it at all.
To top that, most action plans over the climate crisis exist in the future tense. What we will do. How we have goals. What we must change. Then everyone orders another coffee, takes a taxi to the airport, gets back in their jet, orders beef on the plane, and carries on as before. We are also a bit exhausted by decades of the flailing of limbs and shrieking “emergency.”
It’s depressing watching the lungs of the earth burn. It isn’t going to stop until we stop buying the stuff it makes. And even then, we’ll need the resources from somewhere else. We will have to plant more trees.
The scope of change — of diet, of consumer habits, of recycling, of technology, of political will — is too massive to expect in my lifetime. In fact, the steeper the spiral appears in front of us, the more stuff we will likely need to make us feel better — cooler, smarter, happier — in the worse days ahead.
The most obvious resolution will come in a few decades, when the heat gets too much, crops fail, clean water becomes more valuable than oil, and the things you were warned about start to kill a lot of people. Then change will be inevitable, and unavoidable, and the number of people all hoping for the same life of wow will sadly drop to something more sustainable.
It’s the issue of our time. It encompasses how far and fast we have journeyed as a species — just as our car starts to shake as it reaches its speed limit. That’s why we don’t like to talk about it. What comes next is simply uglier, and most of us would rather not say that out loud.
Origin:CNN.com
30/08/2019
The Philippines is the world’s most deadly place to defend the environment
The Philippines is now the deadliest country in the world for land and environmental defenders, with 34 killed in 2018, according to new research.
Worldwide, a total of 164 people were killed in related violence — an average of more than three per week — according to the “Enemies of the State?” report from NGO Global Witness. Mining conflicts were responsible for the largest share of the deaths.
But in the Philippines, disputes linked to agribusiness led to half of the killings, according to the research.
Despite the increased focus on environmental issues the world over, the proliferation of strongmen leaders is bringing greater danger for those trying to defend their rights, Global Witness says. And the situation is likely to deteriorate in 2019, it predicts.
The report reveals that Guatemala saw the sharpest increase in fatalities, which increased fivefold from 2017 to 2018. Central America’s most populous nation saw 16 people killed while protecting land or the environment, making it one of the world’s deadliest countries per capita.
“Vicious attacks against land and environmental defenders are still happening, despite growing momentum behind environmental movements the world over,” said Alice Harrison, Senior Campaigner at Global Witness.
“As we hurtle towards climate breakdown, it has never been more important to stand with those who are trying to defend their land and our planet against the reckless destruction being meted out by the rich and powerful.”
Mining conflicts were behind 43 killings, followed by 21 related to agribusiness, 17 to disputes over water and dams, and 13 to logging.
It is a brutal irony that while judicial systems routinely allow the killers of defenders to walk free, they are also being used to brand the activists themselves as terrorists, spies or dangerous criminals,” said Harrison.
“Both tactics send a clear message to other activists: the stakes for defending their rights are punishingly high for them, their families and their communities.”
The leaders of various countries are rolling back environmental and human rights protections, Global Witness says.
Origin:CNN.com
28/08/2019
Spectacular Stromboli eruption sends people fleeing for cover
A spectacular explosion from an Italian volcano Wednesday sent locals and tourists running for cover to avoid a shower of rocks and ash.
The eruption of Stromboli, on a small island off the coast of Sicily, sent a gigantic plume of smoke billowing into the sky.
Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said the explosion could be classified as a “paroxysmal event” and produced a pyroclastic flow — a fast-moving mixture of gas, rock and volcanic ash — of several hundred meters into the sea. It added that the smoke plume reached a height of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).
“I was sitting at the bar in Ginostra with my mother, drinking a cup of coffee when we heard a massive boom and subsequently the volcano explosion,” Federica Manna, a Stromboli resident, told CNN.
“We all gathered in the square and after a short time it started to rain sand and stones. You can imagine the chaos. We sheltered in a church under the beams because we feared there was an earthquake.”
Origin:CNN.com
28/08/2019
Spectacular Stromboli eruption sends people fleeing for cover
A spectacular explosion from an Italian volcano Wednesday sent locals and tourists running for cover to avoid a shower of rocks and ash.
The eruption of Stromboli, on a small island off the coast of Sicily, sent a gigantic plume of smoke billowing into the sky.
Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said the explosion could be classified as a “paroxysmal event” and produced a pyroclastic flow — a fast-moving mixture of gas, rock and volcanic ash — of several hundred meters into the sea. It added that the smoke plume reached a height of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).
“I was sitting at the bar in Ginostra with my mother, drinking a cup of coffee when we heard a massive boom and subsequently the volcano explosion,” Federica Manna, a Stromboli resident, told CNN.
“We all gathered in the square and after a short time it started to rain sand and stones. You can imagine the chaos. We sheltered in a church under the beams because we feared there was an earthquake.”
