Despite the trials and tribulations experienced by humanity, the Earth itself continues to hum along through space — quite literally, as researchers have made new recordings of the faint, yet steady low-level hum the Earth generates, using sensitive seismic instruments placed on the ocean floor.
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A new study from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Tsinghua University in Beijing has found that the global warming pause that was supposed to have occurred between 1998 and 2012 didn’t actually happen. The discrepancy was apparently due to incomplete data, making it appear that worldwide temperature increases had plateaued.
"We recalculated the average global temperatures from 1998-2012 and found that the rate of global warming had continued to rise at 0.112ºC per decade instead of slowing down to 0.05ºC per decade as previously thought," explains UAF professor and atmospheric scientist Xiangdong Zhang.
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Mysterious sheep mutilations have been occurring in the Niali region of India, with over 180 animals being killed since last June. The afflicted sheep are reportedly found with their livers removed, and although government officials are blaming the attacks on a "mysterious animal", possibly wolves, all attempts at capturing the assumed creatures have failed, and following the report of two men being attacked, the region’s villagers are forced to keep watch through the night.
"On Thursday night, the mysterious creature had attacked two males in Baharana village. If any loss of human life is reported then administration will be responsible for it," according to Bharat Sahoo, a resident of Baharana villiage.
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The infamous hole in Earth’s ozone layer has shrunk down to 7.6 million square miles wide (12,200,000 square kilometers), the smallest the gap has been since 1988. This healing of Earth’s main shield against ultraviolet radiation is due largely to efforts initiated in the mid-1980s, when the use of ozone-harming CFCs was phased out. Not only is this positive news in regards to our atmosphere’s ability to filter out harmful UV radiation, it also stands as an example of how humanity can make a positive, large-scale impact when efforts to reduce ecological harm are required, such as in the case of our need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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