Powerful Quake Near Samoa Causes Small Tsunami

Breaking Earth News: South Pacific
Seismic/Tsunami Alert
Sept 28, 2006
SYDNEY, Australia, Sep. 28, 2006
(AP) A massive earthquake struck Thursday under the Pacific Ocean floor near Samoa generating a tsunami that could have been destructive if it had been closer to land, authorities said. No damage was reported.U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake as having a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 and striking 27 miles beneath the sea floor about 185 miles southwest of Pago Pago at about 7:20 p.m. local time.The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported the temblor as magnitude 7 and recorded an 3-inch rise in sea levels near the epicenter."Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated," the center said in a bulletin posted on the Internet. "It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter."The center said if a tsunami had not struck within two hours of the quake, the threat was over.Sam Ahsan, senior observer at Samoa's Meteorological Division in Apia, speaking by telephone almost three hours after the quake, said there had been no reports of tsunami or other effects."It was too far away, there was no damage," he said.The center said earthquakes of that magnitude sometimes cause potentially damaging waves if they occur within 60 miles of a coastline.

QUAKES
MAINE - On Friday monitors recorded five hours of earthquake activity with the biggest being a Magnitude 3.5 quake at 6:39 a.m. about one mile southwest of the middle of Bar Harbor. There were roughly nine additional temblors starting at 5:21 a.m. before the main quake and continuing through 10:20 a.m. The biggest quake was of a magnitude that could be felt miles away. There were no reports of injuries or property damage. New England averages about one or two earthquakes that are above 3.5 Magnitude each year. Maine already recorded a 3.8-Magnitude earthquake in the northern part of the state on July 14.

Volcano plumes continue

Volcanic Alert: Alaska, U.S.
Sept 27, 2006
Just beyond the site where volcano Mt. Augustine finally quieted after several months of eruption, a new boil of the Earth’s surface is expelling plumes of ash, gas and steam from beneath its layer of glacier skin.That mask, scientists say, is the reason there are many unknowns regarding this volcano’s activity — which makes it difficult to predict what may happen next. Fourpeaked has been active since last Sunday after a likely hibernation of at least 10,000 years. The initial plume Sunday reached 20,000 feet into the sky.For now, the alarm is “Code Yellow,” meaning it is possible that a significant eruptive activity could happen in the coming days to weeks. Scientists say the volcano is capable of explosive eruptions of producing plumes that reach more that 33,000 feet above sea level and local ashfall. During the weekend and into today, the observatory flew several observation missions over Fourpeaked Volcano in the Cape Douglas area, observing a “linear series of vents … vigorously emitting steam and other volcanic gases.” That observation continues, “ in the immediate vicinity of the vents, the glacier has been disrupted and showed signs of subsidence.”

{Photo above by Cyrus Read, courtesy of Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey Fumaroles on the west side of Fourpeak Volcano.}

Volcanoes
INDONESIA - European geologists said Monday it may be impossible to stop a massive surge of hot sludge on Indonesia's densely populated island of Java, saying it could be the birth of a new mud volcano. The mud, which is almost five metres deep in some places, has submerged houses in four villages since it started spewing from a hole four months ago, displacing more than 10,000 people. At least 20 factories and 270 hectares of land have been inundated or abandoned due to safety reasons. The mud has repeatedly washed onto a major toll road, closing it for weeks at a time, and now threatens a rail link in the industrial area just outside Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city.

Late on Monday the mudflow broke barriers and injured six. One had burns from waist to ankle. Several experts have said the mudflow, which started to spurt in late May, could have been triggered by a crack about 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) deep in East Java province's Banjar Panji well. However, a group of international scientists said this week the mudflow might be a natural phenomenon that could be impossible to stop. The mud has swamped four villages over an area larger than Monaco, displacing more than 10,000 people and highlighting the chequered environmental practices in exploiting resources in Indonesia. The Monday night barrier breaches had been predicted by hundreds of villagers living near the sand-and-gravel dykes who fled the area last week. But, several site workers who stayed in the abandoned houses failed to anticipate the flood. The ongoing crisis has forced the local government in East Java province to allow the channeling of the muddy water into a nearby river, despite concerns it could pollute the ocean, a source of income for millions living on Java's eastern coast. "We are racing against time. The rainy season is near and we must reduce the pressure against the dykes." {photo above: A villager searches for his belongings, which were washed away by leaking hot mud from an oil and gas exploration operated by local company PT Lapindo Brantas, in Sidoarjo, East Java, August 30, 2006. REUTERS.}

Indonesia declares landslide disaster

Earth News: Indonesia
Sept 27, 2006
INDONESIA'S president has declared a disaster zone over part of East Java swamped by a mudspill, and ordered that four affected villages be abandoned, a government minister said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered that the Indonesian company responsible for drilling a gas well near where the mud has been flowing pay at least 1.5 trillion rupiah ($218.5 million) to deal with the mess.
“Around 400 hectares of the affected area flooded with mud is now declared a “disaster area' and not fit for habitation,” said Djoko Kirmanto, minister of public works, reading from directions given by the president.
“Almost 3000 households from four villages will be resettled and will be given money to rent a house for two years,” he said, after the president met with a government team appointed to tackle the problem.
For four months, steaming mud has been spewing from the earth near an exploratory gas well operated by Lapindo Brantas, owned by the family of Indonesia's welfare minister.
Experts have warned they cannot predict when the outpouring might end.

LANDSLIDES
PENNSYLVANIA - Private train rerouted due to massive landslide - A major landslide covered two of the three Norfolk Southern railway tracks in Kilbuck Township.

NEW YORK - A boat advisory remains in effect after landslide - Boaters are still required to avoid a section of the Hudson River effected by a landslide, which occurred more than a week ago.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA - Landslide severs Highlands Highway - the dilapidated Mendi to Tari section of the Highlands Highway has been further affected by a landslide.

Heavy rain cripples life in eastern Nepal; Drought hits Humla

Breaking Earth News: Nepal
Click Map to Enlarge
Sept 28, 2006
Heavy rain cripples life in eastern Nepal - Incessant rainfall for the last four days has crippled life in the eastern districts, with air service and shuttle service along the highways also being affected. Transportation to and from Biratnagar Sub-metropolis has been disrupted while the ground floor of many houses in the city were flooded due to lack of proper sewage system. Huge swathes of arable land along with settlements in Bahedabela, Musaraniya, Depura, Rupaitha and other VDCs in the district have been inundated. In Udayapur, transportation service to and from the district headquarters Gaighat came to a complete halt due to flooding of Triyuga river. Similarly, landslides triggered by continuous rainfall at many places along the Mechi and Koshi Highways have further disrupted traffic movement. Rainfall throughout the country that has outlived the usual monsoon end date of September 23, was set to end for this year on Wednesday, according to the Meteorological Forecasting Division. The incessant downpour in the country was caused by an abnormal weather system in Jharkhand and Bihar. However, the system is moving towards northeast and monsoon should end in the country.

HEAVY RAIN
SOUTH AFRICA - N2 caves in after 188mm of rain - Heavy rain is also wreaking havoc in parts of the Eastern Cape, causing accidents, washing away roads and threatening the homes of shack dwellers.

INDIA - Heavy rainfall lashed most parts of Kerala and Lakshadweep, even as the South West monsoon continued to be vigorous in the region.

Xangsane typhoon to hit central Vietnam

Tropical Storm Alert: Vietnam
Sept 28, 2006

VietNamNet Bridge – A strong storm, called Xangsane, is passing the Philippines to the South China Sea. The typhoon is forecast by a Hawaiian hydrometeorology agency to arrive in central Vietnam on October 2.

A senior official of the Southern Weather Station, Le Thi Xuan Lan, said that the storm appeared two days ago in the eastern Philippines. It became stronger to become tropical low pressure on September 26 and a storm now.

By 1pm, September 27, Xangsane had wind speeds of 167km per hour or the 15th grade, even stronger than the recent Chanchu typhoon, according to Japanese experts.

Japanese weather experts predict Xangsane will move west-northwest at 15-20km/hr. At that speed and direction, the typhoon will arrive in the South China Sea tonight.

According to the Hawaii weather station, the storm will hit central Vietnam, particularly Da Nang City and Thua Thien – Hue Province on October 2.

Related News
Typhoon pounds Philippines, at least 11 dead
MANILA - Typhoon Xangsane ploughed into the Philippines on Thursday, killing at least 11 people and leaving dozens missing as it ripped down power lines and cut off electricity for tens of millions of residents.
Gale-force winds uprooted trees, blocked off major highways and damaged buildings while heavy rains caused widespread flooding in central and northern areas. Schools, financial markets and transport links were shut down.

End of the free pass for Bush

Once Again Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's "Countdown,"tells it like it is!
Olbermann: Clinton spoke the truth

Sept 25, 2006
The nation’s freedoms are under assault by an administration whose policies can do us as much damage as al Qaida; the nation’s marketplace of ideas is being poisoned by a propaganda company so blatant that Tokyo Rose would’ve quit. (Photo below: Former President Bill Clinton responds to host Chris Wallace during a taping of an interview on Friday, Sept. 22, 2006, in New York.)

View Clinton Interview on You Tube: Wallace Shows His Dishonest Colors in Clinton Interview

Chris Wallace showed himself to be unethical during his interview with President Clinton, which aired Sunday (September 24, 2006) on “Fox News Sunday.” Wallace blatantly tried to violate the terms of the agreement reached with Clinton before he agreed to his first-ever one-on-one interview with Fox News.

RITA: ONE YEAR LATER

Special Commemoration: Louisiana and Hurricane Rita
Sept 24, 2006
While still grappling with Katrina's devastation, the state is slammed by Category 3 Hurricane Rita
PECAN ISLAND -- Hurricane Rita had nearly passed when Vermilion Parish Deputy Sheriff Steven Lege started heading back to his hometown of Pecan Island, separated from the Gulf of Mexico by only a thin barrier of marsh.
Then Lege saw a "line of brown" on the horizon, perhaps 6 feet tall, moving slowly toward him.
It took a moment to process: The storm surge hadn't yet hit, and would engulf everything before him in minutes. He and a partner jumped back in the truck and turned around on Louisiana 82, driving fast ahead of the oncoming water as it laid waste to the small community of about 200 families.
Continue Story

From Another News Source
Hurricane Rita victims feel neglected
It's hard to imagine that the most intense hurricane ever in the Gulf of Mexico would be labeled "the other storm."But being the ugly step-sister of Hurricane Katrina is the fate of Hurricane Rita, storm victims say, and they're being treated as step-children, at best.
Photo: Wendy Wicke and her husband, Greg, lost their house and everything they owned when Hurricane Rita devastated southwestern Louisiana on Sept. 24, 2005. Their homeowners’ insurance claim was rejected, and they have been unable to rebuild. “It’s hard, it’s so hard,” Wicke said. “I just want to come home.”

La. Observes 1-Year Anniversary of Rita
LAKE CHARLES, La. Sep 24, 2006 (AP)— Hundreds gathered Sunday for a church service to mark the anniversary of Hurricane Rita, a year that Gov. Kathleen Blanco called "the longest year of our lives."

Tide turning on climate change, Howard must act

Breaking Earth News/Climate Change: Australia
Tuesday, 26 September 2006
Press Release: Australian Green Party
Tide turning on climate change - Prime Minister Howard will be forced to act
The global tide is turning on climate change, leaving Prime MinisterJohn Howard with no option but to set greenhouse gas emission targets and establish an emission trading system to allow the marketplace to determine how best to meet them, the Australian Greens said today.
"British businessman Richard Branson's announcement that he will commit $US3 billion over the next decade towards renewable energy initiatives is the latest significant development in the climate change debate," Senator Milne said.
"In the past few weeks, Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, has focused attention on the urgency of climate change and the catastrophic consequences of failing to act.
"Winter grain harvest forecasts were down significantly this week on the back of a record dry winter, while scientists in Europe alerted the world to the break up of previously perennial Artic sea ice between Norway and the North Pole.

Earth's Rapid Warming

Breaking Earth News: Planet in Peril
From correspondents in Washington
Artcle published in its entirety
September 26, 2006 01:10pm
THE Earth's rapid warming has pushed temperatures to their hottest level in nearly 12,000 years and within a hair's breadth of a million years, a study by the US space agency showed.
Global warming, which has added 0.2 degree Celsius a decade over the past 30 years, has caused temperatures to reach and now pass through the warmest levels in the current interglacial period, which lasted almost 12,000 years, according to the study led by James Hansen, a leading climatologist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The study, published in the September 26 of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said that Earth was now within about one degree of the maximum estimated temperature of the past million years.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration researcher said that was the most important finding of the team's research.
"That means that further global warming of 1 degree Celsius defines a critical level. If warming is kept less than that, effects of global warming may be relatively manageable. During the warmest interglacial periods the Earth was reasonably similar to today," Hansen said.
"But if further global warming reaches 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know."
Hansen pointed out that the last time it was that warm was in the middle Pliocene, about three million years ago, when the sea level was estimated to have been about 25m higher than today.
The researchers recalled that a study published in 2003 by the British science journal Nature showed that 1700 varieties of plants and animal and insect species had migrated toward the North Pole at an average 6 km a decade in the second half of the 20th century.

From MSNBC
Global warming nears ‘dangerous’ level
As published by Live Science
Sept 25, 2006
Global temperatures are dangerously close to the highest ever estimated to have occurred in the past million years, scientists reported Monday.
This color-coded map above shows how surface temperatures changed on average from 2001 to 2005. 2005 was the warmest ranked year on record. Dark red indicates the greatest warming and purple indicates the greatest cooling. The numbers refer to temperature anomalies as measured by degrees Celsius. Image provided by NASA

HEAT / WILDFIRES
CALIFORNIA is experiencing ONE OF ITS WORST WILDFIRE SEASONS IN A DECADE, and the most brutal part of the season - fall - has only just begun. Already, some 172,333 acres of land within CDF's jurisdiction have gone up in flame - more than triple the amount at this time last year. More than 386,768 acres in California's national forests have burned this year. "That's more than any other year in the past decade, with the exception of 1999, when 513,700 acres were lost in national forests - many of them in October. "The potential is there for more big fires in California this year."

SOUTH AUSTRALIA is coming out of THE DRIEST WINTER ON RECORD, leaving firefighters worried about the potential for wild scrub and forest blazes.

Mayon rumbles back to life again

Volcanic Alert: Philippines
Click Map to Enlarge
Sept 25, 2006
Mayon volcano activities significantly increased yesterday as it posted the highest number of recorded volcanic earthquakes and tremor episodes in almost two weeks, indicating that the volcano is still on a "high level of unrest."
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), in its bulletin yesterday, said it detected 14 volcanic earthquakes and 114 tremor episodes during its 24-hour observation period.
Yesterday’s volcanic earthquakes are the highest since Sept. 15, when the number of volcanic earthquakes only ranged from zero to 12. The highest number of volcanic earthquakes since Mayon’s alert status was lowered to Alert Level 3 was at 18 last Sept. 14.
The number of tremor episodes was at a record high of 114, considering that tremor events had already gone down from more than 100 two weeks ago to 14 last Sept. 23. Tremor episodes recorded were only at 21 the other day.
"A fair level of crater glow was observed and surface activity was characterized by intermittent extrusion of lava from the crater and rolling of incandescent lava fragments along the volcano’s slopes," Phivolcs added.
Phivolcs said Alert Level 3 remains hoisted over Mayon as it continues to demonstrate a "high level of unrest" for the past days despite a decline in volcanic activity this month.

Coastal towns 'overwhelmed' by flash flooding

Earth News: England
Sept 25, 2006
Hundreds of people today battled flash floods after drainage systems in two coastal towns were "overwhelmed" by torrential rain, a water company said.
More than 90 properties, including schools and businesses, in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and Lowestoft, Suffolk were affected, Anglian Water said.
Floods were said to be several feet deep in places in Great Yarmouth, which was the worst hit area, and police said a number of roads were blocked.
Water company officials said the problems had been exacerbated by a blockage in a pump at a drainage station.
"The system is designed to cope with a certain amount of rain but it has been so heavy in the early hours that the network has been overwhelmed," said an Anglian Water spokeswoman.
"Ten properties in Lowestoft have been affected by internal flooding and 50 by external flooding.
"Six properties in Great Yarmouth have been affected by internal flooding and 25 by external flooding.
"I don't know how much rain has fallen but it's been a huge amount.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING
AUSTRALIA - Thousands of dollars damage was caused when violent wind storms lashed the Lithgow district and Blue Mountains on Sunday. The gales were part of an extreme weather front that affected much of south eastern NSW, leaving a trail of destruction and bringing an ominously early start to the bushfire season. Wind gusts were reported by the Weather Bureau to have been up to 100 kph, bringing THE MOST EXTREME WIND EXPERIENCE IN RECENT YEARS. This prompted the Rural Fire Service to declare the region's first total fire ban for the year, a situation normally encountered in peak Summer rather than early Spring.

KENTUCKY - USA. Heavy flooding rain, 8.95 inches of rain over 24 hours on Friday and Saturday, was probably a 200-year rain. Heavy rain last November was a 300-year rain. Both are RARE in themselves, but to get both in the span of one year, as well as other smaller rain events that have also caused flooding - that is something that stormwater systems are just not designed to handle. "They usually don't go to the extent of designing for anything more than a 50- to 100-year storm. It's just not economically possible to do that."

Hurricane Katrina's waves felt in California

Skywatch Special Earth Report
Click Image to Enlarge
Sept 23, 2006
ON 29 August 2005, as hurricane Katrina was rumbling towards New Orleans, a seismic hum more than 1000 times the strength of the average volcanic tremor was felt nearly 3000 kilometres away in southern California. Its source was the hurricane itself.
Hurricanes create large ocean waves, which send energy pulsing through the Earth as they pound the shoreline. To determine the power of Katrina's seismic waves, Peter Gerstoft of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues analysed the signals recorded by a network of 150 seismic stations in southern California just before Katrina hit the Louisiana coast. They used a method known as beamforming, which preferentially picks up signals from a particular direction, to decipher the seismicity generated by Katrina (Geophysical Research Letters, vol 33, p L17805).
Seismic surface waves, which travel through the Earth's crust, were detected 30 hours before the hurricane made landfall, while body waves, which bounce down into the mantle, arrived some 18 hours later. "The body waves had travelled down to 1100 kilometres inside the Earth," Gerstoft says. This is the first time that a hurricane's seismic signal has been detected so far away.
When Katrina Hit California


Figure 1 at top: Path from hurricane Katrina to the seismic array in California (triangles). Track of Katrina is shown in red.

Figure 2 below: Schematic of travel paths of observed surface and body waves.

Floods in North reaching critical level

Breaking Earth News: Thailand
Sept 24, 2006
PHITSANULOK, Sept 24 (TNA) - Although the rains have stopped in several northern provinces in the past few days, provincial and irrigation authorities are worried about the alarming rate of rising water levels at several dams in the region.
Here in Phitsanulok province, the water level in the Nan River rose to 10.05 metres at a major bridge Sunday morning, slightly passing the critical level. Provincial officials are currently monitoring the water level of the river and hope that the province could be saved from severe flooding if there is no more
heavy rain.

Related News
Sept 24, 2006
Bangladesh's death toll rises past 100 after storms
Bangladesh's confirmed death toll from storms in the Bay of Bengal rose to 107 on Sunday as officials warned that thousands of fishermen remain missing and are feared drowned.

Officials raise volcano code to yellow

Photo: Fourpeaked Volcano, the 2104-m- high glacier-covered peak at the upper left.

Volcanic Alert: Alaska, U.S.
Sept 22, 2006
Fourpeaked Volcano, about 80 miles northwest of Kodiak across Shelikof Strait, was upgraded by the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage to code yellow, meaning restless with an eruption possible.
Steve McNutt, research professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and acting coordinator for the AVO, said with satellite data, information gained from infrasound microphones and overhead flights, more information is now known about a 20,000-foot plume seen Sunday.
“An atmospheric disturbance was recorded in Fairbanks. It is clear the sound waves were coming from Fourpeaked,” McNutt said today.
In addition, he said a cloud of sulfur dioxide gas was detected during the eruption observed by the University of Maryland, Baltimore, over the Cape Douglas-Fourpeaked region using data collected by the ozone monitoring instrument on NASA’s Aura satellite.

Hurricane Gordon Slams Ireland and U.K.

