La Nina threatens to wreck world’s weather

Global Weather Observations
Experts predict a run of severe weather in the coming months, with devastating floods striking some parts of the world while severe droughts afflict other regions, as the climate phenomenon known as La Niña gathers momentum.

A chronic drought afflicting southern California and many southeastern states of America could be exacerbated, with Los Angeles heading for its driest year on record. In contrast, western Canada and the northwestern US could turn colder and snowier. Mozambique, southeast Africa, and northern Brazil may face exceptionally heavy rains and floods, while southern Brazil and much of Argentina suffer drought.

La Niña could even rearrange the pattern of sea ice around the Antarctic, pushing the ice pack towards the Pacific side of the continent. Already, torrential rains have triggered severe floods across a huge swath of Central Africa, stretching from Senegal in the west to Uganda in the east.

Powerful quake Hits Near New Zealand

Breaking Earth News
New Zealand

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 hit some 500 km (300 miles) southwest of New Zealand on Sunday, but there were no reports of damage.

The quake occurred at around 6:24 p.m. local time, and was felt throughout the south of New Zealand's South Island, said Warwick Smith of state agency GNS Science.

The quake was near to the Auckland Islands, a group of seven uninhabited islands 467 km south of South Island.

Hurricane Lorenzo slams into Mexico's Caribbean coast

Mexico
Tropical Storm Lorenzo strengthened into a hurricane and slammed ashore early Friday along one of Mexico's oil producing regions, the US National Hurricane Center said.
The Category One hurricane -- the lowest on the five-level Simpson-Saffir scale -- was located just inland, and some 65 kilometers (40 miles) east-southeast of Tuxpan at 0600 GMT Friday, the Miami-based Hurricane Center reported.
The hurricane is expected to dump up to 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain in the Mexican state of Veracruz, "with possible isolated maximums of 15 inches," or 38 centimeters.

Update
Storm leaves 5 dead in Mexico

(CNN) -- Tropical Depression Lorenzo caused mudslides and floods that killed at least five people, put thousands out of their homes and ruined roads in eastern Mexico, according to The Associated Press.

RED FIREBALL AND EXPLOSION WITNESSED OVER ALASKA

Alaska, USA
Kodiak Island
UFO mystifies local officials

Several Kodiakans saw something fall from the sky Tuesday morning that may have landed in mountainous terrain on Kodiak Island. The incident prompted 911 calls and a helicopter search was launched from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak, but no crash site was found.

The pre-dawn lightshow happened about 6:45 a.m. and could be seen from several places on Kodiak Island. Some witnesses described a light moving across the sky toward the Gulf of Alaska. Others saw an explosion and red tracers. The light was bright enough to be seen from Kodiak city and Chiniak, about 20 miles away across Chiniak Bay.

Alaska State Troopers also reported sightings at about the same time on the Kenai Peninsula.

Thompson Files: To Save Humanity

ARLINGTON, Va. -- I know how the world ends, and it isn't with a whimper. You can see humanity's epitaph etched in advance by simply gazing up at the moon on any evening and observing the vast craters created by ancient asteroids hitting the lunar surface.

Earth has suffered many such impacts over its 4.5 billion year history. An extrapolation of lunar data suggests that there have been up to 22,000 asteroid collisions with the Earth creating craters a dozen miles in diameter or bigger. One such impact created the Chesapeake Bay, and someday another will wipe out humanity, assuming some other cataclysm hasn't claimed us first.

St. Helens: 3 years of shakes

Washington State, USA
Image: Gases escape the growing dome inside the Mount St. Helens' crater overlooking Spirit Lake in June. Mount Rainier is in the background.

Mount St. Helens just won't quit. Three years ago this month, hundreds of small earthquakes heralded the renewal of volcanic activity at the Cascade peak after an 18-year lull. Since then, the volcano has been a perpetual-motion machine. "It's been an amazing run. I never thought this eruption would last this long. And although things have slowed, there's no signs of it stopping any time soon...Mount St. Helens woke up in a hurry three years ago, which shows that we have to be prepared for what these volcanoes can do. You want to be ahead of the game by being able to detect even small changes." Tens of earthquakes are occurring daily compared with hundreds a year ago. The volcano's slowdown has allowed volcano scientists to give more attention to Mount Rainier, which is considered the Cascades' most dangerous volcano because it poses a threat to a large population.

U.S. Calls For Urgent Climate Change Action

Breaking Earth News
USA

THE US Government has dramatically changed its position on climate change warning that the planet will be destroyed unless economic growth is reined in.

In a plea to governments worldwide, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on leaders to agree to a long-term emission-cutting goal, British newspaper The Financial Times reported.

