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Magnitude 5.7 earthquake hits off northern California -USGS

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Magnitude 5.7 earthquake hits off northern California -USGS

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A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck on Friday off the coast of Northern California in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, but there were no reports of damage or injury.

It was quickly followed by a second quake of 5.6 closer to shore, the USGS said. The larger temblor was initially reported by the agency as magnitude 5.8.

Both quakes struck west of the California town of Petrolia and were very shallow, amplifying their effects, but a USGS map showed that they were not widely felt along the coast.

The Office of Emergency Services for Humboldt County, California said there were no initial reports of injuries or damage from the quake.

Magnitude 5 quakes and above are not uncommon in seismically active California. They are considered moderate and capable of causing considerable damage if they hit a heavily populated area directly.

But rarely do they cause problems when they strike offshore from the sparsely populated Mendocino coast.

CREDIT: msn: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/magnitude-57-earthquake-hits-off-northern-california-usgs/ar-AAsmvMs

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Forest fires kill 39 in central Portugal

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Forest fires kill 39 in central Portugal

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The death toll in forest fires in central Portugal has risen to 24, says Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

The majority died while trying to flee the Pedrogao Grande area, 50 km (30 miles) south-east of Coimbra, in their cars, according to the government.

Several fire fighters are reported to be among about 20 people injured.

"We are witnessing a terrible tragedy. So far, 24 deaths are confirmed and the death toll may rise further," said Mr Costa.

Secretary of State for the Interior Jorge Gomes earlier said that three people died from smoke inhalation and 16 died in their cars on the road linking Figueiro dos Vinhos to Castanheira de Pera.

It is not yet known what caused the fire, which has also burnt down houses in the area.

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Forest fires kill 24 in central Portugal - BBC News

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The death toll in forest fires in central Portugal has risen to 24, says Prime Minister Antonio Costa. The majority died while trying to flee the Pedrogao Grande area, 50 km (30 miles) south-east of Coimbra, in their cars, according to the government. Several fire fighters are reported to be among about 20 people injured.

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Chinese and EU leaders are to agree a joint statement on the Paris climate agreement saying it is "an imperative more important than ever".

A draft of the document, seen by the BBC, stresses the "highest political commitment" to implement the deal.

It will be widely seen as a rebuff to the US, as President Trump deliberates on withdrawal from the accord.

The joint statement will be published on Friday after a summit in Brussels.

For more than a year, Chinese and EU officials have been working behind the scenes to agree a joint statement on climate change and clean energy.

The document highlights the dangers posed by rising temperatures, "as a national security issue and multiplying factor of social and political fragility," while pointing out that the transition to clean energy creates jobs and economic growth.

"The EU and China consider the Paris agreement as an historic achievement further accelerating the irreversible global low greenhouse gas emission and climate resilient development," the draft document says.

"The Paris Agreement is proof that with shared political will and mutual trust, multilateralism can succeed in building fair and effective solutions to the most critical global problems of our time. The EU and China underline their highest political commitment to the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement in all its aspects."

Climate deal is essential, says UN chief

Both sides say they will step up action to and "forge ahead with further policies and measures" to implement their national plans on cutting carbon. Significantly, both the EU and China agree that they will outline their long term low carbon strategies by 2020.

The document outlines other areas of co-operation including on the development and linking of carbon markets. There will also be bilateral work on energy labelling, energy performance standards and the performance standards of buildings.

"The EU and China are joining forces to forge ahead on the implementation of the Paris agreement and accelerate the global transition to clean energy," said EU climate commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete.

"No one should be left behind, but the EU and China have decided to move forward."
Why does Trump want to leave climate deal?
What was agreed in Paris?

Climate change, or global warming, refers to the damaging effect of gases, or emissions, released from industry and agriculture on the atmosphere.

The Paris accord is meant to limit the global rise in temperature attributed to emissions.

Countries agreed to:

Keep global temperatures "well below" the level of 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times and "endeavour to limit" them even more, to 1.5C

Limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100

Review each country's contribution to cutting emissions every five years so they scale up to the challenge

Enable rich countries to help poorer nations by providing "climate finance" to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy

To date, 147 out of the 197 countries have ratified the accord, including the US, where the accord entered into force last November.
Exxon shareholders back 'historic' vote on climate Antarctic ice crack takes major turn
The increased co-operation between the EU and China comes as reports indicate a further cooling in the US towards the Paris accord.

Several sources, quoted by US media, suggest that President Trump is set to pull out. The President himself tweeted enigmatically that he would announce his decision over the next few days.

This comes after the President failed to find common ground with other global leaders at G7 summit in Taormina, Sicily. In the wake of that meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel vented her frustration with the US position.

"The entire discussion about climate was very difficult, if not to say very dissatisfying," she told reporters.

"There are no indications whether the United States will stay in the Paris Agreement or not."

The new move by the EU and China was warmly welcomed by environmental campaigners, rattled by the prospect of the world's second largest emitter of carbon pulling out of the globally supported agreement.

"If US-China climate cooperation gave birth to the Paris Agreement, now it is up to EU and China to defend and enhance it," said Li Shuo, from Greenpeace.

"The pair has the potential to become the new driver for international climate diplomacy."

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Paris climate deal: EU and China rebuff Trump - BBC News

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Chinese and EU leaders are to agree a joint statement on the Paris climate agreement saying it is "an imperative more important than ever". A draft of the document, seen by the BBC, stresses the "highest political commitment" to implement the deal.

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Butler's tourism model

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National Grid sells majority stake in UK gas infrastructure to Chinese and Qatari state investors

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National Grid sells majority stake in UK gas infrastructure to Chinese and Qatari state investors

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National Grid has agreed to sell a majority stake in the UK’s gas pipe network to a team of investors, including the Chinese and Qatari states. The network supplies 11 million homes with energy through 82,000 miles of pipeline – its sale will reignite concerns over foreign ownership of critical infrastructure.

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National Grid has agreed to sell a majority stake in the UK's gas pipe network to a team of investors, including the Chinese and Qatari states.

The UK's power network operator confirmed it is offloading the 61 per cent shareholding to a consortium led by Australian investment bank Macquarie in a deal that values the unit at around £13.8bn.

The division controls an important part of the country's infrastructure, which delivers gas to 11 million homes through 82,000 miles of pipeline, and its sale will reignite concerns about the ownership of critical national assets by foreign investors.

In August Theresa May said such deals would face tighter regulation as she gave the green light to the French and Chinese-funded Hinkley Point nuclear reactor.

National Grid said it would distribute a £150m voluntary payment to benefit British energy customers, while some £4bn of the proceeds will be returned to the company's shareholders.

It will keep 31 per cent of the business but said it could potentially sell another 14 per cent stake to the consortium under the terms of the deal.

The sale, which is set to complete before the end of March next year, comes as part of a move to rebalance National Grid's business towards higher growth areas and create extra value for shareholders.

Dave Prentis, Unison union general secretary, said: "The experience of Thames Water customers when Macquarie was running the show should have been a red flag to ministers and regulators as how unsuitable this company is to be in charge of the UK's gas supply.

"Macquarie has poor form already - in building up huge company debt, repatriating massive dividends to the southern hemisphere and charging customers more for a much poorer service.

"The company has already proved it can't be trusted with the nation's water supply, but now it is to be in charge of gas pipes to millions of homes and businesses.

"The Government has said it wants to invest in UK infrastructure, yet these are not terribly encouraging first steps. It suggests ministers have not given much thought to an industrial strategy, not do they seem to have much desire to retain key parts of the nation's infrastructure in UK hands."

John Pettigrew, chief executive of National Grid, said the deal "represents an important milestone in the evolution of National Grid and is a good outcome for our customers, employees, and shareholders".

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Britain just sold the national grid to China and Qatar

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National Grid has agreed to sell a majority stake in the UK's gas pipe network to a team of investors, including the Chinese and Qatari states. The UK's power network operator confirmed it is offloading the 61 per cent shareholding to a consortium led by Australian investment bank Macquarie in a deal that values the unit at around £13.8bn.

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One of Earth's Most Dangerous Supervolcanoes Is Rumbling

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One of Earth's Most Dangerous Supervolcanoes Is Rumbling

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Based on physical measurements and computer modeling, magma is approaching the CDP [critical degassing pressure] at Campi Flegrei, a volcano in the metropolitan area of Naples, one of the most densely inhabited areas in the world.

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A long-quiet yet huge supervolcano that lies under 500,000 people in Italy may be waking up and approaching a "critical state," scientists report this week in the journal Nature Communications.

Based on physical measurements and computer modeling, "we propose that magma could be approaching the CDP [critical degassing pressure] at Campi Flegrei, a volcano in the metropolitan area of Naples, one of the most densely inhabited areas in the world, and where accelerating deformation and heating are currently being observed," wrote the scientists-who are led by Giovanni Chiodini of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics in Rome.

A sudden release of hot magmatic gasses is possible in the near future, which could trigger a large eruption, the scientists warn. Yet the timing of any possible eruption is unknown and is currently not possible to predict.

In response to the news, Italy's government has raised the volcano's threat level from green to yellow, or from quiet to requires scientific monitoring. In other words, the government is urging a measured response to the study, followed by additional scientific work.

Campi Flegrei means "burning fields" in Italian. The volcanic region is also known as the Phlegraean Fields. Like other supervolcanoes-such as the one responsible for the geothermal features of Yellowstone -it is not a single volcanic cone. Rather, it's a large complex, much of it underground or under the Mediterranean Sea, that includes 24 craters, as well as various geysers and vents that can release hot gas.

Supervolcanoes are usually characterized by a large caldera, or depression, that formed from past explosive eruptions. Campi Flegrei's depression, just west of Naples, is more than seven miles across.

Campi Flegrei is thought to have formed hundreds of thousands of years ago. A massive eruption 200,000 years ago spewed so much ash that it darkened the skies around the planet, triggering a "volcanic winter." That event is thought to have been the largest volcanic episode in the history of Europe over that time.

The volcano erupted again 35,000 and 12,000 years ago. An eruption about 40,000 years ago might have contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals, a 2010 study suggested, although that report has been debated. The volcanic area was also known by the ancient Greeks. ( See pictures of another supervolcano.)

A smaller but still sizable eruption was observed at the supervolcano in 1538. That event lasted eight days and created the mountain Monte Nuovo. But since then, the volcano has been quiet, slumbering for more than 500 years.

The scientists caution that it's possible nothing will happen in our lifetimes. They say it's impossible to say with any certainty when an eruption might actually take place. More monitoring and study are needed, they say.

The scars of another supervolcano were recently found in the Sesia Valley in the Italian Alps. That eight-mile-wide caldera likely last erupted 280 million years ago, when it blasted out a thousand times more material than Mount St. Helens spewed during its infamous 1980 eruption. The result was the blocking out of the sun, which led to global cooling.

"There will be another supervolcano explosion," scientist James Quick, a geologist at Southern Methodist University in Texas, said in a statement when that volcano was found.

"We don't know where, [but] Sesia Valley could help us to predict the next event."

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One of World's Most Dangerous Supervolcanoes Is Rumbling

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A long-quiet yet huge supervolcano that lies under 500,000 people in Italy may be waking up and approaching a "critical state," scientists report this week in the journal Nature Communications .

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https://www.google.com/amp/www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/campi-flegrei-supervolvano-eruption-vesuvius-naples-pozzuoli-christopher-kilburn-a7737886.html%3Famphttps://www.google.com/amp/www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/campi-flegrei-supervolvano-eruption-vesuvius-naples-pozzuoli-christopher-kilburn-a7737886.html%3Famp

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How Rome is selling its refuse

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Rome's rubbish is helping to power Austrian homes - and it gets to Austria by train.

Rome has been struggling to cope with a rubbish crisis and Austria has spare capacity at a waste-to-energy plant near Vienna.

So a deal has been struck. The Italians are paying Austrian company EVN to dispose of up to 70,000 tonnes of Roman household refuse this year.

The waste is transported by train through northern Italy, over the Alps and ends up at the EVN thermal waste utilisation plant at Zwentendorf on the Danube.

Up to three trains a week arrive at the Zwentendorf plant. Each carries airtight containers loaded with around 700 tonnes of Roman household waste.

The refuse is incinerated and converted into hot flue gas, which generates steam. The steam is delivered to a neighbouring power station, where it is converted into electricity, which is used to power 170,000 houses in the province of Lower Austria.
How Norway turned rubbish into fuel
It may seem counter-intuitive to carry rubbish over 1,000km (620 miles) before disposing of it, but it is part of efforts in the European Union to make cities reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills.

"It is not crazy," insists Gernot Alfons, head of the EVN thermal waste plant. For him it is an environmentally friendly solution and the rubbish trains are key.

"The other alternative would be to put this rubbish into landfill, which creates a lot of methane emissions that create a lot of impact in terms of CO2 emissions.

"It is much better to transport this waste to a plant which has a high energy efficiency like ours."

So what has gone wrong with Rome's waste disposal?

Even in elegant districts like Prati, near the Vatican, it is not hard to see that the city has a rubbish problem.

Overflowing communal bins for both household waste and recycling are a common sight, and a lot of Romans are very unhappy.

"I think it is outrageous," Claudia Grassi, a resident of Rome told me. "The beautiful town of Rome is being insulted. It is like a beautiful woman that has been wounded again and again."

Antonio La Spina, professor of sociology and public policy at Rome's LUISS University, says the city produces more waste than it can cope with.

"One factor is the remarkable amount of waste that is produced per capita in Rome. Another is that the share of (separated) waste is increasing.

"That's a good thing in general, but not if the authorities aren't ready to deal with it all - which they aren't.

"Another problem is the fact that the landfills are full - and some are already a big environmental problem, and need to be closed."

Rome's landfill sites are so full, he says, that the authorities have not only had to look beyond the region, but beyond Italy, to dispose of their waste.

Where there's muck, there's brass

But it is not just the lack of space. The rubbish problem is also political.

Waste disposal and other public services in Rome have been plagued by more than mismanagement.

In 2014, an investigation known as Mafia Capitale laid bare corruption and tainted bidding in city services, including rubbish collection.
Rome's Raggi finds it tough at the top When in Rome shake up the politics
Rome's new Mayor Virginia Raggi, from the populist Five Star Movement, came to power last year promising to clean up the city.

But she ran into trouble almost immediately.

The person she appointed as the city's rubbish tsar, Paola Muraro, was forced to resign after it emerged she was under investigation for alleged wrongdoing during her 12-year stint as a consultant to Rome's rubbish collection agency, AMA.

