Oymyakon in Siberia is the coldest permanently inhabited town on Earth. In 1964 they recorded a temperature of -71?C (-96?F).
What is wiping out all the frogs?
What is wiping out all the frogs? A special task force has been set up by the U.S.
government to investigate the decline of the frog population and to
determine whether humans are also in danger. Ron Heyer of the
Smithsonian Institution believes that something unusual is
happening to the world's frogs. Entire species of frogs have been
wiped out in Costa Rica, in Central America and in Canada. It is
believed that ultraviolet radiation, climate changes and chemicals
are causing deformities that interfere with reproduction. Dr Heyer
believes that this decline is a way of telling scientists that
something has gone wrong in the habitat that we share. The decline
was first brought to the attention of officials when schoolchildren
in Minnesota began to bring home frogs with terrible deformities.
It is believed that the most significant cause of the deformities
is airborne chemicals from pesticides and herbicides that are blown
across the Sierra Nevada mountains. This cause of the deformities
has not been proven, but areas with the most contaminants have seen
the most decline. Other causes which have not been ruled out are
the introduction of fish into lakes where they do not naturally
occur, disease and a type of fungus that can kill some types of
frogs. An internet site has been set up so that citizens can help
collect data by reporting deformed amphibians. It can be reached at
http://www.frog-web.gov. The U.S. government has proposed an
increase of $8 million for the studying of amphibian
decline.
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