Pumpkin H

17/12/2024

13/05/2024

Hundreds feared dead in Afghanistan flash flooding

Hundreds of people are feared dead after flash flooding hit northern Afghanistan, with warnings the toll could rise after further storms across the region.
Taliban officials say at least 150 have been killed, while the World Food Programme says more than 300 have died, after heavy rainfall hit five districts in Baghlan province on Friday night.
Pictures on social media showed torrents of water sweeping through houses in several villages, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
The country has been hit by unusually heavy rainfall over the last few weeks, with floods killing scores of people since mid-April.
Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesman for Afghanistan's interior ministry, told the BBC that at least 131 people had died in Baghlan province and 20 in Takhar.
Meanwhile, Rana Deraz, from the UN's World Food Programme, told the AFP news agency there had been 311 deaths in Baghlan.
Ms Deraz said 2,011 houses had been destroyed and an additional 2,800 damaged.
Three mosques, and four schools were also affected.
Many of those who had died came from the province's Borka district where more than 200 people had been trapped inside their homes.
There are also reports of severe damage in the provinces of Badakhshan, Ghor and western Herat.
Local official Hedayatullah Hamdard told AFP news agency emergency personnel including the army were "searching for any possible victims under the mud and rubble".
Tents, blankets and food were provided to some families who had lost their homes, the official added.
The main road connecting Kabul to northern Afghanistan is closed.
It comes after flooding last month in the west of the country killed dozens of people, leaving thousands requiring humanitarian aid.
Flash flooding happens when rain falls so heavily that normal drainage cannot cope.
Experts say a relatively dry winter has made it more difficult for the soil to absorb rainfall. Vast areas of farmland have also been submerged.
Torrential rain and flooding kill people every year in Afghanistan, where badly built houses in isolated rural areas are particularly vulnerable.
Afghanistan is among the globe's most at risk nations from the effects of climate change, according to experts.
The nation is one of the poorest in the world, having been ravaged by decades of war which culminated in the withdrawal of a US-led coalition and the Taliban retaking control in 2021.
Many factors contribute to flooding, but a warming atmosphere caused by climate change makes extreme rainfall more likely.
The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

25/04/2024

The Moon brings a wild but precarious fish o**y to California's beaches

Millions of small fish fling themselves on Californian beaches to have s*x – strictly under the full or new Moon. This incredible mating ritual is threatened, but citizen scientists are diligently working to save it.
On a Southern Californian beach in the middle of the night, a citizen scientist stood observing thousands of fish having s*x. "Unruly thousands, all making noise," they duly jotted down. "Looked like some post-apocalyptic marine Mad Max."
This unique mating ritual is known as the grunion run. Unlike most other fish, the small silvery grunions actually spawn onshore, flinging themselves from the ocean onto the sand. In addition, they only spawn during full or new moons – because they need a high tide.
Since 2002, the rituals have been observed by "grunion greeters" – citizen scientists who volunteer to observe the fish at 50 California beaches. They report their observations back to Karen Martin, a scientist at Malibu's Pepperdine University, who has been studying grunion for decades. To date, more than 5,000 people have contributed to Martin's project. "We couldn't do it without them," says Martin. "There is no other way for us to get this kind of data. It's pretty remarkable, actually."
The fish are near-impossible to count. They are smart enough to avoid nets, and they don't take bait on a hook. "The 'normal' methods for stock assessment do not work for these species," Martin explains.

As a result, there's no formal statistic for how many there are – and so they don't have a conservation status either, although Martin says they are certainly under threat and numbers have declined significantly in the past decade according to her research.
The fish are only found along the Pacific Coast, primarily between Punta Abreojos in Mexico's Baja California, up to Point Conception, in central California. Scientists believe the fish, which grow to around five inches (13cm) long, have declined in numbers over the past century. Beach erosion, light pollution and development along coastlines are the main threats to the fish, as well as overfishing and habitat destruction.
The grunion's mating behaviour is unique, to say the least. Females swim as far up as they can and then fling themselves out of the water onto the sand, wiggling their tails to dig a hole, into which they release their eggs. Males follow behind and fertilise the eggs. The eggs remain buried in the sand until the next tide that is high enough to reach the them, usually around 10 days. Then they hatch.
This behaviour puts the grunion at risk, though – and not only because they are easy prey when they're spawning on the sand. The beaches the fish use happen to be some of the most popular tourist destinations in California, which are groomed almost daily with heavy machinery, meaning the eggs are often destroyed. "Everything that people do on those beaches is going to impact the environment," Martin says.