Ms Muraro has denied allegations of impropriety. But Mayor Raggi is under pressure.

In Campo de' Fiori, one of Rome's most attractive markets, rubbish piles up on the cobblestones almost every afternoon, amid the flower and vegetable stalls.

Rubbish collectors eventually arrive to clean it up, but Vladimir, who works at a local restaurant on the square, shakes his head.

"It is disgusting here for two or three hours a day, until they clear it up. Tourists who come here are in shock. In the centre of a European capital, this is not normal."

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Why Rome sends trains filled with rubbish to Austria - BBC News

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Rome's rubbish is helping to power Austrian homes - and it gets to Austria by train. Rome has been struggling to cope with a rubbish crisis and Austria has spare capacity at a waste-to-energy plant near Vienna. So a deal has been struck.

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Tourism, Geography and History all together

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As always, our Saudia Airline flight from Riyadh to Medina started with prayer.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the flight attendant said over the intercom. "The text that you are about to hear is a supplication that the prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, used to pray before travelling."

The rest was in Arabic. I listened to the record voice, low and ponderous, as I looked out the small window at the unending desert below. I was travelling with friends to Saudi Arabia's hidden desert city of Madain Saleh. While many people have heard of Nabatean capital Petra in Jordan, Madain Saleh, the Nabateans' second-largest city and a Unesco World Heritage Site, remains relatively unknown. Once a thriving city along the ancient spice route, it played a crucial role in building a trade empire. But today its monumental stone-hewn tombs are some of the last, and best preserved, remains of a lost kingdom.

Its monumental stone-hewn tombs are some of the last, and best preserved, remains of a lost kingdom.

From Medina, we drove four hours to the oasis town of Al Ula, and then continued a little ways further to our hotel in Saudi Arabia's Hejaz province, 1,043km northwest of Riyadh. Our guide Ahmed met us next morning after breakfast. He was tall, lightly bearded and wore a traditional Arabic thobe (robe) and red ghutra (head scarf). Smiling, he told us that he learned his English in New Zealand.

As we drove roughly 40km north of the hotel towards Madain Saleh, Ahmed told us about the Nabateans, whose wealth and prosperity came from their ability to source and store water in harsh desert environments. They also held a monopoly on desert trade routes as far southwest as Madain Saleh and north to the Mediterranean port of Gaza. They extracted taxes from camel caravans - laden with frankincense, myrrh and spices - that stopped at their garrisoned outposts for water and rest.

However, in 106 AD, the Nabatean Empire was annexed by the Romans, and Red Sea routes overtook land trading routes. Nabatean cities were no longer centres of trade, and so began their decline and ultimate abandonment.

Tucked away in the desert, today Madain Saleh is deserted, silent and stunningly well-preserved. Much of the city still lies under layers of sand.

What has been uncovered is a vast necropolis of more than 131 immense tombs. At first, their sheer scale and number was overwhelming. But as we looked closer, the Nabateans' artistry was revealed through carvings of soaring eagles, imposing sphinxes and feathered griffins, not to mention intricate inscriptions. We stopped in front of one tomb, whose inscription translated as being for 'Hany son of Tansy... and descendants', and ended with a date and name: 'April 31AD... carved by Hoor... the sculptor'.

Tomb inscriptions provided insight into the names, relationships, occupations, laws and gods of the people who lived here. The Nabateans left no extensive written history, so these texts, unique to Madain Saleh, are extraordinarily valuable. Ahmed explained that the inscriptions were written in Aramaic, an ancient Semitic language and the lingua franca of the Middle East at that time. Aramaic would have been essential knowledge for business and commerce communication, although the Nabateans also used an early form of Arabic - traces of which Ahmed pointed out in the inscriptions.

The silence was overwhelming.

Of all the tombs, Qasr al Farid was particularly impressive - principally for its size because the façade was relatively simple. A central door with a decorated pediment was the entry to the interior, where bodies would have been laid in recessed shelves along the walls.

From Qasr al Farid, the views of the rock-hewn desert presented their own extraordinary drama. Golden sandstone outcrops rose from a flat sandy floor, sculpted into crooked spires and conical structures by centuries of wind and rain. And the silence was overwhelming. Looking out from a tomb interior, it was only our footprints and van tyre marks that disturbed the stillness.

Unlike Petra with its tourists, souvenir sellers and donkey rides, there were no other people here. Muslims will not come here because they believe the site was cursed when the Nabatean's refused to renounce their gods in favour of Islam, and tourist visas for non-Muslims to enter Saudi Arabia are notoriously difficult to obtain. It's the very absence of foot traffic, as well as Saudi Arabia's dry desert climate, that's has kept Madain Saleh so intact. While Petra's facades are slowly disintegrating, these tombs are stunningly well preserved.

We wandered the necropolis at will, peering in and out of tombs, touching the cold, age-old stone and losing sense of time. A few hours later we climbed back into our van and headed northeast to Jabal Ithlib, a monumental rocky outcrop believed to have been a religious sanctuary for the worship of the Nabatean god Dushara, Lord of the Mountains.

The jagged cliff walls of the siq, a narrow, 40m-long natural passageway that led to Jabal Ithlib, had decorated votive niches to Nabatean gods carved into the rock and petroglyphs of camels and traders. Ahmed pointed to a series of canals that once channelled water into cisterns - examples of the Nabatean ability to manipulate rain run-off and underground aquifers.

We set out along Jebel Ithlib's southeastern slope, climbing Mount Ethleb. Dressed as I was in the mandatory head-to-toe black abaya (cloak) this was something of a challenge. My undignified scramble to the summit was well worth it, however. We faced west across a vast plain, and I imagined traders and camels approaching Madain Saleh, their panniers full of frankincense. These resinous nuggets, extracted from the Boswellia sacra tree, are as valuable as they are rare. They would have been destined for the wealthiest Romans, Greeks, Egyptians and Israelites.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, we drove back towards the outskirts of the ancient city, stopping by a cluster of tombs. We spread brightly patterned carpets on the sand, drank Arabic coffee and passed around traditional date-filled mammoul biscuits. In front of us, Madain Saleh's sandstone tombs glowed gold with the last remnants of sun. The silence hung around us like a thick blanket as we watched the desert colours slowly fade into darkness.
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As always, our Saudia Airline flight from Riyadh to Medina started with prayer. "Ladies and gentlemen," the flight attendant said over the intercom. "The text that you are about to hear is a supplication that the prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, used to pray before travelling." The rest was in Arabic.

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Unprecedented coral bleaching in consecutive years has damaged two-thirds of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, aerial surveys have shown.

The bleaching - or loss of algae - affects a 1,500km (900 miles) stretch of the reef, according to scientists.

The latest damage is concentrated in the middle section, whereas last year's bleaching hit mainly the north.

Experts fear the proximity of the two events will give damaged coral little chance to recover.

Prof Terry Hughes, from James Cook University, said governments must urgently address climate change to prevent further bleaching.

"Since 1998, we have seen four of these events and the gap between them has varied substantially, but this is the shortest gap we have seen," Prof Hughes told the BBC.

"The sooner we take action on global greenhouse gas emissions and transition away from fossil fuels to renewables, the better."

Almost 800 coral reefs across 8,000km were assessed by the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

The findings showed only the southern section was relatively unscathed.

Pheromones could foil reef-killing starfish

Great Barrier Reef storm damage 'likely'

Researcher Dr James Kerry said the damage was unprecedented.

"The central third this year, I would say, was as severe in terms of bleaching as what we saw as the northern third last year," he told the BBC.

"For those reefs that were hit two years in a row, it is effectively a double whammy. They have had no chance to recover from last year's events."

Mass coral bleaching

Coral bleaching is caused by rising water temperatures resulting from two natural warm currents.

It is exacerbated by man-made climate change, as the oceans are absorbing about 93% of the increase in the Earth's heat.

Bleaching happens when corals under stress drive out the algae known as zooxanthellae that give them colour.

If normal conditions return, the corals can recover, but it can take decades, and if the stress continues the corals can die.

The latest damage happened without the assistance of El Niño, a weather pattern previously associated with bleaching events.

The reef - a vast collection of thousands of smaller coral reefs stretching from the northern tip of Queensland to the state's southern city of Bundaberg - was given World Heritage status in 1981.

The UN says it is the "most biodiverse" of all the World Heritage sites, and of "enormous scientific and intrinsic importance".

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Damage to Australia's reef 'unprecedented'

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Unprecedented coral bleaching in consecutive years has damaged two-thirds of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, aerial surveys have shown. The bleaching - or loss of algae - affects a 1,500km (900 miles) stretch of the reef, according to scientists. The latest damage is concentrated in the middle section, whereas last year's bleaching hit mainly the north.

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You can reduce traffic by following the rules of driving, many ways are used in london one of them is this : congestion charge.here is a video to explain how to reduce traffic : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzzSao6ypE

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Cyclone Debbie: 'Monster' storm batters Australia

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Cyclone Debbie: 'Monster' storm batters Australia

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A powerful cyclone has pummelled the north-east Australian coast, causing major damage, torrential rain and power cuts to tens of thousands of homes.

Cyclone Debbie made landfall between Bowen and Airlie Beach in Queensland as a category four storm, whipping gusts of up to 263km/h (163mph).

It is moving inland as a category two storm but could cause damage for hours yet.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was aware of one death so far.

Activating a disaster response plan, he stressed the picture could develop when emergency crews were able to assess the damage.

"Conditions have deteriorated rapidly," he told parliament. "Take care and stay safe. Be prepared to shelter in place until Wednesday."

In pictures: Debbie makes landfall

Battered cockatoo and other tales of the storm

Defence force helicopters and naval vessels would be sent to Queensland with aid, he added.

He said the Australian government would be urging insurance companies to be "compassionate" and supportive of people who have claims to make following the cyclone.

'Battering ram effect'

The extent of Cyclone Debbie's devastation, which has a 50km-diameter eye wall, may not be known for some time, the authorities said.

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said the storm's slow speed had created a "battering ram effect", adding: "We are going to get lots of reports of damage, and sadly I think we will also receive reports of injuries, if not death."

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said assessing damage was difficult because communities had been cut off from power and phone reception.

"Everyone is going to be in shock tomorrow, just to see the full impact of this cyclone," she said. "I'm bracing myself for it."

One man had been seriously injured in a wall collapse triggered by the storm in Proserpine, Mr Stewart said.

Electricity providers said it was not known when power would be restored to houses.

Officials warned people to stay indoors until it was safe to go outside.

Surfers condemned

The 1,500 residents of Collinsville inland were told to be aware the category two storm was heading for them.

"We're going to see the impact of Cyclone Debbie for the next three to five days," Ms Palaszczuk said.

She also condemned those people spotted surfing during the cyclone as "irresponsible" and "ridiculous".

More than 25,000 people were urged to evacuate their homes ahead of predictions the cyclone would be Queensland's most damaging since 2011.

One person in the Whitsunday Islands compared the winds to "freight trains coming through left and right".

"The trees are going wild," the man, identified only as Charlie, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "The place is just shaking continuously."

Greg Williamson, the mayor of Mackay regional council, told the BBC: "We've had winds up to about 95km/h for the last 12 hours. We've had torrential rain.... but that's what you get for living in a tropical paradise."

He said the Whitsunday Islands, Proserpine and Bowen were "really getting lashed now at the moment".

In other key developments:

The region is expected to be hit with 150-500mm of rain on Tuesday, with warnings of floods in low-lying areas

Police warned people to beware of fallen power lines, which could be deadly

Emergency stockpiles of food and fuel have been set aside, and the army is on standby

The Insurance Council of Australia declared the cyclone a "catastrophe"

David Wachenfeld, of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said he feared Debbie might have caused extensive damage to reefs in its path

More than 2,000 emergency workers are on standby but people have been warned crews will only respond when it is safe to do so.

All flights have been cancelled at Townsville Airport and Mackay Airport.

Mr Stewart said the weather had contributed to the death of a woman in a car crash on Monday.
Cyclones and hurricanes: Different names for same thing
Why is it so powerful?

It made landfall at close to its peak intensity, Dr Jeffrey D Kepert, head of the Bureau of Meteorology's High Impact Weather Research told the BBC. Crucially, it is also very slow-moving. That "can be more damaging because the duration of strong winds is longer. As structures experience a longer battering, things like metal fatigue set in, leading to more damage. Also, more of the rain falls in the same area rather than being spread out, leading to a greater flood risk".

What is the predicted damage?

Fortunately Debbie looks likely to head between two cities so "the destruction is likely to be somewhat less than feared". And while tourists are less able to evacuate from the resorts that have been hit more directly, their hotels are "likely to have higher foundations" and be built more solidly than many ordinary homes near the coast.

Panic over?

No. The storm will still be around even as it downgrades but, as a silver lining, it could bring some relief to farmers affected by drought. "Hopefully that will bring a bit of rain to the interior," Professor King says.

More: Flinders University's cyclone visualisation

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A powerful cyclone has pummelled the north-east Australian coast, causing major damage, torrential rain and power cuts to tens of thousands of homes. Cyclone Debbie made landfall between Bowen and Airlie Beach in Queensland as a category four storm, whipping gusts of up to 263km/h (163mph).

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Thames Water fined £20m for sewage spill

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Thames Water fined £20m for sewage spill

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Thames Water has been fined a record £20m after pumping 1.9 billion litres of untreated sewage into the River Thames.

The company admitted water pollution and other offences at sewage facilities in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

Fish and birds died following the spills in 2013 and 2014.

The £20.3m fine is the largest penalty handed down to a water utility for an environmental disaster.

Judge Francis Sheridan said the scale of the problem was such that it must have been known up the chain of command.

He told Aylesbury Crown Court it was inconceivable that all the individual managers made the same decisions to run pumps at half levels, calling it a "shocking and disgraceful state of affairs".

He added: "It should not be cheaper to offend than to take appropriate precautions."

The spills occurred at four Thames Water Utilities Ltd sewage treatment works, at Aylesbury, Didcot, Henley and Little Marlow, as well as a large sewage pumping system in Littlemore in Oxford.

Hundreds of fish were killed and sewage spilled into nature reserves, while nappies and other debris went into the Thames and the adjoining River Thame.

Manholes also overflowed and fewer dragonflies were reported.

Environmental damage was caused in the riverside towns of Henley and Marlow.
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Company director Richard Aylard said: "We have failed in our responsibility to the environment and that hurts both personally and professionally, because we do care.

