Earthweek: Diary of a Changing World
Week ending Friday, February 10, 2023
Road to Extinction
A new report by the group Natureserve says 34% of all plants and 40% of all animals in the U.S. are at risk of extinction. Authors of the report say the warning is based on 50 years of extensive data collected by the nonprofit. “Two-fifths of our ecosystems are in trouble,” said the Virginia-based group’s vice president for data and methods, Regan Smyth. “Freshwater invertebrates and many pollinators, the foundation of a healthy, functional planet, are in precipitous decline.” Most “imperiled” are all of the country’s tropical forests, tropical savannas and various grasslands.
Earthquakes
Two of the most devastating quakes to strike southcentral Turkey and northwestern Syria in generations killed untold thousands of victims. • Tremors were also felt in the Myanmar-india border region, the Philippine island of Mindanao, the southern Canadian Rockies, western New York and the southern Dominican Republic.
Bird Flu Risks
U.N. health experts say that even though bird flu has recently been detected in minks, otters, seals, foxes and bears, they believe the current prevailing strain of H5N1 avian influenza would have to undergo significant mutation to be able to spread among humans. Europe is currently in the grip of its worst-ever outbreak of the disease, which has led to tens of millions of poultry being culled worldwide as well as a massive death toll among wild birds in several regions. The H5N1 strain of the virus first emerged in mainland China and Hong Kong in 1996. Experts say that should it somehow manage to mutate and circulate in humans, the current flu vaccines could easily be updated to provide protection.
Connections
The vast burning of trees in the Amazon has been linked to the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas and even Antarctica due to newly discovered atmospheric pathways that threaten to push some regional climates beyond tipping points that cannot be reversed. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, an international team of researchers says the AmazonHimalayan climate connection stretches 12,400 miles from Brazil to Tibet. That means that as the Amazon warms and receives more rainfall, the mountains of South Asia get less precipitation and become warmer.
Eruptions
Vanuatu’s East Epi undersea volcano spewed ash and vapor into the air, prompting officials to warn nearby residents of Epi, Tongoa and surrounding islands to stay clear of the eruption. • Rumblings and small blasts from the Showa crater of southern Japan’s Sakurajima volcano sent debris soaring over Kyushu Island for the first time since April 2018.
‘Toadzilla’
A giant toad discovered deep in an Australian rainforest is believed to be the largest in the world. Dubbed by forest rangers “Toadzilla,” the gargantuan amphibian weighed 6 pounds, which is 0.11 pound heavier than a Swedish pet toad listed in 1991 as the heaviest by Guinness. But all did not end well for Toadzilla. Because it is an invasive species in Australia, it was euthanized due to what rangers called its “ecological impact.” Most toads typically meet the same fate when found across Australia. “Potentially, cane toads like Toadzilla would lay up to 35,000 eggs. So their capacity to reproduce is quite staggering,” said park ranger Barry Nola.
Tropical Cyclones
A stretch of water from the Coral Sea to the northern tip of New Zealand was churned by Cyclone Gabrielle. • Cyclone Freddy formed south of Bali before storming westward across the Indian Ocean.