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Queensland Flood cost $5 Billion in Damages: Wheat and Coal Prices go up
Queensland is roughly the size of France and Germany, however the catastrophic floods of Australia will be felt worldwide. Queensland premier Anna Bligh said the flooding was unprecedented in the state and had now directly affected 40 towns, raising the number from 22 and affecting 200,000 people. “We are unable to move anything by rail or, of course, road,” David Ginns, corporate affairs manager at GrainCorp told Reuters, adding that transport of grain to port elevators from inland areas had effectively ceased, and the domestic distribution network had also been impacted. Ten people have died during the disaster.
Australia’s record floods are causing catastrophic damage to infrastructure in the state of Queensland and have forced 75 percent of its coal mines, which fuel Asia’s steel mills, to grind to a halt, Queensland’s premier said on Wednesday. “Seventy-five percent of our mines are currently not operation because of this flood,” Premier Anna Bligh told local television. “So, that’s a massive impact on the international markets and the international manufacturer of steel.” Queensland state is the world’s biggest exporter of coal used in steel-making and contributes more than 40 percent of the global seaborne trade. Steelmakers in Asia may be forced to pay as much as 33 percent more for hard coking coal after the flood. Full-year sales of metallurgical coal has been revised down from 6-6.5 million tonnes to 5.8-6.2 million tonnes.
Queensland’s winter grain crop has been totally destroyed by flooding. It is estimated that it will cost the industry about $400 million. Australia’s wettest spring on record have damaged the crop quality in the world’s fourth largest wheat exporter, stoking supply concerns and pushing up already high global wheat prices. It is possible that half of the national crop or about 10 million tonnes could be downgraded to animal feed or low-grade milling grains.
The floods will have a devastating impact on summer crops of sorghum and cotton greatly reducing yield. Prices began to surge last summer after a drought in Russia and the Black Sea region decimated the crop there and shut off exports. In recent months, wet weather in Australia and dryness in U.S. wheat areas have raised fears over supplies.
Chief NOAA Scientist – The North Pole is Moving Rapidly
Could this be? There is documented geomagnetic activity in the ionosphere as well as the core being very active which in a sense may be triggering the increase of global disasters such as earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and volcanic activity.
Birds and Fish Dead Worldwide
Source of map: link to j.imagehost.org
Changes in magnetic field could be responsible for massive bird and fish die-offs
UPDATING!
BIRDS:
Texas: Hundreds of dead birds discovered in E. Texas
Sweden: Swedish birds ‘scared to death’: veterinarian
China: BREAKING! Eagle and Birds fall from the sky in CHINA
Kentucky: Women reports dozens of dead birds in her yard
Louisiana: Hundreds of DEAD Black Birds Found In Louisiana
Arkansas: For Arkansas Blackbirds, the New Year Never Came
Germany: Dead birds of prey at the roadside
Japan: Japan on alert after finding dead birds
Caroline: Dead pelican count escalates
Tucson: Nearly 70 dead bats found in Tucson
Somerset UK: Mystery as scores of starlings found dead in village garden
Thousands of dead birds fall out of the sky, North and South America
Fish:
Florida: Thousands Of Fish Dead In Spruce Creek
Arkansas: 100,000 drum fish die in Arkansas River, more than 100 miles from site of bizarre blackbird deaths
Kent Island, MD: MDE: Fish Kill Caused By Cold Stress
Brazil: Mysterious killing of fish in coastal
Wales UK: UK. Dead fish discovered in canal marina near Abergavenny
Haiti: Authorities probe dead fish in Haitian lake
Australia: Dead fish clog lake at airport
Russia: Mass bird deaths found in European Russian region
Indiana: Dead fish wash up on Washington Park beach
Maryland: Unusual Fish Kill Found in Annapolis
Canada: Victoria river mysteriously turns bright green
Italy Two miles of beach full of fish, clams and crabs dead in a stretch of coast
Peterborough UK: Concern as fish die in beauty spot brook
New Zealand: Hundreds of snapper dead on beaches
Related
Millions more dead fish: UNBELIEVABLE FISHKILL in Lousiana — ALL TYPES, EVEN MAMMALS
Sea life dying by the million around the world
Reports recently from around the world of billions of sea creatures being washed ashore
Thousands of dead fish washing up and thousands of dead birds: Arkansas
Earthquakes Increase in US/ World
Since 2006, earthquakes have been increasing at an alarming rate. Unfortunately it appears as if we are getting warning signals from the ground. It is apparent that in the very near future, a great event of unimaginable proportions will occur. In 2010 there was a unprecedented 7,924 earthquakes in the U.S. which was an increase of 86% prior to 2009’s total of 4,264. If you were to compare 2006 to 2010 it would be an increase of a whopping 185%! Numbers don’t lie.