Tropical Storm Update: Ireland/England
Sept 22, 2006
Thousands of householders will be without electricity until tomorrow after the tail end of Hurricane Gordon lashed parts of the UK, bringing down power lines.
One of the worst affected areas was Northern Ireland, where the wind batterned the province for many hours at speeds of up to 74mph. Roads were blocked by fallen trees and tens of thousands of homes were without electricity.
Northern Ireland Electricity said supplies to over 100,000 customers were hit. Staff worked through the night and managed to restore power to 50,000 homes but a spokesman said he would not be surprised if it was Saturday before everyone was back on.
The worst affected areas were Mid Ulster, Craigavon and Newry, with parts of south Belfast also hit.
The South West of England was also battered by winds reaching more than 80mph. An Atlantic storm fuelled by the end of Hurricane Gordon hit the region, bringing down trees and tearing some boats from their moorings. (photo above: A collapsed tree in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, which bore the brunt of Gordon.)

Storms Rip Parts Of The Midwest

Breaking Storm News: Midwest U.S.
UPDATED: 5:09 am PDT September 23, 2006
ST. JAMES, Mo. -- Severe thunderstorms spawned tornadoes, large hail and lightning in parts of the Midwest on Friday, killing a boater trying to get to shore.
Two tornadoes swept through south-central Missouri Friday afternoon, damaging more than 100 homes and tearing off part of a roof at a middle school moments after a tornado drill. No deaths had been reported.
A firefighter videotaped two twisters moving through St. James, said Phelps County emergency management director Bruce Southard. He estimated the tornadoes were on the ground for 10 minutes.
"It's devastating," he said. "We've got nice houses that are just tore to pieces."
In northwest Arkansas, Deborah Massey, 51, died when her boat was struck by lightning as she and Preston Starritt, 36, both of Prairie Grove, were on Bob Kidd Lake, Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder said. Starritt was injured and treated at a hospital.
Several tornadoes were reported in the region, where power was knocked out, trees broken and at least one home damaged.
"I've seen storms come through, but nothing that's taken down poles like this," Springdale police Sgt. Billy Turnbough said flagpoles bent sideways.

Storm death toll rises in Bangladesh

Breaking Storm News: Bangladesh
Sept 23, 2006
The death toll from a tropical storm in the Bay of Bengal reached 87 Saturday as search for the missing fishermen continued amid heavy rains and rising waves, officials said.
Coast guard rescuers said hundreds of fishermen were still reported missing in the raging storm on Tuesday which hit scores of fragile fishing hamlets.
The overnight toll of 56 dead rose to 87 after 31 more bodies were recovered from the rough waters,
Local Red Cross officials said about 500 fishing trawlers remained untraced four days after gale winds whipped up high walls of water which also flooded several coastal districts.
The storm was triggered by a low in the Bay which also dumped heavy rains on the lush rice plains in southern Bangladesh.

‘Katrina’ Was Just the Beginning of Hellish Hurricanes

Environmental News: Climate Change
Skywatch Special Edition
Sept 2006
Does “El Nino” mean anything to you? If not, you certainly remember the violence of Katrina hurricane, which swept New Orleans. Well, prepare for worse because Pacific and Atlantic storms are gaining strength.I’m sure global warming is no enigma to anyone these days, since signs that confirm it are to be found in any news posted on any TV channel. From last year’s hurricane seasons in the US, to the drought that parched Portugal in the same year and burned almost a third of the country’s forests, to this year’s fires in Greece and the hot air wave that raised temperatures in Europe to the highest level in five years, all are demonstrations of how Earth’s atmosphere suffers from pollution.The consequences of global warming and the green house effect are even worse than previously anticipated. According to a study by 19 climate researchers published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences polluting particles emitted from car tailpipes and power plants that work with fossil fuel are making the surface of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans warmer, acting like a catalyst for stronger and more devastating hurricanes that form there.The recent results came after a long and complicated scientific adventure at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where more than 22 climate models were put to test on the powerful computers installed there, each model being run several times with slightly different initial conditions. For example, climate models included the global effects of the “El Nino” phenomenon, the possible implications of a catastrophic volcano eruption (like the one that took place in August 25-27, 1883 in Krakatoa, when the volcano ejected more than 25 cubic kilometres of rock, ash, and pumice, and generated the loudest sound ever historically reported) and even a possible modification in the light emitted by the Sun. All tests indicated that a simple and natural climate change is unacceptable and that pollution must play the most important role for the heating of oceans’ surface."There is no way the observed changes could be related just to natural variables," said Tom Wigley, a National Center for Atmospheric Research researcher and a co-author of the journal, published by the National Academy of Sciences.

Clinton global initiative wins $7.3bn pledges

Former President Bill Clinton speaks to a reporter Monday, Sept. 18, 2006, in New York. Bill Clinton says he can't get as much done as an ex-president as he could when he was president. But he insists private citizens can do more to change the world than at any time in the past. (AP Photo)

Sept 22, 2006
Former US President Bill Clinton's global initiative conference wound up in New York on Friday with 215 commitments from companies, governments and non-profit groups totalling $7.3bn, nearly three times its inaugural 2005 level.
The pledges mostly concentrated on the four themes of the fight against global warming, disease, poverty and religious conflict. They varied from Rupert Murdoch and the singer Barbra Streisand jointly backing an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a planned future summit between African women to Sir Richard Branson's $3bn promise over a decade to reinvest proceeds from his transport groups into alternative fuels.
Story Continues

Quake shakes Far North area `like a sonic boom'

Sept, 2006
Quake shakes Far North area `like a sonic boom'19.09.2006
By Mike Barrington
A loud bang accompanying an earthquake centred off Takou Bay on Sunday had some coastal residents checking the sky for a meteor.
A GeoNet report says the 8.34am earthquake 20km east of Kaeo and 20km north of Kerikeri was centred at a depth of 5km and had a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale.
June Sale said she heard what sounded like a big explosion which shook her stone home at Te Ngaire, rattled windows and moved a picture on a wall.
"At first I thought something had landed on the roof," she said.
"Some people rushed out of their houses thinking it was something from space like they've been getting in the South Island. "
Along the road at Te Ngaire, John McBain said "there was an awful boom and everything vibrated".
It had sounded like a door slamming loudly or a gas cylinder exploding.
"We thought maybe it was thunder, but it was too abrupt for that - more like a sonic boom."
At Matauri Bay, a woman at Oceans Holiday Village said the bang had sounded "like a quarry blast".

Flooding rages across Vietnam

Earth News: Vietnam
21/09/2006
VietNamNet Bridge - Flash floods and whirlwinds have killed six people, injured six others and left several missing and almost 4,000 families homeless after raging over the country for 10 days since Sept. 9. The Southern Steering Board for Flood and Storm Control reported on Sept. 18 that a person in Can Tho province was killed by thunderbolts on Sept. 9 and a local child drowned due to flooding on Sept. 12. In the Central Highlands province of Dac Lac, flash floods swept away four passers-by and two motobikes on a bridge, leading to two deaths and three injured, in Krong Buc district on Sept. 18. Flooding has also killed two and injured three others in Ea Sup district. Thunderstorms and flooding have also ravaged many other parts of the country such as Binh Thuan province along the central coast, Long An in the south and Gia Lai in the Central Highlands. Consequently, almost 4,000 homes were submerged and over 2,000 hectares of crops destroyed. Roads, bridges and irrigation works also suffered huge damages

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING
IRELAND - Severe flooding occurred in parts of counties Monaghan and Cavan as a result of heavy rainfall yesterday evening. More serious flooding was reported in the Clones and Ballybay areas of Co Monaghan. Many areas of farmland were under water. Residents in Cork city are being advised to take precautions to protect their property against flooding following warnings of a high tide and storm conditions.

MINNESOTA - Tornado funnel near Minneapolis was spotted too late to sound warning sirens, a 10 year-old girl died. The suddenness of Saturday's fatal storm was UNUSUALLY RARE. "It went from nothing, to looking like a large tornado on the ground, in the span of four minutes." Saturday's storms were particularly tricky because they were part of a line of many individual storms, rather than the classic, enormous, self-contained "super cells" whose powerful updrafts and rotations are more readily detected on radar.

Pacific may be in for rough cyclone season

Sept 21, 2006
Cyclone season is approaching in the South Pacific and for many island nations it may be a rough one, says National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) scientist Jim Salinger.

"We are likely to see above average numbers of tropical cyclones in several parts of the South Pacific," Dr Salinger said today.
Island nations to the east of the dateline, such as Fiji and Tonga, will be most heavily affected.
It is unlikely any cyclones will reach New Zealand, although areas such as Gisborne and Northland may experience heavy rains and strong winds as a result of Pacific cyclones.
Cyclone season extends from November to May.

Note: Gordon was MOST UNUSUAL as it remained a category one storm while it headed into the Azores. Rarely does a hurricane stay a hurricane and cross that region of the far eastern Atlantic. Last year, Tropical Storm Vince was the first tropical cyclone in weather history to ever hit the Iberian Peninsula, which includes the nations of Spain and Portugal.

Winds spark rogue 19.5m wave off Tassie

Breaking Earth News: Australia
Sept 22, 2006

Gale force winds have produced a massive 19.5-metre wave off the coast of Tasmania, according to surf forecasters.
The rogue wave was recorded about 9am (AEST) on Thursday and is believed to be one of the largest ever measured in Australia, forecasters say.
Swellnet website forecaster Ben Matson said a waverider buoy located 10 kilometres from Cape Sorell, on Tasmania's west coast, recorded a wave peaking at a height of 19.5 metres (64 foot) as westerly winds crossed the coastline.
"It was probably a combination of several waves that all combined at the one time to produce this single enormous wave," he said.
"Large swells are common in the Southern Ocean at this time of year but wave heights of this magnitude are extremely rare."
Mr Matson said waves of that size had the potential to cause significant damage to ships and had been known to "send oil tankers to the bottom of the ocean" in other parts of the world.
Forecasters were currently examining old data but Mr Matson said the wave could be the largest ever measured in the country.

Strong earthquake rattles Argentina

Seismic News: Argentina. S.A.
Sept 22, 2006
WASHINGTON: A "strong" 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook northern Argentina on Thursday night, the US Geological survey said. The quake occurred 165 kilometres northeast of Santiago del Estero and 960 kilometres northwest of Buenos Aires, the USGS said. The earthquake took place at 11:32 pm (0802 IST today) and was 577 kilometres deep. The reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, now used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released. A measurement of six or higher indicates a strong quake, seven a major quake and eight a great quake.

Government Accused of Censorship Over Global Warming

E-Mails Suggest Officials Stopped Scientist From Talking About Global Warming
A California congressman has accused the Commerce Department of trying to silence a scientist who believes there is a link between global warming and hurricanes. (NASA/AP Photo)

Sept. 20, 2006 — Commerce Department officials may have tried to stop a government scientist from speaking to reporters because of his views on global warming, a California congressman says.
The officials "tried to suppress a federal scientist from discussing the link between global warming and hurricanes," according to a letter sent Tuesday from Rep. Henry Waxman to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
The link between human-caused global warming and stronger hurricanes has been well established in several peer-reviewed scientific studies released in recent years.
Virtually all researchers who study hurricanes agree that warming temperatures will make hurricanes stronger, although there is debate over how much stronger they may get.
The e-mail centered on an October 2005 request from CNBC television to interview NOAA scientist Thomas Knutson about the link between hurricanes and global warming.

British Scientists Tell Exxon To Stop Anti-Climate Change Campaign

Oil industry refuting the truth about climate change
London (AFP) Sep 20, 2006
The Royal Society, Britain's premier group of scientists, has written to the British arm of energy giant ExxonMobil, demanding the company withdraw support for groups that attempt to undermine the consensus relating to climate change, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
It is the first time the society has written to a company questioning its activities, which the Royal Society said supported groups that "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence."
According to the newspaper, which obtained a copy of the letter sent to Esso, Exxon's British arm, last month, the Royal Society cites its own surveys which assert that the energy company distributed 2.9 million dollars (2.3 million euros) to 39 groups that, the society alleges, misrepresent the facts of climate change.
"There is not a robust scientific basis for drawing definitive and objective conclusions about the effect of human influence on future climate," the letter, written by Bob Ward of the Royal Society, read.
Ward continued: "At our meeting in July ... you indicated that ExxonMobil would not be providing any further funding to these organisations. I would be grateful if you could let me know when ExxonMobil plans to carry out this pledge."
The society also criticised Exxon's own stance on climate change, which asserts that "gaps in the scientific basis" make it difficult to blame climate change on human activity.
In response to this, the society wrote: "These statements are not consistent with the scientific literature. It is very difficult to reconcile the misrepresentations of climate change science in these documents with ExxonMobil's claim to be an industry leader."
The oil giant, The Guardian reported, confirmed receipt of the letter and refuted "any suggestion that our reports are inaccurate or misleading."

Greenland's ice continues to melt

Breaking Earth News: Greenland
Climate Change Alert
University of Colorado at Boulder September 20, 2006
Data gathered by a pair of NASA satellites orbiting Earth show Greenland continued to lose ice mass at a significant rate through April 2006, and that the rate of loss is accelerating, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.
The study indicates that from April 2004 to April 2006, Greenland was shedding ice at about two and one-half times the rate of the previous two-year period, according to CU-Boulder researchers Isabella Velicogna and John Wahr. The researchers used measurements taken with the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, to calculate that Greenland lost roughly 164 cubic miles of ice from April 2004 to April 2006 -- more than the volume of water in Lake Erie.
Studies by several research groups indicate temperatures in southern Greenland have risen by about 4.4 degrees F in the past two decades, she said. (photo above: An iceberg calved from a glacier floats in the Jacobshavn fjord in southwest Greenland. A new CU-Boulder study indicates Greenland continues to lose ice mass, and the rate of loss is accelerating. Photo courtesy Konrad Steffen, CU-Boulder.)

Bush owes us an apology

Special Commentary by Keith Olbermann
Countdown, MSNBC News
Listen to Commentary Here
Sept 18, 2006
From the editor's desk:
It's true that Keith Olbermann, host of "Countdown" on MSNBC, has a great gift for telling his viewers 'as it is,' on a variety of controversial subjects, least of which is the outrageously arrogant behavior of President Bush. When Keith speaks out, as he has often done on his program, the viewer is compelled to listen with great interest, because this man speaks with honesty and with the utmost integrity. Mr. Olbermann doesn't hold back his feelings about the state of our country and he certainly lends an earful when it comes to the lackluster performance of our politicians in Washington. Whether you agree with him or not, the host of "Countdown," doesn't let his viewers down with the usual rhetoric we here from other commentators, rather he encourages all of us to take a second look when it comes to things that people say and do, especially those people that are entrusted with our security and welfare. My hats off to Mr. Olbermann, he knows his facts, and isn't afraid to speak his mind when he feels it will encourage others to think and act for themselves.

Steven Shaman
Editor, Skywatch-The Great Red Comet

Arctic summer ice anomaly shocks scientists

Breaking Earth News: Arctic
Sept 19, 2006
Continued evidence of a warming planet
Satellite images acquired from 23 to 25 August 2006 have shown for the first time dramatic openings – over a geographic extent larger than the size of the British Isles – in the Arctic’s perennial sea ice pack north of Svalbard, and extending into the Russian Arctic all the way to the North Pole. Observing data from Envisat’s Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument and the AMSR-E instrument aboard the EOS Aqua satellite, scientists were able to determine that around 5-10 percent of the Arctic’s perennial sea ice, which had survived the summer melt season, has been fragmented by late summer storms. The area between Spitzbergen, the North Pole and Severnaya Zemlya is confirmed by AMSR-E to have had much lower ice concentrations than witnessed during earlier years.
Mark Drinkwater of ESA’s Oceans/Ice Unit said: “This situation is unlike anything observed in previous record low ice seasons. It is highly imaginable that a ship could have passed from Spitzbergen or Northern Siberia through what is normally pack ice to reach the North Pole without difficulty.
"If this anomaly trend continues, the North-East Passage or ‘Northern Sea Route’ between Europe and Asia will be open over longer intervals of time, and it is conceivable we might see attempts at sailing around the world directly across the summer Arctic Ocean within the next 10-20 years." (Image above: This 29 August 2006 Envisat MERIS image highlights the area North of Svalbard, Norway, where a very low sea ice concentration can be seen. The image width is about 800 km. )

View recent satellite images from the arctic

Europe on alert as Hurricane Gordon approaches

Tropical Storm Update: Spain
MADRID, Sept 20 (AFP) Sep 20, 2006
Twelve Spanish regions were on alert Wednesday as Hurricane Gordon approached northwest Spain where it was expected to hit the coast early evening with 110 kilometre (68 miles) per hour winds, the Civil Protection Directorate General said.
Although Hurricane Gordon was downgraded to an extra-tropical storm Wednesday as it closed in on the Azores archipelago in the mid-Atlantic, the winds could still do damage, authorities in the Portuguese territory warned.
And in Ireland the tail end of the storm threatened to delay Friday's start to the 36th Ryder Cup golf match between Europe and the United States.
The winds were expected to reach gusts of between 90 to 110 kilometres per hour in the northern regions of Spain, weakening to 80 kilometres per hour in the central regions which include the capital, Madrid, a civil protection official said.
"This is an extraordinary phenomenon which can have dangerous repercussions," said a government spokesman for Galicia in northwest Spain which lies directly in the path of the hurricane and where the local government had ordered schools to stay closed on Thursday. {photo above: This 19 September, 2006 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite image shows Hurricane Gordon churning over the Atlantic Ocean. Photo courtesy of NOAA and AFP.}

Beijing Faces Drought, Again

Earth News: China
Beijing is again facing drought despite two months of rainfall, and the situation is expected to get worse, Beijing Meteorological Bureau said yesterday.
After a survey of the latest satellite photos, the bureau said drought had returned to 44 per cent of the municipality, and the meteorologists say south-eastern Fangshan District and part of Daxing District are already experiencing serious drought.
"The parched capital had largely escaped the worst drought in 50 years that has hit some areas," meteorologist Tang Guang said.
"However, it returned immediately to drought conditions as rainfall over the past month is down by 80 per cent from the same period last year.
"Artificial rainfall facilities have been fully prepared and once there is natural rainfall, artificial rainfall will also be induced to generate extra water for the capital."
By mid-May, 70 percent of Beijing municipality was suffering from moderate drought, bureau figures showed, and 6 percent were hit by severe drought.
But frequent rainfall from June to August totalled 362.9 millimetres, about the same as for the corresponding period for the last 10 years.
"The rainfall brought relief to 96 per cent of Beijing, leaving 3 per cent with light drought. The remaining even had too much water and became waterlogged," Tang said.
Merely 50 to 90 millimetres of rain is forecast from September to November, less than the previous year, the bureau said.
(China Daily September 14, 2006)

Cyclonic storm claims 15 lives in West Bengal

Breaking Storm News: India
Sept 20, 2006
Fifteen persons were killed and over 300 injured in a severe cyclonic storm that lashed West Bengal's South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore districts in the early hours on Monday as an alert was sounded in coastal districts with heavy rains forecast in the next 48 hours.
The storm, caused by the formation of a well-marked low pressure area over the northwest Bay and adjoining coastal north Orissa and gangetic West Bengal, left a trail of destruction in the two districts, razing thousands of dwellings, trees, power and telephones poles and damaging standing paddy.
The Sunderbans in South 24 Parganas district bore the brunt of the storm with 10 blocks seriously affected, prompting Sunderbans Development Minister Kanti Ganguly to rush with a rescue and relief team on Monday morning.

Gore: Global Warming an Immediate Crisis

Breaking Environmental News: U.S.
Tuesday September 19, 2006
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Former Vice President Al Gore on Monday called for immediate action to stop global warming, calling the phenomenon a ``climate crisis'' that demands attention from American leaders.
Gore, a Democrat who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential race to George W. Bush, decried the lack of action on global warming by politicians across the ideological spectrum.
``When we make big mistakes in America, it is usually because the people have not been given an honest accounting of the choices before us,'' Gore said in an hour-long speech at New York University Law School. ``It also is often because too many members of both parties who knew better did not have the courage to do better.''
But he implicitly criticized the Bush administration, which has been accused of editing official scientific studies to downplay the impact of global warming and asking scientists at federal agencies to refrain from speaking out on the phenomenon.
Future generations, Gore said, ``deserve better than the spectacle of censorship of the best scientific evidence about the truth of our situation and harassment of honest scientists who are trying to warn us about the looming catastrophe.''
``Each passing day brings yet more evidence that we are now facing a planetary emergency, a climate crisis that demands immediate attention,'' Gore said.
While the administration has acknowledged the effects of global warming on the environment, President Bush has rejected mandatory controls on carbon dioxide, the chief gas blamed for the phenomenon. He also has kept the country out of the Kyoto treaty, which called for mandatory reductions of greenhouse gases among the signing nations. He has said the pact would harm the U.S. economy.
A White House spokesman declined Monday to comment on Gore's remarks.

