Blogging the End of the World™
By Ben Raines, Press-RegisterUpdated: Monday, December 27, 2010, 7:29 AM While scientists initially speculated that exposure to oil might have weakened marsh plants and left them more vulnerable to a fungus now widespread in Alabama and Mississippi, some now suggest it is equally plausible that the oil may have acted as a sort of fertilizer, […]
By GRAEME SMITHPublished Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010 12:14AM EST ISLAMABAD — A terrifying kind of mathematics has become popular among aid workers, analysts and others who spend their lives tracking the fate of Pakistan. It’s a back-of-the-envelope calculation about how the country will get through the coming years without declaring bankruptcy: take the country’s foreign […]
By Erik Jensen and Daniel HurstDecember 29, 2010 THE worst floods in half a century have inundated towns across Queensland, forcing the evacuation of entire communities as dams larger than Sydney Harbour threaten to breach their banks. In Chinchilla, 300 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, the local hospital and at least 20 homes have been evacuated. […]
Faithful reader Warnwood was inspired by The Twelve Doomiest Stories of 2010 to create this neat montage: Another year, the warmest on record, and the evidence continues to mount that we are seriously fouling our own nest, permanently altering the relatively stable and mild climate conditions under which civilization arose and has flourished, and hitting […]
Desdemona’s quest against delusional hope won’t be won by presenting the cold, hard numbers alone. The right hemisphere of the brain must be engaged as well, and to this end Desdemona goes to great lengths to find dramatic images to enliven the numbers. Here are the most doom-laden photos of 2010, chosen by scale, impact, […]
Torrential rains across eastern Australia have left some towns flooded while the southern state of Tasmania has been hit by an unusual flurry of summer snow. The Associated PressDecember 27, 2010 SYDNEY — Torrential rains across eastern Australia have left some towns flooded while the southern state of Tasmania has been hit by an unusual […]
Most of the Chesapeake Bay fails to meet dissolved oxygen goals in the Summer. From 2007 to 2009, only 12 percent of the Chesapeake Bay had sufficient levels of dissolved oxygen in the summer. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) describes the Chesapeake Bay as “highly eutrophic,” meaning that it is highly susceptible to […]
Munich RE27 September 2010 Floods in central Europe, wildfires in Russia, widespread flooding in Pakistan. The number and scale of weather-related natural catastrophe losses in the first nine months of 2010 was exceptionally high. Two months ahead of the World Climate Summit scheduled for 29 November to 10 December in Cancún, Mexico, Munich Re emphasises […]
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 […]