“It is our responsibility as global leaders to forge a new international consensus on how to solve climate change,” Ms Rice was quoted as saying.

“If we stay on our present path, we face an unacceptable choice: either we sacrifice global economic growth to secure the health of our planet or we sacrifice the health of our planet to continue with fossil-fuelled growth.”

Aussie 'disaster' from 3C rise

Breaking Earth News/Analysis
Australian News Alert

“We can't afford to pretend anymore." WWF Australia's chief executive, Greg Bourne

A climate change report has painted an alarming picture of the effect on Australia if global temperatures increase by more than an average three degrees Celsius. Under that scenario, heat-related deaths would triple, people would be displaced en masse from the coast and national icons like the Great Barrier Reef would almost certainly be lost. The frequency of bushfires would double and there would be major extinctions of animal and plant life. “If warming reaches three to four degrees Celsius then the thresholds for irreversible change will almost certainly be crossed.”

Northernmost lake shows signs of global warming

Canada
Image: Laval University researchers study Ward Hunt Lake in Canada's High Arctic.
(Dermot Antoniades/Laval University)

Researchers from a Quebec university suggested Wednesday that global warming has caused changes in Canada's most northerly lake. Aquatic life in Ward Hunt Lake — located on a small island north of Ellesmere Island in Canada's High Arctic — has gone through substantial changes in the past two centuries. "The speed and range of these transformations — UNPRECEDENTED in the lake’s last 8,000 years — suggest that climate change related to human activity could be at the source of this phenomenon." The research suggests the lake was permanently frozen in the past, but changes in the aquatic life "indicate that current conditions make the lake a more favourable location for algae growth than it was in the past.

Nevada Deluge Creates Sinkholes and Washouts

NEVADA,USA
The BIGGEST ONE-DAY DELUGE to hit Pahrump in years caused washouts in numerous locations. "I don't recall ever having that much in a 24-hour period." A few streets still closed this week from sinkholes and road collapses. The heavy rain made a dent in the drought. Until Friday, Pahrump had only experienced 0.45 inches of precipitation this year. The last measurable rain had been 0.13 inch on Aug. 27. The official total on Friday was 2.7 inches. That brings the yearly rainfall total to 3.15 inches, almost up to the 3.64-inch average annual rainfall for Pahrump through Sept. 30. Image: MARK WAITE / PVT
The rain apparently caused a significant sinkholes that closed Parkridge Avenue off Hacienda Street.

Impact Of Arctic Heat Wave Stuns Climate Change Researchers

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
THE ARCTIC
Unprecedented warm temperatures in the High Arctic this past summer were so
extreme that researchers with a Queen’s University-led climate change project have begun revising their forecasts.

“Everything has changed dramatically in the watershed we observed,” reports Geography professor Scott Lamoureux, the leader of an International Polar Year project announced yesterday in Nunavut by Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl. “It’s something we’d envisioned for the future – but to see it happening now is quite remarkable.”

From their camp on Melville Island last July, where they recorded air temperatures over 20ºC (in an area with July temperatures that average 5ºC), the team watched in amazement as water from melting permafrost a metre below ground lubricated the topsoil, causing it to slide down slopes, clearing everything in its path and thrusting up ridges at the valley bottom “that piled up like a rug,” says Dr. Lamoureux, an expert in hydro-climatic variability and landscape processes.

Comparing this summer’s observations against aerial photos dating back to the 1950s, and the team’s monitoring of the area for the past five years, the research leader calls the present conditions “unprecedented” in scope and activity.


RELATED NEWS
NASA finds Greenland snow melting hit record high in high places

A new NASA-supported study reports that 2007 marked an overall rise in the melting trend over the entire Greenland ice sheet and, remarkably, melting in high-altitude areas was greater than ever at 150 percent more than average. In fact, the amount of snow that has melted this year over Greenland could cover the surface size of the U.S. more than twice

Image: Microwave data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imaging radiometer was used to create this image of the 2007 Greenland melting anomaly which reflects the difference between the number of melting days occurring in 2007 and the average number of melting days during the period 1988 – 2006. Credit: NASA/Earth Observatory






VIDEO

Meltdown in Greenland

Africa flood crisis deepens

NAIROBI: Fresh rainfalls and slow relief have deepened the humanitarian crisis caused by record floods in Africa which have affected more than 1.5mn people and killed at least 300, aid agencies warned yesterday.
The worst floods in three decades have now affected 22 countries, displacing hundreds of thousands and starkly raising the risk of epidemics since the deluge hit parts of the continent in July.
Image: Students carry their belongings as they wade through flood waters yesterday in Lira, Uganda

Desperate need for action on climate change

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
U.K.
Andrew Hamilton, who restored a family-owned Warwickshire watermill to its former glory, tells how it was twice afflicted by flood waters, urges world leaders to unite and act now on climate change. Image: The mill today (top) and when it flooded in 1998

"The river was by now a massive angry swathe of dirty brown water, hurling flotsam and jetsam at everything that stood in its way.

