Earthweek: a diary of the planet

Climate alarm

Those attending a U.N. climatechange summit in Poland were warned that today’s generation is the last that can prevent catastrophic global warming by eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions.

Famed British naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, who attended the gathering, gave this dire warning: “If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”

The summit convened as scientists announced that the past four years have been the hottest on record, and that the planet’s average temperature is on track to rise between 3 and 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 F) by the end of the century. A new report released in conjunction with the summit said that instead of falling around the world as agreed to by world governments, global carbon emissions will jump 2.7 percent to a record high by the end of 2018, mainly due to booming industrial output.

Bovine outlook

Canadian researchers say

they have found that dairy cows can be either optimistic or pessimistic from an early age, influencing their ability to cope with stress.

A study by the University of British Columbia says this has implications for how human dispositions are related to outcomes in life and mental health.

The scientists identified cows as fearful, pessimistic, optimistic or sociable, and how each type reacted to stressful situations, such as being transported.

Their reactions were determined by measuring eye temperatures of the animals, which elevate with stress. The calves characterized as pessimistic were more vocal and had higher eye temperatures under stress. Earthquakes

Anchorage, Alaska, was rocked by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that caused widespread damage to roads and buildings Nov. 30. Also this past week, an undersea earthquake off New Caledonia created small South Pacific tsunamis. Earth movements also were felt in islands of the Banda Sea; central Chile; Buenos Aires, Aregentina; the deserts of Southern California; and northeastern New Hampshire.

Tropical cyclone

Tropical Storm Owen briefly spun up between the Solomon Islands and northeastern Australia. Carbon eaters

Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin say they have discovered dozens of new species of exotic bacteria in extremely hot deep-sea ocean sediment that appear to have the ability to consume hydrocarbons such as methane and butane to survive and thrive.

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers say the microbes might be harnessed to curb the concentrations of some greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and someday even help clean up oil spills. The bacteria, found in the Guaymas Basin of the Gulf of California, are so genetically different from other known species that they represent new branches in Earth’s tree of life. Mysterious waves

Twenty minutes of tiny vibrations emanating off Madagascar’s west coast were clocked at about 9,000 mph as they rushed around the world Nov. 11. But the seismic ripples were of such a low frequency that they weren’t felt even near the source, and they didn’t trigger any alerts in the worldwide earthquake detection systems.The vibrations took about 40 minutes to reach Britain, and an hour and 15 minutes to reach sensors in Hawaii. The leading theory is that the mysterious rumblings were caused by magma draining from a volcanic chamber about 10 miles beneath the seabed.

Eruption ends?

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano might have reached the end of an eruption that has gone on almost continually for 35 years.

The record-long eruption was punctuated this year by lava flows that devastated neighborhoods and roads. But no lava has emerged for the past three months —the longest pause since the eruption began in 1983.

©2018 Earth Environment Service