Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (April 18, 2014)

U.N. Climate Warning
The latest report by the U.N. group responsible for assessing climate change says the world is running out of time to keep global warming from exceeding the 2 degrees Celsius limit (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) agreed to in 2010.  If greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed sharply, and soon, climate experts say that by 2100, temperatures will rise by between 3.7 and 4.8 degrees Celsius (6.6 and 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times.  China, the United States and Europe are the top emitterss.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) cautions in the new report that there must be a "massive shift" to renewable energy to avert more severe heat waves, droughts and rising sea levels.  The IPCC has said there is a 95 percent probability that climate change since 1950 is mainly due to human activities rather than natural variations.
Orchid Renewal
Botanists in Miami are enlisting local students to help raise a million native orchids in an attempt to repopulate the plants, which once covered South Florida.  Collectors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries virtually wiped out the plants by selling them to northern customers.  "We want to bring back not just the orchids, but the insects that pollinate them." said Carl Lewis, who leads the Million Orchid Project and is director of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.  The garden has been trying various methods to see what stimulates the fastest growth.  Once the initial batchof orchids is gently placed in trees that line South Florida roadways, students from 250 area schools will keep track of the orchids in their neighborhoods.  Those observations will help the botanists determine how best to introduce even more of the colorful plants.
El Nino
Weeks of speculation by various weather agencies about a possible re-emergence of El Nino later this year have led Australia's Bureau of Meteorology to predict that there is now a more than 70 percent chance of the ocean warming's return.  That country is especially vulnerable to weather shifts from the phenomenon, which typically returns about every three to seven years.  El Nino usually brings drier-than normal conditions to Australia, now suffering from a drought in the northeast that has forced ranchers to cull cows.  The U.S. agency NOAA estimates the chance of El Nino expanding across the tropical Pacific during the Northern Hemisphere's summer at about 50 percent.  During the worst El Nino on record in 1997-98, the warming brought devastating storms to California and costly drought to southern parts of the U.S.
Earthquakes
Nicaragua was rocked by a series of quakes that damaged homes and injured hundreds of residents.
*      A series of powerful temblors jolted the Solomon Islands and parts of neighboring Papua New Guinea, with the strongest two prompting brief tsunami alerts across the Pacific.
*      Earth Movements were felt in the English Midlands, south-central Alaska and central Idaho.
Andean Eruption
Peru's Ubinas volcano spewed ash high above the Andes Mountains in the south of the country during a violent eruption that forced the evacuation of nearby residents.  The country's mining institute said the mountain awakened with explosions that also shot out white-hot chunks of rock, some as large as 1 foot in diameter.
Tropical Cyclone
Australia's northern Queensland coast was lashed by powerful Cyclone Ita, which was the strongest such storm to strike the region in three years.  The cyclone made landfall as a Category-4 storm on the international Saffir-Simpson scale very near Cooktown.  Officials estimate Ita inflicted more than $1 billion in damage, including the destruction of a banana plantation and large tracts of sugarcane crops.  Remnants of the storm later hit New Zealand with high winds and squalls that knocked out power and caused numerous traffic accidents.
Myna Menaces
Zimbabwe wildlife experts say that the invasive myna bird has arrived in the southern African nation, posing a threat to indigenous bird species.   The common, or Indian, mynas have become serious pests in many areas of the world where they have been introduced.  In South Africa, the birds have been observed killing other birds chicks and taking over the nest.   The first birds to escape captivity and breed in the African wild established a population around the South African port of Durban in the early 20th century.  Australian officials conduct frequent and aggressive culling campaigns to protect both indigenous parrots and marsupials from the birds.  Mynas, which are members of the starling family and native to South Asia, can easily adapt to new environments and have been kept as pets because of their unique ability to vocalize, or "talk."  They breed in stolen nests, beneath bridges, in roofs and urban trees, as well as on lampposts and other structures.