Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (April 19, 2013)

Climate Hunger
Millions of people across Africa and parts of Asia could become destitute and face a mounting threat of starvation in the coming decades as greenhouse gas-induced climate change shifts how and where crops can be grown.  That was one of the issues being discussed at an international conference in Dublin, convened to examine the link between food security and global warming.  Many researchers and activists there believe climate change may spell lower crop yields, higher food prices and widespread hunger later on in the 21st century.  "We live in a world of plenty, but one which is reaching its environmental limits.  And we are struggling to feed a rapidly growing population under a changing climate," said Eamon Gilmore, foreign affairs minister of Ireland, speaking before 350 delegates from 60 countries.  As the climate of the Earth continues to change, there are concerns that extreme weather and changing seasonal preciptation patterns will limit both crop yields and livestock production.
Antarctic Melt Surges
New evidence suggests that certain regions of Antarctica are now experiencing more intense summer ice melt than at any time in the last thousands years.  After analyzing a 1,200-foot-deep ice core taken from James Ross Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula, Australian and British climatologists found that the rate of melting has increased dramatically over the last 50 years in particular.  Using the same method, the research team found that the coldest observable period on the peninsula was 600 years ago.  Compared to those record conditions, the current rate of ice melt is 10 times more intense and has spiked in the last half-century.
Blocked Migration
A rare sequence of spring snowstorms across the northern Great Plains is causing difficulties and even starvation for some migratory birds.  While it's not unusual to get a single snowstorm in April, the weekly storms during late March and the first half of April have taken their toll, according to bird expert Kent Jenson of South Dakota State University.  He and others beneath North America's Central and Mississippi migratory "flyways" have found dead robins in their backyards.  The birds were emaciated and had even burned up their breast mucles for nutrition in a last-ditch effort to survive.  "The ground to the north in North Dakota and Canada is still frozen, and we're only getting occasional thaws that allow the birds to feed from the ground here in eastern South Dakota," Jenson tells Earthweek.  He said many species are holding back farther south until spring finally arrives.
Dolphin Poaching
The high demand for shark fin soup is causing an alarming rise in the killing of dolphins off the coast of Tanzania, which an official says fishermen use illegally as bait for the predatory fish.  Most dolphins have been protected by the country's fisheries laws since 2009.  But tourists report seeing the "distressing " killing of dolphins within plain sight.  A Tanzania official said dolphins are being actively targeted by dynamite fishermen around the city of Dar es Salaam because "their flesh makes a very good bait for sharks."  While the slaughter of dolphins to feed the illicit shark fin market may be disturbing, experts warn that as many as one in 15 of all sharks are fished from the world's oceans each year.  It's often just for their fins.
Earthquakes
The most powerful earthquake to strike Iran in more than 50 years caused widespread destruction and an unknown number of casualties on each side of the Iran-Pakistan border.
*  At least nine people were injured when a 5.1 magnitude quake struck southwest China's Yunnan province.
*  Earth movements were also felt in Japan's southern Honshu Island, northern Papua New Guinea, northeast India, Hawii and along the southern Quebec-Ontario border.
Mexican Eruption
Mexico's famed Popcatepetl volcano spewed a large cloud of dense ash that fell to the ground in several towns near Mexico City.  "Popo" occasionally produces blasts of steam and ash, at times accompanied by glowing rocks.
Tsunami Fish
Marine biologists say they are amazed that a small group of fish, believed to have been washed across the entire width of the Pacific inside a boat by the 2011 Japanese tsunami, survived the two-year journey.  Five striped beak fish were found submerged in the hold of a 20-foot fishing boat after it washed up on the southern Washington state coast.  The Sai-shoumaru was traced back to the same region of northeastern Japan devasted in the titanic ocean surge generated by the March 11, 2011, earthquake.  The fish were appartently scooped up as the boat was tossed about by the tsunami and washed offshore.  Scientists believe the fish survived by feeding off tiny organisms that were encrusted on or attached to the vessel.