Learn why global warming is happening and what the impacts could be.

GET THE FACTS

'New climate' detected as Britain grows ever hotter

Breaking Environmental News: England
Human activity to blame for global warming, according to latest findings

By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Published: 19 September 2006
England has become a full degree Celsius warmer since the Beatles started playing - and human activity is the cause, according to research released yesterday.
Since 1960, when John, Paul and George formed their legendary band - Ringo came later - the average temperature in England has undergone a remarkably steep rise, according to the research, released by the UK Met Office. Yet scientists are convinced that the new warmth, which is allowing red wine to be made in Surrey and olives to be grown in Devon, is not part of the climate's natural variability.
Instead, it is part of the global warming being caused by emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from industry and transport.
Furthermore, the warming of England is proceeding much more rapidly than the warming of the Earth as a whole, which has warmed by about 0.6C over the last century. England's average temperature has increased by nearly double that rate, in less than half the time. This is because the land is warming more quickly than the sea, and land at high latitudes - nearer the Poles - is warming more quickly than at low ones.
The new findings, which represent the first time that man-made climate change has ever been identified at such a local level, were unveiled yesterday at the Climate Clinic at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Brighton.

Vietnam floods trap 200 people; crops, wells ruined

Breaking Earth News: Vietnam
Sept 19, 2006
Some 200 people have been marooned by flood waters in Vietnam’s Binh Thuan province following a deluge Saturday night while crops and wells have been badly damaged.
The province’s Me Pu commune in Duc Linh district has no other roads connecting it with the outside except a crossing through a normally shallow stream, Doi. But following the downpour, the 30-meter wide stream is in spate that at 4pm on Monday some 200 people, including 100 children, are stuck in the village.
The district’s Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention planted stakes on the spring’s banks so that they could use pulleys to relay instant noodles to the stranded people.
In nearby Sung Nhon commune 147 hectares of recently-sowed rice fields are submerged under 0.8-1.5 m of floodwaters.
Dozens of water wells have been contaminated.
A week ago five people died and hundreds of houses were damaged after heavy rains and lightning struck the province. Total damage has been estimated at VND300 million (US$18,800).

Deluge in India
INDIA - the unexpected deluge in Barmer district (part of the Great Indian Desert or Thar Desert) not only “killed hundreds and destroyed property worth crores”, conservation of a variety of rare plants in the region is in peril. The waterlogged sandy stretches are squeezing life out of Barmer’s diverse fauna. The flood has also washed away fertile layers of soil and “unidentified” microbes — making the land fallow. The deluge, which broke a two-year drought cycle, occurred from August 21-August 24. Barmer and Jaisalmer received 600 mm of rain in four days, as against an annual average of 200 mm (and even less over the past few years). Thousands of desert-specific plants were destroyed. The water drained the nutrient content of the soil, reducing fertility. Scientists say crops like bajra, guar, moth, moong and vegetable will not be able to grow for a few years. The report has suggested several measures to tide over the catastrophe — like setting up a Germ Plasma Bank, Seed Bank, a nursery of desert plants to meet emergencies and save the gene-pool.

Hurricane Helene nears peak power over Atlantic

Tropical Storm Update
Sept 19, 2006
MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Helene neared what was expected to be its peak intensity on Monday with winds of 125 miles per hour (205 km per hour) as it churned over the open Atlantic on a path toward Bermuda, U.S. forecasters said.
The fourth hurricane of the 2006 Atlantic storm season could strengthen a little more, but most computer models predicted either little change in its winds or some weakening, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
A powerful Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, Helene was located 1,090 miles
east-southeast of Bermuda, a British mid-Atlantic territory, the center said. There was a chance it could strengthen into the season's first Category 4 storm with winds of at least 131 mph (210 kph).
It was expected to track west for a while before curving northward, on a path that might threaten Bermuda by the end of the week.

More Storm News
Hurricane Gordon bears down on Portugal's Azores
Sept 19, 2006
Hurricane Gordon strengthened as it bore down on Portugal's Azores Islands on Tuesday and emergency services in the mid-Atlantic islands went on alert.Gordon bore winds of 160kph at 8am EDT (12am GMT), making it a category two-storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, and was expected to maintain hurricane strength as it tore through the islands, the United States National Hurricane Centre said.Hurricane warnings were in effect for all of the Azores, an archipelago of nine islands.The centre of the hurricane was around 845km west of Terceira and it was sprinting toward the islands at a brisk 44kph, the Miami-based hurricane centre said.Gordon has been defying predictions that it would weaken over ever-cooler waters as it moved eastward. (photo above: This NOAA satellite image taken Sunday, September 17, 2006 at 01:15 PM EDT shows Hurricanes Gordon(below) and Helene. Helene could affect the US or Bermuda in the next week or so. Log on to http://www.underground.com/tropical for more information. (AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

BREAKING UPDATE: Hurricane Gordon threatens Britain
LONDON, Sept 19 (AFP) Sep 19, 2006Britain is bracing for strong winds as the tail-end of a hurricane threatens parts of the country, weather experts said Tuesday.
The remnants of Hurricane Gordon are expected to hit British shores later this week, bringing gusts up to 75 miles (121 kilometres) per hour particularly to Northern Ireland and Scotland, forecasters said.

Sun's Variations Have Little Effect on Global Warming

GLOBAL WARMING-OUR CHANGING CLIMATE
Greenhouse Gas: A pronounced affect upon the Earth
Sept 13, 2006
Published article by Live Science

In yet another blow to solar and climate cylce zealots, the skeptics and critics of global warming.

Variation in the brightness of the Sun is not the major factor behind the unusual warming the Earth has experienced over the past few centuries, a new study suggests.

Researchers traced changes in our parent star's energy output back to the 17th century and found that solar cycles, peaking nearly every 11 years, did not play a significant role in contributing to global warming.

Earth's warming trend, which climate reconstructions show began in the 17th century, has accelerated in the last 100 years. Most studies reveal that this temperature rise could be attributed to the increase of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.

In addition to man-made factors, natural inconsistencies in Earth's climate could also play a role in climate change. Additionally, some scientists have speculated that changes in the Sun's brightness affect temperatures on Earth.

About once every 11 years, changes in the Sun's magnetic field result in increases in the number and magnitude of sunspots and solar flares, which bombard Earth with charged particles.

During times of high activity, like in year 2000, the Sun shines about 0.07 percent brighter, researchers report in the September 14 issue of the journal Nature.

The researchers used a combination of data on solar brightness obtained by spacecrafts since 1978 and isotope data —collected from Earth's atmosphere and in ice sheets of Antarctic and Greenland—to recreate the Sun's influence on terrestrial temperatures over the past several centuries.

Although events such as sunspots have increased in the last 400 years, their effect only contributed a small amount to global warming, the results show.

“Our results imply that, over the past century, climate change due to human influences must far outweigh the effects of changes in the Sun's brightness,” said study co-author Tom Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Scientists Clueless over Sun's Effect on Earth
May 2005 article
While researchers argue whether Earth is getting warmer and if humans are contributing, a heated debate over the global effect of sunlight boiled to the surface today.
And in this debate there is little data to go on.
A confusing array of new and recent studies reveals that scientists know very little about how much sunlight is absorbed by Earth versus how much the planet reflects, how all this alters temperatures, and why any of it changes from one decade to the next.
Determining Earth's reflectance is crucial to understanding climate change, scientists agree.

'Water wars' loom? But none in past 4 500 years

Skywatch Special Report
Sept 18, 2006
With a steady stream of bleak predictions that "water wars" will be fought over dwindling supplies in the 21st century, battles between two Sumerian city-states 4 500 years ago seem to set a worrying precedent.But the good news, many experts say, is that the conflict between Lagash and Umma over irrigation rights in what is now Iraq was the last time two states went to war over water.Down the centuries since then, international rivals sharing waters such as the Jordan River, the Nile, the Ganges or the Parana have generally favoured cooperation over conflict.So if history can be trusted, things may stay that way.
Click here to read more

Al Qaeda group warns pope, West, 'doomed'

Breaking International News: Islamic Protests
POSTED: 10:25 a.m. EDT, September 18, 2006
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- An al-Qaeda-linked extremist group warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that he and the West were "doomed," as protesters returned to the streets across the Muslim world to demand more of an apology from the pontiff for his remarks about Islam and violence.
The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, issued a statement on a Web forum vowing to continue its holy war against the West. The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified.
The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross" saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword."
In Indian-controlled Kashmir, meanwhile, shops, businesses and schools shut down in response to a strike call by the head of a hard-line Muslim separatist leader to denounce Benedict. For the third day running, people burned tires and shouted "Down with the pope."
Protests also raged in Iraq, where angry demonstrators burned an effigy of the pope in Basra, and in Indonesia, where more than 100 people rallied in front of the heavily guarded Vatican Embassy in Jakarta, waving banners that said the "Pope is building religion on hatred."
The pope on Sunday said he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his speech last week in which he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of Islam's Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman" and referred to spreading Islam "by the sword."
Benedict said the remarks came from a text that didn't reflect his own opinion.
"I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect," he said during his weekly appearance before pilgrims in Italy. (photo above: Demonstrators in the Iraqi city of Basra burn a pope effigy.)

WATCH VIDEO: Muslims continue to protest over comments made by Pope Benedict. (September 16)
Photo: A small group of Iraqis burn an effigy of Pope Benedict XVI and the German flag during a demonstration in Basra, Iraq.

Expert predicts volcanic eruption in Adamawa

Volcanic Alert: Nigeria
Sept, 2006
There could be large scale volcanic eruption in Song Local Government Area of Adamawa State given the recent eruptions in the area. A senior environmentalist in the state’s Ministry of Environment, Mr. Asriel George, made his prediction in Song on Tuesday.
According to him, the first major eruption occurred in the area in 1998. Briefing members of the visiting National Technical Committee on Earthquake Phenomenon (NTCEP), George said two other eruptions occurred in 2003.
He recalled that similar incidents had occurred in Holma village, some 80 kilometres east of Song, and at Drima, about 80 kilometres north-east of Song.
George said that although no life was lost due to the eruptions, there was evidence of rock displacements, the death of cattle and overflowing of the Loko river.
The NTCEP members are currently touring Adamawa, Benue, Taraba, Cross River and Akwa Ibom states to ascertain the impact of a possible earthquake in the area.
The committee is also to ascertain the impact of volcano along the mid-Atlantic ridge on the Cameroon’s Lagdo dam and its effect on Nigeria.

VOLCANOES
INDONESIA - At least 13 quakes and one small eruption with black smoke were recorded in the volcanic activities of Mount Talang in Solok district in West Sumatra on Sunday.

Powerful Typhoon kills nine in south Japan

Breaking Storm News: Japan
Sept 18, 2006
A powerful typhoon that has been buffeting Japan for the last few days has left nine people dead and more than 200 injured.
Typhoon Shanshan made landfall late on Friday, causing torrential rains over the weekend that triggered flash floods and landslides.
It has now weakened to a tropical storm and is heading out to sea.
But high winds are still affecting the south-west of the country, delaying transport services.
Typhoon Shanshan caused its most serious damage in the regions of Kyushu and Chugoku.
The high winds caused by the typhoon overturned cars, derailed an express train and temporarily knocked out electricity in tens of thousands of homes.
They also forced the cancellation of nearly 80 flights and caused delays in the high-speed bullet train service, according to NHK television.
Heavy rains are expected to continue in central and northern Japan until Tuesday morning, and high waves are thought likely to hit the Sea of Japan coastline.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES
INDIA - With Orissa experiencing heavy rains when yet another low pressure area formed over Bay of Bengal, lightning killed at least 74 cows at Chhatipur village in Khurda district. One cowherd tending the cattle was injured while other two with him had a miraculous escape. The thunderbolt struck a herd of over 300 cattle grazing in an open field near the village killing 74 of them and injuring 113 other cows.

BANGLADESH - At least six people were killed as lightning struck a tea shop beside a highway near the beach resort of Cox's Bazar in southern Bangladesh, police and witnesses said Sunday. Three others were seriously injured in the incident which occurred Saturday night. The dead and the injured were local farmers drinking tea at the shop during a tropical storm.

Tornado kills one, damages hundreds of homes in Minnesota

Updated: Sept 18, 2006
ROGERS, Minn. (AP) — A tornado swept through this Minnesota town, killing a 10-year-old girl, damaging hundreds of homes and scattering debris across the city, officials said Sunday.
The girl was at a neighbor's house with her 19-year-old brother when it collapsed about 10 p.m. Saturday, Police Chief Keith Oldfather said.
"The roof is in the basement," Oldfather said after an aerial view of the damage Sunday morning. He said 200 to 300 homes were significantly damaged in Rogers, a town 26 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
"It's more severe than we thought," he said. "It just came out of nowhere and really did a lot of damage."
Six other people were injured, and two remained hospitalized Sunday morning.
The National Weather Service determined that the storm was an F2 tornado, with winds of 113 to 157 mph. (photo above: A boy rides his bike Sunday morning, Sept. 17, 2006, in Rogers, Minn., near damaged homes after high winds swept through the town Saturday night.)

Watch for Annular Solar Eclipse

Breaking Solar News
Image credit: Larry Koehn.
Sept 17, 2006
SOLAR ECLIPSE: When the day begins in South America on Friday, Sept. 22nd, something won't be quite right: the rising sun will be shaped like a crescent. It's the beginning of an annular solar eclipse
Annular eclipses occur when the Moon passes straight in front of the sun but fails to cover the entire solar disk. A sliver of sun pokes out in all directions producing a vivid ring of fire. This is what's going to happen on Friday.
Unfortunately, almost all of the eclipse takes place over uninhabited ocean. The red line in Larry Koehn's map, above, traces the "path of annularity" where the sun will become a ring for about 7 minutes. Only in a tiny swath of Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana will the ring of fire be visible from land: map.
Elsewhere, the Moon will cross the sun off-center, producing not a ring but a crescent. At daybreak, people in South America will see a crescent sunrise; later in the day crescent sunbeams will dapple the ground in Africa.

Get the full story from NASA.

Polar bears drown, islands appear in Arctic thaw

Earth Science News: Arctic
In this file photo an Arctic polar bear jumps as he crosses ice floes at Herald Island in the Chukchi Sea July 27, 1999. Polar bears are drowning and receding Arctic glaciers have uncovered previously unknown islands in a drastic 2006 summer thaw widely blamed on global warming. REUTERS/Greenpeace/ Beltra


Sept 15, 2006
Skywatch Special Edition
OSLO (Reuters) - Polar bears are drowning and receding Arctic glaciers have uncovered previously unknown islands in a drastic 2006 summer thaw widely blamed on global warming.
Signs of wrenching changes are apparent around the Arctic region due to unusual warmth -- the summer minimum for ice is usually reached between mid-September and early October before the Arctic freeze extends its grip.
"We know about three new islands this year that have been uncovered because the glaciers have retreated," said Rune Bergstrom, environmental adviser to the governor of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago about 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole.
The largest is about 300 by 100 meters, he told Reuters.
On a trip this summer "We saw a couple of polar bears in the sea east of Svalbard -- one of them looked to be dead and the other one looked to be exhausted," said Julian Dowdeswell, head of the Scott Polar Research Institute in England.
He said that the bears had apparently been stranded at sea by melting ice. The bears generally live around the fringes of the ice where they find it easiest to hunt seals.
NASA projected this week that Arctic sea ice is likely to recede in 2006 close to a low recorded in 2005 as part of a melting trend in recent decades. A stormy August in 2006 had slightly slowed the 2006 melt.

Italian Countryside Inundated by flooding

Earth News Italy: Economic and Agricultural Impact
(AGI) - Rome, Sept 16 - The heavy rainstorms with their copious quantities of water have created much flooding in the countryside. Where the bad weather meant violent storms, damage has been done to plants, greenhouses and farming outfits. Coldiretti has announced this based on a survey of the effects of the rain, especially in central and southern Italy. It has pointed out that as a result, all the agricultural operations have been affected, including grape harvests, which have been slowed down throughout Italy. "The bad weather", they say, "hasn't spared any region and everywhere has been affected by some damage or problems for agricultural companies involved in harvesting or in ploughing fields. The losses are impossible to estimate accurately at the moment, and are continually rising, partly as a result of rivers flooding and torrents of water. The alarm raised by the civil protection services spread quickly throughout the countryside, where the water was not absorbed by the parched land because it fell so heavily. Thus it tended to flow away immediately, taking the top layer of soil with it and creating the conditions for landslides and avalanches". Coldiretti continued, "This situation is of concern everywhere, given that as much as 7.1 per cent of the country, i.e. a total of over 21,000 square kilometres, is considered to be at risk of landslides and flooding. In addition, those in the farming industry are currently extremely worried about hail and the irreversible damage it could do to fruit and vegetables still in the fields, such as apples and pears. Also at risk are plants and farming structures like greenhouses. Many firms throughout the main fruit-producing regions have already spread out their anti-hail nets to protect their fruit crops and are ready to fire their pressure canons. It's an important defence system to try and limit the damage to the agricultural industry. Between drought and bad weather, this summer the industry has had losses and damage worth over a billion euro". (AGI) .

Climate events elsewhere
AFRICA - A particularly extreme rainy season has led to flash floods killing almost 1,000 people and displacing 120,000 in the Horn of Africa, since the beginning of August, as flood waters swept across parched earth across Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan. Nearly 200,000 people in Ethiopia have been affected. Rising water levels of Kenya's lake Turkana have reduced its ability to act as a buffer to overflowing rivers, and is losing its ability to take in water from rivers flowing into it. Dams and levees in Ethiopia could give way in the coming weeks. "Thousands of people are in need of urgent humanitarian relief as entire communities have been displaced, disrupted, bereaved, and have lost vital livestock and farmland." Flooding has also affected thousands in West Africa, with 30,000 people in Niger and 20,000 in neighbouring Burkina Faso. (photo above: Kenya's Lake Turkana is losing its capacity to take in more water from tributaries.)

THAILAND - Residents of a village in Chiang Rai's Theong district have been warned of a possible landslide after a 500-metre-long crack developed on a nearby hill. It was first noticed after heavy rainfall a few weeks ago but has grown since. The hillside could collapse onto the village if there was any more heavy rainfall. Meanwhile the flood situation in Ayutthaya province threatens to become more serious due to the rising level of the Chao Phya River. Residents of Phak Hai and Sena districts were warned to prepare for flooding that is expected to peak in the next few days. Bang Rakam district of Phitsanulok province remained submerged yesterday, with 5,652 households in seven subdistricts affected by the flooding.

Typhoon triggers deadly landslides in Japan

Tropical Storm Update: Japan
Published: Saturday, September 16, 2006
TOKYO -- A strong typhoon battered Japan's southern Ryukyu island chain on Saturday, and two people died after heavy downpours triggered a landslide, a news report said.
Typhoon Shanshan, with maximum sustained winds of about 175 kilometres an hour, was forecast to continue north toward Japan's southwestern main island of Kyushu where it could make landfall as early as Monday, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.
Heavy rain triggered landslides that killed two people on Kyushu on Saturday as the typhoon approached, Kyodo News service reported. (photo: Firefighters and residents watch river water going over a levee afetr a typhoon-affected heavy rainfall in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, southwestern Japan, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2006.Photograph by : AP Photo)

From Another News Source
Seven dead as typhoon hits Japan's south, scores hurt
TOKYO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Seven people were dead, one missing and more than a hundred injured as a powerful typhoon battered Japan's main southwestern island of Kyushu on Sunday, triggering floods and landslides and paralysing transportation.
Typhoon Shanshan was carrying winds of up to 140 km (100 miles) per hour near its centre and lashing many parts of western Japan with torrential rain, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

Forecasters watch 3 hurricanes
Hurricane Helene formed in the open Atlantic on Saturday while another more dangerous storm gained strength off Mexico's Pacific coast.
Helene's winds were clocked with maximum sustained winds of 120 km/hr, making it a Category 1 hurricane, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. (photo: Hurricane Lane, seen Saturday, appears to be on a course for the Mexican city of Culiacan. (CBC)

Hurricane Update
Sept 17, 2006
Hurricane Lane hits Mexico coast
Hurricane Lane has weakened to a tropical storm and is losing power after lashing Mexico's Pacific coast with heavy winds and torrential rain.