It was washing away railings, footpaths and a wooden bridge that snapped and crashed into the swirling whirlpool below.

At 3.30 pm the mill's retaining wall finally submitted to the thunderous torrent".

That moment, recorded in my diary for 8 April 1998, confirmed my view that global warming was no longer a matter for conjecture, but an indisputable fact.

Has tornado season arrived in UK?

U.K.
Image Above: Birmingham, England on Sept 23, 2007

"I would not be surprised if we see more of these kind of extreme events" Dr Terrence Meaden, deputy head of tornado research group Torro

ONE person who saw it described it as "like something out of the Wizard of Oz". The towering vortex of air which ripped roofs off homes and factories was one of at least five tornadoes which hit the UK on September 23.
Monday, as firemen picked their way through wreckage caused by a tornado for a third year in a row, it was time to ask experts in extreme weather whether Britain is now experiencing an annual "tornado season". The towering vortex of air ripped roofs off homes and factories and was one of at least five tornadoes which hit the UK Monday. The twisters struck less than a year after a 100mph tornado in London reduced houses in Kensal Rise to rubble. The previous autumn, two whirlwinds in Birmingham destroyed hundreds of homes, hospitalised 39 people and caused millions of pounds worth of damage. Reports suggested that as many as 11 twisters formed separately as a cold front moved north-east across England. Residents reported hearing "horrendous" noises as violent winds tore down trees, pulled off roofs, knocked off chimney pots and, in one case, overturned a caravan. "It's nothing uncommon now to hear of a tornado damaging a roof, whereas 20 years ago it was a very rare event indeed."


FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
SKYWATCH-MEDIA NEWS
Is British Weather Becoming Extreme?

Yesterday I wrote some comments (From the Editor's Desk)regarding this ridiculous notion being made by Climate Skeptics, that there is absolutely no correlation between extreme weather and global warming. Even more absurd is the doubters notion that the horrific tornadoes are not becoming commonplace in Britain.

According to recorded records, this is the 3rd year in a row that Britain has suffered severe destruction as a direct result of tornado activity. In addition, let's not forget this past summer's cataclysmic floods that inundated much of the U.K. With this disaster being dubbed "The worst floods in living memory," It could be that extreme weather is becoming the norm in Britain and elsewhere.

The skeptics will tell you this is a "once in a lifetime event." If we are to believe this, then I suppose we also have to say that the African floods that have spread across 22 countries on that continent is also a "one time" event. Should we also tell the people of India that the biblical flooding in their country is a "one time" event. The list goes on, but these are just a few of so many disastrous events in just this year alone.

It's time to be honest with ourselves and with all people. Extreme weather is becoming Commonplace,not just in Britain, but across this globe. To say otherwise, is deceiving in its very nature, and will do nothing to help resolve the problem at hand. Climatologists and meteorologists need to carry the torch when it comes to educating the general public about global warming and climate change. Telling the public that their is no correlation between the extreme weather and the rise in earth temperature (whatever the cause may be) is both hilarious and felonious at the same time.

The skeptics should take a page out of the history book, and make a concerted effort to get their facts straight, before venturing out on a crusade to deceive the general public.

Steve Shaman
Skywatch-Media News

Chinese Link Typhoon Wipha to Climate Change

Mara Hvistendahl
September 24, 2007 10:17 AM

Typhoon Wipha marked a turning point in the perception of extreme weather events.

The past year has seen several milestones in government acknowledgement of the effects of climate change. In April, China released a report on the effects of climate change [PDF], forecasting an increase in droughts, floods and desertification, and a decline in agricultural output. And at a press conference in August, China Meteorological Administration official Song Lianchun connected this summer's increase in floods, droughts and heat waves to climate change.

Last Tuesday, as Wipha neared Shanghai, People Online (the People's Daily website) and China Meteorology Times co-produced a video in which Central Weather Station deputy director Bi Baogui echoes the connections made by Song. A transcript is here.) Here's a rough translation of key parts:

Host: Can you tell us a little bit about what's special about the typhoons that have touched down in our country in September?

