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hurt, 500 houses damaged, 5,000 birds also killed as the seasonal
storm hits Kushtia, Jhenidah Nor'wester lashed Kushtia and Jhenidah
districts yesterday, leaving two people killed and 20 others injured.
The
deceased are Nisarunnesa, 55, of Baghdanga village, and Rahela
Khatun, 65, of Afzalpur in Kushtia Sadar upazila, reports our
correspondent.
Locals
said the two died when the sheds of their houses collapsed on them
during the storm that lashed Baghdanga and Afzalpur villages at
around 3:30m.
Deputy
Commissioner Syed Belal Hossain visited the areas in the morning.
A
number of houses in the areas were also damaged by the storm, said
the DC. Away in Jhenidah, a storm hit over 50 villages in Shailakupa
upazila of the district early yesterday, leaving at least 20 people
injured and damaging around 500 houses.
Of
the injured, 11 were admitted to the upazila health complex while the
rest given first aid, reports our correspondent.
The
affected villages include Mirzapur, Diknagar, Kacherkool, Sarutia,
Hakimpur and Monohorpur. At least 5000 birds of different species
also died during the storm that lasted for about 30 minutes from
4:00am, said locals. Golam Mostofa, a farmer of Monohorpur village,
said
"The
storm destroyed banana and paddy on my two and three bighas of land
at midnight."
Upazila
Nirbahi Officer Sandip Kumar Sarkar said the storm swept though the
areas, leaving at least 5,000 birds dead and damaging around 500
homesteads.
Sunday's
hailstorm killed a large number of birds.
Parrots,
kites and crows were among the 217 birds which died or were found
critically injured at Vasna barrage, in Paldi and other parts of new
west one.
At
the Jeevdaya Charitable Trust, Gira Shah, one of the trustees of the
veterinary hospital, was attending to 70 birds.
"Casualty
figures have crossed 200.
It
is one of the rare instances when hail has killed so many birds,"
said Shah. Nanu Desai, an animal lover from Vasna barrage area, said:
"Close
to 60 crows in our neighborhood died. Around 22 parrots and 10 to 20
kites had also lost their lives."
Heatwaves from India to the Middle East and Europe
Strong
heatwaves have swept several parts of the globe over the last two
weeks, claiming lives and setting new records. While India
experienced world's fifth deadliest heatwave in recorded history in
May, extremely high temperatures were present in Pakistan and this
heat eventually reached the Middle East.
Above-average
temperatures for this time of year are now observed in Europe too. In
general, temperatures across Europe now are at 3.8 degrees Celsius
(25 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average for this time of year.
Hottest
Temperatures on Record for This Early in the Season Possible in
Pacific Northwest (FORECAST)
If you live in the
Pacific Northwest, we hope your air conditioner is running – if you
have one in the first place – because hot conditions have arrived
throughout the region.
Record heat is on tap for
much of the Pacific Northwest and will persist into early this week.
High temperatures will generally be 10 to 25 degrees warmer than
usual for this time of year. In some cases, it may be the hottest
weather ever recorded this early in the year.
Such high temperatures
can become dangerous for those exposed to the elements for lengthy
amounts of time, as heat exhaustion and dehydration may set in. Be
sure to drink plenty of water, and schedule plenty of rest in cool,
dry areas.
Alaska, along with the
rest of the Arctic, has been warming even faster than other regions
of the world due to climate change. That was the findings of a report
this spring from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory, which found that the rate of warming will only
continue to increase in the coming decades.
Insane heat in Alaska–90
deg temps near Fairbanks, records toppling like, um, snowmen in May
http://t.co/mo6xgGKqoR pic.twitter.com/3yqhV0Sbt6
— Bill McKibben
(@billmckibben) May 29, 2015
The
Body Count Rose Sharply Monday, Two Weeks after the Rupture
Dead
and dying wildlife continue to wash ashore two weeks after the May 19
oil spill near Refugio State Beach.
On
Monday alone, responders organized by the California Department of
Fish & Wildlife and the Oiled Wildlife Care Network recovered the
bodies of 30 dead sea birds (mostly brown pelicans) and 13 marine
mammals (mostly sea lions.) Five oiled birds and two mammals were
found alive.
The
pipe which spilled 383,000 litres of crude near Santa Barbara,
California, in May had been allowed to corrode to 1.5mm, a fraction
of its original thickness
While
the state’s drought-induced sinking is well known, new details
highlight just how severe it has become and how little the government
has done to monitor it.