Although gathering data on the fish has been challenging, there have been some successes with implementing regulations to protect grunion.
In 1927, the first regulations to protect grunion were put in place by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife after scientists observed the fish being caught in enormous amounts when they came ashore – people would use nets made from bedsheets to catch grunion en masse. Gear restrictions were introduced during closed season – April until June – meaning locals could only use their bare hands. In the 1940s, marine biologist Boyd Walker observed every grunion run in La Jolla, California, for three years. His dissertation mapped the grunion's range, mating habits, and developed a method to count grunion, now known as the Walker Scale.
This is what Martin's grunion greeters use to compile their reports. The scale ranges from W0 meaning "no fish or only a few individuals", to W5 meaning "fish covering the length of the beach, several individuals deep, impossible to see sand between fish". The latter is a rare event, making up only around 1-3% of observations in a year. The citizen scientists assess the number of fish on shore, the duration of the spawning event, and the extent of the shoreline the fish cover.
Data gathered from the most popular grunion beaches gathered shows an overall decline in the fish. Martin's study, which she published in 2019 using citizen science data, found from 2002 to 2010 the median average ranking on the Walker scale was W2, indicating 100-500 fish at the peak of a run. From 2010 to 2018 this ranking dropped to a median of W1 – fewer than 100 fish at the peak. Furthermore, a median of W0 – "no run" with little or no spawning – was recorded in both 2014 and 2016.
"Despite local concentrations, California grunion are not abundant," says Dianna Porzio, senior environmental scientist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. "Although [the grunion greeters] data has limitations, the findings show a decrease in the number of spawning California grunion across much of their southern California range over the past decade."

The citizen scientists' data has led to further protections for the fish. "The data has been useful for a number of reasons," says Martin. "Knowing where the grunions are running has been helpful for finding eggs and tracking the human impacts on them. We found beach raking was happening where the grunion nests are."
In 2020, California Fish and Wildlife increased restrictions on the take of grunion, which are typically harvested for individual consumption. The restrictions directly cited the data obtained by Martin's grunion greeters as evidence of a declining population. The department added another month to the no-take season – April until June – and in 2022, imposed a limit on how many grunion people could take outside of the no-take season.
On several beaches in southern California, grunion-friendly beach raking protocols have been introduced, helping protect the eggs.
The data has also led to the discovery that grunions are expanding further north. "We've been able to identify their range," says Martin. "Now we know they're found north of San Francisco, not just in central California."

Moreover, the programme has created an army of defenders for the grunion. "People get very protective over the grunion," she laughs. "Some of them even approach other people who are disturbing the fish, or taking too many, and will explain the importance of following the regulations."
It's a prime example of how the public can be trained as citizen scientists and make a marked impact, says Martin. "In the past scientists frowned upon using them," Martin adds. Even Walker warned against relying on the public to gather data, saying their reports were typically unreliable and inconsistent.
But Martin insists that public participation is valuable. "People are excited to know that they've made this sighting, and that their knowledge is useful – that somebody cares about what they've seen," she says. "And it leads to people appreciating what's in their environment, being aware that this wonderful wildlife exists."

09/04/2024

Climate change: 'Uncharted territory' fears after record hot March

Climate change could move "into uncharted territory" if temperatures don't fall by the end of the year, a leading scientist has told the BBC.
The warning came as data showed last month was the world's warmest March on record, extending the run of monthly temperature records to 10 in a row.
It's fuelled concerns among some that the world could be tipping into a new phase of even faster climate change.
A weather system called El Niño is behind some of the recent heat.
Temperatures should temporarily come down after El Niño peters out in coming months, but some scientists are worried they might not.

"By the end of the summer, if we're still looking at record breaking temperatures in the North Atlantic or elsewhere, then we really have kind of moved into uncharted territory," Gavin Schmidt, the director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told BBC News.

March 2024 was 1.68C warmer than "pre-industrial" times - before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels - according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
For now, longer term warming trends are still pretty much consistent with expectations, and most researchers don't yet believe that the climate has entered a new phase.

But scientists are struggling to explain exactly why the end of 2023 was so warm.
The March record was expected. El Niño, which began last June and peaked in December, has been adding heat to the warmth put into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels, the main driver of high temperatures.
But temperatures began breaking records by a particularly large margin around last September, and back then, El Niño was still developing, so can't explain all of the extra warmth.
'Harder to predict the future'
Dr Schmidt is concerned about what this means for predictions going forward.
"Our predictions failed quite dramatically for the specifics of 2023, and if previous statistics don't work, then it becomes much harder to say what's going to happen in the future," he said.

