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Articles in: Natural disasters
Conservation, Natural disasters, Pollution, Science & Technology, May 4th, 2013,
Over the last several decades, there have been a number of headline making oil spills that have left the world with shocking images. We have seen the results of drilling in the ocean floors to find oil. We know that our dependency on fossil fuels drives an industry that requires destroying some of our most precious resources. Seeing pelicans covered in sludge and oil and other birds that can’t spread their wings, many people say that it is time we finally get off of depending on these tainted, dirty resources. These people champion electric vehicles as alternatives to regular oil…
Natural disasters, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 8th, 2012,
The worst flooding to hit the Philippines in 3 years has left much of the capital city Manila underwater. At least 19 people have died (9 family members in a single landslide in Quezon City) and a total of 1.2 residents of metro Manila were affected by the monsoon rains. After 12 days of rain, sun was forecast for Thursday with cleanup and rescue efforts underway as of Wednesday. From the Associated Press: Manila was drenched with more than half of a month’s worth of rain in just 24 hours. A storm off eastern China that intensified the southwest monsoon…
Tags: flooding, manila
Natural disasters, Nature, Jul 31st, 2012,
A couple of weeks ago I posted about camping on the Greek island of Karpathos. The wind there was so strong it blew the tent down, forcing us to move on to a calmer, safer place. So last week we camped again on Crete in the Viannos area, where winds were comparably gentle – for the first 4-5 days at least. On the last night the winds went “Karpathian”, filling the tents with sand. Again, we moved on. Just in time too, as the beach we were camping on caught fire, burning all the trees down and forcing the evacuation…
Tags: development, Greece, Portugal, property, wildfires
Natural disasters, Science & Technology, Jul 11th, 2012,
Humans have believed that animals can predict earthquakes for thousands of years. I mean the human belief that earthquakes can be predicted by animals has been held for thousands of years – just in case you thought I was saying that animals might be able to forecast seismic activity a thousand years into the future. I’m glad we got that straightened out. Anyway, despite observations of animals fleeing the scene prior to a destructive quake since the Ancient Greeks saw rats, snakes and weasels leave Helice before that place was flattened, no real evidence was found for this amazing animal…
Tags: 1989, California, earthquake, japan, prediction, Vladimir Keilis-Borok
Animals, Natural disasters, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 10th, 2012,
A couple of weeks ago severe storms ravaged parts of the United States. The UK experienced the wettest June on record and July has been just as wet. Flash floods and freak weather have plagued the nation and more flooding is on the way. Over in Russia recent flooding in the south of the country has produced very grim results: at least 171 people have died and thousands left homeless due to flash floods. It’s not just humans that are suffering the effects of extreme weather and flooding. In northeast India severe flooding has killed around 600 animals in the…
Tags: flood, flooding, Kaziranga, rhinos
Natural disasters, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 9th, 2012,
The latest death toll of the floods that have ravaged Russia’s southern Krasnodar region is at least 171, with over 25,000 having lost some or all of their possessions. Flash floods caused a 5 meter (16ft) wave to sweep through the town of Krymsk late Friday night leaving a path of muddy wreckage in its wake. Residents of the Krasnodar region say they were given no warning of the coming floods. Though both local and national governments claim they had no knowledge of any imminent danger, public and media opinion (both for and against the Putin regime) has been…
Tags: death, floods, Krasnodar, Krymsk, Putin
Natural disasters, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 2nd, 2012,
Hurricane force storms ripped through parts of the United States this past Friday, felling hundreds of trees, causing several deaths and resulting in large scale power outages in the Washington, DC capital region of the United States. In the hours following the storms some 1.5 million were without electricity in the DC area, with as many as 3 million on the eastern seaboard. Temperatures soared as high as 105F (40.5C) in some places. The storms began on Friday evening following a day of record-setting temperatures, shattering the previous record set nearly 80 years ago. A temperature of 104F (40C) was…