Bi Baogui: The overall characteristics of this year's typhoons -- up to now, there have been 13 typhoons. Looking at the entire year, on the whole the number of typhoons is relatively low. But...these typhoons have been very active. To look at the influential typhoons, there have been four that have affected our country, either by passing through Japan or by touching down in our country. It should be said, going into September, that overall typhoon intensity has been extraordinarily strong....From June of this year until now, overall [atmospheric] circulation has in fact been abnormal. For example, this year the Huai River rose to cataclysmic levels not seen since 1954. When that was over, on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, Chongqing, which last year experienced drought, saw the biggest floods in years...Overall, this year's weather has been extraordinarily abnormal....

Host: You're an expert. What do you think is causing this sort of serious climate change?

Bi Baogi: It should be said that this sort of big change in events, first of all it has intrinsic causes. At the same time, we can't rule out external factors. Global temperatures are rising -- since 1849, overall temperatures have steadily increased. And after temperatures increase, to give an example: if you drop a tea egg in cold water, it won't get hard. It only gets hard when you put it in boiling water. To use this example, after surface temperature increases, it's possible that instability rises -- and as instability rises, the probability that this sort of extreme weather event will occur goes up.

In other words, while it's difficult now to link every single climate change to a specific event, if you look at it from the macro level, as overall temperatures rise, instability increases, and this sort of extreme weather event increases, causing changes in atmospheric circulation.

2007 Harvest Moon shines on September 26

No matter where you live, the moon will look round and full tonight as it rises in the east around sunset. This is the full Harvest Moon for us in the northern hemisphere.

Every month has a full moon, and all the full moons have names. The Harvest Moon is the name for the full moon closest to the September equinox, which came this year on September 23. This is the first full moon of autumn for us in this hemisphere. For the southern hemisphere, it’s the first full moon of spring.

The crest of the moon’s full phase comes today at precisely 19:45 Universal Time – that’s 2:24 p.m. in the central U.S. – and it’s the time when, for the entire Earth at once, the moon is most full. But, like all full moons, tonight’s Harvest Moon will ascend over the eastern horizon at sunset. Moonlight will fill the sky all night long. Farmers of old used the light of the Harvest Moon to gather their crops.

IMAGE: Contrary to legend, the Harvest Moon isn't really bigger, or brighter or yellower than other full moons. What's different about the Harvest Moon is that - every autumn - the moon's path across the sky makes a narrow angle with the evening horizon. It's simply a fact of nature, one with a beautiful result. The moon's path in autumn causes the full moon to rise near the time of sunset for several evenings in a row, appearing big, bright and yellow each night.
Photo: maxedaperture

The Glacier Meltdown to Air on History Channel

Mega Disasters

Glacier Meltdown Airs on Saturday September 29 10:00 PM
The History Channel

As temperatures rise, a global meltdown has begun. From the Andes to the Himalayas to the Alps, glaciers are vanishing. In Antarctica and Greenland, vast ice sheets are turning into liquid. The melting ice, running off land, is raising sea levels. As sea levels rise, oceans throughout the world are also becoming hotter. Warmer seas fuel more intense hurricanes. Already, major catastrophes brought on by the process of melting ice, rising seas and intensifying storms have occurred in coastal communities around the world: the South Pacific, Bangladesh and--closer to home--New Orleans. Scientists predict that the worst is yet to come. The rising oceans may swallow some lands forever. By the turn of the century, the map of the world may need to be redrawn and a Category 4 hurricane could drown much of Washington, DC in 15 feet of water.
Photo Above: The disintegrating face of the Müller Ice Shelf, Lallemand Fjord, Antarctic Peninsula, 67° South, April 2, 1999.

FYI: World View of Global Warming

Ice Under Fire

Glaciers and Glacial Warming, Receding Glaciers
Image: Photographer Gary Braasch holding a 1932 photo of Broggi glacier near Huascaran in the Peruvian Andes, while rephotographing this receding glacier in 1999. Glaciers everywhere in the world (with a very few exceptions) have been shrinking throughout the 20th Century, a prime signal of rapid global warming. Loss of tropical glaciers is particularly rapid. This glacier, previously photographed by the Austrian Hans Kinzl, receded about one kilometer in 67 years.

Satellite captures periodic comet

BREAKING SPACE NEWS

NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory discovers rare comet.

The joint European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spots new comets on a regular basis, but it has just found one slightly different.

The unit’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO) has found a rare type of comet called a periodic comet. Periodic comets are ones which fly by the Sun at regular intervals. While other documented comets are believed to be periodic, this is the first time that one has been conclusively proven - something which requires it to have been seen revolving around the Sun more than twice, in which each incident is less than two hundred years apart.

First seen in September 1999, the new comet has an orbit that takes four years to travel around the Sun.

New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu volcano erupts

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
NEW ZEALAND

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu volcano began a sudden eruption Tuesday, spewing mud down a ski slope and forcing police to close nearby roads, officials said.