"We're still trying to understand why the situation changed so dramatically in the middle of last year, and how long this situation will continue, whether it is a phase shift or whether it's a blip in long-term climate trends," agrees Dr Samantha Burgess from Copernicus.
The current El Niño is now waning, and will likely end in the next couple of months.
While scientists aren't sure exactly how conditions in the Pacific will evolve, current predictions suggest it could be replaced by a full La Niña cool phase later this year.
That cooling of the sea surface would normally see a temporary drop in global air temperatures, but it remains to be seen exactly how this will evolve.

"We're definitely seeing a weakening of El Niño, but the question is, where will we end up?" says Michelle L'Heureux, a scientist with the NOAA climate prediction centre.
But scientists are certain about one thing: the way to stop the world warming is to rapidly cut emissions of planet-warming gases.
"We have this window in the coming years to try and mitigate the impacts of climate change, by cutting emissions," says Dr Angélique Melet from Mercator Ocean International.
"I do understand the challenges but it's also true that if we don't act, we are committing ourselves towards a future where 2023 will be the new normal."
"How fast will that happen? It depends on us."

26/03/2024

Botswana's inspirational women safari guides who are navigating change

A remarkable shift is reshaping the traditional landscape of piloting iconic canoes in one of Africa's most extraordinary places – a role that has long been the domain of men.
In the early morning light, before the blistering Botswana sun reaches full heat, the only sounds are the brushing of traditional mokoro canoes as they slide over the grass and slip gently into the glassy waters of the Okavango Delta. Eager tourists sit poised with cameras and smartphones as their mokoro guides, or "polers" as they are known, expertly cast them off from shore with their lengthy poles pushing deep into the delta's muddy bed. It's a trade that requires a challenging combination of balance and physical strength, as well as in-depth knowledge of wildlife and wilderness survival skills.
Traditionally, this has been considered a man's job, but now a handful of courageous women are challenging stereotypes and steering change in the world of guiding.

I need to set an example to every woman to show that anything is possible as long as you have passion, confidence and love what you are doing
"At first I was nervous," confessed Bontle Cindy Mothogaathobogwe, who has been guiding for three years. "At first, I was thinking, 'What will people say? This is a man's job!' Then something came into my mind that, no, I need to make a change and I need to set an example to every woman to show that anything is possible as long as you have passion, confidence and love what you are doing."

Mothogaathobogwe grew up in the small village of Boro on the southern fringes of the Okavango Delta. Like many polers, she first learnt to steer a mokoro when she was just a child, as this was the only means of transport for her community. And as she takes up the mantle of what male tour guides have been doing for decades, Mothogaathobogwe describes her new career with a sense of pride.
"It is very interesting and special because you act like you are an ambassador of your state, sharing knowledge and culture with the tourists. And also, you tend to use your five senses without any disturbance because it is very quiet."
Mothogaathobogwe's description is spot on. To take a ride on an iconic dugout canoe through the waters of the Okavango Delta is a truly special experience. The delta itself is undoubtedly one of Africa's most extraordinary places – a two-million-hectare river system that's often referred to as the jewel of the Kalahari Desert. It shows up in stark contrast on satellite images as a bright blue-green patch set against the brown desert landscape.
Compared to other high-profile safari destinations, like Kruger National Park in nearby South Africa, humans have had very little impact on the Okavango. The Delta spans a colossal area of substantially undisturbed wetlands and seasonally flooded grasslands, and because of its vast size, access and development is difficult. Tourism to the inner Delta is limited to small, tented camps reached mainly by air.

Mothogaathobogwe is part of the indigenous Bayei tribe from Maun, who live on the outskirts of the Delta and follow a sustainable lifestyle that has long preserved the integrity of the Delta's many different habitats and inhabitants. The Bayei play a vital role in helping to stem poaching and farming threats on this Unesco World Heritage site, helping it sustain and support 264 mammal species, 157 species of reptiles and 540 species of bird as well as the world's largest population of elephants.
For centuries, locals have used mokoro to navigate the waterways. It's a smooth and near-silent ride, along reed and papyrus-lined canals in between larger lagoons, punctuated by water lilies. The poles, known as nkahsi, gently knock on the side of the mokoro, and the faint splashes as they break the surface of the water, along with the hum of insects, are the sounds of this aquatic safari. Today's mekoro (plural for mokoro) boats are made of fibreglass, a more sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to the traditional ebony, mangosteen or sausage tree wood.
As she steers, Mothogaathobogwe scans the water's surface, wary of encountering hippos and crocodiles, all the while explaining the ecosystems we are gliding through. Her trained eye can spot the tiniest of green frogs latched onto a reed. This type of safari is in stark contrast to the typical, bumpy, four-wheeled game drives in search of the big five.
As Mothogaathobogwe picks a water lily and fashions it into a necklace, she reflects on what her life would be like if it weren't for this tourism opportunity.