Newsworthy events within the last 7 days:
A 3.8 magnitude earthquake centered near Kokomo, Indiana. Dec 30 2010
Cedar City, Utah a magnitude 4.5 earthquake at 5:06 a.m. Jan 3, 2011
Plymouth, N.H 2.6-magnitude earthquake was recorded at 11:46 p.m Jan 3, 2011
A magnitude 3-point-0 earthquake was recorded at 12:31 p.m. Tuesday afternoon about 15 miles east-northeast of Oklahoma City Jan 4, 2011
3.9 magnitude struck Eureka California at around 2:40 Sunday afternoon Jan 2, 2011
3.8 magnitude earthquake shook an area near the Southern California town of Julian on Thursday morning at 9:37 a.m. Dec 30, 2010
A 3.6-magnitude earthquake recorded early Thursday in Maupin, Oregon Dec 30, 2010
| Magnitude | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.0 to 9.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7.0 to 7.9 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 6.0 to 6.9 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 8 | 0 |
| 5.0 to 5.9 | 54 | 25 | 47 | 51 | 72 | 85 | 59 | 71 | 0 |
| 4.0 to 4.9 | 541 | 284 | 345 | 346 | 366 | 432 | 288 | 632 | 0 |
| 3.0 to 3.9 | 1303 | 1362 | 1475 | 1213 | 1137 | 1486 | 1492 | 3394 | 0 |
| 2.0 to 2.9 | 704 | 1336 | 1738 | 1145 | 1173 | 1573 | 2380 | 3770 | 3 |
| 1.0 to 1.9 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 26 | 34 | 0 |
| 0.1 to 0.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| No Magnitude | 333 | 540 | 73 | 13 | 22 | 20 | 14 | 14 | 0 |
| Total | 2946 | 3550 | 3685 | 2783 | 2791 | 3618 | * 4264 | * 7924 | * 3 |
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/1230/Indiana-earthquake-extremely-rare-and-unprecedented
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/01/small_earthquak_4.html
http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20110104/NEWS01/101040315
China Stealth Jet Fighter J-20
Aviation experts believe China may have started testing a new stealth aircraft – putting it well ahead of Western predictions that a revamped air force would not be ready for take-off for another decade.
Photographs of the J-20 taking high-speed taxi tests at an airfield have appeared on several websites, fueling speculation that Beijing is not particularly concerned about keeping its latest weapon under wraps – at least unofficially.
The plane photos surfaced just one week after a U.S. naval commander warned that China is stepping up testing on a space missile that could sink American aircraft carriers in the Pacific.
The Chinese prototype looks like it has “the potential to be a competitor with the F-22 and to be decisively superior to the F-35,” said Mr. Fisher. The J-20 has two engines, like the F-22, and is about the same size, while the F-35 is smaller and has only one engine.
China’s stealth-fighter program has implications also for Japan, which is considering buying F-35s, and for India, which last month firmed up a deal with Russia to jointly develop and manufacture a stealth fighter.
The Chinese military are also expected to launch their first aircraft carrier next year – a year earlier than anticipated by U.S. experts.
But China’s Foreign Ministry insists his military is one of peace, saying: ‘We pose no threat to other countries.’
According to the Aviation Week website, security at the airfield where the J-20 was photographed was slack and the prototype could be viewed from several public areas.
The ‘leak’ supports earlier claims by the Chinese military that a stealth aircraft would be airborne by 2011 and could be operational by 2017.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates dismissed that idea at the time, claiming that China would not have stealth fighters operational before 2020. “China has the money, they have the industrial expertise, they have the scientific base, the drive and motivation and of course the benefit of American research over 30 years acquired by legal or illegal means,” one anonymous observer was quoted by a Time magazine blog site. “These enablers give China wide latitude in matching or exceeding American designs that are now 20 years old.”
Stealth aircraft – which can evade detection by radar, infrared and other tracking devices – have been in development since the end of World War Two.
Experts point out that the Chinese version is larger than most observers expected – ‘pointing to long range and heavy weapon loads’.
National Debt $200 Trillion Dollars
Dr. Laurence Kotlikoff economics professor at Boston University, discusses the national debt and unfunded liabilities – Aug. 11, 2010
Using CBO data, Kotlikoff says the real national debt is $202 trillion.
Compare the official deficit numbers for July – $165 billion – with the numbers for all of 2002 – where $165 billion covered the deficit for the entire fiscal year.
—
Excerpt:
The Congressional Budget Office whose Long-Term Budget Outlook, released in June, shows an even larger problem.
‘Unofficial’ Liabilities
Based on the CBO’s data, I calculate a fiscal gap of $202 trillion, which is more than 15 times the official debt. This gargantuan discrepancy between our “official” debt and our actual net indebtedness isn’t surprising. It reflects what economists call the labeling problem. Congress has been very careful over the years to label most of its liabilities “unofficial” to keep them off the books and far in the future.
295,000 Deaths :950 Natural Disasters in 2010
By: Munich RE
Jan. 3, 2011 – Several major catastrophes in 2010 resulted in substantial losses and an exceptionally high number of fatalities. The overall picture last year was dominated by an accumulation of severe earthquakes to an extent seldom experienced in recent decades. The high number of weather-related natural catastrophes and record temperatures both globally and in different regions of the world provide further indications of advancing climate change.
Altogether, a total of 950 natural catastrophes were recorded last year, nine-tenths of which were weather-related events like storms and floods. This total makes 2010 the year with the second-highest number of natural catastrophes since 1980, markedly exceeding the annual average for the last ten years (785 events per year). The overall losses amounted to around US$ 130bn, of which approximately US$ 37bn was insured. This puts 2010 among the six most loss-intensive years for the insurance industry since 1980. The level of overall losses was slightly above the high average of the past ten years.
“2010 showed the major risks we have to cope with. There were a number of severe earthquakes. The hurricane season was also eventful – it was just fortunate that the tracks of most of the storms remained over the open sea. But things could have turned out very differently”, said Torsten Jeworrek, Munich Re’s Reinsurance CEO. “The severe earthquakes and the hurricane season with so many storms demonstrate once again that there must be no slackening of our efforts to analyze these risks in detail and provide the necessary insurance covers at adequate prices. These prices calculated by the insurance industry make it possible to assess the economic consequences of these otherwise difficult-to-evaluate risks.”
Major catastrophes dominate the list of losses
In all, there were five catastrophes last year assignable to the top category of “great natural catastrophes” based on the definition criteria of the United Nations: the earthquakes in Read more…
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