Infinite Unknown

- Deaths of 3,000 dolphins blamed on sonar blasts from oil firms exploring sea bed (Daily Mail, April 15, 2012)

The deaths of thousands of dolphins washed up on beaches in Peru may have been caused by acoustic testing offshore by oil companies, conservationists have warned.

Nearly 3,000 of the mammals are thought to have died this year so far, with 615 counted by conservationists along a 90-mile stretch of beaches near the city of Lambayeque on Wednesday.

Scientists in Peru are exploring the possibility the deaths were caused by sonar blasts used by firms to find oil under the sea. The method can damage dolphins’ ears and cause disorientation and internal bleeding, experts warn. Continue reading »

Tags: Corporations, Dolphins, Economy, Environment, Global News, Peru, Science, Scientists, South America, Technology

Chavez Critical? “Regime change flu coming to Latin America”

Added: 27.06.2011

Adrian Salbuchi – Members of the Global Elite who would love to see Hugo Chavez go

Added: 26.06.2011

Tags: Cuba, Global News, Government, Hugo Chavez, New World Order, Politics, South America, Venezuela

Added: 2. Januar 2011

- Hundreds of Dead Snapper Fish Wash Up On New Zealand Beach

- US: Hundreds More Blackbirds Fall From The Sky – This Time in Louisiana

- US: Up to 5,000 Blackbirds Fall Dead Out of The Sky, Autopsies Find No Poison

- US: Up to 100,000 Fish Found Dead Along Arkansas River

Tags: birds, Environment, Global News, South America

Failed Washington-Sponsored Ecuadorean Coup Attempt – by Stephen Lendman

Rafael Correa

Post-9/11, Washington sponsored four coup d’etats. Two succeeded – mostly recently in Honduras in 2009 against Manuel Zelaya, and in Haiti in 2004 deposing Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Two others failed – in Venezuela in 2002 against Hugo Chavez, and on September 30 in Ecuador against Rafael Correa – so far. Two by Bush, two by Obama with plenty of time for more mischief before November 2012.

From his record so far, expect it. He continues imperial Iraq and Afghanistan wars and occupations. In addition, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Palestine, Lebanon, North Korea, and other countries are targeted, besides deploying CIA and Special Forces armies into at least 75 countries worldwide for targeted assassinations, drone attacks, and other disruptive missions.

More than ever under Bush and Obama, America rampages globally, Ecuador’s Raphael Correa lucky to survive a plot to oust (or perhaps kill) him. September world headlines explained, including by New York Times writer Simon Romero headlining, “Standoff in Ecuador Ends With Leader’s Rescue,” saying:

“Ecuadorean soldiers stormed a police hospital Thursday night in Quito where President Rafael Correa was held by rebellious elements of the police forces, and rescued him amid an exchange of gunfire….”

Continue reading »

Tags: Ecuador, Global News, Government, Military, Politics, South America, U.S.

Antarctic cold snap kills millions of aquatic animals in the Amazon.

The San Julián fish farm in the Santa Cruz department of Bolivia lost 15 tonnes of pacú fish in the extreme cold.Never Tejerina

With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere’s recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country’s tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins.

Scientists who have visited the affected rivers say the event is the biggest ecological disaster Bolivia has known, and, as an example of a sudden climatic change wreaking havoc on wildlife, it is unprecedented in recorded history.

“There’s just a huge number of dead fish,” says Michel Jégu, a researcher from the Institute for Developmental Research in Marseilles, France, who is currently working at the Noel Kempff Mercado Natural History Museum in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. “In the rivers near Santa Cruz there’s about 1,000 dead fish for every 100 metres of river.”

With such extreme climatic events potentially becoming more common due to climate change, scientists are hurrying to coordinate research into the impact, and how quickly the ecosystem is likely to recover.

The extraordinary quantity of decomposing fish flesh has polluted the waters of the Grande, Pirai and Ichilo rivers to the extent that local authorities have had to provide alternative sources of drinking water for towns along the rivers’ banks. Many fishermen have lost their main source of income, having been banned from removing any more fish from populations that will probably struggle to recover.