"In the olden days, it used to be that the women would take the mokoro out and collect grass for building materials. Now it has changed and slowly, slowly, women are getting into the industry; we are taking tourists into the Delta with a mokoro," she said.
Women in the safari industry have historically faced challenges due to the stereotypical belief that guiding is a rugged, outdoor occupation that requires huge amounts of physical strength in the wilderness – not to mention the remote working conditions that take you away from family for long periods of time. These preconceived conditions have always put women at a disadvantage.
But there's now a growing movement in Africa to empower its women. Further north in the Delta, Chobe Game Lodge has a team of all female Batswana safari guides. Safari tour operator African Bush Camps launched a Female Guide Program in 2021. The two-year training accepts five women annually, focusing on skills like driving and animal tracking; last year they had more than 200 applicants. Meanwhile, on the plains of the Serengeti in Tanzania, Asilia Africa's Dunia Camp has been hailed as one of Africa's first all-female run safari camps, employing only women as chefs, guides, managers and housekeepers.
Mothogaathobogwe and her poling colleague Beauty are two of only a handful of female mokoro polers gainfully employed in the African safari industry. They are a part of the Ker and Downey Women Empowerment Scheme, a deliberate move to employ women in traditionally male-dominated roles, such as mokoro polers and mechanics.

"This initiative is part of our broader commitment to challenge stereotypes and promote diversity in the safari industry, reflecting our belief that talent knows no gender boundaries," explained MC Odumetse, group managing director for Chobe Holdings Ltd.
And with the growing employment and empowerment of women in the safari industry, the knock-on effect on local communities is immense – not only leading to improved economic welfare and stability of households, but also the education of children and the overall morale of the community.
"My community are very impressed; [they] are very highly motivated by me. I would say I am their inspiration, and they are learning from me. Whenever I get back there, they are so happy and they say – 'well done Cindy, keep going'," Mothogaathobogwe said.
In an era where narratives of female empowerment resonate globally, Mothogaathobogwe and her comrades have been embraced by solo female travellers looking for a more relatable and authentic experience.

"Some of the tourists, they want to go with a female guide because I think they feel they can relate to me more," she said. "[Up till now], all the guides have been men, and when they hear that there is a female guide here, they are so happy and they say, 'Can we please go with Cindy'."
Like in many other industries, women can provide a different perspective on a safari tour, and Mothogaathobogwe's knowledge of nature is clear. She plucks a flat leafed plant from the delta and explains that this is what's known as a "water shield", turning it over to reveal a gelatinous substance covering the roots and divulging that rubbing this natural jelly on your skin is a local, homegrown remedy for keeping mosquitos at bay.
"It makes me feel very happy," Mothogaathobogwe said. "I love nature and to be able to share the secrets of my homeland and tribal traditions with tourists gives me a great sense of pride as well as peace."

11/03/2024

More climate records fall in world's warmest February

Last month was the world's warmest February in modern times, the EU's climate service says, extending the run of monthly records to nine in a row.
Each month since June 2023 has seen new temperature highs for the time of year.
The world's sea surface is at its hottest on record, while Antarctic sea-ice has again reached extreme lows.
Temperatures are still being boosted by the Pacific's El Niño weather event, but human-caused climate change is by far the main driver of the warmth.
"Heat-trapping greenhouse gases are unequivocally the main culprit," stresses Prof Celeste Saulo, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization.
Carbon dioxide concentrations are at their highest level for at least two million years, according to the UN's climate body, and increased by near-record levels again over the past year.

Those warming gases helped make February 2024 about 1.77C warmer than "pre-industrial" times - before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels - according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
This breaks the previous record, from 2016, by around 0.12C.
These temperatures saw particularly severe heat afflict western Australia, southeast Asia, southern Africa and South America.
The 12-month average now sits at 1.56C above pre-industrial levels - after the first year-long breach of 1.5C warming was confirmed last month.
Back in 2015 in Paris, nearly 200 countries agreed to try to keep the rise in warming under 1.5C, to help avoid some of the worst climate impacts.
That threshold in the Paris agreement is generally accepted to mean a 20-year average - so it hasn't yet been broken - but the relentless string of records illustrates how close the world is getting to doing so.

