Earthweek:A Diary of the Planet (Oct. 3, 2014)

Warming Extremes
New reports have found evidence for the first time that some extreme weather can be attributed to ritish man-made global warming.  Experts have long maintained that no single event, like a drought, heat wave or storm, could be linked to climate change.  But a growing number now say their thinking has changed, thanks to better computer models.  The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society released on Sept. 29 looks at 22 studies on 2013 climate extremes.  While scientists say they could not find a global warming link to events such as an early South Dakota blizzard, freak storms in Germany and a cold British spring, other weather extremes had clear finger-prints of climate change.  By running multiple global climate models, five independent studies found that decades of burning fossil fuels have made heat waves like those that baked eastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand in 2013 far more likely.  A Stanford study found greenhouse gas emissions now make rain-blocking ridges of high pressure three times more likely to bring drought to California.
Deforestation Halt
Five leading palm oil producers announced they will stop expanding their plantations through deforestation --------- a move hailed by environmental groups.  The five join other corporations, including Cagill, that had already agreed to stop.  Palm oil is used in cooking and various products.  It's among the consumer items that create the greatest ecological damage.  Deforestation has endangered a third of all mammals in Indonesia, including orangutans.  It's estimated that the record deforestation accounts for 85 percent of Indonesia's contribution to global warming.  Palm oil deforestation in Malaysia ranks a close second.
Deadly Eruption
At least 47 people perished around the summit of Japan's Mount Ontake volcano when the mountain erupted without warning during a busy hiking weekend.  Dozen of others sustained injuries in the disaster, including people who were hit by flying stones and inhaled hot, poisonous fumes.  But many of the hikers survived by taking refuge in mountaintop shelters.  Volcanologists say the disaster was not caused by rising magma, but was instead due to what's called a phreatic eruption, in which steam is the main force.  Ground water within the volcano boiled and built up pressure until it exploded as water vapor, launching ash and hot stones high into the air.  Such a blast often occurs without warning.  Despite the 12 seismometers positioned around the slopes of Mount Ontake, the only warning hikers had of the eruption was a thunderous explosion moments before the ash began billowing out of the crater.
Earthquakes
At least eight people were killed when 4.9 magnitude quake wrecked homes and other buildings in Peru's southern village of Misca, near the popular Andean tourist destination of Cuzco.
*     Earth movements were also felt in western Bolivia, the northern Netherlands, western Montana, north-central Oklahoma and the Sierra Nevada range in central California.
Tropical Cyclones
Typhoon Phanfone formed north of Guam, then threatened Japan's eastern Honshu Island late in the week.  Tropical Storm Kammuri passed over the same region days earlier.
*     Hurricane Rachel formed well to the west of Baja California.
Biodiversity Destruction
Loss of habitats, hunting, fishing and climate change killed off more than half of the world's wildlife populations between 1970 and 2010, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund.  The group's Living Planet Report 2014 also cautioned that stress from man-made exploitation of the environment is now 50 percent greater than nature can withstand.  It points towholesale felling of the world's forests, groundwater pumping, nitogen pollution from fertilizers and greenhouse gas emissions as some of the main perils facing the planet.  The worst wildlife decline was found among freshwater species, which plunged by 76 percent during the 40-year period.  Wildlife on land and in the oceans dropped by 39 percent.
Ringing Condemnation
The iconic cowbells ringing around the necks of Swiss cows could become a thing of the past following a study that finds the bells destroy bovine hearing and affect feeding habits.  Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich found the bells create a noise level of 100 to 113 decibels ------ basically equivalent to that of a chainsaw and far in excess of safety standards.  Agricultural scientist Julia Johns told Schweizam Sonntag that thousands of Swiss cows may have been made deaf by the bells.  "We didn't need long university research to tell us that the bells are not beneficial to cows," says Lolita Morena from a Swiss animal protection group.  She told the Swiss site The Locals: "Farmers will just have to spend a bit more time finding their cows in bad weather, like shepherds do.  It's difficult work .......... but they chose it."