The minor eruption Tuesday evening on central North Island sent two mud flows, or lahars, down the mountain's slopes, including the Whakapapa ski field, local district council spokesman Paul Wheatcroft said.

Update: Peru’s Meteorite Illness Explained?

The hole in Carancas, in the Puno province of Peru, that went from signal of an alien invasion to a tourist attraction in a matter of days. (Photo: Miguel Carrasco/La Razon, via AP)

Peru. S.A.

The X on this file seems to be fading fast. Many theories floated around in the first few days of this Andromeda strain-ed news story. But some tests are in, and they point to a perfectly convincing explanation. (If you are new to Peru’s meteor madness, here’s a quick recap.)

First, the crater outside a Peruvian town near Lake Titicaca was caused by a meteorite, not a mud volcano, crashed American satellite, Chilean missile attack or “a lake of sedimentary deposit.”

Tests confirmed that the crater contained telltale magnetic fragments of a meteorite, and Peru’s Geophysics Institute recorded a large tremor in the area at the moment of impact, according to The Associated Press.

Secondly, the mystery illness is probably not due to “panspermic alien microbes” or other space-based bacteria, as much as some had hoped or feared, however unseriously. It came from the soil, a Peruvian researcher who has visited the site tells National Geographic:

The illness was the result of inhaling arsenic fumes, according to Luisa Macedo, a researcher for Peru’s Mining, Metallurgy, and Geology Institute (INGEMMET), who visited the crash site.

The meteorite created the gases when the object’s hot surface met an underground water supply tainted with arsenic, the scientists said.

*NOTE: THE YET TO BE EXPLAINED QUESTIONS

Where is the meteorite fragments?
Where are the infected Peruvians?
How many actually become sick?
What does the treating medical team believe to be the origin of the sickness?
What has happened to the crater site? Is the area still being quarantined?

Still too many unanswered questions about this cosmic mystery

Video: Path of Totality-A Total Solar Eclipse

BREAKING EARTH NEWS VIDEO
A NASA PRESENTATION
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 24, 2007
On March 29, 2006, a NASA-led science expedition traveled to Tripoli and then the Sahara desert to witness and study -- first hand -- a total solar eclipse. This international expedition was an unprecedented collaboration with Libyan scientists and researchers from across the globe.

Watch Now

Africa flooding spreads to 22 countries

AFRICAN CONTINENT

GENEVA (AFP) - Flooding across a swathe of Africa now affects 22 countries, including Ethiopia, Niger and Sudan where the situation has worsened in recent days, the United Nations said Monday.

More than 800,000 people are now affected by torrential rains in those three countries alone, compared to around 700,000 recorded last week, according to data from the UN humanitarian coordination office.

JUST IN: Climate change melting Kashmir glaciers

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
FROM THE AP NEWS WIRES

Himalayan glaciers are melting fast in Indian Kashmir as a result of global warming, without due attention paid to the issue in recent years.

A report by Action Aid entitled "On the Brink?" called for urgent cuts greenhouse gas emissions to help save the region's fragile environment.

Himalayan glaciers are the headwaters for Asia's nine largest rivers, crucial for the 1.3 billion people who live downstream. The melting glaciers could endanger water supplies for hundreds of millions of people, the report said.

"Emission of greenhouse gases is the biggest threat to Kashmir's ecology and environment," said Arjimand alib, head of Action Aid's Kashmir chapter, releasing the report in Srinagar, summer capital of the revolt-hit region.

"Many of the areas have seen a complete disappearance of small glaciers. In other areas, the height of the small glaciers has reduced to over one-fourth of the original height," the 28-page report from the non governmental group warned.

AP/DT

Multiple Studies Reveal Dire Meltdown in Arctic

Dramatic Meltdown Now Occurring

As of September 21,2005 (Image shown on right) sea ice extent stood at 4.18 million square kilometers (1.61 million square miles)--an increase of 50,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles) compared to the value of 4.13 million square kilometers (1.59 million square miles) observed on September 16, (Image shown at left) which appears to be the 2007 minimum.
Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center.

EARTH CHANGES

By Andrea Thompson
Live Science Reporter

Two new studies by scientists who keep an eye on sea ice melt have provided further evidence that the Arctic is currently suffering the brunt of global warming's effects, with the ice becoming thinner and winter ice also beginning to decline.

Ice melt in the summer is a normal phenomenon: As summer temperatures heat up the Northern Hemisphere, Arctic sea ice begins to melt, and its edge retreats and covers less of the North polar region. When temperatures begin to drop again in the winter, the ice reforms.

