Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Rising ocean acidity may deplete vital phytoplankton

Iron-poor oceans may cause populations of phytoplankton — a critical base of the marine food chain — to decline.  By Jessica Marshall | Thu Jan 14, 2010 09:55 AM ET Rising acid levels in the world’s oceans appear to be robbing the tiny animals that form the bedrock of the marine food web of a […]

Harare faces serious water shortages

By GETRUDE GUMEDE, Published: Wednesday January 13, 2010 ZIMBABWE – HARARE – WATER supplies for Harare and surrounding satellite towns could be cut by 15 percent following the imminent temporary shutdown of Prince Edward Water Treatment Plant until the Manyame River starts flowing. Harare City Council might be forced to close Prince Edward Water Treatment […]

The ecological ruin of Kalimantan’s peat forests

By TOM ALLARD, KALIMANTANDecember 14, 2009 A BOAT trip down the wide brown waters of the Kapuas River and the canals that flow off it, crisscrossing the hinterland of Central Kalimantan, makes for a depressing tour. What was once one of the world’s great swamp peat forests is a tangle of weeds and burnt trees. […]

Poachers set to cash in on Year of the Tiger

By MATT WADE HERALD CORRESPONDENTDecember 18, 2009 RANTHAMBORE, Rajasthan: India’s wild tigers already compete for survival with nearly 1.2 billion people. But conservationists warn that a new threat looms – the Chinese New Year. February 14 marks the start of the Year of the Tiger and there are fears this will fuel the illicit trade […]

British anglers ordered to throw back every salmon

By Auslan CrambPublished: 11:40AM GMT 15 Jan 2010 The catch and release policy will operate on the River Tay from January to the end of May, with other conservation measures in place for the rest of the summer and autumn. The radical measure has been introduced by the Tay District Salmon Fisheries board after a […]

Video: Logging intensifies in the Mau forest

NTVKenya — As the government prepares for that massive tree planting exercise to save the Mau, indiscriminate felling of trees continues in parts of Mau unabated. Our cameras captured the latest logging activities inside the contentious water catchment area. Tree felling intensifies in the Mau Technorati Tags: deforestation,Kenya,Africa,freshwater depletion,drought,global warming,climate change,climate refugees

Graph of the Day: Antarctic Ice Mass Loss, 2002-2009

The continent of Antarctica has been losing more than 100 cubic kilometers (24 cubic miles) of ice per year since 2002. Measurements from the Grace satellites confirm that Antarctica is losing mass 11. Isabella Velicogna of JPL and the University of California, Irvine, uses Grace data to weigh the Antarctic ice sheet from space. Her […]

Tundra burns as Arctic warms

The treeless ecosystem of mosses, lichens, and berry plants is giving way to shrub land and boreal forest. As scientists study the transformation, they are discovering that major warming-related events, including fires and the collapse of slopes due to melting permafrost, are leading to the loss of tundra in the Arctic. By Bill Sherwonit During […]

Asian carp breach electric barrier, close in on Lake Michigan

By CARYN ROUSSEAUThe Associated PressWednesday, January 13, 2010; 8:24 AM CHICAGO — DNA from the invasive Asian carp has been found closer to Lake Michigan than ever before, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday, renewing fears that the fish have breached an electrical barrier meant to keep them from reaching the Great Lakes […]

Invasive tilapia feed on Fiji's native fish

ScienceDaily (Jan. 13, 2010) — The poster child for sustainable fish farming — the tilapia — is actually a problematic invasive species for the native fish of the islands of Fiji, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups. Scientists suspect that tilapia introduced to the waterways of the Fiji […]

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