"We've also failed in our responsibility to our customers who pay us to provide an essential public service all the time, every day and not just some of the time, and we apologise for all of those failings."

Judge Sheridan said the company had a "history of non-compliance" and that managers had ignored warnings and "risks identified by employees and others".

Staff recorded a "failure waiting to happen", he said.

Robert Davis, from the Environment Agency, called it some of the worst pollution he had witnessed.

He added: "I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The river was visibly polluted bank to bank with sewage.

"It was grey, it was lifeless, it had fish floating along it, and was polluted as far as the eye can see both downstream and upstream. It was really sad to see such a beautiful river so badly polluted."

Farmer Michael Woodford built a 3km [1.9 mile] fence to make sure his cattle did not access the water at the time.

He said: "We were very concerned about the welfare of our cattle.

"This type of pollution is very harmful to livestock and could be fatal to animals.

"It was shocking because the river was a haven of wildlife. There were always fish and crayfish in there. The whole of the wildlife was being destroyed by all this pollution."

Chief executive of Thames Water Steve Robertson said he deeply regretted the spills but claimed things at the company had improved since it had increased staff in key roles.

"We understand our huge responsibilities to the environment, have learned from these serious events and continue to invest at the rate of around £20m a week on continually improving our service to our customers and the environment."

'Parlous works'

The company has 21 days to pay the fine.

The previous largest fine handed down by a court was £2m, given to Southern Water in December after sewage was discharged into the sea near Margate.

Anne Brosnan, chief prosecutor for the Environment Agency, said: "Thames Water was completely negligent to the environmental dangers created by the parlous state of its works.

"Our investigation revealed that we were dealing with a pattern of unprecedented pollution incidents which could have been avoided if Thames Water had been open and frank with the Environment Agency as required by water company industry protocol."

Jeremy Stern, BBC News, at Aylesbury Crown Court

This is by far the largest fine Thames Water, or any UK water company, has ever been landed with.

However, the record sentence is not a surprise.

Fines for these types of offences have been going up since new guidelines were introduced in England and Wales in 2014.

Also Judge Francis Sheridan said more than once during this case that he wanted to send a message to shareholders that pollution on this scale is not acceptable.

However, the fine amounts to a tiny proportion of the company's annual income. Thames Water makes an operating profit of around £2m every day.

Louise Bowe, River Thame Conservation Trust chief executive, said: "We have been shocked as the catalogue of events from 2013 have come out in court.

"It was much worse than we thought and explains how the devastating damage to the river came about.

"Poor quality sewage effluent being released reduces oxygen in the water. Fish and other aquatic wildlife struggle to survive and the whole ecosystem can be damaged for many years.

"Some large fish that were killed cannot be replaced as species like large mature chub and roach are simply not available."

Doug Kennedy, from Cuddington, set up the Save the River Thame project after being "appalled" by the spills.

He said: "I was very shocked to find large dead fish on the river. The river was black. It had rather horrid little black flies bouncing over it. You couldn't see into it, it was just horrible.

"It's absolutely disgusting what was going on [at the sewage treatment works]... but we weren't aware of it.

"[There was] floating disgusting material - raw sewage - on the River Thames, as well as on the Thame."

Rose O'Neil, water policy manager at the WWF, said it was "not an isolated issue".

She added: "There are around 15,000 sewer overflows across England releasing raw sewage into our rivers.

"This case highlights the need for water companies to invest in solutions that manage the whole local catchment area such as green infrastructure and sustainable drainage systems. They simply can't continue treating our rivers as their dumping ground."

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Thames Water fined £20m for sewage spill

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Thames Water has been fined a record £20m after pumping 1.9 billion litres of untreated sewage into the River Thames. The company admitted water pollution and other offences at sewage facilities in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Fish and birds died following the spills in 2013 and 2014.

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Forest and peatland fires in Indonesia are a major source of air pollution, but keeping them under control is a constant battle.

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Forest and peatland fires in Indonesia are a major source of air pollution, but keeping them under control is a constant battle.

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Indonesian forest fires are a major source of air pollution, but keeping them under control is hard.

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Rainstorms and landslides in Chile have contaminated a major river

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Rainstorms and landslides in Chile have contaminated a major river

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Rainstorms and landslides in Chile have contaminated a major river forcing the authorities to cut off drinking water to at least four million people in the capital, Santiago.

Officials said the water supply from the Maipo river would be cut to most of the city until the water flowed clear.

At least three people have been killed and 19 are missing as rivers overflowed and bridges were washed away.

Almost 400 people have been cut off in the Cajon del Maipo mountainous area.

"Emergency teams are working on the ground to connect with isolated persons and re-establish the water supply wherever possible," Chilean President Michelle Bachelet wrote on Twitter [in Spanish].

Aguas Andinas, which provides the capital with drinking water, said continuing rain was making repairs difficult. The company said it did not know yet when the water supply could be restored.

Regional governor Claudio Orrego said weather conditions in the mountains near Santiago remained "very bad".

"We had many landslides in a very short space of time," he said.

A 12-year-old girl was killed when the car she was travelling in with her family was swept away by a landslide in the O'Higgins region, south of Santiago.

Two more people died in Cajon del Maipo.

Mr Orrego said the heavy rains which had fallen since Saturday were "absolutely anomalous" for the summer period.

Stocking up

More than 60% of households in Santiago woke up on Sunday to find their taps running dry.

Many queued to fill buckets and pans with water provided by the authorities.

Some shops ran out of bottled water and a number of supermarkets reported scuffles between people eager to stock up.

Restaurants and businesses in the affected areas were ordered to stay closed and schools were also told to delay the start of the school year, scheduled for Monday.

The flooding follows months of drought and a series of deadly wildfires which burned for weeks.
Are you affected by the water cuts? How are you dealing with the situation? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

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Chile floods: Millions without water in capital Santiago - BBC News

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Rainstorms and landslides in Chile have contaminated a major river forcing the authorities to cut off drinking water to at least four million people in the capital, Santiago. Officials said the water supply from the Maipo river would be cut to most of the city until the water flowed clear.

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Y8: Hurricane Katrina information for diary entry!

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Y8: Hurricane Katrina information for diary entry!

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Impacts

Katrina was a category 4 storm.

Storm surges reached over 6 metres in height.

New Orleans was one of the worst affected areas because it lies below sea level and is protected by levees [ levee: Ridges or banks formed by deposits of alluvium left behind by the periodic flooding of rivers. Can also be artificially constructed banks or walls. ] . These protect it from the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain. The levee defences were unable to cope with the strength of Katrina, and water flooded into the city.

Despite an evacuation order, many of the poorest people remained in the city.

People sought refuge in the Superdome stadium. Conditions were unhygienic, and there was a shortage of food and water. Looting [ looting: A term which refers to stealing from unguarded homes or businesses. ] was commonplace throughout the city. Tension was high and many felt vulnerable and unsafe.

1 million people were made homeless and about 1,200 people drowned in the floods.

Oil facilities were damaged and as a result petrol prices rose in the UK and USA.

Responses

There was much criticism of the authorities for their handling of the disaster. Although many people were evacuated, it was a slow process and the poorest and most vulnerable were left behind.

$50 billion in aid was given by the government.

The UK government sent food aid during the early stages of the recovery process.

The National Guard was mobilised to restore and maintain law and order in what became a hostile and unsafe living environment.

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Katrina was a category 4 storm. Storm surges reached over 6 metres in height. New Orleans was one of the worst affected areas because it lies below sea level and is protected by levees [ levee: Ridges or banks formed by deposits of alluvium left behind by the periodic flooding of rivers.

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Congestion charge cutting down the traffic

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Congestion charge cutting down the traffic

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Now you can see that congestion charge has reduced the traffic in London

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Conjestion charge really cuts down the traffic in London because on it's first anniversary, it reduced 18% traffic than usual

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The congestion charge has cut traffic

London's mayor Ken Livingstone has declared the traffic congestion charge scheme a success, on the day of its first anniversary.
He said that traffic had been cut by 18% and delays were down 30%.

The £5 charge toll was introduced for people driving throughout an eight-square-mile zone of central London.

London Chamber of Commerce has called for an end to charges at non-peak times to help retailers, but Mr Livingstone

denied trade had suffered.

Mr Livingstone also said that the city's bus system had "improved dramatically" with 29,000 more people using the service.

Traffic delays inside the charging zone remain 30% lower than before charging was introduced

Estimates of changes in traffic levels show a reduction of 18% in traffic entering the zone during charging hours

There has been an increase of 29,000 bus passengers entering the zone during the morning peak period

Congestion charging contributes £50m to London's economy, mainly through quicker and more reliable journeys for road and bus users

There remains no evidence of any significant adverse traffic impacts from the charge

The number of penalty charges issued average 165,000 per month

There are about 110,000 charge-zone payments per day

There are 65,000 fewer car trips into or through the charging zone each day

Taxi, bus and coach movements have increased by 20%

Mr Livingstone said: "Congestion charging was a radical solution to a long-standing problem.

"London's roads were clogged with slow-moving traffic and congestion was costing business £2m a week.

"This is the only thing that I have done or been associated with in 33 years of public life that has turned out better than I thought it would.

"Despite the dire predictions before the launch of the scheme, congestion charging has proved a success and that is why nearly 75% of Londoners now support the scheme - because it works."

The London Chamber of Commerce said the mayor should introduce a pause to the charge during less busy periods.

Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of the London Chamber, said: "Something needs to be done to end the anomaly of motorists paying a congestion charge at times when there is little or no congestion.

"The principal effect of the charge at these times is to deter shoppers from driving into the centre of town.

"In our most recent report, we found that 68% of retail businesses said the scheme would be improved by the introduction of a charge-free window during the day."

It had been expected the charge would raise £180m for public transport, but it is well short of that estimate.

Instead officials expect to get £68m this year and between £80m and £90m next year.

Zone widening

"We never expected to make a quid out of this," Mr Livingstone said.

There have also been problems with the performance of Capita, the private contractor running the scheme for TfL.

However, the mayor has said Capita is now meeting all of its targets.

Mr Livingstone has already said the zone could double in size if he is re-elected as mayor later this year.

Steve Norris, the Conservative London mayoral candidate, said: "The only person who thinks this scheme is not hurting business is Ken Livingstone.

"Congestion charging is doing real damage."

Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Simon Hughes said: "It is now time for a fresh direction to get congestion charging working for Londoners rather than against them; to improve their lives rather than make them a misery; to encourage shoppers back to London streets and to stop law-abiding motorists from being unnecessarily fined by Capita."

Your comments

The implementation of a charge was introduced without thought to the overall impact

I think Ken Livingstone should be given credit for sticking to the plan

Given the widespread newspaper condemnation of this before the charge was brought in I think Ken Livingstone should be given credit for sticking to the plan and doing something to try and make a change. It's still early days, but the signs are good, and noticeably the anti-congestion charge crowd have been relatively quieter recently.
James Sindin, London

The mayor needs to address the public transport problems we have in this city before it reaches crisis proportions

I think the congestion charge was brought in before appropriate provision had been made on public transport. I have always been a pedestrian and have found that travelling by bus and tube in London now is even more unbearable. The mayor needs to address the public transport problems we have in this city before it reaches crisis proportions.
Katy Evans, London

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BBC NEWS | UK | England | London | Congestion charging 'a success'

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The congestion charge has cut traffic London's mayor Ken Livingstone has declared the traffic congestion charge scheme a success, on the day of its first anniversary. He said that traffic had been cut by 18% and delays were down 30%. The £5 charge toll was introduced for people driving throughout an eight-square-mile zone of central London.

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If you're like me, then you probably have a sad pair of flip flops in your closet. You know...they're dirty, the rubber's flat, and they're scuffed like they've seen a few too many days at the beach.

In short, it might be time for a new pair of recycled flip flops.

But, how can you recycle the ones you've got now? After all, tossing them in the trash should be our last option. Is there anywhere you can send them to be recycled?

How to Recycle Flip Flops

I have found only one place you can send your flip flops in for recycling.

The organization is called UniqueEco. They're a non-profit based in Nairobi, and they accept used flip flops from all over the world. They employ local artisans, who turn these used flip flops into beads, sculptures, and other handmade pieces.

UniqueEco then sells these pieces all over the world. They employ over 150 people, and the funds raised by the organization are spent entirely within local communities. They purchase tools for local villagers, and educate the locals on sustainability and convervation, and why it's so important. They also spend a great deal of time cleaning up local beaches.

This is a wonderful organization to support because its mission is so close to the heart of ours here at EarthDivas. And if you want to recycle your flip flops, it's the only place I've found that will actually do it.

So, where can you send them in?
Unique Eco Designs P.O. Box 15565-00503 Nairobi, Kenya
Now I know that sending your flip flops to Nairobi might not appeal to some. After all, you have to pay postage, and live with the knowledge that you're contributing a lot of Co2 into the atmosphere to get them over there.

So what else could you do with your flip flops to reuse them? Well, I found some crafty ideas online...
1. Use them as Summery Doorstops
One woman I found online said she uses her old flip flops as doorstops in the summertime. I could see how this would be a unique, fun way to reuse them!
2. Use them as Furniture Movers
All you have to do is cut out the rubber sole and superglue them into milk jug tops (or bigger tops, like those from jelly jars). Then you've got free furniture movers that will save your back if you need to slide the couch across the floor.
3. Use them in Crafts
If your flip flops aren't TOO destroyed, you could wash them and let your kids cut them up to make hanging mobiles. This works great if your flip flops are thin and brightly colored.
4. Use them as a Notice Board
This is another cool idea if your flops aren't too destroyed.

Nail several pair to your wall and use them to stick messages and pictures on. This would be a fun way to decorate, especially in a hallway or kitchen.
Last Word...
I really wish there was a local organization (local as in...the United States) that recycled flip flops. But, we're just not there yet. But doing something with your flip flops other than trashing them should always be your first option.

If you have any other crafty ideas for recycling your flip flops, I'd love to hear them!

Filed under: Eco Living on June 1st, 2010

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If you're like me, then you probably have a sad pair of flip flops in your closet. You know...they're dirty, the rubber's flat, and they're scuffed like they've seen a few too many days at the beach. In short, it might be time for a new pair of recycled flip flops.

