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MADRID (AFP) – Underground fires have been raging for weeks in a wetlands area in southern Spain, sparked by the dry summer and the overuse of water for agriculture, an environmentalist said Tuesday. The Tablas de Daimiel National Park, fed by the Guadiana river, has been drying up since the 1980s, and some lagoons have already disappeared. In late August, hot dry weather caused the peat subsurface to catch fire, and plumes of smoke can be seen rising from the ground, said Jose Manuel Hernandez, head of the environmental organisation that looks after the park. "This is a new phenomenon...

Vast Peat Fire May Burn for Months in North CarolinaWillie Drye for National Geographic NewsJune 13, 2008 About 450 firefighters are battling a 40,000-acre (16,000-hectare) blaze in northeastern North Carolina that could burn for months unless the drought-stricken region gets a downpour. The fire, which was sparked by a lightning strike on June 1, is currently the largest active wildfire in the United States. Containing and extinguishing the fire is posing a unique challenge, because it is burning in highly flammable peatland. Peat is partially decomposed plant matter formed in wetlands that can be harvested as fuel. It can be...

Flat, scrubby, too wet to walk on but too dry to fish, Minnesota's vast peatlands have long been regarded as good for almost nothing, including sightseeing. But now, in an age of climate change, the bogs are the target of a security alert. Experts fear that a warmer climate will speed the decomposition of peatland vegetation, which has been slowly decaying for 4,000 years. Carbon is naturally released as a byproduct of that decomposition, and the addition of an untold amount would cause the climate to warm even faster than it already is. "Northern peatlands are the wild card in...

A BEACHCOMBER claims he has found ancient human footprints dating back 8,000 years, embedded in an ancient Welsh peat bed. Steve Maitland Thomas was walking on Kenfig Beach, Porthcawl, with his friend John Blundell, when they found a number of ancient size-eight footprints. He said, "We found the first on January 19, the day after storms had whipped up the sand revealing the bedrock below. The peat beds were formed from the floor of a vast forest, which once stretched right across the valley which now forms the Bristol Channel, until sea levels rose approximately 8,000 years ago." The next...

PETA protests circus in Spa CityDate: Aug 24, 2004 - 10:59 AM By PHILIP ELLISON Mountain Journal HOT SPRINGS - The People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals staged a peaceful protest Monday against Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. The protest, which occurred at the intersection of Grand and Central Avenues, featured model Wendy Girard laying on the ground clad only in pasties and a bikini bottom, shackled to a sign that read "Shackled, Lonely, Beaten". According to PETA volunteer Brandi Valladolid, the duo follows the circus to every venue it appears and protests the treatment of circus...

The old lignite skull ANOTHER MYSTERY SKULL... THIS TIME AN ANCIENT EUROPEAN WHICH, SAY FRANCOIS DE SARRE AND MICHEL GRANGER, COULD CHALLENGE THE OFFICIAL VIEW OF HUMAN ORIGINS. 0fficially, the origin of the first true Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) dates back 2.5 million years. Before this time lived other hominids whose bones cannot be confused with those of Homo's lineage. Against this background, we have the 2oo-year old enigma of an 'impossibly' ancient humanoid skull from the mining town of Freiberg, in Saxony, Germany, which, if verified, could be more than 10 million years old - far older than...