Earthweek: a diary of the planet
Warming demand
Utility companies might underestimate just how much electricity will be needed to power the increased use of air-conditioners worldwide as the planet warms, a new study finds.
Scientists from the University at Buffalo and Purdue University say they have found a better way to figure the need for energy, based on more accurate predictors that include mean dew point temperatures and extreme maximum temperatures.
“Existing energy-demand models haven’t kept pace with our increasing knowledge of how the climate is changing,” said lead researcher Sayanti Mukherjee. Underestimating future needs could result in more power failures, threatening our high-tech economy and national security, she warns.
Earthquakes
A 3.8 earthquake along the PakistanIndia border sent people rushing out of homes and other buildings. Earth movements also were felt in northwest Sumatra, southern Greece and southern New Hampshire. Squirrel scourge
Farmers in New England are vexed by unusually large numbers of squirrels that are gnawing their way through pumpkin patches, cornfields and apple orchards this fall.
Robert Randall, who has a 60-acre orchard in Standish, Maine, told The Associated Press: “They’re raising some hell this year. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen.”
The squirrel population boom appears to have been fueled by a bumper crop of acorns and other food, according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. Growers say one of the more infuriating aspects of the squirrels is that they often take a single
bite then move on. But just one bite is all it takes to ruin fruit. The rodents are now being killed in greater numbers by passing vehicles as they dart to find their next meal.
Flood frequency
The surge in rainfall across the Amazon Basin over the past few decades is triggering a significant increase in the frequency and severity of floods in that region. Though the frequency of Amazon droughts also has increased, researchers from Britain and Chile found that severe floods that once swamped the Brazilian city of Manaus roughly every 20 years now occur on average every four years. The more frequent inundations contaminate water supplies and spread disease as they destroy homes, agriculture and livelihoods.
A ‘perfect storm’
The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning that the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo could spread quickly across the northeast of the country and beyond due to attacks by armed rebel groups and local resistance to vaccination in the area where the disease already has spread. The U.N. agency says this “perfect storm” of conditions could mean the hemorrhagic fever could go on to kill far more than the 100 people who already have died in the outbreak, out of about 150 reported cases.
The WHO has been forced to suspend its operations in one city due to a rebel attack that killed 21 people and caused the community to shut down in mourning.
Fiery eruption
A mud volcano erupted outside the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, sending plumes of smoke and flames nearly 1,000 feet into the sky. The Otman-Bozdag volcano is said to be the world’s second-largest, but it posed no threat to populated areas. Mud volcanoes are smaller than their lava-producing counterparts.
Tropical cyclones
Powerful Typhoon Trami was bearing down on storm-weary southern Japan late in the week and expected to bring life-threatening conditions by the weekend. The Solomon Islands were drenched by Tropical Storm Liua, which came about a month early for a South Pacific storm and formed over the northern Coral Sea. In addition, tropical storms Leslie and Kirk developed over the Atlantic. And Hurricane Rosa passed over the Pacific, to the west of Mexico.