Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Studies show danger of even small amounts of lead in children’s blood

Levels well below the CDC ‘threshold’ are linked to kidney damage and other harmful effects. By Tammy Worth, March 8, 2010 High doses of lead have for some time been linked to chronic kidney damage. But a recent study out of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center found that even small levels of lead exposure may be […]

Dolphin-safe tuna not very green

By Kelsey Munro, March 6, 2010 MORE than 20 years after the campaign to get dolphin-friendly tuna into shopping bags, supermarket shelves are still stacked with tuna that has been fished unsustainably. That’s according to Greenpeace’s new report card on the canned tuna brands in supermarkets. John West ”lacks credibility”. Sirena is ”one of the […]

Growing low-oxygen zones in oceans worry scientists

By Les Blumenthal, McClatchy Newspapers – Sun Mar 7, 12:01 pm ET WASHINGTON — Lower levels of oxygen in the Earth’s oceans, particularly off the United States’ Pacific Northwest coast, could be another sign of fundamental changes linked to global climate change, scientists say. They warn that the oceans’ complex undersea ecosystems and fragile food […]

Australia storm ‘catastrophe’ to cost hundreds of millions of dollars — weekend deluge will bring weeks of flooding

By NICKY PHILLIPSMarch 9, 2010 A HUGE body of water that has caused widespread flooding in south-western Queensland is on its way south and is expected to cause extensive flooding in NSW over the next two months. Meanwhile, the damage bill from wild weather in Melbourne at the weekend is expected to come to hundreds […]

Record-breaking rain and hailstorms wreak havoc across southern New South Wales

By  PAUL BIBBY AND NICKY PHILLIPSMarch 8, 2010 EMERGENCY services were forced to evacuate 120 people from a town in southern NSW, and the army was called in to help protect properties at nearby Wagga Wagga, as record rains wreaked havoc across the region. The rising torrent in Kyeamba Creek forced the inhabitants of Ladysmith […]

India water availability in 2050 less than half of 2001 levels

By Staff WritersNew Delhi (AFP) March 8, 2010 India faces a water crisis with availability in decline and demand rocketing, and the profligate agricultural sector is in the firing line. Farmers’ wasteful use of water is unsustainable in a country with a fast-growing population and rapidly industrialising economy, says Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. […]

Graph of the Day: Himalaya Snow Cover Trend, 1990-2001

Trend in annual linear snow cover (% per decade) from 1990 to 2001 as obtained from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) EASE Grid weekly snow cover and sea ice extent dataset (Armstrong and Brodzik, 2005). Trend is based on a least-square linear fit. February 03, 2010Julie Chao 510-486-6491  JHChao@lbl.gov   The fact that […]

World's nature ‘becoming extinct at fastest rate on record’

The world’s animals and plants are being killed off by humans faster than new ones can evolve, for the first time since dinosaurs became extinct, experts have warned. Speaking ahead of two next week on the state of British and European wildlife, Simon Stuart, from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, admitted that […]

Tide of acid-ocean fear rolls over oyster industry

As the Bluff oyster industry watches for hopeful signs of recovery, oyster fishers in the US are witnessing cause for concern, Craig Welch, of The Seattle Times, reports. The collapse began rather unspectacularly. In 2005, when most of the millions of Pacific oysters in this tree-lined estuary failed to reproduce, the shellfish growers of Willapa […]

Arctic melt to cost up to $24 trillion by 2050: report

Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Eric WalshWASHINGTONFri Feb 5, 2010 6:08pm EST (Reuters) – Arctic ice melting could cost global agriculture, real estate and insurance anywhere from $2.4 trillion to $24 trillion by 2050 in damage from rising sea levels, floods and heat waves, according to a report released on Friday. “Everybody around the […]

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