8th October - Today's News: Logging Responsible for Indonesian Flood Deaths

Indonesia flood till rises to 110 - and there are strong suggestions now that this flash flood caused by illegal logging. Sadly, no surprise there then!

In Vietnam flood death toll reaches 48. Again, some of this may be attributable to deforestation, causing landslides and reducing uptake of moisture from the ground.

And there have been 130,000 evacuated due to flooding in S China island province of Hainan

On Wednesday, Arizona struck by four tornadoes in a single day

In South Africa, lightning kills man during the storm

NZ farmers have been warned of another snowy blast on the way again - their winter seems to be lingering on into spring just as ours did.

Human activities overload ecosystems with nitrogen - although it's also argued that there is insufficient nitrogen for plants to make beneficial use of increased atmospheric CO2. So a bit of a contradiction here maybe? Though of course, it's nitrogen in soil not nitrogen in rivers and seas that is needed.

This has got the climate change blogs a-buzzing as a new study suggests that decline in Sun's activity does not always mean that Earth become cooler - in fact it can lead to warming. This is the opposite I what is expected and raises interesting questions: does it mean 20th century warming can not now be attributed in any way to a more active sun? Why has their been no significant warming in recent years as solar activity has declined in the current 11 year cycle? And should we really be jumping to any conclusion at all given the brief period of this study. Let's perhaps wait for verification before we tear up the text books and leap off the climate cliff.

Tropical Storm Otto hits Caribbean

And down under the BoM warn that cyclone season could be the worst in 27 years.

The latest NOAA assessment that US experienced above average temperature, rainfall in September while in New Zealand, as well as it being cold, there was record rainfall in September.

Volcano fuels massive phytoplankton bloom - and calls into question whether seeding the oceans with iron to fuel plankton blooms will really make much difference to CO2 levels.

But what's the carbon footprint of a volcano? Not nearly as big as some would have you believe (I'm sure you all knew this, but the link is useful next time someone claims human emissions are negligible compared to volcanoes)