Prolonged drought is final blow to small North Texas town – ‘It was like there was a fire drill and everybody left and never came back’

By Bill Hanna19 January 2014   MEGARGEL – When Debbie Wells purchased the Megargel High School campus in 2009, she didn’t realize she was becoming the caretaker for so much of the town’s history. Still inside the school that opened in 1927 are desks, yearbooks and old photos of students. Near the front entrance, the Megargel […]

Graph of the Day: Index of climate-change risk preparation

18 November 2013 (World Bank) – Disasters trap people into poverty, as indicated by the evidence from many countries. For example, following the 2011 drought, poverty levels in Djibouti returned to levels above those in 2002, indicating a loss of almost 10 years of development gains. Studies from rural Ethiopia and Andhra Pradesh, India, indicate […]

Japan whale poachers running out of steam – ‘The Nisshin Maru has resigned itself as unable to outrun the determination of the Sea Shepherd Fleet’

25 January 2014 (SSCS) – The Japanese whaling fleet has abandoned its plans to out-run the Sea Shepherd Fleet, with its factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru, slowing down to 12 knots after a 36 hour chase at full speed. At approximately 1300 AEDT today, the Nisshin Maru, flanked by the harpoon vessels, Yushin Maru and […]

50 doomiest stories of 2013

The doom of the biosphere accelerated as expected in 2013: global warming dished up record floods, storms, drought, and wildfires; poachers slaughtered endangered wildlife with impunity; the logging industry razed whole forest ecosystems inexorably; the fishing industry stripped the oceans of biomass. The usual. What surprised Desdemona was a startling shift in public attitudes about […]

The toll of the anti-vaccination movement, in one devastating graphic

By Michael Hiltzik20 January 2014 (Los Angeles Times) – Aaron Carroll today offers a graphic depiction of the toll of the anti-vaccination movement. (H/t: Kevin Drum.) It comes from a Council on Foreign Relations interactive map of “vaccine-preventable outbreaks” worldwide 2008-2014. A couple of manifestations stand out. One is the prevalence of measles in Europe […]

Entire family of pantropical spotted dolphins obliterated in the killing cove at Taiji, Japan – ‘Exhausted and panicked, the dolphins clung together and adults were seen protecting their young calves’

24 January 2014 (Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians) – Pantropical Spotted Dolphins January 24, 2014 An entire family of Pantropical Spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) was obliterated this morning in the killing cove. Despite worldwide media attention on Taiji, the dolphin killers continue to hunt, kidnap and murder dolphins. The killing is not limited to just one […]

Chevron blasted for ‘Rainforest Chernobyl’ and mob-like tactics to silence critics – ‘Despite losing a 20-year legal battle and receiving a $9.5 billion judgment against it, Chevron says it will never pay’

By Katie Rucke23 January 2014 (MintPress News) – The nonprofit organization Amazon Watch on Monday released a satirical video to draw attention to the threats Chevron has made to environmentalists, journalists, scientists and locals who have asked for the company to be held accountable for its destructive actions, and the company’s attempts to criminalize environmental […]

Orcas at the Olympics?

By GARY CHITTIM24 January 2014 SEATTLE (KING 5 News) – Northwest whale groups are outraged by reports that recently captured orcas may be on exhibit during the Olympic Games in Sochi. Paul Spong, Co-Founder of OrcaLab, a marine research facility in British Columbia, said there was a confirmed capture of seven orcas near Japan last […]

The Economist: European climate policy is worse than useless

25 January 2014 (The Economist) – Since climate change was identified as a serious threat to the planet, Europe has been in the vanguard of the effort to mitigate it. The policies it has adopted are designed with two aims in mind: to cut European emissions drastically and to push other big emitters into adopting […]

DC judge denies National Review and CEI’s motion to dismiss climate scientist’s defamation complaint – Defendants’ lawyers jump ship

23 January 2014 (Climate Science Watch) –  Accusing a scientist of conducting his research fraudulently is a factual allegation that can be proven true or false, not mere hyperbolic opinionating. If it is false it is defamatory, and if it is made with actual malice it is actionable. So said DC Superior Court Frederick Weisberg […]

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