Origin:CNN.com
28/08/2019
Dorian is expected to near hurricane strength as it spins toward Puerto Rico
Tropical Storm Dorian is expected to be near hurricane strength when it approaches Puerto Rico on Wednesday, a threat that has residents taking precautions on an island still grappling with the devastation of 2017’s Hurricane Maria.
The storm’s center is expected to pass over, or just south of, Puerto Rico on Wednesday before moving near the Dominican Republic on Thursday, with sustained winds perhaps just below the 74 mph threshold for a hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“There’s already so much damage on the ground from (Maria) that this isn’t going to take a lot to make a significant amount of damage, especially flooding,” Myers said.
“Some of these power lines are not held up by very much — 70 mph would bring them back down,” he said.
Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced on Monday declared a state of emergency for the island, and urged people to prepare for the storm.
“For citizens who do not yet have safe roofs, we will have shelters ready,” Vázquez said on Twitter.
About 360 shelters are available across the island for a capacity of 48,500 people, the government’s official Twitter account said Monday.
Puerto Rico and eastern parts of the Dominican Republic are under a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch, the hurricane center said. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected within 36 hours, and a hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within 48 hours.
By the end of the week, what’s left of Dorian is expected to move toward the Bahamas and possibly into the southeastern parts of the United States. Forecasts show Dorian approaching the Florida peninsula Sunday as a tropical storm, but it’s far too early to predict impacts there, CNN meteorologists said.
Two-thirds of Puerto Rico is likely to receive tropical storm force winds, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said.
Dorian is the fourth named storm of this Atlantic hurricane season, which generally peaks in the eight weeks surrounding September 10.
Two-thirds of all the storms produced in a typical season occur during this period.
That’s because it’s the time when conditions in the tropics become prime for storm development. By the end of August, waters in the tropics have warmed, and wind shear across the Atlantic begins to weaken.
And this year, El Niño has dissipated, making conditions even more favorable for development.
Origin:CNN.com
27/08/2019
Icelanders can’t remember a hotter summer. It’s nice, and worrying
Helga Ögmundardóttir has been feeling a bit guilty this summer. The Icelandic academic lives on the coast in Reykjavik and isn’t used to sitting on her balcony without a blanket.
“I’m in my garden and I’m sweating because it’s 20 degrees and it’s midnight and I feel this guilty pleasure because I know it’s a bad thing, but it’s nice and I want to enjoy it,” she said.
July was the hottest month on record in the Icelandic capital, with temperatures 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the average of the past decade, according to the Icelandic Met Office. April, May and June were also unusually dry and warmer than usual.
The summer has been so hot and dry that the water level in the famous Red Lake near Reykjavik dropped from 140 centimeters to just 70 centimeters, according to the Met Office. The lake looks more like a bog now.
The drought also caused fewer salmon to swim up Iceland’s rivers. The National Association of Fisheries said salmon fishing slumped by a half compared to last summer.
“Nature here is really volatile and powerful and people just have to accept it if they want to live here… but the speed, it’s totally new and it’s enormous,” she said.
“When you see the glaciers retreat by dozens of meters a year, and see the vegetation change rapidly, we have invasive species now… That’s something new and it’s solely because of the rising temperature. So it’s tangible, it’s very visible,” she said.
Historical maps show that glaciers have repeatedly shrunk and grown in Iceland. Since the late 19th century, when glaciation reached its most recent peak, they’ve retreated by 2,000 square kilometers. But 600 square kilometers disappeared since 2000.
“We’ve seen these things happen before, we had episodes where there were some glaciers retreating, but now they are happening on a much bigger scale,” Björnsson said.
Skeiðará river isn’t the only Icelandic natural wonder that recently vanished because of climate change. Okjökull, a glacier in the east of the island, has melted in the past few years. There is now a plaque commemorating its existence. More glaciers are likely to follow.
Origin:CNN.com
27/08/2019
Indonesia’s capital city isn’t the only one sinking
Indonesia has said the country would be relocating its capital city, in part because it’s sinking into the Java Sea.
Jakarta is one of the fastest sinking cities in the world, according to the World Economic Forum, due to rising sea levels and the over-extraction of groundwater. But it isn’t the only city in trouble.
Houston
Houston has been sinking for decades and, like Jakarta, the over-extraction of groundwater is partly to blame.
The Houston Chronicle reported that parts of Harris County, which contains Houston, have sunk between 10 and 12 feet (about 3 meters), since the 1920s, according to data from the US Geological Survey. Areas have continued to fall as much as 2 inches per year, an amount that can quickly add up.
Lagos
The city of Lagos sits on the coast of Nigeria, constructed partly on the mainland, partly on some nearby islands. It’s also Africa’s most populous city.