Fire in the Mid Canterbury skies

Breaking Cosmic/Space News: New Zealand
Sept 16, 2006
School children saw it, businessmen saw it and little old ladies in their gardens saw it.The meteor that blazed its way across Ashburton skies yesterday caught many by surprise and, so quick was its passage, most doubted what they had seen.That doubt remained until reports of the fiery, moving light began to flood into newsrooms around the South Island.Ashburton was spared the sonic boom that was heard in greater Christchurch as the fireball plunged through the earth’s atmosphere, but our skies appear to have been the playground in which the meteor flared its last.Sightings have been reported to the Guardian from around the district and to a person, the meteor spotters are consistent in their recollection of the form the fireball took.The sightings were all made just before 3pm.Alford Forest man Nigel Birt said the object was ‘big, bright and iridescent”.“It was streaking through the sky. It didn’t have any real shape but had a tail flaring off the back. Two bits broke off and it just burned up and disappeared,” he said.The meteor was visible for just a few seconds and when it disappeared was heading in a north, north-east direction, Mr Birt said.Just a few kilometres away at the Mayfield Golf Course, Paul Gardner saw a fiery object appear overhead. He shook his head and wondered if he was seeing things.“It took about three seconds to cross the sky and was like a ball of orangey-blue fire with a tail.”Given the direction it was moving in and its speed of travel, Mr Gardner said it appeared to be heading towards Oxford.He has absolutely no doubt that what he saw was a meteor.

Warning: bigger carbon cut needed to avoid disaster

Another Blow to Global Warming Skeptics & Critics
Leading researchers say government has misled public and call for 90% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050
Great Britain: Sept 15, 2006
Drastic action is needed if Britain is to have any chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change, a ground-breaking environmental report warns today.
In the first big study of what households, business and government may have to do to cut carbon emissions, the leading climate change research body has revised upwards by 50% the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that need to be achieved by 2050.
The government-funded Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research says this is necessary because successive governments have failed to include aviation or shipping emissions in their calculations
Article Continues

From another News Source
Climate change wreaking ecological havoc on globe
Is there any doubt about what is happening to the Earth?
In Greenland, barley is growing for the first time since the Middle Ages.
In Britain, gardeners were warned this week that the English country garden will be a thing of the past within the next 20 years.
In Italy, skiers were told yesterday that melting glaciers will mean an end to their pastime unless they can get above 2,000 metres.
Even those enjoying the warmer temperatures in unpredictable bursts by venturing into the sea have been confronted by swarms of jellyfish, who have flourished in record numbers in Europe in the warmer waters.
Those same waters are rising in Venice, prompting arguments over costly plans to seal off the lagoon from the sea.
The prospect of flooded squares on the scale of Venice's Piazza San Marco is driving plans to expand and reinforce the Thames flood barrier.
In Holland the battle has been lost and 500,000 hectares, an area more than twice the size of greater London, will be strategically flooded instead and people will move to floating homes.
Last summer Spain and Portugal experienced cauldron-like temperatures and prolonged drought.
This summer that drought has expanded into central and northern Europe.
Africa, the poorest continent has inevitably found itself on the frontline of climate change.
Natural disasters, extreme weather floods and droughts have always been common in southern Africa but the severity of the wet and dry periods is intensifying with disastrous results.
A barrage of meteorological studies have found a pattern of increasing climatic variability and unpredictability

Hurricane Lane roars along Mexican Pacific coast

Tropical Storm Update: Mexico
Sept 16, 2006
Hurricane Lane now a Category 3

MAZATLAN, Mexico, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Hurricane Lane, now a Category 3 storm, headed for Mexico's Pacific coast Saturday and could strengthen before hitting near the resort of Mazatlan.
With top winds near 120 mph, Lane's center was expected to slam into the Pacific coast late Saturday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Lane was centered about 45 miles west of the mainland Pacific coast town of Mazatlan early Saturday and about 185 miles east of the Baja, Calif., resort of Cabo San Lucas.
It was moving north-northwest at about 11 mph, the hurricane center said.
Once inland, it was expected to weaken, due to its small size and dissipate in about 72 hours.
But before it does, forecasters predicted very heavy rainfall, flooding and mudslides, along with high waves and wind in western and inland Mexico.
Rain from Lane was expected to creep northward into Texas and parts of neighboring states, producing thunderstorms as early as Sunday.

Other tropical news
Gordon now a category three storm
15 September, 2006 : - - In the Atlantic Basin, Hurricane Gordon (winds of 110 mph) is moving northeast through the central Atlantic. Overnight, Gordon has been pulling dry air into its circulation, which has in turn slightly weakened the system. Continued slow weakening is forecast over the next few days as Gordon encounters dry air, and eventually, cooler waters. This system is of no treat to any areas of land.

Muslim Outrage Over Pope's Comments

Breaking International News: Turkish official compares pope to Hitler
Sept 15, 2006
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Pakistan’s legislature unanimously condemned Pope Benedict XVI. Lebanon’s top Shiite cleric demanded an apology. And in Turkey, the ruling party likened the pontiff to Hitler and Mussolini and accused him of reviving the mentality of the Crusades. (photo: Muslim protesters demonstrate against Pope Benedict XVI in the Indian Kashmiri city of Srinagar on Sept 15, 06)

Across the Islamic world Friday, Benedict’s remarks on Islam and jihad in a speech in Germany unleashed a torrent of rage that many fear could burst into violent protests like those that followed publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
By citing an obscure Medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam’s founder as “evil and inhuman,” Benedict inflamed Muslim passions and aggravated fears of a new outbreak of anti-Western protests. “The declarations from the pope are more dangerous than the cartoons, because they come from the most important Christian authority in the world — the cartoons just came from an artist,” said Diaa Rashwan, an analyst in Cairo, Egypt, who studies Islamic militancy.
Pakistan demands apology
On Friday, Pakistan’s parliament adopted a resolution condemning Benedict for making what it called “derogatory” comments about Islam, and seeking an apology. Hours later, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican’s ambassador to express regret over the pope’s remarks Tuesday.
Notably, the strongest denunciations came from Turkey — a moderate democracy seeking European Union membership where Benedict is scheduled to visit in November as his first trip as pope to a Muslim country. Full text of the pope's remarks

Just the Beginning of Protests?
In pictures: Muslim anger at Pope

'Road Home' could be long for many

Photo above: Taken from the 9th ward New Orleans, mid August 2006

Special Video Presentation, Dallas Morning News: Katrina, A Year After the Heartbreak

Skywatch Special Report
Disaster News: Louisiana, U.S.
BATON ROUGE, La. (September 12, 2006) — Louisiana's new state disaster recovery program could fail to meet the needs of the most vulnerable hurricane survivors, no matter how well-designed it is, say concerned disaster response leaders.
The "Road Home" program - the largest single housing recovery program in U.S. history - has already distributed close to $2 million to hurricane survivors who badly need it. But for thousands of others the road home could be long, arduous or simply unnavigable.
Responders cite tight paperwork requirements, potential travel expenses and lack of help for renters as the indicators that people who already have more resources will be the ones who benefit most from Road Home.
Eligible homeowners affected by Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita may receive up to $150,000 in compensation for their losses. Homeowners can apply online or by mail.
In addition, the program will loan funds to restore and construct rental properties through its Small Rental Assistance Program.
After applying, applicants will be contacted by Road Home program staff to schedule an initial appointment at a Housing Assistance Center. There are 10 Housing Assistance Centers set up across South Louisiana.
Responders worry that hurricane survivors who haven't gotten back to Louisiana will have less access to Road Home funds. Financial assistance for travel is not included in the Road Home program, and so far appointments are held only at the centers in South Louisiana.

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."-President Bush, on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina. (photo: Bush flying on Air Force 1 over New Orleans from Crawford, Tx on route to Washington after breach of levees. Sept 01, 2005)

BUSH IS the worst disaster to hit U.S. ! More than a year after Katrina, there are still too many unanswered questions about the way in which this disaster was handled. Even today many areas of new orleans lay in ruins. The media were downplaying the failure of the Bush Administration. Watch the video of Bush interview Here

New El Nino sparks weather fears

Sept 14, 2006
The periodic phenomenon known as El Nino has developed in the Pacific Ocean threatening extreme weather in many parts of the world, US scientists say.
El Ninos begin with a warming of waters in the eastern Pacific, and there has been a steep rise in water temperature in recent weeks, they say.
*This El Nino is likely to strengthen towards the end of the year and early into 2007, the researchers add.
However it is not expected to reach the strength of the 1997 phenomenon.
In that year El Nino brought drought to parts of Asia and Australia, and heavy rains and floods to Latin America.
Scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) say there has been drier-than-average weather in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines - countries which are often the first to show the effects of a new El Nino.
But the early indications are that weather changes will be milder than in some previous events.
"What happens is that the cool current over the eastern Pacific, which brings cold waters from the Antarctic, up the South American coast towards the equator - the Humboldt currrent - weakens, and this allows El Nino to develop off South America, and the temperatures rise quite considerably," commented Dr Harvey Sterne from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
"In some years we've had four or five degrees Celsius above normal; now, this year, they're about one or two degrees above normal, so it's nothing like we had in the early 1980s."
Noaa says this latest phenomenon may explain why this year's Atlantic hurricane season has so far been weaker than expected - winds associated with El Nino events disrupt and weaken storm formation.
The researchers are also predicting a milder-than-average winter for much of North America, and wetter weather for the US Gulf Coast and Florida.


*Note: Comments published by columist Corinne Podger of BBC News are the opinions of the writer based on U.S. Scientific Analysis and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Skywatch or The Great Red Comet.

Mountain's growing dome continues to surprise scientists

Mount St. Helens' crater and newest lava growth (the largest mound of rock with the fin-shaped spire) are shown in this U.S. Geologic Survey photograph. The piles of rock to the right of the spire also are from the current eruption.

Volcanic News: Mt. St Helens, U.S.
Sept 14, 2006
When the earthquakes started rumbling Mount St. Helens on Sept. 23, 2004, seismologist Seth Moran never dreamed he'd still be recording them two years later.U.S. Geological Survey scientists had charted earthquake swarms and even small eruptions since the volcano's 1980 massive eruption, but those lasted a matter of days or weeks. The current eruption has lasted nearly two years.In the first two days of the earthquakes officials weren't even sure if this was an eruption, they just knew they were recording hundreds of earthquakes each day."Within two or three days we started thinking it was leading up to an eruption, but we certainly didn't have a sense that it would last for two years," Moran said. "Even if we'd had known this was going to be a lava dome-building eruption, I don't think anyone would have thought that it would have lasted this long."
But last it has.Lava first reached the crater on Oct. 11, 2004, and hasn't stopped since.In the past two years the volcano has thrust more than 100 million cubic yards of volcanic rock into the crater, eclipsing the 97 million cubic yards it took six years to squeeze out during the 1980s. From the crater floor of 6,279 feet, the latest dome has grown 1,300 feet -- taller than the Empire State Building.
View Full Story

Other Volcanic News
PHILIPPINES - Mount Mayon’s abnormal parameters slightly fluctuated again in the past 24 hours, with magma-ascent indicator volcanic earthquakes detected 18 times compared with eight the previous day. The lava extrusion tremors were up from 108 to 111, and the volume of sulfur dioxide emission was fixed at 1,500 tons a day in the past three days. Intermittent rolling lava and crater glow continued to crown the volcano Wednesday. Volcanologists said alert level 3 might be further lowered in one to two more weeks, depending on the day-to-day showing of the volcano’s abnormal parameters.

Freak storm leaves trail of havoc in U.K.

Storm News: United Kingdom
Sept 14, 2006
A householder has spoken of his horror when the roof was blown off his house in a tornado which struck Leeds and Harrogate during a freak storm.
Ranjit Dhanjan said he walked towards his home in the Harehills area of Leeds to find his roof lying in the road.
There was chaos at Leeds station caused by a signal failure and floods.
The storm damaged buildings, uprooted trees and caused flash flooding across the region.

SEVERE WEATHER ELSEWHERE
CANADA - Residents of a small outport on Newfoundland's south coast say they will help a young family rebuild their home after tropical storm Florence ripped the house in two, heaving half of it into the ocean. (photo:Tropical storm Florence threw half of the Durnford home down a hill in Francois.)




ILLINOIS - More than four inches of rain fell on Morris, causing stereet and basement flooding. Rainfall of this magnitude is MOST UNUSUAL for the month of September, which is usually the dry time of the year. "We probably have had in Morris this month more rain than we've had during the entire month the last two to three Septembers. September is typically a pretty dry month. This is VERY UNUSUAL. Four inches of rainfall is unusual at any time. Matter-of-fact, 3.5 inches of rainfall causes significant flooding." Meteorologists blamed the precipitation on the tail end of a weather system that hung around since last Friday, scattering heavy rain throughout northeast Illinois. This morning was Morris's turn, as the system dumped nearly five inches of rain in little more than two hours. (photo:Flood water flows earlier today out of the right-of-way ditch and onto the highway before the curve on U.S. 6, west of Lyondell Chem-ical in Channahon. (Herald Photo)

ETHIOPIA - At least eight people, including a family of seven, were killed in a fierce rainstorm that pounded eastern Ethiopia as floods continued to ravage the country. The new fatalities brought the nationwide toll from UNUSUALLY heavy seasonal rains and flash floods since last month to at least 647 and came in Dire Dawa, which is still recovering from deadly August flooding. This week devastating floods continued to wreak havoc across Ethiopia, affecting 357,000 people. Large areas of cropped land are swamped by the flood as unusually heavy seasonal rains had expanded Lake Tana, the region's largest body of water, by 50 metres. Forecasters have warned the country will likely face further flood threats from the rains that are expected to continue until the end of the wet season in September. Ethiopia, home to some 70 million people, has faced heavy floods and droughts in recent years along with other countries in the Horn of Africa which have endured cycles of deadly weather for decades.

Tropical Storm Lane Strengthens, May Become Hurricane

Tropical Storm Update: Baja, Mexico
Sept 14, 2006
Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Lane gained strength off Mexico's Pacific coast and may become a hurricane later today as it heads toward the Baja California Peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Lane's maximum sustained winds strengthened to 65 miles (105 kilometers) per hour shortly before 4 a.m. Acapulco time, from 60 mph late yesterday, the hurricane center said on its Web site.
The storm's center was located offshore, about 110 miles west of Manzanillo in Mexico's Colima state, according to the advisory. It was moving toward the northwest at 13 mph, and forecast to remain over the Pacific for the next two days.
Rains and winds brought on by Lane downed trees, flooded homes and sank a boat in and around Acapulco in Guerrero state, Mexico's National Protection System said yesterday on its Web site. The boat's captain was still missing.
Mexico's government today placed the Marias islands under hurricane warning, indicating such conditions, with winds of 74 mph or more, are expected in the next day. A tropical warning extended along the mainland Pacific coast from El Roblito to La Cruz, and on Baja California from Buena Vista southward along the east coast and from Agua Blanca southward along the west coast.
Lane's forecast track is similar to that of Hurricane John, which battered the Baja Peninsula earlier this month, including the resort of Cabo San Lucas. The twelfth named storm of the North Eastern Pacific storm season, Lane is now forecast by the U.S. center tracking to the east of the Baja Peninsula before making landfall in mainland Mexico's Sinaloa or Sonora province late on Sept. 17 or early Sept. 18. The center earlier forecast Lane to hit Baja California.

More News
Gordon Strengthens, Helene Forms
MIAMI (AP) -- Tropical Storm Helene was moving quickly in the open Atlantic on Thursday, while Hurricane Gordon gained strength but posed no threat, forecasters said. Hurricane Florence, meanwhile, brought high winds and heavy rain to Newfoundland in Canada.Helene had top sustained winds near 40 mph, just above the 39-mph threshold for a tropical storm. The eighth-named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season formed late Wednesday night.At 5 a.m. EDT, it was located 695 miles west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands and moving west over warm Atlantic waters at 22 mph, forecasters said. A gradual turn toward the west-northwest was expected over the next 24 hours.Gordon was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane late Wednesday when its top sustained winds jumped to 120 mph, up from 110 mph earlier in the day, forecasters said

Ice caps are melting even in winter, global warming evidence mounts

Sea ice concentration, three-year average from 2003-2005. Image courtesy NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

GLOBAL WARMING ALERT: The Arctic
(09-13) 14:36 PDT GREENBELT, MD. -- The vast expanses of ice floating in the Arctic Sea are shrinking in winter as well as summer, most likely a result of global warming, NASA scientists said today.
"This is the strongest evidence yet of global warming in the Arctic,'' said Josefino Comiso, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
If the ice caps continue to melt, Comiso said, it could have very profound effects on the polar bear and other marine mammals living in the Arctic.

From Another News Source
'Drastic' shrinkage in Arctic ice
This latest study, from scientists led by Son Nghiem of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
"The change we see between 2004 and 2005 is enormous"
Son Nghiem

Sept 14, 2006
The extent of "perennial" ice - thick ice which remains all year round - declined by 14%, losing an area the size of Pakistan or Turkey.
The last few decades have seen summer ice shrink by about 0.7% per year.
The drastic shrinkage may relate partly to unusual wind patterns found in 2005, though rising temperatures in the Arctic could also be a factor.
The research is reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as the global average; and recent studies have shown that the area of the Arctic covered by ice each summer, and the ice thickness, have been shrinking.
September 2005 saw the lowest recorded area of ice cover since 1978, when satellite records became available.

From Radio New Zealand
Drastic changes in Arctic ice cover concern scientists
Sept 14, 2006
If the pace of Arctic melting is quickening, the implications for the future are not reassuring. Ice reflects the sun's energy back into space; open water absorbs it. So a planet with less ice warms faster, potentially turning the projected impacts of global warming into reality sooner than anticipated.

Skywatch: From the Editor's desk

It is now apparent to most rationally thinking people that global warming due to manmade influence is significantly contributing to the extreme climate conditions being experienced across the globe. The notion that the drastic climate changes occurring on earth are the result of periodic weather cycles or increased solar activity doesn't seem at all practical, considering the magnitude of the events in recent times. Rather the trumped up charge that global warming is a myth originates with those who are closely associated with big industry, oil conglomerates, or governmental institutions. These folks have no intention of telling the truth or informing the public regarding the dangers ahead. Their main concern is keeping the oil flowing, having a stable economy and keeping the paychecks coming. The welfare of the earth, which includes our environment and its habitat is of little regard to those who place themselves above everything that really matters to the rest of us. This is the real danger we all face, having to cope with a greedy and irresponsible civilization. Steve Shaman

Climate Change Alert
Global warming, it now seems, is for real. Emma Duncan examines the nature of the problem, and possible solutions.
TO READ THIS AND OTHER EARTH NEWS VISIT EARTH FRENZY RADIO

Florence causes high tides, strong winds in N.L.

Storm News: Canada
Sept 13, 2006
Heavy rainfall and strong winds pounded parts of southern and eastern Newfoundland as tropical storm Florence made its way through the region. Winds that began gaining strength at about midnight Tuesday reached as high as 120 km/h by noon Wednesday. The wild weather triggered flooding along some streets, caused rivers to swell and created high waves along the shore that pounded the coast. There were isolated blackouts. Analysts predicted the possibility of a heavy storm season in Atlantic Canada this year, based on the fact that the temperature of a large section of the North Atlantic was three degrees above normal, hampering the ocean's ability to cool and calm tropical storms.

Flooding and Landslides Elsewhere
VIETNAM - Landslides are threatening 4,500 households on the banks of the Tien and Hau Rivers in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap. Serious landslides destroyed over 1,300 m of road in Dong Thap’s Thanh Binh District last week. Some landslides eroded up to 100m of shoreline, damaging over 30ha of farmland owned by 300 households in Tan Binh Village.

SPAIN - Heavy rains Wednesday continued to spark flooding in eastern Spain, where rail and road traffic suffered interruptions or delays. The previous day, a 83-year-old woman was killed on the Balearic Island of Majorca when a rainstorm caused a wall of her home to collapse and she was swept away by the current. Heavy rains were expected to continue in 10 out of Spain's 17 autonomous regions. The worst situation was reported in northeastern Catalonia, where Barcelona underground stations were inundated and local and long- distance train services suffered interruptions and delays.