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There are better alternatives to those cheap, plastic flip flops that you can find en masses at dollar stores. First of all, flip flops become a problem when they are discarded and litter the ocean and drainage systems, not to mention that they do not decompose in landfills. One practice is to close the recycling loop by increasing demand for recycled products. You can find sandals made from recycled products such as bicycle inner tubes, tires and hemp which can all be recycled again.Low quality plastic sandals contain polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. PVC is not a healthy chemical, to say the least. It’s toxic! Don’t just listen to me, see what this talking bar of soap has to say about it…

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There are better alternatives to those cheap, plastic flip flops that you can find en masses at dollar stores. First of all, flip flops become a problem when they are discarded and litter the ocean and drainage systems, not to mention that they do not decompose in landfills. One practice is to close the recycling loop by increasing demand for recycled products. You can find sandals made from recycled products such as bicycle inner tubes, tires and hemp which can all be recycled again.Low quality plastic sandals contain polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. PVC is not a healthy chemical, to say the least. It’s toxic! Don’t just listen to me, see what this talking bar of soap has to say about it…

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tells you a lot about recycling flip flops

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Help! I am drowning in old flip-flops. Can they be recycled? I'm having a hard time finding any options.
-Chloe

Finding an environmentally friendly way to dispose of flip-flops may not seem like the most pressing issue on the planet, but if you're anything like me, being stuck with those difficult-to-recycle items can be nothing short of infuriating. I'm pretty much obsessed with finding a way to recycle, repair, compost, or creatively reuse practically everything: Hence, my reserve of rubber bands made from an old bicycle tube; my stash of seasoned socks for dusting; and the parcel of packing peanuts I've been toting around in the trunk of my car until I have time to deliver them to a Peanut Hotline-designated drop-off center.

Those things for which I haven't been able to uncover an aforementioned solution, I vow never to purchase again as I throw them, wracked by green guilt, into the trash. (Buh-bye, mold-filled ice cream scooper! So long, hideous and broken suede picture frame!)

But back to your flip-flops. Surprisingly, the flimsy footwear pose more of an ecological conundrum than at first it would seem. Beach-bound Americans, you see, aren't the only ones in love with their thongs (the ones on their feet, of course); the breezy footwear are also ubiquitous in developing countries, since they're so low-cost and easy to manufacture.

The cheaper they are, however, the faster they break, which means that every year, millions upon millions of them wind up either discarded in landfills or worse -- adding to the mountainous tide of plastic waste clogging our oceans and threatening marine wildlife. (Flip-flops, you might be interested to know, are a frequent sight in the Texas-sized floating landfill known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.)

Once thrown away, the stale sandals can leach dangerous chemicals into the environment, thanks to the variety of non-recyclable plastics like PVC and polyurethane most commonly used in their manufacture. A report last year by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, for example, found hazardous chemicals in 17 of the 27 plastic shoes it tested, including the endocrine-disrupting phthalate DEHP, as well as toxic metals like mercury, lead, and cadmium.

Pretty serious stuff for such an innocent-looking sandal. But fortunately, you do have a few recycling options:

Send them to UniquEco. Founded by a marine biologist, UniquEco accepts shipments of flip-flops from around the world and repurposes them into colorful, handmade pieces, including art, jewelry, and toys. This innovative organization is also socially responsible, providing much-needed jobs to local artisans. The only problem? UniquEco is based in Kenya, which means that if you're in the US, the energy expenditure of shipping your flip-flop collection halfway around the globe is likely to negate any recycling benefits. My suggestion: Organize a flip-flop drive, or just collect a whole bunch of unwanted pairs from your friends and family and send them over in one large shipment.

Discover DIY projects. This may be a stretch, but I've found that flip-flops cut into small rounds can work nicely as protective gripper pads for your furniture legs. Or take a knife, shred them into thin strips, and use the bits to stuff cushions. You could also create a craft project for your kids: Have them use the soles to make their own custom rubber stamps.

Next time, buy wisely. Before you snap up another pair of second-rate sandals that'll barely make it through another summer season, consider purchasing a longer-lasting pair from an eco-minded company that uses less toxic textiles. A good choice: Ocean Minded, which incorporates greener materials like recycled car tires, hemp, and water-based glue into its designs. Or Feelgoodz, which makes its biodegradable sandals from 100 percent natural rubber (note: not for those with a latex allergy). Even better: Buy from a company that offers a mail-in recycling program for its footwear, a la Okabashi.

Here's to stepping out in sustainable style!

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Eco Etiquette: How Can I Recycle Flip-Flops?

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Help! I am drowning in old flip-flops. Can they be recycled? I'm having a hard time finding any options. -Chloe Finding an environmentally friendly way to dispose of flip-flops may not seem like the most pressing issue on the planet, but if you're anything like me, being stuck with those difficult-to-recycle items can be nothing short of infuriating.

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San Andreas

The film San Andreas was released in May 2015, written by Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore and directed by Brad Peyton. The movie Portrays an earthquake which later triggers a tsunami in the west coast of California in USA.

The movie has got a rating of 6.1/10 on IMDB. The movie is by no means geographically accurate.

First of all there’s a scene at the beginning of San Andreas where the seismologist Lawrence, uses the term Richter magnitude when referring to a large earthquake. The Richter scale is actually for local magnitude. It was developed for assessing small earthquakes in California, and so this cannot capture very large earthquakes. It’s unable to record them. Seismologists would, in fact, use the moment magnitude scale to measure these large events.

Secondly the earthquake destroys the Hoover Dam. It was destroyed by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake which should have been built to withstand larger earthquakes.

Thirdly they showed that a huge tsunami was triggered by the earthquake which is scientifically not possible. On the other hand a tsunami could hit, But Not Like in San Andreas Movie. The possibility of the San Andreas Fault triggering a tsunami on its own is highly unlikely, but there is the potential for an underwater landslide forcing one, according to San Diego State University seismologist Tom Rockwell.

In the movie, the scientist warned that shaking would be felt on the East Coast. Even the largest possible San Andreas quake won't rattle the East Coast.

This movie does not relate events that can happen in in reality due to a earthquake or tsunami

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Original article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/22/tornadoes-kill-at-least-12-people-in-georgia-upping-weekend-weather-death-toll-to-16/?utm_term=.5ec4b9d21380

On Sunday 22nd 2017, powerful tornadoes ravaged through Georgia and Mississippi. It is estimated that at least 15 people died due to the tornadoes in Georgia, and four died in Hattiesburg, Mississippi 1 day previously.

Nathan Deal, the Governor of Georgia, declared a state of emergency in 7 counties near the Florida border. Similarly, Phil Bryant, Governor of Mississippi, also declared a state of emergency. Since 1950, this is the second deadliest tornado outbreak month of January, in the USA.

According to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, there were 7 deaths in Cook county, 2 in Brooks county, 2 in Berrien county and 3 in Dougherty county. Survivor interviews in Cook county state that the tornado started at 3:00 am and caused widespread damage and left the area in a state of panic and shock.

President Trump “expressed his sincere condolences” to Nathan Deal. “They all got hit hard,” Trump said on Sunday. “The tornadoes were vicious and powerful and strong.” The cost of the damage is estimated at $200 million in Mississippi alone and Deal commented that he would likely submit a request for federal aid.

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Two things about Doha rail are:
1)https://dohanews.co/qatar-rail-aims-lay-doha-metro-tracks-year-end/
An article that claims Doha rail will lay all of the tracks
2)https://youtu.be/BbGfkl__JH8 a video showing the design of the trains that are yet to come

~Abdulla 7S
(I don't have an account, I don't know how)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73sGgmZoMBQ

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https://youtu.be/_6xlNyWPpB8

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A chain of wildfires has unleashed a catastrophe over wide swaths of central and southern Chile, killing at least 11 people, destroying thousands of homes and consuming an area about three times the size of New York City, authorities said.

The blazes, which began nearly two weeks ago, have spread quickly amid historically high temperatures and an ongoing drought. Nearly 240,000 hectares (593,000 acres) -- about three times the size of New York City -- have burned.

France, Russia, the United States and Peru have sent international help to combat the fires following last week's declaration of a state of emergency in some of the worst-affected areas. Additionally, aid from Mexico and Colombia was expected to arrive this week.

The US Embassy in Chile said this week that US Agency for International Development was donating $100,000 USD to the nongovernmental organization Caritas Chile for the purchase and delivery of firefighting equipment, such as chainsaws and weather monitoring tools.

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Take away hw 2012                   This movie/film was released in 2009, and was written and directed by Roland Emmerich; it stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover and Woody Harrelson. It has a rating of 5.8/10 on IMDb, and 39% on Rotten Tomatoes. And it earned $769.7 million internationally2012 is a relatively decent (if not highly unrealistic) disaster flick. It has a very cliché and predictable plot. It is themed around bizarre end of the Mayan calendar (21st December 2012, resulting in the name 2012). It is about a writer/author trying to keep his family safe during the ‘end’ of the world. However I would like to point out that 2012 had really good CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), and I personally enjoyed it the first time I watched it (but i started to enjoy it less every time I watched it again). Since it is a movie about an annihilating natural disaster, it contained multiple tsunamis, earthquakes, and a volcanic eruption linking it to shifting tectonic plates (our current topic in class) I believe the earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia can be compared to what happens in this movie. Both caused tsunamis, high magnitude earthquakes, and were highly devastating. However I would like to point out that no numbers were given about the death toll, damage costs, etc for all the events that take place in the movie. In the movie there was a notable sequence where most of LA is ripped in half causing a humongous chasm, and some parts were lifted up. This event is impossible as it is a conservative plate boundary that cannot create the chasm shown in the movie. The magnitude of this earthquake was not given as I have already pointed out.  There was also a large chasm on the sea bed in Sumatra(the one in the movie being deep) and the fault line caused by the Sumatran earthquake being the longest ever recorded, so these events could be compared. The Sumatran earthquake caused a tsunami (the boxing day tsunami) and killed over an estimated 230,000 people; My estimate for the death toll in the movie would be above 3.82 million as this action sequence takes place in Los Angeles and its population was around 3.802 million in 2008 (when the movie was shot).In conclusion, the disaster flick 2012 is a highly unrealistic film/movie as some plate boundaries do something that in real life would not happen, such as the LA destruction sequence.By Akshit 9Q

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Take away hw 2012                   This movie/film was released in 2009, and was written and directed by Roland Emmerich; it stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover and Woody Harrelson. It has a rating of 5.8/10 on IMDb, and 39% on Rotten Tomatoes. And it earned $769.7 million internationally2012 is a relatively decent (if not highly unrealistic) disaster flick. It has a very cliché and predictable plot. It is themed around bizarre end of the Mayan calendar (21st December 2012, resulting in the name 2012). It is about a writer/author trying to keep his family safe during the ‘end’ of the world. However I would like to point out that 2012 had really good CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), and I personally enjoyed it the first time I watched it (but i started to enjoy it less every time I watched it again). Since it is a movie about an annihilating natural disaster, it contained multiple tsunamis, earthquakes, and a volcanic eruption linking it to shifting tectonic plates (our current topic in class) I believe the earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia can be compared to what happens in this movie. Both caused tsunamis, high magnitude earthquakes, and were highly devastating. However I would like to point out that no numbers were given about the death toll, damage costs, etc for all the events that take place in the movie. In the movie there was a notable sequence where most of LA is ripped in half causing a humongous chasm, and some parts were lifted up. This event is impossible as it is a conservative plate boundary that cannot create the chasm shown in the movie. The magnitude of this earthquake was not given as I have already pointed out.  There was also a large chasm on the sea bed in Sumatra(the one in the movie being deep) and the fault line caused by the Sumatran earthquake being the longest ever recorded, so these events could be compared. The Sumatran earthquake caused a tsunami (the boxing day tsunami) and killed over an estimated 230,000 people; My estimate for the death toll in the movie would be above 3.82 million as this action sequence takes place in Los Angeles and its population was around 3.802 million in 2008 (when the movie was shot).In conclusion, the disaster flick 2012 is a highly unrealistic film/movie as some plate boundaries do something that in real life would not happen, such as the LA destruction sequence.By Akshit 9Q

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TAH Hwk: Review of A Movie That Relates to a Hazard

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TAH Hwk: Review of A Movie That Relates to a Hazard

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THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS

REVIEWS

This movie relates to the specific hazard of War. It is set during
WW2 and clearly portrays the difference between the treatment of
germans and jewish people. It is given in the story of a growing
friendship between a young German boy(Bruno) and a young Jewish boy(Shmuel) who can only talk to each other from the opposite sides of a fence that separates a camp for the Jewish and the estate that German boy's family owned. This conveys how most children were clueless as to what was going on around them for the boy couldn't understand why they were being treated so differently. Bruno's family were very rich and owned a lot of land and specifically his father, was a general in the army. The two boys spoke about their dreams and even how they were being treated differently in terms of food, clothes and even school. They'd meet at the same place everyday just to talk to each other and see each other and became very close friends. Friends that weren't once allowed to even touch each other.

{SPOILERS}

Near the end, Bruno does end up getting to the other side of the fence to finally meet Shmuel's family. However, his timing couldn't have been any worse. Bruno had already chosen to wear similar clothes to the other Jewish people. Although he didn't get caught by the guards, there seemed to be something that looked like a 'parade'. The guards were leading a batch of Jewish people to a far away place and the two young boys decided to join them. In reality, they were being lead to gas chambers, which was used during that time to kill them without them knowing. The whole batch including the young children were lead inside the chamber and logically also died along with the others in the chamber.

This is why i believe this movie relates clearly to the events that occurred in WW2 die to the striking differences in their everyday lives and how visibly it shows. the inhumanity of war.

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TAH Hwk: Current Natural Hazard in the news: Chile's Dante Inferno 

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TAH Hwk: Current Natural Hazard in the news: Chile's Dante Inferno 

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Chile suffer endless heatwaves and dry weather putting a halt on efforts to nullify the widespread forest inferno that engulfed Santa Olga and burned more than a thousand buildings and homes whilst ravaging Chilean flora and forest landscape in the Maule region. Casualties proves not extreme as only one body was found deceased and 2 missing. Many residents were evacuated safely. Sadly only few within the survivors will find new place they can call home. Over 5000 firefighters have been dispatched along with voluntary firefighters from the US, France, Mexico, and Peru aswell equipment had been sent to aid the Chilean Firefighters to deal more than 90 blazes that was responsible for scorching more than 180000 hectares of Chilean land.  Visit these articles to learn more.

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An entire town has been consumed by flames in Chile as unusually hot, dry weather undermined efforts to combat the worst forest fires in the country's recent history.

More than 1,000 buildings, including schools, nurseries, shops and a post office were destroyed in Santa Olga, the biggest of several communities to be reduced to ashes in the Maule region.