Last
summer, scientists recorded the worst sinking in at least 50 years.
This summer, all-time records are expected across the state as
thousands of miles of land in the Central Valley and elsewhere sink.
The
higher the temperatures, the greater the air pollution, and last year
was the hottest in Mexico's history
Air Pollution, Drought Triples Cancer Risk Estimate for Cali Residents
The
risk of developing cancer due to breathing toxic industrial emissions
is three times higher than had been expected for residents in
southern California, according to state officials cited by the Los
Angeles Times.
Now,
more than a year since Chinese Premier Li Keqiang declared war on
pollution across the country, Beijing's massive anti-smog fight is
transforming this 20-million-person metropolis in ways both big and
small. Still, as was evident on several days over the past week, when
a thick gray pall filled the streets, the Chinese smog battle is far
from won.
Authorities
in Beijing are shutting down coal-fired power plants within the city
limits and have tried to reduce vehicle exhaust by forcing many
residents to wait years to win a license plate. The capital last
Monday launched the country's strictest ban on smoking indoors.
Officials have even tried to convince people to cut back on the
centuries-old tradition of setting off fireworks during Chinese New
Year, though booms and crackles still rang out across the city in
February.
Of
the 20 most polluted cities in the world, India is home to 13. China
has three. Its Ganga and Yamnuna rivers are among the 10 most
polluted rivers in the world (China has just one, the Yellow River).
Fifty percent of the groundwater in the Indo-Gangetic plains (where
half of the population lives) is contaminated, and an analysis by the
Central Pollution Control Board has concluded that about 66 percent
of 290 rivers surveyed have high organic pollution.
Consider
this: In Beijing, the smog is so thick and constant that readings of
PM2.5 (particles of matter measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in
diameter) leap right off the Air Quality Index chart. These
particles, generated by combustion activities and industrial
processes that contribute to smog, have been linked to 670,000
premature deaths in the country by lodging in soft tissues and
triggering strokes and coronary heart disease. Incidents of lung
cancer in Beijing have also risen over 50 percent since 2002 –
specifically, incidents of lung adenocarcinoma, which is caused by
exposure to air pollution.
Yet
as Kristine Lofgren of Inhabitant wrote in 2014, “the worst day in
Beijing is really just an average day in Delhi.”
It's
been almost 10 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans
and other parts of the Gulf Coast. But the Crescent City, a cultural
treasure that’s home to almost 400,000 people, faces even greater
risks in the future.
Most
of the city is already below sea level, protected by an unreliable
system of levees.
Flood
risk will grow more severe as rising sea levels and sinking coastal
land produce a local increase of at least four feet by the end of the
century. And then there's the inevitable increase in major storm
surges caused by extreme weather events.
More
than 50% of New Orleans is already below sea level. The only things
keeping the city safe are levees and flood walls.
Despite
being the world's greatest producer of, and investor in, hydropower,
experts warn that China is wasting its potential for hydro energy.
Nearly
two-thirds of China's underground water, and a third of its surface
water, were rated as unsuitable for direct human contact in 2014, the
environment ministry said on Thursday.
China
is waging a "war on pollution" to reverse some of the
environmental damage done by more than three decades of breakneck
growth, but one of its biggest and costliest challenges is tackling
contaminated water supplies.
China
classifies its water supplies into six grades, and just 3.4 percent
of the 968 surface water sites monitored by the Ministry of
Environmental Protection met the highest standard of "Grade I"
last year.
In
an annual environmental bulletin, the ministry said just 63.1 percent
of the monitored sites were ranked in "Grade III" or above,
so rendering them fit for human use.
The
rest were either completely unusable, or suitable only for use in
industry or irrigation.
In
2013, the ministry ranked 71.7 percent of surface water in "Grade
III" or above, but it is not clear if the figures are
comparable.
The
2014 report also suggests China's underground water quality is
worsening, with the ministry classifying 61.5 percent of the 4,896
underground water sites it monitored as either "relatively poor"
or "very poor".
The
decline in the bee population could be caused by the insect’s high
contamination of aluminum, a chemical element implicated as a factor
in Alzheimer's disease in humans, a new study has found.
It's
believed that a number of factors are likely to be involved in the
decline of bees: from a lack of flowers to attacks by parasites. But
biologists at Keele University and the University of Sussex in the UK
decided to find out whether aluminum, the "most significant
environmental contaminant of recent times," could prove to play
the key role in the insect’s decline.