Typhoon Update

Shanshan strengthens into typhoon, moves toward Okinawa
Sept 14, 2006
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Shanshan, the 14th storm of the Pacific northwest’s tropical cyclone season, strengthened into a typhoon overnight Monday and tracked northwest toward a possible weekend collision with Okinawa, weather officials said.
A typhoon strike meeting was planned for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday by Kadena’s 18th Wing staff. Officials at Kadena’s weather flight said Shanshan is forecast to pass east of Okinawa late Saturday or early Sunday, and the island should brace for sustained winds of 80 mph and gusts of up to 115 mph.

Major Damage on Wake Island
Photo: A Defense Department employee surveyed Tuesday some of the damage left on Wake Island after Super Typhoon Ioke hit the island Aug. 31. A C-17 Globemaster III from Hickam Air Force Base brought a 53-person team to assess damage left by the typhoon. CLICK FOR LARGE

Sept 14, 2006
About 70 percent of the buildings on Wake Island were damaged by last month's Super Typhoon Ioke, the biggest in several decades.
Fifty-three Air Force personnel and private contractors, including three who were evacuated from Wake Island last month before Ioke roared through the tiny atoll, returned this week to assess the damage.
They were preceded by the 36th Expeditionary Contingency Response Squadron from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, which landed on Wake Monday and determined that its 10,000-foot runway is intact and operational.

Update: Gulf Earthquake Triggers Comments, Questions

Seismic News: Florida
Sept 14, 2006
RUSKIN - For some, it was an eerie sensation watching their windows rattle. For others, it passed by completely unnoticed. An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 on the Richter scale struck in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 250 WSW of Tampa Bay. Shortly before 11 a.m. on Sunday morning, the tremors of that quake rolled through South Hillsborough.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center, there were no reports of damage or injuries. Reports of tremors came from as far north as North Carolina, more than 800 miles from the epicenter.
According to the USGS, the earthquake was "felt in much of Florida and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Also felt at Freeport, The Bahamas, and at Cancun and Merida, Mexico."

357,000 affected in Ethiopia Flood

Breaking Earth News: Africa
Sept 14, 2006
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The number of Ethiopians affected by last month's devastating flash floods has reached 357,000, including 136,528 forced to abandon their homes, a U.N. humanitarian agency said on Thursday.
Flooding from overflowing rivers has killed some 1,000 people in parts of Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia since early August.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) said Ethiopia's northern Amhara region was the worst-hit in the giant Horn of Africa nation, with 97,000 people affected, of which 37,000 have lost their homes.
"Large areas of cropped land in the Amhara region are swamped by the floods," it said in a report.
The report said Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile River, has expanded by 50 meters (160 ft) and increased the risk of further flooding.

Elsewhere
Flash Flooding/Landslides in Trinidad

Disasters rip 100 billion yuan from agriculture sector in China

Agricultural Disaster News: China
BEIJING, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Natural disasters and insect pests cost China's agriculture sector nearly 100 billion yuan (12.5 billion U.S. dollars) in direct losses from January to August, with each farmer losing 100 yuan on average, a senior agricultural official told Xinhua on Monday.Citing crop cultivation and stock breeding as the "worst affected sectors", Vice Minister of Agriculture Fan Xiaojian said that the severe losses have made it "an arduous task" for China to raise farmers' income.He said that China had lost grain crops totaling 40.5 billion kilograms by August, significantly more than the whole-year losses of 30.5 billion kilograms in 2004 and 34.5 billion kilograms in 2005.Typhoons and floods have killed 1.27 million livestock and 21 million poultry and destroyed 5.7 million square meters of stock-breeding yard.More than 1.2 million tons of aquatic products were damaged in a water area of 5.5 million mu (about 366,667 hectares)."So far this year, China has suffered drought, typhoons, floods, frosts and insect pests. They have been of a rare violence, " Fan said.The recent frost in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, for instance, came very early and has affected the biggest area since the beginning of Chinese meteorological records, he noted.

In the United States
Drought, Water Worries Cloud Skies for US Farmers
Eighty percent of all fresh water consumed in the United States is used to produce food. But years of drought, diversion of water to growing urban areas and, most lately, concerns about global warming are feeding worries.
Specifically, farmers fear the US Plains is facing its limits as a world producer of wheat, beef, vegetable oils and other crops due to long-term water shortages.
"Farmers aren't going to be able to produce enough food to feed the world because there's a finite amount of water left in the world. There are many folks that will tell you the next war will not be over gold, silver or land, it will be over water," said Ed Burchfield, director of facilities for Valmont Industries, which makes irrigation equipment.
The US National Weather Service's outlook through October saw persistent drought from eastern Montana to Minnesota and on down through Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas -- the main spring-wheat and winter-wheat growing areas of the United States as well as its main cattle and beef production region.
"Relief for water supplies will likely need to wait until next winter's snow season, at the earliest, since snow melt is the major source for water in the West," the National Weather Service's Drought Outlook said last month

Heavy rains flood South Side streets

Breaking Earth News: Illinois, U.S.
Viaducts Closed, Basements Inundated
SLIDESHOW: Chicago Area Flooding
September 13, 2006 (last updated 11:15 a.m.) - Rescue crews had to help trapped motorists after heavy rain flooded several streets on the city's South Side. The weather tied up traffic during the morning commute for drivers and some Metra riders.
According to the National Weather Service, several thunderstorms from south of downtown southwest through Oak Lawn and into Palos Park left more than inch of rain on the ground. A flood watch was issued early this morning for areas between downtown Chicago through the southwest suburbs.Several homes and basements flooded.
"All of a sudden water started coming up, like it was coming up from the floor. It was up here to my calf. The TV is flooded, my couch is flooded," said Paulette Roberts, apartment flooded.

Dozens of fires burning across Western U.S.

Photo: Fire crew trucks are dwarfed Tuesday by flames on a hillside near Castaic, Calif., and Interstate 5.

View Related Photos

Breaking Earth News: United States
Worst season in 50 years
Sept 13, 2006
CASTAIC, Calif. - The 14,000 firefighters battling dozens of blazes across the West on Wednesday were expecting another hot, windy day before a cold front might provide relief to some areas.
The National Interagency Fire Center early Wednesday reported 162 new fires over the last day, three of them large blazes that added to the 43 pre-existing large, uncontained fires across the West.
Some 8.6 million acres have burned so far this fire season, nearly double the 10-year average and the worst season in 50 years. The blackened 13,521 square miles represents an area bigger than Maryland.
Story Continues

Click Map to Enlarge

Haze plagues Malaysia

Sept 13, 2006, KUALA LUMPUR: Acrid haze thickened over Malaysia as smoke from a large number of forest fires in nearby Indonesia shrouded the peninsula's heavily populated west coast, officials said on Wednesday.

Forest Fires are Sweeping Indonesian Borneo and Sumatra: Sept 2006

To listen to the VOA audo presentation on the Indonesian fires/haze go to Earth Frenzy Radio Blogsite

Atlantic Gets Very Depressed

Breaking Storm News: Atlantic
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 13, 2006
Hurricane Florence, Tropical Storm Gordon, and the newly formed Tropical Depression #8 can be seen in this satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). This satellite image was captured on Tues. Sept. 12 at 7:04 a.m. EDT. This data was processed by NASA's GOES Project at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Gordon to Become a Hurricane
At 5:00 a.m. EDT the center of Tropical Storm Gordon was located near latitude 22.6 north, longitude 58.3 west or about 445 miles north-northeast of the Leeward Islands. Gordon is moving toward the northwest near 8 mph and a turn to the north-northwest is expected during the next 24 hours. Maximum sustained winds are near 60 mph with higher gusts. Gordon is expected to become a hurricane during the next day or so.
Estimated minimum central pressure is 1000 millibars. By Friday, Sept. 15, Gordon will be a hurricane and is expected to be far east enough of Bermuda to not bring rain and winds to the island, but would likely bring heavy surf. (Satellite Image: As Atlantic Hurricane season approaches its peak, which is mid-September, forecasters are watching three storms in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project)

Our wacky weather

Climate News: Australia
Sept 12, 2006
THE Sunshine Coast received almost twice its monthly average rainfall in just the one soaking 24-hour period yesterday.
Mother Nature served up gale-force winds of up to 110km/h along with the drenching rains across most of the Coast yesterday, while on Sunday areas of Noosa copped an unseasonal hail storm.
THE average September rainfall is 45.8mm but that figure was blown out of the water in just one day when Maleny scored 62mm, Maroochydore 82mm and Nambour 66mm to 3pm yesterday. “It is quite an unusual weather pattern for this time of year,” Mr Otto said. “Usually you get dry, gusty and hot conditions, but this is more like a June weather pattern and it’s a bit like Melbourne weather.
“It’s also definitely cooler than usual and we got close to our record coldest temperature for September on Sunday

Update:Earthquake In Gulf Of Mexico Rattles Florida

Experts are baffled, but not concerned
St. Petersburg Times Publishing Co. Sep 12, 2006
A fault nobody knew existed produced the strong earthquake Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico.
It doesn't appear on any geological maps.
No seismic monitoring occurs in that part of the gulf, so scientists are uncertain where the fault is or where the quake took place.
They expect they'll never know because, for one thing, they aren't going to look.
"There are faults in most places around the world, thousands of them, hundreds of thousands maybe, that we know very little or nothing about, and this was one of them," said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.
"We knew of no causative faults in the Gulf of Mexico that could produce a quake of this magnitude. Now we know there is one down there somewhere, but it's not a big deal."
The word Monday from experts across the country is that Floridians should chalk up Sunday's quake as an oddity and nothing to stress over. It might happen again. It might not. But chances are it will never be more serious than this or have any serious ramifications.


Is Florida Plagued by Disasters?
Sept, 2006
After Sunday's earthquake, Florida residents are exasperated. Mentally prepared for ongoing challenges such as hurricanes, wild fires, shark bites, alligator attacks, and hanging chads, most Floridians are at their wit's end.
A rare and unusually strong quake in the Gulf of Mexico rocked southwest Florida on Sunday, provoking worried calls from more than 3,000 people in the state and elsewhere in the Southeast.





Quake News Elsewhere
Las Vegas could be due for an earthquake
On the surface Las Vegas is a city of lights. But underneath it's a network of faults that experts say could trigger an earthquake at any time. And as this city grows, a major quake could kill hundreds and cause billions of dollars of damage.
Those who moved here to escape the threat of an earthquake actually moved to the third most active state. "A lot of people are surprised. Those that moved from California to get away from earthquake activity," explains Earthquake Research Team member Gay Cote.

Human Activities Are Boosting Ocean Temperatures in Areas Where Hurricanes Form

Earth News: Global Warming/Climate Change
September 11, 2006
BOULDER—Rising ocean temperatures in key hurricane breeding grounds of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are due primarily to human-caused increases in greenhouse gas concentrations, according to a study published online in the September 11 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Using 22 different computer models of the climate system, Benjamin Santer and six other atmospheric scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, together with Tom Wigley, Gerald Meehl, and Warren Washington from the Boulder-based National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and scientists from eight other research centers, have shown that the warming sea surface temperatures (SSTs) of the tropical Atlantic and Pacific oceans over the last century are linked to human activities.
NCAR's primary sponsor is the National Science Foundation.
"We've used virtually all the world's climate models to study the causes of SST changes in hurricane formation regions," Santer says.
Research published during the past year has uncovered evidence of a link between rising ocean temperatures and increases in hurricane intensity. This has raised concerns about the causes of the rising temperatures, particularly in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific where hurricanes and other tropical cyclones form. (photo above: Hurricane Ioke passes by the Hawaiian Islands on August 21, 2006, with 132-mile per hour winds in this satellite image. The storm, renamed Typhoon Ioke as it moved west across the International Date Line, later intensified to become the most powerful central Pacific storm on record. Click here or on the image to enlarge. (Image produced by Hal Pierce, SSAI/NASA GSFC.)

Related News
Sept 11, 2006
Cloud formation affected by human activity
University of Toronto researchers and their collaborators have discovered that solid ammonium sulphate aerosol – an airborne particle more prevalent in continental areas - can act as a catalyst to the formation of ice clouds, suggesting that cloud formation is another aspect of the global climate system that can be affected by human presence. The findings were published last week in Science.

Volunteers battle to save 'white' Beirut beach from oil slick

Breaking Environmental News: Lebanon
BEIRUT, Sept 12 (AFP) Sep 12, 2006
At Ramlet el-Baida, Beirut's only public beach, some 40 volunteers in bright blue protective overalls track and scoop residue of the oil slick which for two months has blighted the Lebanese coast.
"They are full of goodwill, but they will need to double their numbers and work for months to clean the beach," sighs the head of the clean-up operation, Commander Christian Nedelec.
The French naval officer helps the Lebanese authorities to clear away the after-effects of the oil slick caused by Israeli bombing of a power station in mid-July.
Ramlet al-Beida, or "white sands" in Arabic, is a 1.6 kilometre-long (one-mile) beach, and only one of the many sites among dozens to have been hit by the massive wave of pollution.
The thousands of tonnes of fuel oil have spread to some 30 beaches and coves since the Israeli bombing of storage tanks at the Jiyeh power station, to the south of the Lebanese capital.
Only 400 of the 15,000 tonnes of spilt fuel oil has so far been recovered, according to Lebanon's environment ministry. (Satellite Image: The UN is warning of an environmental catastrophe in the Mediterranean as a large oil slick threatens the coasts of Lebanon and Syria. The oil largely stems from fuel tanks at the coastal power station at Jiyyeh, which was bombed by Israeli aircraft on 13 and 15 July)

Philippines Oil Spill
Philippines to siphon oil from sunken tanker that caused spill
Manila, Sept. 12 (AP): The government said on Tuesday it has decided to syphon oil from a sunken tanker that caused the Philippines' worst spill but will wait to see if an international oil pollution fund will foot the bill.

Massive sonic boom from meteor

BREAKING COSMIC/SPACE NEWS: NEW ZEALAND
METEOR ALERT
POSTED: 10:18 a.m. EDT, September 12, 2006
A massive sonic boom rent the skies above Canterbury today as a meteor sped to its fiery end – but if, and where, it fell remains a mystery.
Scientists said the boom was heard as far afield as Wellington, and sightings of a bright speeding light, then cloud of smoke as the meteor apparently burst into a fireball, were reported all over Christchurch.
One astronomer said it was likely the meteor completely disintegrated when it burst into flames, and debris from the alien visitor was unlikely to be found.
The meteor was detected by instruments used to measure earthquakes at two Canterbury recording sites.
Kevin Graham was working in his garage workshop in Rolleston, 22km southwest of Christchurch, when he heard the boom.
His first thought was it was a September 11 anniversary attack, he said.
"I don't frighten very easily but I was just about shitting myself," he said.
He spoke by phone to his wife in the Christchurch suburb of Addington who had run outside because she thought the Addington Raceway stand was going to collapse.
"I ran outside because I thought my place was going to collapse as well," Mr Graham said.
He said the sound shook the garage and he could feel shock waves in the air.
"It started off with a little boom then a real massive boom. And I mean massive – like the daddy of all booms," he said.
"I was wondering what happened and I thought `oh, September 12', because we're a day ahead of the States.
Emergency services were inundated with calls from the public about the noise.
Christchurch Fire Communications received its first calls from the public started at 2.53pm today, with people reporting windows rattling and the air "shaking".
Police communications fielded over 100 calls in quick time.
Hanmer Springs police officer Senior Constable Chris Hughey likened the meteor to Haley's Comet, which he saw when it last passed near Earth in 1986.
"All it looked like was a vapour trail from a plane coming in at huge altitude," he said.
"It was a crystal clear day here in Hanmer and it appeared to have a red ball or something at the front. Then it split into about three and just disappeared."
Mr Hughey said he did not hear the loud sonic boom.
He had seen a few small meteors "coming in here and there" over the years but nothing like today's one.
"Never coming in on that angle.
Photo: TRAIL: An image of the vapour rings left by the meteor was captured in Christchurch.CAVAN O'CONNELL/Christchurch Press

Typhoon plots early course for Taiwan, Japan

Tropical Storm Update: Far East Asia
Sept 12, 2006
TAIPEI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A mid-strength typhoon was taking aim at Taiwan and the southern islands of Japan on Tuesday, weather reports said.
Typhoon Shanshan, about 1,300 km (800 miles) southeast of Taiwan, was moving west-northwest towards Taiwan and Okinawa.
It could strike Okinawa as early as Friday, according to a Tropical Storm Risk alert service bulletin. It could also change direction completely.
Last month, "super typhoon" Saomai struck southeastern China killing 436 people, the strongest storm to hit in 50 years. Typhoons and tropical storms threaten southeast China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines from early summer to late autumn.

Other Storm News
Hurricane Florence blew over Bermuda but spared the territory massive damage, with Canadian forecasters predicting it will pass close to Newfoundland's most populous region late Wednesday. (Satellite Image: Hurricane Florence, a problem for Bermuda on Monday, was expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain to eastern Newfoundland on Wednesday. (NOAA)

Gordon is the seventh named storm of the 2006 Atlantic Hurricane season, and the second named storm to form in September. Most early computer tracking models show Gordon on a path out into the Atlantic away from any populated areas.

Floods continue in North of Thailand

Breaking Earth News: Thailand
Sept 12, 2006
Deputy Interior Minister Sermsak Pongpanit said on Tuesday that government authorities are speeding up their work to evaluate the damage from floods in the northern provinces so that compensation may be paid quickly to flood victims.He said that floods in the North caused damage to farmlands, and that the government would give compensation to flood victims after final damage assessment reports are concluded.According to the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, the death toll from flooding in the North stands at five, with two deaths reported in Lampang and three in Sukhothai.Speaking about a mudslide in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat on Monday, he said that local authorities had already responded with assistance to villagers on the same day.The disaster prevention and mitigation office in Nakhon Si Thammarat has accelerated its assessment of the damage caused by forest run-off and mudslides in four villages of Chawang district Monday night. No casualties have so far been reported.However, about 30 houses were damaged, according to an initial survey, said Pensri Kaewkoompai who heads the disaster service office there.

New Warning from Mayan Elders

Skwatch Announcement
Sept 11, 2006

The weekly edition of the Skywatch Newsletter Diar Warning from Mayan Elders has been emailed to subscribers and is available to viewers in the archives

You may subscribe to our weekly newsletter by linking here


©2006, Skywatch-Keep Looking to the Skies. All Rights Reserved

Sept. 11, five years later

Archived Slideshow: Attack on America
U.S. National Memorial: Sept 11, 2001
Sept 11, 2006
NEW YORK - At the sad tolling of bells and a rabbi’s hopeful reading, President Bush and a sea of firefighters and police officers silently bowed their heads Monday to mark the moments five years ago when terrorists pierced the nation’s defenses.
On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush stood in front of a door salvaged from a fire truck destroyed on that tragic day, a flag at half staff above him. The observance outside a lower east side firehouse came on a crisp cloudless morning eerily reminiscent of the sunny, workaday morning when hijackers commandeering commercial airliners struck, killing nearly 3,000 people.
The group paused twice, at 8:46 a.m. and at 9:03 a.m., EDT, marking the moments when the two planes slammed into the towers of the World Trade Center. Bagpipes wailed, a firefighter sang “Amazing Grace,” a policeman sang “God Bless America” and a choir sang “America the Beautiful.” Bush and his wife, Laura, stood ramrod straight and wordless in the bright sunshine.
Story Continues

Gore sparks Australian furore on environment

SYDNEY, Sept 11 (AFP) Sep 11, 2006
Former US vice president Al Gore on Monday found himself at the centre of an Australian political spat as he promoted his environmental documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" Down Under.
Gore, who lost narrowly to President George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race, was caught in the crossfire between rival Aussie politicians disputing his assertions on climate change in the film.
"There are three places I do not go for advice on climate change," fumed Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane, dismissing the film in which Gore singles out Australia as trailing the rest of the world on climate change.
"One of them is to unsuccessful candidates for the US presidency who cannot even convince their own people that they are right. The second place is the movie," he said, adding that the third was the Australian opposition.
Gore had Sunday urged Prime Minister John Howard to lead Australia into the battle against climate change.
In the film, Gore criticised Australia and the United States as the only countries not to sign the Kyoto protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
Howard retorted that he did not take policy advice from films and said he would not meet Gore.
An opposition Labor Party environment spokesman, Anthony Albanese, came to Gore's defence on Monday, saying Macfarlane's had been arrogant and naive in branding the film "just entertainment."
The film documented the scientific consensus that climate change had led to a significant increase in both the duration and intensity of hurricanes, and a drop in rainfall in agricultural areas, Albanese said.
"The minister should explain what was entertaining about Hurricane Katrina and other extreme weather events," he stated.
Several top Austarlian scientists also appeared to defend Gore's contentions.
"The movie is based on sound science and as such reflects the mainstream view expressed in the international peer review literature," said Graeme Pearman, senior research fellow at Monash University.
"Overwhelmingly the presentation was sound and did not drift into sensationalising what is a serious global issue," he said, echoing the views of several other

From Another News Source
Take him to task: Gore challenges PM on climate
September 11, 2006
CLIMATE change is a bigger threat to world security than terrorism and the world's industrial countries must cut their greenhouse gas pollution before they can demand developing nations take action, says the former US vice-president, Al Gore.
In Australia to promote his documentary about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, Mr Gore dismissed the Howard Government's reasons for refusing to address climate change and said Australia was in a position to influence the US.