One body was later recovered from the ruins. Two people are missing, but most of the residents were evacuated unharmed. Few will have a home to return to.

Drone images showed entire neighbourhoods reduced to ashes. The roads are still neatly symmetrical, but the buildings in block after block lie in smouldering ruins under a hazy sky.

Even for a region that is frequently hit by earthquakes and floods, the extent of the destruction was shocking.

"Nobody can imagine what happened in Santa Olga. What we have experienced here is literally like Dante's Inferno," said the Carlos Valenzuela, the mayor of the encompassing municipality Constitución. "We were recovering after the last earthquake, but this tragedy has messed up everything."

He said the smaller communities of Putú and Cabezalillo had also been damaged.

"The situation is awful. It's the worst catastrophe we've had in a number of years. I believe that this surpasses any tragedy that we have had before, this is much worse than when it was the earthquake or the floods. It is a thing that does not stop, is advancing," said Francisco Henríquez, director of Orca Chile, a civil organisation deployed in the area.

Residents expressed dismay and fury as they returned to charred livestock, collapsed buildings and blackened farm fields. Some felt abandoned by the authorities.

"When the politicians need our votes they come here, they put their face and expect us to vote for them. Now they're not here," Miguel Reyes, a resident of Santa Olga, told BioBioChile

But even with 5,000 firefighters, government resources have been overstretched.

More than 90 wildfires have broken out in the past few weeks and spread rapidly across vegetation that has been dried by unseasonably high temperatures. Many regions have suffered heatwaves. Santiago registered a record 37C on Wednesday.

At least four firefighters have been killed in the battle to control the blazes. Including police and civilians, the overall death toll is now seven, according to local media.

The economic impact is still to be calculated. According to the National Forestry Corporation, 238,000 hectares of forests in central and southern Chile have been burned, forcing the evacuation of at least 4,000 people and damaging farms, cattle ranches and vineyards.

President Michelle Bachelet has declared a state of emergency and called for international help in dealing with fire on a scale "never seen in the history of Chile". Dozens of helicopters, light aircraft and a Boeing 747 "supertanker" have dumped water and flame retardants from the skies, but at least 30 fires continue to rage.

There have been successes. Penco, a town of 50,000 inhabitants, in the region of Bío Bío, was saved by firebreaks that kept the advancing flames at bay. But the threat continues.

The interior minister, Mahmud Aleuy, warned more fires might break out because weather forecasters predict several more days of high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity.

The government has pledged to investigate the cause of the fires and the effectiveness of the official response.

As well as climate change, tourist negligence and poor park management, the country's timber and wood pulp industry may come under the spotlight.

Biologists say plantations of non-indigenous forests, such as eucalyptus and pine, help to spread the fires more quickly.

"About 42% of the forest fires are in plantation forests, which are like matchboxes," said Mary Kalin Arroyo of the University of Chile. "They spread fire to native forests."
Topics

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Deadly wildfire razes entire town in Chile: 'Literally like Dante's Inferno'

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An entire town has been consumed by flames in Chile as unusually hot, dry weather undermined efforts to combat the worst forest fires in the country's recent history. More than 1,000 buildings, including schools, nurseries, shops and a post office were destroyed in Santa Olga, the biggest of several communities to be reduced to ashes in the Maule region.

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TAH: Current natural Hazard in the news:                                                 Indonesian Earthquake

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TAH: Current natural Hazard in the news:                                                 Indonesian Earthquake

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A deadly earthquake at a magnitude of 6.5 hits Aceh in Indonesia on 7th December 2016, where dozens of building have collapsed. The earthquake struck off the north east coast of Sumatra island. More than 200 shops and houses have been destroyed, along with 14 mosques.  At least 97 people have been killed, and is said that hundreds of people have been injured due to the earthquake. Indonesia is prone to earthquake as it lies in the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is a major area in the basin of the pacific ocean where a large number of earthquake and volcanic eruptions occur.

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This is the extra-hot task established on the Takeaway Homework sheet. In this I reviewed a natural disaster movie and compared it to a real natural disaster

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This is the extra-hot takeaway homework in which you had to study the effects in a natural disaster movie

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here is anther website for some solutions London used for their traffic problems https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141121112716-26774016-london-transport-system-problems-proposed-solutions

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here is some traffic problems that London had https://tfl.gov.uk/traffic/status/

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Here is a link of how London solves its traffic problems https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/davehillblog/2016/jun/15/london-road-congestion-causes-effects-and-what-happens-next

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These are some fun facts about recycling around the world. http://www.energydigital.com/sustainability/1751/Which-Countries-Are-Best-at-Recycling

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Here are some recycling ideas used by countries around the world. https://www.babble.com/travel/recycling-around-the-world-7-practices-we-should-adopt-from-other-countries/

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Here is my geography homework about recycling. http://www.planetaid.org/blog/global-recycling-rates

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here is a link on how London has cut its traffic: (underground expantion)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground

this site explains how people started using railways in Londonto solve traffic. This really helped me!

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here is a link on how London has cut its traffic: (cycling)

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/the-utterly-amazing-growth-of-cycling-in-london/019317

this site explains how people started cycling in London, insteadof riding cars, which reduces the traffic...

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here is a link that explains how London has cut its traffic: (cogestion zones)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_congestion_charge

here is a map explaining :The boundary of the current Congestion Charging zone

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London is very congested, this leads to my deaths and pollution. Here is a small article about how this could be solved by adding one small thing to their roads...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/01/speed-bumps-could-removed-cut-traffic-pollution-save-lives/

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#2
London has added a congestion charge, during rush-hour there are many people in a certain place due to the fact that that is a problem they are now charging people to go to the centre of this city. However this is only for a certain time period.
Mon-Fri
7am - 6pm

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This is my homework
#1

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http://www.thenational.ae/business/property/doha-rail-project-contracts-awarded-as-qatar-ramps-up-2022-fifa-world-cup-preparations

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http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/doha-metro/

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As more people move to the edge of towns and cities, traffic congestion may get worse. Many people will drive their cars into the city centre to get to work.

It is compounded by people being brought into city on large roads or motorways. These roads then link up with smaller, older, narrower roads in the city centre. This causes a bottleneck and congestion.

Some cities have tried to manage this problem by introducing traffic management schemes. These schemes may include:

park and ride schemes

cycle lanes

congestion charging schemes, such as those in Durham and London

car-pooling, as used in the USA, to encourage people to share cars

Low Emission Zones, as in London

Local councils have also tried to make the roads in urban areas safer by introducing traffic calming, pedestrian zones, vehicle-exclusion zones and permit-only parking schemes.

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The London congestion charge is a fee charged on most motor vehicles operating within the Congestion Charge Zone (CCZ)[1] in Central London between 07:00 and 18:00 Mondays to Fridays.[2] It is not charged on weekends, public holidays or between Christmas Day and New Year's Day (inclusive).[3] The charge was introduced on 17 February 2003.

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The London congestion charge is a fee charged on most motor vehicles operating within the Congestion Charge Zone (CCZ)[1] in Central London between 07:00 and 18:00 Mondays to Fridays.[2] It is not charged on weekends, public holidays or between Christmas Day and New Year's Day (inclusive).[3] The charge was introduced on 17 February 2003.

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g

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http://menarailpost.com/WordPress3/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Metro_Doha_Phase_1_Network.jpg http://www.cbnme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Doha-Metro-Project.jpg

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http://www.cbnme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Doha-Metro-Project.jpg

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http://www.cbnme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Doha-Metro-Project.jpg

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http://www.cbnme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Doha-Metro-Project.jpg

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http://www.downsizer.net/Articles/Everything_else/Cycling_-_Benefits_and_Disadvantages/http://www.downsizer.net/Articles/Everything_else/Cycling_-_Benefits_and_Disadvantages/

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How England has changed cycling since the last 10 years

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How England has changed cycling since the last 10 years

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http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/2636/cycling/stats-uk/http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/2636/cycling/stats-uk/

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http://www.thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk/wishees/collections/school/StPaul'sWay%20Congzones%20sources/pdfs/61324.pdfhttp://www.thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk/wishees/collections/school/StPaul'sWay%20Congzones%20sources/pdfs/61324.pdf

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Qatar rail sets a world record....
http://www.breakbulk.com/qatar-rail-sets-new-guinness-world-record-for-most-tbms-in-action/

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https://www.qr.com.qa/English/Projects/Pages/DohaMetro.aspx

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http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/doha-metro/

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https://dohanews.co/tag/doha-metro/

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This is how traffic in LOndon could be reduced easily

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This is how traffic in LOndon could be reduced easily

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What London has done to reduce traffic problems

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What London has done to reduce traffic problems

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What London has done to reduce tarffic problems

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What London has done to reduce tarffic problems

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Complete this  the next 7 days, bring to lessons next week

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One of Mexico's most active volcanoes has erupted, yet again

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One of Mexico's most active volcanoes has erupted, yet again

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Could Climate Change Build Big Business in Kenya?

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Could Climate Change Build Big Business in Kenya?

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Rigu first learned about climate change as a university student, he sought solutions, but and His dream was to help farmers with the business side of farming. After college, Rigu began managing his own maize farm, and saw toll that rising temperatures and unpredictable rain had on his corn. One day, on a shopping trip to the rice-trading hub of Mwea, he saw his opportunity. Outside every rice processor’s storefront were great amounts of featherweight rice husk that is separated from the grain during processing. This was know as waste although Rigu saw it as an sustainable solution

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When Sam Rigu was a kid, growing up on a maize farm in central Kenya, his grandmother made a disturbing prediction.

"She said something I'll never forget," he recalls. "She said, 'Twenty years ago we were harvesting double this. Twenty years from now we might have nothing to feed our children.' That really scared me."

It wasn't until many years later, when Rigu first learned about climate change as a university student, that he realized just how right she was.

After college, Rigu began managing his own maize farm, and saw firsthand the toll that rising temperatures and unpredictable rain had on his corn. He sought solutions, but he was never much of a green thumb: His dream was to help farmers with the business side of farming. One day, on a shopping trip to the rice-trading hub of Mwea, he saw his opportunity.

Outside every rice processor's storefront were great mountains of chaff, the featherweight rice husk that is separated from the grain during processing. Many of the heaps Rigu saw were burning, just to get rid of the stuff. But where most people saw trash, Rigu saw shillings.

"I decided to work around the waste and see if I can make it into something economically viable," he says.

Rigu's entrepreneurial spirit is common in Kenya, where everyone seemingly has a side hustle and every sidewalk teems with ad-hoc businesses. But he's also part of a growing niche that could help small-scale farmers-the lifeblood of Kenya's economy-adapt to the challenge of climate change.

New start-up companies offer tools like solar-powered irrigation pumps and all-natural pesticides that are tailor-made to Kenyan conditions. Meanwhile, nonprofits and financial institutions are trying to improve farmers' access to such products through microloans and weather-based insurance.

Three years later, Rigu has quit the maize farm and now operates a thriving business, Safi Organics, that turns rice chaff into high-quality organic fertilizer. He buys chaff from a network of local rice processors for about $30 per ton. He burns it into a kind of loose charcoal, then mixes it with a secret cocktail of crushed limestone and other plant waste, to produce a fertilizer that he sells back to local farmers for $15 per 50-kg bag. He can typically process four tons of chaff in a day; once sold, a single ton can net him up to $200.

Rigu's success also enriches the processors, who now get paid for a product they used to throw away, and his farmer customers, who are enjoying improved yields for about half the typical price of traditional (often imported) fertilizer.

"We realized that we can create a new value chain to empower farmers," he says. "We're the first people to pay for the husk."

A Hungry Market

Companies like Safi Organics are at the forefront of a larger movement to equip Kenyan small-scale farmers with the tools they badly need to cope with global warming.

Temperatures across East Africa are rising-up nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1960s on average-as seasonal rainfall becomes increasingly unpredictable. Meanwhile, millions of farmers still operate without the basic implements; things like high-quality seeds, fertilizer, and irrigation, that are needed to make farms more resilient.

According to a 2015 World Bank survey of 22,000 farming households across sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds use no fertilizer; no more than 3 percent use irrigation; and fewer than one percent use more than one of these improvements on the same plot of land. There are many reasons. For one, so-called "inputs" like seeds and fertilizer are expensive: Fertilizer in sub-Saharan Africa is two to six times the global average price, according to Harvard University agro-economist Calestous Juma, thanks to high import and transportation costs. And it's hard to access: Juma estimates that up to 70 percent of farmers live between two and five hours away from the nearest market.

There is little help to be had from local banks; farmers typically have little or nothing to offer as collateral, and are seen as a risky bet for loans. The World Bank found fewer than one percent of households use any kind of credit-even informal loans from neighbors-to purchase inputs.

All of this, combined with rapidly rising rural populations, notoriously poor soil quality across much of the continent, and climate change, has led to sub-Saharan Africa being the only place on Earth where per-capita food production is falling.

But in Kenya, a market is gradually emerging for climate solutions for small-scale farmers. That's where entrepreneurs like Sam Rigu come in.

"The climate change space in Kenya is vibrant," says Edward Mungai, CEO of the Kenya Climate Innovation Centre, a startup incubator based at Strathmore University in Nairobi. "It's heating up, let me put it that way. And agriculture is the focal sector."

KCIC takes funding from the World Bank and the Danish and British governments and distributes it in the form of small grants,ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand U.S. dollars,for climate-related startups. When Mungai opened the centre in 2012, he expected to receive around 150 proposals and be able to fund one-third of them. Instead, he received 3,000 proposals, of which he was able to fund fewer than ten percent. More pour in all the time.

"That shows that Kenyans are thinking about this concept and how it can be commercialized, this concept of climate change," he says. "That means the opportunity is huge."

Kenya Biologics is one company that used KCIC funding to take advantage of that opportunity. The company's signature product is an all-natural pesticide targeted at crop-destroying caterpillars. Lab technicians at a facility outside Nairobi raise millions of caterpillars and then infect them with a virus lethal to them but harmless to other organisms (including humans). The caterpillars themselves act as a living petri dish for mass producing the virus that will go on to kill their cousins in the wild.

"They reproduce the virus in millions, then you squash the caterpillar, you put it in a bottle, and that is what the farmer sprays," says Chris Kolenberg, the company's CEO.

The product allows farmers to control pests without synthetic chemicals that can damage soil, pollute water, pose health risks, or cause a crop to fail quality control tests for export to foreign markets.

