Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Large animals in India face extinction even in protected areas

By David DeFranza  on 03.11.10 India has had a system of wildlife sanctuaries since 1928. Now, there are more than 500 in the country ranging from dedicated tiger and bird reserves to more general areas intend to protect habitats rich in biological diversity. Unfortunately, according to a new study, even these efforts may not be […]

Detroit: the last days

Detroit is a city in terminal decline. When film director Julien Temple arrived in town, he was shocked by what he found – but he also uncovered reasons for hope By Julien Templewww.guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 10 March 2010 20.00 GMT When filmmaker Roger Graef approached me last year to make a film about the rise and […]

Vietnam feels the heat of a 100-year drought

By Martha Ann Overland / Hanoi Thursday, Mar. 04, 2010 Every year, even at the peak of Vietnam’s dry season, when the Red River is at its lowest, Hanoi’s skilled captains manage to negotiate their flat-bottomed boats through its shallow waters. But this year, with a drought gripping the entire country and water levels at […]

Graph of the Day: SW Western Australia Rainfall, 1900-2007

Time series of rainfall in southwest Western Australia between May to July and between August to October. South-west Western Australia has experienced significant climate change since the mid-1970s which has impacted on surface water and groundwater yields, and water dependent ecosystems. Over central and northern parts of the project area, the mean annual rainfall has […]

Seal pups beached in ice-free Gulf of St. Lawrence

Pups seen on Quebec shores, as far north as Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula Last Updated: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | 1:24 PM ET The Canadian Press An exceptional lack of sea ice on the Gulf of St. Lawrence this winter has left seal mothers with few places to bear their young or to feed their pups. […]

Torrential rains in Australia desert cause 30-year floods

By NICKY PHILLIPSMarch 11, 2010 FOR most of the year Ethabuka Reserve, which abuts the Simpson desert in the far corner of western Queensland, is a dry, hostile place. But for the past week, since torrential rains fell across much of the middle of the state, the desert plains have looked more like an inland […]

U.K. imports insect species to tackle invasive plant

By John Platt For the first time in U.K. history, an alien species (meaning one that is not native to the area) will be let loose in the kingdom to combat the growth of another species–also introduced. Millions of sap-sucking psyllids (Aphalara itadori) will be imported into the U.K. to fight the Japanese knotweed (Fallopia […]

‘Doomsday’ seed vault sets record, over 500,000 samples

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Robin PomeroyWed Mar 10, 2010 7:12pm EST OSLO (Reuters) – A “doomsday” vault storing crop seeds in an Arctic deep freeze is surpassing 500,000 samples to become the most diverse collection of food seeds in history, managers said on Thursday. Set up on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard […]

Drought, agriculture, and pollution are rapidly destroying Kenya's Lake Naivasha

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comMarch 10, 2010 Heavily polluted and shrinking, Lake Naivasha is in dire trouble. Environmentalists say the cause is clear: flower farms. Some 60 flower farms line the entire lakeside, growing cut flowers for export largely to the EU. While the flowers industry is Kenya’s largest horticultural export (405.5 million last year) it […]

Venezuela drought reveals long-submerged town

By Charlie Devereux, Joshua Schneyer in Caracas; Editing by Cynthia OstermanPOTOSI, VenezuelaWed Feb 24, 2010 3:49pm EST POTOSI, Venezuela (Reuters) – For most Venezuelans, the El Nino-linked drought that has struck the country this year means inconveniences like power and water rationing. But for some, the extreme dry spell is stirring up bittersweet memories. The […]

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