Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Graph of the Day: Global Mean Temperature Projections to 2100

This graph shows projected global warming under business-as-usual and reduced-emissions scenarios. World starts to act on climate change Technorati Tags: global warming,climate change,carbon dioxide,carbon reduction

Thousands flee western Canadian wildfires

  VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Emergency crews made slow progress Sunday to contain wildfires that have forced thousands of residents of a western Canadian community to flee their homes. … Wind and dry conditions were fueling the large blazes that broke out Saturday in the rugged hills along Okanagan Lake west of the city […]

Graph of the Day: California Warehouse Vacancy Rates

…Nearly 16% of office space in Los Angeles County is sitting vacant as tenants close up shop or move out of expensive properties. Nearly a third of the space around up-market Playa Vista sits empty; office buildings in the Inland Empire and parts of Orange County are completely vacant. … Commercial brokers are swimming in […]

Neurotoxin pervades food supply

By Brandon Keim One of the most comprehensive analyses yet of human exposure to PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, shows that the chemical — long used in everything from computers to sleeping bags — enters humans through their diets, not just their household. “The more you eat, the more PBDEs you have in your serum,” […]

Graph of the Day: SE Michigan Building Permits and Demolitions, 1989-2009

Southeast Mich. construction permits in ’08 see sharpest decline in 50 years Christina Stolarz / The Detroit News It’s no surprise that the region’s housing market has taken a hit. But for the first time since 1981, the permits for new home construction were outstripped by the number of units torn down. On top of […]

Global oil, gas projects delayed in 2009

July 16 (Reuters) – Following is a list of some of the oil and gas projects and oil refinery expansion plans that have been delayed or cancelled so far in 2009. The global financial crisis, falling oil demand, a slide in prices and poor general market conditions have prompted many in the industry to scale […]

Monsoon rain too late for sugarcane, rice

By Himangshu Watts and Mayank Bhardwaj NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s monsoon delivered above-average rains last week for the first time this season but the worst dry patch in more than 80 years has already hit rice and sugarcane crops. It has also depleted India’s reservoirs, choking hydropower supply and boosting fuel demand as farms, […]

Rhino poaching rises sharply due to Asian demand for horns

  Rhino poaching rates have hit a 15-year-high as a consequence of demand for horns for use in traditional medicine, according to new report published by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. Asia-based criminal gangs run the illegal trade. “Illegal rhino horn trade to destinations in Asia is driving the killing, with growing evidence of […]

Malaysia tigers poached nearly to extinction

Malaysia is losing its battle to save its dwindling population of wild tigers, a conservation coalition warned Wednesday after a series of raids that netted tiger carcasses and bones. “It is clearly time to admit that we are fast losing the battle to save our tigers to an army of smugglers and poachers intent on […]

Credit Suisse, UBS, BNP Paribas to finance razing of rainforests for palm oil

Swiss banks, Credit Suisse and UBS, together with the French BNP Paribas, are helping Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources raise up to 280 million Swiss francs ($258 million) to finance conversion of large areas of rainforest in New Guinea and Borneo for oil palm plantations, reports the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), a group that campaigns on behalf […]

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