Thousands
of crabs invading a town in the Costa Del Rïo, Cuba
A
small town of the fall in the Costa Del Rïo, Cuba, has been invaded
by thousands of cangregos this week. June 04, 2015
Can
be many factors, it is understood that are factors or weather related
changes of temperature in the sea or unusual variations in haste.
The
dead turtles, about 100 of them, started washing ashore near here in
late April. Then came the dead fish, in numbers no one had seen
before. By this week, tens of thousands of fish carcasses had bobbed
to the surface of the Peconic River, which runs along the southern
border of this town, and in adjoining Flanders Bay, washing ashore in
putrid drifts.
Baja
California: Hundreds of dead dolphins, whales, seals and too many
birds to count rotting on the beaches
29
May, 2015
A
disturbing comment was placed on The Big Wobble here two
days ago and I think it is typical of the worry of local population
along the west coast of Mexico, US and Canada at the marine life
deaths happening there recently, the comment is below.
I have a home in Puertecitos, Baja California which is approx 60 miles south of San Felipe and there have been hundreds of dead dolphins counted laying on beaches rotting and at least two whales and many seals and too many birds to count.
Just
to the south of Puertecitos at La Costilla my friends were bagging
dead birds for at least two months off of their beach and dragged at
least twenty dolphins out to the desert.
We fear our own pet dogs and other animals might get contaminated by ingesting these dead animals What is going on ?????
I find it hard to believe the red tide is to blame .
There needs to be more done to find out the cause. This needs to be in the Media daily or at least weekly, put some pressure on the Government and Environmental agencies.
The comment comes in the same week more marine life deaths on the West Coast of America and Mexico was reported.
The Municipal Fire and Rescue Police last night began to notice the presence of thousands of lobsters washing up onto the sand dead or dying, along the Playas de Tijuana between fractionation La Perla and El Vigia.
According Uniensenada on the border with the US.
This is the fourth time this has happened in recent weeks but more worrying is the fact more marine life are dying along the coast of Tijuana, the most recent being grey whales, jellyfish and sea lion
And earlier today a Monterey diver reported.
" I noticed anchovies washing up on the beach in front of MBARI and [south] as far as I could see. There's also lines of fish scales (anchovy?) marking the high tide line.
We picked up some of the dead fish-guts are full of Psuedo-nitzschia frustules and the fish are hot with [domoic acid].
One of the staff went snorkeling off the beach here, and saw the seafloor littered with anchovies. There's lots of birds feasting on the fish-we are seeing some dead birds amongst the fish, so I would guess some are getting hammered with [domoic acid].
"The bloom appears to be most toxic in the southern side of the bay for reasons we don't understand. Heads up to the [Monterey Bay Aquarium] for your seawater intake, and keep an eye out for seizuring sea lions, sick birds, maybe sick otters.
You may also see fish washing up...
Dead
zones are
hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world's oceans and large lakes,
caused by "excessive nutrient pollution from human activities
coupled with other factors that deplete the oxygen required to
support most marine life in bottom and near-bottom water.
In the 1970s oceanographers began noting increased instances of dead zones.
These occur near inhabited coastlines, where aquatic life is most concentrated.
(The vast middle portions of the oceans, which naturally have little life, are not considered "dead zones".)Wikipedia
Red circles show the location and size of many dead zones. Black dots show dead zones of unknown size. The size and number of marine dead zones—areas where the deep water is so low in dissolved oxygen that sea creatures can't survive—have grown explosively in the past half-century
Related
A
horrible stench set off an investigation into a mysterious mass
shellfish death at Ngunguru....
The
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) confirmed reports Thursday
of a widespread die-off in ....
LINCOLN,
Neb. -- The Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) in conjunction
with the United States ....
More
marine life deaths on the West Coast of America and MexicoThe
Municipal Fire and Rescue Police ....
Authorities
in Kazakhstan says around one-third of the endangered saiga antelope
population in this ....
Relatives
of Ebola victims are transporting their bodies on public
transportation in Guinea,....
An
astonishing 44 million birds have been destroyed at a rate of more
than 10 million a month due ....
Translated
from SpanishReports are coming in of thousands of sea birds found
dead on beaches in ....
Translated
from SpanishResearchers and scientists do not know the reasons for
the stranding of ....
Swirling
dead zone, credit NASA Earth Observatory.Swathes of oxygen-deprived
water up to 100 miles ....
Here
is a tragic coincidence, or maybe not a coincidence but rather actual
consequences of the ....
