By By Tia Ghose, Staff Writer 18 hours ago
View galleryA calving glacier on western Greenland.In the last 10,000 years, the Greenland Ice Sheet shrank to its smallest size around 3,000 to 5,000 years ago, when ocean temperatures were also quite high, a new study suggests.The finding, published Nov. 22 in the journal Geology, suggests that ocean temperatures, not atmospheric temperatures, could be a critical factor in melting ice sheets in current global warming scenarios. Understanding the reaction ice sheets like the ones covering Greenland and Antarctica will have to climate change is important because the melting ice could contribute significantly to rising sea levels.”We’re particularly concerned about what the ice sheets are going to do, because when they melt, sea levels rise,” said study co-author Jason Briner, a geologist at the University at Buffalo. [Image Gallery: Greenland’s Melting Glaciers]Current and past warming-One way to make predictions about the current warming period is to see how warming trends in the past affected the ice sheet, and the rivers of ice called glaciers that make them up.As glaciers grow, they shove piles of debris and rubble aside, like giant bulldozers, forming rocky regions called moraines. Because moraines only form when glaciers get bigger, figuring out when moraines formed can provide clues to the ice sheet’s size in the past.In Greenland at some point in the last 10,000 years, the advancing ice sheet ploughed through several ocean basins, leaving piles of marine sediments and fossils such as clamshells in their wake. Briner and his team collected those fossils near the edges of the Greenland Ice Sheet. When organisms are alive, all the amino acids, or protein building blocks, in their body are left-handed, but after they die, the amino acids gradually flip to the mirror right-handed orientation. So in theory, the rate at which these proteins flip orientation can be used to figure out when the animals died.To figure out that rate, the team dated some of the marine fossils using a technique involving carbon isotopes, or elements of carbon with different numbers of neutrons. Separately, they measured how many of the amino acids in the marine fossils had switched orientation.By correlating the two, the team was able to date the marine fossils and determine that most of the moraines were formed — and the glaciers advancing — about 3,000 to 5,000 years ago.Ocean temperatures-That suggests the ice sheet had reached its smallest point just before this time period, because there was more debris to push around as the glaciers grew.Other climactic data has found that air at that time wasn’t that warm, but ocean temperatures were quite high.”We think about global warming and how the atmosphere is warming up — that it’s like putting an ice cube in an oven,” Briner told LiveScience. „But what happens if you drop an ice cube not in an oven, but in a warm bath?”The new findings suggest that the warm bath may be most critical for melting ice sheets, by melting the glaciers at the edges of the ice sheet that are submerged in warm ocean waters.”It’s warm ocean water that can actually melt the snouts of these marine glaciers,” Briner said. Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.Michael Mann: Super Typhoon Haiyan and the Realities of a Warmed World (Op-Ed)
View gallery NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg took this photo of Super Typhoon Haiyan from her home on the International …Michael Mann is Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Penn State University and was recognized in 2007, with other IPCC authors, for contributing to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work as a lead author on the „Observed Climate Variability and Change” chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report. This article is adapted from one that appeared on Ecowatch.com. Mann contributed this article to LiveScience’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.It is with a heavy heart and a respectful hand that I write this. Super Typhoon Haiyanhas only just passed, and the devastation cannot yet even be fully understood. (With that in mind, please consider a donation to an assisting charity, such as the Philippine Red Cross.)But a donation will only aid those impacted by this storm — not the next. Or the one after that.This was the feeling captured by Yeb Saño, the Philippine’s lead negotiator to this year’s global climate talks — the Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As he tearfully pleaded with the delegation gathered in Warsaw, Poland, he powerfully pressed them for action and challenged those who stand in the way of climate-influencing reforms. Saño dared those still unconvinced by the need for climate action to do a little sightseeing, and take in the impacts of rising sea levels as they surge inland in front of storms, of melting glaciers as they flood the land they once nourished, of drought-induced famines as they destabilize weak nations and of unprecedented hurricanes and typhoons that have pounded the United States and Asia, alike.For now, super storms are still rare. However, models suggest more frequent and intense storms in a warmed world. A number of scientists suspect that certain recent storms like Sandy and Haiyan exhibited characteristics outside the range of natural variation.Although exact measurements are hard to come by (there were no flights in the Western Pacific to provide direct measurements) satellite images along with readings of ocean heat seem to suggest that Haiyan was an unnaturally powerful storm. The science is hinting that this storm may not have been so catastrophic in a world without warming.The unusually deep, unusually warm pool of water that provided the storm’s initial fuel is unlikely to have existed in a world without warming. Global warming-induced sea level rise contributed to the 20-foot storm surges that caught victims off guard, much as it contributed to Sandy’s record 13-foot coastal surge that flooded substantial sections of New York and New Jersey. These events would not have been as severe in a world without warming.But herein lies the crux — we no longer live in a world without warming. Given that 1985 was the last year with temperatures below the 20th-century average, and the span from 2000 to 