Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

How algae ‘enslavement’ threatens freshwater bodies

  By Staff WritersAug 19, 2010 Jerusalem, Israel (SPX) Aug 19, 2010 – How toxic, blue-green algae out-compete other organisms through a form of selfish “enslavement” – and by so doing proliferate dangerously in freshwater bodies – has been described by a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In general, the increasing occurrence of […]

Cape Cod waterways face pollution crisis — ‘It looks beautiful, but it’s all dead underneath’

By KATIE ZEZIMAPublished: August 17, 2010 ORLEANS, Mass. — Rising nitrogen levels are suffocating the vegetation and marine life in saltwater ponds and estuaries on Cape Cod, creating an environmental and infrastructure problem that, if left unchecked, will threaten the shellfishing industry, the tourist economy and the beaches that lure so many summer visitors. More […]

Now Britain and Iceland go to war over the mackerel

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs CorrespondentWednesday, 11 August 2010 The European Union could impose trade sanctions against Iceland or stop its ships from entering EU ports in an emerging “mackerel war”. In an echo of the 1970s “Cod War” when British gunboats were sent to ward off Icelandic trawlers in disputed waters, the EU has […]

BP / Gulf spill: 172 million gallons of oil, 11.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas

SkyTruthWednesday, August 18, 2010 Scientists vehemently disagreed with the brief report issued by the federal government on August 4 that some interpreted as evidence that most of the oil spilled from BP’s Macondo well was … gone. Researchers at the University of Georgia issued their own report yesterday, claiming that nearly 80% of the oil […]

Purse seine fishing plummeting New Zealand tuna supply

By Michael Morrah Mon, 16 Aug 2010 6:45p.m. Conservationists are calling on the Government to support the closure of high sea fisheries in the Pacific to industrial fish netting. Two areas have already been closed because of concerns about illegal fishing and plummeting tuna stocks. Now island nations are trying to do more to stop […]

Image of the Day: Indus River Flooding Viewed from Orbit, 17 August 2010

Indus River, 18 August 2009   Indus River, 17 August 2010   Caption by Michon Scott18 August 2010 By mid-August 2010, some 20 million people in Pakistan had been affected by the intense monsoon rains, according to news reports. Roughly a fifth of the country was underwater, and extensive damage to agricultural lands was expected […]

Attempts to tame Indus River contributed to disaster in Pakistan

By ROBERT MACKEYAugust 18, 2010, 6:57 pm In a radio interview broadcast on Wednesday, Daanish Mustafa, a scholar who studies the intersection of development and water resources, told the BBC that attempts to tame the Indus River, beginning during British rule in the 19th century, laid the foundations for the deadly floods that swept Pakistan […]

Russian forest fires pose major threat to bats

Bonn (Germany), 18 August 2010 – The catastrophic wildfires that have swept across Russia this summer have killed at least 50 people and could cost the country’s economy an estimated US$15 billion. But among the hidden victims of the fires are small, nocturnal animals that are fast losing their habitats. Russia’s bat population – which […]

Graph of the Day: Sea Ice Area in the Northern Route of the Northwest Passage, July 2010

Early clearing in the Northwest Passage Stephen Howell, Tom Agnew, and Trudy Wohlleben from Environment Canada report that sea ice conditions in the Northwest Passage are very light. Ice is still present at the mouth of the M’Clure Strait, in central Viscount-Melville Sound, and in Larsen Sound, as of early August. As a result, neither […]

Indonesia zoo kills hundreds of animals

By Sapa-AFPAug 16, 2010 12:47 PM Neglect and infighting between the management of Indonesia’s largest zoo cost the lives of hundreds of animals, including a rare Sumatran tiger over the weekend, an official says. “The deaths of the animals were a result of neglect in the zoo as the officials were busy fighting over who […]

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