Its geography makes Lagos especially prone to flooding, and the coastline has already been eroding. As sea levels rise due to global warming, the city is increasingly at risk.
One study from 2012 revealed that, because Nigeria’s coastline is so low, a sea level rise of just 3 to 9 feet (about 1 to 3 meters) “will have a catastrophic effect on the human activities in these regions.”
New Orleans
As recently as the 1930s, just a third of New Orleans was below sea level. When Katrina hit in 2005, that number went up to half.
The city is vulnerable to rising sea levels because it was built on loose soil and was positioned so close to on the coast. Combined with its sinking — scientists have found it to be falling at a rate of 0.39 inches (1 centimeter) a year.
Beijing
A study from 2016 showed that Beijing is sinking by as much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) in some areas per year.
Researchers said the cause of the sinking was depleting groundwater, similar to the situation in Jakarta and Houston.
Beijing, which is not a coastal city, relies heavily on groundwater as its main source of water. The water has been accumulating over many years, but its extraction has dried up the soil and caused it to compact — leading to the sinking.
Washington
Washington is one of the most important cities in the US — and it’s also sinking.
Research from 2015 showed that our country’s capital will drop more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) in the next 100 years.
But unlike Jakarta, Washington’s sinking has nothing to do with aquifers or rising sea levels — it’s actually because of an ice sheet from the last ice age.
Origin:CNN.com
26/08/2019
Flying above the Amazon fires, ‘all you can see is death’
The smoke is so thick, at times the Cessna airplane had to climb to stay out of it. At times your eyes burn and you close the air vents to keep the cabin habitable. Sometimes it is so bad, it is hard to see how bad it actually is on the ground below.
Flying above the Amazon’s worst afflicted state (during last week), Rondonia, is exhausting mostly because of the endless scale of the devastation.
“This is not just a forest that is burning,” said Rosana Villar of Greenpeace, who helped CNN arrange its flight over the damaged and burning areas.
“This is almost a cemetery. Because all you can see is death.”
The stark reality of the destruction is otherworldly: like a vision conjured by an alarmist to warn of what may come if the world doesn’t address its climate crisis now. Yet it is real, and here, and now, and below us as we are scorched by the sun above and smoldering land below.
Rondonia has 6,436 fires burning so far this year in it, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). NASA says the state has become one of the most deforested states in the Amazon. Brazil has 85% more fires burning than this time last year — up to 80,626 nationwide as of Sunday night.
As the rate of land clearance reaches one and a half football fields a minute — the statistics for the damage done to the forest emulate the incomprehensible mystery of its vanishing beauty — many analysts fear a tipping point is nearing.
The more forest is cleared, the less moisture is held beneath its canopy, and the drier the land gets. The drier the land gets, the more susceptible it is to fire. The more fire, the less forest. A self-fulfilling cycle has already begun. The question is when it becomes irreversible.
It is hard to see any claims of future doom as alarmist, when you see skylines rendered invisible by smoke, flames march across the plains like lava, and hear disinterested taxi drivers tell you they have never seen it so bad. The apocalyptic future is here, and it is impatient.
Origin:CNN.com
24/08/2019
Bolsonaro to deploy troops to fight Amazon rainforest fires
French President Emmanuel Macron has angered his Brazilian counterpart by calling the wildfires blazing in the Amazon rainforest an “international crisis” that should be on the agenda at the G7 summit in Biarritz.
“Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest – the lungs of our planet which produces 20% of our oxygen – is on fire. It is an international crisis,” Macron tweeted Thursday.
Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro blasted Macron’s offer as “sensationalist” and accused him of using the fires for “political gain.”
“I regret that President Macron is seeking to instrumentalize an internal issue in Brazil and in other Amazonian countries for personal political gains,” Bolsonaro tweeted.
Brazil’s space research center (INPE) said this week that the country has seen an 80% increase in fires this year, compared with the same period last year. More than half were in the Amazon region, spelling disaster for the local environment and ecology.
And 99% percent of the fires result from human actions “either on purpose or by accident,” said Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at INPE. The burning can range from a small-scale agricultural practice, to new deforestation for a mechanized and modern agribusiness project, Setzer told CNN by email.
Environmental organizations and researchers say the wildfires were set by cattle ranchers and loggers who want to clear and utilize the land, emboldened by the country’s pro-business president.
The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest in the world and accounts for at least 10% of the planet’s biodiversity.
It’s home to huge numbers of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles — 75% of which are unique to the Amazon. A new plant or animal species is discovered there every two days.