2010 was the hottest decade on record, it has become impossible to say for certain that any given storm is free from the influence of our warmed world.While contrarians may dislike it when activists or actors like George Clooney point out the linkage between climate change and extreme weather, the bottom line is this: Climate change makes tropical storms more damaging. Not only through increased wind speed and rainfall, but most notably through rising sea levels. This means greater damage and loss of property and life.There are those who suggest that it would be easier to simply retreat from the coasts that get battered by these storms. But I imagine many people would agree with Yeb Saño, who said:”We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life, because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.”Let that call echo, and be heard in response to those who would insist on waiting for the next storm to take action.Mann’s most recent Op-Ed was „Climate-Change Deniers Must Stop Distorting the Evidence.” Mann is author of two books, „The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines” (Columbia University Press, 2012), which will soon to be available in paperback with an update and a new guest foreword by Bill Nye „The Science Guy”, and „Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming” (DK Publishing, 2008). You can follow him on Twitter: @MichaelEMann. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on LiveScience.Weak 2013 Atlantic hurricane season draws to close
Reuters – 49 minutes ago
View PhotoLatvia’s Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis listens during a news conference in Riga …More Business news »RIGA (Reuters) – Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis has resigned after the collapse last week of a supermarket roof in the capital Riga that killed more than 50 people, his spokesman said on Wednesday.The resignation throws into political turmoil a Baltic state that is due to join the eurozone in January and is seen as an example of fiscal prudence and economic recovery after a deep financial crisis in 2008.”I announce resigning from the post of prime minister, taking political responsibility for … the tragedy,” Dombrovskis told journalists, according to local news agency BNS. The prime minister’s spokesman Martins Panke confirmed the resignation to Reuters.The government had come under criticism after the disaster.Dombrovskis had previously said the collapse had shattered Latvia, a former Soviet republic which joined the European Union nearly a decade ago. Latvian President Andris Berzins had called the disaster „murder.”The cause of the collapse remains unknown, although police have opened a criminal investigation focusing on the construction of the building. Local media said workers had been building a roof garden on the supermarket, a single-storey building located about a 30- minute drive from the city center.(Reporting by Aija Krutaine; Editing by Alistair Scrutton)
Holiday Travelers Contend With Wind, Rain, SnowCHICAGO (AP) — A wall of storms packing ice, sleet and rain could upend holiday travel plans as millions of Americans take to the roads, skies and rails Wednesday for Thanksgiving.Related StoriesSo far, the deadly storms barreling into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast have not resulted in many flight delays or cancellations, but forecasters were expecting the weather to worsen throughout the day.”The timing of the storm couldn’t be worse,” said Chris Vaccaro, spokesman for the National Weather Service headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. „We are seeing numerous threats as the storm is beginning to develop and intensify.”Heavy rain and breezy conditions were to strike the East Coast from the Carolinas to the Northeast on Wednesday, with ice and snow a possibility in the Appalachians, western Pennsylvania and western New York. Snow totals from the Ohio Valley to the interior of the Northeast were expected to be less than 10 inches, the weather service said.The storm system, which developed in the West, has been blamed for at least 11 deaths, half of them in Texas. It limped across Arkansas with a smattering of snow, sleet and freezing rain that didn’t meet expectations.”It’s just really cold. We had drizzle but no snow,” said Courtney O’Neal-Walden, an owner of the Dairyette diner on U.S. 270 in Mount Ida, Ark. „You can see (ice) on the power lines, but the roads are fine.”Storm Threatens Holiday Travel in East Play video.”
Travelers wait in line to board a flight at LaGuardia Airport in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013. A …
Two women travelers sit on the floor at the Miami International airport, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013 wait …View gallery.”
Shay Owens kisses her boyfriend Bryan Jordan before boarding a Megabus for a trip to Atlanta, Tuesda …View gallery.”
A lone traveler at the Miami International airport walks past a colorful art installation as he make …View gallery.”
William Witters, of Valparaiso, Ind., waits for a ride in a wheelchair after passing through securit …View gallery.”
A woman waits for a flight at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, Tuesday morning, Nov. 26, 2013. …
Raw: Rare N.D. Ice Disk FoundBISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — When George Loegering saw a large spinning circle of ice in the Sheyenne River while out hunting with relatives, the retired engineer couldn’t believe his eyes.”At first I thought, no way! It was surreal,” Loegering, 73, said Tuesday of the large ice disk he witnessed Saturday. „You looked at it and you thought, how did it do that?”Then his engineering background kicked in. He calculated the disk’s diameter to be about 55 feet, took photos and videos of it and then turned to the Internet for more information about what he, his brother-in-law and nephew had seen.”It’s not an unknown phenomenon, but it is relatively rare,” said Loegering, who lives in rural Casselton, about 20 miles west of Fargo.Allen Schlag, a National Weather Service hydrologist in Bismarck, and Greg Gust, a weather service meteorologist in Grand Forks, said a combination of cold, dense air last weekend and an eddy in the river likely caused the disk.„It’s actually quite beautiful,” Schlag said.View gallery.”
