Earthweek: a diary of the planet
For the week ending Friday, July 22.
Cooling spell
Forecasters around the world say a La Niña cooling of the tropical Pacific is likely to develop between August and October. This reverse phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation has its own set of global weather effects, but they are generally less damaging. The developing cool strip across the tropical Pacific probably means 2017 won’t be a record warm year, but the cooling trend would only bring a temporary reprieve from global warming.
Hippo-size drought
A protracted drought in southwestern Africa has not only left more than a half-million humans in urgent need of food aid, but it has also affected thousands of endangered animals. Namibia’s New Era reports that the drying up of the Chobe River is causing hippos and crocodiles to become trapped in muddy pools developing along the waterway.
Angrier birds
Another study comparing the lives of city and country birds found that those in urban areas are “angrier” than their rural counterparts, exhibiting significantly higher levels of territorial aggression. “A possible reason for this is that these birds have less space but better resources to defend,” said Scott Davies, a Virginia Tech researcher who conducted the study.
Mock quake
What seismologists first thought was an unprecedented tremor off Florida’s Atlantic coast was actually a “shock trial” on the Navy’s combat ship Jackson, in which a powerful underwater explosion was detonated near the ship.
Warming threshold
Global temperatures this year have almost warmed to levels that a 2015 international agreement to curb greenhouse emissions was designed to avoid. NASA’s chief climate scientist says 2016 is by far the warmest year on record. This occurred as the Arctic sea ice cover shrank to the smallest ever observed. Climate experts are predicting that 2016 is likely to become the third consecutive year to be the hottest on record.
Orbital fireball
Residents on New Zealand’s South Island were startled by what appeared to be a slowly moving meteor that lit up the evening sky for about 30 seconds. But astronomer Alan Gilmore said the fiery flash lasted much too long to have been a meteor, and it was probably a spacecraft or piece of space junk re-entering the atmosphere.