Earthweek: a diary of the planet
Rescue failure
A desperate attempt to save the 30 surviving members of the world’s most endangered marine mammal species by capturing them and keeping them in human care has been abandoned. The plan to rescue the vaquitas by patrolling their small habitat in the Gulf of California with the help of dolphins trained by the U.S. Navy was halted soon after the first vaquita captured quickly showed signs of extreme stress and had to be released. A second died a few hours after being caught. “This is a very, very serious setback,” said project scientist Barbara Taylor, of the U.S. agency NOAA. She said the vaquitas’ only hope is to curb the illegal net fishing that inadvertently ensnares them.
Heated growth
The “urban heat island” effect is causing trees around the world’s cities to grow faster than those in the country, a new study finds. Concrete and other heat-absorbing materials that make up the urban landscape store more heat than the ground in the country.
This keeps cities significantly warmer, especially at night. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich compared core samples of 1,400 trees from several countries around the world in both urban and rural settings. They found that city trees of the same age as country trees were larger because they grew faster in the excess heat. Earlier studies found that global warming is causing faster tree growth in both urban and rural trees.
Global cleansing
Nations of the world have agreed to move toward a pollution-free planet, curbing contamination of the oceans, rivers, soil and
air. Every day, nine out of 10 people worldwide breathe in pollution that exceeds health guidelines, with 17,000 dying prematurely from it. Wildlife also is being poisoned. Meeting at a U.N. Environment Assembly in Nairobi, members also called for a shift in how goods are produced and used, especially plastics that wind up in the world’s oceans. But the non-binding declaration has no timetable and has not been signed onto by the United States.
Macaque mischief Forestry authorities in southwestern China’s Yunnan province captured a troublesome and elusive wild monkey that repeatedly had broken into homes at night. The macaque evaded capture for about two weeks before being cornered in a school dormitory, according to the China News Service. Macaques are notorious for their thievery and even extortion, according to researchers who recently published a study in the journal Primates. But as a protected species, the serial intruder will be released back into the wild after it gets a clean bill of health from a veterinarian.
Tropical cyclones Dozens of people perished in stormrelated accidents across Sri Lanka and southern India from Cyclone Ockhi, which briefly attained Category- 3 force. Short- lived Tropical Storm Dahlia churned the Indian Ocean between Java and northwestern Australia.
Eruption update Indonesian officials warned residents near Bali’s Mount Agung volcano to remain alert, though the volcano calmed down after days of explosive eruptions.
Earthquakes
At least 42 people in southeastern Iran were injured by a magnitude 6.0 quake that destroyed several homes near the provincial capital of Kerman. A strong earthquake centered near Ecuador’s Pacific Coast caused damage to some buildings and knocked out power. Earth movements also were felt in New Zealand’s North Island, the central Philippines, northern India, northern Oklahoma and around Anchorage, Alaska.
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