In this Nov. 24, 2013 photo provided by George Loegering is a large spinning circle of bits of ice t …The cold, dense air — the air pressure Saturday in nearby Fargo was a record high for the city for the month of November, according to Gust — turned the river water into ice, but since the water was relatively warm it didn’t happen all at once. Floating bits of ice got caught in the eddy and started to spin in a circle.”It’s not a continuous sheet of ice,” Schlag said. „If you were to throw a grapefruit-size rock on it, it would go through. It’s not a solid piece of ice — it’s a collection of ice cubes.”Loegering said the spinning disk had frozen up but was still visible in the river.”I’m not sure how long it was there (spinning),” he said. „It had to be quite a long time. If you look at the picture, you can see growth rings on the disk.”Schlag said he was surprised by the size of the ice circle, which he said would be more likely on a larger river such as the Missouri.”That might be one of the better examples I’ve seen,” he said. „It’s a pretty cool one.”___Follow Blake Nicholson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NicholsonBlake
Man: No fear trying to catch woman at stadium
Man: No Fear Trying to Catch Woman at StadiumOAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — When he saw a woman jumping from the upper deck at the Oakland Raiders’ stadium on Sunday, Donnie Navidad said his military instincts immediately kicked in as he lunged forward trying to catch her.Related StoriesBut though he was injured in the process and authorities say he saved the woman’s life, he maintains that he’s no hero and that he would do it again.”I just wished I would’ve grabbed her and held on to her,” Navidad said. „I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do anything.”Both Navidad and the woman hit the concrete hard from the impact about 15 minutes after the Raiders’ 23-19 loss to the Tennessee Titans.Navidad said he was among several people pleading with the woman not to jump as he positioned himself to try catching her. When she plunged about 45 feet from the upper deck at the O.co Coliseum, Navidad, with his arms open, ended up breaking her fall.The 61-year-old Marine Corps veteran was hospitalized overnight and was recuperating from a severely bruised arm at his home in Stockton.Raiders Fan Breaks Woman’s Fall Play video.”
Navidad said his military instincts kicked in as he lunged toward the woman trying to catch her.View gallery.”
Law enforcement officials walk in the upper deck of O.co Coliseum after an NFL football game between …”He couldn’t grab and hold her, and that’s what bothers him,” his wife, Lora Navidad, said Monday. „He had no fear or thought for his own well-being.”Navidad said well-wishers have besieged him, including Raiders’ hall of fame cornerback Willie Brown, who visited personally. Team officials came to his home, and he received a phone call from Hall of Fame wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff.Nelson, who visited Navidad in the hospital Sunday evening, called him „a hero.”Navidad, a father of four with 12 grandkids who works as an inventory surveillance worker for the General Services Administration in nearby French Camp, Calif., modestly thinks otherwise.”They want to label me a hero, but how do you define a hero?” Navidad asks. „I would’ve done it for anybody.”He plans to be at the Raiders’ next home game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Dec. 15.The incident in Oakland was the second such fall at an NFL game Sunday. In Baltimore, a 48-year-old man was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after he fell on some stairs at M&T Bank Stadium during the Ravens game against the New York Jets, authorities said.Last weekend, two fans were injured in Orchard Park, N.Y., after one fan slid down a railing from the upper deck of Ralph Wilson Stadium during the Buffalo Bills’ home game against the Jets. Both were briefly hospitalized and released.On the NFL’s opening day this year, a fan died from a fall off a pedestrian overpass outside Candlestick Park in San Francisco, and two others were injured when a railing collapsed at the Colts’ game against the Raiders in Indianapolis.
