Protected forests in Brazil could cut billion tonnes of CO2

BONN, Germany
An ambitious plan to put more than 10 percent of Brazil's Amazon forest beyond the grasp of loggers and agribusiness could slash carbon emissions by 1.1 billion tonnes by mid-century, according to a study released Wednesday.

Deforestation in the tropics accounts for 20 percent of global emissions of CO2, making it the second largest driver of global warming after the burning of fossil fuels.

Amazonia alone accounts for nearly half of those emissions, and 65 percent of the Amazon forest is in Brazil.

Torrential rain kills 53 in China

China
Beijing (AFP) May 28, 2008
The death toll from torrential rains in China climbed to 53, state media reported Wednesday, after people were killed by collapsed buildings, floods and landslides in five provinces.

A further 28 people were missing, and 4,000 were stranded by floods, Xinhua news agency reported.

Hundreds of buildings were buried by landslides or inundated by floods, officials with the provincial government told the news agency.

Clinton Campaign: Seat All Delegates With Full Votes

Breaking National News
USA
In the latest twist in the ongoing Democratic nomination saga, all eyes this weekend will be on a small group of 30 little-known Democratic Party insiders meeting inside a Washington, D.C., hotel Saturday to resolve one of the most hotly contested disputes of this campaign.

The Democratic National Committee panel is charged with figuring out how many of Florida and Michigan's delegates should be seated at the party's convention in August in Denver and allowed officially to participate in the naming of the party's presidential nominee.

Pro-Clinton supporters from Count Every Vote '08 are planning a protest outside the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel where the panel is holding its public meeting.

Representatives from both campaigns and state party officials from Florida and Michigan will make their presentations at the meeting, which, for the first time in recent history, will be covered intensely by the television news media.

READ:Count All the Votes





Pastor Controversy Clouds Fight for Florida/Michigan
Precisely at the time when Obama's camp needs to be building bridges to supporters of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who's known Obama for about 20 years, took to the pulpit of Obama's church Sunday and ridiculed Clinton, using racially divisive language.

Clinton team demands Obama action on pastor attack

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Hillary Clinton's camp demanded Friday a specific rejection from rival Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama of a priest who mocked her in racially-tinged language at his Chicago church.

Iceland shaken by magnitude 6.1 earthquake

Breaking Earth News
Iceland
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - A strong earthquake shook southern Iceland on Thursday, damaging roads and buildings and causing some injuries, officials and local media said.

Channel 2 television cited civil protection authorities as saying the quake caused injuries, but it was not immediately clear how many.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.1 quake hit at 3:46 p.m., with its epicenter near the town of Selfoss, 30 miles east- southeast of the capital, Reykjavik. The Icelandic Geological Survey said it measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Residents in the capital felt buildings shake.

Iceland's national broadcaster RUV radio reported no injuries but said buildings had been damaged near the epicenter. Authorities advised residents in the area to leave their homes because of the possibility of aftershocks.

Balkans swelter in record-breaking heat

EASTERN EUROPE sweltered in a pre-summer heat wave Wednesday that pushed temperatures to A 121-YEAR HIGH in Belgrade and halted a Hungarian train after the tracks bent. In Bulgaria, temperatures reached 35 degrees Celsius in the western part of the country, the highest in a century for the end of May. Belgrade, Serbia's capital, had 39 degrees, the highest May heat since 1887. Neighbouring Macedonia recorded 38 degrees in the south and 35 degrees in the capital Skopje. Szeged, a Hungarian city near the Romanian and Serbian borders, reported 34 degrees, the HIGHEST FOR THE DAY SINCE RECORD-KEEPING BEGAN. Unseasonably high temperatures were forecast throughout Greece. Italy is also in the throes of a heatwave .

The first heat wave of the year was set to hit Germany this week, with temperatures poised to crack 30 degrees Celsius in the southwestern part of the country.

