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The first documented evidence of the baffling disappearance of up to 90 per cent of snake colonies in five disparate spots on the globe has “large-scale implications” for humanity, a Canadian expert says.

And the “most obvious cause, intuitively, would be climate change,” biologist Jason Head of the University of Toronto, told the Star.

A recently published study in the journal Biology Letters involving painstaking research in England, Nigeria, Australia, Italy and France discovered eight species in 17 snake populations in those widely different climates that had “declined drastically,” said Dr. Christopher Reading, lead researcher for the study. “In some of the populations, the decline was 70 to 90 per cent,” Reading of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in Wallingford, England, told the Star. “This is the first documented evidence that some snake populations have declined. And the fact that it happened at all of the same time, irrespective of geography, indicates there is something at a higher level behind it.”

Provence & Cote d'Azur: 25 reported dead and fears more bodies will be found as massive clean-up operation begins in the Var After the flood Apocalyptic visions are continuing to emerge from the Var in the wake of the torrential rainfall that has been plaguing the region since Tuesday. The scenes are almost impossible to comprehend: battered cars floating down rivers that were just a few days ago normal village streets, residents surrounded by water and stranded on roofs and terraces waiting to be airlifted to safety, buildings destroyed. Most devastating of all: the death toll is rising. The number of dead now lies at 25, the majority of fatalities occurring to people travelling in vehicles. As the water starts to go down, there are fears that more bodies will be found. The situation was not helped this morning as further rain storms hit the worst affected areas, which includes Les Arcs, Draguignan, Roquebrune and Trans. The latest weather disaster to hit the region, the worst flood recorded since 1827, has already left a tragic trail of destruction and death in its wake. Among the victims; a Dutch woman in Fréjus who was swept away in a caravan being towed by her husband; a 19-year-old mechanic who was crushed inside his car in Draguignan; and an 18-month-old baby who was taken by the water from his mother's arms in Roquebrune. Damage to property has been extensive. With homes flooded and commercial buildings torn apart, normal life has come to a standstill in many places and the area resembles more a conflict zone than a popular holiday destination in the South of France. 25,000 homes were still without electricity today and schools, shops and offices remain shut. People are being strongly advised to avoid travelling in the region. The A8 may be open but many of the surrounding smaller roads have been closed and the trains continue to be severely disrupted. Yesterday, government leaders rushed to the disaster site. Brice Hortefeux, Minister of the Interior, in the Var yesterday afternoon, said that this was “an unprecedented disaster in the region.” Joining Hortefeux was Hubert Falco, France’s Secretary of State and the mayor of Toulon, the Var capital. President Sarkozy is expected to arrive in the area early next week. One million euros has been made immediately available, from national funds, for the recovery operation and more will be provided. This same sum was given to Nice and Cannes in the aftermath of the coup de mer in April and the situation this time around is seemingly far worse. It is almost incomprehensible that two “natural disasters” of this scale could occur in the region one so soon after the other. It highlighted for the second time in almost as many months how important it is to be well prepared for extreme weather conditions. As water filled and flooded streets quickly on Tuesday night, it is clear that many urban and residential areas are not designed to cope with heavy rainfall. Furthermore, it has been suggested that this kind of catastrophe can be exacerbated because a culture of risk simply does not exist in France. French senator, Bruno Retailleau, speaking at a press conference this morning, said that France must take better precautions against the risk of floods, which are the nation’s most common 'natural disaster'. He went on to say that the country has the tools to work with and the regulations in place to take preemptive measures against freak weather behaviour but that these are not used adequately. HM

Extreme heat wave in Africa and Asia continues to set all-time high temperature recordsA withering heat wave of unprecedented intensity and areal covered continues to smash all-time high temperatures Asia and Africa. As I reported earlier this week, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Chad, Niger, Pakistan, and Myanmar have all set new records for their hottest temperatures of all time over the past six weeks. The remarkable heat continued over Africa and Asia late this week. The Asian portion of Russia recorded its highest temperate in history yesterday, when the mercury hit 42.3°C (108.1°F) at Belogorsk, near the Amur River border with China. The previous record was 41.7°C (107.1°F) at nearby Aksha on July 21, 2004. (The record for European Russia is 43.8°C--110.8°F--set on August 6, 1940, at Alexandrov Gaj near the border with Kazakhstan.) Also, on Thursday, Sudan recorded its hottest temperature in its history when the mercury rose to 49.6°C (121.3°F) at Dongola. The previous record was 49.5°C (121.1°F) set in July 1987 in Aba Hamed.We've now had seven countries in Asia and Africa, plus the Asian portion of Russia, that have beaten their all-time hottest temperature record during the past two months. This includes Asia's hottest temperature of all-time, the astonishing 53.5°C (128.3°F) mark set on May 26 in Pakistan. All of these records are unofficial, and will need to be certified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). According to Chris Burt, author of Extreme Weather, setting six national heat records in one month is eight in one summer is unprecedented. The only year which can compare is 2003, when five countries (the UK, France, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein) all broke their all-time heat records during that year's notorious summer heat wave. Fortunately, the residents of the countries affected by this summer's heat wave in Asia and Africa are more adapted to extreme high temperatures, and we are not seeing the kind of death tolls experienced during the 2003 European heat wave (30,000 killed.) This week's heat wave in Africa and the Middle East is partially a consequence of the fact that Earth has now seen three straight months with its warmest temperatures on record, according to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. It will be interesting to see if the demise of El Niño in May will keep June from becoming the globe's fourth straight warmest month on record.