"At the moment East Africa is a booming market" for agricultural products, Kolenberg says, because farmers are becoming more sophisticated, more eager to tap export markets, and more determined to overcome adverse environmental conditions. Although it started in the late 2000s with an exclusive focus on large-scale commercial farms, Kenya Biologics is increasingly focused on smallholders: The company now employs a dozen sales staff who fan out across the country to connect with farmers at local markets and pitch the product.

But even with customers in sight, you still have to spend money to make money. And that remains a major hurdle. Both Kolenberg and Rigu shared similar stories about the difficulty of securing their first round of investment. In a well-established startup hub like Silicon Valley, a good idea can quickly attract financing from venture capitalists. But in Kenya there are still few financial institutions willing to gamble on small, unproven ventures.

"During our first period, we weren't asking for enough money," Kolenberg says. "If you ask for $400,000 or less from a private equity fund, they'll say it's not even worth putting one guy on this project."

Mungai agreed that finance is the biggest challenge Kenya's entrepreneurs face.

"We still haven't been able to provide an enabling environment to these enterprises, and I attribute it mainly to lack of understanding: The people with the money not understanding the people with ideas," he says. "These are new technologies, innovations. The commercial banks and private equity funds do not understand them, at least at the startup phase. When they start scaling up, then you start seeing the big boys becoming interested."

But scaling up could be difficult if farmers aren't able to afford what the innovators are selling. So the next challenge is to improve farmers' access to finance

Cash on Hand

Christine Wasike's farm in Bungoma is typical of this region of western Kenya, not far from the Ugandan border. Her plot is no bigger than a football field, tucked between a towering rock outcrop and a cluster of wood and mud brick buildings where she lives with her husband, some extended family, and crew of rowdy children that seems to grow ever larger over the course of the morning.

Here, she grows maize, beans, and kale, and keeps a few chickens, goats, and cows. On the day I visited, she was hard at work shelling beans by hand, tossing them in a woven basket to get them clean and ready to eat and sell.

Wasike, a lifelong farmer, said she constantly worries about how deteriorating climate conditions will impact her family. The farm is watered exclusively by rain, which has been increasingly in short supply.

"This year and last year, drought was very bad and it affected crops," she says. "When there is drought, farmers suffer a lot. There is a lot of hunger, especially with children at home. But as farmers, we don't give up. We must have food. We must continue."

Wasike is sometimes able to spring for better seeds, fertilizer, or other inputs. But a shopping trip to the local supply store can set her back up to $55. In a year like this one, when she's only able to produce two or three sacks of maize to sell, she won't even break even on that investment. In other words, investing in inputs is a huge risk: If severe drought hits, she will have thrown away a season's worth of income, and with it her childrens' school fees, healthcare budget, and other vital expenses.

And that's if she can even get her hands on the money at all. As in many Kenyan farming households, the family purse is controlled by Wasike's husband, even though women are the ones who perform most of the farm labor. Getting money means having to beg for a handout, she says, which is an exhausting and often fruitless exercise.

"Most of the farmers here are women; it is very rare to find a man farming," she says. "We face many challenges in farming. Getting seeds to plant is very difficult because we need money, and it is hard to get money."

So a few months ago, Wasike followed the advice of some neighbors and signed up for One Acre Fund. The nonprofit grants small loans to farmers in the form of seed and fertilizer delivered directly to the farm, that farmers have a year to pay back. Each loan is worth about $100, and comes with an insurance policy so farmers aren't on the hook in the event of a totally lost crop. Founded in Bungoma in 2006 with 37 clients, in the decade since One Acre Fund has grown to serve 200,000 Kenyans as well as farmers in several countries across East Africa.

"Smallholder farmers are the most vulnerable population when it comes to the effects of climate change," says Kelvin Owino, a spokesperson for One Acre Fund in Bungoma. "With climate change, their potential of producing enough food reduces year by year, or season by season. They need access to high-quality seed, high-quality fertilizer, and training. That will enable them to produce much more than before, and also become more resilient to shocks."

Josephine Wamela, another One Acre Fund farmer in Bungoma, says in the last few years she lost so much of her harvests to drought that she almost had to give up on farming altogether.

"As the climate keeps changing," she says, "farmers are scared of planting because they plant but don't get anything out of it."

One Acre Fund was the first institution willing to give her a loan, she says, and now "even when there is drought I'm still able to harvest."

One Acre Fund was a pioneer in finance for small-scale farmers, but the field is steadily growing, and farmers' access to financial instruments seems to be improving across East Africa. The continent's largest weather-based insurance program, known as the Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise (ACRE), added more than 160,000 farmers between 2010 and 2013, and is projected to grow by an order of magnitude by 2018. That program acts as a kind of middleman between traditional insurers and farmers, using high-tech weather data to predict crop yields and then distributing payouts if conditions worsen beyond a predetermined threshold. A 2015 study led by Columbia University scientists found that farmers enrolled in ACRE earned 16 percent more by the end of the harvest season than their uninsured neighbors. A similar program sponsored by the World Bank was launched in spring 2016, which included specialized offerings for Kenya's nomadic pastoralists in addition to crop farmers.

Programs like this create a positive feedback loop: When Kenya's farmers are able to afford technology, the country's climate innovation sector grows, making technology more easily available. The end result is a stronger national economy, and a vulnerable population made more resilient.

"If we can manage to provide better technologies for agriculture," says KCIC's Mungai, "then we have gone a long way in terms of fighting the menace of climate change."
Tim McDonnell is a Fulbright-National Geographic storyteller who is spending the next several months gathering the stories of African farmers. You can follow his journey here, on the Voices blog, and on Twitter @timmcdonnell and Instagram @timothy.m.mcdonnell.

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Could Climate Change Build Big Business in Kenya?

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When Sam Rigu was a kid, growing up on a maize farm in central Kenya, his grandmother made a disturbing prediction. "She said something I'll never forget," he recalls. "She said, 'Twenty years ago we were harvesting double this. Twenty years from now we might have nothing to feed our children.'

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Extreme Swimmer Fights for Antarctica’s Oceans by Swimming the Bellingshausen Sea.

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Extreme Swimmer Fights for Antarctica’s Oceans by Swimming the Bellingshausen Sea.

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Long-distance swimmer Lewis Pugh,  has dived into the world’s iconic waters—from the icy North Pole to a Himalayan glacial lake to the ancient Red Sea, thick with coral and tropical fish. Now the 47-year-old adventurer is taking dips off the coast of Antarctica, hoping to draw attention to a new campaign to establish three marine protected areas

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Long-distance swimmer Lewis Pugh, a past National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, has donned his Speedo and dived into the world's iconic waters-from the icy North Pole to a Himalayan glacial lake to the ancient Red Sea, thick with coral and tropical fish. Now the 47-year-old adventurer is taking dips off the coast of Antarctica, hoping to draw attention to a new campaign to establish three marine protected areas (MPAs) by 2020, the year marking the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the southernmost continent.

Last week, Pugh swam a one-kilometer route in the Bellingshausen Sea, an area of the Southern Ocean named for the Russian explorer who sighted the frozen land in 1820. It took Pugh 17 minutes and 30 seconds, "but it felt like 17 days," he admits. "Anyone who says they enjoy swimming in cold water has never really done it."

But Pugh says his extreme swimming is a valuable tool to raise awareness of the need to protect the biologically rich waters of Antarctica. "They're a true garden of Eden," Pugh says, describing swims where he's seen humpback whales, albatrosses, Gentoo, chinstrap, and emperor penguins; and Weddell, crabeater, and leopard seals. Despite their remoteness, these seas face tremendous pressure from climate change, overfishing, and pollution, he says.

The first MPA in Antarctica was designated just this year: It now protects a 598,000-square-mile area of the Ross Sea-roughly twice the size of Texas. Pugh is now working with Pristine Seas, a National Geographic Society-sponsored effort to identify and protect wild oceans, to designate three more MPAs within the next three years. (In comparison, the Ross Sea MPA took 17 years.) The additional MPAs will bring the total protected area in Antarctica to approximately 4,345,000 square miles.

Achieving that won't be simple. Pugh, a maritime lawyer, will travel among the European Union and 24 member nations of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which are responsible for establishing MPAs. He has to lobby heads of state-who are increasingly occupied with other international affairs-to support the 2020 campaign, which Pugh says is already backed by many scientists, environmental leaders, and Nobel laureates. Crucially, Pugh must get the member countries to agree with each other on measures to protect the Southern Ocean.

He notes that 12 nations set aside Antarctica for peace and science in 1959, and he hopes that the 2020 campaign can be used as a similar bridge for peace. "It's the most ambitious protection campaign in history," he says. "But I'm confident we will get the MPAs designated within the three-year period."

"This is an issue of justice between generations-we must protect Antarctica for our children and grandchildren," Pugh adds. "It's also a matter of justice between species. These emperor penguins, whales, and albatrosses have been living here for thousands upon thousands of years. We have no right to destroy their world and push these species to extinction. If we don't protect this part of the world, it will be gone forever."

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This Extreme Swimmer Fights for Antarctica's Oceans-in a Speedo

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Long-distance swimmer Lewis Pugh, a past National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, has donned his Speedo and dived into the world's iconic waters-from the icy North Pole to a Himalayan glacial lake to the ancient Red Sea, thick with coral and tropical fish.

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The Mysterious Discovery of a Continent That Wasn't There

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The Mysterious Discovery of a Continent That Wasn't There

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In 1906, legendary American explorer Robert Peary returned from an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole with an astonishing revelation: He had discovered a new continent, a giant island floating in the middle of the Polar Sea, which he named Crocker Land after the sponsor of his expedition. There was only one problem: It didn’t exist.

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In 1906, legendary American explorer Robert Peary returned from an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole with an astonishing revelation: He had discovered a new continent, a giant island floating in the middle of the Polar Sea, which he named Crocker Land after the sponsor of his expedition. There was only one problem: It didn't exist.

In A Wretched and Precarious Situation: In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier, historian David Welky unravels the strange story of one of the world's greatest discoveries that never was-and asks whether the grand old man of American Arctic exploration was guilty of telling one of history's biggest whoppers.

Speaking from his home in Conway, Arkansas, Welky explains why circumstantial evidence led people to believe there was another continent at the top of the world, how one of the explorers on a later mission to Crocker Land murdered an Inuit and died a junkie, and why Peary's story about Crocker Land was not finally disproved until 30 years later.

Crocker Land has been called "the lost Atlantis of the North." Put us on the map-and describe its lure for American explorers.

Geographically, Crocker Land would be west of Greenland and north of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. In 1906, Robert Peary made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole. He was despondent, so he decided to set off on a side trip to the west. There was a little sliver of unexplored land there and he thought, I can go there and at least bring home some new discovery. He goes west across Ellesmere Island, looks out over the polar sea and sees what he describes: mountains and valleys, this immense landscape covering much of the horizon. He comes back to the U.S. and reports on this new find in the book he wrote about the expedition, Nearest the Pole. He names it Crocker Land after a banker in San Francisco, George Crocker, who had given him about $50,000 to help put together the 1905 to 1906 expedition. That's how it found its way onto the map. If you look at maps of the Arctic from 1910-1913, you'll see this little, moon-shaped island.

Why did it catch fire with other explorers?

Peary claimed the North Pole in 1909 and the South Pole was attained soon after, which left Crocker Land as the last great unknown place in the world. Scientists looked at tide charts and other evidence from the Arctic, like the drift of ships traveling in the ice, and concluded that there was this giant landmass out there.

By 1910 to 1912, what is left unexplored in the world? You've got some little interior Amazon areas, parts of the Himalayas, but you'll never have another chance to discover the last continent on Earth. What's bigger than that? This became a patriotic mission to claim Crocker Land for America, very much in the vein of that Teddy Roosevelt hyper-nationalism and hyper-masculinity.

Explorer Donald MacMillan took up where Peary left off. Give us a character sketch and explain why he was so drawn to the search for Crocker Land.

MacMillan was born in Maine, a child of the American North, who has been neglected in the pantheon of American explorers. He imagined himself a scientist. He was interested in birds, biology, and anthropology, a kind of polyglot. He has a rough childhood. He grows up in Provincetown, Massachusetts. His father, Neil, was a ship captain, and when MacMillan was about nine years old, his father sailed north to pick up some cod and the ship went down somewhere off the coast of Newfoundland. His mother tries to hold the family together but they can't pay the rent and she dies when he's about eleven. He's bounced around between various families and eventually has to relocate back to Maine. He has to scrape by on his own, so goes diving for pennies that tourists toss in the water, collects flowers to sell, and works his way through Bowdoin College.

He idolized his father as this man of the sea, of the north, and wanted to be like him. Peary craves fame. MacMillan is a modest person, who views himself as more of a scientist than the glory-hunting pole-seeker. He tries for years to get on Peary's expedition. When he finally went north and arrived in Greenland and saw all these amazing places that he'd read about, he spoke of catching "Arctic fever." He loved the people, the landscape, the plants and birds. Everything about it excited him.

One of MacMillan's "Crockerlanders" was a young man named Fitzhugh Green. He wasn't your typical explorer, was he?

He was not. [Laughs] He was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, to a family with an illustrious history but which had fallen downward into the lower middle class. His mother was a pushy woman who convinced Fitzhugh that he was destined for greatness. He's clearly a bright, intelligent guy. Is he a once-in-a-century talent? I don't think so. He joins the Navy, serves at sea mostly in the Caribbean, but is driven by his mother's belief that he will be great and so becomes an explorer.

Besides being energetic, hard-working, and smart, he had inner demons and was painfully introspective. He writes painful poetry about the other people inside of him, about murders and dark nights. He was a fan of Edgar Allan Poe and took Poe's novel, Pym, to the north with him and adapted it into an unpublished short story. Nobody knows how he or she will respond to extreme situations; once in the Arctic, Green falls apart. The Arctic nights drag him down, and he absolutely cracks.

One of the most dramatic moments in your book is the murder of an Inuit named Piugaattoq by Fitzhugh Green. Present the case for the prosecution-and explain why Green never actually faced justice.

Good question. The easier part of that is why Green was never prosecuted for murdering Piugaattoq. That has to do with how Americans viewed native people. Green was quite open about having murdered him. When he got back to the U.S. in 1917 he even wrote about it in his articles. It was almost the sense that it didn't matter because-

Yeah, he was just a native. It was an emergency. Piugaattoq was trying to escape and was going to leave Green trapped in the wilderness, so he shot him to get his sledge. You could make a self-defense argument, and it's just someone from some place we'll never go, some native. MacMillan and the American Museum of Natural History, which sponsored the expedition, wanted to, figuratively, bury the whole thing. They just didn't want any bad publicity.

