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Articles in: Natural disasters
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, 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, climate change, 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
Climate & Change, Natural disasters, Science & Technology, Feb 9th, 2012,
By Andrew Freedman The weather pattern responsible for bringing frigid air to Europe, like this heavy snow fall on the Colosseum in Rome, is driven in part by a naturally-occurring pattern known as the Arctic Oscillation. While the U.S. cruises through winter with a snow drought and above-average temperatures, much of Europe and Eurasia are locked in the grips of a deadly cold air outbreak, with more than 300 people reported dead so far. According to news reports, entire communities in Italy, Bosnia, and Romania have become inaccessible due to heavy snowfall and power outages. According to Sky News, a…
Tags: arctic sea ice volume, climate central, climate change, climatecentral.org, deadly cold europe, europe weather, winter
Conservation, Natural disasters, Wildlife & Flora, Jan 16th, 2012,
We depend on honeybees to pollinate some 70 crops. Due to a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), honeybees, mainly in North America, are dying off at a shocking rate – 30% every year since 2006. In the US, bee die-offs have qualified some beekeepers for disaster relief from the Department of Agriculture. Though the exact cause, or causes, of CCD are murky – it has been attributed to parasites and satellite communication – the most obvious culprits are pesticides, specifically insecticides. From the Guardian: Of particular concern is a group of pesticides, chemically similar to nicotine, called neonicotinoids…
Tags: beekeeper, beekeeping, bees, CCD, honeybee, pesticides
Conservation, Natural disasters, Videos & Documentaries, Jan 8th, 2012,
Leave it to ITN to come up with some short and (sometimes) sweet videos with which to catch up on some of the week’s environmental news. We’ve gathered three (yes, three) bite-sized eco-news reports in one place. Why? Because, like the Mouseketeers, we like you! First, check out Italy’s Mount Etna as she spectacularly spews forth molten lava and ash into the Sicilian sky. Next there’s a report on antipodean wildfires raging across New Zealand and Australia. Finally, Sea Shepherd and Japanese whalers fight for both whale rights and whaling rights on the high seas. Guess who fights for which.
Tags: etna, Japanese, Sea Shepherd, whalers, wildfires
Climate & Change, Natural disasters, Dec 30th, 2011,
Happy New Year, everyone! Best wishes for 2012. Hopefully it will not be the year of environmental catastrophe that 2011 was. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t hold my breath, even if it would slightly reduce my own personal CO2 output. Let’s have a quick rundown of the stresses and bad headlines that dominated eco-news in 2011. Firstly: • The global population reached 7 billion. • The second worst nuclear incident in history occurred in Fukushima as the result of a catastrophic tsunami. • Greenhouse gases rose to record levels, Arctic sea ice went down and global temperatures…
Tags: 2011, drought, environmental, record, tsunami, US
Actions, Natural disasters, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Dec 21st, 2011,
Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared a state of emergency after a tropical typhoon Washi (Sendong) battered the country and reportedly claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 people. Regions most affected by the tropical storm were areas of the cities Cagayan de Oro and Iligan on Mindanao island. In a mere few hours the raging elements led to local rivers overflowing their banks and flash floods to cause water saturated soil to slip down slopes destroying everything in their path. Due to the almost zero chance of finding anyone still alive, dozens of people who previously were considered missing are now…
Tags: disaster, donate, help, killed, Philippines, Sendong, typhoon, victims, Washi
Natural disasters, Politics, Dec 17th, 2011,
A million children living in the Sahel countries are at risk of famine or dramatic malnutrition in 2012. This is two times more than today, warned the United Nations Fund for Children. Famine threatens children in Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mauritania and Mali and the northern territories of Nigeria and Cameroon, said David Gressly, regional director of UNICEF responsible for the countries in West and Central Africa. In 2011 in the region half a million children suffered from extreme malnutrition. In the Sahel countries, a drought caused lack of water in the tanks, its levels also decreased in the…
Tags: Africa, children, drought, famine, malnutrition, Sahel
Climate & Change, Natural disasters, Nature, Dec 13th, 2011,
Merciless rainfall has been ravaging Thailand for the last six months. Cataclysmic floods have destroyed most of the rice fields, which are the backbone of this country’s economy. Currently, high water levels still remain in 17 out of the 77 provinces. According to the Bank of Thailand’s preliminary estimates, losses caused by floods range from between 1.9 to 2.6 billion dollars. The Ministry of Agriculture reported that the floods could damage more than 1 million hectares of rice fields. If that were to happen, global prices would skyrocket, as Thailand is its largest exporter in the world. Floods caused by…
Tags: flood, rain, rice fields, Thailand
Climate & Change, Natural disasters, Nature, Dec 8th, 2011,
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today that the official list of billion dollar weather and climate disasters in 2011 (for the US) is now up to 12, smashing the old record of nine, set in 2008. The total damage from these 12 events alone, says NOAA, stands at $52 billion and still rising — a hefty price tag in any case, but especially tough in a sluggish economy. The NOAA list got bigger after the agency separated out the Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona wildfires from the larger Southern Plains drought and heat event (it’s not cheating:…
Tags: climate central, climate change, natural disasters
Natural disasters, Nature, Nov 26th, 2011,
The Colombian Institute of Geology Ingeominas recommended the evacuation of about eight thousand people living near the Galeras volcano. Its activity has increased recently and the threat of eruption is becoming increasingly serious. An orange alert has been announced – the second highest in the four-level scale. This means that the outbreak can occur within days or weeks. – Ingeominas vice president, Marta Calvache said. Galeras rising to a height of 4270 meters above sea level in southwestern Colombia near the Ecuador border has been showing continuous activity for the last 20 years. The last of the explosions, which entailed…
Tags: Colombia, eruption, Galeras Volcano
Natural disasters, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Nov 23rd, 2011,
An avalanche of water and mud swept away homes during the middle of the night in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, a small town near Messina in Sicily, causing several fatalities. Torrential rains poured over Italy for hours, causing a mudslide that killed four people, including an unidentified 10 year old boy. The landslide destroyed a large number of houses and many people have been reported missing. Search and rescue continues and the exact number of injuries and fatalities is unknown. A second landslide was also the cause of a train derailment in Calabria, Catanzaro. Fortunately no one was killed but…
Tags: disaster, heavy rain, Italy, landslide, mudslide, Sicily
