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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

BOOK BITS - THE TBILISI, GEORGIA, WEATHER CATASTROPHE - ZOO WILD ANIMALS ON THE LOOSE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FLOODED CITY - Haven't we read it already on Kim Stanley Robinson's Trilogy Forty Signs of Rain?

Otter3.jpg©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot.  Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/06/book-bits-tblisi-georgia-weather.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
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Image result for book review forty signs of rainAbout ten years ago science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson published his trilogy "Forty Signs of Rain," "Fifty Degrees Below," and "Sixty Days and Counting".

On these novels he describes the chaotic effects of abrupt planet cooling in the city of Washington DC.  There are floods, freezing temperatures, and escaped zoo animals on the loose.   Animals adapt.  So do people.  These books are intelligent and thrilling.   They are fun to read. 
 
Reality is something else altogether.

The plight of enslaved, caged animals in zoos
 
Unfortunately many of them are in even greater danger in the wild, due to human cruelty and greed.
 
  
Tbilisi, Georgia - Hundreds of animals have been killed or have disappeared as a result of a massive river flood that caught the city by surprise.  Some animals have been murdered by authorities to prevent them from attacking the human population.  A few large carnivores are still on the loose, and only yesterday a man was attacked by a hungry white tiger. 
 
Apocalyptic: A tranquilized hippo is pushed along the street in Tbilisi after escaping from the zoo during flash floods in the Georgian capital which allowed dozens of wild animals to run amok across the city
The iconic picture of a hippo that managed to escape the flood
and survive in the streets of Tbilisi.
 
See more images of this disaster

 
Residents of Tbilisi were being urged to stay indoors until authorities can track down all of the dangerous animals that escaped from their pens 
A time of freedom and confusion before he was taken to safety.

Rescuers carry a large crocodile to safety after it was found under a pile of wood and debris in Tbilisi following heavy floods in the Georgian capital
Saving a tranquilized crocodile that was found
under a pile of wood and debris

A zebra and other animals stand on a hill outside the zoo that has been turned into a 'hellish whirlpool' and left Tbilisi on lock-down 
A zebra and other animals stand on a hill outside the zoo,
having managed to save themselves

 A bear tries to escape from the rising and rapid flood waters by clambering on top of debris after it broke free from Tbilisi Zoo when the animals' pens were destroyed by the water 
 Bear tries to escape.  No details about his fate,
since so many large carnivores were simply shot by authorities.

 The white tiger believed to be involved in the attack is seen in its enclosure at Tbilisi Zoo (file picture)
The beautiful white tiger who is believed to have attacked a man. 


'Liquidated': The Interior Ministry later said the tiger had been killed, with pictures showing what officials claimed was the culprit being stretchered away from the scene by municipality workers 
Murdered.


A rescue worker tends to the body of a lion near to a flooded area of the zoo in Tbilisi after a deluge of heavy rain and wind overnight 
A dead lion.  Shot?

A pool of blood lies next to the body of a dead bear as workers build burials as a major clean-up operation started today
Bears.  Died in the flood, or most likely were shot by authorities.

A man takes pictures on his camera of the bodies of two bears lying face down in the mud after animals escaped from Tbilisi zoo




Cars and debris are seen floating along the once busy streets of Tbilisi which has been turned into wasteland by the freak weather 
The aftermath:  A city covered in mud and debris.
Over a dozen humans killed.  Homes destroyed.

Photos from Daily Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3124318/Please-don-t-shoot-animals-unless-attacking-man-Flooded-Tbilisi-zoo-begs-police-not-kill-escaped-beasts-despite-warnings-getting-hungry.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3126681/Crocodile-rescued-muddy-wreckage-Georgian-zoo-human-tragedy-continues-rescuers-woman-s-body-apocalyptic-floods.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3127854/Escaped-white-tiger-flooded-Georgia-zoo-KILLS-man.html


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MORE BOOK BITS ON THIS BLOG

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Outline of Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain, the first book in the trilogy, by Publishers Weekly

In this cerebral near-future novel, the first in a trilogy, Robinson explores the events leading up to a worldwide catastrophe brought on by global warming.
 
Each of his various viewpoint characters holds a small piece of the puzzle and can see calamity coming, but is helpless before the indifference of the politicians and capitalists who run America.
 
Anna Quibler, a National Science Foundation official in Washington, D.C., sifts through dozens of funding proposals each day, while her husband, Charlie, handles life as a stay-at-home dad and telecommutes to his job as an environmental adviser to a liberal senator.
 
Another scientist, Frank Vanderwal, finds his sterile worldview turned upside down after attending a lecture on Buddhist attitudes toward science given by the ambassador from Khembalung, a nation virtually inundated by the rising Indian Ocean.
 
Robinson's tale lacks the drama and excitement of such other novels dealing with global climate change as Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather and John Barnes's Mother of Storms, but his portrayal of how actual scientists would deal with this disaster-in-the-making is utterly convincing. Robinson clearly cares deeply about our planet's future, and he makes the reader care as well. 
FYI: Robinson's Mars trilogy ( Red Mars, etc.) received one Nebula and two Hugo awards.
Source - http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-553-80311-2

More information on writer Kim Stanley Robinson
http://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/

Other books by Kim Stanley Robinson
https://www.sfsite.com/lists/ksr.htm



 Sixty Days and CountingFifty Degrees Below

Red Mars
Green Mars

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