Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Smoke degrades air quality to “very unhealthy” for parts of Puget Sound region and “hazardous” for Eastern Washington

By Scott Sistek 20 August 2018 SEATTLE (KOMO News) – Air quality in some areas of Western Washington has degraded from “unhealthy” to “very unhealthy,” especially in the South Sound as wildfire smoke from British Columbia continues to pour into the region.As of 8 a.m. Monday, monitoring sites in Tacoma, Auburn, and Port Angeles reported […]

Australia PM abandons carbon emissions legislation – “The federal government has now completely capitulated on emissions and climate change, and abandoned the Paris climate change commitments”

By Katharine Murphy 20 August 2018 (The Guardian) – Malcolm Turnbull will face the verdict of his colleagues in a tense party room meeting on Tuesday, after effectively abandoning the government’s signature energy policy in what could be a fruitless attempt to stay ahead of a full blown leadership crisis.The prime minister announced on Monday […]

India floods declared a “calamity of severe nature” – More than 700,000 people sheltering in 5,645 relief camps

NEW DELHI, 20 August 2018 (The Times of India) – The massive flood in Kerala has been declared a calamity of severe nature, the Union home ministry said on Monday. “Keeping in view the intensity and magnitude of the floods and landslides in Kerala, this is a calamity of a severe nature for all practical […]

Summer weather is getting “stuck” due to Arctic warming – “What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic”

By Jonathan Watts 20 August 2018 (The Guardian) – Summer weather patterns are increasingly likely to stall in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, according to a new climate study that explains why Arctic warming is making heatwaves elsewhere more persistent and dangerous. Rising temperatures in the Arctic have slowed the circulation of the […]

Australia drought: New South Wales town “mobbed’” by thirsty emus

19 August 2018 (BBC News) – Large numbers of emus have been flocking to an outback mining town in New South Wales as Australia continues to struggle with extreme drought. The flightless birds are desperately searching for food and water in Broken Hill, local animal rescue services say. “They’re actually walking down our main street. […]

“Smokestorm” from B.C. wildfires now pushing into Western Washington

By Cliff Mass 19 August 2018 (Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog) – During the next 12 hours there should be a major influx of wildfire smoke into the lower elevations of western Washington. The MODIS satellite imagery around noon showed very dense smoke over eastern WA and the north Cascades, with lesser but substantial […]

Air conditioning use emerges as one of the key drivers of global electricity-demand growth

15 May 2018 (IEA) – The growing use of air conditioners in homes and offices around the world will be one of the top drivers of global electricity demand over the next three decades, according to new analysis by the International Energy Agency that stresses the urgent need for policy action to improve cooling efficiency. […]

Methane leaks from U.S. coal mines have the annual global warming impact of 13 million cars

By Mark Olalde 13 August 2018 (Climate Home News) – Across the US, a major, uncontrolled leak of a potent greenhouse gas is going unregulated and largely unnoticed.Climate Home News analysis of government data has identified roughly 300 active and 200 abandoned coal mines, which are the source of almost one-tenth of US methane pollution.Methane […]

Rainfall changes projected for northern Britain: Large decreases in average summer rainfall, large increases in winter – High-intensity events to increase in both seasons

27 April 2018 (Met Office) – A scientific study has given an initial view of potentially significant changes in rainfall patterns across northern England and Scotland by 2100.An experimental approach using the Met Office Unified Model with a resolution of 1.5km provides a first look at changes in rainfall that could affect Scotland and northern […]

Smoke from California wildfires will blow to UK because of tropical storm

By Tom Herbert 18 August 2018 (Metro) – A storm is set to batter Britain with wind and rain, bringing with it smoke from the wildfires in California. Forecasters say a tropical storm is moving eastwards across the Atlantic Ocean and will hit the UK and Ireland today. And smoke from the deadly wildfires in […]

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