In the Chelyabinsk region, road workers, removing snow from the central square, cut off the Eternal Flame.
“At the moment, the service organization is conducting an inspection and analysis of the damage, after which the time frame for restoration work will be determined,” commented the Troitsk administration.
The international charity Christian Aid has compiled a list of the 20 most costly climate disasters of the year. The organization's new report divides the total damage from each disaster by the population of the affected area to estimate the economic loss per person.
Topping the list are the shocking Hawaii wildfires in August, which killed at least 100 people and caused more than $4,000 in damages per person. Also on the list are May storms in Guam, which cost nearly $1,500 per capita, floods in New Zealand, drought in Spain and forest fires in Chile.
Experts are calling 2023 the “year of climate collapse” and blaming the extreme events on a “failure to quickly transition away from fossil fuels.”
Consequences of a hurricane in Hawaii (Lahaina city)
For example, warmer air can hold more moisture, which means more rain and flooding. Storms also become more intense as warmer sea surface temperatures increase wind speeds. Warmer conditions increase the risk and severity of wildfires.
August wildfires in Hawaii killed at least 100 people and caused more than $4,000 in damages per person.
Forest fires in Hawaii
To compile the report, the total damage from each disaster was divided by the population of the affected area to estimate the economic burden per person. This method allows for a more individualized look at the impact of a natural disaster, emphasizing the financial burden on ordinary citizens rather than just the overall economic loss.
According to the charity, the highest per-person cost of natural disasters came from the wildfires that engulfed Hawaii in August. These wildfires cost an average of $4,161 per person, more than any other climate-related weather event of the year. It's also nearly three times the total cost of the next event on the list, Guam's tropical storm in May ($1,455 per person). Within 15 hours, super typhoon Mawar struck the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. The ferocious hurricane killed two people, destroyed buildings, knocked out utility lines and uprooted trees.
Christian Aid noted the high prevalence of storms on the list, which is "likely to increase due to climate change." The top five also included a storm in Vanuatu in March ($947 per person) and a February storm in New Zealand ($468 per person).
For 15 hours, from May 23 to 24, super typhoon Mavar tormented the island of Guam. Wind speeds reached 65 m/s, and it was the strongest tropical storm on Guam in decades
This powerful image of Cyclone Freddy was taken on the afternoon of February 19 by a NASA satellite.
But in poorer countries such as Malawi, resilient buildings are less common and fewer households have the financial reserves to allow people to recover from such a disaster.
The report quotes Mofolo Chikaonda, a 69-year-old widow from southern Malawi, as saying: “The worst negative impact of Cyclone Freddy, which I will never forget in my entire life, was the destruction of the only house we had worked so hard to build.”
Experts say climate-related events are killing more people in the poorest countries.
It also means that recovery is slower and more uneven, with many people falling deeper into poverty as their assets are destroyed or damaged.
Record rainfall hits New Zealand's largest city, causing widespread destruction
Flooded area as a result of heavy rains in northern Italy in the Emilia-Romagna region on May 26
“There is no clear consensus in climate science about whether climate change is affecting the frequency and intensity of earthquakes,” the report says. “The particular event may be an example of a long-term historical pattern rather than a result of climate change.”
The 20 most costly climate events of 2023
Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, renowned in his field, that creates temporary landscape art installations out of sticks and stones, and anything and everything else that he finds outside. The son of a mathematician, Goldsworthy grew up working on farms before eventually getting his BA from what is now the University of Central Lancashire. “A lot of my earth art is like picking potatoes,” he told the Guardian. “You have to get into the rhythm of it.”
Much of Goldsworthy’s land art is transient and ephemeral, leading many to view it as a comment on the Earth’s fragility. But for Goldsworthy, the picture is more complicated.
“When I make something, in a field, street or altering the landscape, it may vanish, but it’s part of the history of those places,” he says in another interview. “In the early days, my work was about collapse and decay. Now some of the changes that occur are too beautiful to be described as simply decay. At Folkestone, I got up early one morning ahead of an incoming tide and covered a boulder in poppy petals. It was calm, and the sea slowly and gently washed away the petals, stripping the boulder and creating splashes of red in the sea. The harbor from which many troops left for war was in the background.”
