Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (Dec. 12, 2014)

Quickening Extremes
The number of outbreaks of extreme heat and cold around the world during the past three decades increased more rapidly than the rate of global warming, which scientists say is fueling the trend.  Researchers at the U.K.'s University of East Anglia looked at temperature records from 1881 to 2013 before coming to the conclusion.  They found that the occurrence of unusually cold periods had been increaseing at a faster rate than heat waves until 30 years ago.  But the trend reversed beginning in 1983, with extreme heat events becoming more frequent.  The study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, also looked at trends during the "pause" in global warming since 1998.  The researchers say that while a 16-year period is too brief to draw conclusions about trends, they found that warming continued at most locations on the planet during those years.  But they concluded that the overall global warming was offset by strong cooling during the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere.  New findings indicate that the record melt of the Arctic ice cap has been responsible for the recent colder winters in part of North America, Asia and Europe.
Lava Damage
Lava from erupting Pico do Fogo has destroyed building in two Cape Verde villages.  This is the volcano's first eruption in 19 years.  Lava pouring into Portela destroyed two churches and inflicted heavy damage to dozens of homes, a hotel and a school.  The nearby town of Bangaeira later suffered lava damage to muluiple apartment buildings as well as a guesthouse.  More than 3,000 people have fled their homes since the volcano first began rumbling on Nov. 22, off the coast of West Africa.
Prescribed Pollution
Some of the most widely used anti-inflammatory drugs, which are inadvertently finding their way into the environment, have been shown to significantly affect crop growth.  Researchers from the University of Exeter say this is especially worrisome because waste management systems are unable to remove drugs like diclofenac and ibuprofen from sewage in treatment plants.  Sewage sludge is increasingly being used as fertilizer, while waste water is often used to irrigate crops.  The researchers focused on lettuce and radish plants and how several commonly prescribed drugs affected them.  They found that drugs from the fenamic acid class affected the growth of radish roots, while ibuprofen had a strong influence on the early root development of lettuce.
Deadly Typhoon
One of the year's strongest tropical cyclones cut a path of destruction across central and northern parts of the Philippines, leaving at least 27 people dead in its wake.  Typhoon Hagupit wrecked thousands of homes in Eastern Samsr province, where maximum sustained winds of 130 mph were recorded.  The storm weakened considerably after it left Eastern Samar on a slow path toward Manila.  The typhoon also spared parts of the Philippines devastated by Typhoon Haiyan last year.  It was one of the strongest typhoons on record, killing more than 6,000 people.
Earthquakes
A few items were knocked off shelves when a 6.6 magnitude quake struck parts of Panama and neighboring Costa Rica.  It was the strongest of three tremors to occur there in a three day period.
*     Earth movements were also felt in western Guatemala, St. Lucia and other islands of the eastern Caribbean, eastern Romania, islands of the eastern Aegean Sea and in far eastern Papua New Guinea.
El Nino Arrives
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) became the first weather bureau in the world to declare that the El Nino ocean warming in the tropical Pacific has returned.  The phenomenon occurs every few years and causes a variety of weather shifts around the world.  The JMA declaration came as the strongest Pacific storm to strike California since the last El Nino five years ago was roaring onshore.  Various weather agencies around the world have issued conflicting El Nino forecasts over the past few months, but JMA meteorologist Ikuo Yoshikawa said on Dec. 10 that it emerged between June and August.
Big City Custodians
A new study finds that armies of ants are keeping New York City clean by eating food litter left by the pedestrians who walk the streets of the city that never sleeps.  Writing in the journal Global Change Biology, a team of researchers reveals how ants and other arthropods on a stretch of just 150 blocks of median strips in Manhattan can remove the equivalent of about 60,000 pounds of hot dogs or 600,000 potato chips each year.  Lead researcher Elsa Youngsteadt from North Carolina State University says the insects are helping New Yorkers by competing with rats for food.  "You may not like ants, but you probably like rats even less," she told The New York Times.