Skywatch Note: Australian Prime Minister Howard must take his cues from Bush when it comes to global warming and preserving the environment. Only the most arrogant and blindsided of politcians believe that our environment isn't in danger due to the dramatic climate changes we are now experiencing. As a matter of fact, Australia in recent years has been inundated by extreme weather, including massive flooding, severe drought and powerful storms unprecedented in their recorded history. To continue to deny and pretend as Howard is doing, or refuse to meet with credible environmentalists or statesman, as in the case of Al Gore, is embarrassing to say the least. Refusing to acknowledge a discernable concern of millions across the globe, is both troubling and unexplainable. In the case of Howard it fringes on total ignorance and stupidity.

Special Note
Sept 10, 2006
Al Gore may again contest US presidential elections
SYDNEY: Former US vice-president Al Gore said on Sunday that he would not rule out running again for presidency.

"I haven't completely ruled out running for president again in the future but I don't expect to," said Democrat Gore, who lost narrowly to Republican George W Bush in the 2000 presidential elections.

Gore, 58, who had been vice-president under Bill Clinton for two terms and was widely tipped to win the top job, is in Australia to promote his documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth".

The politician turned environmental campaigner told a news conference there was no doubt he could make more of an impact on environmental issues as president, but he was doing what he could.

Line squall causes outages throughout central Maine

Sept 10, 2006
Line squall causes outages throughout central Maine. A fast-moving, rain-carrying, lightning-fueled squall line racing through central Maine left a lot of people in the dark Saturday night. Part of the storm appeared as a funnel cloud. "It looked like a finger sticking out of the sky." Other people called police reporting the same UNUSUAL weather phenomenon

Elsewhere
Sept 11, 2006
PHILIPPINES - Yet another natural calamity hit the Province of Misamis Oriental early morning Sunday, this time killing three persons with two kids still missing. This is the fourth natural calamity that hit the Province of Misamis Oriental during the rainy months of August and September. The first was a cloudburst at Balingasag that killed an entire family of four. This was followed by big waves and strong winds that killed a mother and her son at Liberatad. The third natural calamity was another cloudburst at Lagonglong that has affected hundreds of families and agricultural crops. Meanwhile, heavy rains and strong winds started late Friday night causing the river along San Roque Village Relocation Site, Barangay Dayawan, Villanueva to rise up and overflow. At around 1 a.m. morning Sunday, there was then massive flooding in the areas near the river.

Hurricane Florence bashes Bermuda

Tropical Storm Update: Hurricane Florence
Sept 11, 2006
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Reuters) - Hurricane Florence bashed Bermuda with powerful winds and pounding surf on Monday and gained some strength as it swept just offshore of the mid-Atlantic British island.

Florence's sustained winds grew from 80 mph (130 kph) to 90 mph (145 kph), and a wind gust was measured at 111 mph (180 kph) on the island, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

At 11 a.m. the center of the Atlantic season's second hurricane was about 60 miles northwest of Bermuda and moving north-northeast at 13 mph (21 kph).

The core of the Category 1 hurricane -- the lowest rank on the five-stage Saffir-Simpson scale -- stayed just off the Bermudan coast.


The hurricane was forecast to stay away from the North American mainland, but created heavy surf along parts of the eastern United States and the Canadian Maritime provinces.

Related News
Typhoon Shanshan
Typhoon Shanshan is forecast to strike Japan as a super typhoon at about 00:00 GMT on 16 September. Data supplied by the US Navy and Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Center suggest that the point of landfall will be near 25.6 N, 128.5 E. Shanshan is expected to bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 212 km/h (132 mph). Wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher.
According to the Saffir-Simpson damage scale the potential property damage and flooding from a storm of Shanshan's strength (category 4) at landfall includes:

*Storm surge generally 4.0-5.5 metres (13-18 feet) above normal.
*Curtainwall failures with some complete roof structure failures on small residences.
*Shrubs, trees, and all signs are blown down.
*Complete destruction of mobile homes.
*Extensive damage to doors and windows.
*Low-lying escape routes may be cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the centre of the storm.
*Major damage to lower floors of structures near the shore.
*Terrain lower than 3 metres (10 feet) above sea level may be flooded requiring massive evacuation of residential areas as far inland as 10 km (6 miles).

There is also the potential for flooding further inland due to heavy rain.
The information above is provided for guidance only and should not be used to make life or death decisions or decisions relating to property. Anyone in the region who is concerned for their personal safety or property should contact their official national weather agency or warning centre for advice.

Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake Rocks Gulf of Mexico

Breaking Seismic News: Gulf of Mexico, U.S. Coastline
Sept 10, 2006
The U.S. Geological Survey says a powerful earthquake has occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, sending shock waves to parts of the U.S. Gulf coast.
The agency says no damage or casualties have been reported from the 6.0 magnitude earthquake that struck earlier Sunday.
It says the quake was centered 400 kilometers southwest of St. Petersburg, on the western coast of Florida.
The quake could be felt from Louisiana to Florida. The Geological Survey says there is no danger of a tsunami.

Map Above: Location of earthquake off Florida coast (map centered at 25°N, 85°W)

From Another News Source

Scientists said it was the largest and most widely felt of more than a dozen earthquakes recorded in the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the last 30 years. “This is a fairly unique event,” said Don Blakeman, an analyst with the National Earthquake Information Center who said the quake was unusually strong.The most prevalent vibration, which last for about 20 seconds, was felt on the gulf coast of Florida and in southern Georgia, Blakeman said. But residents in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana also called in reports.
“It rattled our trailer pretty good,” said Dan Hawks, who lives near Ocala in the small central Florida community of Pedro. “The house started shaking. We could actually see it moving. We looked at each stupidly and said, ’What’s the deal?”’ The temblor was unusual because it was not centered on a known fault line. The “midplate” earthquake, deep under the gulf, was probably the result of stresses generated by the interaction of tectonic plates in the earth’s crust, the agency said.
Only one of Florida’s rare earthquakes caused significant damage. In January 1879, St. Augustine residents reported heavy shaking that knocked plaster off the walls.

Europe's Largest Volcano Erupting

Volcanic News
Last Updated:09-09-06 at 2:13PM
The largest volcano in Europe is erupting, and it is putting on quite a colorful display.Lava is oozing from the southeastern crater of Mount Etna. The volcano's eruption is being caused by lava explosions inside the crater. The eruption is happening about 9,300 feet above sea level.
WATCH VIDEO


PHILIPPINES - Mayon's lava flow in its 2006 eruption is the LONGEST IN ITS HISTORY, lasting 56 days as of September 8. The volcano has been able to sustain its continuous flowing of lava even in the absence of strong explosions. This is a new characteristic compared to prior behavior in which strong explosions culminated into lava flow.

El Niño might signal end of hurricane season

Sept 09. 2006
NOAA's Climate Prediction Center says an El Niño is setting up in the Eastern Pacific that could cut short the Atlantic hurricane season.
It can't be said with certainty, but the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season might come to a premature end soon.
The Climate Prediction Center, an agency under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Thursday that an El Niño is forming in the eastern Pacific and that this cooling of waters could cut short the Atlantic hurricane season.
Hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30, and last year a number of storms in November and December. This Sunday is considered the peak of hurricane season.
Predictions of an active 2006 hurricane season were based on the presence of warmer Pacific waters last May, an event called La Niña.
When Pacific waters off Central and South America are warmer than normal, winds over the Atlantic tend to calm down. There is an absence of what is called shear, winds that can blow the cloud tops off developing storms.
When El Niño forms, winds over the Atlantic become strong from the west. As Atlantic systems move westward toward Florida and the United States, the developing storms meet strong upper-level winds and are torn apart.
That's what is beginning to happen now, the Climate Prediction Center says.
Dr. Jeff Masters of Weather Underground calls the El Niño "unusual" for this time of year and says because of that no one can be sure exactly what will happen next.

Typhoon Ioke Update:
Typhoon may have wiped out bird crop
Wake Island suffered severe wind damage when Super Typhoon Ioke passed over the island a week ago, and may have lost an entire season's reproduction of 11 seabird species.
Ioke hit during the breeding season for tens of thousands of seabirds on Wake. Wind speeds approaching 200 mph, and storm surges that may have swept across the entire island, would likely have killed off the entire stock of eggs and chicks, said John Klavitter, wildlife biologist at the Fish and Wildlife Service's Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

Landslide worries Pasakha residents

Earth News: Bhutan
9 September 2006- A massive landslide after two days of incessant rain has cut off the Pasakha industrial estate from its town where most of the residential areas are located.
Though the initial slide could not stop vehicles from crossing the stretch, another slide about half an hour later completely blocked the road. “A huge portion of the mountain slope came crashing down.” According to the residents, the slides continued for more than three hours bringing along huge chunks of rock and loose soil. Residents said that landslides were common in that area during monsoon. (photo: People walk across the slide as vehicles get stranded.)

Landslide kills one, highways blocked
At least one person was killed in a landslide following incessant rainfall in Chitwan Sept 09.
More than 30 people have been killed by floods and landslide over the last few weeks around the country.

Record rainfall claims a life

Earth News: Arizona, U.S.
Sept 08, 2006
A man was swept to his death in a South Side wash that flooded when more than an inch of rain drenched Tucson on Thursday morning.
This was the first death of its kind this year. The strong current carried the man's body through the city to the Santa Cruz River, where it was found two hours later on the Northwest Side.
The storms closed streets and brought down utility poles, causing about 2,000 customers to lose power for several hours.
The 1.14 inches of rain recorded at Tucson International Airport set a record for rainfall on Sept. 7 and makes this year's monsoon the eighth-wettest on record, with 9.83 inches since June 15. (photo above: A Northwest Fire/Rescue District crew carries the body of an unidentified man found lying face-down on a Santa Cruz River sandbar. He was observed being swept into a wash about 15 miles away.)

The storm was a strange one - Thursday's rain came mostly between 6 and 9 a.m., ATYPICAL for a monsoon storm. Summer rains normally are spurred by rising heat in the late afternoon, but this storm was caused by a weather system from Utah and Nevada. (photo: Mylene Hitchcock enjoys the 65-degree temperature Thursday morning during a walk along Rillito Wash that followed the early rain.)

Freezing temperatures in Northern U.S.

Midwest. U.S.
Sept 09, 2006
Some parts of the northern states and western Great Lakes woke up to freezing temperstures this morning, behind a southward moving cold front. This front will continue moving south today, producing scattered showers and thunderstorms from the Lower Great Lakes to the central Plains, including areas from Detroit and Chicago, to Kansas City. There will also be an increased chance of showers and thunderstorms over the central Plains, where an area of low pressure will be forming. Locations north of the front, from Fargo to Green bay, will experience afternoon highs only in the 60s, while locations south of the front will experience 70s and 80s. Parts of the western Great Lakes will likely again experience temperature at or below freezing overnight tonight. These areas will remain dry, but chilly into Sunday, but chances for rain will continue over the Plains, expanding into the Midwest, as low pressure moves slowly eastward.

Earth may be going back to dinosaur climate

Earth News: Global Warming
September 08 2006
By Jeremy LovellNorwich - Global warming over the coming century could mean a return of temperatures last seen in the age of the dinosaur and lead to the extinction of up to half of all species, a scientist said on Thursday.Not only will carbon dioxide levels be at the highest levels for 24 million years, but global average temperatures will be higher than for up to 10 million years, said Chris Thomas of the University of York.Between 10 and 99 percent of species will be faced with atmospheric conditions that last existed before they evolved, and as a result from 10 to 50 percent of them could disappear."We may very well already be on the breaking edge of a wave of mass extinctions," Thomas told the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.Scientists predict average global temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees centigrade by 2100, mainly as a result of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide being pumped into the air from burning fossil fuels for transport and power."If the most extreme warming predicted takes place we will be going back to global temperatures not seen since the age of the dinosaur," Thomas said.

Fires rage as haze thickens in Borneo

Sept 8, 2006
JAKARTA (AFP) — At least eight million hectares across Indonesia have been damaged by forest fires in the last month, officials have said as dozens of uncontrolled blazes continued on Borneo island.
A forestry ministry official admitted Friday that forest and ground fires had destroyed millions of hectares of land in Indonesia last month, with a satellite system detecting 52,599 hotspots during August.
"All those many hotspots caused 8.4 million hectares of forests to burn," Koes Saparjadi, an assistant to the forestry minister, said at a conference in central Java Friday.
He added that around 60 percent of the burnt land was farming land, and the remainder was forest.
Illegal burn-offs caused more damage to Indonesia's environment than rampant illegal logging said Saparjadi.
"This destruction of the forests is much worse than illegal logging. Because the fires cause several species of plants to be annihilated," he said. (photo above: Villagers heading home through a thick haze of smoke from forest fires in Riau, Sumatra province, August 2006.)

Fires Elsewhere
Crews stretched thin as wildfires widen
Sept 8, 2006
RENO, Nev. - Nevada has called on three of the top firefighting crews in the nation to help fight its wildfires, while Montana geared up for weather conditions that could further fuel a huge blaze that has already burned 26 homes and structures.
A national command team and the three crews joined the battle Thursday against Nevada fires that have blackened 240,000 acres, or nearly 375 square miles, of rangeland and threatened ranches, mines and wildlife habitat.
Nevada’s fires are among the nation’s largest. Wildfires have scorched more than 1 million acres nationally, or 1,563 square miles — slightly more land mass than the state of Rhode Island.

Thousands destitute as floods rack Niger

Earth News: Africa
September 08 2006
Geneva - About 22 000 people have been left homeless and facing hunger after heavy flooding in Niger and Burkina Faso, the United Nations' humanitarian body said on Friday.Niger has borne the brunt of almost four weeks of heavy rains, with almost 16 000 people affected, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.To the west, in Burkina Faso, the figure is about 6000.Besides destroying homes, the floods have also wiped out swathes of farmland and devastated herds of livestock, raising the spectre of hunger for a population that has long been vulnerable to food shortages.There are also rising fears that the disaster could fuel deadly outbreaks of cholera and malaria.Aid agencies are rushing supplies to the affected areas, including tents, food, medicines and mosquito nets, said Byrs.The floods have also affected other West African nations, including Mauritania, Mali and Nigeria.

Climate Change Rocked Cradles Of Civilization

Skywatch Special Report
Norwich UK (SPX) Sep 08, 2006
Dr. Brooks said: "Having been forced into civilized communities as a last resort, people found themselves faced with increased social inequality, greater violence in the form of organised conflict, and at the mercy of self-appointed elites who used religious authority and political ideology to bolster their position. These models of government are still with us today, and we may understand them better by understanding how civilisation arose by accident as a result of the last great global climatic upheaval."
Severe climate change was the primary driver in the development of civilisation, according to new research by the University of East Anglia. The early civilisations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, South Asia, China and northern South America were founded between 6000 and 4000 years ago when global climate changes, driven by natural fluctuations in the Earth's orbit, caused a weakening of monsoon systems resulting in increasingly arid conditions.
These first large urban, state-level societies emerged because diminishing resources forced previously transient people into close proximity in areas where water, pasture and productive land was still available.
In a presentation to the BA Festival of Science on September 7, Dr. Nick Brooks will challenge existing views of how and why civilisation arose. He will argue that the earliest civilisations developed largely as a by-product of adaptation to climate change and were the products of hostile environments.

Landslides kill 14, bury cars in Mexico

Sept 07, 2006
MEXICO CITY -- A landslide buried buses and cars on a highway in the central state of Puebla and killed at least four travelers Thursday, a day after a separate avalanche left 10 villagers dead in northern Mexico.
The Puebla landslide occurred on a highway between Mexico City and the city of Tuxpan in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, covering with dirt and mud two tractor-trailers, two passenger buses, three public passenger vans and a car, Puebla state official Ismael Rios told Radio Formato 21. Four people died and at least 11 were injured, Puebla's interior secretary, Javier Lopez Avala, later told a news conference that was broadcast live on the radio.
Dozens of rescuers and soldiers equipped with sniffer dogs tried to dig the vehicles out of the mud Thursday night. It was not clear if they expected to find more victims, or exactly what caused the landslide.
Lopez Avala said workers had been using heavy machinery on the site recently to extract gravel, which weakened the hillside that collapsed. Heavy rains have pounded that part of the country in recent weeks as well. (above: People stand next to a vehicle that was destroyed after a mudslide caused by heavy rains buried several vehicles on a road near the town of Xicotepec de Juarez, Mexico on Thursday Sept. 7, 2006. At least four people were killed but the search continues for more victims.(AP Photo)

Tropical Storm Florence nears Bermuda

Tropical Storm Update
Sept 08, 2006
MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Florence will send dangerous swells over the eastern U.S. coastline as the unusually broad cyclone churns northwest in the Atlantic toward Bermuda, forecasters warned on Thursday.
The sixth tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane before its center passes west of Bermuda early next week, forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Florence was over the open sea and expected to turn away from the United States. But it was an unusually large storm more than 1,000 miles wide. Forecasters said it would roil the surf along the eastern U.S. shore, make swimming dangerous and erode beaches.
"Since the wind field is so large, it will send a swell out ahead of the system. That looks like it will affect much of the east coast Sunday into Monday," said Mark Willis, a meteorologist at the hurricane center. "It means dangerous surf conditions."
The storm's center was about 1,015 miles southeast of Bermuda. Florence was moving west-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph) and had top sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph).
It would become the season's second hurricane if its top sustained winds hit 74 mph (119 kph), and was expected to reach that threshold by Saturday.

Major tsunami 'before end of the century'

07/09/2006 - The Mediterranean region – particularly the area around Greece – could be hit by a major tsunami before the end of the century, a scientist said today.Because of the region’s tourism boom over the last five decades, the consequences would be devastating, said Gerassimos Papadopoulos, a scientist at the Athens Institute of Geodynamics.According to data presented at the First European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology being held in Geneva this week, a major tsunami occurs in the Mediterranean about every 136 years. The last one happened in the south Aegean sea in 1956, killing four people and causing shipwrecks and widespread coastal damage.An even worse tsunami, which hit the Sicilian city of Messina in 1908, killed 1,500 people. An additional 60,000 lost their lives because of the quake that triggered it.However, with growing coastal populations and the region’s massive scale-up in tourist infrastructure, “if such a tsunami occurred today, the consequences would be dramatic,” Mr Papadopoulos said in an interview with The Associated Press.A Mediterranean tsunami would unlikely be as strong as the one that spread across the Indian Ocean region in December 2004, which killed over 220,000 people, because the nature of the sea basin means it would not spread across the whole sea.

Panic in Assam after quake prediction

Click on Map to Enlarge
Guwahati, India Sep 7 (IANS) Panic has gripped Assam following predictions by a geologist from the University of Madras that a high magnitude earthquake was likely to hit the region Friday.The Assam government is reviewing the matter.Almost all English and language dailies Thursday led their newspapers with the quake prediction fuelling fears and sparking utter panic and chaos."There is bound to be panic when you read such reports. You cannot just remain silent after such a pinpointed prediction and so we are preparing for the worst," Hitesh Baruah, a doctor in Guwahati, said.The Bangalore dateline story released by IANS Wednesday quoted a statement issued by N. Venkatanathan of the Department of Applied Geology saying there was 70 percent chance of a 7-8 magnitude earthquake hitting Assam at 8.21 a.m. It said the epicentre would about 15 km southwest of Dibrugarh, 500 km east of Assam's main city of Guwahati.Though seismologists debunked his theory, Venkatanathan said his alert was not an official warning but flowed out of his theory based on geo-astrophysical calculations which he has successfully tested for several years.

Assam wants disaster predictions cleared by competent authority
Guwahati, Sep 8 (IANS) The Assam government is likely to ask New Delhi to form a core group of experts to verify any future predictions or warnings on disaster made by individuals before it is made public.

