Arctic Minimum
Arctic sea ice melted to the lowest extent of the year on Sept. 13, reaching the sixth-lowest coverage in the satellite observation record from 1979 to 2013. The 2 million square miles of ice coverage left on that last year's record low. In September 2012, the collapse of sea ice broke all records when the polar ice cap melted to only 1.3 million square miles. This year's minimum was also considerably lower than the average set over the past 30 years. Climate models have consistently projected that there will be large variations in summer ice from year to year. But some climate change skeptics claim the "rebound" of the Arctic sea ice is proof that the prevailing scientific view of a warming planet is wrong. "What matters is that the 10 lowest (sea ice) extents recorded have happened during the last 10 years," said Walt Meier, a glaciologist with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The long-term trend is strongly downward."
Earthquakes
A wide stretch of central Greece was jolted by a moderate earthquake that was also felt in the capital of Athens.
* Earth movements were also felt in eastern Turkey, western Bulgaria, eastern Taiwan, southern Kansas and inside northwest Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park.
Sumatra Eruptions
A western Indonesia volcano sent more than 15,000 people fleeing for their lives when it suddenly roared back to life. The two eruptions of Mount Sinabung pelted nearby villages with superheated rocks that ignited forest fires on the volcano's slopes.
Antibiotic Warning
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called on the health care industry and agriculture to cut back on the use of antibiotics to avoid worsening resistance to the medications. "If we don't act now, our medicine cabinet will be empty and we won't have the antibiotics we need to save lives," warned CDC director Tom Frieden. The center estimates that 23,000 Americans die each year due to bacteria already resistant to even the most potent forms of the medicine. It warns that patients need to understand that antibiotics are not the solution to every illness, and that half of the prescriptions written for them by doctors are unnecessary. Pressure is also mounting for the FDA to ban feeding antibiotics to livestock just to fatten them up.
Tropical Cyclones
The broad and entwined circulations of Hurricane Manuel in the Pacific and Hurricane Ingrid in the western Gulf of Mexico created "historic" flooding and mudslides that killed at least 80 people across Mexico. The Pacific resort of Acapulco was especially affected, with at least 21 people perishing in mudslides that buried several homes. Ingrid was responsible for numerous deaths in the south and east of the country.
* Almost the entire length of Japan was drenched by Typhoon Man-yi, which caused "unprecedented" flooding that forced a quarter of a million people into shelters. The excessive rainfall also forced the Tokyo Electric Power Co. to discharge accumulating radioactive water from the meltdown-plagued Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific to prevent the complex from flooding.
* Typhoon Usagi was taking aim on South China late in the week.
Hawaiian Spill
Tens of thousands of fish died in Honolulu Harbor after 1,400 tons of molasses spilled from a leaky pipe as the sugary substance was being moved from storage tanks to a ship. The Hawaii Department of Health said that no endangered species have been identified among the more than 26,000 dead fish, shellfish and other marine life collected. Officials said the spill was one of the worst man-made disasters to strike Hawaii in recent memory. "There's nothing you can do to clean up molasses," said Jeff Hull, a spokesman for Matson Inc., the shipping company responsible for the leak. "It's sunk to the bottom of the harbor. Unlike oil, which can be cleaned from the surface, molasses sinks."
Bird Friendship Study
Shy "birds of a feather" do flock together, according to a new study. Researchers from Oxford University and the Australian National University, who analyzed the social network of great tits near Oxford, discovered that shy male and female birds don't interact with as many different individuals as their bolder counterparts, but they also tend to have more stable relationships. That means they are with the same individuals more often over time. Thousands of birds in the study were tagged with tiny RFID transponders that allowed them to be tracked over an entire winter by sensors at 65 feeding stations. The researchers conclude that the difference in behavior is likely due to the differing responses to risk ----- with shy birds tending to engage in low-risk/low-reward behavior while their bolder counterparts engage in high-risk/high-reward activities.
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