But the forest and its inhabitants are facing an unparalleled threat from deforestation — 20% of the Amazon biome has already been lost to mining, logging, farming, hydropower dams and roads, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Deforestation accelerated more than 60% in June 2019 over the same period last year, INPE’s data shows. The Amazon lost 769 square kilometres, a stark increase from the 488 sq km lost in June 2018. That equates to an area of rainforest larger than one-and-a-half soccer fields being destroyed every minute each day.
The Amazon forest also produces about 20% of the world’s oxygen and is often called “the planet’s lungs.”
Before the fires, land conversion and deforestation caused the Amazon to release up to 0.5 billion metric tons of carbon per year, according to the WWF. Depending on the damage from the fires, that release would increase, accelerating climate change.
“The Amazon is incredibly important for our future, for our ability to stave off the worst of climate change,” said Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch.
“This isn’t hyperbole. We’re looking at untold destruction — not just of the Amazon but for our entire planet.”
The pro-business Bolsonaro has hamstrung Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency with budget cuts amounting to $23 million — official data sent to CNN by Observatorio do Clima shows the enforcement agency’s operations have fallen since Bolsonaro was sworn in.
The director of Brazil’s space research center INPE was recently fired after defending satellite images that showed deforestation was 88% higher in June than a year earlier — data which Bolsonaro characterized as “lies.”
“The vast majority of these fires are human-lit,” said Amazon Watch’s Poirier, adding that even during dry seasons, the Amazon — a humid rainforest — doesn’t catch on fire easily, unlike the dry bushland in California or Australia.
Origin:CNN.com
21/08/2019
Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate, research center says
Fires are raging at a record rate in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, and scientists warn that it could strike a devastating blow to the fight against climate change.
The fires are burning at the highest rate since the country’s space research center, the National Institute for Space Research (known by the abbreviation INPE), began tracking them in 2013, the center said Tuesday.
There have been 72,843 fires in Brazil this year, with more than half in the Amazon region, INPE said. That’s more than an 80% increase compared with the same period last year.
The Amazon is often referred to as the planet’s lungs, producing 20% of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere.
It is considered vital in slowing global warming, and it is home to uncountable species of fauna and flora. Roughly half the size of the United States, it is the largest rainforest on the planet.
Dramatic images and videos on social media show giant plumes of smoke rising from the greenery and lines of fire leaving blackened waste in their wake.
The smoke has reached all the way to Sao Paulo, more than 1,700 miles away.
The European Union’s satellite program, Copernicus, released a map showing smoke from the fires spreading all along Brazil to the east Atlantic coast. The smoke has covered nearly half of the country and is even spilling over into neighboring Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.
The Amazon River stretches across several of these South American countries, but the majority — more than two-thirds — of the rainforest lies in Brazil.
According to INPE, more than 1½ soccer fields of Amazon rainforest are being destroyed every minute of every day.
Environmental activists and organizations like the World Wildlife Fund warn that if the Amazon reaches a point of no return, the rainforest could become a dry savannah, no longer habitable for much of its wildlife. If this happens, instead of being a source of oxygen, it could start emitting carbon — the major driver of climate change.
Origin:CNN.com
29/08/2019
As of today, humans have used more resources than Planet Earth can regenerate in a year
If Earth’s resources were a bank account, today would mark the date we’d officially be in the red.
As of July 29, humanity has officially used up more ecological resources this year than the Earth can regenerate by the end of the year. The occasion even has a name: Earth Overshoot Day.
The Global Footprint Network, a sustainability organization which calculates the day, says humanity is currently consuming nature 1.75 times faster than the planet can regenerate.
That means we’re overspending our natural capital, compromising resources in the future as a result and leading to things like deforestation and carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere.
And more carbon dioxide brings ever increasing climate change, the network says.
It’s getting worse, too.
The date has moved up two months over the past 20 years, and July 29 marks the earliest the date has ever landed.
“We have only got one Earth — this is the ultimately defining context for human existence. We can’t use 1.75 without destructive consequences,” said Mathis Wackernagel, founder of Global Footprint Network, in a statement.
The United States is one of the worst culprits.
If the entire world’s population lived like Americans, the organization said, we would need five Earths to meet our demands. That’s compared to countries like France or the United Kingdom, which would need less than three, though that still isn’t ideal.
And, even though poorer countries aren’t the ones overusing resources, they are the ones typically paying the costs. Research showsthat climate change will more drastically affect poorer countries before wealthier ones like the US.
Continuing at the current pace, the report said, would create a global health emergency — potentially leading to millions of deaths from air pollution in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and creating antimicrobial-resistant infections from freshwater pollution.
Origin:CNN.com
28/08/2019
Spectacular Stromboli eruption sends people fleeing for cover
A spectacular explosion from an Italian volcano Wednesday sent locals and tourists running for cover to avoid a shower of rocks and ash.
The eruption of Stromboli, on a small island off the coast of Sicily, sent a gigantic plume of smoke billowing into the sky.
Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said the explosion could be classified as a “paroxysmal event” and produced a pyroclastic flow — a fast-moving mixture of gas, rock and volcanic ash — of several hundred meters into the sea. It added that the smoke plume reached a height of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).
“I was sitting at the bar in Ginostra with my mother, drinking a cup of coffee when we heard a massive boom and subsequently the volcano explosion,” Federica Manna, a Stromboli resident, told CNN.
“We all gathered in the square and after a short time it started to rain sand and stones. You can imagine the chaos. We sheltered in a church under the beams because we feared there was an earthquake.”
Origin:CNN.com
28/08/2019
Spectacular Stromboli eruption sends people fleeing for cover
A spectacular explosion from an Italian volcano Wednesday sent locals and tourists running for cover to avoid a shower of rocks and ash.
The eruption of Stromboli, on a small island off the coast of Sicily, sent a gigantic plume of smoke billowing into the sky.
Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said the explosion could be classified as a “paroxysmal event” and produced a pyroclastic flow — a fast-moving mixture of gas, rock and volcanic ash — of several hundred meters into the sea. It added that the smoke plume reached a height of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).
“I was sitting at the bar in Ginostra with my mother, drinking a cup of coffee when we heard a massive boom and subsequently the volcano explosion,” Federica Manna, a Stromboli resident, told CNN.
“We all gathered in the square and after a short time it started to rain sand and stones. You can imagine the chaos. We sheltered in a church under the beams because we feared there was an earthquake.”
Origin:CNN.com
28/08/2019
Dorian is expected to near hurricane strength as it spins toward Puerto Rico
Tropical Storm Dorian is expected to be near hurricane strength when it approaches Puerto Rico on Wednesday, a threat that has residents taking precautions on an island still grappling with the devastation of 2017’s Hurricane Maria.
The storm’s center is expected to pass over, or just south of, Puerto Rico on Wednesday before moving near the Dominican Republic on Thursday, with sustained winds perhaps just below the 74 mph threshold for a hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“There’s already so much damage on the ground from (Maria) that this isn’t going to take a lot to make a significant amount of damage, especially flooding,” Myers said.
“Some of these power lines are not held up by very much — 70 mph would bring them back down,” he said.
Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced on Monday declared a state of emergency for the island, and urged people to prepare for the storm.
“For citizens who do not yet have safe roofs, we will have shelters ready,” Vázquez said on Twitter.
About 360 shelters are available across the island for a capacity of 48,500 people, the government’s official Twitter account said Monday.
Puerto Rico and eastern parts of the Dominican Republic are under a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch, the hurricane center said. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected within 36 hours, and a hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within 48 hours.
By the end of the week, what’s left of Dorian is expected to move toward the Bahamas and possibly into the southeastern parts of the United States. Forecasts show Dorian approaching the Florida peninsula Sunday as a tropical storm, but it’s far too early to predict impacts there, CNN meteorologists said.
Two-thirds of Puerto Rico is likely to receive tropical storm force winds, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said.
Dorian is the fourth named storm of this Atlantic hurricane season, which generally peaks in the eight weeks surrounding September 10.
Two-thirds of all the storms produced in a typical season occur during this period.
That’s because it’s the time when conditions in the tropics become prime for storm development. By the end of August, waters in the tropics have warmed, and wind shear across the Atlantic begins to weaken.
And this year, El Niño has dissipated, making conditions even more favorable for development.
Origin:CNN.com
27/08/2019
An asteroid larger than some of the world’s tallest buildings will zip by Earth next month
On September 14, an asteroid will pass by Earth that’s larger than some of the tallest buildings on the planet.
Asteroid 2000 QW7 is estimated to be between 290 meters and 650 meters in diameter, or between 951 and 2,132 feet, according to NASA. The world’s tallest building is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which reaches 2,717 feet tall. The second tallest building is the Shanghai Tower at 2,073 feet. The asteroid will be traveling at 14,361 miles per hour when it passes within 3,312,944 miles of Earth at 7:54 p.m. ET. Astronomers don’t believe the asteroid poses any danger, but NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies is tracking it.
The asteroid, named 2019 MO, was 13 feet in diameter and 310,685 miles from Earth. The ATLAS facility observed it four times over 30 minutes around midnight in Hawaii.
Initially, the Scout impact analysis software at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory deemed the potential impact as a 2. For reference, 0 is “unlikely” and 4 is “likely.” Davide Farnocchia, navigation engineer at JPL, requested additional observations because he noticed a detection near Puerto Rico 12 hours later.
The additional images from the Pan-STARRS telescope helped researchers better determine the entry path for the asteroid, which bumped the Scout rating to 4.
