Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

A decade after the recession, 40 percent of U.S. families still struggling – No improvement in first years of Trump administration

A decade after the recession, 40 percent of U.S. families still struggling – No improvement in first years of Trump administration

By Aimee Picchi 13 May 2019 (CBS News) – Four in 10 Americans sometimes face what economists call “material hardship,” struggling to pay for basic needs such as food and housing, according to a new study from the Urban Institute. Even middle-class families routinely struggle financially and are occasionally unable to pay their bills.  The finding is […]

Deepest-ever sub dive in Mariana Trench finds plastic bag and candy wrappers

By Rebecca Morelle 13 May 2019 (BBC News) — An American explorer has found plastic waste on the seafloor while breaking the record for the deepest ever dive. Victor Vescovo descended nearly 11km (seven miles) to the deepest place in the ocean – the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. He spent four hours exploring the bottom […]

Your plans for revolution don’t work. Nothing we’ve tried works.

Your plans for revolution don’t work. Nothing we’ve tried works.

By Caitlin Johnstone 27 March 2019 (Medium) – All the old ideas for uprooting the status quo have failed. I point this out not to depress people, but to persuade them to stop twisting on locked doorknobs. The old ideas don’t work, so we need new ones. The political process has failed. Capitalism has failed. […]

Bloodshed looms in the Amazon unless Brazil government protects Indigenous peoples from illegal land seizures and logging – “Brazil’s Indigenous peoples and their land face enormous threats and the situation will soon become untenable in the dry season”

Bloodshed looms in the Amazon unless Brazil government protects Indigenous peoples from illegal land seizures and logging – “Brazil’s Indigenous peoples and their land face enormous threats and the situation will soon become untenable in the dry season”

7 May 2019 (Amnesty International) – There is an imminent risk of violent clashes in Brazil’s Amazon region unless the government protects Indigenous peoples’ traditional lands from increasing illegal land seizures and logging by armed intruders, Amnesty International warned today. Amnesty International recently visited three different Indigenous territories in northern Brazil where illegal intruders had […]

Only one-third of the world’s longest rivers remain free-flowing – Nearly 60,000 large dams exist worldwide, with more than 3,700 planned

Only one-third of the world’s longest rivers remain free-flowing – Nearly 60,000 large dams exist worldwide, with more than 3,700 planned

8 May 2019 (McGill University) – Just over one-third (37%) of the world’s 246 longest rivers remain free-flowing, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Nature. Dams and reservoirs are drastically reducing the diverse benefits that healthy rivers provide to people and nature across the globe. A team of 34 international researchers from McGill University, […]

Cuba launches widespread rationing in face of crisis

By Michael Weissenstein and Andrea Rodriguez 10 May 2019 HAVANA (AP) – The Cuban government announced Friday that it is launching widespread rationing of chicken, eggs, rice, beans, soap and other basic products in the face of a grave economic crisis. Commerce Minister Betsy Díaz Velázquez told the state-run Cuban News Agency that various forms […]

Wettest 12 months in U.S. history in April 2019 – “Tremendous rainfall” in southern Texas 300-600 percent of normal May

By Bob Henson 8 May 2019 (Weather Underground) – The 12 months ending in April 2019 were the wettest year-long period in U.S. records going back to 1895, according to the monthly U.S. climate summary issued Wednesday by the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Averaged across the contiguous U.S., the total of 36.20” made the period from May […]

Loss of marine stratocumulus clouds could trigger a mega-hothouse climate – “Transitions to a much warmer climate may occur in the future if CO2 levels continue to rise”

Loss of marine stratocumulus clouds could trigger a mega-hothouse climate – “Transitions to a much warmer climate may occur in the future if CO2 levels continue to rise”

By Dr. Jeff Masters 6 May 2019 (Weather Underground) – If humanity maintains its current business-as-usual emissions path for the next 100 years, the resulting 4°C (7°F) of warming may be enough to cause highly reflective stratocumulus clouds over the subtropical and tropical oceans to disintegrate, resulting in an additional 8°C (14°F) of warming, according […]

U.S. Secretary of State says melting Arctic sea ice presents “new opportunities for trade” – Cancels trip to Greenland to observe melting glaciers – Denies climate change at Arctic Council meeting

U.S. Secretary of State says melting Arctic sea ice presents “new opportunities for trade” – Cancels trip to Greenland to observe melting glaciers – Denies climate change at Arctic Council meeting

By Conor Finnegan 9 May 2019 (ABC News) – Two days after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cut a stop from his trip to Germany, his office announced that he was canceling another visit — this time to Greenland, where Pompeo was to see melting glaciers at the forefront of climate change. Pompeo had to […]

Pentagon warns about China’s increased activity in the Arctic, growing ambition to expand its presence

By Elizabeth Mclaughlin and Conor Finnegan 3 May 2019 (ABC News) – China is increasing its activity in the Arctic, building a second ice-breaking ship and looking to expand its footprint in Greenland, according to a new Pentagon report, and Beijing’s presence in the region could lead to the deployment of armed submarines, the report […]

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