More of Our Doomed Planet

Mon, 2 Feb 2009

Pregnant teen drink driver does a runner

Police pulled the girl over on Saturday night and she recorded a level of 766 micrograms per litre of breath – more than five times the legal limit for her age of 150mcg.

Earlier in the week she had recorded a level of 828mcg – six times the legal limit – after she was spotted driving erratically.

Drought warning as the tropics expand

Reichler says that the expansion of the subtropics is more feared than the widening of the tropical zone itself. While the tropical belt is hot and humid, the subtropics suffer from severe drought. The Sahara and Sahel are both subtropical regions.

Dancing asteroid spirals close to Earth

The Earth had company this week when an asteroid practically grazed the planet – passing by just 400,000 miles away. That’s less than twice the distance of the Earth to the Moon.