Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Graph of the Day: Methane Fluxes Venting to the Atmosphere from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf

Summertime observations of dissolved CH4 in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) (21). … (D) Fluxes of CH4 venting to the atmosphere over the ESAS. Remobilization to the atmosphere of only a small fraction of the methane held in East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) sediments could trigger abrupt climate warming, yet it is believed that […]

Madagascar traders ready $50m shipment of illegally logged rainforest timber

www.wildmadagascar.orgMarch 02, 2010 Traders in Vohemar, a port in northeastern Madagascar, are preparing to ship $54 million worth of timber illegally logged from the Indian Ocean island nation’s rainforest parks, report local sources. Some 270 containers are being loaded with valuable hardwoods cut during a logging frenzy that ensued following a military coup nearly a […]

Japan won't comply with bluefin tuna ban

  Reporting by Yoko Nishikawa; Editing by Paul Tait Thu Mar 4, 2010 8:39am EST TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will not comply if a total ban on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna is imposed, a government official was quoted as saying on Thursday, as support grows for the unprecedented trade halt. Bluefin tuna is […]

Common weedkiller turns male frogs into females

  By Maggie Fox, Health and Science EditorWASHINGTONWed Mar 3, 2010 3:36pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday. The experiment is the first to show such complete effects of atrazine, which had been known to disrupt hormones […]

Rare tiger cub found in China dies of malnutrition

By CARA ANNA (AP) BEIJING — A rare Siberian tiger discovered near the Russian border seemed an auspicious beginning to China’s Year of the Tiger, but within days, the emaciated cub had died of malnutrition. The cub, believed to be about 1 year old, was already in poor shape just after it was found on […]

The Crude in Syncrude: ugliness at the tar sands duck trial

  By Josh MogermanSenior Media Associate, Chicago Posted March 3, 2010 You want to know just how tone-deaf the tar sands industry and their Big Oil backers are? Yesterday, in a trial over the death of 1600+ ducks that had landed in a toxic mining runoff lake, lawyers for the Canadian tar sands company Syncrude […]

The dark side of nitrogen

By Stephanie Ogburn, 4 Feb 2010 2:00 PM …To see nitrogen’s ill effects up close head to the mid-Atlantic coast and visit the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary. Once the site of a highly productive fishery and renowned for its oysters, crabs, and clams, today the bay is most famous for its ecological ruin. […]

Road salt and cars produce extreme water contamination in Frenchman's Bay

Contact: Eleni Kanavasekanavas@utsc.utoronto.ca416-208-5103University of Toronto (University of Toronto) The levels of contamination to water and sediment in Frenchman’s Bay in Pickering, Ontario, greatly exceed provincial water quality standards, in some cases by as much as 250 per cent, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. This is largely due […]

Taiwan fears increased typhoon danger with global warming

By Staff WritersTaipei (AFP) March 1, 2010 Global warming is raising the danger from typhoons, Taiwan experts warned Monday, saying the island may be hit in a year or two by a powerful storm like the one which killed more than 700 last August. Typhoon Morakot dumped a record 3,000 millimetres (120 inches) of rainfall […]

Image of the Day: Will polar bears make it back to shore?

By Louise Gray, Environment CorrespondentPublished: 12:40PM GMT 02 Mar 2010 The future looks bleak for this polar bear and her cub huddled on a rapidly shrinking iceberg 12 miles out to sea. The pair became stranded after climbing onto the chunk of ice during a expedition to hunt seals. Soon the ice floe shrank down […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial