Environment

After destroying hundreds of buildings and forcing the evacuations of more than 200,000 people, the seven discrete wildfires ravaging Southern California finally receded over the weekend as the powerful Santa Ana winds that had fanned the flames earlier in the week died down. But firefighters early Sunday warned that the battle is far from over, as the progress made in containing the flames might soon be undone when the powerful Santa Aana winds return on Sunday.

Images of charred palm trees and the burnt-out husks of multi-million-dollar homes flooded social media for a fifth day Friday as the SoCal wildfires that exploded into life at the beginning of the week showed no signs of slowing.

Instead, some of the largest fires have entered the heart of Los Angeles – America’s second largest city – and are menacing some of the most expensive homes in the country.

Authored by Zainab Calcuttawala via OilPrice.com,

Tesla is not the only one bringing electric engines to cargo transport.

China just launched its first all-electric cargo ship, which will travel 50 miles at a top speed of 8 miles per hour on a single charge. Though it will be able to carry 2,200 tons of cargo with every haul, that battery capacity is barely enough to fulfill any transatlantic shipments. It will take just two hours to recharge, which is about as much time the vessel needs to unload at a destination.

At least four devastating wildfires continued to ravage Southern California from Ventura County south to Los Angeles, as the stifling smoke and flames drove tens of thousands of people living in the Los Angeles area from their homes in an eerie replay of the fires that decimated Northern California’s wine country two months ago.

Large numbers of North Korean fishing boats are washing up along the Japanese coast, some of which have contained decaying corpses.

Winds and water currents push dozens of boats onto Japan's northern coasts annually. Rickety North Korean fishing boats are particularly vulnerable because they lack the sturdiness and equipment to return home.

 

 

But the alarming pace over the past few weeks has prompted Japanese authorities to step up patrols.