La Mode Verte
Environmental Awareness Through Media ProductionsArchive for South Dakota
US Hit by Deadly Heat-wave
www.bbc.co.uk 22nd July 2011
Parts of the central and eastern United States have been hit by a strong heat-wave, which has caused 22 deaths already. Temperatures have peaked at 39 degrees C (99F) and as much as 50% of the entire country is under heat advisory, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The heat-wave has been caused by an unusually durable ridge of high pressure that is causing the air to sink, compress, and heat up. Due to the aridity of the phenomenon, cloud formation is low reducing the amount of solar radiation reflected back up into the atmosphere. The humidity at ground level however makes it very hard for human sweat to evaporate easily, disrupting our natural cooling system. As well as human fatalities, livestock have been hard hit with 1,500 head of cattle reported dead in South Dakota alone. Other effects of the heat-wave include power cuts in New York and unhealthy levels of smog in Chicago. Heat is the number one weather related killer in the US, according to the NWS, with an average of 162 people dying every year because of it.
Jack Russell Chases a Cougar Up a Tree
www.telegraph.co.uk 13th November 2010
Quoted from source:
‘A 150lb mountain lion found it was no match for a Jack Russell terrier which trapped it up a tree on a farm in the US state of South Dakota. The dog’s owner, Chad Strenge, heard frantic barking near the family’s farm in Colman, Moody County. He discovered the large male lion, also known as a cougar, clinging to the top of a tree while the 17lb terrier Jack barked from the bottom. Mr Strenge used a shot gun to knock the mountain lion from the tree before he chased it – assisted by his dog Jack, and shot it dead. “He trees cats all the time,” Mr Strenge told The Argus Leader newspaper. “I suppose he figured it was just a cat.” Professor Jonathan Jenks, who tracks cougar migration patterns, said hunters usually required two or three hounds to chase mountain lions up trees. He said the cougar was probably not hungry enough to attack Jack. “It very well could have lost a territory and decided to take off from the Black Hills and head this way,” he told The Argus Leader. Arden Petersen, of the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks department, said that no charges would be filed for shooting the animal.People in South Dakota have the right to kill mountain lions which they feel are a threat to themselves, their livestock or their pets. The lion was taken to South Dakota State University, where it will be studied.
It is not the first time a potentially dangerous north American wild animal has been brought to heel by a family pet. In 2006, a ginger cat – also called Jack – chased a black bear up a tree in West Milford, New Jersey. When the bear eventually climbed down, Jack the cat chased it up another tree. The bear only escaped when Jack’s owner called him into the house.’