There was an extraordinary coda to the story of Fitzhugh Green, wasn't there?

He comes home in the middle of World War I, rejoins the Navy, serves on battleships during the war, and becomes a minor war hero, but he's always chasing fame and fortune. For a time, he hangs around with the great pilots of the 1920s, like Bird and Lindberg. He marries the daughter of the man who founded General Motors, travels to Europe and Africa. But it all falls apart in the 1940s, when he and his wife are arrested for being involved in a strange scheme, involving a South American diplomat, to acquire drugs. It's not clear exactly what but probably opiates. They couldn't get the drugs, and Green ended up in hospital with withdrawal. Despite the façade, he was clearly in really bad shape. Simply put, he was a junkie and probably had been for quite a while. He ended up dying soon after of heart problems. A tragic end to a tragic life.

You call Crocker Land "an illusion that grew into a lie that took on a life of its own." Peary is the grand old man of American Arctic exploration. Was this just a giant porky to boost book sales?

When Robert Peary comes back to the U.S., he says nothing about Crocker Land. I've been through his correspondence, including letters to George Crocker, and he says nothing about it for months after he returns. Then, in 1907, he releases his book, and suddenly here are these paragraphs about this amazing new land. It's not for many months after his return that he finally says something.

Crocker Land is a fabrication by Peary from the start. You can look at this in any number of ways, starting with circumstantial evidence. Obviously, Crocker Land isn't there. So, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. What might he have seen and mistaken for land? It could have been an ice island, but ice islands don't have peaks and valleys, they're flat on top. Do we really think that the most experienced Western Arctic explorer mistook an ice island for a continent?

It could have been a mirage. A fata morgana, as this particular kind of mirage is called. Subsequent explorers have seen fata morganas from that same spot. If you watch one, you will see it wobble and flicker and waver, and it's obvious it's not solid land. Nothing Peary might have mistaken for Crocker Land makes sense. That's strike one.

We can also look at his care notes, the notes he leaves behind to prove he was there. They're quite detailed notes. He talks about a hunting trip that day, climbing the hills to get this view, but says absolutely nothing about seeing Crocker Land. Several crewmembers also kept diaries, and according to those he never mentioned anything about seeing a new continent. We also have the typed drafts for his book, Nearest the Pole, and for an article he excerpted in Harper's Magazine. But again there is no mention of this new land mass.

In other words, sometime between the final manuscript and when the book comes out the paragraphs about Crocker Land mysteriously appear. It's all pretty damning.

If Crocker Land turned out to be the proverbial crock, why did so many people fall for the illusion? And what does science and geography tell us today?

They fell for it because they learned about it from the most authoritative source that Americans had on the Arctic. Robert Peary knew more about the Arctic than any other American or Westerner alive. In that sense, it was an unimpeachable source.

The best science we had at the time also said there must be something up there, based on the drift paths of ships frozen in the ocean and how the tides operated. There was observational evidence of birds flying in that general direction way out on the polar sea and animal tracks leading in that direction. There were also Inuit stories about relatives who had been to this place. All of this suggested that there was a large landmass in the center of the polar sea. So they read the evidence in that direction in a phenomenon known as confirmation bias.

Today, we know they were actually right about a lot of things. They noticed the ocean current enters the polar sea through the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska, splits in two directions, then reunites and goes out by Greenland. So, there is something that's separating the currents there. But it's not Crocker Land. It's what is known as the Beaufort Gyre, a huge, spinning current that keeps things from drifting into it. But it wasn't until the dawn of long-distance air travel that we could be sure. In 1938, a pilot named Isaac Schlossbach flew an airplane over the region where Crocker Land was supposed to be. And, of course, there was nothing there.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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The Mysterious Discovery of a Continent That Wasn't There

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In 1906, legendary American explorer Robert Peary returned from an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole with an astonishing revelation: He had discovered a new continent, a giant island floating in the middle of the Polar Sea, which he named Crocker Land after the sponsor of his expedition.

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Gigantic wave recorded in the Atlantic

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The highest-ever wave detected by a buoy has been recorded in the North Atlantic ocean, the World Meteorological Organization has said.

The 19-metre (62.3ft) wave happened between Iceland and the United Kingdom, off the Outer Hebrides.

It was created in the aftermath of a very strong cold front with 43.8 knot (50.4mph) winds on 4 February 2013.

The WMO, which released the data, said the previous record was 18.275 metres (59.96ft) in December 2007.

That wave was also in the North Atlantic.

It is not the biggest-ever recorded wave, however. In 2002 a ship spotted a 29-metre (95 ft) North Atlantic wave.

In 2014, the M4 Donegal buoy recorded a 23.4 metre wave, but the WMO said the new record was based on "significant wave height" which required certain measuring methods and observing periods.

The buoy is part of the UK Met Office's network of Marine Automatic Weather Stations. Known as K5, it sits in the North Atlantic off the Western Isles

The buoys complement ship-based measurements and satellite observations, which monitor the oceans and forecast meteorological hazards on the high seas.

Peaks and troughs

Giant waves can be created in the north Atlantic, which stretches from the Grand Banks plateau off the coast of Canada to the area south of Iceland and west of the UK.

In winter, wind circulation and pressure systems cause extratropical storms, sometimes known as bombs, the WMO said.

The height of a wave is measured from the crest of one to the trough of the next.

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The highest-ever wave detected by a buoy has been recorded in the North Atlantic ocean, the World Meteorological Organization has said. The 19-metre (62.3ft) wave happened between Iceland and the United Kingdom, off the Outer Hebrides. It was created in the aftermath of a very strong cold front with 43.8 knot (50.4mph) winds on 4 February 2013.

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Taking the opportunity to play and give feedback on the flooding board games!

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These person removed their car seat with another person and then got in. Afterwards they closed the car seat shut

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SUITCASE METHOD

Because its very efficient and no one would expect a body in there🐪

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Under the car method is the best because security guards can't see you when you go.

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It's not possible to know exactly how many immigrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally each year, since some go undetected, but clearly it's a lot.

In 2013 alone, U.S. Border Patrol caught a whopping 414,397 people trying to make it onto U.S. soil.

In case you ever wondered how they do it, here are some of the most inventive methods people have used:

1.) The "Car Seat" Method:

2.) The "Dashboard" Method:

3.) The "Engine" Method:

4.) The "Two People In Engine" Method:

5.) The "Under the Car" Method:

6.) The "Piñata" Method:

7.) The "Mattress" Method:

8.) The "Trunk" Method:

9.) The "Suitcase" Method:

10.) The "Concealed Chambers" Method:

It's clear that although they're breaking the law, these people are going to great lengths to get themselves to a better place to try and live better lives.

While many of us are asking what America can do to stop this influx, it's also worth looking at their countries of origin.

What are these countries' governments doing to make them want to risk everything-even jail or death-just to get away?

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12 Unusual & Inventive Ways Immigrants Have Tried to Cross the U.S. Border

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It's not possible to know exactly how many immigrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally each year, since some go undetected, but clearly it's a lot. In 2013 alone, U.S. Border Patrol caught a whopping 414,397 people trying to make it onto U.S. soil.

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Parts of the US state of Hawaii have received a winter weather warning, with up to three feet (90cm) of snow over the past few days.

Weather experts say that it is not unusual for snow to fall in tropical Hawaii, but rarely has it fallen so heavily at such low altitudes.

The snow is heaviest around two of the island's highest peaks, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

Other parts of Hawaii were hit by flash floods, US media reported.

More snow is also forecast for Sunday.

Meteorologist Matt Foster told the Los Angeles Times that while Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa - both of which are nearly 14,000ft (4,260m) - are sometimes hit by snowfall five or six times a year, two to three feet of snow in "a few short days is at the higher end of what we'd typically get".

Mr Foster said there are occasionally winters when both mountains receive little or no snow, including 2015.

The winter storm snowfall is expected to keep the access road to the two peaks closed until Monday, when ski and snowboard enthusiasts are expected to take to the slopes.

Much of the rest of Hawaii is being hit by heavy rainfall, with temperatures of around 20C (68F) - far warmer than on the higher ground.

The US National Weather Service says that the unsettled weather pattern will continue over the next few days because of low pressure and "deep tropical moisture".

It says that while localised heavy rainfall can be expected at times, there will also be breaks in the weather with some sunshine possible.

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Parts of the US state of Hawaii have received a winter weather warning, with up to three feet (90cm) of snow over the past few days. Weather experts say that it is not unusual for snow to fall in tropical Hawaii, but rarely has it fallen so heavily at such low altitudes.

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Wednesday 7th Dec

Geography quiz,
Rounds on the geog of 2016, general knowledge and  world geography.

Get in a team and see Mr Gardner to enter!

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Case study

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A look to the future....

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The minibus crosses the vast plateau on a newly paved road. Cracked fields stretch away towards the Moroccan desert to the south. Yet the barren landscape is no longer quite as desolate as it once was. This year it became home to one of the world's biggest solar power plants.

Hundreds of curved mirrors, each as big as a bus, are ranked in rows covering 1,400,000 sq m (15m sq ft) of desert, an area the size of 200 football fields. The massive complex sits on a sun-blasted site at the foot of the High Atlas mountains, 10km (6 miles) from Ouarzazate - a city nicknamed the door to the desert. With around 330 days of sunshine a year, it's an ideal location.

As well as meeting domestic needs, Morocco hopes one day to export solar energy to Europe. This is a plant that could help define Africa's - and the world's - energy future.

Of course, on the day I visit the sky is covered in clouds. "No electricity will be produced today," says Rachid Bayed at the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen), which is responsible for implementing the flagship project.

An occasional off day is not a concern, however. After many years of false starts, solar power is coming of age as countries in the sun finally embrace their most abundant source of clean energy. The Moroccan site is one of several across Africa and similar plants are being built in the Middle East - in Jordan, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. The falling cost of solar power has made it a viable alternative to oil even in the most oil-rich parts of the world.

As well as meeting domestic needs, Morocco hopes one day to export solar energy to Europe.

Noor 1, the first phase of the Moroccan plant, has already surpassed expectations in terms of the amount of energy it has produced. It is an encouraging result in line with Morocco's goal to reduce its fossil fuel bill by focusing on renewables while still meeting growing energy needs that are increasing by about 7% per year. Morocco's stable government and economy has helped it secure funding: the European Union contributed 60% of the cost for the Ouarzazate project, for example.

The country plans to generate 14% of its energy from solar by 2020 and by adding other renewable sources like wind and water into the mix, it is aiming to produce 52% of its own energy by 2030. This puts Morocco more or less in line with countries like the UK, which wants to generate 30% of its electricity from renewables by the end of the decade, and the US, where President Obama set a target of 20% by 2030. (Trump has threatened to dump renewables, but his actions may not have a huge impact. Many policies are controlled by individual states and big companies have already started to switch to cleaner and cheaper alternatives.)

Due to the lack sun on the day I visit, the hundreds of mirrors stand still and silent. The team keeps a close eye on weather forecasts to predict output for the following day, allowing other sources of energy to take over when it is overcast.

The reflectors can be heard as they move together to follow the sun like a giant field of sunflowers

But normally the reflectors can be heard as they move together to follow the Sun like a giant field of sunflowers. The mirrors focus the Sun's energy onto a synthetic oil that flows through a network of pipes. Reaching temperatures up to 350C (662F), the hot oil is used to produce high-pressure water vapour that drives a turbine-powered generator. "It's the same classic process used with fossil fuels, except that we are using the Sun's heat as the source," says Bayed.

The plant keeps generating energy after sunset, when electricity demands peak. Some of the day's energy is stored in reservoirs of superhot molten salts made of sodium and potassium nitrates, which keeps production going for up to three hours. In the next phase of the plant, production will continue for up to eight hours after sunset.

As well as boosting Morocco's power production, the Ouarzazate project is helping the local economy. Around 2,000 workers were hired during the initial two years of construction, many of them Moroccan. Roads built to provide access to the plant have also connected nearby villages, helping children get to school. Water brought in for the site has been piped beyond the complex, hooking up 33 villages to the water grid.

Water brought in for the site has been piped beyond the complex, hooking up 33 villages to the water grid

Masen has also helped farmers in the area by teaching them sustainable practices. Heading towards the mountains, I visit the Berber village of Asseghmou, 30 miles (48 kilometres) north of Ouarzazate, where a small farm has now changed the way it raises ewes. Most farmers here rely on their intuition alone but they are being introduced to more reliable techniques -such as simply separating animals in their pens - which are improving yields. Masen also provided 25 farms with sheep for breeding purposes. "I now have better food security," says Chaoui, who runs a local farm. And his almond tree is thriving thanks to cultivation tips.

Even so, some locals have concerns. Abdellatif, who lives in the city of Zagora about 75 miles (120 kilometres) further south, where there are high rates of unemployment, thinks that the plant should focus on creating permanent jobs. He has friends who were hired to work there but they were only on contract for a few months. Once fully operational, the station will only require about 50 to 100 employees so the job boom may end. "The components of the plant are manufactured abroad but it would be better to produce them locally to generate ongoing work for residents," he says.

A bigger issue is that the solar plant draws a massive amount of water for cleaning and cooling from the local El Mansour Eddahbi dam. In recent years, water scarcity has been a problem in the semi-desert region and there are water cuts. Agricultural land further south in the Draa valley depends on water from the dam, which is occasionally released into the otherwise-dry river. But Mustapha Sellam, the site manager, claims that the water used by the complex amounts to 0.5% of the dam's supply, which is negligible compared to its capacity.

Still, the plant's consumption is enough to make a difference to struggling farmers. So the plant is making improvements to reduce the amount of water it uses. Instead of relying on water to clean the mirrors, pressurised air is used. And whereas Noor 1 uses water to cool the steam produced by the generators, so that it can be turned back into water and reused to produce more electricity, a dry cooling system that uses air will be installed.

The success of plants in places like Morocco and South Africa will encourage other African countries to turn to solar power

These new sections of the plant are currently being built. Noor 2 will be similar to the first phase, but Noor 3 will experiment with a different design. Instead of ranks of mirrors it will capture and store the Sun's energy with a single large tower, which is thought to be more efficient.

Seven thousand flat mirrors surrounding the tower will all track and reflect the sun's rays towards a receiver at the top, requiring much less space than existing arrangement of mirrors. Molten salts filling the interior of the tower will capture and store heat directly, doing away with the need for hot oil.