Germany Faces Hot and Stormy Weekend
The mercury is set to soar this weekend in Germany, as shifting high pressure system “Otto” brings high temperatures and occasionally heavy thunderstorms to much of the country.

One month's rain in two days ... and more to come

Great Britain
London was set for more heavy rain this week following a sodden bank holiday during which MORE THAN A MONTH'S WORTH OF RAIN FELL IN TWO DAYS. Meteorologists recorded more than 56mm of rainfall over the course of Sunday and Monday - 7mm more than the average for the whole of May. Emergency services were called to flooded homes and businesses in Tilbury and Billericay, Essex. High winds blew trees onto cables in Surrey. A 13-year-old girl was killed by a falling tree in Huddersfield Tuesday.

Vietnam reports "UFO" explosion

Breaking Earth News
Vietnam

HANOI (Reuters) - An unidentified flying object exploded in mid-air over a southern Vietnamese island, state media said Wednesday, a day after Cambodia's air force retracted a report of a mysterious plane crash.

The Vietnam News Agency said residents of Phu Quoc island, 10 km (6 miles) off the coast of the Cambodian province of Kampot, found shards of grey metal, including one 1.5 meters (1.5 yards) long.

"The explosion happened at about 8 km (5 miles) above the ground, and perhaps it was a plane, but authorities could not identify whether it was a civil or military aircraft," VNA said in a report headlined "UFO explodes over Phu Quoc Island."

Soldiers were sent out to look for wreckage and survivors, and local authorities contacted airlines in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, but received no reports of missing aircraft, the official state news agency added.

Villagers in Kampot said Tuesday that they had heard a loud explosion. Wednesday they told Reuters they had found small chunks of metal near the coastline.

UFO BREAKING ALERT

ABC News/AP News

Video: UFO Reported Near Bush Airport

A Strange Object in the Sky

HOUSTON -- The FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration said they are investigating a report from a Continental Airlines pilot, who told air-traffic controllers that a possible model rocket with a flaming tail and a trail of smoke was flying ahead of the plane shortly after takeoff Monday.

Precipitation breaks record for Montana

Montana, USA
Image: Mystic Lake
After seven days of rain and an accumulation of almost four inches of precipitation, rivers and streams in the area are still high but haven't gone over their banks. In the last seven days 3.88 inches of rain fell in Billings and outlying areas saw similar amounts. The rainfall from Wednesday through Saturday SET RECORDS for the longest and heaviest stretch of rain in the Billings area. All four days brought at least .7 of an inch of rain, and the last time that amount was recorded for longer than a day was in March 2006, when heavy rainfall was recorded for two consecutive days. Precipitation fell as snow in the high country, and 19 inches of snow was reported at Mystic Lake in Stillwater County during the four-day dump.

Mud volcano filling 60 pools a day

Breaking Earth News
Indonesia

TWO years after it oozed into life, Indonesia's "mud volcano" is still spewing toxic sludge across the Javanese countryside at the rate of 60 Olympic swimming pools a day.

And the more homes and farms that disappear beneath its stinking grey goo, the louder the calls for justice from hundreds of displaced families who are awaiting compensation.

"There is always a fear that even where we are staying we will be flooded with mud. Recently the dyke at Renokenongo subsided two metres, new gas leaks are everywhere," said Sunarto, who lives near the mudflow.

"When the wind blows westward we can smell the strong odour from here. It seems like there's no end, but there would be if only the Government would act more swiftly."

RELATED NEWS
The Indonesian "mud volcano" is collapsing under its own weight, worsening the environmental disaster. Sudden collapses of up to three metres (9.8 feet) have been recorded at the centre of the volcano in East Java. "Such sudden collapses could be the beginning of a caldera - a large basin-shaped volcanic depression." The caldera could be as much as 146 metres deep. "(Scientists) propose the subsidence is due to the weight of mud and collapse of rock strata due to the excavation of mud from beneath the surface." The mud volcano, known as "Lusi", has already been an environmental and economic disaster for local people, and things will get worse as the mud continues to flow and the centre collapses. "Sidoarjo is a populated region and is collapsing as a result of the birth and growth of Lusi. This could continue to have a significant environmental impact on the surrounding area for years to come."

Videos on Demand: Mass Evacuation Underway in China

A total of 158,000 people (in about 30 towns) have now been evacuated from potentially vulnerable areas downstream from Tangjiashan lake. The lake's water level is rising by more than one metre pre day. It now holds as much water as 50,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. If the water bursts through the natural barrier of rock and earth, more than one million people may have to be relocated.

Source: earthfrenzyradio.blogspot.com via steve468

NowPublic

Rain, dust storms kill 22 people in northern India

Breaking Earth News
India
LUCKNOW, India - Dust storms and heavy rains lashed huge swaths of northern India, killing at least 22 overnight, an official said Tuesday.

An additional 89 people died in unseasonal rain and dust storms in Uttar Pradesh state last week, police spokesman Surendra Srivastava told The Associated Press in the state capital Lucknow.

Srivastava said bad weather caused "havoc" on Monday as strong winds of more than 70 miles per hour (113 kph) and heavy rains swept through the state, uprooting trees and electricity poles and destroying mud-brick houses.

Story Continues

Ecuador records 125 explosions of Tungurahua volcano

Ecuador, S.A.
ECUADOR recorded 125 moderate explosions of the Tungurahua volcano in center of the Andes Sunday. "The volcanic activities continue with a high seismic level, mainly characterized by moderate explosions." There are also 32 earthquakes inside the mountain and continuous shocks 17 times. The ash emissions have caused an ash rain in Pillate and Guadalupe near the volcano. At the same time, those emissions have formed 3-km-high clouds. The volcano began its current eruptive process in November 1999 and since then has alternated between frequent activity and calmness.

Chinese troops tackle quake lake

China
Image: Aerial view of Tangjiashan quake lake

Story: On Sunday six people died from the effects of a strong 6.0 aftershock. Nearly 300,000 homes were wrecked in the aftershock, and more than 1,000 people injured. The official death toll from the May 12 earthquake rose to 65,080 on Monday, with another 23,150 missing. There have been more than 8,000 aftershocks; the biggest was this 6.0. Troops in China are trying to clear a river blocked during the recent earthquake, amid fears millions could be at risk of flooding. Dozens of lakes were formed when landslides triggered by the massive 12 May earthquake blocked rivers. Heavy rain forecast for the next few days could cause the barriers blocking the lakes to burst and flood nearby areas.

The latest figures show more than 45 million people have now been affected by the Wenchuan earthquake. The death toll has risen to 67,183. Over 20,000 people are missing and nearly 362,000 have been injured. More than 15 million people have been evacuated or relocated from the quake zone. The China Seismological Bureau reported no aftershocks measuring above magnitude 4 from noon on Monday to noon on Tuesday. But there were 226 tremors measuring less than 3.9 on the Richter Scale

Eight killed as tornadoes rake US Midwest

Breaking Earth News
USA
Image:A home sits destroyed by a tornado near Parkersburg, Iowa

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Authorities across the US Midwest braced for the possibility of new deadly tornadoes Monday, after at least eight people were killed when twisters swept through the region over the weekend.

CNN reported that seven people were found dead in the north-central Iowa towns of Parkersburg and New Hartford when a tornado passed at about 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) Sunday.

Marble-sized hail also fell over the town of Waterloo, Iowa where authorities reported significant damage to homes, trees and power lines, the report said.

Iowa Governor Chet Culver declared a state of disaster in three counties. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, a separate twister killed a two-year-old child and seriously injured nine other people in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, CNN said.

Weather watchers said that all told, there were some 160 reports of tornadoes spanning from Texas to Minnesota, and said new twisters were likely, possibly accompanied by hail, damaging wind and downpours.

Floods wreak havoc across Chile

Chile, S.A.
Image: Atacalco Bridge on the Diguillin river south of Santiago, shows damage (AFP)

Heavy rain and flooding in Chile have displaced 15,000 people and shut down the world's largest copper mine, according to the government.

So far, five people are known to have died in the floods - described by some as the worst in at least two decades.

Road and railway bridges have collapsed, and at least seven rivers have burst their banks.

There is also a shortage of drinking water after floodwaters churned up sediment at water treatment plants.

The rains started in the middle of this week and have hardly stopped since. The hardest-hit region has been the central valley, immediately south of the capital, Santiago.

A railway bridge collapsed under the weight of a raging torrent of water and a road bridge fell apart on the Pan American Highway, in effect cutting the country in two.

Those who have died were either swept away by rising rivers or killed by mudslides and falling trees.

In the capital, five months worth of rain fell in the space of eight hours, turning streets into rivers and forcing residents out of their homes.

China aftershock destroys 71,000 homes

Breaking Earth News
China
Image: Chinese watch from the ruins of collapsed buildings, as workers clean the street, unseen, following the May 12 earthquake in Dujiangyan, southwest China's Sichuan Province Sunday, May 25, 2008.


Complete Slideshow: China Quake




Nearly 70 dams are in danger of bursting, rattled again today by one of the strongest aftershocks since the initial disaster. The aftershock caused office towers to sway in Beijing, 800 miles away. The aftershock lasted about 20 seconds in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. Parts of Sichuan will suffer "heavy and even in some areas torrential rains" later today and Monday, with warning of possible mudslides. The confirmed death toll from the May 12 quake rose to 62,664, with another 23,775 people missing. The overall death toll from the May 12 earthquake could exceed 80,000.

'Be prepared' for volcano eruption

Volcanic Alert
INDONESIA raised the alert level on the tallest volcano on Java island Wednesoday after it spewed heat clouds down its slopes. The alert level of Mount Semeru was lifted to "be prepared," two levels below eruption, when observers reported seeing the massive heat clouds on Wednesday. "It happened six times and the longest was 3000 metres long." The activity was not considered dangerous as only one volcanic earthquake had been registered and the nearest village is 10 kilometres away.

Video/Podcast: Freak storm unleashes tornadoes, floods, snow, more across Inland area

Two tornadoes barreled across Interstate 215 south of March Air Reserve Base on Thursday afternoon, knocking over a tractor trailer and several box cars in a FREAK STORM that also dumped snow in the mountains, triggered lightning, hail storms and mudslides, and flooded Inland roadways and homes

Source: earthfrenzyradio.blogspot.com via steve468

NowPublic

Quake's hard-hit town empties

Breaking Earth News
China
Image: The ruins of collapsed buildings lay among those still standing in Beichuan. On Thursday, workers in white protective suits and black rubber boots sprayed disinfectant on buildings, trees, car wheels and the soles of shoes of people leaving the town, where thousands are still likely buried.

BEICHUAN, China - Wrecking machines on Thursday started toppling the few buildings left standing in this quake-struck town that was once home to 30,000, and the search for survivors is over.

The government announced a sharp increase in the number of confirmed deaths above its projected total of 50,000, and said tents were needed the most. Some 30,000 people were still unaccounted for, amid a seething mass of newly homeless numbering 5 million.

Ten days after China's worst disaster in a generation, it appears the search for survivors — and even the dead — was giving way to the first steps toward reconstruction.

Story continues

Strange Storms Creating Mudslides

Breaking Earth News
California, USA
Image: A mudslide closed two roads in the foothill community of Sierra Madre as wet and windy weather bounced through Southern California for a second day.

Sierra Madre police and fire officials are clearing debris from mudslides today on the heels of a wild spring thunderstorm that wreaked havoc across Southern California on Thursday.

The weather conditions were very different from those nearly a month ago, when about 1,000 residents were evacuated from 200 homes in the upper part of Sierra Madre during a wildfire as Southern California broiled in record-breaking heat. The Sierra Madre fire ended up scorching more than 580 acres over a week and primed the area for mudslides.

Crews struggle to contain California wildfire

Image Above: From left, James Perkins, Chad Brisendine and Ephraim Murad, of the Fresno Fire Dept., monitor the Summit Fire from the deck of a home in the Santa Cruz Mountains west of Gilroy, Calif., Friday, May 23, 2008. Calmer winds and heavy fog brought some much-needed relief Friday morning to firefighters working to rein in a wildfire that quickly consumed a dozen buildings in the Santa Cruz Mountains a day earlier. By dawn, the blaze was 20 percent contained after scorching over 3,000 acres. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Breaking Earth News
California, USA

Firefighters continued to fight a persistent wildfire in the Santa Cruz Mountains that has chewed through acres of centuries-old redwoods, destroyed at least 17 homes and displaced hundreds of people.

Fire officials said they had contained about 25 percent of the blaze, which so far has burned about 5 square miles and destroyed 28 structures. Another 500 buildings were threatened.

Calmer winds and heavy fog Friday morning brought much-needed relief to firefighters. But as the marine layer lifted and the gusts picked up by afternoon, crews found themselves struggling to maintain the fire lines.

Almost 2,000 residents remained under evacuation orders _ more than 450 of them mandatory _ while almost 2,700 firefighters and a swarm of tanker planes and helicopters continued dousing the area, said Dave Shew, a battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the Santa Cruz Mountains Friday to assess the damage and declared a state of emergency in Santa Cruz County to allow access to funds for the effort.

Related News

California eyes another tough wildfire season

October's devastating wildfires, which burned more than 500,000 acres from Malibu's ocean enclave to the Mexican border, prompted a flurry of reports and promises.

But even as extra water-dropping aircraft are purchased, building codes tightened and goat herds sent to gobble up dry brush on rugged hillsides, Californians are beginning to accept a new reality — massive wildfires are here to stay.

Weld County twister packed an unusual punch

Breaking Earth News
Colorado, USA
Image: Dave Eckhardt removed debris from his field in Gilcrest on Friday that was left by a powerful tornado Thursday.

The tornado that carved a path through Weld County on Thursday marked a deadly, if abnormal, introduction to the tornado season in Colorado.

Every year, dozens of twisters touch down across the state, but few wield the intensity of the one that sawed through Windsor and hit three other communities in north-central Colorado, peeling rooftops, cutting power and leaving one person dead.

"It's kind of a wake-up call that, yes, tornadoes can occur, they can be big, they can be fatal and they can be near the Front Range, so don't take them for granted," said Nolan Doesken, the state climatologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Last year, on March 28, a tornado packing winds up to 165 mph swept through the southeastern Colorado town of Holly, killing a mother of two.

Before that, the last time a fatal tornado struck Colorado was in 1960, in Sedgwick County.

RELATED STORY
Twisters Pound Kansas for Second Night
WINDSOR, Colo. -- Tornadoes have ripped through parts of central and western Kansas for the second night in a row. At least one house has been destroyed and there's widespread damage to farm buildings and power lines.

Alps hit by two-decade decline in snowfall

Paris (AFP) May 21, 2008
A forthcoming study has added to worries that the Alpine ski industry will be badly affected by global warming, the British weekly New Scientist reports on Wednesday.

A "dramatic step-like drop" in the amount of snow falling in the western European mountain chain occurred in the late 1980s and since then snowfall has never recovered, it says.

The evidence has been compiled by researcher Christoph Marty at the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research.

China scrambles to help homeless as quake death toll climbs

Breaking Earth News
China
China scrambled on Wednesday to provide shelter and prevent disease among five million people made homeless by last week's earthquake, as the number of dead and missing climbed above 74,000.