California water woes hit hard in driest year on record
View galleryWater is transferred from the Sacramento River through an irrigation station and into farm fields in …By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – To nurture his acres of pistachio trees, Tom Coleman has long relied on water from California’s mountain-ringed reservoirs, fed by Sierra streams and water pumped from the massive Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.But the driest year on record has left the reservoirs so depleted – and the delta so fragile – that state water officials say they may be able to provide just 5 percent of the water he and others were expecting for next year.Other sources of water, including resources from a federal project that also pumps from the delta, are also drying up, prompting cities to dip into reserves and forcing farmers to scramble.”It’s scary, because you don’t know how you’re going to come up with the balance of your water,” Coleman said. Last week, he agreed to pay $160,000 for water from other sources – about three times the amount he usually spends.The water districts that supply Coleman and farmers like him in the state’s San Joaquin Valley were told last week that barring an unexpectedly wet winter, the state would be able to provide 5 percent of the water that districts had contracted to buy for next year.A federal project that also controls water in the state has not yet said how much will be available in 2014, but its allocations are also expected to be low.”We hope things improve with this winter’s storms,” said Mark Cowin, director of the California Department of Water Resources, „but there is no guarantee that 2014 won’t be our third consecutive dry year. Today’s allocation is a stark reminder that California’s fickle weather demands that we make year-round conservation a way of life.”This year is shaping up to be the driest on record in California, officials said, and urban areas are also feeling the pinch. The Metropolitan Water District, which serves about half of heavily populated Southern California, has been using reserves to meet residents’ needs, and plans to do the same next year, said spokesman Bob Muir. If 2015 is also dry, rationing may be required, he said.”We not only import water from Northern California, but we also get supplies from the Colorado River,” Muir said. „They both face dry conditions.”Water has long been a contentious issue in California, where it has been diverted from mountain lakes and streams to irrigate farms and slake the thirst of metropolitan areas. Many of the state’s efforts to deal with the problem are controversial, including a long-awaited plan, due out next month, to preserve access to water while protecting the Delta.For many in the state’s $44.7 billion agriculture business, water scarcity is a problem made worse by a recent switch to orchard-style crops such as almonds and olives. Unlike vegetables or cotton, which grow in fields that can be left fallow in dry years, the trees need water every year.”The significant dilemma for a lot of farmers in California is that many of them grow crops now that are permanent crops,” said Mark Atlas, a water attorney with the firm Downey Brand. „They’re orchards or vineyards that you can’t just let go dry.”SHRIVELED ALMONDS-John Blackburn, who has been growing almonds for more than 40 years in the western part of Fresno County, has already seen the results of the past two dry years: small, shriveled fruit and water that costs three or more times its usual price.His farm is served by a federally administered water project that pumped about 424 billion gallons from the Delta last year, according to government data. The Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the project, has not yet decided how much customers will get next year, but water brokers are projecting that some will get none at all, a spokesman said.Blackburn could use well water instead, but it contains salts and the mineral boron, which harm almond trees. A low water allocation next year could put him out of business.”I bought and developed our farm out here in 1972,” he said. „I raised a family of seven children and step-children, and most of them went to college and I just turned 80 – so I’m really not looking forward to going broke at this point.”Underlying the water problems are environmental issues in the Delta, where years of pumping have damaged habitat for smelt and hampered the ability of salmon to swim upstream to spawn.Two decades ago, environmental officials invoked the U.S. Endangered Species Act, insisting that the Delta have enough water to sustain its ecosystem before any could be pumped.After that happened, around 1990, farmers began to get less water than they had contracted for each year, said Jeanine Jones, a California Department of Water Resources manager.And conflict between farmers and environmentalists grew.In the San Joaquin Valley, hand-painted signs take stabs at the Endangered Species Act. „Congress mandated dust bowl,” reads one. In grape-growing Sonoma County, an environmentalist-planted sign fires back: „Vineyards suck … water.”Sierra Club lobbyist Kathryn Phillips says plenty of California farmland has access to water from the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Large farms, she said, need not be in the state’s drier areas.”I don’t think the environment or the ecosystem should suffer because of some business decisions that large agricultural interests have made that don’t work in drought years,” Phillips said.(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Ken Wills)
View galleryPeople search amongst the ruins at a neighborhood destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan in Palo Leyte city November …By Rosemarie FranciscoRelated StoriesMANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines’ post-typhoon reconstruction could take as long as 10 years, with the leadership of President Benigno Aquino put to a test amid complex problems such as property rights, missing title deeds and land zoning, experts said on Wednesday.The task will likely take longer and cost more than the rebuilding of Indonesia’s Aceh province after the 2004 tsunami, they said.Super typhoon Haiyan wiped out or damaged practically everything in its path as it swept ashore on November 8, with seven-meter storm surges destroying around 90 percent of the city of Tacloban in Leyte province alone.Haiyan killed at least 5,500 people, left more than 1,700 missing, displaced as many as four million and destroyed around $563 million worth of crops and infrastructure.”The enormity of this disaster is unprecedented at least in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of the geography,” said Sanny Jegillos, coordinator for crisis prevention and recovery at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). „It’s much, much larger than the tsunami in Aceh.”The rehabilitation cost will be more expensive for Haiyan, because a unit of a school will be more expensive than a school built in Aceh because of the design parameters.”The government’s initial estimates point to a reconstruction cost of as much as 250 billion pesos ($5.7 billion). Aceh’s rebuilding over eight years required nearly $7 billion, funded by the Indonesian government and international donors.Manila has said new structures in the typhoon-prone areas must be able to withstand winds of 300 kph (186 mph), close to Haiyan’s maximum winds when it slammed into Eastern Samar province before crossing the central Philippines.Sonny Rosal, head of the United Architects of the Philippines which is helping the National Housing Authority (NHA) design stronger houses, said