Tags: DC, storms, temperature, Washington
Natural disasters, Videos & Documentaries, Jun 28th, 2012,
Some 32,000 residents have been forced to flee their homes due to 8 rampant wildfires in the US state of Colorado. As of Wednesday, firefighters had not been able to contain more than 5% of the 6,000 acre blaze in what has been called the state’s worst fire season ever. Though the extent of the damage is as of yet unknown, media has been reporting that hundreds of homes have already been consumed by the fires. From the Washington Post: The wildfire was one of many burning across the parched West, blazes that have destroyed structures and prompted evacuations in…
Tags: blaze, boulder, Colorado, wildfires
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Science & Technology, Jun 25th, 2012,
The seminal California hardcore punk band Youth Brigade sang “I’ll sink with California when it falls into the sea” way back in the 1980s. And they weren’t singing about sea level rise or climate change, but seismic activity that will eventually cause a large portion of the Golden State to break off along fault lines like the famed San Andrea. What residents have long referred to as “the Big One”, meaning a massive earthquake, could result in parts of California “drifting” into the ocean and becoming submerged. Something like that, anyway. Read a better, more detailed explanation here. But sea…
Tags: California, san andreas, sea level, sinking
Natural disasters, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Jun 11th, 2012,
Wildfires have forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents in the US states of New Mexico and Colorado. An area of 30 sq mi (78 sq km) across both states was burned up by the fires over the weekend. The blaze consumed 18 buildings in Colorado and 40 in one area New Mexico in just two days. From ABC News: Hundreds of residents have been evacuated. Authorities sent at least 2,575 evacuation notices to phone numbers but it wasn’t clear how many residents had to leave, according to ABC News Station KMGH-TV in Denver. The scent of smoke from…
Tags: Colorado, New Mexico, wildfires
Natural disasters, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, May 20th, 2012,
4 people have been reported dead and around 50 injured due to an earthquake that struck northern Italy in the early hours of the morning. The quake struck just 4am, just 35km (22mi) north of Bologna, at the relatively shallow depth of about 10km below the surface. Several historical sites were damaged, including churches and a medieval castle. From BBC News: It was felt across a large swathe of northern Italy, including the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, Verona and Mantua and as far away as Milan and Venice. See the following Al Jazeera English video report for more: Meanwhile…
Tags: earthquake, Guatemala, Italy, video, volcano
Natural disasters, Pollution, May 2nd, 2012,
95% of debris from the 2011 tsunami that devastated parts of Japan will end up in that swirling vortex of plastic and other rubbish – the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but some will hit the shores of North America. Lighter debris has already reached places like Alaska, where a Japanese teenager’s football washed up on Middleton Island. The man who found the ball is married to Japanese woman, who was able to read the teenager’s name plus the name of his school. Amazingly, a moving crate containing a Harley Davidson motorcycle and a set of golf clubs was found on…
Tags: Alaska, America, British Columbia, debris, japan, tsunami
Natural disasters, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Apr 23rd, 2012,
Popocatépetl, meaning Smoking Mountain in the indigenous Nahuatl language of central Mexico, is at it again. Only 70 km (43 mi) southeast of the capital, the volcano is visible from Mexico City on a clear day – and by ‘clear’ I mean a lesser variety of extreme smogginess than normal. Popocatépetl started spewing lava rocks and columns of ash almost 10 days ago. The world-famous active volcano has also been roaring loudly, causing concern among local residents. Though so far no evacuations have taken place, the government of Puebla state issued warnings for locals including to not leave animals outdoors, cover water…
Tags: ash, lava, Mexico, Popocatépetl, video, volcano
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 19th, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick For years, we who communicate about climate change have been wringing our hands over how to make people understand the problem at a gut level. Endangered polar bears? Too far removed. Island nations like the Maldives sinking beneath the waves? Too far away. Hot temperatures by 2100? Too far in the future. But like the first, outlying squalls from an oncoming hurricane, the first effects of climate change are already here, in the form of heat waves, droughts, intense rainstorms and more, and people are evidently noticing. Not just the extremes themselves: you couldn’t have missed…