Oceans and sea-ice under strain
Recent records haven't just been limited to air temperatures. Countless climate metrics are far beyond levels seen in modern times.
One of the most notable is sea surface temperatures. As the graph below shows, the margin of records in recent months has been particularly striking.
Researchers are keen to stress that the scale and extent of the oceanic heat is not simply a consequence of the natural weather event known as El Niño, which was declared in June 2023.
"Ocean surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific clearly reflect El Niño. But sea surface temperatures in other parts of the globe have been persistently and unusually high for the past 10 months," explains Prof Saulo.
"This is worrying and cannot be explained by El Niño alone."
Ocean warming has prompted concerns about the mass bleaching of coral reefs. It also raises global sea-levels and can help to fuel higher intensity hurricanes.

Unusually warm waters may also have been a factor in another exceptional month for Antarctic sea-ice. The three lowest minimum extents in the satellite era have now occurred in the last three years.
Scientists are struggling to explain exactly what's going on.
Until 2017, Antarctic sea-ice had defied predictions that it would shrink, unlike in the Arctic, where the downward trend has been much clearer.
The apparent recent shift - occurring at the same time as other records are being broken around the planet - adds to concerns that Antarctic sea-ice may finally be waking up to climate change.
"I don't think you can say it's coincidental," Prof Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at the University of Exeter, told BBC News.
"It's absolutely frightening. The records are just off [the] scale."

An end to El Niño in sight
There are signs that the run of global temperature records may finally come to an end in the months ahead.
The 2023-24 El Niño has been one of the five strongest such events on record, the World Meteorological Organization announced on Tuesday, but it is gradually weakening.
El Niño will continue to have an effect on temperatures and weather patterns for the next few months.
"We would expect [El Niño] to continue to keep 2024 temperatures elevated at least through the first half of the year," Dr Colin Morice, a senior scientist at the UK's Met Office Hadley Centre, told BBC News.
However, a switch to neutral conditions in the Pacific is likely between April and June, according to US science body NOAA, and a further switch to the cool phase known as La Niña could then happen between June and August.
This would likely put a temporary lid on global air temperatures, with a cooler sea surface in the East Pacific allowing less heat to escape and warm the air.
But as long as human activities keep releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases, temperatures will continue rising in the long-term, ultimately leading to more records and extreme weather.
"We know what to do - stop burning fossil fuels and replace them with more sustainable, renewable sources of energy," says Dr Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London.
"Until we do that, extreme weather events intensified by climate change will continue to destroy lives and livelihoods."

29/02/2024

Drax: UK power station still burning rare forest wood

A power company that has received £6bn in UK green subsidies has kept burning wood from some of the world's most precious forests, the BBC has found.
Papers obtained by Panorama show Drax took timber from rare forests in Canada it had claimed were "no-go areas".
It comes as the government decides whether to give the firm's Yorkshire site billions more in environmental subsidies funded by energy bill payers.
Drax says its wood pellets are "sustainable and legally harvested".
The Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, is a converted coal plant which burns wood pellets. In 2023, it produced about 5% of the UK's electricity. The site has become a key part of the government's drive to meet its climate targets.
Its owner, Drax, receives money from energy bill payers because the electricity produced from burning pellets is classified as renewable and treated as emission-free.

In fact, the power station emits about 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, but under international rules the UK doesn't have to count these emissions.
All of the 6.5 million tonnes of wood pellets burned by Drax each year are produced overseas. Many come from Drax's 17 pellet plants in the US and Canada.
In 2022, Panorama revealed the company had obtained logging licences in the Canadian province of British Columbia and filmed logs being taken from what the programme said was primary forest to a pellet plant owned by Drax.
Primary forests are natural forests that have not been significantly disturbed by human activity.
Following the BBC investigation, Drax denied taking wood from primary forests but said it would not apply for further logging licences in the province.
However, the company still takes whole logs from forests that have been cut down by timber companies.

Panorama has obtained documents from British Columbia's Ministry of Forests that show the company took more than 40,000 tonnes of wood from so-called "old-growth" forests in 2023.
Old-growth is some of the oldest forest which the provincial government says provides "unique habitats, structures and ecological functions".