The blame lies, at least indirectly, with a mass of Antarctic air that settled over the Southern Cone of South America for most of July. The prolonged cold snap has also been linked to the deaths of at least 550 penguins along the coasts of Brazil and thousands of cattle in Paraguay and Brazil, as well as hundreds of people in the region.

Water temperatures in Bolivian rivers that normally register about 15 ˚C during the day fell to as low as 4 ˚C.

Continue reading »

Tags: Bolivia, Climate Change, Dolphins, Environment, Fish, Global News, South America

Hundreds die from extreme cold in remote mountain villages also struggling with severe poverty

A doctor checks a child in Lima, where temperatures have also plunged and a vaccination project is now under way. (Reuters)

Peru has declared a state of emergency after hundreds of children died from freezing conditions that have seen temperatures across much of the South American country plummet to a 50-year low. In 16 of Peru’s 25 regions, temperatures have fallen below -24C.

Reports from the country say 409 people, most of them children, have already died from the cold, with temperatures predicted to fall further in coming weeks.

Worst hit are Peru’s poorest and most isolated communities, which are already living on the edge of survival in remote Andean mountain villages more than 3,000 metres above sea level.

Although those living at such high-altitude would expect temperatures to drop below zero at this time of year, NGOs and government officials say many are unable to withstand the extreme cold which they are now experiencing.

“Over the past three or four years we have seen temperatures during the winter months get lower, and people are unable to survive this,” said Silvia Noble, from Plan Peru, an NGO. “This cold weather is now extending into areas that never saw these low temperatures before and children and elderly people are especially at risk as they are not physically strong enough to last month after month of sub-zero conditions.” Continue reading »

Tags: Climate Change, Environment, Global News, Global Warming, Government, Lima, Peru, Politics, South America

Don’t miss: Al Gore’s Enormous Carbon Footprint

Warmists may be winning the big grants, but they’re not winning the argument

Herding cattle in Chile as South America suffers one of its coldest winters for years (Reuters)

Ever more risibly desperate become the efforts of the believers in global warming to hold the line for their religion, after the battering it was given last winter by all those scandals surrounding the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

One familiar technique they use is to attribute to global warming almost any unusual weather event anywhere in the world. Last week, for instance, it was reported that Russia has recently been experiencing its hottest temperatures and longest drought for 130 years. The head of the Russian branch of WWF, the environmental pressure group, was inevitably quick to cite this as evidence of climate change, claiming that in future “such climate abnormalities will only become more frequent”. He didn’t explain what might have caused the similar hot weather 130 years ago.

Meanwhile, notably little attention has been paid to the disastrous chill which has been sweeping South America thanks to an inrush of air from the Antarctic, killing hundreds in the continent’s coldest winter for years. Continue reading »

Tags: Chile, Climate Change, Corporations, CRU, Environment, Exxon, Global Warming, IPCC, Science, South America, U.N., U.S., WWF

- Deal: United States soldiers will deploy to Colombia (The Raw Story/AFP)

‘We do not want war, we hate it. But we must prepare for it.,’ Mr Chavez warned. (AFP)

CARACAS – PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez on Sunday bridled at US plans to use military bases in Colombia, asserting that Venezuela was the top US target in the region and that Venezuelans should prepare for war.

Speaking in his weekly live radio and television broadcast, Chavez also chided US President Barack Obama for accusing leftist Latin leaders of ‘hypocrisy’ for demanding that Washington intervene more forcefully to reinstate Honduras’ ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Colombia, Hugo Chavez, Military, Obama administration, Politics, South America, U.S.

BRASILIA: South America is thinking of creating a common currency and a central bank along the lines of those in the European Union’s eurozone, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said yesterday.

The idea is a logical next step following the signing last Friday of a treaty creating a Union of South American States that aims to promote joint regional customs and defense policies, Lula said during his weekly radio broadcast.

“Many things still haven’t been realised. We are now going to create a Bank of South America. We are going to move forward so in the future we’ll have a single central bank, a common currency,” he said.

But, he added: “This is a process. It won’t be something that happens quickly.”
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela all signed up to the Unasur treaty creating the regional union during a ceremony in Brasilia last Friday. Continue reading »

Tags: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, South America, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela