Rio Olympic water worse than thought, viral equivalent of raw sewage – Athletes who ingest three teaspoons of water have 99 percent chance of infection

By Brad Brooks2 December 2015 RIO DE JANEIRO (Associated Press) – Olympic sailor Erik Heil floated a novel idea to protect himself from the sewage-infested waters he and other athletes will compete in during next year’s games: He’d wear plastic overalls and peel them off when he was safely past the contaminated waters nearest shore. […]

Global warming could cause extinction of oxygen-producing ocean phytoplankton – ‘This would likely result in the mass mortality of animals and humans’

1 December 2015 (University of Leicester) – Falling oxygen levels caused by global warming could be a greater threat to the survival of life on planet Earth than flooding, according to researchers from the University of Leicester. A study led by Sergei Petrovskii, Professor in Applied Mathematics from the University of Leicester’s Department of Mathematics, […]

Paris climate summit: Survey reveals ‘greenwash’ of corporate sponsors – Artists respond with 600 unauthorized ads

By Arthur Neslen and Emma Howard1 December 2015 (The Guardian) – A survey of 10 sponsors of the Paris climate summit has found that most do not publish data on their CO2 emissions, half don’t track their lifetime carbon footprint, and only one is reducing its emissions in line with the EU’s targets. Full details […]

Conspiracy theorists in Congress launch Benghazi-style investigation of NOAA climate scientists – AAAS leads coalition of thousands of scientists in protest

By Amanda Marcotte30 November 2015 (Salon) – It may not roll off the tongue easily, but it’s time to verb-ify the word “Benghazi.” To Benghazi someone would mean to subject someone who is clearly innocent of wrongdoing to months and even years of punitive “investigation” in the faint hope that you can turn up a […]

Quotes: World leaders call for action at climate conference

30 November 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – Nearly 150 leaders of 195 countries met today in Paris for the COP21 U.N. climate change conference. It’s the largest climate conference in history and the largest conference ever held in France. Yesterday, more than 700,000 people marched in climate change protests in 175 countries. Longtime Desdemona readers will […]

Graph of the Day: Thyroid cancer incidence in children and adolescents from Belarus after the Chernobyl accident, 1986-2002

21-23 February 2014 (IAEA) – The objective of this workshop was to develop a state-of-the-art scientific understanding of radiation-induced thyroid cancer, and to share knowledge and experience in this area in order to support the efforts of the Japanese government and the Fukushima Prefecture to enhance public health. Experience in holding effective social dialogues, in […]

COP21 liveblogs from Paris: Follow the global warming conference as it unfolds

29 November 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – The COP21 climate conference starts tomorrow, and it’s no exaggeration to say that it will define the human response to abrupt, anthropogenic climate change for decades. Will the world do what’s necessary to minimize the slow-motion technogenic catastrophe that we call “global warming”? Follow the action as it happens: […]

New NASA study shows Brazil’s drought deeper than thought – Southeast losing 56 trillion liters of water in each of the past three years

By Chris Arsenault 30 October 2015 TORONTO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – New satellite data shows Brazil’s drought is worse than previously thought, with the southeast losing 56 trillion liters of water in each of the past three years – more than enough to fill Lake Tahoe, a NASA scientist said on Friday. The country’s most […]

As scientists worry about rapidly warming world, U.S. public doesn’t – ‘If the American population were left to lead on the issue of climate, it’s just not going to happen’

By Seth Borenstein3 November 2015 WASHINGTON (Associated Press) – Americans are hot but not too bothered by global warming. Most Americans know the climate is changing, but they say they are just not that worried about it, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. And that is keeping […]

California drought leaves migratory birds high and dry – ‘In back-to-back droughts, even the strong birds get pushed to the limit’

By Karen Graham     7 November 2015 (Digital Journal) – The Pacific Flyway is a major north-south flyway for migrating birds, extending from Alaska down to Patagonia. California is part of the flight path, and the state’s extended drought in now threatening the health of these travelers. In the northern part of California’s Central Valley is […]

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