EARTHWEEK
CO² verdancy
A new study finds that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have made the world a greener place — at least in some places.
A team of 32 scientists from 24 institutions in eight countries says that observations reveal between 25 and 50 percent of Earth’s vegetated surface has greened over the past three decades.
This, in turn, has slowed the pace of climate change as those plants drew in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
But co-author Philippe Ciais says that plants will eventually acclimate to rising CO2 concentrations, and the fertilization effect will diminish over time.
Other researchers say the Arctic is also greening rapidly, which could be catastrophic for sea level rise and accelerated global warming.
The last dance
Conservationists will try to bring Montserrat’s two remaining mountain chicken frogs together in the hope they will breed and save the species from local extinction.
The male and female are the only known survivors of chytrid fungus disease, which has rav- aged amphibian populations worldwide.
They currently live about 1,500 feet apart along one of the island’s rain forest streams. Artificial nests will be built to entice the female to stay near the male.
Locust warnings
The embattled Middle Eastern country of Yemen is bracing for what officials fear will be a large locust plague, which they are afraid to combat with pesticides out of fear of killing the bees that are vital to the country’s agriculture.
Ongoing civil conflict, amplified by foreign intervention by the United States, Iran and Saudi Arabia, is also hampering locust control and monitoring.
Teams say this resulted in them being unable to kill the locusts before the insects matured enough to swarm.
Rhino evacuation
A group of about 80 critically endangered rhinoceros from South Africa are to be shipped to Australia in a last-ditch effort to save them from extinction.
If the move is successful, wildlife groups say additional rhinos could be sent to Texas and Florida to establish other “insurance populations” and ensure a diverse gene pool.
About 1,300 of the animals were slaughtered in South Africa last year because of high demand from China and Vietnam for their horns.
“It’s not that we want to get the rhinos out of Africa, but we need to put some rhinos into a safe deposit box,” said Wouter van Hoven, director of the group South Africa’s Elephants, Rhinos and People.
Pacific cyclone
Samoa and American Samoa were spared significant damage from Category 2 Cyclone Amos. The storm passed just north of both South Pacific island groups, triggering local flash flooding.
Such cyclones are extremely rare in that part of the Pacific, but Amos was spawned by waters 2.7 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for this time of year.
Warming appeal
Scientists say one reason there is little public urgency to curb climate change is that global warming has so far brought the kind of weather most Americans like.
During the past 40 years, research shows 80 percent of Americans live where winters have become milder and summers have yet to become too hot for too long.
With the exception of more severe weather, Duke University and New York University researchers found that rainfall and humidity changes also have become more favorable.
But researchers caution that this is only a temporary trend, and that by the time Americans become uncomfortably hot, it will be too late to make the changes needed to curb global warming if carbon emissions haven’t already been cut.
Earthquakes
Buildings in western France were evacuated after a 5.0 magnitude quake struck the Charente-Maritime region.
• Earth movements were also felt in Taiwan, western Sumatra, southern Mexico and north-central Oklahoma.