Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Endangered orcas died of starvation – 'We're getting down to the last fish in the barrel'

By Robert Santos SEATTLE — It’s been a rough summer for Orcas in Puget Sound. Seven killer whales have disappeared from their pods over the last few months and haven’t been found. Biologists believe the whales died of starvation. Telling one whale from another is almost impossible for the common man but for Ken Balcomb, […]

Global warming is killing frogs and salamanders in Yellowstone Park

Frogs and salamanders, those amphibious bellwethers of environmental danger, are being killed in Yellowstone National Park. The predator, Stanford researchers say, is global warming. Biology graduate student Sarah McMenamin spent three summers in a remote area of the park searching for frogs and salamanders in ponds that had been surveyed 15 years ago. Almost everywhere […]

Fears mount as Arctic melt prompts historic methane rise

Adam Morton, November 3, 2008  ATMOSPHERIC concentrations of methane, "a greenhouse gas more than 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide", have risen for the first time in eight years, prompting concern about the pace of climate change. A global study in Geophysical Research Letters found the first increase in methane levels this century — […]

Federal disaster declared for Frasier River sockeye

  By GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News TULALIP, Wash. – On Friday, the federal government recognized what Puget Sound fisherman have known for years. The sockeye salmon are gone. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce declared a disaster for Frasier River sockeye. The announcement clears the way for federal aid to fishing tribes and communities […]

Himalayan glaciers receding rapidly, may disappear by 2035

  The glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, a large number of them may disappear by 2035 because of climate change, warn Indian and foreign environmentalists and geologists. … New data collected by scientists at the Jawaharlal Nehru University has […]

Oceana: Greenhouse gases imperil oceans' web of life

  WASHINGTON – Corals, lobsters, clams and many other ocean creatures – including some at the bottom of the food chain – may be unable to withstand the increasing acidity of the oceans brought on by growing global-warming pollution, according to a report Tuesday from the advocacy group Oceana. Report: Greenhouse gases imperil oceans’ web […]

California air pollution kills more people than car crashes

  AP – Lowering air pollution in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley would save more lives annually than ending all motor vehicle fatalities in the two regions, according to a new study. Study: Calif dirty air kills more than car crashes (AP) Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:02:52 GMT Technorati Tags: pollution,California,End Times,doom

One Million Tons of North Sea Fish Discarded Every Year

  FRANKFURT, Germany, November 5, 2008 (ENS) – At least a million metric tonnes of fish and other sea animals caught in the North Sea are tossed overboard every year, according to a new report from WWF-Germany, the German chapter of the global conservation organization. The discards amount to about one-third of the entire North […]

UN: Clouds of Pollution Threaten Glaciers, Health

  BEIJING – A dirty brown haze sometimes more than a mile thick is darkening skies not only over vast areas of Asia, but also in the Middle East, southern Africa and the Amazon Basin, changing weather patterns around the world and threatening health and food supplies, the U.N. reported Thursday. The huge smog-like plumes, […]

20% of shark species facing extinction

  Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com November 6, 2008 Sharks are disappearing from the ocean at startling rates: currently one-in-five of these famous marine predators are threatened with extinction. According to a report from the Australian Government and TRAFFIC—an organization that monitors wildlife trade both legal and illegal—the collapse of shark populations is being caused largely by […]

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