Earthweek: a diary of the planet
Climate conditions
A consortium of 11 leading medical societies, representing more than half of the doctors in the United States, launched a campaign to show how climate change is affecting people’s health. Its new report, “Medical Alert! Climate Change Is Harming Our Health,” says climate change is leading to more cardiorespiratory illness, the spread of infectious disease, and physical and mentalhealth problems from more frequent episodes of extreme weather. The report was delivered to Congress before being widely distributed.
“Doctors in every part of our country see that climate change is making Americans sicker,” said Dr. Mona Sarfaty, director of the new consortium and a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
Cyclone aftermath Remnants of Cyclone Enawo dissipated over central Madagascar after the storm left 78 people dead and 30 percent of the island’s vanilla crop damaged during the previous week.
Country buffets Honeybees appear to prefer the tasty pollen of rural settings to that of city environments, according to a new Ohio State University study. A team of researchers placed honeybee colonies in an apiary along a border where urban development sharply transitions into farmland. By analyzing how bees returned to the hives, they were able to determine the direction and distance of the pollinators’ forages. Lead researcher Douglas Sponsler said they found that though the bees weren’t particularly keen on the farm fields themselves, they were
attracted to large swaths of wild plants and weeds along roadsides and around the edges of crops.
Warming seas
The world’s oceans are heating up about 13 percent faster than previously believed, with the rate of warming since 1992 found to be twice as great as the warming rate measured since 1960. Researchers from leading U.S. and Chinese agencies made the discovery by correcting past data errors and by using more advanced climate computer models.
“The oceans are affecting weather and climate through more intense rains. This process is a major reason why 2016 was the hottest year ever recorded at the Earth’s surface,” the team wrote in a news release. “Additionally, 2015 was a year with record hurricanes, heat waves, droughts and wildfires around the world.”
Andean rumblings
Central Chile’s Chillan volcano was rocked by more than 700 tremors, many associated with the deep movement of magma. Other rumblings were associated with the superheating of groundwater by the resulting geothermal energy. Chillan is about 260 miles south of Santiago. Natural melt
The recent record melting of the Arctic sea ice is, to a large extent, the result of natural swings in climate, along with the global warming brought on by greenhouse gas emissions, new research finds. University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara researcher Qinghua Ding says that natural variations might have caused 30 percent to 50 percent of the decline in September sea-ice coverage since 1979. But he says that once the natural swing reverses, the increasing level of atmospheric carbon dioxide will become an even more overwhelming factor in the melting of Arctic ice.
Earthquakes
Two people were killed and some buildings were damaged by a temblor that jolted Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon.
Earth movements also were felt in Guam; New Zealand’s South Island; India’s Andaman Islands and its western state of Gujarat; western Montana; and far southern California.