Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Melting sea ice drives walruses to Alaska shore

By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Thousands of walruses are congregating on Alaska’s northwest coast, a sign that their Arctic sea ice environment has been altered by climate change. Chad Jay, a U.S. Geological Survey walrus researcher, said Wednesday that about 3,500 walruses were near Icy Cape on the Chukchi Sea, some […]

Trawling damage to Northeast Atlantic ancient coral reefs

Untrawled L. pertusa interspersed with Mycale sponges standing erect to form a prominent reef at 200 m, Nordleksa, West Norway, May 1999. Lower edge of photograph ca. 2.5 m. Trawled L. pertusa grounds at a depth of 200 m in the Iverryggen area, West Norway, May 1999. Smashed coral fragments litter the sediment around a […]

Grizzly bears vanishing from Canada's Great Bear Rainforest

BELLA BELLA, British Columbia, Canada, September 9, 2009 (ENS) – It’s called the Great Bear Rainforest, but few grizzly bears have been seen on British Columbia’s north and central coast this year. Conservationists and bear viewing guides are blaming the disappearance of the bears on the overfishing of salmon, their main food source. “I have […]

Climate change to increase UV exposure at high latitudes

By Marlowe Hood and Richard Ingham (AFP) PARIS — Climate change will disrupt Earth’s precious ozone layer, boosting ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the deep southern hemisphere and reducing UV in far northern latitudes, a study warned on Sunday. By century’s end, UV levels in Antarctica could rise by up to 20 percent at seasonal peaks […]

North Korea: 8.7 million people face starvation

With no machines and all the livestock eaten, quiet lingers in rural areas of nation where 8.7 million face hunger By MARK MacKINNON, HYANGSAN, NORTH KOREA In a country where citizens are subjected to ceaseless propaganda telling them that they live in a socialist paradise, it’s the silence that tells the other side of the […]

North Sea cod 'doomed by climate change'

By Simon de Bruxelles Cod are doomed to disappear from the North Sea because of climate change and not just as a result of over-fishing, researchers have discovered. In the past 40 years the average temperature of the North Sea has increased by one degree centigrade with catastrophic effects on its delicate eco-systems. Species of […]

Graph of the Day: Calcification in Great Barrier Reef Coral, 1900-2005

This graph shows an overall decrease in the rate of calcification in Porites corals on the Great Barrier Reef since 1900. Since 1980, there has been a dramatic decrease in the calcification rate, which has been attributed to increasing acidification and increasing sea temperature stress. The light blue bands indicate 95 per cent confidence intervals […]

Tornado threat increases as Gulf hurricanes get larger

Atlanta (September 8, 2009) —Tornadoes that occur from hurricanes moving inland from the Gulf Coast are increasing in frequency, according to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This increase seems to reflect the increase in size and frequency among large hurricanes that make landfall from the Gulf of Mexico. The findings can be found […]

Extinction of bat highlights critical ecosystem failure

By TOM ARUP, ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT A LAST-DITCH effort to save the Christmas Island pipistrelle bat has failed, leaving the animal facing almost certain extinction. A dejected Lindy Lumsden from the Australasian Bat Society said a four-week trapping program to breed the endangered pipistrelle – endemic to Christmas Island – had failed to net a single […]

Indian villagers flee elephants

Hundreds of villagers have been forced to take shelter in camps in the Indian state of Orissa after repeated attacks by a herd of elephants. Seven people have been killed and several others injured in attacks by a herd of 12-13 elephants over the past few weeks in Kandhamal district. Over 2,500 people living in […]

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