Real Climate Science

http://news.google.com/newspapers

The Guardian asks :

Is climate change to blame for famine in the Horn of Africa?
It’s impossible to answer with a simple yes or no – but here’s a summary of what we think we know so far

The current drought conditions have been caused by successive seasons with very low rainfall. Over the past year, the eastern Horn of Africa has experienced two consecutive failed rainy seasons. According to surveys of local communities, this is part of a long-term shift. Borana communities in Ethiopia report that whereas droughts were recorded every six to eight years in the past, they now occur every one to two years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Only 18,000 newspaper articles about drought in Africa.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=africa+drought

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/ms.html

http://wxmaps.org/pix/temp2.html

Large areas of below freezing temperatures are forecast to settle in over the next two weeks.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgrJElGOMMg]

http://trove.nla.gov.au/

Chilean Patagonia districts in ‘agriculture emergency’ because of snow storms
Four districts in the Chilean extreme south region of Magallanes were declared in “agricultural emergency” given the harmful effects of snow storms in the area.

According to the first reports from the different districts an estimated 27.000 sheep and 4.000 cattle are isolated and suffering from lack of food and shelter.

http://en.mercopress.com/

Horatio Chapple, 17, died after the animal attacked a camp on Spitsbergen island in the Svalbard archipelago, in the Arctic circle. Accounts suggest a warning tripwire system, used to set off flares that might have scared the animal away, failed to go off. Police are checking a rifle that apparently failed to fire four times before it was successfully used to kill the bear.

http://www.guardian.co.uk

I don’t think I can remember more than two times in my entire life when I have seen a rifle misfire.

GREENBELT, Md., Aug. 8 (UPI) — The tsunami from the March earthquake in Japan had impacts across the world, causing the calving of icebergs a hemisphere away in Antarctica, researchers say.

The finding is the first direct observation of such a connection between tsunamis and icebergs, a NASA release said Monday.

Using multiple satellite images, NASA researchers were able to observe new icebergs floating off to sea shortly after the tsunami swell reached Antarctica.

Arriving 8,000 miles away from the epicenter 18 hours after the earthquake, the tsunami broke off several chunks of ice that together equaled about two times the surface area of Manhattan, scientists say.

http://www.upi.com/

The main US share index, the Dow Jones, has plummeted 5.6%, despite US President Barack Obama moving to try to reassure investors.

In points terms, the Dow ended down 635 to 10,810, its biggest one-day decline since October 2008, and the sixth largest on record.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14451687