Earth Report – Global Disaster Watch
Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.6 Earthquake hits the Tyrrhenian Sea.
5.5 Earthquake hits the Prince Edward islands.
5.1 Earthquake hits Vanuatu.
5.1 Earthquake hits the southwestern Ryukyu Islands off japan.
5.0 Earthquake hits the South Sandwich Islands.
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
No current tropical storms.
Newsbytes:
Israel – Heavy rains swept across Eilat overnight Thursday, causing serious flooding and forcing the local airport to announce an indefinite closure due to dangerous quantities of water on the runways. In just one night, an entire season’s worth of rain floods southern port city of Eilat, drenching the streets and forcing authorities to indefinitely shut down roads.
Egypt – At least nine people have been killed, four seaports closed and nine main highways brought to a standstill due to heavy rains and flooding in southern and eastern Egypt that began Thursday. In the southern Qena province, torrential rains and flooding have paralyzed the Qena-Sohag highway and overwhelmed local drainage and sewage systems. One local security source, said that several vehicles in the area — including buses — had been overturned by intense flooding.
WWF: Global wildlife populations could drop two-thirds by 2020
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Thursday warned in a new report that global wildlife could drop two-thirds by 2020 as a result of human activities.
The WWF’s biennial flagship report, titled “Living Planet Report 2016”, measured trends in 14,152 monitored populations of 3,706 vertebrate species.
According to the report, global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles have already declined by 58 percent between 1970 and 2012. This places the world on a trajectory of a potential two-thirds decline within a span of the half-century ending in 2020.
The report identified top threats to species are directly linked to human activities, including habitat loss, degradation and overexploitation of wildlife.
For example, African elephants are severely threatened by overexploitation, habitat loss and fragmentation. New data shows that their numbers have fallen by around 111,000 since 2006, to a total of about 415,000 today.
Biodiversity forms the foundation of healthy forests, rivers and oceans. Take away species, and these ecosystems will collapse along with the clean air, water, food and climate services that they provide us.
By providing an overview of the state of the natural world, human impacts and potential solutions, the WWF aims to support governments, communities, businesses and organizations to make informed decisions on using and protecting the planet’s resources.
Massive Bird Kill
Tanzanian officials say they successfully killed about 5.6 million red-billed quelea birds that had threatened to ravage thousands of acres of crops in the shadow of the country’s famed Mount Kilimanjaro.
The Moshi District Council used airplanes to spray poison over the pests, which are typically seen in the morning and evening hours feeding on paddies before they spend the night in sugarcane plantations.
Farmers say they now expect to bring in a bumper harvest without the birds.
Coastal Floods in South Carolina due to Sea Level Rise
Most of the coastal floods in South Carolina during the past 66 years caused problems for residents only because of sea level rise, a new study indicates.
The report, titled “Unnatural Coastal Flooding,” puts the blame on human activity, the same notion behind the debate in the United States over climate change. The report isn’t referring to major storms, such as Hurricane Matthew, which produced sea surges and storm tides that would have washed over large areas of land with or without the recorded 8 inches of rise in the Atlantic waters.
The report says: “Just as sea levels have been rising, so too has the frequency of coastal floods, in particular recurrent minor or ‘nuisance’ floods, often tidal in nature. Nuisance floods do not cause major damage, but do cause material harm, inconvenience and economic drag. Every coastal flood today is deeper and more damaging because of sea level rise caused by humans through climate change.”
Romania – Measles – Update
In a follow-up to a report five weeks ago concerning the measles situation in Romania, the Ministry of Health now puts the measles tally in the southeastern European country at just shy of 1,000 cases, according to a Romania-Insider report Friday.