Die K-Files. Knuts Aussenposten im Indischen Ozean: Zwischen El Niño, La Niña und Klimaerwärmung...When disaster strikes...,

Nur wenige Monate ist es erst her, dass während der Überschwemmungen in Pakistan mehr als 1700 Menschen und mindestens 200 000 Nutztiere ihr Leben verloren haben. Betroffen von den Wassermasssen waren insgesamt 20 Millionen Menschen, viele wurden obdachlos und verloren durch zerstörte Ernten und Vieh ihre Lebensgrundlage. Für überlebende Tiere gab es häufig kein Futter, geschweige denn angemessene tierärztliche Versorgung.

Remember...just a few months ago - At least 200,000 cattle drowned during the tragic floods in Pakistan, which has claimed more than 1,700 human lives and affected more than 20 million people. Of those animals that survived, many were at severe risk and in desperate need of feed and veterinary care.

Bei Naturkatastrophen werden Tiere häufig vergessen in all dem Chaos. Dabei sind sie schlimmem Leid ausgesetzt. Oft ist ihre Umgebung zerstört, sie finden sich eingeschlossen, sie werden zurückgelassen oder sie finden kein Futter oder sauberes Wasser mehr. Auch bei Tieren gilt, dass jede Minute zählt, um sie zu retten.

When disaster strikes, animals can be forgotten in the chaos. Yet they still face terrible suffering. Their homes and habitats are often destroyed; they can become trapped or abandoned with no food or water and no one to care for them. To save animal lives, every minute counts.

Seit Wochen sehen wir immer mehr Regionen in Australien gegen die verheerendsten Überschwemmungen kämpfen, die je aufgezeichnet wurden. 35 Menschen verloren ihr Leben, manche sind noch vermisst. Wieveiel Tiere betroffen sind, kann noch gar nicht eingeschätzt werden. Die ersten Überschwemmungen gab es bereits um Anfang Dezember in New South Wales (NSW). Kängurus und Emus, die auf einer kleinen Insel am Lake Burrendong in der Nähe von Wellington lebten, mussten von dort evakuiert werden.

For weeks now we have been seeing more and more regions and communities in Australia fighting against the inundations, which are the worst in people's memory and ever recorded. 35 people lost their lives, some are still missing, until now it is not possible to say how many animals have been affected.

The first floods happened already in the beginning of December in New South Wales (NSW) .
Kangaroos and emus had to be rescued from Two Tree Island at Lake Burrendong near Wellington. Everything from tinnies to floaties was used to get them to dry land, says Australia's biggest wildlife rescue group WIRES. (full article)

Exkurs:Wenn das Wetter verrückt spielt...

Was die Überschwemmungskatastrophe in Pakistan, die Waldbrände in Russland, die Überschwemmungen im Dreiländereck Deutschland, Polen und Tschechien im letzten Sommer mit den jetzigen in Australien verbindet, ist vor allem das weiterhin aktive Wetterphänomen La Niña.

" Ursache der Überschwemmungen in Queensland waren die ergiebigsten Niederschläge seit Beginn der Wetteraufzeichnungen in dem Staat im Jahr 1900. Auch für diese Starkregen gibt es einen Grund: Die Gewässer rund um den fünften Kontinent waren so warm wie noch nie seit Aufzeichnungsbeginn. Entsprechend verdunstete mehr Wasser, das dann in Sturzbächen über dem Kontinent abregnete. Zugleich hatte sich die Oberfläche des Zentralpazifiks in einem großen Gebiet, das sich um den Äquator herum zwischen Indonesien und Südamerika erstreckt, stark abgekühlt.

Dies ist das charakteristische Muster einer „La Niña“. Das Wetterphänomen ist zusammen mit seinem Gegenstück El Niño Bestandteil der so genannten Pazifischen Dekadischen Oszillation (PDO). Sie entspricht einer Art Klimaschaukel mit zyklischen Erwärmungs- und Abkühlungsphasen im äquatorialen Pazifik, die sich über 20 bis 30 Jahre erstrecken können. Dazwischen liegen kürzere Schwankungen. Die letzte anhaltende Warmphase der PDO gab es von 1977 bis 1998, seither dominiert ein Wechsel von kurzen Erwärmungs- und Abkühlungsphasen das Klima.

