Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (May 24, 2013)

Slower Warming
Global warming is occurring at a slower pace than previous models had predicted, according to a study published in the journal Nature Geo-science.  The report argues that in light of this trend, current projections of extreme climate change in the near future should be revised.  However, the study cautions that over the longer term, global temperatures are still expected to ratchet upward in the absence of significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.  The muted warming response to a steady uptick in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases is likely due to the absorption of excess atmospheric heat by the world's oceans, the new report says.  But Swiss climatologist and co-author Reto Knutti says the ocean's moderating influence will only be temporary.
Meltdown Scatter
Radioactive cesium from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has been found in water and plankton collected from all 10 points monitored across a vast stretch of the western Pacific.  The isotopes cesium-134 and cesium-137 were found in the tiny plantlike creatures from the coast of Japan's Hokkaido Island to Guam.  The samples were taken early last year, lesws than a year after the tsunami that overwhelmed the plant, but the findings were just announced at a meeting of the Japan Geoscience Union.  Cesium-134 has a half-life of two years; it takes 30 years for cesium-137 to decay by half.  Scientists say the isotopes were being dispersed across the Pacific in plankton and were accumulating up the food chain as the tiny creatures were eaten by larger marine life.  Future studies are being conducted to see how much cesium was building up in fish and possibly marine mammals.
Monarch Downtime
Nature lovers across New Zealand are reporting large numbers of overwintering monarch butterflies.  During the last southern summer, the butterflies failed to return to some areas after a cold spell dampened their breeding grounds.  New Zealand monarchs don't migrate long distances like their North American cousins.  Instead, they find their way to trees in well-sheltered areas where they rest during the winter months. Breeding will start in the spring once the colorful creatures get their strength up.
Bee Disapperance
Daspite a push in Europe to restrict the use of three pesticides in an attempt to stop the disappearance of honeybees, a new U.S. report says there is no single factor contributing to the ongoing decline of the pollinating insects.  A report issued jointly by the Agriculture Department and the Environmental Protection Agency blames so-called "colony collapse disorder" on a wide range of factors.  They include viral and bacterial infection, habitat loss, industrial farming practices, pesticides and a lack of genetic diversity.  The single biggest cause, according to the report, is varroatosis, a disease carried by the parasitic mite varroa destructor.  Colony collapse syndrome has ravaged bee colonies across both the United States and Europe since at least 2006.
Earthquakes
Aftershocks hits the Ontario-Quebec border after a 4.4 magnitude quake near Ottawa on May 17 was felt as far away as Detroit.
*   Earth movements were also felt in eastern Jamaica, the northeastern Caribbean, southern Chile, southern Iran and northeastern Japan.
Eruptions
Alaska's Pavlof volcano produced the most explosive blast in its current eruptive phase, sending ash soaring 15,000 feet into the air.  The Alaska Volcano Observatory said clouds of ash and vapor occasionally reached heights of 22,000 feet.  Lava from the eruption, coming in contact with Pavlof's snowcap, created huge clouds of steam that soared high above the mountain, located about 625 miles southwest of Anchorage.  But the observatory said the ash wasn't rising high enough to threaten the key trans-Pacific air routes between North America and Asia.  Residents of Cold Bay, an outpost about 40 miles from Pavlof, said they were worried falling ash could damage the community's power generators.
Nest Egg
Efforts to restore wild cranes to the southern British landscape after a more than 400-year absence are paying off.  The Great Crane Project of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) has been raising the birds and reintroducing them in the southwest of the country for the past three years.  Now, the first egg resulting from that reintroduction has been laid.  Its nest is under round-the-clock guard by the WWT and may be viewed online through a telescopic webcam.  The parents of the egg were hand-raised in Slimbridge and are said to have thrived during their first three years on the wetlands of the Somerset Moors.  Much earlier hunting and draining of the wetlands for agriculture wiped out all the breeding pairs of the common crane by about the year 1600.