Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Silent spring for Mongolia after historic drought and brutal winter kills herds

  By Jargal Byambasuren, Lucy Hornby, and Tyra Dempster; Editing by Sanjeev MiglaniWed May 12, 2010 9:38am EDT DUNDGOBI, Mongolia (Reuters) – The winter camps of southern Mongolia are quiet during this year’s breeding season, after an unusually harsh winter wiped out herds and left nomadic families with little but debt to their name. The […]

East Africa's lions poisoned with common pesticide

  By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comMay 11, 2010 Eight lions have been poisoned to death in a month in Kenya, according to conservation organization WildlifeDirect. Locals, frustrated by lions killing their livestock, have taken to poisoning the great cats using a common pesticide in Kenya called carbofuran, known commercially as Furadan. Last month in Amboseli National […]

Poachers kill one of the last Javan rhinos in Vietnam

  By Lee Poston, lee.poston@wwfus.orgMay 10, 2010 WASHINGTON, DC, May 10, 2010 – A Javan rhino was found dead late last week in Vietnam’s Cat Tien National Park, further endangering the population of one of the world’s rarest large mammals, World Wildlife Fund announced today. It is now uncertain how many, if any, Javan rhinos […]

Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin withered under historic drought

By TOM ARUP AND BEN CUBBYMay 12, 2010 JUST 25 per cent of flood plains in the Murray-Darling Basin were inundated with water during the devastating drought that gripped the nation during the past decade, detailed environment modelling by the CSIRO has found. The long-term effects of the lack of water means that the ecological […]

Sydney covered by smoke from prescribed burns

By BEN CUBBY ENVIRONMENT EDITORMay 12, 2010 SYDNEYSIDERS were told to stay indoors or don masks, and about 25 people were treated for breathing problems as clouds of bushfire smoke unfurled across the city. A rogue breeze drove smoke from hazard reduction burning in the Blue Mountains down to street level yesterday. Westerly winds had […]

Global warming fears seen in obsessive compulsive disorder patients

The Royal Australian and New Zealand Collage of Psychiatrists’ Congress at SkyCity Convention Centre in Auckland brings together mental health experts in a diverse range of areas; from children and adolescents to old age, mental health across the lifespan will be discussed. Here are some highlights from this morning’s program. Global warming fears seen in […]

More river water sent into marshes to fight oil

The Associated PressTue May 11, 2010, 03:00 PM CDT New Orleans, La. – Enough Mississippi River water to fill the Empire State Building every half hour is now rushing into southeast Louisiana wetlands in an attempt to stave off the advance of oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill. Most is pouring in through sets […]

Image of the Day: BP Oil Spill Viewed From Orbit, 10 May 2010

Yesterday’s MODIS/Terra satellite image has some of the usual complications – clouds, haze, and turbidity again may be obscuring portions of the slick. Observable slick and sheen covers 4,683 square miles (12,129 km2). Thicker, fresh-looking oil is apparent in the vicinity of the leaking well, and still appears to be entrained in a counterclockwise gyre […]

Graph of the Day: Projected Oil Spill Path to 14 May 2010

Weather conditions today permitted aerial dispersant application but vessel skimming and in-situ burning operations were halted. Over 1.1 million feet of boom have been placed and drilling continues on the relief wells.  Due to the complications with the first experimental containment dome an alternative structure is being developed. The alternative is called a “top hat”. […]

Dead dolphins wash up on Ship Island

By The Associated Press May 11, 2010, 5:07PM SHIP ISLAND, Miss. — Federal wildlife officials are treating the deaths of six dolphins on the Gulf Coast as oil-related even though other factors may be to blame. Blair Mase (MACE’) of the National Marine Fisheries Service said Tuesday that the carcasses have all been found in […]

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