Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Indigenous leader Paulo Paulino Guajajara photographed in September 2019. He was hunting on 1 November 2019 inside the Arariboia reservation in Maranhao state when he was attacked and killed by illegal loggers. Photo: Ueslei Marcelino / REUTERS

Illegal loggers assassinate Amazon indigenous warrior who guarded forest, wound another – “The Bolsonaro government has indigenous blood on its hands”

By Anthony Boadle and Leo Benassatto 2 November 2019 BRASILIA (Reuters) – Illegal loggers in the Amazon ambushed an indigenous group that was formed to protect the forest and shot dead a young warrior and wounded another, leaders of the Guajajara tribe in northern Brazil said on Saturday. Paulo Paulino Guajajara, or Lobo (which means […]

Summary of polar bear population status in 2019 by regional subpopulation, showing populations with decreasing trends. Graphic: IUCN / SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG)

Scientists update status of polar bear populations with 2019 data

By Dag Vongraven 20 September 2019 (PBSG) – At the last meeting of the IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) in Anchorage in 2016, the group agreed that there was a need for new and documented criteria for the assessment of status and trends of polar bear populations. Work to develop a new set of […]

People wear masks to protect against “Hazardous” air pollution in Dehli, India, 28 October 2019. Photo: Biplov Bhuyan / Hindustan Times / REX

5 million masks distributed as toxic smog descends on Delhi during Diwali – “Delhi has turned into a gas chamber”

By Guy Davies 1 November 2019 (ABC News) – Five million masks are being distributed throughout schools in Delhi, India, as the chief minister described the city as a “gas chamber” because of the “toxic” air quality. Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, also announced that all schools would be closed in the city […]

Graphs showing deteriorating financial indicators in Hong Kong, January 2019 - September 2019. Graphic: Bloomberg

Hong Kong crashes into recession as protests hit economy – “It’s completely driven by social events, and this is something the government needs to consider”

By Eric Lam and Enda Curran 31 October 2019 (Bloomberg) – Hong Kong’s economy contracted sharply in the third quarter as it entered a recession, exceeding economists’ worst estimates of the damage from nearly five months of protests. Third-quarter gross domestic product retreated 3.2% from the previous three months, after a 0.4% contraction in the […]

Members of security forces detain a demonstrator during an anti-government protest in Santiago, Chile. Photo: Edgard Garrido / REUTERS

Chile president cancels Apec and climate summits amid wave of unrest

SANTIAGO (30 October 2019) – Chile’s embattled president has cancelled the Apec trade summit in November and the Cop 25 climate summit in December, as his government struggles with the largest wave of political unrest since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship. Sebastián Piñera made the announcement on Wednesday after 12 days of massive demonstrations […]

Pedestrians age 0 through 17 fatally struck by motor vehicles, 2004-2018. Halloween is the deadliest day of the year for child pedestrians. Data: National Highway traffic Safety Association. Graphic: The Washington Post

Here’s why Halloween is the deadliest day of the year for child pedestrians

By Christopher Ingraham 28 October 2019 (The Washington Post) – It’s almost Halloween, which means that law enforcement agencies around the country are warning parents about the possibility of finding marijuana candy in their children’s trick-or-treat buckets. But like poison and razor blades, Halloween pot candy is largely a myth. The real threat to kids on October 31st […]

The coal-fired Quezon Power Plant in Mauban, Quezon, the Philippines. The 511-megawatt power plant was commissioned in 2000 and is owned and operated by Quezon Power Limited Co. Photo: Acersteel

Coal power plants flourish in the Philippines despite “climate emergency” – “It is unfortunate that another coal plant has been inaugurated in the country”

By Leilani Chavez 28 October 2019 MANILA (Mongabay) – In 1996, when a community in the Philippine municipality of Pagbilao agreed to house a coal power plant a few hours’ drive from Manila, the residents had high hopes. The fishing town saw in the dominating edifice full-time jobs and food on the table, says Warren […]

A Brazilian soldier puts out fires at the Nova Fronteira region in Novo Progresso, Brazil, on 3 September 2019. Photo: Leo Correa / AP

The Amazon hasn’t stopped burning. There were 19,925 fire outbreaks last month, and “more fires” are in the future – “The government is looking to promote mining and ranching in the Amazon”

By Jorge L. Ortiz 18 October 2019 (USA Today) – The proliferation of fires in the Amazon rainforest drew international attention in August, especially when French President Emmanuel Macron called for urgent action. Since then, the eyes of the world have shifted elsewhere as House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, Hurricane […]

This animation shows winds over the western United States between 20 October 2019 and 28 October 2019. The strongest gusts appear bright yellow; weaker winds are purple. The wind data comes from the Goddard Earth Observing System Model 5 (GEOS-5), an experimental weather model that scientists at NASA use to analyze global weather phenomena. The GEOS model ingests wind data from more than 30 sources, including ships, buoys, radiosondes, dropsondes, aircraft, and satellites. Video: Joshua Stevens / Lauren Dauphin / NASA Earth Observatory

Image of the Day: Satellite view of Diablo winds spreading the Kincade Fire in California

By Kasha Patel 30 October 2019 (NASA) – On 23 October 2019, a blaze erupted in Sonoma County, California, near the small town of Geyserville. In six days, flames from the Kincade fire spread across more than 75,000 acres (303 square kilometers), becoming the largest wildfire by acreage in California in 2019. As of October 29, the fire had […]

Smoke rises from the Darwank fires near Forster-Tuncurry on the New South Wales mid north coast, 30 October 2019. Photo: Martin Von Stroll

Hundreds of koalas perish as Australia bushfires rage – “This is just a national tragedy”

By Amy Woodyatt 30 October 2019 (CNN) – More than 350 koalas are feared to have been killed by bushfires in Australia’s New South Wales state, animal experts say. The blazes — which have been burning near the coastal township of Port Macquarie since Monday — have destroyed more than 2,000 hectares (4,492 acres) of […]

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