Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (Oct. 4, 2013)

Ice-Free Shortcut
A Danish-owned cargo ship carried a 73,500-ton load of coal through northern Canada's Northwest Passage in September, making it the first such bulk carrier in history to navigate the Arctic route.  The Nordic Orion left Vancouver on Sept. 17 enroute to Finland on a shortcut that saved the owners nearly $200,000 in costs and trimmed about 1,000 nautical miles off the voyage.  The ship was also able to carry about 25 percent more coal since the depth of the Panama Canal, through which it normally would have sailed, is too shallow for such a bulky load.  Despite this past summer's more limited Arctic sea ice melt, a growing number of shippers are looking to use the Northwest Passage in the years ahead as the Arctic becomes more ice-free.
Climate Refugees
The greater summertime melt of Arctic sea ice due to recent climate change has forced thousands of walrus onto a remote barrier island in northwestern Alaska.  Residents of the Inupiat Eskimo village of Point Lay, about 700 miles northwest of Anchorage, alerted officials to the approximately 10,000 walrus left without their usual sea ice habitat.  Villagers and aircraft are asked to avoid frightening the animals into deadly stampedes.  Similar desperate strandings have occurred in all but two years since 2007, when Arctic sea ice began to dramatically disappear during summer.  Walrus breed on the floating ice and use it as a diving platform to reach and feed on small bottom-dwelling animals such as worms and clams on the shallow continental shelf below.  But the ice has retreated northward during recent summers to where the Arctic is 10,000 feet deep, making it impossible for the walrus to reach the bottom.
Killer Hornets
Swarms of the world's largest hornets killed at least 41 people and injured 1,630 others in central China's Shaanxi province.  Some victims said they were chased for hundreds of yards by the insects.  One woman says she was left incontinent after receiving more than 200 stings.  Xinhua reports 206 other victims are still being treated in hospitals, with 37 reported in critical condition.  Warmer weather is being blamed for the hornets breeding more successfully, and people are moving into formerly wild areas where they are disturbing nests.  The Asian giant hornet, or Vespa mandarinia, can reach 2 inches in length and can fly up to 60 miles in a single day at speeds of up to 25 mph.
Tropical Cyclones
Typhoon Wutip drenched central and northern parts of Vietnam as well as Laos and northeastern Thailand.  After leaving 60 Chinese fishermen missing when their vessels were sunk in the tempest, the tropical cyclone killed three others on land.
*   Tropical Storm Sepat passed off eastern Japan while Typhoon Fitow lashed Okinawa late in the week.
*   Tropical Storm Karen approached the Gulf Coast as Jerry churned the central Atlantic.
Earthquakes
Southwestern Pakistan was jolted by another deadly quake just four days after a more powerful one devastated parts of the region.  At least 22 new fatalities brought the combined death toll to more than 600 in Baluchistan province.
*   Earth movements were also felt in western Australia, two areas of New Zealand, eastern India's Sikkim state and northeastern Spain.
Jellyfish Jam
One of the world's largest nuclear power reactors was forced to shut down after masses of jellyfish clogged pipes carrying seawater that cools the plant's three reactors and turbine generators.  Officials at Sweeden's Oskarshamn nuclear power station scrambled to shut down reactor No.3 after tons of the common moon jellyfish became caught in the pipes.  Spokesman Anders Osterberg said the jellyfish entered the pipes at about 60 feet below the surface of the Baltic Sea.  But he said they had not gotten through the plant's filters or come anywhere near the reactors.  All of Oskarshamn's reactors are boiling-water types, like those at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, which suffered meltdowns following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Rat Detectives
Dutch police are training a unit of rats to help the force take a bite out of crime.  The relatively low cost of about $13 to purchase and train each of the rodents make them competitive with police dogs.  The canines can cost hundreds of dollars more to obtain and be readied for duty.  "They (rats) need barely 10 to 15 days to learn to distinguish a certain smell," the policewoman in charge of the project, Monique Hamerslag, told Agence France Presse.  The rat detectives might be called upon as early as next year.  But unlike dogs, rats are shy and don't do well working at crime scenes, such as finding where bodies are located or sniffing out drugs in shipping containers.  However, they do well in identifying evidence brought to them in a controlled and quiet setting.