BBC

Meist schlägt ein El Niño zügig in eine La Niña um. Dann bilden sich über dem Pazifik starke Luftdruck-Unterschiede aus. Sie bewirken, dass kräftigere Passatwinde wehen, die das warme Wasser an der Oberfläche von Südamerika nach Südostasien und Australien treiben. Vor der Küste Perus quillt dafür kaltes Tiefenwasser auf, das bis zu drei Grad Celsius unter der pazifischen Durchschnittstemperatur liegt. Die Auswirkungen dieser Wärmeumschichtung sind weltweit spürbar.

Zuletzt setzte im Juli 2009 ein El Niño ein, der bis Ende April 2010 anhielt. Er ging mit einem kräftigen Anstieg der Temperaturen im Pazifik einher, was dazu beitrug, dass 2010 zum neuen Wärme-Rekordjahr wurde. Seit Mai 2010 herrscht nun ein La Niña , das zu den ausgeprägtesten seit Aufzeichnungsbeginn zählt. Das hat Folgen. Denn je stärker das Temperaturgefälle zwischen den östlichen und westlichen pazifischen Gewässern ist, desto mehr Regen fällt an der australischen Nordostküste. Tatsächlich gab es dort ab dem zweiten Halbjahr 2010 extreme Niederschläge, während im Südwesten Australiens eine verheerende Dürre herrschte, wie sie noch nie beobachtet worden war." (Quelle)

Sheep after Australian wildfires in 2009

Causes

What links phenomena as last years heat waves and wildfires in Russia and the floods of Pakistan with the recent floods in Sri Lanka and Australia is the - since mid May 2010- ongoing weather pattern La Niña.

The "cold tongue" is also called the "freezing of the jet stream"/ BBC

"La Nina occurs when surface temperatures are cooler than normal in the eastern Pacific and warmer than normal in the western Pacific. Cold water rises up from the ocean's depths and collects off the west coast of South America. Pulled by strong easterly winds, the cool water surges westwards across the Pacific in the form of a 'cold tongue'. Warm water builds up and high pressure is trapped along the east coast of Australia and South-East Asia resulting in unusually heavy rainfall.

BBC

La Nina's effects are wide-reaching and varied and this season's La Nina has been described as one of the strongest in decades. Powerful easterly winds may have intensified the usual monsoon in Sri Lanka - but meteorologists say it is unlikely to have led to recent flooding and landslides near Rio de Janeiro."(source)

Stranded wallaby on 6.01.2011/Anthony Skerman AP

Hier ein längerer Auszug eines zusammenfassenden Berichts zur Situation Ende Dezember und Januar in Australien. Leider in englischer Sprache...-

Here part of a summarizing report about the devastation of the recent floods including wildlife, cattle and pets

FLOOD DEBVASTATION IN AUSTRALIA

Queensland, Australia is experiencing one of its darkest hours. Gripped by the worst floods in the country’s recorded history, Australia is fighting for survival. Major search and rescue operations are underway searching for dozens of missing people, mainly young children. The flooding began Christmas Eve, 2010. After weeks of pounding rain, many towns are reduced to sodden ruins. Late on 10 January 2011, the city of Towoomba was unexpectedly hit with an eight meter inland instant tsunami that went straight down the Lockyer Valley. The tsunami caused catastrophic damage and loss of life.

People on Rooftops, Fish on Highways and Snakes in Homes

Once beautiful and tranquil, the Lockyer Valley now resembles a war zone. Live fish were photographed on highways, more than 60 kilometers from lakes and streams. Areas underneath bridges have been photographed jammed tight with cars, dead horses, cattle, furniture, tractors and so on. Houses literally lifted off their foundations and floated away. Cars and trucks were picked up and rolled like dice. Snakes began filling people’s houses, searching out any dry area at all. People that had survived the raging floods were now being driven into raging water to escape poisonous snakes who were claiming their houses. (Australia is home to five of the world’s most poisonous snakes.)

January 2011 in Ipswich/Nick de Villiers

The raging muddy waters continued down through the state of Queensland, submerging the big city of Ipswich, then culminating in the capital city Brisbane. When it seemed impossible for things to get worse, the television stations reported bull sharks were swimming in the main street of Goodna, just outside Ipswich. Bull sharks are the most aggressive of all sharks and are common in some areas of the Brisbane River, but never in the main street of a city! Currently 16 people are dead, over 60 people are still missing and presumed dead, tens of thousands of homes are ruined, 120,000 homes are without power. Bodies are being found over 80 kilometers from where they were taken by the water.

Graphic footage of families clinging to rooftops with their pets under their arms is painful to view. Parents have been filmed tying “floaties” to their small children and floating them up to the rooftops, where they then tie their children to the crest of the roof line. Babies are filmed strapped into pump-up wading pools where they are also then tied onto roof crests. These are desperate actions by frantic parents to keep their children alive. Then they wait. Rescue helicopters are working day and night in horrendous conditions. Rescue pilots tell harrowing stories of women they have plucked from rooftops, after having had their babies ripped from their hands, with the force of surging torrents of water.

Animal Losses Are Catastrophic

Animal rescue services are also working day and night. When interviewed, they break down and weep. They are doing everything in their power to rescue every type of animal and relocate them to higher ground.

Australia prides itself on having prolific amounts of wildlife but unfortunately the number of animals in life-threatening circumstances far exceeds the number of emergency animal rescue people available. Animal losses are catastrophic in number. Hundreds of thousands of wildlife creatures have drowned and surviving ones have had their habitat destroyed. It will be decades before wildlife recover to their former numbers. Some species, like the Hairy Nose Wombat may even have become extinct due to these floods.

On Wednesday 12th January, the flood situation took another turn for the worse. The State’s capital city, Brisbane and its CBD sounded emergency beacons for all its residents to evacuate immediately. Within 12 hours the Brisbane River burst its banks and began swallowing street after street of residential housing and businesses alike. Thousands of people and their pets were thrown into chaos. Evacuations began Tuesday evening at an alarming rate; people fled to evacuation centers with just their pets. Brisbane is the third biggest capital city in Australia and was now facing being erased by a 22 meter surge of debris-filled raging flood waters!

The Brisbane RSPCA began flooding and sent out an urgent call for help needing foster housing for all their animals. At the same time Goodna Dog Shelter began flooding and needed urgent rescue of 70 dogs. Horse Rescue facilities were receiving panicked calls from distressed horse owners needing help. @AWLQ (The Animal Welfare League, Qld) drove to Brisbane and loaded up four trucks of cats and dogs and birds from the RSPCA and brought them back to their AWLQ facilities. They then assisted the Goodna Shelter evacuation as well. Horses and cattle were filmed swimming for their lives, trying desperately to cling to house rooftops, frantic to find a way to stand on submerged terracotta roofs. These same horse were rescued, treated by vets and are expected to make a good recovery. " (full article here)

Horse rescue video

Die große Frage ist, wieviele Tiere starben während der Überschwemmungen, es wird Wochen dauern bis das Wasser völlig zurückgegangen ist und bis man wirklich einen genauen Überblick hat....

And on the Animal rescue site you can read:

"It's currently expected that floodwaters will take many weeks to fully recede, and delicate ecosystems of scrub and grassland may not be able to withstand such a long time underwater. The loss of habitat is likely to be devastating for ground-burrowers and for smaller animals that are not able to get away from the flooding, including wallabies, quolls, and echidna. Flash-flooding may also endanger larger animals, both wild and domestic.

For animals who survive the floods, food will be difficult to find during a time when many species have young who are still dependent on them. Wildlife will need food and care for some time after floodwaters recede while their habitats recover.

But Ms Taylor said the biggest fear was that we just do not know how many animals have been killed in the floods.

“We just don't know what is going to be left after the floodwaters recede. Most of these animals were already under pressure of habitat loss, roadkill, hunting and development – populations were only just starting to recover after Australia's prolonged drought.”