Earthweek: a diary of the planet

For the week ending Friday, Feb. 13.

Birds versus fish

Two sets of conservationists are at odds over plans to kill 11,000 double-crested cormorants on Oregon’s East Sand Island to protect endangered juvenile salmon and steelhead trout in the Columbia River. The Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to cull the seabirds with shotguns and pour oil on nests to prevent eggs from hatching. Environmental groups criticize the move, but the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission counters that it’s hard for the fish to make it through dams on the river without being eaten by the cormorants at the river’s mouth.

Croc fun

A crocodile may not seem like a human’s best choice for a playmate, but research reveals the reptiles love to have fun. Vladimir Dinets, a zoologist at the University of Tennessee, says he found that crocs can form powerful relations humans. “A man who rescued a crocodile that had been shot in the head became close friends with the animal. They happily played every day until the crocodile’s death 20 years later,” he says.

Eruption

Guatemala’s Fuego (fire) volcano spewed black ash and incandescent rocks across the south of the country. The eruption forced the main international airport in the capital to halt operations until workers could clear the runways of ash. Residents were urged to use masks or wet cloths to avoid inhaling dangerous volcanic debris. A powerful eruption of Fuego in 2012 forced several thousand people to flee the volcano’s slopes.

An El Niño dud?

Has there been an El Niño over the past few months or not? Some Californians would like to think their brief but potent bouts of storms were brought by what has been a marginal ocean warming of the tropical Pacific. But San Francisco still just had its driest January on record. And while some global weather patterns have been similar to what would be expected during an El Niño, the main characteristics of the phenomenon have not really set in.

Solar consistency

New analysis of solar observations dating to 1610 indicates that the sun is no more active today than in most other times, debunking claims that it is responsible for global warming. While sunspots virtually disappeared during a period from 1645 to 1715 known as the Maunder minimum, there have been times in the past 400 years when the sun has been as fired up as in recent decades, scientists point out. “It has been a huge surprise to observe that in the 18th century, the levels of the sun’s activity were practically the same as they are now,” says José M. Vaquero, a researcher at Spain’s University of Extremadura.