A massive sandstorm swept across Belarus yesterday, turning day into night, creating travel chaos across the country. There's only one thing, Belarus is not located anywhere near a desert or arid region, where one might expect a raging sandstorm to occur!
In another glaring case of runaway climate change (which isn't happening, of course, as long as politicians can debate the truth and the media can manipulate data!), the blinding sandstorm settled over Minsk, the capital of Belarus, creating scenes from this week's edition of Apocalypse Now. Citizens began to panic, as many people were driving vehicles when the storm hit, which instantly darkened the streets and lowered visibility to near zero. The truly troubling factoid about all this is that the nearest deserts to Belarus are hundreds of kilometers away!
Is climate change causing the troubling increase of haboobs (the Arabic word for sandstorm)? The past few week's alone has seen a massive haboob sweeping across Saudi Arabia and Dubai. The dust and sand from these storms was even carried along by the winds to pollute the skies over Great Britain and France, creating "blood rains", with rain droplets being colored dark red by the sands from the desert. Pollution alerts were issued in both London and Paris, and non-essential vehicles were asked to stay off the roads. People with asthma and respiratory problems were advised to remain indoors.
China has seen four massive haboobs since the beginning of 2015 alone, and Australia has also been troubled by the phenomenon. Granted, both of these countries have vast arid regions, but the increase in the size, ferocity and frequency of these storms has undoubtedly increased over the past decade.
In another glaring case of runaway climate change (which isn't happening, of course, as long as politicians can debate the truth and the media can manipulate data!), the blinding sandstorm settled over Minsk, the capital of Belarus, creating scenes from this week's edition of Apocalypse Now. Citizens began to panic, as many people were driving vehicles when the storm hit, which instantly darkened the streets and lowered visibility to near zero. The truly troubling factoid about all this is that the nearest deserts to Belarus are hundreds of kilometers away!
Is climate change causing the troubling increase of haboobs (the Arabic word for sandstorm)? The past few week's alone has seen a massive haboob sweeping across Saudi Arabia and Dubai. The dust and sand from these storms was even carried along by the winds to pollute the skies over Great Britain and France, creating "blood rains", with rain droplets being colored dark red by the sands from the desert. Pollution alerts were issued in both London and Paris, and non-essential vehicles were asked to stay off the roads. People with asthma and respiratory problems were advised to remain indoors.
China has seen four massive haboobs since the beginning of 2015 alone, and Australia has also been troubled by the phenomenon. Granted, both of these countries have vast arid regions, but the increase in the size, ferocity and frequency of these storms has undoubtedly increased over the past decade.