NEW YORK, 21 December 2010 (AP) — The world’s biggest gas-guzzling nation has limits after all. After seven decades of mostly uninterrupted growth, U.S. gasoline demand is at the start of a long-term decline. By 2030, Americans will burn at least 20 percent less gasoline than today, experts say, even as millions of more cars […]
By Darryl Fears, Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, December 21, 2010; 10:59 PM The killing season has begun. Hordes of bats recently flew into abandoned mines and caves across the region for their annual winter hibernation – and more than likely, wildlife biologists said, tens of thousands won’t fly back out. A flesh-eating fungus has stalked […]
By Kamrul Hasan Khan (AFP)24 December 2010 CHAR PALIAMARY, Bangladesh — Bangladesh’s rivers have provided for fisherman Rafiqul Islam’s family for generations but a few years ago the 27-year-old noticed his nets were coming up empty. This year, Islam was forced to leave his small fishing community in northern Mymensingh district to find work, an […]
By John DuceDec 23, 2010 7:55 PM PT Hong Kong will record the worst year for roadside pollution since the city started collecting readings in 1999, according to calculations made by Bloomberg based on government data. Roadside smog reached “very high” or “severe” levels on the city’s air pollution index, triggering government health warnings, at […]
By OLIVER MOORE, Globe and Mail UpdateThursday, Dec. 23, 2010 9:48PM EST At its peak, the George River herd was a spectacle to rival Serengeti migrations. Huge numbers of caribou swept through Labrador each winter, providing native groups with a crucial source of food and cultural identity. Less than 20 years ago, the herd was […]
Haiti “the worst big story of the year” Sometimes the myopia startles even Desdemona. Top Headlines of 2010 Technorati Tags: oil spill,oil production,Gulf of Mexico,North America,Pakistan,global warming,climate change,flood
Free-market economist Stefan Karlsson asks the question on his blog and gets reposted by the usually level-headed Christian Science Monitor. Of course, for anybody even slightly acquainted with climate science, the answer is an obvious, ”Yes, and how.” Since Karlsson doesn’t allow comments on his blog, Desdemona is forced to reply here. Karlsson asks: What […]
By Chandni Rathod and Gus LubinDec. 14, 2010, 4:15 PM The hottest market in the hottest economy in the world is Chinese real estate. The big question is how vulnerable is this market to a crash. One red flag is the vast number of vacant homes spread through China, by some estimates up to 64 […]
By John PlattDec 21, 2010 04:50 PM When the Bornean clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) was first identified as its own species in 2006, it was almost instantly added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species as “vulnerable” to extinction. Just four years later evidence out […]
December 22, 2010 — Billfish and tuna, important commercial and recreational fish species, may be more vulnerable to fishing pressure because of shrinking habitat according to a new study published by scientists from NOAA, The Billfish Foundation, and University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. An expanding zone of low oxygen, known […]