Number of Rockford residents displaced by floods rises to 680

Earth News: Illinois, U.S.
The Associated Press
Published September 7, 2006
ROCKFORD -- Officials say the number of Rockford residents displaced by recent flooding rose to 680 yesterday.Rockford firefighters have so far checked 4,800 homes and businesses and declared 150 of them severely damaged.
About five inches of rain fell in Rockford Monday afternoon, causing flash floods that inundated some city neighborhoods and taking residents by surprise.Emergency crews in boats rescued residents after the floods caused water in creeks and drainage ditches to crest. The chilly water trapped people in their homes.Fire officials say the water rose as much as eight feet in some parts of the city.City officials said the floods have caused millions of dollars in damage and that it may take weeks for a final tally to emerge.

Pakistan: Living with floods and drought
Just a month or so there was a lot of debate in Pakistan on the issue of water conservation and storage. And now the situation has changed so much that there is now too much water. Torrential rains and heavy flooding have not stopped yet and some parts of the country have experienced extensive damage and many people have lost their lives. There is one silver lining to this otherwise dark cloud and that is that the floods and heavy rainfall have opened an opportunity to look at flood management solutions anew.

Keep "Path to 9/11" Propaganda Film Off The Air

Skywatch Public Announcement:
Sept 07, 2006
From the Editor's Desk
The ABC television network, owned by the Walt Disney Corporation is planning to air a two night documentary which appears to be a blatant attempt to smear the Democratic Party and sway the American Electorate just prior to a major national election. I believe that America deserves to be told the truth about 9/11 and about the war on terrorism. We do not deserve to be mislead and deceived by political parties or the big business that they pander to. Any congressional politician, that puts politics and power above the needs and concerns of those who either elected them or supported them, deserve to be removed from office this November. When one party controls all facets of government, many others suffer for it. Furthermore, those who pander to the special interests are lining the pocketbooks of big corporations at the expense of the working people of this country. We expect better from our politicians, and deserve better. The Republican party had a golden opportunity to show that they cared about the average citizen in this country and failed. They have shown the electorate that they cannot govern properly, therefore, the winds of change are in order for our nation's government. We must show those in power that we cannot and will not tolerate complacency, inaptitude and arrogance in government. It is time to stand up for what our constitution taught us, that we are a nation "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Today's politicians seem to have forgotten it's true meaning, it's time we remind them.

Note* If you wish to voice your opinion, please be sure to type in your own name and email address to the petition. Thankyou



Steven Shaman
Editor/publisher
Skywatch
The Great Red Comet

Storms Lash Sydney

Breaking Storm News: Australia
Sept 07, 2006
The gale-force winds and record flooding rain that hit Sydney overnight have left one man dead and the city's transport system struggling to resume normal services.
A Bureau of Meteorology spokesman said today that Observatory Hill, near the CBD, since 9am (AEST) yesterday had recorded its greatest rainfall in any 24-hour period since 1883.
Waves in Sydney Harbour have been stirred up by gale force winds and flooding rain in Sydney overnight.
The storm has caused chaos on Sydney's transport network and major roads.
Flights in and out of Sydney airport have been delayed by the strong winds, an airport spokesman said.
Most of Sydney's major motorways have been affected by the wind and rain, according to an NRMA spokesman. (photo Above: Parramatta ferry wharf Sept 07, 2006.)

From Another News Source
WILD STORMS LASH SYDNEY
Sydney had its wettest September day since 1883 which flooded roads, stopped train services and brought down powerlines leading to blackouts to a wide area of the east coast of New South Wales.

Rain forest town tackles drought in Canada

Earth News: Climate Change
September 02 2006
Ottawa - A drought-hit resort town in Canada's Pacific rain forest is trucking in water to avert a total shutdown, but hotels and other businesses will have to severely limit consumption, the mayor said on Friday.Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, usually receives about three metres of rain a year. It has had no serious rainfall since June and last month was the driest August on record.Mayor John Fraser - who earlier this week ordered all businesses to close by Friday - said some water was being shipped in from nearby towns."We've set a record for the driest August ever... we've always had rain in Tofino. It is a rain forest but the weather patterns are changing," he told a televised news conference,"It's certainly something that I think we're going to have to look at in the future in terms of global warming... this was definitely the biggest wake-up call."Fraser warned visitors they would have to live like campers and use no more than two US gallons (7,5l) of water each per day.

Fourth earthquake in week hits, this time off Big Island

Seismic News: Hawaii, U.S.
Sept, 2006
A 3.3-magnitude earthquake shook the ocean floor off Waikoloa yesterday evening, the fourth temblor of 3.0 or more to strike the state in a week's time. The epicenter was 13 miles west-southwest of Waikoloa at a depth of about seven miles.
Hawai'i is among the top states when it comes to seismic activity, ranking behind Alaska and California in a U.S. Geological Survey count of earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.5 or greater between 1974 and 2003. Many of the quakes are linked to Hawai'i's volcanic activity, said Robert Cessaro, a senior geophysicist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in 'ewa beach.
A quake fitting into this category occurred the evening of Aug. 28, when a 3.8-magnitude quake rattled windows on O'ahu and was felt on Moloka'i. That quake was 26 miles east-northeast of Waimanalo.
Two other quakes struck on Aug. 31 on or near the Big Island. A 3.1 temblor was recorded at 1:04 p.m. that day about 18 miles north of Pahala. It was followed by a 3.2 that was 30 miles offshore of Hilo at 8:38 p.m.
Other recent quakes in Hawai'i included a 4.5-magnitude quake that happened on July 27 off the Big Island and was felt as far away as Kaua'i.

Deluge leaves Hanoi submerged

Earth/Climate News: Vietnam
Heavy rains lashed Hanoi Tuesday, inundating streets and bringing traffic to a halt.
The highest ever rainfall in the last 5 years, lasting from noon to 2 pm, submerged streets in more than a half-meter of water.
Van Ho and Long Bien precincts recorded 101.5 and 82 millimeters respectively.
Hundreds of vehicles were stalled.
The sewer company opened manholes on the streets in an effort to drain the water but over an hour later the streets remained waterlogged.
The weather bureau said the downpour was caused by a low pressure system.
It forecast more rains in the north over the next 3-4 days.

Weather Related Events Across the United States
NORTH CAROLINA - Thick thunderstorms aggravated flood conditions in eastern North Carolina on Tuesday night, and forecasters projected that the Northeast Cape Fear River could swell more than it did when Tropical Storm Ernesto hit last week. "This is basically Ernesto over again. It's not a pretty forecast." Some areas already had seen 6 inches of rain from the latest storms. Computer models projected that the Northeast Cape Fear could crest over 17 feet by Friday - more than 7 feet above flood levels. The river flowed at just 2 feet last Thursday, before Ernesto squeezed up to a foot of rain over the region.

INDIANA - The National Weather Service says an area in southeast Rockford received about six inches of rain during afternoon storms Wednesday. Powerful floodwaters submerged parts of Rockford and the chilly water trapped people in their homes and set off one dramatic rescue after another. At the intersection of 14th Street and Tenth Avenue, the water rose to about five feet. Many long-time residents call the surprise afternoon flooding UNPRECEDENTED. People were forced to abandon cars, watch possessions float by or wait on porches as boats were dispatched to carry them to safety.

KANSAS - As shifting weather patterns carry Kansas from summer to fall, they can create conditions for the kind of severe weather - tornadoes and large hail - more typically seen in spring. Historically, that second season peaks during the last 10 days of August and the first 10 days of September. But computer models suggest the entire period will pass this year without storms capable of tornadoes and large hail. "We may not even have a second season." The weather pattern that typically brings tornadoes and large hail to Kansas this time of year, called the "northwest flow" because the storm fronts swoop down from the northern Rockies into northwest Kansas, shows no signs of setting up for the foreseeable future. A calm second season would be consistent with the rest of this year's warm-weather months, forecasters say. To date, there have only been 13 tornadoes reported in the 26 counties of southeast Kansas included in the Wichita office's coverage area. That compares to 40 last year and 53 in 2004. Since 1950, when the service began keeping tornado statistics, the southeast quarter of Kansas has averaged about 17 tornadoes a year. For the past nine years, however, the region averaged nearly 33 a year - almost double the average.

ALASKA - Juneau sets RECORD for spring, summer days of rain. Juneauites are used to getting hammered with rain, after all it is a rainforest, but this year has been ridiculous. Measurable precipitation was recorded on 109 of 153 days from April through August. That surpasses the record of 106 days set in the spring and summer of 1973. Rivers and streams have overflowed and gardens have been ruined by oversaturation. 30.18 inches fell from April though August, just spring and summer in 1961 recorded a trace more rain than that.

PENNSYLVANIA - "This truly has been a HIGHLY UNUSUAL summer for the number of storms." Ernesto was the 13th notable storm this summer in the area. This summer was ONE OF THE WETTEST IN RECENT YEARS with 25 percent more precipitation (16.7 inches) than normal for the period.

Tropical Storm Florence could be a hurricane by Friday

Sept 07, 2006
Image: Projected track of Florence for the next 5 days
Tropical Storm Florence is getting better organized, with forecasters calling it an unusually large Atlantic tropical storm. But they say it's too soon to know if it'll affect the U.S
For now, the sixth storm to get a name this season remains far away. It's 960 miles east of the Northern Leeward Islands. Top winds are getting a bit stronger at 45 miles an hour. That's still almost 30 miles an hour short of minimum hurricane strength. But the National Hurricane Center expects it to meet the criteria by Friday morning. Because it's a large storm, forecasters say it takes longer to develop and intensify, compared to smaller storms.

Hurricane season - Highly regarded weather watchers at Colorado State University on Friday slashed their forecast for the remainder of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, saying essentially they blew the outlook because vast volumes of Saharan sand blew in, drying up the atmosphere and sapping needed moisture from would-be tropical storms. Apart from the unusual role of West African dust, indications of a potential occurrence of El Nino also are affecting conditions. El Nino refers to unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean that can have important global consequences, including increased rainfall and flooding in the southern tier of the U.S. and Peru, and droughts in the western Pacific. In September, forecasters call for five named storms, three hurricanes and two major hurricanes. There is a greater-than-normal chance of storms making landfall somewhere in the U.S. in the month, too. The probability of a named storm making landfall this month is 74%, compared with 67% over the past 52 years. The chance of a hurricane landfall is 59%, compared with 48%, while the possibility of an intense hurricane making landfall in the month is 35%, up from 27%. For October, the forecasters see "below average" activity, with two named storms, three hurricanes and no major hurricanes. Landfall probabilities in October are below average.

MONSOON United Kingdom

Skywatch Special Edition: Effects of Climate Change

Sept 06, 2006 UK: IT will be a very different Britain, a land of hot, dry summers and torrential rain in the steaming autumn.
Weather experts are becoming increasingly convinced that in the not-too-distant future Britain's season of drizzle and drab skies will give way to sudden storms and teeming rain.
We've had the warmest decade and hottest July since records began... now brace yourself for Monsoon UK.
New research suggests the kind of extreme downpour usually associated with India and the tropics will become a familiar part of autumn in Britain as a result of global warming and climate change.
To make matters worse, separate research from Britain's Met Office suggests that European heatwaves are likely to become much hotter and more frequent.
And the changes are occurring even sooner than anticipated.

Scientists 'surprised' on climate change

AUSTRALIA'S rapid climate change had caught scientists by surprise, a leading water expert said today.
Professor Peter Cullen, from the National Water Commission, said experts had expected the changes, which have left much of the country suffering drought conditions, but thought they would take much longer to take effect.
"I don't think any of us expected the climate change we have experienced over the last five years. I was expecting climate change but I was expecting it to take 30 years," he said.
Prof Cullen said Australia was drying out quickly and with water restrictions already in place in many areas, governments needed to consider all available options, such as recycling and desalination, to prevent an impending water crisis.
"We've got to look at the full range of options, I don't think we can afford to be doctrinaire and throw anything out," he said.

Flash floods wreck J&K, 14 killed

Earth News: Kashmir
Sept, 2006
Jammu/New Delhi: Kashmir is facing its worst ever flood crisis in two decades with hundreds of villages and parts of capital Srinagar completely marooned.
At least 14 people have died in Jammu after three days of incessant rains and freak floods.
Over half a million people have moved to safer places to survive the floodwaters and the Army has been called in to undertake rescue missions in parts of Kashmi.
While many states battle nature’s fury, it’s also been a monsoon of despair for farmers across the country.
From being forced to commit suicide in the drought-hit Vidarbha region of Maharashtra to watching helplessly as freak rains washed away their standing crops in Rajasthan, Orissa and even in Jammu and Kashmir.
Many farmers like the 63-year-old Rattan Singh, a resident of Gijral village near Jammu, have no choice but to watch helplessly as floods wreck their fields (photo above: Residents leave a flooded and marooned neighbourhood in Srinagar.)

Photo: ROWING TO SAFETY: Army was pressed into service as heavy snowfall continued in parts of J&K.

Floods in Kashmir



Related News from India
INDIA - Cold gusts of wind and rain buffeted the Himachal Pradesh tourist town of Shimla, sending the temperature plummeting to an UNUSUAL 15 degrees Celsius, as the upper mountainous areas received rain and snow over the past two days. Peaks in the high altitudes and in the tribal Lahaul valley, some 350 km from here, received fresh snowfall Saturday setting off a cold spell in the mid hills of the state. Most areas of the state have been lashed by rain for the past few days. The gusty winds are being described as UNUSUAL for this time of the year. The standing apple crop has been damaged in several parts of the apple belt in the mid hills of the state.

Typhoon Ioke to pound Japan with 20 to 30 foot waves

Tropical Update
Sept 06, 2006
In the western Pacific, long-lived Typhoon Ioke (110 mph) is churning northwestward far to the southeast of Japan. Ioke is forecast to weaken and turn to a northerly track over the next 48 hours, most likely bypassing Japan to the east. Huge surf from the typhoon, however, will pound the east coast of the nation with waves 20 to 30 feet high.

Related News
VIRGINIA - Storm-shocked Northumberland County homeowners said that weather forecasts left them unprepared for the fury of tropical depression Ernesto. The County Administratorcomplained to National Weather Service authorities that its predictions of Ernesto's path and power left county residents and homeowners with a false sense of security. National Weather Service forecasts given in numerous conference calls all understated the reality of the storm. "They were calling for winds of 35 miles per hour and tides 2 to 2½ feet above normal. We had wind gusts of 60 miles per hour and tides 5 and 5½ feet above normal." Forecasters and their computer models did not anticipate an UNUSUAL interaction between Ernesto and high pressure air to the north when the storm lumbered into the bay. The result strengthened Ernesto's northeast winds, which pushed water levels higher on exposed shores, causing more tidal flooding than expected.

Indonesia raises alert level at smoking Mount Bromo volcano

Breaking Seismic News: Indonesia
Sept 06, 2006
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP): Indonesia has raised the alert level at a smoking volcano on Java island, and is urging villagers and tourists to stay off the mountain's slopes, the government said Wednesday.
Mount Bromo typically erupts once a year, but it does not send debris or lava far down its slopes and nearby towns and villages were in no danger, government volcanologist Suryono told el-Shinta radio station.
Bromo was placed at the second-highest alert level on Tuesday, meaning an eruption may occur within one or two weeks, said Suryono, who goes by a single name.
"The mountain is showing signs of mischief and the smell of sulfur is very strong,'' said Suryono, urging hikers and villagers not to visit the crater. "It never erupts dramatically, but the danger here is people get very close to the crate,'' he said. The 2,329-meter-high (7,641-foot-high) mountain is one of Java's most popular tourist attractions.
Villagers often trek to the crater to leave offerings at the peak.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire,'' an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
(photo above: Mt. Bromo at Dawn, East Java, Indonesia.)

Tropical Storm Florence forms in Atlantic

BREAKING STORM NEWS: ATLANTIC
Sept 05, 2006
Update 1
MIAMI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The sixth tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Florence, formed in the distant Atlantic on Tuesday and could become a hurricane as it moves toward the United States, U.S. forecasters said.
Tropical Storm Florence was about 935 miles (1,504 km) east of the Lesser Antilles by 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) and moving to the west at 12 mph (19 kph), the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
Long-range computer tracking models projected the swirling mass of thunderstorms could end up north of the Caribbean islands, reaching hurricane status by 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) on Friday, the hurricane center said. (above: This NOAA satellite image taken Monday, September 04, 2006 at 02:15 PM EDT)

Climate change and Health

Health Watch: Impact of Climate Change
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine: Published in its entirety
Sept, 2006
Dear EarthTalk: I know that global warming causes extreme weather and melts glaciers and causes sea level rises. But how does it increase the spread of disease? -- Curran Clark, Seattle, WA Climate change accelerates the spread of disease primarily because warmer global temperatures enlarge the geographic range in which disease-carrying animals, insects and microorganisms--as well as the germs and viruses they carry--can survive. Analysts believe that, as a result of global temperature rises, diseases that were previously limited only to tropical areas may show up increasingly in other, previously cooler areas. For example, mosquitoes carrying dengue fever used to dwell at elevations no higher than 3,300 feet, but because of warmer temperatures they have recently been detected at 7,200 feet in Colombia’s Andes Mountains. And biologists have found malaria-carrying mosquitoes at higher-than-usual elevations in Indonesia in just the last few years. These changes happen not because of the kinds of extreme heat we've experienced in recent months, but occur even with minuscule increases in average temperature. But extreme heat can also be a factor, and the nexus of global warming and disease really hit home for North Americans in the summer of 1999, when 62 cases of West Nile virus were reported in and around New York City. Dr. Dickson Despommier, a Columbia University public health professor, reports that West Nile Virus is spread by one species of mosquito that prefers to prey on birds, but which will resort to biting humans when its normal avian targets have fled urban areas during heat waves. “By reproductive imperative, the mosquitoes are forced to feed on humans, and that’s what triggered the 1999 epidemic,” Despommier says. “Higher temperatures also trigger increased mosquito biting frequency. The first big rains after the drought created new breeding sites.” He adds that a similar pattern has been recognized in other recent West Nile outbreaks in Israel, South Africa and Romania. Bird flu is another example of a disease that is likely to spread more quickly as the Earth warms up, but for a different reason: A United Nations study found that global warming--in concert with excessive development--is contributing to an increased loss of wetlands around the world. This trend is already forcing disease-carrying migrating birds, who ordinarily seek out wetlands as stopping points, to instead land on animal farms where they mingle with domestic poultry, risking the spread of the disease via animal-to-human and human-to-human contact. A Congressionally-mandated assessment of climate change and health conducted in 2001 predicted that global warming will cause or increased incidences of malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, encephalitis and respiratory diseases throughout the world in coming decades. The assessment also concluded that insect- and rodent-borne diseases would become more prevalent throughout the U.S. and Europe. The news isn't good for less developed parts of the world either. Researchers have found that more than two-thirds of waterborne disease outbreaks (such as cholera) follow major precipitation events, which are already increasing due to global warming.

CONTACTS: Natural Resources Defense Council Consequences of Global Warming, www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/fcons.asp.
GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881;
submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com.
Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

U.S. deaths in Iraq, war on terror surpass 9/11 toll

War in Iraq/War on Terrorism
A national tradgedy
Sept, 2006
(CNN) -- As the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States approaches, another somber benchmark has just been passed.
The announcement Sunday of four more U.S. military deaths in Iraq raises the death toll to 2,974 for U.S. military service members in Iraq and in what the Bush administration calls the war on terror.
The 9/11 attack killed 2,973 people, including Americans and foreign nationals but excluding the terrorists. The 9/11 death toll was calculated by CNN.
The comparison between fatalities in the war on terror and 9/11 was drawn last month by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"It's now almost five years since September 11, 2001," Pace said. "And the number of young men and women in our armed forces who have sacrificed their lives that we might live in freedom is approaching the number of Americans who were murdered on 9/11 in New York, in Washington, D.C., and in Pennsylvania."
Of the 2,974 U.S. military service members killed, 329 died in Operation Enduring Freedom and 2,645 in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the Pentagon. The total includes seven American civilian contractors working for the military in Iraq.
Of the 329 U.S. military deaths in the Operation Enduring Freedom campaign, 261 occurred in Afghanistan, including many in recent months amid a resurgent Taliban guerrilla campaign. Many British and Canadian troops have also been killed recently as part of the force that is operating against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

Related to the war
POLL: Iraq War Will Breed More Terrorism, Say Americans
Many adults in the United States think the coalition effort will have a negative effect, according to a poll by Ipsos-Public Affairs released by the Associated Press. 60 per cent of respondents think there will be more terrorism in the United States because the country went to war in Iraq.
The coalition effort against Saddam Hussein’s regime was launched in March 2003. At least 2,640 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 19,700 troops have been wounded in action.

