Earthweek: A diary of the planet
Light pollution
Artificial light on the Earth’s surface at night grew by about 2 percent in each of the past five years, causing concern that light pollution could affect both people and wildlife. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cautions that the satellite sensors used to detect the planet’s lighting can’t observe some of the increasingly common LED lighting, meaning the analysis of the observations could be underestimating the amount of light pollution. Ecologist Franz Hölker, of Germany’s Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, warned that the light “threatens biodiversity through changed night habits, such as reproduction or migration patterns of many different species: insects, amphibians, fish, birds, bats and other animals.”
Earthquakes
At least 36 people were injured when a magnitude 4.5 quake jolted the western Iran border with Iraq, near where a much stronger earthquake
killed 530 earlier in November. Earth movements also were felt in southwestern Turkey and south-central Alaska.
Southern cyclone Indonesia’s meteorological agency said the first tropical cyclone of the season in the Southern Hemisphere formed just south of the island of Java. As it was forming, Cyclone Cempaka killed at least 19 people on Java, mainly in a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall.
Disease drones
An international team of researchers suggests that the common fly could be used
as a kind of bionic drone to monitor and predict the progression of disease outbreaks. Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the scientists say they found that swarms of flies can carry several hundred different species of bacteria, some of which can be harmful to humans. Researcher Stephan Schuster and his colleagues in Singapore suggest that flies bred to be germ-free could be released into the environment, then later captured in bait traps to see whether they had picked up any dangerous pathogens.
Israeli snow birds Ornithologists say climate change has prompted some of the 500 million migratory birds that used to stop off only briefly in Israel to stay for the winter rather than cross an increasingly hostile and expanding desert region to the south. Because 40,000 newly wintering cranes like to feast on the corn and peanuts growing around Agamon Hula Lake, Israel has resorted to feeding the birds up to 9 tons of corn a day to keep them away from the crops. “It’s harder for the birds to cross a much larger desert and they just cannot do it. There is not enough fuel, there are not enough ‘gas stations’ on the way, so Israel has become their biggest gas station, their biggest restaurant,” said ornithologist Shay Agmon. Antimatter bolt
New studies have revealed that the intense power introduced into the atmosphere by lightning can result in matter-antimatter annihilation in a series of radioactive decays that follow some strikes. Writing in the journal Nature, a team of Japanese researchers found that electric fields within thunderstorms are able to accelerate electrons to extremely high energies, generating a zone that contains unstable isotopes of oxygen and nitrogen. Radioisotopes and even positrons — the antimatter equivalent of electrons — are formed in the process. More research is needed to determine whether the powerful flashes pose a radiation hazard to people on the ground.
Bali eruptions
Indonesia’s Mount Agung belched plumes of ash and created tremors that shook parts of Bali during a string of eruptions that ended the volcano’s 54-year slumber. Authorities told 100,000 residents around the volcano to leave the area as ash also forced the extended closure of Bali’s international airport.