The calculation matched up, and weather radar in San Juan detected the asteroid as it burned up in our atmosphere. It entered the atmosphere over the ocean, 236 miles south of the city.
ATLAS, which is two telescopes 100 miles apart on the Big Island and Maui, scans the entire sky every two nights for asteroids that could impact Earth. It can spot small asteroids half a day before they arrive at Earth and could point to larger asteroids days before.
Origin:CNN.com
27/08/2019
Icelanders can’t remember a hotter summer. It’s nice, and worrying
Helga Ögmundardóttir has been feeling a bit guilty this summer. The Icelandic academic lives on the coast in Reykjavik and isn’t used to sitting on her balcony without a blanket.
“I’m in my garden and I’m sweating because it’s 20 degrees and it’s midnight and I feel this guilty pleasure because I know it’s a bad thing, but it’s nice and I want to enjoy it,” she said.
July was the hottest month on record in the Icelandic capital, with temperatures 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the average of the past decade, according to the Icelandic Met Office. April, May and June were also unusually dry and warmer than usual.
The summer has been so hot and dry that the water level in the famous Red Lake near Reykjavik dropped from 140 centimeters to just 70 centimeters, according to the Met Office. The lake looks more like a bog now.
The drought also caused fewer salmon to swim up Iceland’s rivers. The National Association of Fisheries said salmon fishing slumped by a half compared to last summer.
“Nature here is really volatile and powerful and people just have to accept it if they want to live here… but the speed, it’s totally new and it’s enormous,” she said.
“When you see the glaciers retreat by dozens of meters a year, and see the vegetation change rapidly, we have invasive species now… That’s something new and it’s solely because of the rising temperature. So it’s tangible, it’s very visible,” she said.
Historical maps show that glaciers have repeatedly shrunk and grown in Iceland. Since the late 19th century, when glaciation reached its most recent peak, they’ve retreated by 2,000 square kilometers. But 600 square kilometers disappeared since 2000.
“We’ve seen these things happen before, we had episodes where there were some glaciers retreating, but now they are happening on a much bigger scale,” Björnsson said.
Skeiðará river isn’t the only Icelandic natural wonder that recently vanished because of climate change. Okjökull, a glacier in the east of the island, has melted in the past few years. There is now a plaque commemorating its existence. More glaciers are likely to follow.
Origin:CNN.com
19/08/2019
At the bottom of a glacier in Greenland, climate scientists find troubling signs
On one of the hottest days this summer, locals in the tiny village of Kulusuk, Greenland heard what sounded like an explosion. It turned out to be a soccer field’s worth of ice breaking off a glacier more than five miles away.
Greenland lost 12.5 billion tons of ice to melting on August 2, the largest single-day loss in recorded history and another stark reminder of the climate crisis.
Kulusuk is also base camp for NASA’s OMG (Oceans Melting Greenland) program. OMG scientists traveled to the world’s biggest island this year after a heatwave scorched the United States and Europe, smashing temperature records and triggering the mass melting of its ice sheet.
NASA oceanographer Josh Willis and his team are investigating how the ice is being attacked not only by rising air temperatures but also by the warming ocean, which is eating it away from underneath.
“There is enough ice in Greenland to raise the sea levels by 7.5 meters, that’s about 25 feet, an enormous volume of ice, and that would be devastating to coastlines all around the planet,” said Willis.
“We should be retreating already from the coastline if we are looking at many meters [lost] in the next century or two.”
As our plane approached Helheim, the scientists spotted an ice-free “lake” at the very front of the glacier, something they said they don’t see often. The probes also brought back troubling data — Helheim was surrounded by warm water along its entire depth, more than 2,000 feet below the surface.
“It’s very rare anywhere on the planet to see 700 meters of no temperature variation, normally we find colder waters in the upper hundred meters or so, but right in front of the glacier it’s warm all the way up,” said Ian Fenty, climate scientist at NASA.
“These warm waters now are able to be in direct contact with the ice over its entire face, supercharging the melting.”
Helheim has become famous in recent years as it has been retreating at a stunning rate. In 2017, the glacier lost a whopping two miles, and a year later scientists from New York University captured a miles-long ice column break off the glacier’s front. The melt doesn’t seem to be slowing this year either.
“Greenland has impacts all around the planet. A billion tons of ice lost here raises sea levels in Australia, in Southeast Asia, in the United States, in Europe,” Willis said.
“We are all connected by the same ocean.”
Even though most still think of rovers and other planets when they think of NASA missions, in the 50 years since the moon landing, the public perception of what the agency should pour its resources into seems to be shifting. According to a recent study from the Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans now think that NASA’s top priority should be monitoring key parts of Earth’s climate system rather than sending a man to Mars.
