Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Severe food and water shortages in Kenya

SPECIAL REPORT BY XINHUA CORRESPONDENT DANIEL OOKO NAIROBI, (Xinhua) — The Kenyan government on Wednesday raised an alarm of severe food, water and energy shortages facing the east African nation. Prime Minister Raila Odinga told Parliament that over 10 million people are in urgent need of food assistance, noting that a very worrying situation and […]

Graph of the Day: Caught Seafood Per Person (Peak Seafood)

This graph presents only seafood caught by fisheries. Overall per capita seafood (or aquatic products, including freshwater fishes and invertebrates) therefore, will be maintained only if aquaculture picks up the slack. Pauly, D., Lectures to the 2003 class of the United Nations University Fisheries Training Program, Institute of Marine Research, Reykjavik, December 15-19, 2002 Technorati […]

Clouds appear to be big, bad player in global warming

From Climate Progress:   The best evidence is that the climate is now being driven by amplifying feedbacks (see Study: Water-vapor feedback is “strong and positive,” so we face “warming of several degrees Celsius”), most notably: The defrosting of the permafrost The drying of the Northern peatlands (bogs, moors, and mires). The destruction of the […]

Humans stealing meat from wild lions

By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News Lions in Cameroon are having their kills stolen from under their noses by hungry villagers, say conservationists. Incidences of such kleptoparasitism, the stealing of food from another, usually occur between top predators such as lion, hyena and cheetah. But people are increasingly getting in on the act, conservationists say. […]

Drought takes toll on Iraq revival efforts

  By Missy Ryan YUSUFIYA, Iraq (Reuters) – What was known as history’s fertile crescent, where lush farmland and abundant water gave rise to civilization, is today a dusty desert where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers crawl sluggishly toward the sea. Vast tracts of Iraqi farmland are cracked and barren, precious marshes have dried up […]

Climate change making aquatic organisms smaller

  ‘On left: microscopic photo of the spring diatom bloom with large organisms dominating. On right: warming of six degrees with smaller flagellates dominating.’ Image credit:IFM-GEOMAR, via PhysOrg.com I want to be careful not to exaggerate the significance of this work. That said, I find it disturbing to learn that a warming ocean selects for […]

New England salt marshes losing diversity

By Peter Lord A new study by researchers at Brown University finds that climate change is reducing the diversity of plants in New England salt marshes by causing a decline in small, flowering plants and allowing the spread of salt marsh grasses such as Spartina patens. The study, called “Experimental warming causes rapid loss of […]

Drought threat for Bangladesh as monsoon fails

Dhaka (AFP) July 21, 2009 – A delay to Bangladesh’s monsoon season is posing a severe risk of drought in the impoverished nation and threatening food supplies, officials warned Tuesday. Monsoon rains normally sweep Bangladesh from June to September and the South Asian country gets more than 75 percent of its annual rainfall during this […]

Warming climate threatens California fruit and nut production

ScienceDaily (July 22, 2009) — Winter chill, a vital climatic trigger for many tree crops, is likely to decrease by more than 50 percent during this century as global climate warms, making California no longer suitable for growing many fruit and nut crops, according to a team of researchers from the University of California, Davis, […]

Graph of the Day: Biomass Distributions for N. Atlantic Fish, 1900-2000

The Sea Around Us Project investigates the impact of fisheries on the world’s marine ecosystems. This is achieved by using a Geographic Information System (GIS) to map global fisheries catches from 1950 to the present, under explicit consideration of major critical habitats of fish, marine invertebrates, marine mammals and other components of marine biodiversity. North […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial