Greenhouse Gas Surges
Climate experts are debating the significance of increased rises
in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during 2002 and 2003, which
may mean that global warming has begun to accelerate. For the first
time on record, CO2 levels rose by more than two parts per million
for two years running.
Greenhouse Gas Surges
Climate experts are debating the significance of increased rises in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during 2002 and 2003, which may mean that global warming has begun to accelerate. For the first time on record, CO2 levels rose by more than two parts per million for two years running.
The data was recorded at the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii by U.S. researcher Charles Keeling, who has collected it since 1958. He feels the consecutive rises could be an anomaly, or a sign of increasing climate change. Peter Cox of Britain’s Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research told the BBC that the increase in carbon dioxide was not uniform across the globe, and he suspects something unusual happened in the Northern Hemisphere. He suggested hot European summers and wildfires could have destroyed vegetation and increased the release of carbon from the soil.
Tropical Cyclones
The most powerful typhoon to strike eastern Japan in a decade left six people dead and the transportation networks in metropolitan Tokyo paralyzed for a day. Ma-On passed almost directly over the Japanese capital, causing widespread flooding and numerous mudslides.
• Developing Typhoon Tokage drenched Guam and Saipan before aiming toward eastern Japan late in the week.
• Tropical Storm Matthew swamped parts of Louisiana with up to a foot of rainfall and a storm-surge tide. Bermuda was drenched with heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Nicole, which later lost force off Nova Scotia.
• Hurricane Lester formed off Mexico’s Pacific coast.
Bengal Storm
A powerful cyclonic storm from the Bay of Bengal triggered tornadoes and flooding that killed at least 184 people and caused widespread destruction in northern Bangladesh and eastern India’s Assam state.
Twisters wrecked more than 400 villages with powerful whirlwinds that left about 50,000 people homeless in Bangladesh. The storm also brought mudslides and flash flooding to an area of eastern India that has suffered massive devastation and misery from previous monsoon storms this season.
Fresh Swarms
A new generation of desert locusts is on the move across northern and western Africa in what experts warn could be an even more destructive invasion than the one earlier this year. Swarms of the maturing insects invaded southwestern Libya near the Algerian border. Others gathered in southern Mauritania, the country worst hit by earlier swarms.
Increased international aid has helped combat the worst locust plague in a decade. But chief United Nations humanitarian official Jan Egeland warned: “If we lose the battle in the next five weeks, we will have a tenfold increase in the locust swarms, and they will go north.”
Earthquakes
A magnitude 6.4 temblor knocked out power in parts of the Philippines’ Luzon province but caused no significant damage.
• Earth movements were also felt in northern Japan, Bali, China’s Xingiang region, northern and southeastern Iran, Greece’s Dodecanese Islands, Nicaragua’s Pacific coast and parts of Southern California.
Heat and Locusts
Metropolitan Sydney sweltered through its hottest October day on record as authorities battled early-season bushfires while stockpiling pesticides to fight a new generation of locusts hatched by the hot weather.
Residents of Australia’s largest city hit the beaches as the official temperature reached the record of 100.8 degrees Fahrenheit. A ban on outdoor burning was imposed after 25 bushfires were sparked in several areas of New South Wales.
State Primary Industries Minister Ian MacDonald said his department had received 2,000 reports of locust hatchings, and warned the insects would devastate crops if not killed before gathering into giant swarms.
New Ape
A giant ape unlike any previously seen has been found in a remote area of central Africa, according to a report in the journal New Scientist. Wildlife experts believe the ape, which stands over 6 feet in height and has similarities to both chimpanzees and gorillas, may be a new species of primate.
Villagers in the far north of the Democratic Republic of Congo say the apes can be ferocious and are capable of killing lions. But unlike gorillas, which charge upon seeing a threat, the new apes turn around and silently slip away into the forest when encountered.
The apes live hundreds of miles from known gorilla populations, and have a diet similar to that of chimpanzees. Scientists are trying to determine if it is a formerly unknown species, or possibly a giant chimpanzee with the behavior of a gorilla.