Origin:CNN.com
19/08/2019
Bangladesh slum fire leaves 10,000 people homeless
More than 10,000 people have been left homeless after a massive fireengulfed a slum in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, destroying thousands of shanties, according to Bangladeshi officials.
The fire broke out Friday evening at the Chalantika slum in Dhaka’s Mirpur district on the northern outskirts of the city. Video footage showed the makeshift huts ablaze, with smoke billowing into the air.
“I could not salvage a single thing. I don’t know what I will do,” Abdul Hamid, who worked in the slum, told Agence France-Presse.
Rabbani told CNN that more than 2,000 huts were destroyed in the blaze, leaving more than 10,000 people homeless.
Enamur Rahman, Bangladesh’s State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief, told CNN Sunday that around “80% of the slum has been completely or partially destroyed.”
Rahman noted that the government will provide 500 tons of rice and 1.3 million taka ($15,476) to every person affected by the fire.
At least 111 people were killed in 2012 when a fire ripped through a clothing factory in Dhaka. A government inquiry later concluded that the incident was an “act of sabotage” after managers were found to have stopped employees leaving the building when the fire alarm sounded.
Origin:CNN.com
17/08/2019
The water is so hot in Alaska it’s killing large numbers of salmon
Alaska has been in the throes of an unprecedented heat wave this summer, and the heat stress is killing salmon in large numbers.
Scientists have observed die-offs of several varieties of Alaskan salmon, including sockeye, chum and pink salmon.
Stephanie Quinn-Davidson, director of the Yukon Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, told CNN she took a group of scientists on an expedition along Alaska’s Koyokuk River at the end of July, after locals alerted her to salmon die-offs on the stream.
She and the other scientists counted 850 dead unspawned salmon on that expedition, although they estimated the total was likely four to 10 times larger.
They looked for signs of lesions, parasites and infections, but came up empty. Nearly all the salmon they found had “beautiful eggs still inside them,” she said.
Because the die-off coincided with the heat wave, they concluded that heat stress was the cause of the mass deaths.
Quinn-Davidson said she’d been working as a scientist for eight years and had “never heard of anything to this extent before.”
“I’m not sure people expected how large a die-off we’d see on these rivers,” she said.
The water temperatures have breaking records at the same time as the air temperatures, according to Sue Mauger, the science director for the Cook Inletkeeper.
Scientists have been tracking stream temperatures around the Cook Inlet, located south of Anchorage, since 2002. They’ve never recorded a temperature above 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Until now.
On July 7, a major salmon stream on the west side of the Cook Inlet registered 81.7 degrees.
“2019 exceeded the value we expected for the worst-case scenario in 2069,” she said.
Origin:CNN.com
12/08/2019
Greenhouse gases reach record levels, report finds
The dominant greenhouse gases released into the Earth’s atmosphere reached record levels in 2018, and their global warming power is now 43% stronger than in 1990, according to a new report by the American Meteorological Society released Monday.
The State of the Climate in 2018 study also reported other key findings: · 2018 was the fourth-warmest year on record. The three other warmest years were 2015, 2016 and 2017, with 2016 as the warmest year since records first began being kept in the mid-1800s. · Sea levels rose to record levels for a seventh consecutive year.
Glaciers continue to melt at a concerning rate for the 30th straight year. “Every year since the start of the 21st Century has been warmer than the 1981-2010 average,” the report said. “In 2018, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth’s atmosphere — carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide — continued to increase and reach new record highs.”
In fact, the report found greenhouse gases warming influence on the planet have increased an alarming 43% since 1990. Global carbon dioxide concentrations, which represent the bulk of the gases warming power, rose during 2018 to a record 407.4 parts per million, the study found.
That is “the highest in the modern instrumental record and in ice core records dating back 800,000 years,” the report said.
“This is yet another in a series of expert, science-based reports that continue to sound the alarm about the climate crisis,” said Marshall Shepherd, a professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia. He is also a former president of the American Meteorological Society.
Shepherd went on to say that the “DNA of climate change is clearly seen now in our weather, agriculture productivity, water supply challenges, public health, and even national security concerns.”
The report adds to the growing list of studies about the alarming impact of global warming. One recent report from the United Nations found that food will become scarcer and that the climate crisis will change what kinds of crops farmers can grow.
Another major US government report released last year gave a dire warning about climate change, saying the economy could lose hundreds of billions of dollars — or, in the worst-case scenario, more than 10% of its GDP.
Monday’s report found that global annual sea levels rose for the seventh consecutive year and hit a record high for the 26 years since satellite recordings began, having risen about 3.2 inches, or 81 millimeters, in that time above the 1993 average.
“The new high reflects an ongoing trend,” the report said. “Ongoing trends and year-to-year changes in sea level impact coastal communities by increasing the magnitude and frequency of positive sea level extremes that cause flooding and erosion.”
