Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

“Lots of good news” but much more needs to be done for the planet, says UN environment chief

6 August 2018 (UN News) – Calling 2017 “the first year in human history” that more electricity was generated globally from the sun, than oil, gas and coal combined, Erik Solheim, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has told UN news that “we are on track” but “we really need to speed up”.Southern […]

Climate change omitted from list of White House research and development priorities

6 August 2018 (Silencing Science Tracker) –  On 31 July 2018, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum outlining the Trump Administration’s research and development (R&D) “priorities.” The memorandum is intended to “provide[] guidance to [federal] agencies as they formulate their Fiscal Year 2020 budget submissions.”The memorandum indicates that federal […]

Scituate, Massachusetts could soon be wiped off the map by rising sea level – “There’s no doubt the damage is getting worse”

By Andrew MacFarlane 1 August 2018(The Weather Company) – Waves crest up to 27 feet, landing so hard they launch over three-story houses. Winds gust to over 80 mph, sending trees to the ground and knocking out power to 92 percent of the city. Entire beaches push inland, piling several feet of rock and sand […]

Heat wave smashes all-time heat records in Portugal and Spain – Portugal battles wildfires, and France nuclear reactors shut down due to heat – “We are facing a new reality”

Dr. Jeff Masters 5 August 2018 (Weather Underground) – The future-is-now Northern Hemisphere summer of 2018 roasted a new portion of Europe with all-time record heat over the weekend: Portugal and Spain. Portugal’s capital city Lisbon hit 111.2°F (44°C) on Saturday, its hottest temperature ever recorded. The previous record was 109.4°F (43°C) in 1981. Portugal’s […]

Hottest rain on record: Rain falls at 48.3°C (119°F) in Imperial, California

Dr. Jeff Masters 2 August 2018 (Weather Underground) – 24 July 2018 was one of the hottest days in California history, as a searing heat wave of rare intensity, even for the Desert Southwest, sent temperatures soaring to near-record levels. Death Valley hit 127°F, just 2° short of tying the all-time world record for hottest […]

Death Valley sets record for hottest month ever recorded on Earth – “It eclipsed the record by quite a bit”

By Josh Gabbatiss 2 August 2018 (The Independent) – California’s Death Valley has smashed its own record for the hottest month ever recorded anywhere. Preliminary results suggest the month’s average temperature was 108.1F (42.28C). This edges out the previous record, set in the valley at the same time last year, when the average was 107.4F […]

World Bank: Global warming could force more than 140 million people to migrate within countries by 2050

WASHINGTON, 19 March 2018 (World Bank) – The worsening impacts of climate change in three densely populated regions of the world could see over 140 million people move within their countries’ borders by 2050, creating a looming human crisis and threatening the development process, a new World Bank Group report finds But with concerted action […]

Monsoon floods will only get worse in India – Flood losses estimated at $7 billion each year

By Prasoon Singh 4 August 2018 (Daily O) – It was the summer of 1995, monsoon was approaching, and like all other children, I was anxiously waiting for it. Monsoon used to be a treat for us — we celebrated rain with a rhyme, ‘Monsoon Brings the Rain’. That summer, monsoon arrived with its full […]

Extreme global weather is “the face of climate change” says leading scientist – “The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle. We are seeing them play out in real time.”

By Damian Carrington 27 July 2018 (The Guardian) – The extreme heatwaves and wildfires wreaking havoc around the globe are “the face of climate change,” one of the world’s leading climate scientists has declared, with the impacts of global warming now “playing out in real time.”Climate change has long been predicted to increase extreme weather […]

Losing Earth: The decade we almost stopped climate change

By Nathaniel Rich 1 August 2018 (The New York Times) – The first suggestion to Rafe Pomerance that humankind was destroying the conditions necessary for its own survival came on Page 66 of the government publication EPA-600/7-78-019. It was a technical report about coal, bound in a coal-black cover with beige lettering — one of […]

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