Similar systems are already used in South Africa, Spain and a few sites in the US, such as California's Mojave desert and Nevada. But at 86ft (26m) tall, Ouarzazate's recently erected structure is the highest of its kind in the world.

Other plants in Morocco are already underway. Next year construction will begin at two sites in the south-west, near Laayoune and Boujdour, with plants near Tata and Midelt to follow.

The success of these plants in Morocco - and those in South Africa - may encourage other African countries to turn to solar power. South Africa is already one of the world's top 10 producers of solar power and Rwanda is home to east Africa's first solar plant, which opened in 2014. Large plants are being planned for Ghana and Uganda.

Africa's sunshine could eventually make the continent a supplier of energy to the rest of the world. Sellam has high hopes for Noor. "Our main goal is to become energy-independent but if one day we are producing a surplus we could supply other countries too," he says. Imagine recharging your electric car in Berlin with electricity produced in Morocco.

With the clouds set to lift in Ouarzazate, Africa is busy planning for a sunny day.

--

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The colossal African solar farm that could power Europe

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The minibus crosses the vast plateau on a newly paved road. Cracked fields stretch away towards the Moroccan desert to the south. Yet the barren landscape is no longer quite as desolate as it once was. This year it became home to one of the world's biggest solar power plants.

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Great Barrier Reef 'suffers worst bleaching'Higher water temperatures in 2016 caused the worst destruction of coral ever recorded on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, a study finds.

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Great Barrier Reef 'suffers worst bleaching'Higher water temperatures in 2016 caused the worst destruction of coral ever recorded on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, a study finds.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-38127320

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Water Cycle Rap & Syria Forces 'retake' Second Aleppo Area

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Water Cycle Rap & Syria Forces 'retake' Second Aleppo Area

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Here is the water cycle that me - rapper, Ismael - rapper, Rana - camera woman and Hojin - beat man. *Sorry for the wait, had some issues with this device.

It was said that The Syrian Government has retaken a second rebel dominated district located in Eastern Aleppo, as Military Sources say. It was said that the army and their allies had "fully recaptured" Jabal Badro District, part of the Easter Aleppo.

Some hours earlier, sources of rebels confirming that the control of Hanano District, the neighbor of Jabal Badro District, which is now in government hands. Big Numbers of civilians have been gathering to the Government-controlled areas and districts of Aleppo as Syrian Troops advance to the east of the city.

The goal of Syrian army's offensive is to retake Eastern Aleppo - which was home to some 275,000 people and now on it's 13th day.

Source of this Information can be found at this URL: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38123829

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Heavy downpours across Doha have caused two popular malls in Qatar to leak, and another to shut down completely.

Both Villaggio Mall and Landmark Malls witnessed indoor rain today.

At Villaggio this afternoon, Doha News observed pieces of the ceiling collapsing in front of Patrice salon, as well as flooding near Virgin Megastore, causing its closure.

Part of Khulood Pharmacy also began leaking, and sections of the floor near Paul and Boots Pharmacy were closed off after flooding.

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In January 2016, south-west and southern parts of England received twice the amount of their average rainfall. This weather also caused milder temperatures. If you would like to learn more go check out http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-flooding-january-rainfall-breaks-records-for-parts-of-england-9096261.html

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Global warming is the term used to describe a gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and its oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate. There is great debate among many people, and sometimes in the news, on whether global warming is real (some call it a hoax). But climate scientists looking at the data and facts agree the planet is warming. While many view the effects of global warming to be more substantial and more rapidly occurring than others do, the scientific consensus on climatic changes related to global warming is that the average temperature of the Earth has risen between 0.4 and 0.8 °C over the past 100 years. The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities, are believed to be the primary sources of the global warming that has occurred over the past 50 years. Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate carrying out global warming research have recently predicted that average global temperatures could increase between 1.4 and 5.8 °C by the year 2100. Changes resulting from global warming may include rising sea levels due to the melting of the polar ice caps, as well as an increase in occurrence and severity of storms and other severe weather events

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Troops joined rescue operations in Yunnan province, southwestern China Monday following a 6.1-magnitude earthquake but the search for survivors was hampered by rainfall and aftershocks.

It is a fairly remote, partly mountainous area. Many live in low-rise houses made of wood and bricks or plaster, which make them prone to collapse.
Poor housing
The quality of the housing, along with the higher-than-average population density in the area and the relatively shallow epicenter of the quake, was said to be a contributing factor to the death toll.
"Most rural houses in the county were made of brick or wood, were not designed to be resistant to quakes, and many of them were outdated," the China Earthquake Administration said in a statement.
Lu Xuefeng, head of Zhaotong City's communications department, told reporters Monday that an estimated 210,000 households and almost a million residents had been affected by the earthquake.
He said local authorities had dispatched 6,000 troops to join the disaster relief operation, according to state media. They are joined by specially-trained functionaries, medical teams and thousands of volunteers. Civil authorities have distributed tents, folding beds, blankets and clothing.
"I was working ... when my family called and told me our home was destroyed," Mao Quan, a resident of Longquan village, Longtoushan Township, told CNN.
"They told me nearly all houses at the village have been destroyed in the earthquake. There's no shelter, not enough to eat and the roads are cut off so it's hard for aid to go in. I've been walking back to the village since 7 a.m. I tried to hitchhike but it's hard. I'll probably be back home in another two hours."
Some 12,000 homes were destroyed and 30,000 others damaged in Sunday's quake, according to CCTV. Tens of thousands have been relocated from structurally unsafe houses. Some roads have been destroyed and some villages remain cut off.
Power outages
Ten towns and townships faced power outages overnight. Power was restored to around 19,000 homes Monday morning, but communications remain spotty.

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also known as the Great Sichuan earthquake or Wenchuan earthquake, occurred at 02:28:01 PM China Standard Time on May 12, 2008. measuring at 8.0 Ms,[2][11][12] the earthquake's epicenter was located 80 kilometres (50 mi) west-northwest of Chengdu, the provincial capital, with a focal depth of 19 km (12 mi).[3] The earthquake was also felt in nearby countries and as far away as both Beijing and Shanghai—1,500 km (930 mi) and 1,700 km (1,060 mi) away—where office buildings swayed with the tremor.[13] Strong aftershocks, some exceeding 6 Ms, continued to hit the area up to several months after the main quake, causing further casualties and damage.
Over 69,000 people lost their lives in the quake, including 68,636 in Sichuan province. 374,176 were reported injured, with 18,222 listed as missing as of July 2008.[9] The earthquake left about 4.8 million people homeless,[14] though the number could be as high as 11 million.[15] Approximately 15 million people lived in the affected area. It was the deadliest earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which killed at least 240,000 people, and the strongest in the country since the 1950 Chayu earthquake, which registered at 8.5 on the Richter magnitude scale.[16] It is the 21st deadliest earthquake of all time. On November 6, 2008, the central government announced that it would spend 1 trillion RMB (about US $146.5 billion) over the next three years to rebuild areas ravaged by the earthquake,[17] as part of the Chinese economic stimulus program.

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Forty-four counties declared a state of emergency Thursday night, primarily in the southeastern part of West Virginia. Elkview, Clendenin and Frame have been hit the hardest by the flooding, officials said.
Tomblin activated 200 National Guard members to assist in eight counties and has authorization for as many as 300 more to help with the rescue and response efforts, the governor's office said Friday.
"Together with the National Guard, our first responders, local emergency management officials and firefighters from across the state have been working around the clock, and we are deeply appreciative of their efforts," Tomblin said in the statement.
A 4-year-old boy was washed away by rapid floodwaters in Jackson County, officials said. The child was playing with his sister behind their home when he fell into a stream that had instantly turned into a rushing current after the relentless storms. An 8-year old boy from Ravenswood was also killed in the violent storm.
Severe damage to homes and infrastructure can be seen throughout the state, residents said. At one point during the height of the storm, there were 64 active emergency calls in Kanawha County, according to county spokeswoman Brooke Hylbert.

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Hundreds of fans immediately started writing their messages of condolence on the Facebook page, expressing their sadness that the talented 90-year-old politician and revolutionary was dead. And as usual, Twittersphere was frenzied over the death hoax.
Where as some trusting fans believed the post, others were immediately skeptical of the report, perhaps learning their lesson from the huge amount of fake death reports emerging about celebrities over recent months. Some pointed out that the news had not been carried on any major Cuban network, indicating that it was a fake report, as the death of a politician of Fidel Castro's stature would be major news across networks.
A recent poll conducted for the Celebrity Post shows that a large majority (78%) of respondents think those Fidel Castro death rumors are not funny anymore.
Fidel Castro Death Hoax Dismissed Since Politician Is ‘Alive And Well’
On Friday (November 25) the politician's reps officially confirmed that Fidel Castro is not dead. “He joins the long list of celebrities who have been victimized by this hoax. He's still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the Internet,” they said.
Some fans have expressed anger at the fake report saying it was reckless, distressing and hurtful to fans of the much loved politician. Others say this shows his extreme popularity across the globe.

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Molly Andrew Emily's take away homework project

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Kids die in bus crash hours after Thanksgiving

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Kids die in bus crash hours after Thanksgiving

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Meanwhile, the twisted wreckage of the bus — nearly torn in two and wrapped around a tree off Talley Road in the Brainerd area in southeast Chattanooga — remained in place Monday night as investigators began piecing together what happened.
"Our hearts go out ... to the families, the neighborhood, the school, for all the people involved in this," Fletcher said at a news conference. "We assure you we are doing everything we can."
Fletcher said "speed is being investigated very, very strongly as a factor in this crash."
He said there were no obvious roadway conditions that appeared to have led to the crash and that police are still investigating whether alcohol played a role.
Fletcher described the crash as "every public safety professional's worst nightmare."
The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted Monday night that a "Go Team" of investigators would deploy to the accident scene Tuesday morning.
The bus is operated by Durham School Services, according to spokesperson Carina Noble.
In a news conference Monday, Assistant Chief Tracy Arnold said there were 35 students from Woodmore Elementary School riding the bus ranging from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Images posted on social media also showed interim Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Kirk Kelly racing to the scene of the crash.
And blood donors rushed to Blood Assurance in downtown Chattanooga, where marketing coordinator Mindy Quinn said there was a line out the door.
The fire department described the crash scene on Twitter as "very serious" and Chattanooga's mayor called it "horrible."
This was the second bus crash in Tennessee in recent days involving dozens of students.
Nearly two dozen Chester County Beta Club students on their way to a convention at Gaylord Opryland were injured Friday morning in a crash after a school bus flipped on Interstate 65 in Nashville.
None of those injuries were life-threatening.
The governor said events like Monday’s and last week’s crash in Nashville could lead officials to begin additional talks about safety.
“To me it’s a good discussion to have,” Haslam said. “I think when this is over it’s time to have a good conversation about everything around school buses.”
Nationally, school buses remain a safe mode of transportation. For example, from 2004 to 2013, U.S. drivers were involved in 340,039 fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA). Of those, 1,214, or just .4%, were classified as "school-transportation-related," involving a school bus or other vehicle functioning as a school bus that was transporting children to or from school or related activities, such as sports or field trips.
Kelly said schools will be open tomorrow, and Woodmore will have guidance counselors and other support available for students and staff, according to the Times Free Press.
"This has been a great tragedy for us," Kelly said. "We have suffered a great loss today ... one of the worst days we've had in our school community."

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Police issued an alert after a complaint was made that two men were acting suspiciously near secondary schools in Carrickfergus.
Mysterious pictures online of a clown and a balaclava-wearing sidekick have caused a stir in the town.
The police appeal caused a backlash on social media from some people who felt they were cracking down on fun.
'Frightening'
Police said they started an investigation after receiving reports from parents that their children were frightened of the clown.
A police officer wrote on the PSNI Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus Facebook page: "Fun is fun but frightening school pupils is another."
The mystery man, who calls himself the Carrick "Killer Clown", contacted the police following the appeal to apologise for any distress.
"He assures me that this was a prank and it was not his intention in any way to frighten the school pupils or cause distress," the officer wrote.
"He fully appreciates the sensitivities of schools and photographs etc in the area of any school

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Giant forces that had been building up deep in the Earth for hundreds of years were released suddenly on December 26, shaking the ground violently and unleashing a series of killer waves that sped across the Indian Ocean at the speed of a jet airliner.
By the end of the day more than 150,000 people were dead or missing and millions more were homeless in 11 countries, making it perhaps the most destructive tsunami in history.
The epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake was under the Indian Ocean near the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, according to the USGS, which monitors earthquakes worldwide. The violent movement of sections of the Earth's crust, known as tectonic plates, displaced an enormous amount of water, sending powerful shock waves in every direction.
The earthquake was the result of the sliding of the portion of the Earth's crust known as the India plate under the section called the Burma plate. The process has been going on for millennia, one plate pushing against the other until something has to give. The result on December 26 was a rupture the USGS estimates was more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) long, displacing the seafloor above the rupture by perhaps 10 yards (about 10 meters) horizontally and several yards vertically. That doesn't sound like much, but the trillions of tons of rock that were moved along hundreds of miles caused the planet to shudder with the largest magnitude earthquake in 40 years.
Above the disturbed seafloor the great volume of the ocean was displaced along the line of the rupture, creating one of nature's most deadly phenomena: a tsunami. Within hours killer waves radiating from the earthquake zone slammed into the coastline of 11 Indian Ocean countries, snatching people out to sea, drowning others in their homes or on beaches, and demolishing property from Africa to Thailand.
Tsunamis have been relatively rare in the Indian Ocean, at least in human memory. They are most prevalent in the Pacific. But every ocean has generated the scourges. Many countries are at risk. (Read "Tsunami: Facts About Killer Waves" for more about killer waves' causes and warning signs—information that can be a lifesaver in a tsunami zone.)
For more about the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 scroll down the page.
The Indian Ocean tsunami traveled as much as 3,000 miles (nearly 5,000 kilometers) to Africa, arriving with sufficient force to kill people and destroy property.
A tsunami may be less than a foot (30 centimeters) in height on the surface of the open ocean, which is why they are not noticed by sailors. But the powerful pulse of energy travels rapidly through the ocean at hundreds of miles per hour. Once a tsunami reaches shallow water near the coast it is slowed down. The top of the wave moves faster than the bottom, causing the sea to rise dramatically.
The Indian Ocean tsunami caused waves as high as 50 feet (15 meters) in some places, according to news reports. But in many other places witnesses described a rapid surging of the ocean, more like an extremely powerful river or a flood than the advance and retreat of giant waves.