Scroll down below for a look of Andy Goldsworthy’s art; it sure is one of a kind, beautiful for its short-timed qualities and absolutely unique art.
More info: Amazon | goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk
Kyoto in the 1970s was a city on the brink of transformation. While it had always been known for its ancient temples, shrines, and traditional architecture, the ’70s saw the city modernizing at an unprecedented pace. Even so, Kyoto managed to maintain its unique charm and sense of history. Here are some highlights and fascinating tidbits from the Kyoto of yesteryear:
The ’70s saw a unique blend of old and new in Kyoto’s food and beverage scene. While traditional tea houses continued to serve matcha and Japanese sweets in serene settings, modern cafes began to emerge, offering Western-style coffee and pastries. It wasn’t uncommon to see a centuries-old tea house nestled beside a trendy new cafe, creating an interesting juxtaposition that remains a hallmark of Kyoto to this day.
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| Astronaut John L. Swigert, Jr., Apollo 13 Command Module Pilot, holds the “mailbox,” a makeshift device used to purge carbon dioxide from the Lunar Module that played a significant role in saving the doomed astronauts lives. Apollo 13 Hasselblad image from film magazine. |
During the course of the Apollo space program astronauts were charged with enduring unknown perils, conducting science experiments, piloting spacecraft, walking on the surface of the moon, and comprehending sights, sounds, and physical stresses never before experienced by humans. All the while, they were also asked to snap a couple thousands photographs of practically every moment with a modified Hasselblad camera.
Last Friday, for the first time ever, NASA uploaded the entire catalogue of 8,400 Apollo mission photos to Flickr spanning Apollo 7 (the first manned test flight in 1968) through Apollo 17, the final lunar mission in 1972. The effort to bring the photos online was lead by Kipp Teague of the Project Apollo Archive who first began scanning camera film magazines on behalf of the Johnson Space Center in 2004.
While we’re all used to seeing the more iconic photos like Blue Marble, the Apollo 11 bootprint, or this image of Buzz Aldrin, this random assortment of mundane moments and blurry horizons seems to highlight the humanity of the entire endeavor. Collected here are a few of our favorite shots, and you can see thousands more organized by mission on Flickr. Digg and PetaPixel also have collections of their favorites.
Born 1950 as Barbara Lynn Klein in New York City, Barbi Benton began to model at the age of 16, and at age 18 took a job with Playboy to appear on their entertainment show Playboy After Dark. She appeared on the cover of Playboy four times: July 1969, March 1970, May 1972, and December 1985. Though she was featured in a number of photo-essays, she was never a Playmate of the Month. She landed a spot on television’s Hee Haw doing short comedy sketches, and subsequently enjoyed a career as a country singer.
Montreal is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of
Quebec and the second-most populous municipality in Canada.
The city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which got its name from
the same origin as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands,
the largest of which is Île Bizard. It has a distinct four-season
continental climate with warm to hot summers and cold, snowy winters.
Montreal is the second largest primarily French-speaking city in the
developed world, after Paris. It is situated 196 km (122 mi) east of the
national capital Ottawa, and 258 km (160 mi) south-west of the
provincial capital Quebec City.
Montreal is considered one of the most liveable cities in the world, and
the best city in the world to be a university student in the QS World
University Rankings.
Take a look at these fascinating photos to see what street scenes of Montreal looked like in the 1950s.
Montreal street scene
A woman smelling some flowers offered by a vendor at the Bonsecours market
Bank of Montreal
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| Bonsecours Market |
Château Ramezay
Clark Street
Dorchester Blvd and Drummond Street
Dorchester Boulevard
Fruit Market in front of Victor Poultry Co.
Guests at Les Palais des Nains "The Midgets Palace"
Horse and carriage in front of Peel Tavern
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| Montreal street scene |
Montreal street scene
Montreal street scene
Mount Royal Park
Mount Royal Park
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| Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal |
Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal
Notre-Dame Street East
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| Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel |
Plaza Saint-Hubert
Quai de l’Horloge
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| Rue de la Commune |
Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal
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| Saint-Catherine Street |
Saint-Sacrement parking lot
The Montreal courthouse
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| The Monument at Maisonneuve and the Notre-Dame Basilica |
View from 18th floor of Montreal General Hospital
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| Viger station |