But in recent years, rising air and ocean temperatures, fueled by global warming, have caused more and more ice to melt each summer, with ice extent reaching a record low on Sept. 16 this year, according to the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Winter sea ice, on the other hand, had remained fairly steady—until now.

Continue Story

Schwarzenegger, Gore Seek Climate Action

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
Both Will Speak at U.N. Climate Summit
(AP) "Arnie" and "Al," Republican and Democrat, shared the world spotlight to press for climate action, adding a touch of star quality to the staid proceedings of a U.N. summit.

The two headliners, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Vice President Al Gore, also highlighted by their presence President Bush's absence from the eight hours of high-level speechmaking Monday on what to do about global warming.

Bush, who did take part later in a small, private U.N. dinner with key players on climate, rejects the idea of international treaty obligations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" blamed for global warming _ an idea central to U.N. climate negotiations.

The Republican Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, has taken the lead on emissions caps at the state level, signing legislation mandating such reductions in California.

"One responsibility we all have is action. Action, action, action," the former Hollywood action star said as he helped open the summit, winning warm applause from the assembled presidents and premiers.

The Democrat Gore _ a Hollywood figure himself as the lead in the Oscar-winning climate documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" _ took his star turn at a summit luncheon, where he cited a lengthening list of global warming's impacts, from the shrinking Arctic ice cap to disappearing lakes in Africa.

"The need to act is now," Gore told delegates to the one-day summit, which drew more than 80 world leaders. "We need a mandate at Bali."

He was referring the annual U.N. climate treaty conference, scheduled for December in Bali, Indonesia, where the Europeans and others hope to initiate talks for an emissions-reduction agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
SKYWATCH-MEDIA NEWS
Global Warming and Climate Change join hands

It seems the climate skeptics just don't get the message when it comes to global warming and climate change. Maybe these few unconvinced individuals have some ulterior (financial)motive for their stubbornness. Maybe they are being paid off by the oil conglomerates, or just simply trying to push a book which disputes the claims behind global warming. Whatever the motive may be, these folks are confusing the irrefutable facts in order to gain notoriety with the public.

Yesterday, one such individual who operates a web site and weekly newsletter and has a book out disputing the facts behind global warming ( I will not disclose his name or locale), is one of those individuals out to gain fortune and fame with their fabrications and story telling.

It seems that a number of folks were quite concerned about the climate conditions in Great Britain these days, giving the extreme events that have transpired this past summer, most notably the unprecedented destructive floods, seasons which arrive way to early (as has already been reported by the media) and the most recent devastating tornadoes.

This Climate Skeptic as is always his argument, would have us believe that these dramatic weather events, unparalleled in our time, are just climate phenomena and not linked to global warming. He even goes as far as to say that the catastrophic events we are witnessing across the globe are not commonplace.

Whenever there is an ulterior motive involved, like selling a book or making financial gain by twisting the truth, you can rest assured you will find the Climate Skeptics. Their fraudulent claims that "All is well" on Earth, is not and will not settle well with the general public. Those individuals who can think for themselves, don't need convincing from self-righteous skeptics, with ulterior motives in mind.

Steve Shaman
Skywatch-Media News

Arctic Seed Vault Takes Shape Amid World Catastrophies

The underground “Noah’s Ark” is carved into the Arctic mountainside.
Photo: AFP

The Arctic Seed Vault
Norway's Survival Solution

Sept 20 (Reuters) - A vault in a mountainside cavern on Spitsbergen island around 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole is being prepared to store the world's crop seeds in case of disaster. Here are some key facts about the project:

* Funded partly by a $30 million grant from the Gates Foundation, the project is at the heart of an effort by the Global Crop Diversity Trust to safeguard strains of 21 essential crops, such as wheat, barley and rice.

* Norway is paying roughly $9 million to build the vault in the Svalbard archepelago, a habitat for polar bears.

* Starting with 200,000 samples when it opens in February, within the first year the cavern -- containing an electrically powered freezer to keep it at minus 18 degrees Celsius -- could hold around half a million samples. It will have capacity for around 4.5 million bar-coded seed samples in all.

* About 12 crops supply over 90 percent of human nutrition, and about 300 have historically been involved in world commerce.

* In the past 10 years, the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust says seed collections have already been wiped out, for instance by a typhoon in the Philippines and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

* Not all seeds can be stored by freezing. Banana, the world's fourth or fifth most valuable crop, is one example. But Sorghum seeds could last about 19,500 years.

