Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

High Country News founder marks 40th year in print with a prediction: ‘God won’t save us now’

By Ray RingFrom the August 20, 2010 issue of High Country News Lander, Wyoming — Ask Tom Bell, the man who founded High Country News 40 years ago, what keeps him going these days, and he rattles off a list of pills for dizziness, blood pressure and cholesterol, plus a diuretic and an antidepressant. “Don’t […]

Far from the sea, urban seagulls terrorise skies

  By Michael McCarthy, Environment EditorSaturday, 28 August 2010 Britain’s population of urban seagulls, the source of increasing complaints about dirt, health threats, noise and attacks on people, is now rising so fast that it may reach one million birds by 2020 if concerted action is not taken to manage the problem. The national population […]

Foreclosures of million-dollar-plus homes on the rise in California

The number of homes in the $1-million-and-up slice of the market that have become bank owned has tripled during the last three years in Los Angeles County, and the trend has shown little sign of slowing.   By Lauren Beale, Los Angeles TimesAugust 29, 2010 Foreclosure is blind. After the mortgage meltdown and the plunge […]

Massive coral bleaching in Indonesia

  A dramatic rise in the surface temperature of Indonesian waters has resulted in a large-scale bleaching event that has devastated local coral populations. Following a report of a bleaching incident in May, WCS-Indonesia dispatched a “Rapid Response Unit” of marine biologists to investigate. Their initial survey revealed that over 60 percent of corals have […]

Petermann glacier ice island drifts into Nares Strait

The ~250 square km Petermann floating ice “island” has drifted into Nares St. The drift out of Petermann fjord has been slow, as tides wash in and out and the berg was jammed in the fjord 20-25 August. Prevailing winds blowing toward the south will push the berg in that direction. Petermann Ice Island drifts […]

After thousands of years, Canada’s ‘majestic’ ice shelves disintegrating

By Margaret Munro, Postmedia News August 28, 2010 Canada is home to plenty of ice, but the ancient, undulating ice shelves on the north coast of Ellesmere Island are something special. For starters, the shelves are “beautiful landscapes,” says earth scientist John England, at the University of Alberta, who considers the “majestic” shelves in Canada’s […]

Pakistan town submerged amid fight to rebuild levees

BBC29 August 2010 Floodwater has submerged a town in the southern province of Sindh, and threatens another being used as a key staging post for flood relief workers. Sujawal, a town of some 250,000 people, has been submerged while people battle to save the nearby city of Thatta, reports say. Authorities are still trying to […]

Photo gallery: Hurricane Katrina

By Coburn Dukehart “Telling Their Stories: The Lingering Legacy of the Hurricane Katrina Photographs” is the title of a new exhibit at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans. The exhibit is an emotional and moving retrospective of the powerful images made in the aftermath of Katrina. The Legacy Of Hurricane Katrina Technorati Tags: hurricane,flood,North America,coastal […]

Graph of the Day: Onset Date of Spring Runoff Pulse in the US West

This graph shows trends in yearly dates of spring snowmelt onset in rivers throughout US West, based on U.S. Geological Survey streamgages. Reddish-brown circles indicate significant trends toward onsets more than 20 days earlier. Lighter circles indicate less advance of the onset. Blue circles indicate later onset. The changes depend on a number of factors […]

Forest-clearing fires double in Brazil as environmental regulations go unenforced — Twitter sensation ensues

www.mongabay.com August 27, 2010 The number of fires burning in Brazil has more than doubled compared with the same period last year. Surprisingly, the news has sparked a Twitter sensation, with more than 120,000 users “tweeting” messages with the hashtag “#chegadequeimadas” about the fires in a 48 hour window. The phenomenon emerged after analysis of […]

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