there were challenges related to government buy-outs of landowners in risky areas, reestablishing title and revising the national building code which now specifies that public structures must withstand winds of only up to 250 kph.”What is being discussed now in the NHA is that it may take us 10 years to be able to rebuild. It’s not that easy. A lot is involved here,” Rosal said. „It’s like building a new country.”On Wednesday, a government task force assigned to draw up a recovery and rehabilitation plan submitted its immediate, medium-term and long-term goals to Aquino, who demanded more specific details before giving final approval. The task force will report back to Aquino on Friday with more refinements.That plan will likely identify only immediate needs and plans of action, since a longer-term rebuilding strategy will take weeks if not months to complete, officials said.In Japan’s case, it completed its long-term reconstruction plan six months after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.”This case (Haiyan) is much more complex than the Japanese experience. The Japanese experienced only a tsunami,” said Kimio Takeya, an engineer and expert for reconstruction planning at the Japan International Cooperation Agency.”In this area, there was a storm surge and strong wind combination.”(Editing by Nick Macfie)
Philippines struggles to keep typhoon aid, donations graft-free
View galleryA Philippine Air Force crew drops sacks containing food supplies to Typhoon Haiyan survivors in Tunga, …By Karen Lema and Rosemarie FranciscoRelated StoriesMANILA (Reuters) – As millions of dollars pour in for more than four million left homeless by a typhoon in the central Philippines, authorities are grappling with a familiar problem – how to stop fraudulent claims and prevent greedy politicians taking advantage.Typhoon Haiyan smashed through the country on November 8, laying waste to just about everything in its path, and killing more than 4,000 people.Nearly 13 billion pesos ($298 million) in cash and relief goods have so far been pledged by countries and donor groups to an overwhelmed government that was criticized for its slow response in the first few days after disaster struck.The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have committed a total of more than $1 billion in grants and emergency loans to support reconstruction and relief efforts.Add to that the millions of pesos raised by the private sector, with Filipinos working across the globe gathering friends for fund-raising activities, and you have a lucrative target for scammers and unscrupulous public officials in one of the most corrupt countries in East Asia.The Philippines comes in at 105 out of 176 countries in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index, with the cleanest country, New Zealand, at number one.”It is a big issue in the international aid community, especially insofar as international NGOs are concerned,” said Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, when asked about bogus aid agencies and scams.„EVERYONE ON HIGH ALERT”--Philippine disaster officials this week warned donor agencies and the public about two individuals – including one using the surname of President Benigno Aquino – who have been soliciting aid for typhoon victims on behalf of the defense minister.”We would like to warn the public to be vigilant and not fall to this modus operandi by unscrupulous individuals,” the Department of National Defence said in a statement.A scandal over lawmakers’ misuse of „pork barrel” funds has become the biggest crisis of Aquino’s three-year rule, tainting his image as a corruption fighter and undermining his ability to push economic reforms.This week, Manila launched an online portal called FAiTH to provide information on donations in answer to concerns that aid money might once again end up lining pockets of local officials.”The (pork barrel) scam has put everyone on high alert,” said Vincent Lazatin, executive director at the Transparency and Accountability Network.Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said fraud went hand in hand with natural disasters, as was the case with Tropical Storm Washi in 2011, Typhoon Bopha last year and an earthquake in central Bohol province last month.”There are people who take advantage of the good heart of individuals, especially those who only want to give small amounts but are embarrassed to go to foundations,” she said.”For me, every cent counts, so they should give to those organizations they know.”(Additional reporting by Michael Pell in Florida; Editing by Nick Macfie and Jeremy Laurence)(This Nov. 21 story has been refiled to remove eighth and ninth paragraphs, which incorrectly characterized Tricare and misquoted a Tricare employee about the number of insurance claims filed after the typhoon)
Past and present: balloons of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
3 hours ago
UNITED STATES – NOVEMBER 25, 1937: Balloons float down Broadway in thirteenth annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. (Photo by Walter Kelleher/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)Past and present: balloons of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
S.Africa aims to cut rhino poaching by 20% a year
View galleryA photo taken on February 6, 2013 shows a rhinoceros resting in the Kruger National Park near Nelspruit, South Africa (AFP Photo/Issouf Sanogo)Kruger National Park (South Africa) (AFP) – South African conservation authorities on Tuesday said they aim to reduce rhino poaching by 20 percent a year, insisting their strategy is working despite record levels of poaching.”The war against poaching is not yet won, but we can reduce the figures… it’s an ongoing process,” said Major General Johan Jooste, who heads the Kruger National Park anti-poaching task team.The number of rhino killed this year for their horns has hit a record 860 so far, despite the deployment of the army and the use of helicopters and drone patrols.The vast two-million hectare (five-million-acre) Kruger National Park, which borders Mozambique has experienced the largest number of killings.Jooste admitted there were still daily killings but said „with the increased intelligence operations, we aim to cut poaching numbers by 20 percent a year”.He was adamant that its multi-pronged approach is making a difference.”It might look like we are not winning, but we are making a difference,” said Jooste.”The war against poaching can not only be won in the bush, the law needs to take its course as well when it comes to prosecuting the syndicates,” he said.Jooste said he would like to see increased cooperation between South Africa and Mozambique, adopting stricter measures to fighter poaching.Mozambique currently has limited laws against poaching, making it a breeding ground for those who slip through the porous 360 kilometre (225 mile) border with South Africa.A spokesman for the South African National Parks, Ike Phaahla, said that army patrols had made a significance in the park since they were started in 2010.”If it wasn’t for the army we would have no rhino in the park by now, the rangers would have had a difficult time keeping up with the poachers’ paramilitary tactics.”South Africa is home to 80 percent of the world’s rhino population, estimated at around 25,000.Rhino in the Kruger park are estimated to number between 8,500 and 9,500, according to a 2012 count.In May, the South African authorities said they would re-erect the border fence, equipped with a special detection system in a bid to curb poaching.Fencing in some parts of the border was pulled down to create a cross-border park with Mozambique.
View galleryA car produces smoke from its exhaust as it pulls away in Guernica October 29,2007. REUTERS/Vincent …By Barbara Lewis and Tom Körkemeier BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union on Tuesday agreed a compromise to enforce stricter rules on carbon dioxide emissions for EU cars, ending months of wrangling after Germany insisted an earlier deal was torn up.The new outline agreement delays 100 percent implementation of a limit of 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer (CO2/km) for all new cars until 2021 from a previous deadline of 2020.It also changes the rules on flexibility, giving more leeway to German luxury car manufactures such as Daimler and BMW whose emissions are higher than those of smaller, lighter automakers such as Fiat.”We have worked together with the European Parliament for limited additional flexibility. Tonight we have found a very delicate balance,” said Arunas Vinciunas, the ambassador for Lithuania, which holds the rotating EU presidency.He added the deal would be presented to a meeting of EU diplomats on Friday, with a view to getting their agreement. It would then have to be signed off by member state governments and the European Parliament.Provided it is signed into law, it will draw a line under six months of acrimony over what other member states saw as heavy-handed negotiating tactics from Germany.Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose party received money from BMW, took up the cause of the big German carmakers, declaring she was protecting German jobs, and persuaded other EU states to agree to scrap an agreement on 2020 emissions targets that was reached in June.GERMAN PRESSURE-Germany has won some of the concessions it sought.Apart from the phase-in, under which 95 percent of new car sales will have to comply in 2020 and 100 percent in 2021, Tuesday’s agreement also changes the rules for „supercredits”.These allow manufacturers that make very low emission vehicles, such as electric vehicles, to claim extra credits for them, so they can continue to produce more heavily polluting vehicles as well.An agreement reached in June had set a limit for use of supercredits at 2.5 grams per year. Tuesday’s new deal sets a cap of 7.5 grams of carbon dioxide for the years 2020-2022, so a manufacturer could opt to use all the flexibility in the first year.Environmental campaigners, who have strongly criticized the German stance, gave a very cautious welcome to the deal, saying at least it provided certainty.”It is disgraceful that the heavy-handed lobbying of Germany has paid off in weakening the 95g target,” Greg Archer of campaign group Transport & Environment said.”Still, this revised deal will provide much needed regulatory certainty and ensure cars continue to reduce their CO2 emissions and improve fuel efficiency.”So far Europe has a 2015 CO2 limit of 130 g/km as an average across the EU fleet, a goal many manufacturers are already meeting or very close to doing so.No-one from the German central government had immediate comment.Sabine Wils, a member of the European Parliament representing Die Linke, a German left-wing party, said the deal meant hundreds of tons more carbon dioxide would enter the atmosphere and consumers would spend much more on fuel.(Editing by David Evans)
Photo via WITN-TVDamage in Atlantic City, N.C. is seen in this photo taken Wednesday morning.An EF2 tornado injured three people in North Carolina Tuesday night, damaging structures along the southeastern coast.The tornado was confirmed by a National Weather Service survey crew Wednesday morning due to condominium damage in Atlantic Beach, N.C. The survey was ongoing and more information would be distributed as it was found by the crew, according to the NWS.(MORE: Big Travel Problems Possible for Thanksgiving Holiday)Play Video
Southeast Regional Forecast
AP Photo/Los Angeles Zoo, Tad Motoyama, FileThis file photo provided Oct. 31, 2013 by the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens shows a newborn Okapi calf, right, and its mother, named Baraka, in their compound at the zoo in Los Angeles.GENEVA — The International Union for Conservation of Nature says Congo’s national symbol, the okapi, is on the brink of extinction.The Switzerland-based group says the population of the okapi, also known as the „forest giraffe,” has dwindled because of poaching and habitat loss.(WATCH: A Very Unexpected, Massive Catch)Play Video