(Sources: World Crop Diversity Trust, Norwegian government)

In pictures: Tornadoes hit UK

Breaking Earth News Photos
Great Britain Destruction
Click the Map to View Images

Tornadoes cause damage in Britain

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
GREAT BRITAIN
Image: A tornado touches down. A flurry of tornadoes caused damage in a number of towns in central and southern England, officials and reports said. SEE INTERACTIVE TORNADO MAP

LONDON (AFP) - A flurry of tornadoes caused damage in a number of towns in central and southern England on Monday, officials and reports said, although no casualties were immediately reported.

Ferocious winds were reported in Farnborough, south of London, Luton and Northampton, north of the capital, and Nuneaton in Warwickshire, west central England, according to police and emergency officials.

RELATED STORY

Britain Clears Up After Tornado Havoc

Homeowners and businesses are counting the cost after tornado-like winds ripped through parts of Britain, causing serious damage to buildings and property.

The powerful squalls wreaked havoc throughout the Midlands and the South early on Monday.

At least four tornadoes have been reported at Farnborough, Luton, Nuneaton and Northampton. Hundreds of homes were damaged as severe weather swept across the country. VIDEO: Sky's David Crabtree reports from Nuneaton.

Richard Gere assails "big lies" of Bush administration

BREAKING NATIONAL NEWS
USA
The Bush Deception

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (Hollywood Reporter) - Richard Gere launched a broadside at the Bush administration when he picked up a lifetime achievement award during the San Sebastian International Film Festival on Sunday.

Discussing his recently released film "The Hoax," about a fabricated autobiography of Howard Hughes, Gere linked the small lies "that people don't take responsibility for" to the "big lies" that lead to history-altering moments, like the decision to invade Iraq.

Holding forth at a news conference, he also appealed to Chinese authorities to rise to the occasion of next year's Olympics by becoming an open society.

"Boycott is not the answer. Isolation is not the answer. This is China's moment for radical change. You don't achieve greatness through human rights abuses. You achieve it through openness," said the actor, who often has backed the cause of Tibet.

San Sebastian runs until September 29 in the seaside town in Spain's northern Basque region.

Devastating Floods hit Bhadrak again

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
From the World's News Desk
BHADRAK: Continuous and heavy rainfall has submerged Bhadrak and thrown normal life out of gear. All the roads in the town have become water logged due to lack of the drainage system. Major residential areas like Santhia, Kuansa, Nilakantha Nagar, Nangamahala, Bonth Chhak, Sankarpur, Charampa, Bagurai and Asthal in the town have become submerged.

From the Editor's Desk:
Skywatch-Media News
With flooding at Unprecedented levels across the globe, and no end in sight for the torrential rains, the world is at a crossroads with respect to our climate. The catastrophic changes which accompany these drastic weather occurances, are placing government disaster agencies in a quagmire on "what to do". In addition those affected by the flooding are in 'panic' mode, and desperate for help where ever they can find it, and from whomever is willing to provide assistance. The situation is bleak and getting worse by the day in many regions across the globe. Although Europe and the U.S. have seen their share of catastrophic flooding and severe weather this summer. It is pale in comparison to what is occurring now across Africa and Southern Asia.

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Tidal waves damage marine drive road in Puri

Breaking Earth News
India
On Sept 23, all vehicular traffic was prohibited in Puri along the marine drive road link from Hotel Dreamland towards the Sterling resorts following the wash out of the road by tidal sea waves. About one-and-a-half kilometers of the newly built road is being eroded out every day by huge tidal sea waves, particularly during the full moon and no moon days, reducing the width of the road. Although the authorities were busy piling sand bags and planting bushes along the roadsides to prevent damage, the sea has often been shifting its attack from one place to another. The hotel and apartment owners alongside the marine drive are now spending sleepless nights during the high tide periods.

10,000 historic sites at risk from climate change

Breaking Earth News
Scotland-More than 10,000 of the most important ancient and historical sites around Scotland's coastline are at risk of being destroyed by the storms and rising sea levels that will come with global warming. Sites in jeopardy include the neolithic settlement of Skara Brae on Orkney and the prehistoric ruins at Jarlshof on Shetland. Others under threat range from Viking burial boats to Iron Age brochs and Mesolithic middens. New surveys for Historic Scotland reveal that the remains of communities up to 9000 years old could be lost forever due to accelerating coastal erosion. The potential loss is incalculable and has alarmed experts. "While people argue over whether climate change is leading to sea level rise and an increase in stormy weather, the coast continues to erode. Although wildlife and the natural habitat may be able to recover, ancient sites will be destroyed forever, and the remnants of our ancestors will be lost." Photo Above: Jarlshof Shetland

Climate change worse than feared

"GLOBAL WARMING IS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE FACING HUMANITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY" Professor Tim Flannery, the 2007 Australian of the Year and the country's best-known enviromentalist,

Global warming is occurring at a faster rate than the worst-case scenario envisaged by experts just six years ago. "For the key performance indicators about climate, change is occurring far in advance of the worst-case scenario. Carbon dioxide's increasing more rapidly, sea levels are rising more rapidly (and) the Arctic ice cap is melting away more quickly than were projected in 2001." The world needs an international organisation similar to the United Nations dedicated solely to climate change. We need to "deal with the global pollution crisis as a species."