ELECTION 2006
Sept 05
Poll: Democrats poised to win in November
The Democratic Party is the top political organization in the United States, according to a poll by Opinion Dynamics released by Fox News. 48 per cent of respondents would support the Democratic candidate in their congressional district, while 32 per cent would vote for the Republican contender.

Extreme Rainfall Incidents Increasing In Parts Of UK

BREAKING EARTH NEWS: CLIMATE CHANGE
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (SPX) Sep 05, 2006Extreme rainfall events - those likely to lead to flooding - have become more frequent and intense over a 40-year period in parts of Britain, particularly in Scotland and the North of England.
Scientists from Newcastle University, who analysed UK weather records from 1961-2000, say the findings provide further evidence of climate change occurring.
They also suggest that the 5 million people who live near to rivers - ten per cent of the UK population - can expect to be flooded with increasing regularity in the future which has implications for the management of flooding and water resources.
Dr. Hayley Fowler, a member of the research team who will speak about the project at the BA Festival of Science in Norwich on September 6*, used records from the UK Met Office and the British Atmospheric Data Centre.
She and colleagues examined four distinct periods classed as 'extreme rainfall events' ie where rain was observed to fall steadily over either one, two, five or ten days. They found the probability of an extreme five or ten day rainfall event during the 1990s, compared to the previous 30 year period, increased by four times in Scotland and by two times in Northern England. {Above: Satellite Image of Britain.)

Australia records driest August

Breaking Earth News: Australia
Sept 05, 2006
AUSTRALIA has recorded its driest August on record, increasing the chance of severe bushfires and giving little hope of an end to the crippling drought.
The Bureau of Meteorology says last month was the driest August since accurate record-keeping began in 1900.
It was also the warmest since detailed monthly temperature data came on line in 1950.
Record low winter rainfall was recorded over a large area of southern Western Australia and in parts of the eastern states.
Rainfall deficits had also intensified across the nation's south east, including Tasmania, since the start of autumn.
Australia's most senior meteorologist, bureau director Geoff Love, warned of severe consequences from the rainfall deficits that showed no sign of abating.
“If the current low rainfall and high temperatures persist, the consequences will be wide ranging, including an elevated bushfire risk this coming summer and escalating water shortages and restrictions,” he said.

Related News
Sept 04, 2006
Drought in Spain could affect water supplies to up to 2 million people
MADRID, Spain A drought could force rationing of water supplies to up to 2 million people in the southeastern region of Murcia if rains don't replenish two reservoirs in central Spain, officials said Monday.
Reservoirs at Entrepenas and Buendia, which are used to channel water to Mediterranean coastal province Murcia, have reached such low levels that water transfers planned for the end of September may have to be canceled, said Fernando Ortega, director of the regional water authority in Castilla-La Mancha

Global warming 'cannot be stopped'

BREAKING ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS: CLIMATE CHANGE
Sept 04, 2006
THE world must be more realistic about the chances of preventing climate change and prepare for the inevitability of global warming, the head of one of Britain’s foremost scientific societies will urge today.
Politicians and environmentalists have failed to understand how difficult it will be to curb global warming and are overlooking the importance of adapting to the hotter world it will bring, according to Frances Cairncross, the President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
While measures to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming are essential, they have been emphasised over and above the equally vital need to develop ways of coping with climate change, Ms Cairncross will say.The “ineffectual” Kyoto Treaty will not stop temperatures rising, as the US and large developing nations such as China and India are not involved, and even if a global agreement to limit carbon dioxide emissions is reached, a significant degree of warming is still likely.
As a result, scientists and governments need to think now about measures, such as better flood defences and wildlife corridors, that will help threatened species to migrate as habitats are lost.
“Adaptation policies have had far less attention than mitigation, and that is a mistake,” Ms Cairncross will say in her presidential address to the association’s Festival of Science in Norwich.

'Crocodile hunter' killed by stingray

In Memory of Steve Irwin: Conservationist and Friend of the Animal Kingdom.
Monday September 4, 2006
Steve Irwin, the passionate conservationist who shot to international fame as the Crocodile Hunter, was killed today in a freak accident while diving off the north Queensland coast.
In a bitter irony, the man who risked his life handling one of the world's most dangerous reptiles was mortally wounded by a stingray, a usually passive sea creature which attacks only if threatened. Irwin, 44, was stung in the chest by the stingray's barbed tail, which whips up in a reflex action. The accident happened while he was filming a TV documentary called Oceans' Deadliest at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas.
A member of the production team said he had gone out to film a sequence on stingrays when he swam over the venomous bottom-dweller, which has large pectoral fins like wings and can grow up to 4 metres long.
His producer, John Stainton, said: "He came over the top of the stingray and the barb went up into his chest and put a hole in his heart." Barely conscious, he was hauled back on to his research vessel, Croc One, and taken to the nearby Low Isles.
Irwin, whose infectious enthusiasm and catchphrase "crikey" made him popular with television audiences around the world, was treated by paramedics who were flown to his boat by helicopter, but they were unable to revive him. {photo above: Flowers left by fans in memory of Steve Irwin outside the zoo he ran with his family in Queensland. Photograph: Steve Holland/AP}

What Steve Irwin Meant to Australia

Israel plans for war with Iran and Syria

Middle East Conflict
Sept, 2006
THREATENED by a potentially nuclear-armed Tehran, Israel is preparing for a possible war with both Iran and Syria, according to Israeli political and military sources.
The conflict with Hezbollah has led to a strategic rethink in Israel. A key conclusion is that too much attention has been paid to Palestinian militants in Gaza and the West Bank instead of the two biggest state sponsors of terrorism in the region, who pose a far greater danger to Israel’s existence, defence insiders say.
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“The challenge from Iran and Syria is now top of the Israeli defence agenda, higher than the Palestinian one,” said an Israeli defence source. Shortly before the war in Lebanon Major-General Eliezer Shkedi, the commander of the air force, was placed in charge of the “Iranian front”, a new position in the Israeli Defence Forces. His job will be to command any future strikes on Iran and Syria.
The Israeli defence establishment believes that Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear programme means war is likely to become unavoidable.

Rotting Body Row As India Mourns Missing Vultures

In the News: Biology/Ecosystem
Mumbai (AFP) Sep 02, 2006
Indian vultures (pictured) have suffered the biggest decline of any animal species in the world, from millions in India to just a few thousand in little more than a decade, according to the Bombay Natural History Society.
An Indian woman has ignited a furious row over the centuries-old tradition of using vultures to dispose of the dead by sending gruesome pictures of rotting corpses to hundreds of homes. About three bodies a day from the dwindling Parsi community in India are left to be stripped clean at a private 45-acre (18-hectare) complex in Mumbai but the practice is threatened by a dramatic decline in vulture numbers.
The issue erupted after scenes from inside the Towers of Silence were revealed by Dhun Baria, 65, who printed leaflets with grainy pictures of bodies and distributed them to 2,000 Parsi homes in Mumbai.
She said she only learned what happened behind the walls of the squat circular towers after her mother's body was taken when she died eight months ago.
"The staff told me everything. They said: 'Madam, it's a hell inside'," she said.
"I was crying a whole day and a night. It's the biggest mistake of my life that I have put my mother inside there. I thought I must help to change this system."
The Towers of Silence are off limits to all save pall bearers and the vultures who once circled overhead in large numbers before they dramatically died off.

Eight times monthly rainfall in 48 hours

Earth News: Australia
September 03, 2006 04:38pm
RECORD rainfall has lashed north Queensland over the past 48 hours, causing road closures on a major highway.
More than 270mm was dumped on the town of Cardwell, 150km south of Cairns, in the 48 hours to 9am today – nearly eight times the September average for the centre of 36mm.
Neighbouring Ingham, south of the Cardwell Range, recorded about 166mm over 48 hours.
The downpour has smashed rainfall records in both towns.
Cardwell's previous 24-hour rainfall record was 97mm set in 1926, a figure broken twice in the past two days.
But it fell in the wrong areas to help the severe drought in the state's south.
Cairns Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Craig Burke said the rainfall was “phenomenal”, adding that it was unseasonal.

INDIA - Flooding triggered by monsoon rains in the past few days have left 1.5 million people homeless and damaged thousands of acres of paddy crop in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. Over 20,000 people were evacuated after hundreds of villages were cut off. Army troops were evacuating more villagers from coastal districts with the authorities braced for more rain. “We are bothered about the fresh formation of a low pressure over the Bay of Bengal and are closely monitoring its movement."In Nepal, at least 50 people died last week in flash floods. Thousands of people have been evacuated to dry areas while officials are braced for any outbreak of diseases. Landslides and flash floods have also affected thousands of people in Pakistan.

Top scientist's fears for climate

Earth News: Climate Change
Sept, 2006
One of America's top scientists has said that the world has already entered a state of dangerous climate change.
In his first broadcast interview as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, John Holdren told the BBC that the climate was changing much faster than predicted.
"We are not talking anymore about what climate models say might happen in the future.
"We are experiencing dangerous human disruption of the global climate and we're going to experience more," Professor Holdren said.
He emphasised the seriousness of the melting Greenland ice cap, saying that without drastic action the world would experience more heatwaves, wild fires and floods.
He added that if the current pace of change continued, a catastrophic sea level rise of 4m (13ft) this century was within the realm of possibility; much higher than previous forecasts.
To put this in perspective, Professor Holdren pointed out that the melting of the Greenland ice cap, alone, could increase world-wide sea levels by 7m (23ft), swamping many cities

Pentagon gives gloomy Iraq Report

Sept, 2006
WASHINGTON - Sectarian violence is spreading in Iraq and the security problems have become more complex than at any time since the U.S. invasion in 2003, the Pentagon said Friday.
The report described a rising tide of sectarian violence, fed in part by interference from neighboring Iran and Syria and driven by a "vocal minority" of religious extremists who oppose the idea of a democratic Iraq.
"Death squads and terrorists are locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife," the report said, adding that the Sunni-led insurgency "remains potent and viable" even as it is overshadowed by the sect-on-sect killing.
A growing number of members of Congress are calling for either a shift in the Bush administration‘s Iraq strategy or a timetable for beginning a substantial withdrawal of American forces. Although administration officials say progress is being made in Iraq, U.S. commanders have increased U.S. troop levels by about 13,000 over the past five weeks, to 140,000, mainly due to increased violence in the Baghdad area.
"It is time for a new direction to end the war in Iraq, win the war on terror, and give the American people the real security they deserve," Reid said. (photo above: Iraqi civil defense officers look for survivors in a damaged residential building, following rocket attacks on Thursday evening, in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday Sept.1, 2006. (AP Photo, Hadi Mizban)

Major earthquake ‘predicted’ in Assam

Seismic Alert
Friday, 01 September , 2006, 12:37
Guwahati: Sudden drop of atmospheric temperature and smaller earthquakes convinced seismologists to alert the Assam government for a major earthquake in the near future.
Assam government, after getting an urgent alert communication from world famous seismologist Arun Bapat, have not taken any chance and formally asked all the district magistrates to be on alert for any eventuality.
The government has also approached the Geological Survey of India (GSI), said senior officials of the revenue department.
The chain of events started with a communiqué from Bapat, who is an expert in the matter. He informed that there was sudden change of atmospheric temperature in an area in North Lakhimpur District.
The communiqué arrived a fortnight back to Assam government from Bapat saying in the area the temperature was below the normal temperature by 3-4 degree and the occurrence was sudden.
The Lakhimpur area itself is in a highly seismic active zone and Bapat cited that similar abrupt of fall in atmospheric temperature was noticed in Pakistan's Rawalpindi last year before a major earthquake rocked the city and its suburbs.
This was enough to the state government to press the panic button.
All the districts magistrates have been alerted for a possible earthquake of large intensity.

Snow in Sept: Freak weather continues

Breaking Earth News: Himalayas
Sept 3, 2006
SRINAGAR/DEHRA DUN: If floods in Barmer were a freak case, there's more. Unprecedented rain in the Himalayas has led to heavy snowfall in large parts of Uttaranchal and Kashmir. While the Chenab and Jhelum were in spate because of record showers since Thursday, many parts of Jammu and Kashmir were blanketed by a cover of snow on Saturday. A flood alert was sounded as the Srinagar-Jammu highway was blocked off, leaving hundreds of trucks and buses stranded. While the snow in Gulmarg and Pahalgam, would have cheered tourists, it disrupted life and movement in many other parts, including Kargil. In the Uttaranchal Himalayas, which usually gets snowfall in late October, the hills turned white after two days of snow, the first such white weekend in a decade.

Tropical Storm Ernesto causes havoc in US

BREAKING STORM NEWS: EASTERN U.S.
Sept 3, 2006
Baltimore: The remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto drenched the US Mid-Atlantic region, resulting in cut power to more than 400,000 customers and forced evacuations.
Ernesto was blamed for at least five deaths in Virginia and North Carolina, where it swirled ashore late on Thursday as a tropical storm, a day after severe thunderstorms had already drenched the region. It weakened on Friday to a tropical depression, meaning its sustained winds had fallen below 63 kmh.
Flash flood watches were posted on saturday for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Flood warnings were issued for North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Washington, DC. Many of the watches, including those in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were lifted as the storm moved farther inland and lost much of its punch.
Both eastern North Carolina and south-eastern Virginia got up to 30 centimetres of rain, and a wind gust of 98 kmh was recorded in Ocean City, Maryland said Ed McDonough, spokesman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.

Update: Hurricane John
Two killed as hurricane hits Mexico’s Baja
Sept 3, 2006
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico: Hurricane John left two people dead and another missing yesterday as it lashed northwestern Mexico’s Baja California peninsula with gusting wind and driving rain, a local official said. (photo: Firemen help a driver in a flooded street in Los Cabos beach in the state of Baja California on Friday, as Hurricane John lashed the area.)

Update: Typhoon Ioke
Typhoon Ioke bound for Japan after slamming Wake Island
Pacific edition, Monday, September 4, 2006
The storm that slammed into Wake Island earlier this week has been downgraded from a super typhoon but still packs considerable punch as it heads toward central Japan, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

Monsoon floods claim more lives in India

The Associated Press
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2006
NEW DELHI, India Monsoon flooding in eastern and central India claimed more lives, while incessant rains triggered landslides in Himalayan Kashmir, blocking a key highway that links the region to the rest of the country, officials and news reports said Saturday.
At least seven people were drowned in central Madhya Pradesh state and two children were washed away and feared dead in neighboring Orissa state, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Water from overflowing rivers has inundated large swaths of land in both states over the last three days, leaving tens of thousands of residents stranded, PTI said.
The rains have killed more than 800 people this year across India, with most deaths blamed on drowning, landslides, house collapses, or electrocution. However, many areas do not keep accurate death tolls, and the total number of people killed is likely much higher

From Another News Source
Flood fury continues across the nation
Bhubaneswar, Sept 03: After monsoon floods hit Mumbai, incessant rains in Orissa, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and parts of Rajashtan have led to flooding and destruction on a mass scale. More than 20 lakh people have been marooned and over 500 people have lost their lives in the floods wave.

Severe Flooding-Thailand
PHITSANULOK, Sept 2 -Updated Sept 3: Heavy rainfall in Thailand‘s North for several days has forced thousands of residents to evacuate to higher ground due to severe flooding and landslides. Road access to some villages near Nam Tok Chart Trakan National Park in Chart Trakan District of Phitsanulok Province are under floodwaters 1 to 1.50 metres deep, making it impossible for cars to pass through for the second day on Saturday.

Climate change brings us an uncomplicated choice

Zac Goldsmith
Thursday August 31, 2006
The Guardian
The Archbishop of Canterbury recently described the economy as "a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment". Calling for an immediate response to climate change, he said "the Earth itself is what ultimately controls economic activity because it is the source of the materials upon which economic activity works".
His view, echoed by the likes of Nobel economics laureates Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz among a great many others, is that we need a new type of market economics - an approach that actually takes the planet into account. It may seem like an obvious call, but it's an approach that until recently couldn't have been further from that of our current, or previous governments. We have had strong words - but little action.
Article Continues

Lowest rainfall on record

Breaking Earth News/Climate Change
Sept 1, 2006
BALLARAT: Australia moves to stage three water restrictions today after its driest winter on record.
Just 87mm of rain fell this winter - the lowest level since weather records began almost a century ago in 1908.
The grim winter rainfall count comes as Central Highlands Water moves restrictions up from stage two to stage three, effective from noon today.
August is traditionally Ballarat's wettest month, but the city only received 27mm, well below the monthly rainfall average of 75.4mm.
And the lack of rain is showing in our water storages, now sitting at just 22.8 per cent, equivalent to 14,702 megalitres.
Bureau of Meteorology climate meteorologist Dr Harvey Stern said yesterday it was Ballarat's "driest winter ever recorded".
A large number of high pressure systems had brought Ballarat frosty winter conditions but drier than average, clear skies, he said.
And Ballarat should brace itself for a drier than usual spring and a possible El Nino this year.

Drought, floods bring death and misery to East Africa

Breaking Earth News: East Africa
Sept 1, 2006
A vicious cycle of drought and floods is continuing to bring death and misery to millions of impoverished people across East Africa, the United Nations said on Friday.After months of a scorching killer drought that threatened more than 11-million mainly rural peasants and pastoralists with starvation, heavy rains have pounded the region, causing deadly flash floods in six countries, it said.Since July, nearly 1 000 people have been killed and more than 100 000 others displaced as raging flood waters have swept over parched land in Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya and Uganda, it said."Thousands of people are in need of urgent humanitarian relief as entire communities have been displaced, disrupted, bereaved, and have lost vital livestock and farmland," the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

Related News
Heat, drought take rising toll on southwest China
The worst drought to hit southwest China in more than a century is spreading to neighbouring provinces with temperatures reaching record highs, state media said.
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, villager Wang Qianmiao walks on the drought-ravaged farmland

Ernesto leaves 263,000 powerless in Virginia and Carolinas

NEW YORK, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Ernesto, downgraded to a tropical depression as it crossed into Virginia, knocked out power service to about 263,000 customers in Virginia and the Carolinas on Friday.
In Virginia, the storm hit the Dominion Virginia Power service territory in the Tidewater area the hardest, knocking out 190,000 customers.
That number will likely grow as the storm remains over Dominion territory for much of the rest of the day.
The remnants of Ernesto will be in the Richmond area by 8 p.m. EDT Friday and in the D.C. area by 8 a.m. Saturday.
In a release Friday, the utility, a subsidiary of Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Resources Inc., said it appears the storm knocked tree limbs onto the power lines, causing most of the outages.
The power company, which serves more than 2.3 million customers in Virginia and North Carolina, said Ernesto would likely be an "east of Interstate 95" storm and it started to restage some of crews and contractors from the western part of its service area to the east to aid in restoration. {photo above: Shaniqua Greene, right, and Tiffany Ward check the mail in their flooded neighborhood in Wilmington, N.C. (AP Photo)

Ernesto Goes to New York
There's a Battle Royale going on in the atmosphere today and we've got ringside seats! Tropical Storm Ernesto is moving up from the south, bringing with it lots of rain and wind. At the same time the Andre the Giant of high pressure systems is moving southeastward from Quebec. Irresistable Ernesto wants to hug the coast as it moves northward, but when it hits immovable Andre, Ernesto is going to be shuffled off to Buffalo.




UPDATE 1: Hurricane John Strengthens; Baja California Threatened
After losing some strength along the West Coast of Mexico, Hurricane John has again become a "dangerous category three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale," according to the latest bulletin (8:00 a.m. PDT) from the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "Maximum sustained winds are near 115 mph/185 km/hr. with higher gusts. No significant change in strength is forecast for the next 24 hours." {image: Hurricane John is seen in this hand out satellite image from the National Hurricane Centre in Miami at 1745 Zulu (1745 GMT) August 29, 2006 with it's centerpoint located at Latitude: 14:56:33N Longitude: 99:47:00W. REUTERS/NOAA/Handout}

UPDATE: Ioke's 'super' winds damage Wake Island weather sensors
Typhoon Ioke knocked out Wake Island's weather sensors yesterday as it lashed the atoll with some of the central Pacific's fiercest winds in more than a decade, the National Weather Service said.
Forecasters monitoring the atoll's wind and temperature gauges from Hawai'i said the instruments blew out as the storm approached with winds of up to 155 miles per hour and gusts of up to 190 mph.