Creation Groaning: Birds falling from the sky

Alert Focus: Creation Groans / Pestilence / Birth Pangs Jeremiah 12:4 How long is the land to mourn And the vegetation of the countryside to wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it, Animals and birds have been snatched away, Because men have said, "He will not see our latter ending." Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. Revelation 6:8 I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth. 'Catastrophic': Now thousands of birds fall from sky Wildlife officers baffled, autopsies shed no light on mystery WORLDNETDAILY - January 9, 2007 -- Thousands of birds inexplicably dropped like rocks from the sky over Australia. The mysterious catastrophe has taken place over a period of three weeks in Esperance, about 450 miles southeast of Perth. The area was declared a disaster zone by government officials. So far, authorities are clueless as to the cause. Autopsies on the birds have shed no light. The main casualties, according to Australian news sources, are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters. Some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found. Some birds were seen convulsing when they died. Wildlife officers are baffled by what they characterize as a "catastrophic" event. It does not appear to be weather-related. District nature conservation coordinator Mike Fitzgerald said: "It's very substantial. We estimate several thousand birds are dead, although we don't have a clear number because of the large areas of bushland." Birds Australia, the nation's main bird conservation group, said it had not heard of a similar occurrence. "Not on that scale, and all at the same time, and also the fact that it's several different species," chief executive Graeme Hamilton said. "You'd have to call that a most unusual event and one that we'd all have to be concerned about." Just yesterday, some 60 birds fell out of the sky in Austin, Texas, without explanation. The incident prompted street closings for several hours. Officials said they had tested the air for dangerous substances but found nothing, and they declared the area safe. The dead birds – grackles, sparrows and pigeons – were being checked for avian flu, but officials said they saw no symptoms of the illness and believed it more likely they had been poisoned, possibly deliberately, or affected by near-freezing weather. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53708 Are the dead porpoises on Scottish beaches more evidence of global warming? THE SCOTSMAN – By Frank Urquhart - January 10, 2007 -- HARBOUR porpoises are starving to death in the North Sea as a result of rising water temperatures, scientists have revealed. Climate change has resulted in a dramatic decline in the numbers of sandeels - a major part of the staple diet of the porpoises. Marine scientists have recorded a significant rise in the percentage of porpoise deaths due to malnutrition. They are also becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of the declining sandeel populations on other species such as the bottle-nosed dolphin and the minke whale, believing this could jeopardise the future of Scotland's booming whale-watching sector. The potential crisis was highlighted yesterday in a study by a team of scientists from Aberdeen University and the Scottish Agricultural College in Inverness, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Previous reports have already revealed that seabird populations around Scotland's coast have been seriously hit by the decline in sandeel numbers. … [See Full Article] http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=47902007 Warm December Pushes 2006 to Record Year ASSOCIATED PRESS - January 9, 2007 -- WASHINGTON -- Last year was the warmest on record for the United States, with readings pushed over higher than normal by the unusual and unseasonably warm weather during the last half of December. Preliminary data from the National Climatic Data Center listed the average temperature for the 48 contiguous states last year as 55 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 2.2 degrees warmer than average and 0.07 degree warmer than 1998, the previous warmest year on record. Worldwide, the agency said, it was the sixth warmest year on record. In December the Center had predicted that 2006 would be the United States' third warmest year, but unusual readings later that month pushed the year into first place. The Center said it is not clear how much of the warming is a result of greenhouse-gas induced climate change and how much resulted from the current El Nino warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean. El Nino conditions occur every few years in the Pacific and can affect climate around the world, including producing warmer conditions in the United States. The average U.S. and global temperature are both about 1 degree warmer than at the start of the 20th century, a change many scientists attribute to gases released into the atmosphere by industrial processes. The temperature data was collected from a network of more than 1,200 stations across the country. …[See Full Article] http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/09/D8MHUMVO0.html EU: Climate change will transform the face of the continent THE INDEPENDENT - By Michael McCarthy and Stephen Castle - January 10, 2007 -- Europe, the richest and most fertile continent and the model for the modern world, will be devastated by climate change, the European Union predicts today. The ecosystems that have underpinned all European societies from Ancient Greece and Rome to present-day Britain and France, and which helped European civilisation gain global pre-eminence, will be disabled by remorselessly rising temperatures, EU scientists forecast in a remarkable report which is as ominous as it is detailed. Much of the continent's age-old fertility, which gave the world the vine and the olive and now produces mountains of grain and dairy products, will not survive the climate change forecast for the coming century, the scientists say, and its wildlife will be devastated. Europe's modern lifestyles, from summer package tours to winter skiing trips, will go the same way, they say, as the Mediterranean becomes too hot for holidays and snow and ice disappear from mountain ranges such as the Alps - with enormous economic consequences. The social consequences will also be felt as heat-related deaths rise and extreme weather events, such as storms and floods, become more violent. …[See Full Article] http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2140265.ece Winter To Come "With A Vengeance" Prolonged Period of Cold and Stormy Weather Appears on the Way ACCU-WEATHER - January 8, 2007 -- State College, PA -- The unseasonably warm winter experienced by much of the country is likely to "turn on a dime," in the words of AccuWeather.com Chief Long-Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi. Bastardi said that the weather pattern from mid-January through mid-February has a chance to mimic the winters of 1965-66 and 1957-58, each of which ended cold and stormy after a warm start. A worst-case scenario would be if this winter plays out as did the winter of 1977-1978. Similar to this year, 1977-1978 was a winter with a waning El Nino. After a tepid start, the second half of the winter was noted for its cold and remarkable storminess, including back-to-back-to-back blizzards in the Northeast. "Those who think that winter 2006-2007 is going to remain mild are in for a shock," said Bastardi. "Winter is likely to come with a vengeance. A week from now, we'll start seeing truly cold air across much of the country, and we expect this change to last." Added Bastardi, "Whether we end up with seasonably cold weather, or something far worse, remains to be seen. There are indications that this winter could parallel severe winters of the past. Even should we not see an extremely cold and snowy conclusion to winter, you can be sure that by the end of the month, when those in the Northeast are shoveling out their driveways and sidewalks, the mild weather we're experiencing now will be a distant memory." ... http://wwwa.accuweather.com/pressroom.asp?pr=wx_258.htm FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. 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