Rescuers airlift 154 to safety after deadly Nepal storm
Kathmandu (AFP) Oct 16, 2014 -
Workers using helicopters and battling waist-deep snow rescued over 150 people including foreign trekkers left stranded in Nepal's Himalayas Thursday, two days after a major snowstorm that triggered avalanches and killed more than 30 people.
Local officials said 23 bodies have been found on the popular Annapurna circuit trekking route, while five climbers who were staying at a mountain base ...
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Drought-hit US town learns to live without water
Los Angeles (AFP) Oct 16, 2014 -
In front of the local fire station, Pete Rodriguez stands next to his pick-up truck, filling about a dozen buckets from a vast tank.
He hurries, because another car is waiting behind him.
Rodriquez is one of hundreds of residents and business people in the small town of Porterville, in California's normally verdant Central Valley, who have no running water and are having to re-think how ...
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US calls for 'complete' probe into Hong Kong police brutality
Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 16, 2014 -
The United States has called for a "swift, transparent and complete" investigation into the beating of a handcuffed Hong Kong democracy protester by plainclothes police, as fresh street clashes broke out early Thursday.
Television footage of officers assaulting the unarmed protester in a dark corner of a public park has sparked outrage and calls for prosecution from activists and lawmakers i ...
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Bermuda braces for 'dangerous hurricane' Gonzalo
Miami (AFP) Oct 16, 2014 -
Hurricane Gonzalo gained strength in the Atlantic Thursday as it barreled toward Bermuda, which was bracing for a hit from the powerful Category Four storm.
Gonzalo's winds were whirling at 145 miles (233 kilometers) per hour, with even stronger gusts, taking it back up a notch on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale, the US National Hurricane Center said.
It was expected to pass Friday n ...
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Australia aims to end extinction of native wildlife by 2020
Sydney (AFP) Oct 16, 2014 -
Australia's Environment Minister Greg Hunt has pledged to end the extinction of native mammal species by 2020, with a focus on culprits such as feral cats.
Hunt said Australia had the worst rate of mammal loss in the world and the nation's "greatest failure" in environmental policy was protecting threatened species.
"Our flora and fauna are part of what makes us Australian," he said in a ...
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Search for missing on Japan volcano called off until next year
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 16, 2014 -
Japan on Thursday called off the search until next year for seven hikers still missing on a volcano that violently erupted last month, saying freezing conditions had made the operation impossible.
Troops, firefighters and police have been scouring Mount Ontake in central Japan for the missing climbers since the volcano erupted without warning on September 27, killing at least 56 people in Ja ...
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Natural disasters killed over 22,000 in 2013: Red Cross
Geneva (AFP) Oct 16, 2014 -
Natural disasters claimed over 22,000 lives last year, with Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines the deadliest of all, the Red Cross said Thursday.
In its annual report on disasters, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) warned that the outlook was bleak.
"Climate change is leading to damaged livelihoods and increased vulnerabilities. Natural hazards ar ...
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Peru glaciers shrink 40% in 44 years: government
Lima (AFP) Oct 16, 2014 -
Peru's glaciers have shrunk by more than 40 percent since 1970 because of climate change, giving birth to nearly 1,000 new lagoons, national water authority ANA said Thursday.
Peru, which is hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 20, in December, used satellite images to carry out the glacier inventory ahead of the high-level meeting.
The worst-affected glacier was ...
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Australia PM rebuffs Booker Prize winner criticism
Sydney (AFP) Oct 16, 2014 -
Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday brushed off criticism about Australia's environmental policies by newly crowned Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan, saying the country had "a very, very strong" record.
Flanagan, an Australian, hit out at the government on Tuesday after being awarded the prize in London for his book "The Narrow Road to the Deep North", inspired by his father's experie ...
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Ancient fossils confirmed among our strangest cousins
Adelaide, Australia (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
More than 100 years since they were first discovered, some of the world's most bizarre fossils have been identified as distant relatives of humans, thanks to the work of University of Adelaide researchers. The fossils belong to 500-million-year-old blind water creatures, known to scientists as "vetulicolians" (pronounced: ve-TOO-lee-coal-ee-ans).
Alien-like in appearance, these marine crea ...
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1934 drought was worst of the last millennium
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
The 1934 drought was by far the most intense and far-reaching drought of the last 1,000 years in North America, and was caused in part by an atmospheric phenomenon that may have also led to the current drought in California, according to a new study.
New research finds that the extent of the 1934 drought was approximately seven times larger than droughts of comparable intensity that struck ...
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Climate change not responsible for altering forest tree composition
University Park PA (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
Change in disturbance regimes - rather than a change in climate - is largely responsible for altering the composition of Eastern forests, according to a researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
Forests in the Eastern United States remain in a state of "disequilibrium" stemming from the clear-cutting and large-scale burning that occurred in the late 1800s and early 190 ...
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Researchers solve riddle of the rock pools
Exeter, UK (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
Research from the University of Exeter has revealed that the rock goby (Gobius paganellus), an unassuming little fish commonly found in rock pools around Britain, southern Europe, and North Africa, is a master of camouflage and can rapidly change colour to conceal itself against its background.
Whether hiding from predators or from families hunting in rock pools, the rock goby can change b ...
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New method helps predict extreme floods in Andes
Potsdam, Germany (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
This might allow for improved disaster preparedness. As the complex systems technique builds upon a mathematical comparison that can be utilised for any time series data, the approach could be applied to extreme events in all sorts of complex systems.
"Current weather forecast models cannot capture the intensity of the most extreme rainfall events, yet these events are of course the most d ...
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Earliest-known lamprey larva fossils unearthed in Inner Mongolia
Lawrence KS (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
Few people devote time to pondering the ancient origins of the eel-like lamprey, yet the evolutionary saga of the bloodsucker holds essential clues to the biological roots of humanity. This week, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a description of fossilized lamprey larvae that date back to the Lower Cretaceous - at least 125 million years ago.
They're the oldest ...
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First Detailed Map Of Carbon Stocks In Mexico Forests Unveiled
Falmouth MA (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
The Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) and Allianza MREDD+ released the first detailed map of aboveground forest carbon stocks of Mexico available for download. This carbon stock inventory is very valuable for Mexico, as one of the first tropical nations to voluntarily pledge to mitigation actions within the context of the United Nation's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradati ...
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Journey to the Center of the Earth
Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
A UC Santa Barbara geochemist studying Samoan volcanoes has found evidence of the planet's early formation still trapped inside the Earth. Known as hotspots, volcanic island chains such as Samoa can ancient primordial signatures from the early solar system that have somehow survived billions of years.
Matthew Jackson, an associate professor in UCSB's Department of Earth Science, and collea ...
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New 'tree of life' traces evolution of a mysterious cotinga birds
Ithaca NY (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
They are some of the brightest, loudest, oddest-looking, least-understood birds on the planet. Some have bulbous crests, long fleshy wattles, or Elvis-worthy pompadours in addition to electric blue, deep purple, or screaming orange feathers. But thanks to a comprehensive new evolutionary "tree of life" generated for the tropical cotinga family of South America, the door is now open to new discov ...
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Rising sea levels of 1.8 meters in worst-case scenario
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
The climate is getting warmer, the ice sheets are melting and sea levels are rising - but how much? The report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013 was based on the best available estimates of future sea levels, but the panel was not able to come up with an upper limit for sea level rise within this century. Now researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute and their ...
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Weather History Time Machine
San Diego CA (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
During the 1930s, North America endured the Dust Bowl, a prolonged era of dryness that withered crops and dramatically altered where the population settled. Land-based precipitation records from the years leading up to the Dust Bowl are consistent with the telltale drying-out period associated with a persistent dry weather pattern, but they can't explain why the drought was so pronounced and lon ...
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