Earthweek: a diary of the planet

For the week ending Friday, Sept. 1.

Tropical cyclones

The Texas and western Louisiana Gulf Coast received catastrophic flooding and wind damage from a five-day rampage by Hurricane Harvey. The former Category-4 storm dumped more rainfall than any other tropical cyclone in North American historical records.

> Tropical Storm Pakhar lashed Hong Kong and Macau just four days after Typhoon Hato killed 10 people and caused serious flooding. Typhoon Sanvu churned the Pacific east of Japan.

Amazon mining

An Amazon nature reserve created in 1984 by Brazil’s then-military government, and believed to be rich in gold and other minerals, was at least temporarily saved from being abolished. A federal court in the capital of Brasilia blocked President Michel Temer’s decree that would have opened up about 30 percent of the area to mining. The mining and energy ministry said that the reserve’s protected forest would not have been affected. Conservation groups denounced the president’s attempt as “the biggest attack on the Amazon of the last 50 years.”

Drought hazard

A protracted drought around Rwanda’s capital has resulted in seven people being killed by crocodiles during August as they tried to draw water from the diminished Nyabarongo River. Local officials stepped up to provide clean water supplies to the affected area.

Shrinking Caspian

Increased evaporation of the Caspian Sea has caused the central Asian lake to shrink to near the historic low set in the 1970s. Researchers from the University of Texas and colleagues from Russia, France and Azerbaijan say they expect it will continue to decline under what they describe as “global warming scenarios.” The researchers predict that evaporation could cause the lake’s northern waters to vanish within 75 years.

Monsoon disaster

High water from the worst monsoon flooding in years has stranded millions of people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, killing and killed more than 1,200. Some are being housed in relief camps, while others are living with no shelter. Many of Bangladesh’s crops have been lost in the inundation, which will worsen the shortage caused when 1 million tons of rice was destroyed by floods in April.

Roach exodus

Thousands of cockroaches appeared to flee Typhoon Hato’s fury by marching along a seawall as the storm struck Hong Kong and Macau. Hong Kong’s TV Most showed video of the horde, which could be seen clearly as high waves crashed onto the wall.