Downpour pounds Southland

Breaking Storm News
California, USA
Photo: A rainbow forms over Los Angeles City Hall at sunset after a stormy day.

An out-of-season storm lashed Southern California with thunderous squalls Saturday and wreaked havoc across the region, trapping cars in mud, sending so much polluted water to the coast that officials warned people not to go into the ocean, and contributing, officials suspect, to traffic accidents that killed at least five people. The RARE storm, the product of a low-pressure system known as an "orphan," moved out of the area Saturday night. In perhaps the most dramatic incident, mud, ash and debris swept down hillsides near the west end of Griffith Park, overflowing a clogged drainage basin, oozing across Forest Lawn Drive and trapping 14 vehicles. Most vehicles were parked and unoccupied at the time, though several drivers got stuck while stopped at red lights. Witnesses described a frenzied scene, with lava-like goop seeping down the hills and victims racing to their cars to try to escape.

Colombia: Floods leave little behind in already vulnerable communities

Columbia. S.A.
Since March, continuous heavy rains in Colombia have caused floods affecting 600,000 people in 247 municipalities and 27 departments. Some families who were originally displaced by the internal armed conflict in Colombia had sought refuge settling in marginal areas along riverbanks. With the ensuing floods, families then found themselves swept up into another emergency. "Although the water has receded from most of the houses, the resulting effects have created a significant health situation. In the communities there are no basic services, water systems or adequate toilets."

Floods plunge Uganda displaced in further misery

Photo: Aerial view of a flooded area taken 21 September 2007 in North-eastern Uganda, where hundreds of thousands of people are in need of emergency humanitarian assitance following record rainfalls and devastating floods.

ONGORO, Uganda (AFP) - Ongoro is usually one the driest parts of Uganda and Francis Egoliam was sure the rains would stop. But now his house has been swept away by floods and his camp has disappeared under water.

"It all started with lightning that killed three animals. We thought it was going to be simple, instead it started raining daily and our crops have been destroyed and our houses have collapsed," Egoliam says.

Unprecedented rainfalls and devastating floods have plunged hundreds of thousands of people into misery in Uganda, including many who had already been displaced by conflict.

The East African country is one of the worst affected by record downpours that have swept across at least 18 countries on the continent in recent weeks, leaving it to the mercy of disease and starvation.

At least 30 injured during freak hail storm

Spain
Around thirty people, including at least four children were slightly injured during a freak hail storm that hit Marbella this morning that caused thousands of euros worth of damage to hundreds of cars and properties.

The storm, which has been classified as "severe" by the National Meteorological Institute (INM), started at 8.55am and lasted just a few minutes.

Some of the hail stones were reported to be the size of tennis balls.

The storm followed a night of heavy rain across the region which flooded several tunnels, causing some lengthy traffic delays during this morning's rush hour.

With further torrential rain expected over the coming hours, the INM has placed four regions on severe weather alert: Valencia, Murcia, Castilla La Mancha and Andalucía.

NASA: Antarctic Snowmelt Increasing

Satellite imagery shows the number of Antarctic melting days for the 2004 - 2005 season. Areas where melting occurred for a greater number of days are indicated in increasingly darker red. Credit: NASA/Rob Simmon

Antarctic snow has been melting farther inland and at higher altitudes over the past 20 years, NASA scientists announced today.

With a surface size about 1.5 times the size of the United States, Antarctica contains 90 percent of the Earth's fresh water, making it the largest potential source of sea level rise from global warming.

Unlike the well-documented and rapid Arctic meltdown, snow melt in Antarctica has been very limited because even summer temperatures rarely rise above freezing.

But satellite data collected between 1987 and 2006 showed snowmelt in some unlikely places in 2005—as far inland as 500 miles from the coast and as high as 1.2 miles above sea level in the Transantarctic Mountains. This data record, longer than those previously studied, provides confirmation of earlier reports of unusual melting in 2005.

The data also showed increased persistent snowmelt on the Ross Ice Shelf, in terms of both the area affected and the duration of the melt. (Persistent snowmelt is defined as melting that occurs for at least three days or for one consecutive day and night.)

The NASA scientists who examined the data suspect that Earth's rising temperatures may be to blame for the unusual melting patterns.