Tags: Climate change, climatecentral.org, extreme weather, global warming, natural disasters
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 16th, 2012,
Dry weather in much of England is threatening to devastate farming and wildlife, and could extend past next Christmas. Parts of England have entered official drought status, with water rationing measures in place. Soils are so dried out that recent rains did little to help conditions. This may sound like strange weather in a country known for rain rather than droughts, especially in April, but the dangers are all too real. Helen Vale, national drought coordinator at the Environment Agency is quoted in the Guardian: The amount of water that we use at home and in our businesses has a…
Tags: drought, England, water, wildlife
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Videos & Documentaries, Apr 13th, 2012,
It must be hail season, though I’ve never before heard that a hail season exists. On Tuesday I was caught in a sudden, though fairly light, hailstorm in central Scotland. Yesterday I read a post here on Greenfudge that mentioned a recent hailstorm in Texas that caused disruptions at Dallas Fort Worth Airport. And it’s not just the Scotland and Texas that have experienced hail this week. A poor doggy was left tied out during a hailstorm in Cheltenham, England. Furthermore, California crops suffered major damage due to a hailstorm in that state. From freshplaza.com: 150 acres of his 4,000…
Tags: China, hail, hailstorm, Scotland, Texas
Natural disasters, Apr 12th, 2012,
In the space of just two days, Mexico has been hit by two separate earthquakes of 6.5 and 6.9 magnitudes, respectively, while Indonesia suffered two quakes of 8.6 and 8.2 magnitudes off its coast, resulting in 5 deaths and 7 injuries. The quakes in Mexico came just over 3 weeks after a quake of 7.4 magnitude that caused extensive damage in the southwest of the country. No major damage has been reported concerning the latest earthquakes in Mexico, but they did raise concerns about possible resulting tsunamis, due to the location and nature of the quakes. From Reuters UK: The…
Tags: earthquake, fracking, Indonesia, magnitude, Mexico, tsunami
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Nature, Science & Technology, ,
By Andrew Freedman Severe thunderstorm season is upon us, with the array of threats it brings, from tornadoes to flash flooding. On Tuesday, tornadoes grabbed most of the headlines, as several strong tornadoes struck the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area, tossing tracker trailer trucks into the air, and damaging dozens of homes. But the large hail the same supercell thunderstorms dropped caused major impacts as well, largely because they fell on top of one of the world’s busiest airports. A passenger aboard a flight preparing to depart DFW International Airport when the storm hit described the sounds of the hail hitting…
Tags: big hail, changes due to climate change, Climate change, climatecentral.org, global warming, hail, hailstone climate change, supercell thunderstorms, tornadoes
Climate Change, Green living, Health, Natural disasters, Politics, Mar 8th, 2012,
By Alyson Kenward While the cumulative effects of rising global temperatures have already caused dramatic changes to our planet, those changes often seem distant and it’s hard to put faces to them. But as climate change becomes more disruptive to daily life around the world, it’s more likely than not that the faces of that disruption will be those of women. With the world celebrating International Women’s Day on Thursday, it’s a good time to reflect on just how vulnerable women are to the effects of climate change. If you’re surprised to hear that gender makes a difference, you shouldn’t…
Tags: climatecentral.org, international women's day, Natural Resources Defense Council, women and climate change, world health organization
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Science & Technology, Feb 16th, 2012,
By Andrew Freedman The cold snap in Europe that has killed more than 600 people and buried communities under record snow cover has had an entirely different impact in the Arctic, which is where you’d normally expect to find frigid weather at this time of year. In parts of the Far North, it has been unusually mild recently, and broad expanses of open water have emerged. This open water has raised questions about whether Arctic sea ice is declining even faster than before. The open water, located in the Barents and Kara Seas, led one blogger to claim that the…
Tags: Arctic ice shift, Climate change, climatecentral.org, Europe cold weather, unusual weather patters
