Earthweek : A Diary of the Planet (Week Ending Dec. 21, 2012)

Greenhouse Record
The amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide spwed annually into the atmosphere by human activities is expected to reach a record high by the end of this year, according to new figures released by the Global Carbon Project.  Researchers there, including scientists at Britain's Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, project a 2.6 percent rise in mean global emissions from burning fossil fuels during 2012.  Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers say significant emission cuts are needed by 2020 to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius as a feasible goal.  But many others have said that it is already too late to prevent exceeding that goal, no matter what is done with emissions.  World delegates in the second week of the U.N. climate conference in Doha, Qatar, appear to be failing to reach any significant consensus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  "If we don't completely rethink and radically accelerate the plans to reverse global warming,  we will, in all likelihood, create catastrophic climate change in our lifetime," warned Global Carbon Project head Josep Canadell.

Snow's Retreat
Snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere melted last summer to the lowest level ever observed since satellite monitoring began 45 years ago.   Data from various environment agencies also show that record lows of snow cover have been observed in NorthAmerica during three of the past five years.  The maximum extent of winter snow has also been falling, while spring snow, especially at higher latitudes, is observed melting far ealier.  Scientists say the retreat of the snow coverage is occuring much fasteer than projected by the leading climate models.

Delayed Arrivals
New research has found that many migrating birds were delayed in reaching their summer breeding grounds in Northern Europe during 2011 due to a serve drought along their flyway in the Horn of Africa.  Writing in the journal Science, University of Copenhagen researcher Anders Tottrup said he and colleagues used miniature tracking devices to monitor the migratory patterns of red-backed shrikes and thrush nightingales from 2009 to 2012.  They found that the birds arrival in 2011 was among the latest ever before documented.  Tottrup says acute La Nina-induced drought in the spring of 2011 ravaged the food supplies that the birds typically fuel up on.  This made it harder for them to build up fat for the final leg of their journey, resulting in the delayed arrival.

Earthquakes
At least eight people were killed when a 5.6 magnitude temblor rocked the area around the notheastern Iranian city of Zahan.  Scores of injuries were also reported by the shallow temblor, which caused many homes and other buildings to collapse around the epicenter.
Earth movements were also felt in Taiwan, China's Sichuan province, eastern Bulgaria, south-central Alaska and southern Maine.

Tropical Cyclone
Flash flooding and high winds from Super Typhoon Bopha killed hundreds of people across the southern Philippines.  While the former Category 5 storm weakened somewhat before striking Mindanao Island's eastern coast, it still dumped torrential rainfall that was responsible for most of the fatalities.

Wildlife Alert
Kenyan officials say the country's elephant and zebra populations have dropped sharply over the last four years, mainly due to poaching, demand for ivory, drought and climate change.  Kenya Wildlife Service director William Kipkoech says the number of elephants fell from 7,415 to 6,361 during the period.  There are currently only about 1,870 zebras across the country compared to 2,400 in 2008.  After decades of successful conservation and law enforcement efforts to save Africa's wildlife, conservation groups are sounding the alarm that rhinos and elephants are increasingly being poached.

Lobster Cannibalism
A booming population of lobsters off the Maine coast appears to be crowding the crustaceans into cannibalism, researchers say.  It's long been known that the sea creatures will attack and eat each other if crammed into confined spaces.  This is why their claws are banded when they are put into supermarket lobster tanks.  But now Richard Wahle, a marine sciences professor at the University of Maine, says he's observed the behavior for the first time in the wild.  "We've got the lobsters feeding back on themselves just because they're so abundant," he told Reuters.  He blames the population boom on warming waters in the Gulf of Maine due to climate change.  Using special underwater photography, Wahle and graduate student Noah Oppenheim found that during the daytime, fish are what typically feed on young lobsters.  But at night, most of the attacks on the small lobsters were from their larger counterparts.