Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Heat waves and crop losses predicted for California

Global warming will likely put enormous strain on California’s water supply and energy systems and have a devastating impact on certain crops. Stanford researchers predicted outcomes based on projections from two different emission scenarios. One assumes a continuing moderate increase in greenhouse gas emissions until 2100; the other assumes emissions would increase until mid-century and […]

NASA study links severe storm increases, global warming

PASADENA, Calif. — The frequency of extremely high clouds in Earth’s tropics — the type associated with severe storms and rainfall — is increasing as a result of global warming, according to a study by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. In a presentation today to the fall meeting of the American Geophysical […]

Warm summer brings high bleach risk for Barrier Reef

Predictions of a long, hot summer may please many Australians, but it is not good news for one of the country’s top tourist attractions. Satellite images show sea surface temperatures in the Coral Sea are already higher than average and the Bureau of Meteorology and the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have both forecast […]

Global warming causing more tropical storms: NASA

AFP – Global warming is increasing the frequency of extremely high clouds in the Earth’s tropics that cause severe storms and rainfall, according to a NASA study released Friday. The space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said a study by its scientists "found a strong correlation between the frequency of these clouds and seasonal variations […]

Scientists find increased methane levels in Arctic Ocean

ScienceDaily (Dec. 18, 2008) — A team led by International Arctic Research Center scientist Igor Semiletov has found data to suggest that the carbon pool beneath the Arctic Ocean is leaking. The results of more than 1,000 measurements of dissolved methane in the surface water from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf this summer as part […]

2008 is ninth warmest year since 1880: NASA

NASA GISS Report By Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — The year 2008 was the ninth warmest year since instrumental temperature measurements began in 1880, and all of the nine warmest years have occurred in the past 11 years, NASA reported on Tuesday. The new data from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and […]

Arctic warming accelerating

Scientists say they now have unambiguous evidence that the warming in the Arctic is accelerating. Computer models have long predicted that decreasing sea ice should amplify temperature changes in the northern polar region. Julienne Stroeve, from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union that this process […]

Climate change causing larger forest fires: Forest Service conference

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Climate-change specialists are visiting Forest Service offices in the agency’s Northern Region to educate employees about shifting climatic conditions and their ramifications. "We’re almost on the cusp of an ecosystem shift," Faith Ann Heinsch, a University of Montana professor of climatology, said at a recent session in Billings. "If we don’t […]

Over 2 trillion tons of ice melted in Arctic since 2003

WASHINGTON — More than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003, according to new NASA satellite data that show the latest signs of what scientists say is global warming. More than half of the loss of landlocked ice in the past five years has occurred in Greenland, […]

Ocean dead zones invaded by jellyfish that ruin fishing and tourism

By Maggie Fox, editing by Philip Barbara WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Huge swarms of stinging jellyfish and similar slimy animals are ruining beaches in Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, Australia and elsewhere, U.S. researchers reported on Friday. … The report, available on the Internet at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/jellyfish/index.jsp, says the Black Sea’s fishing and tourism industries […]

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