Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Tourists ‘threatening dingo extinction’

(AAP) Tourists feeding and teasing dingoes on Fraser Island could lead to the extinction of the native dogs, an environmental group says. With the Easter holidays approaching, visitors to the island need to be sent a message by the Queensland government that there will be zero tolerance for those who attract or harass dingoes, said […]

Rejected trade ban ‘sounds death knell’ for bluefin tuna

  By MICHAEL CASEY, with Andrew Darby and agencies March 20, 2010 DOHA: Fishing nations have voted down environmentalists, with a US-backed proposal to ban export of the Atlantic bluefin tuna overwhelmingly rejected at a UN wildlife meeting. The decision has been described as the end for the species. The US and European Union, which […]

EPA report: Streams near mining toxic

By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writerMarch 15, 2010 CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Water quality downstream from surface coal-mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky greatly exceeds recommended toxicity limits, according to previously unreleased sampling data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA scientists found toxicity levels as high as 50 times the federal guidelines in water […]

Graph of the Day: Chinook Salmon Landings on the U.S. West Coast, 1950-2007

Landings refer to the amount of catch that is brought to land. Chinook salmon landings are most often reported in terms of numbers of individual fish. Numbers of fish caught are sometimes converted to estimates of weight, but this is primarily for the purpose of quantifying the economic value of the commercial catch. Salmon managers […]

Diversion of California water to save salmon ‘scientifically justified’

By Michaael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — Controversial cuts in water deliveries to central California farms to protect endangered fish appear to be “scientifically justified” but still in need of further study, scientists have concluded in a report to be issued Friday. In a politically sensitive study, the National Research Council determined two federal […]

Monarch butterfly migration: ‘We've never seen it this bad before’

By BILL HANNA, billhanna@star-telegram.com Monarch butterflies, hit hard by strong storms at their winter home in Mexico, have dwindled to their lowest population levels in decades as they begin to return to Texas on their springtime flight back to the United States and Canada. The monarch loss is estimated at 50 to 60 percent and […]

Unusually heavy rains in U.S. South force paper company to ship moth-infested wood

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Months of heavy rains throughout the South are forcing International Paper Co. to look beyond its usual suppliers for wood for its central South Carolina mill and turn to places that are known to have tree-destroying gypsy moths. The extensive steps federal regulators are requiring the company to take to make sure […]

New Jersey latest U.S. state to raid carbon auction funds

NJ moves $65 mln from climate fund to general fund – money came from Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) – New Jersey has become the latest state in a regional cap-and-trade market on greenhouse gases to take money meant to support clean energy programs […]

Most coal-fired power plants still spewing toxic mercury

By Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — Many of America’s coal-fired power plants lack widely available pollution controls for the highly toxic metal mercury, and mercury emissions recently increased at more than half of the country’s 50 largest mercury-emitting power plants, according to a report Wednesday. The nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project reported that five […]

Melbourne breaks record for days above 20°Celsius

By ADAM MORTONMarch 19, 2010 MELBOURNE’S temperature has topped 20 degrees for the past 100 days straight, the longest stretch of its type in more than 150 years of measurement. Yesterday’s maximum of 31 degrees continued a run of 20-plus degree days that began on December 9 last year. It has smashed the record of […]

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