Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Rain swamps Sydney's water catchments

Sydney’s catchments have been swamped in rain, bringing some of the best falls in up to four years. The rain-starved Warragamba only this week posted yet another drop in capacity and is now about 50.9 per cent, Martin Palmer, meteorologist with The Weather Company, says. Huge falls around the Central Tablelands on Friday, as bands […]

Amazon rainforest ‘is very close to a tipping point’

The Amazonian apocalypse is just around the corner, according to scientists gathered at the conference launching the International Year of Biodiversity. By Stephen Leahy PARIS, Feb 1 (Tierramérica).- The Amazon forest “is very close to a tipping point,” and if destruction continues, it could shrink to one third of its original size in just 65 […]

Tibet temperatures highest ever recorded, rainfall at record low

(China Daily) LHASA: The “roof of the world” is getting warmer. The average temperature in the Tibet autonomous region was 5.9 C last year, 1.5 C higher than normal and a record high in almost four decades, latest figures from the regional climate center showed. The 2009 climate report, issued by the center yesterday, was […]

Russia 'dumped waste in Baltic'

Sweden wants explanation on Baltic nuclear ‘dumping’  By Damien McGuinness BBC News, Riga  The Russian military allegedly dumped nuclear waste into the Baltic Sea in the early 1990s, according to a report on Swedish television. Radioactive material from a military base in Latvia is thought to have been thrown into Swedish waters. For many the […]

Ireland snails face extinction

By John Platt Poor water quality and habitat loss are driving Ireland’s terrestrial and freshwater snails, along with related species into extinction, according to new research by the National Biodiversity Data Center (NBDC), a three-year-old organization established to study that country’s biodiversity. The study (pdf) of nonmarine Irish mollusks found that of 150 species, one […]

Arctic climate change ‘is happening much faster than our most pessimistic models expected’

By Rod NickelWINNIPEG, ManitobaFri Feb 5, 2010 7:32pm EST WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – Climate change is transforming the Arctic environment faster than expected and accelerating the disappearance of sea ice, scientists said on Friday in giving their early findings from the biggest-ever study of Canada’s changing north. The research project involved more than 370 scientists […]

Graph of the Day: All Published Himalaya Glacier Mass Balance Measurements, 1960s – 2000s

The graph shows all published Himalaya-Karakoram (HK) measurements; they are more negative after 1995 than before. The map shows where the measurement sites are. Mass balance varies greatly year to year; these are series averages. Boxes suggest estimated uncertainty. The apparent trend is less uncertain than any one measurement. The data indicate either accelerating loss […]

Gov. Perdue asks Georgians to make water conservation commitments ‘that we have never asked of them before’

By Tom Baxter and Dick Pettys February 4, 2010 — Georgians will be called to a new “culture of conservation” under water legislation outlined Wednesday by Gov. Sonny Perdue, struggling in the twilight of his term to find a solution to the long-running water dispute with neighboring Florida and Alabama. At a news conference Wednesday […]

Michigan continues turning paved roads to gravel

Associated Press • February 2, 2010 More Michigan counties are returning stretches of previously paved roads back to gravel to save money. The County Road Association of Michigan said Tuesday that 35 miles were returned to gravel in 2009. Thirty-eight counties have combined to pulverize about 100 miles of pavement and lay down gravel in […]

Climate change causes wolverine decline across Canada

  By Matt WalkerEditor, Earth News The wolverine, a predator renowned for its strength and tenacious character, may be slowly melting away along with the snowpack upon which it lives. Research shows wolverine numbers are falling across North America. Their decline has been linked to less snow settling as a result of climate change. The […]

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