Category: Environment & Weather

From the Santa Fe New Mexican

SILVER CITY — A necropsy has determined that a bullet killed an endangered Mexican gray wolf in Arizona, federal officials say.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is awaiting necropsy results on seven other Mexican gray wolves found dead since March in Arizona and New Mexico. All eight deaths are considered suspicious, Victoria Fox, an agency spokeswoman in Albuquerque, said Wednesday.

Rewards of up to $10,000 are being offered to anyone who can help in the apprehension of people responsible for the animals’ deaths, she said.

The wolves are part of a federal program to reintroduce them into the wild in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.

The 6-year-old wolf, the dominant female of her pack, was found dead Sept. 15 in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. She had been shot in the left hind leg, and gangrene killed her a week or two later, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.

Five other wolves were found dead in Arizona between March and October. Two other dead wolves were found in New Mexico in September.

The gods continue to frown on California. That’s hail — in Compton.

Photo from the Los Angeles Times.

NOVA | Magnetic Storm

At the present rate, Earth’s magnetic field could be gone within a few centuries, exposing the planet to the relentless blast of charged particles from space with unpredictable consequences for the atmosphere and life. Other possibilities: the field could stop weakening and begin to strengthen, or it could weaken to the point that it suddenly flips polarity — that is, compasses begin to point to the South Magnetic Pole.

An even older record of Earth’s fluctuating field than Shaw refers to shows a more complicated picture. Ancient lava flows from the Hawaiian Islands reveal both the strength of the field when the lava cooled and its orientation — the direction of magnetic north and south. “When we go back about 700,000 years,” says geologist Mike Fuller of the University of Hawaii, “we find an incredible phenomenon. Suddenly the rocks are magnetized backwards. Instead of them being magnetized to the north like today’s field, they are magnetized to the south.”

Such a reversal of polarity seems to happen every 250,000 years on average, making us long overdue for another swap between the north and south magnetic poles. Scientist Gary Glatzmaier of the University of California at Santa Cruz has actually observed such reversals, as they occur in computer simulations (view one in See a Reversal). These virtual events show striking similarities to the current behavior of Earth’s magnetic field and suggest we are about to experience another reversal, though it will take centuries to unfold.

Some researchers believe we are already in the transition phase, with growing areas of magnetic anomaly — where field lines are moving the wrong way — signaling an ever weaker and chaotic state for our protective shield.

In Eclipse, Hope for New Light: “Above, the moon was full, still glowing a pearly white. But soon the Earth would move between it and the sun — completing an interstellar ‘Grand Sextile’ that astrologists, metaphysicists and spiritualists believe was signaling the birth of a new human consciousness.”

From Space.com

“The Sun cut loose with three severe flares in less than 24 hours through Monday morning, bringing to nine the number of major eruptions in less than two weeks.

Scientists have never witnessed a string of activity like this.

Colorful aurora are expected to grace the skies at high latitudes and possibly into lower portions of the United States and Europe over the next two or three nights. Satellites and power grids could once again be put at risk.”

National Wildlife Federation: “By a 4-to-1 margin, Americans want Congress to take action now to stop global warming…”

Hot Star of the Week: The Sun’s Dramatic Flare

“The point being that, when the sun hurls, the spew is considerable.”

“Eventually [the sun] will cool, expand and turn into a ‘red giant’ that completely consumes the Earth — which may finally end the global warming debate.”

Global warming breeding bigger, longer-lived spiders

“A positive note: strong geomagnetic storms can produce colorful auroras in the night sky visible as far south as Texas and Florida beginning late Wednesday.”

From The New York Times

Easterbrook

Geomagnetic effects of the storm may cause your cell phone to fritz today, and it might be prudent to back up electronic files more often than usual. I won’t be the least surprised if, when the storm hits, computers at the Office of Management and Budget go haywire; the malfunctioning machines immediately declare that the United States has a $500 billion budget surplus; technicians then say that the computers cannot possibly be repaired until after the November 2004 presidential election.

Food chain.

Scroll down to number 30 of 83.

Before and after photos

From the Executive Summary of a Report to Congress on the Costs and Benefits of Federal Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on State, Local, and Tribal Entities

OMB reviewed 107 major Federal rulemakings finalized over the previous ten years (October 1, 1992 to September 30, 2002). The estimated total annual quantified benefits of these rules range from $146 billion to $230 billion, while the estimated total annual quantified costs range from $36 billion to $42 billion. The majority of the quantified benefits are attributable to a handful of clean-air rules issued by EPA pursuant to the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act.

See the entire 200-plus-page report.

“Organic molecules hitchhiking on comets could have sowed the seeds for life on Earth.” NASA news release 2001.

So how did the seeds get on the comets?

According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, fall begins Tuesday, September 23, 2003, at 4:47 AM Mountain Daylight Time (10:47 AM UT).

Fishing for shad with the incomparable John McPhee.

Gregg Easterbrook has some interesting commentary on storms, global warming and hype.

Forbes.com has a report that Isabel has closed eastern pork operations. The report includes this: “The 5 to 10 inches rain expected from the storm has producers taking precautions to ensure animal waste lagoons do not overflow.” Lagoons?

Computer models showed that the area from North Carolina to New Jersey was at greatest risk for a direct hit, with Washington in the center of Isabel’s projected path.

Nicholas D. Kristof from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: “All week, we’ve seen no sign of humans in the refuge, not even footprints. This is a rare place where humans feel not like landlords or even tenants, but simply guests.”

Astronomy Picture of the Day — a 360º panorama.

Mars Rising Behind Elephant Rock
The Grand Canyon of Mars

Shadow Rise
Bright Lights, Dark City
Mars Rising Behind Poodle Rock