Global sea level has been rising at an average rate of 1.2 inches (3.1 centimeters) per decade.
The study said a number of prolonged heat waves in North America, Europe, Australia, and East Asia were widely reported, along with some unusually cold periods, like the “Beast from the East” for example, in Europe.
“It is clear that lakes are also affected by the warm conditions, as the majority of the lakes assessed show continual increases in annual temperatures, especially in the northern mid-latitudes,” the study said.
The report also said preliminary data indicate that “glaciers across the world continued to lose mass for the 30th consecutive year.” “For the 25 reporting glaciers, only one reported a positive mass balance for the year. Since 1980, the cumulative loss is the equivalent of slicing 24 meters (78.7 feet) off the top of the average glacier,” the report said.
Origin:CNN.com
12/08/2019
More than 150 are dead as heavy monsoon rains batter India
Heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 114 people in India this week, causing devastating landslides and floods in several parts of the country.
In the southern state of Kerala, 57 people died, according to the state government. More than 165,000 people have been forced out of their homes by the monsoons and have taken refuge in 1,318 relief camps across Kerala. Nearly 200 houses in the state were destroyed in rain-related incidents, according to officials.
In neighboring Karnataka state, 30 people died and 14 are missing due to floods, according to the local government. The state administration has evacuated more than 30,000 people to 924 relief camps.
In the western state of Maharashtra, 27 people died and more than 200,000 have been evacuated, a senior state official told CNN.
Large swaths of South Asia were hit by heavy monsoon rains last month, leaving at least 227 people deadacross India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The monsoon period stretches until September, making recovery difficult for those affected. Hundreds of homes have been damaged or completely destroyed in the first wave of the season, and families are racing to rebuild them before more rains come.
Origin:CNN.com
11/08/2019
Fire in Spain’s Canary Islands leaves rescuers ‘fighting for our island’
A fire raging in Spain’s Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa has prompted the evacuation of a thousand people, the islands’ President Ángel Víctor Torres said on Sunday.
Speaking at a news conference, he said that the affected area was 1,000 hectares (about 2,500 acres). The neighborhoods concerned were from the municipalities of Artenara, Tejeda and Gáldar.
The fire spread on Gran Canaria, the second-most populous of the Canary Islands with just less than 900,000 people.
Earlier on Saturday, firefighters said in Spanish they were “overwhelmed by the situation,” adding “we are fighting for our island!!!”
Ten aircraft and more than 200 ground troops are working to tackle the fire, Torres said. He added that local authorities have requested help from the government in Madrid and the Military Emergencies Unit in Seville.
Origin:CNN.com
10/08/2019
Twin tornadoes whip through northern Europe, hospitalizing at least 14 people
At least 14 people were hospitalized after a tornado tore through southwestern Luxembourg Friday, damaging over 160 houses before progressing into eastern France.
Another tornado also struck the city center of Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, the same day, gathering debris and whipping across a river.
In Luxembourg, wind speeds reached 128 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour), Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. Two people sustained more serious injuries, the government said, and remained in hospital on Friday night.
Significant destruction occurred in the Kaerjeng and Petange communes. In Kaerjeng, around 100 houses were damaged, with up to 30 losing part of or the entirety of their roof. A further 60 houses were damaged in Petange.
The strong winds also downed multiple pylons, damaging a high-voltage power line. A branch of the supermarket chain Cactus in the town of Bascharage was cordoned off by police, and remained closed Saturday.
The tornado moved into France on Friday evening, AFP reported, damaging houses in the Meurthe-et-Moselle region. Strong winds impacted the communes of Longwy, Herserange and Saulnes, the local fire department tweeted, warning locals to “beware of falling objects.”
Origin:CNN.com
09/08/2019
Power restored to London and southeast England after National Grid failure
Trains ground to a halt, homes went dark and cars wandered through intersections without functioning traffic lights as large swathes of London and southern England temporarily lost power Friday.
UK Power Networks tweeted that the outages were “due to an issue on the national transmission network,” adding, “we believe all supplies have been restored.”
Earlier in the day, the country’s National Grid Electricity System Operator tweeted about “issues” with two power generators.
Urban transportation was severely impacted by the outages, if only briefly.
A major London Underground line came to stop because of the outage, Transport for London confirmed to CNN, though by 6 p.m. that service was restored.
“The Victoria line was affected, but it is back up and running now. There are severe delays, though,” a TfL spokesperson told CNN.
“Power supply problems are currently causing disruption to a large number of train services. Information screens in some areas are also affected,” National Rail Enquiries said, according to Britain’s Press Association.
Earlier Friday, UK Power Networks warned it was “preparing for forecast of strong winds” across the South East and East of England, directing customers to its website for further guidance on how power might be affected.
Origin:CNN.com