Endangered Tiger BabiesIUCN’s Red List of endangered species, updated twice a year, rates it as endangered – two steps away from extinction in the wild.The update published Tuesday also labels the sub-Saharan white-winged flufftail as critically endangered. Just a few hundred birds still survive in Africa.Meanwhile, the leatherback turtle has benefited from conservation efforts and is now rated vulnerable.Two albatross species and California’s island fox also have recovered.IUCN says 21,286 of the 71,576 species surveyed are threatened with extinction.MORE ON WEATHER.COM: IUCN’s Endangered Ecosystems
ICUN says the ecosystem at the Aral Sea has collapsed. The ecological disaster on Aral Sea, which had been drying up for the past 40 years, was reached in 1987, when salted lake, which had once been the world’s fourth largest, split into two unequal parts. (Image: VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP/Getty Images)
What You’ll See When Comet Ison Comes
AP Photo/NASA, Aaron KingeryIn this photo provided by NASA, Comet ISON shines in this five-minute exposure taken at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on Nov. 8 at 5:40 a.m. EST.Because it is so close to the sun, ISON (EYE’-sahn) will likely not be visible from Earth on Thursday – except via a fleet of NASA telescopes and spacecraft aimed at the comet as it gets closest to the sun at 1:37 p.m. EST, he said. And it will be a few hours before scientists know whether the comet survives.But even if the comet dies, Johns Hopkins University scientist Carey Lisse said there’s a good chance that people on Earth will get an interesting cosmic show. The comet’s remnants could paint the sky with a wide swath of green in the Northern Hemisphere.Lisse gives the comet a 30 percent chance of surviving, adding that it is just a gut-feeling that has little to do with logic. Logically, it should be 50-50, he said.The comet – two-thirds of a mile wide – is made up of loosely packed ice and dirt, essentially a dirty snowball. It is a „dinosaur bone,” from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, Lisse said. It has been in „deep freeze” for billions of years in the Oort cloud, a vast area of comets and debris that never formed into planets that’s between 450 billion and 9 trillion miles from the sun, he said.(MORE: Thanksgiving Travel Could Be a Disaster, Follow Here for Live Updates)The comet is racing around the sun, pulled close by our star’s massive gravity, which can also break apart the dirty icy core.Comet ISON was first spotted by a Russian telescope in September last year. While many comets come out of the Oort cloud and return after a long trip through the solar system and many comets graze by the sun, this is the first one that astronomers have watched that is from the Oort cloud and is skimming the sun.Lisse said ISON could behave just like last year’s comet Lovejoy, which fell apart a couple days after passing by the sun. Its remnants were visible like „a beautiful paintbrush swath in the sky” in the Southern Hemisphere, he said.Unlike many blue comets, ISON has been more lime-green because it doesn’t seem to have as much carbon monoxide as other comets, Lisse said.(MORE: Track Winter Storm Boreas)If the comet does make it around the sun intact and returns past Earth, the Northern Hemisphere should get good naked-eye views just before sunrise and just after sunset in the first couple weeks of December, Lisse said. But this probably won’t be as bright and visible as 1997’s Comet Hale-Bopp, said Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington.Over the last few weeks, the reports weren’t good for ISON’s survival. On Monday, astronomers at Kitt Peak Observatory „were a little bit worried and depressed” because the comet produced a classic sign of flaming out, Lisse said from the Arizona telescope. Earlier, astronomers thought it may have broken up.Then on Tuesday, a solar telescope spotted the comet and it was growing brighter just as it should have.”It’s a wild ride, this comet,” Lisse said. „The reports of ISON’s demise have been greatly exaggerated for the last month or two and ISON continues to surprise us.”MORE ON WEATHER.COM: 100 Out Of This World Space Photos
The ESO 3.6-meter telescope at La Silla observatory in Chile, during observations. (ESO/S. Brunier)
Thanksgiving Travel Forecast
Thanksgiving Travel Forecast
If You’re Traveling: Northeast
If You Are Traveling: SoutheastAccording to AAA, about 43.4 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more during the Thanksgiving holiday travel weekend from Wednesday, Nov. 27 to Sunday, Dec. 1.
