Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (Week Ending Jan. 18, 2013)

Warming's Dark Side
Black soot spewedinto the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, wood and cropland has a far greater impact on climate than previously thought, according tonew research.  In a report published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, scientists say the pollutant is second only to carbon dioxide as the most powerful driver of climate change.  They add that black carbon also kills more than a million people each year who breathe it in.  Beijing is currently suffering its worst bout of hazardous air pollution on record sending people to hospitals with respiratory problems and keeping most people indoors.  The report says tackling soot would have an almost immediate cooling effect on the planet because of the brief time it remains suspended in the atmosphere.  But Piers Forster, from the Universityof Leeds, says that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the only way to really ease global warming.
Climate Consequences
The U.S. government warns that the country will face more frequent outbreaks of severe weather and other adverse conditions over the coming decades as climate change raises temperatures far beyond levels currently being prepared for.  The Third National Climate Assessment directly attributes the increase in heat waves and storms expected later this century on greenhouse gas emissions.  The report said there is "strong evidence" that human activity has already roughly doubled the likelihood of more excessive heat, like Texas and Oklahoma suffered in 2011.  The report concludes that climate change "threatens human health and well-being in many ways," especially due to more frequent storms, wildfires, diseases and unhealthful air quality.
Tuna Peril
Decades of overfishing in the Pacific have caused populations of tuna and similar species there to plummet, according to a new report.  The International Scientific Committee to Study the Tuna and Tuna-Like Species of the North Pacific Ocean paints a grim picture of the future for what are the most popular fish sold in markets around the world.  The joint Japan-U.S. fisheries research organization cautions that Pacific bluefin "is near historically low levels and being fished beyond its ability to reproduce.  Most international attention to overfishing has been focused recently on varieties in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.  But overfishing to meet the demand for sushi has put all of the world's fish in the mackerel, tuna and bonito family on the endangered list.  The latest U.S.-Japan warnings highlight just how severely overfishing is affecting the world's oceans.
Strombolian Blasts
Italy's Stromboli volcano north of Sicily produced spectacular lava flows and plumes of ash that soared high above the island that shares its name.  The volcano has been in a nearly continous state of eruption since 1934, but the latest activity was so intense that it frightened even long-term residents.  Mayor Marco Giorgianni had to assure the island's 500 inhabitants that they were not at risk.
Tropical Cyclones
Former Category 5 Cyclone Narelle remained well off the Western Australia coast as it moved southward across the far eastern Indian Ocean.  The storm was a threat only to shipping lanes.
*  Tropical Storm Emang passed over open waters of the Indian Ocean.
Earthquakes
A mild earthquake jolted the site of the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  The 3.8 magnitude jolt was felt on the upper floors of tall buildings in the Black Sea resort.  A suspected underwater volcano was reported during the previous week to have melted a fiber-optic cable running off the coast of Sochi, affecting communications between the city and neighboring Georgia.
 *  Earth movements were also felt in northern Tasmania, south-central Alaska, central Oklahoma and the coast of Maine.
A Human Introduction
A remote and previously unknown colony of about 9,000 emperor penguins has received its first human visitors after being discovered in astellite images.  Three Antarctica experts from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth polar research station became the first people to visit and photograph the massive colony.  "It was almost midnight when we succeeded in finding a way down to the ice through crevasses and approached the first of five groups of more than a thousand individuals, three-quarters of which were chicks," said expedition leader Alain Hubert.  "This was an unforgttable moment."  The colony was detected when satellllite image analysts spotted the dark telltale tracks of droppings the birds leave behind on the snow and ice.  The Belgium researches happened to have been studying ice loss nearby and decided to make a detour to explore the colony.  Emperor penguins spend much of their lives feeding in the sea.  But they gather in often great numbers on ice when it comes time to breed.