Posts tagged europe

“The cold snap in Europe, which began in late January, has killed hundreds and brought deep snow where it hasn’t been seen in decades,”  says this article in the Seattle Times.

This should be front page news. Instead, the article doesn’t appear until page eight. And the title, “At least 3 killed in avalanche in Kosovo,” belies the seriousness of the situation. (The print version carries a different headline: “Cold snap, snow lock down Europe.”)

How about a headline that tells it like it is?

140,000 trapped by snow – Death toll rises past 550.

That headline would give readers a glimpse of what’s really happening in Europe, where snow drifts reaching above the rooftops have kept tens of thousands of villagers prisoners in their own homes.

Now, I’ll admit that once you get past the ho-hum headline and down to the third paragraph, the Seattle Times article gets to the harsh truth.

You learn that in Montenegro, “the heaviest snow in 63 years sealed off hundreds of villages, shut down roads and railways and closed the main airport.” And you learn that “It was the biggest snowfall in the capital since 1949.”

You also learn that “boat traffic on the frozen Danube river — one of Europe’s key waterways — has been unable to move for the longest time in recent memory.” (Italics added.)

The rest of the article is quite informative, and I appreciate that.

But it’s that “cold snap” thing that bugs me.

Did all of the world’s journalists go to “cold snap” school?

If temperatures go up by a hundredth of a degree they scream “global warming.” But if, heaven forbid, it’s record cold and record snow? “Well, let’s just call it a cold snap.”

Would you call it a “cold snap” when more than 100 vessels become trapped in icy waters of the Sea of Azov? That’s what Reuters called it. “A fierce cold snap with temperatures of about -25C (-13 F) caused large parts of the Azov Sea to freeze,” said Reuters.

Would you call it a “cold snap” when more than 2,000 roads in Turkey are blocked by heavy snows? That’s what the Google News headline announced. The article itself was very good, speaking of brutal cold and record low temperatures, but – “cold snap”?

Would you call it a “cold snap” when people have to cut tunnels through 15 feet of snow to get out of their homes? “Eastern Europe has been pummeled by a record-breaking cold snap,” says this otherwise great AP article.

Look at these headlines. Are these the result of a “cold snap”?

• Serbia cuts power in desperate bid to prevent collapse of national grid
  The country’s entire electric distribution system could collapse…
• Hundreds of barns collapse in Italy
  At least one million farm animals in danger of running out of food.
• Villages buried under 4-5 meters of snow – Video
  “23.000 people are isolated, how many people and animals have died we don’t know since nobody can reach there.”
• Italian villages trapped in more than 9 feet of snow
  With the death toll already at 43, another blast of freezing weather…
• Danube freezes over – One of the greatest rivers in Europe
  Danube wholly or partially blocked in six countries.
• Most winter grain destroyed in southern and eastern Ukraine
  With temperatures 12 to 17C below average, the situation in Ukraine has became serious.
• European death toll rises to 480 – and counting
  150 cattle killed when roofs collapse. “It seems more like a war in Europe.”
• Code red for agriculture in Tuscany
  “Blizzard comes and farmers tremble” – Loss rates up to 50%.
• Turkey quake survivors fighting the snow
  Walking 300 feet through the snow to reach the nearest toilets.

No, this is no mere cold snap. There’s a tragedy unfolding in Europe, and the world needs to know.

Please forward this article to everyone you can.

(Source: iceagenow.info)

Can’t touch this: Scientists are trying to build an asteroid shield to protect Earth from the giant space rocks. In three years they hope to have a plan to test devised

Scientists are trying to find a way to protect Earth from the giant rocks which travel around the Milky Way.

Run out of Berlin with funds from the EU, the NEOShield project, which will look for a way to protect earth from the space rocks, is expected to take three years to complete.

Some of the ideas being tossed around at the moment include repelling asteroids with projectiles or explosives or using gravity to change its course.

The project though is a little late as a chunk of rock 400 times the City of London is set to hurtle closer than a rock of its size has in a very long time.

The asteroid labelled ‘(433) Eros’ measures 19 by 8 by 8 miles and is set to pass by next week.

Despite its massive size, the cosmic rock shouldn’t be too cause too much of a threat as it is on a circular path far outside the moon’s orbit.

A smaller bus-sized asteroid is also set to pass extremely close to Earth today

The asteroid 2012 BX34, will pass within 36,750 miles of Earth at about 3:30 p.m. Friday, tweeted astronomers with NASA’s Asteroid Watch program.

Even though this is more than five times closer than the moon, at 11 meters wide, it won’t be any threat to earth.

‘It wouldn’t get through our atmosphere intact even if it dared to try,’ Asteroid Watch scientists tweeted yesterday.

Nevertheless, with NASA estimating that there are almost one thousand asteroids over one kilometre in length and 19,500 over 100-metres, scientists at the

With an investment of some €4 million by the European Commission and an extra €1.8 million coming from scientific institutions and partners, the German Aerospace Center aims to have a plan for a test mission drafted within three years.

After that, if they can find the extra cash, the mission may be launched by 2020.

The scientists will be looking at a host of ideas, many of which have already been proposed.

For one, there’s the ‘kinetic impactor’ plan where a massive projectile would deflect the asteroid.

Another is the ‘gravity tractor’ idea where a small probe would linger near the asteroid and use its gravitational traction to move it out of Earth’s way.

Or, like waging an all-out space war, some have suggested a full scale strike with nuclear missiles.

‘Of course, a lot of things have already been proposed,’ Alan Harris, the study’s leader, told Spiegel Online.

‘But, so far, most of them have come from a single institution, perhaps even from a single person. So it has been hard to pursue them.’

Investigating each idea ‘will take place on paper and in lab experiments, since we don’t have the money to do more than that,’ said Wolfram Lork, who works with a subsidiary on the project.

One other, coarser idea would be ‘blast deflection’ which would involve deterring the asteroid with directed explosive charges. Harris says this would be the ‘final, desperate approach.’

‘We would like to present plans for a feasible, affordable mission.

‘We want to show the world it can be done,’ Harris said, adding that the ultimate solution might be a combining a gravity tractor with a kinetic impactor.

By observing the huge craters around the world - such as the Barringer Crater in Arizona or the Nördlinger Ries near Munich - scientists know that asteroids have struck Earth in its history and that, without action, they could well strike again.

Very low levels of radiation, which are higher than normal but don’t seem to pose a health hazard, are being registered in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday.

The agency said the cause was not known but was not the result of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which spread radiation across the globe in March.

The “very low levels of iodine-131 have been measured in the atmosphere,” the agency said in a statement. It said such radioisotope will lose much of its radiation in about eight days.

However, an official familiar with the matter, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said the release appeared to be continuing.

The agency said that it was investigating.

In Prague, an official at the Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety said he was “100 percent sure” that the radiation had not come from any Czech nuclear power plant - or from any other source on Czech territory.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media, the official said tests are under way around the country to try and identify the source.

The Czechs are betting heavily on nuclear power and have plans to dramatically increase production - a move that would give the country a place among Europe’s most nuclear-dependent nations. They currently rely on six nuclear reactors for 33 percent of their total electricity. The government hopes to at least double that output.

That’s in stark contrast to its neighbors: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government decided to phase out nuclear energy by 2022 following the meltdown at the Fukushima plants, and Switzerland has followed suit. Austria abandoned nuclear energy after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and strictly opposes the Czech nuclear program.