Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

World Food Programme to shut Somalia food centers

By Martin Plaut, BBC Africa analyst The World Food Programme (WFP) is closing 12 feeding centres for mothers and children in Somalia. The WFP says it has simply run out of money and now has to make cuts. The decision has been made despite the ongoing crisis in Somalia, and the WFP says the reductions […]

Warning as South Africa water dwindles

By Craig McKune South Africa has even less water than previously thought, a study has found. Scientists have warned that the country, with 98 percent of its surface water allocated for use, faces tough decisions as it becomes hotter and drier. But the Water Resources of South Africa 2005 study, the fifth of its kind, […]

World Bank estimates climate change to cost developing nations $100 billion a year

By Thin Lei Win BANGKOK (Reuters) – Developing countries will need to spend as much as $100 billion annually for the next 40 years to adapt to more extreme and severe weather changes, according to a World Bank study issued on Wednesday. The report said poorer countries would need to invest in large-scale infrastructure projects […]

Graph of the Day: Fannie Mae Serious Delinquency Rate, 1998-2009

From Calculated Risk:   Here is a hockey stick graph … Fannie Mae reported that the serious delinquency rate for conventional loans in its single-family guarantee business increased to 4.17 percent in July, up from 3.94 percent in June – and up from 1.45% in July 2008. “Includes seriously delinquent conventional single-family loans as a […]

Lethal fungus spreads to Southern bats

By Jenni Vincent, Journal staff writer, September 27, 2009 MARTINSBURG – It’s only been three years since White-nose syndrome was discovered in bats living in caves near Albany, N.Y., but the number of bats now believed to have this fungus has grown significantly and spread to other states such as West Virginia. U.S. Fish and […]

Seaweed invasion plagues France's pristine Brittany

Hillion, France (AFP) Sept 28, 2009 – Hillion is a picture-postcard Breton town with grey stone houses, a pretty granite church and long sandy beaches. But the seaside idyll has been ruined by mounds of rotting seaweed that have settled across swathes of France’s northwestern coast, giving off a potentially deadly gas. “It’s a never-ending […]

Middle East's most endangered bird threatened by hunting

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2009) — Conservationists trying to prevent the extinction of Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita are distraught that one of the last remaining wild birds in the Middle East has been shot by a hunter in Saudi Arabia, bringing the known wild Middle Eastern population of this Critically Endangered species to just four […]

Two meter sea level rise unstoppable: climate scientists

By Gerard Wynn OXFORD, England (Reuters) – A rise of at least two meters in the world’s sea levels is now almost unstoppable, experts told a climate conference at Oxford University on Tuesday. “The crux of the sea level issue is that it starts very slowly but once it gets going it is practically unstoppable,” […]

One fifth of Mediterranean dragonflies threatened with extinction

29 September 2009 | News – Press Release One fifth of Mediterranean dragonflies and damselflies are threatened with extinction at the regional level as a result of increasing freshwater scarcity, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Climate change and habitat degradation, due to the way land is managed, are also affecting the […]

Graph of the Day: Vegetation and Soil Carbon Removal from Atmosphere, 1850-2100

The free ecosystem service that has been buying us time may not last. Richard Betts, Mike Sanderson, Debbie Hemming, Mark New, Jason Lowe, Chris Jones, 4°C global warming: regional patterns and timing, 4 Degrees and Beyond Conference,  [pdf], p. 9 Technorati Tags: carbon sequestration,carbon dioxide,global warming,climate change

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