Current Airport DelaysOf course, adverse weather conditions can play a huge role in causing travel headaches with so many people on the road and in the air. Last year, fog caused hundreds of flight delays and cancelations in Chicago and St. Louis on the day before Thanksgiving.This year, Winter Storm Boreas will cause travel problems from the South into the Northeast. We have the day-by-day forecast details below.Wednesday
Wednesday’s Forecast
Weather will be difficult for most East Coast travelers on the day before Thanksgiving. A complex interaction between storm systems in the northern and southern branches of the jet stream will lead to a potpourri of inclement weather. This second phase of Winter Storm Boreas will produce more snow Wednesday for the Appalachians, western and Upstate New York. Meanwhile, the I-95 corridor of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic will see heavy rain, which will lead to some significant road and air travel delays in the region. Localized flooding is possible.Check the Winter Storm Boreas article for more details on the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.In the Southeast, rain will be confined to South Florida and the Carolinas, mainly during the morning hours. There could be some lingering snow showers as far south as north Georgia and east Alabama early in the day. A few light rain showers may linger for parts of the Carolinas into the afternoon as cold air plunges southward on the back side of Winter Storm Boreas.Lake-effect snow will kick in west of Boreas with the potential for a major lake-effect snow band dumping over a foot of snow in far southwest Michigan into parts of northwest and north-central Indiana, including Benton Harbor, Mich., and Michigan City, Ind. Other bands of lake-effect snow will affect Upper Michigan and northern Lower Michigan as well as northeast Ohio.In the central and western states, travel conditions appear to be in good shape overall with no widespread threats of rain or snow.(INTERSTATES AFFECTED: I-20 | I-26 | I-40 | I-64 | I-70 | I-75 | I-76 | I-77 | I-80 | I-81 | I-85 | I-87 | I-90 | I-91 | I-95)(AIRPORTS AFFECTED: Atlanta | Boston | Charlotte, N.C. | New York | Philadelphia | Raleigh, N.C. | Washington)Thanksgiving Day/First Day of Hanukkah
Thanksgiving ForecastFortunately, Thanksgiving Day and the first day of Hanukkah appear to be devoid of major storm systems for a large majority of the country.The storm system affecting the East on Tuesday and Wednesday will have pulled well north into eastern Canada. However, there will be some lingering gusty winds in the Northeast as low pressure departs, mainly in the morning. Some light snow is possible over the Great Lakes and northern New England, especially in the morning, but should be considered no more than a nuisance.In the West, an offshore low pressure system may bring a sprinkle to Southern California, mainly near the coast, including parts of the L.A. Basin.Between these two weather systems, an area of high pressure should result in dry conditions for a large chunk of the country.The only small exception may be a few showers or sprinkles near the Georgia and Atlantic Florida coasts, as high pressure brings east to northeast breezes ashore.Temperatures will be anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees below average across the eastern half of the nation.Black Friday
Friday’s ForecastDry weather conditions will dominate the vast majority of the country for those traveling or out shopping on Friday.A stray sprinkle or shower is possible in Southern California, and a robust onshore east to northeast wind may bring light rain showers or sprinkles to the east coast of Florida, the Florida Keys, Georgia, and the coastal Bend of Texas. Some stubborn areas of flurries or light snow may linger near the Great Lakes. Finally, some light valley rain and mountain snow showers may dot the Pacific Northwest.Otherwise, the country should see little in the way of active weather.Temperatures should warm slightly compared to that chilly Thanksgiving Day in the Southeast and Midwest, but will remain stubbornly cold in the Northeast. West of the Rockies, readings should be near or above average on both Thursday and Friday.Saturday/Sunday
Sunday’s ForecastSaturday will be another quiet day across the Lower 48 States, with no major travel weather impacts, except for areas still with snow-covered roads from Winter Storm Boreas.High pressure will be entrenched in the East. Only a few passing showers are possible from the Virginia Tidewater to Florida. Some light snow or flurries may dust northern Michigan. A few valley rain and mountain snow showers are expected in the Northwest and northern Rockies. That said, Saturday will remain cold in the Northeast, with highs still 10-20 degrees below average. The busy post-Thanksgiving travel day Sunday could be a little more problematic.Areas of low clouds and showers may be enough to trigger some flight delays in parts of the Southern Plains, and possibly Ohio Valley. Another weak system may bring either light rain or light snow to parts of New England, and perhaps a few showers south of the Mason-Dixon line to eastern North Carolina. Given heavy airport volume, low clouds themselves may trigger some delays in at least some of the Northeast hubs Sunday.More stubborn showers may periodically dampen parts of the Carolinas to Florida. Finally, a Pacific frontal system will sweep into the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, with low-elevation rain, lowering mountain snow levels and strong winds. Travel over the passes of the Cascades, Bitterroots, and Tetons may become hazardous due to snow.MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Travel Postcards from the 1900s
Snow and Ice In South and Northeast
Snow and Ice In South and NortheastIf You’re Traveling: Northeast
Host Matt Sampson Sings for Your Photos The Weather Channel is covering this week’s tricky holiday travel as Winter Storm Boreas brings snow, ice, rain, and thunderstorms to a large swath of the South and East.(MORE: Winter Storm Boreas Forecast | Severe Thunderstorm Forecast)Updates from The Weather Channel and the National Weather Service will continue to appear in the window below. Updates will appear automatically. Time stamps on the left are in Eastern time (subtract 1 hour for Central time).(MORE: Thanksgiving Travel Forecast | Driving Difficulty Index)MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Winter Storm Boreas Photos
Traffic on I-35 at the 33rd street bridge in Edmond Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013. (Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman)