Dead
zones have been found in deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean, where
these formations, devoid of ....
lobal warming may have amplified record-breaking Texas deluge – Floods are a preview of future extreme weather events
From
the National Climate Assessment: Percent changes in the annual amount
of precipitation falling in very heavy events, defined as the
heaviest 1 percent of all daily events from 1901 to 2012 for each
region. The far right bar is for 2001-2012. Changes are compared to
the 1901 to 1960 average for all regions except Alaska and Hawaii,
which are relative to the 1951 to 1980 average. Graphic NOAA / NCDC /
CICS-NC
By
Elizabeth Harball, Scott Detrow
27
May 2015
(Scientific
American) – Large swaths of Houston were underwater yesterday after
more than 10 inches of rain fell on the city during a 24-hour window.
The
bulk of the rain came during intense Monday night thunderstorms,
bringing America’s fourth-largest city to a standstill by yesterday
morning. Major highways were flooded, schools and mass transit
systems were shut down, rivers were swollen above flood stage, and
the city’s Emergency Operations Center had declared a Level 1
emergency for the first time since Hurricane Ike struck in 2008.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker proclaimed a state of disaster for the
city yesterday afternoon.
Austin,
San Antonio and several other central Texas communities also faced
severe flooding over the weekend after several days of intense rain.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) described flooding along the Blanco River
between Wimberley and San Marcos as a “tsunami-style” flood.
“This
huge tidal wave of water just completely wiped out neighborhoods,”
he said yesterday. Abbott has now declared a state of disaster in 46
counties or, as he put it, “literally from the Red River to the Rio
Grande.”
Even
before the worst of the Houston flooding, Abbott characterized the
flooding as “absolutely massive.”
“This
is the biggest flood this area of Texas has ever seen,” he said
Monday. At least 17 people are dead in Texas and neighboring
Oklahoma, according to the Associated Press, with dozens more still
missing.
Speaking
at the White House yesterday, President Obama pledged federal support
for what he called “devastating, record-breaking floods.” He
noted that Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel had already
been deployed to Texas.
A
state of emergency was declared for 44 Oklahoma counties as of Monday
evening, and yesterday Obama made federal disaster aid available in
the state. The National Weather Service on Sunday reported a record
for total monthly rainfall set at Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers World
Airport at 18.19 inches, shattering the previous record of 14.66
inches set in June of 1989.
The
National Weather Service also reported that multiple daily maximum
precipitation records were broken in a number of Texas cities over
the long weekend. As of yesterday morning, the agency had recorded
over 10 inches of rain in multiple locations in Harris County, where
Houston is located, as well as in neighboring Fort Bend County.
By
James Gerken
26
May 2015
(The
Huffington Post) – Devastating and deadly storms have struck parts
of Texas and Oklahoma in recent days, bringing record rainfall and
widespread floods that have damaged or destroyed more than 1,000
homes and left at least 16 people dead.
"This
is the biggest flood this area of Texas has ever seen," Gov.
Greg Abbott (R) said on Monday, according to Reuters. "It is
absolutely massive -- the relentless tsunami-type power of this wave
of water."
The
historic and anomalous nature of the flooding raises an important
question: Is this climate change in action? At minimum, the recent
downpours in Texas probably offer a glimpse of what certain parts of
the U.S. can look forward to in the coming decades.
As
the planet continues to get hotter, in large part due to human
activity, warmer air in the atmosphere will hold more moisture. This
is expected to alter weather patterns and lead to more frequent and
more intense instances of extreme precipitation.
For
Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, the annual amount of precipitation that
fell during the heaviest 1 percent of events was up nearly 20 percent
last decade compared to the average between 1901 and 1960, according
to the most recent National Climate Assessment from the federal
government.
"Increases
in the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events are
projected for all U.S. regions," the NCA's authors warn.
In
its latest report, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change said that heavy precipitation events in North America
and Europe appear to have been growing more frequent and more severe.
Furthermore, the panel said, it's "very likely" that these
precipitation events will get worse and surface air temperatures will
continue to rise in the coming century.
"Overall,
we haven't seen much of a change in annual average rainfall in
Texas," climate scientist and Texas Tech University Professor
Katharine Hayhoe wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. "We expect
the future to look much the same, on average. But averaging can drown
out the fact that, across the U.S. and Texas, our precipitation is
getting more variable -- feast or famine, flood or drought."
Extreme weather
More than 30 people taken to hospital after two huge lightning bolts strike German music festival attended by more than 90,000 rock fans
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