To my dear visitors and commenters

Hi, everybody! I've noticed with lots of joy and happiness, that thousands of comments have been written in my posts. It's wonderful that so may people around the world appreciate my work. Therefore, I want to thank you for that and ,at the same time I want to ask you to be this blog's followers. It's fast and easy! Make it be even more visited and spread all over the world! I'm a woman, a teacher of English in Portugal, and I've been away for quite a long time because of my father's health. Unfortunately he died from Covid19 a few months ago. Now I felt it was time to restart my activity in this and other blogs I owe. I've recently created a new one in a partnership with a street photographer, Mr. Daniel Antunes. He's fabulous! https://pandpbydandd.blogspot.com I'd like you to visit it and, who knows, become our followers. The poems, chronicles and thoughts are all mine. Thank you so much! Kisses :-)

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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Emissions of CO2 driving rapid oceans 'acid trip'

Matt McGrathBy Matt McGrath


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Typhoon wreaks havoc on agriculture with over a million farmers affected


Over one million farmers in the Philippines have been impacted by Typhoon Haiyan according to the UN.

coconut trees
The Typhoon destroyed many coconut plantations such as this one near Guiuan

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice have been destroyed.
Coconut plantations which are a big earner of foreign currency were said to be "completely flattened".
Fishing communities have also be severely affected with the storm destroying boats and gear.
The FAO says they have arrived at the figure of farmers affected by looking at the pathway the storm took as it passed across the country and from an analysis of data provided by the government.
"That area is the major rice producing area for the Philippines," FAO's Jeff Tschirley told BBC News.
"They've just finished their harvest and because it is not modernised production, they are still drying it but we suspect there is a lot of rice that is vulnerable to having been impacted by the storms."
Self sufficient
The farmers are also facing into the next planting season with much of their infrastructure such as irrigation equipment affected by the typhoon.
The Philippines has been importing less rice over the past five years, but the storm will have dramatically changed that.
"It will set them back on their goal of self sufficiency but more key is that those livelihoods will be pushed way back until they get restored irrigation infrastructure. That has been severely damaged in most cases," said Mr Tschirley.
As well as rice and sugar cane, the FAO is most concerned about coconut plantations.
Coconuts account for nearly half the Philippines agricultural exports and the country is the world's biggest producer of coconut oil. A smaller typhoon last year destroyed 500,000 tonnes.
"The sugar cane fields can be recovered relatively well even if the harvest is lost," said Jeff Tschirley.
"But numerous coconut plantations have been completely flattened, and with coconuts you are looking at multiple years to recover the productivity."
The FAO is is calling for $24m for immediate interventions in fisheries and agriculture as part of the UN appeal.

From BBC Sci/ Environment

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Huge huntsman spider found in UK bike warehouse

A giant spider common in Australia has been found in a UK BMX warehouse.

Huntsman spider

The seven-inch-long huntsman spider is believed to have been locked up for six weeks in a container from Taiwan.
Workers spotted the animal when unpacking boxes - and it's now been safely rehomed at a nearby zoo.
John Taylor, a BMX salesman at the warehouse, told Newsround: "We knew straight away that it wasn't a UK spider. We didn't want to kill it. We are happy that it is in a good home."
"We are talking about visiting him as a team," he said.
'Running around and jumping up'
Warehouse manager Joe Woodburn said: "It was as big as the palm of my hand. We managed to get it into a big plastic container where we kept it while we called the RSPCA.
"I thought it was plastic at first as it wasn't moving, but the minute it was in the sunlight it started to warm up and it was running around and jumping up the side of the box."
RSPCA inspector Zoe Ballard said: "I've never come across a spider like this before.
"I managed to secure the spider in the container and took it to the RSPCA's wildlife centre nearby... I was worried all the way that it would get out and escape in my van."
The spider has now been rehomed at Drusillas Zoo Park near Eastbourne.
RSPCA inspector Tony Woodley said: "Huntsman spiders can give you a nasty bite, but they aren't likely to cause too much harm unless you suffer an allergic reaction.
"They are not dangerous or aggressive, but can move extremely fast if disturbed. I am sure it would have given the guys in the warehouse a bit of a fright when they found it."
From CBBC newsround
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