Out of Balance
U.S. scientists say they have detected that Earth is absorbing
more energy from the sun than it is emitting back into space,
throwing the planet
”
out of balance.
”
Out of Balance
U.S. scientists say they have detected that Earth is absorbing more energy from the sun than it is emitting back into space, throwing the planet “out of balance.” Researchers from NASA, Columbia University and California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory made the discovery after plugging data from satellites and buoys into ocean-study supercomputers. The energy imbalance was detected by precisely measuring ocean heat content over the past decade. A report on the study, published by the journal Science, says the imbalance is an expected consequence of global warming due to greenhouse gasses and soot, which block Earth’s radiant heat from escaping into space.
Bluefin Decline
Scientists warn that the Atlantic bluefin tuna faces extinction unless urgent action is taken. The conclusion was made by Professor Barbara Block, of Stanford University, after she and her colleagues placed electronic tags on hundreds of the fish and tracked their migration pattern, diving behavior, body and water temperatures. The bluefin has long been a delicacy in Japan and the Mediterranean, but its population plummeted as the fish became a common staple of Western diets. In the past 30 years, one of the bluefin’s two main populations declined by 80 percent. Block says the way to save the Atlantic bluefin is to protect it in its breeding and feeding grounds. “This will require immediate action in both the central Atlantic, to reduce the mortality of the giant bluefin while foraging, and in the Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean, where bluefin breed as discrete populations,” she writes in the journal Nature.
Superbug Carriers
Canada geese can carry antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” as well as bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella as they migrate, according to a new study. Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) tested goose feces from four waterfowl areas in North Carolina and Georgia to see if the birds could pick up and deposit E. coli. Geese from a North Carolina flock were shown to have high levels of superbugs resistant to more than one antibiotic after they lingered near a pig farm. Many livestock operations use high levels of antibiotics to tamp down diseases. The study, posted on the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases Web site, concludes that the Canada geese, “could serve to disperse bacteria between widely separated locations.”
Drought Fears
Australian farmers warned that the hottest and second-driest start to a year on record could mean an agricultural disaster is looming for them. Farmers are still recovering from the worst drought on record in 2002-03, and Australia’s National Climate Center says there is a high probability an El Niño weather cycle will bring dry winds this year, preventing rainfall.
Blinding Swarms
Swarms of locusts halted night driving on Bangladesh’s main highway linking the country’s largest port of Chittagong with the capital, Dhaka. Millions of the insects slimed vehicles, blinding drivers for four consecutive nights, according to a spokesman for the Sky transport line. There was no word on locust crop damage.
Philippine Plumes
Ash clouds spewing from Kanlaon Volcano in the central Philippines forced officials to suspend flights to a nearby airport. Kanlaon is the most active volcano in the central Philippines, and has been intermittently expelling ash and steam since January.
Earthquakes
At least four people were killed and 26 others injured when a sharp earthquake jolted the southeast Iranian town of Borujerd. Officials said 10 villages around the town were also badly damaged.
• Another aftershock of southern Japan’s March 20 damaging earthquake rocked northwest Kyushu, injuring one person.
• Earth movements were also felt in northwest Sumatra, southern New Zealand, Taiwan, northeast Japan, Crete, north-central Turkey and northeast Arkansas.
Missing Primates Return
A group of rare mountain gorillas that disappeared from a Uganda nature reserve last year suddenly reappeared after a five-month absence. The disappearance had sparked rumors that the primates had been abducted by neighboring Rwanda to boost tourism in its nature parks. Uganda and Rwanda have competed for years as the best place to watch the mountain gorillas – made famous by late naturalist Dian Fossey. Uganda Wildlife Authority chief Moses Mapesa said that the missing gorillas had left as a group of eight, but returned as 10 with a new baby and another adult.
– Steve Newman