With hope virtually extinguished of finding more survivors amid the rubble of the devastated towns and villages across mountainous Sichuan province, soldiers and relief workers focused on the desperate plight of those displaced.

Nine days after the 8.0-magnitude quake, the government said the confirmed number of people killed had risen to 41,353. But with another 32,666 confirmed still missing, the death toll is likely to soar.

Stopping disease outbreaks among the five million people displaced in the disaster has become a top concern, and China's health ministry has sent more than 3,500 specialists in epidemic control to Sichuan.

Doctors in the region were also ordered to test all quake survivors who needed medical treatment for a potentially deadly bacterial infection, known as gas gangrene , that has led to 30 people having amputations.

Food Crisis Rippling Out Like a "Tsunami"

UNITED NATIONS - “A rolling tsunami of social unrest is underway as we speak — hungry people are desperate people capable of taking desperate actions. This tsunami is rapidly enveloping the global South, and it won’t take much longer before it knocks at the door of the global North,” warned Vicente Garcia-Delgado, the U.N. representative for CIVICUS, the world alliance for citizen participation.

At a forum on the world food crisis held at the United Nations Friday, civil society groups stressed that over 800 million people are now at risk of starvation, while 100 million have joined the ranks of the extremely poor in just the last few months and are now living on less than a dollar a day.

Source: earthfrenzyradio.blogspot.com via steve468

NowPublic

The Media Drumbeat For Obama

From The Editor's Desk
Skywatch-Media News

May 21, 2008

Hillary Clinton's 35 point victory in Kentucky coupled with her landslide victory in West Virginia, would not have come to fruition but for her tremendous support among women and White working class voters.

Kentucky/Oregon Results
Thank You Kentucky
Obama's Kentucky Problem

As a matter of fact, Hillary has won more votes than anyone running for the Democratic nomination in the history of the Democratic Party, and she added to her popular vote lead last night. Most importantly she has won states that will total 308 electoral votes in November -- more than enough to carry the general election.

Despite her impressive victories, her strong showing in vital swing states, and her overwhelming support among key voting groups, the media retches up the drumbeat for Obama, determined to have the final say in this historical race. Yet voters continue to send a message to those who want this race to be over, they are more determined than the media to keep this race alive. The pundits may have their way in this election, but the voters will have the final say.

Hillary will continue her quest to make certain the more than 2 million voters in Florida and Michigan are heard when she meets with the credentials committee on May 31 in Washington D.C. Today she is pleading her cause throughout Florida. Then on to Puerto Rico where she is expected to add hundreds of thousands of votes to her popular vote lead. As she said in her victory speech last evening, "This race is far from over." Like Hillary, her supporters are true to their cause, they will never give up and they will never give in.

Video:The Fight for Florida Votes

Hillary and Puerto Rico

Ohio Superdelegate Endorses Hillary

KEEP HILLARY'S HOPES ALIVE!

Extreme Cold Hits Peru's Highlands

Peru, S.A.
Extreme cold kills over a dozen in Peru's highlands - Temperatures have begun to drop dramatically in Peru's highland regions. Temperatures in the highlands of Puno, Tacna, Arequipa, Moquegua and Apurimac have dropped as low as -15°C (5°F). The climatic phenomenon could be a consequence of a lack of clouds. The average temperature in the region would be -12°C (10°F). It was also reported that 54,859 cases of respiratory infections had been registered, 700 of which were pneumonia.

Death Toll Mounts From Tropical Storm Halong

Philippines
Manila - The death toll in a storm that battered the Philippines over the weekend has risen to 24 with nearly half a million people displaced, the Office of Civil Defence said Tuesday.

Storm Halong blew out of the Philippines overnight and headed towards Okinawa, Japan after causing landslides and flashfloods in northern and central provinces, the weather bureau said.

More than 416,000 people were displaced by Halong in at least five northern and centra