Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Coastal city of Quriyat in Oman just posted the world’s hottest low temperature ever recorded: 42.6°C (108.7°F)

By Jason Samenow 27 June 2018 (The Washington Post) – Over a period of 24 hours, the temperature in the coastal city of Quriyat, Oman, never dropped below 108.7 degrees (42.6 Celsius) Tuesday, most likely the highest minimum temperature ever observed on Earth. For a location to remain no lower than 109 degrees around the […]

Study finds hundreds of thousands of U.S. homes at risk of chronic flooding due to sea level rise over the coming decades – “By 2100, there’s a 98–100 percent chance that we get 6 inches of sea level rise. It’s virtually guaranteed.”

(UCS) – Sea levels are rising. Tides are inching higher. High-tide floods are becoming more frequent and reaching farther inland. And hundreds of US coastal communities will soon face chronic, disruptive flooding that directly affects people’s homes, lives, and properties. Yet property values in most coastal real estate markets do not currently reflect this risk. […]

All-time record high temperatures matched or toppled from Colorado to Scotland – “Unprecedented” and “apocalyptic” moorland fires near Manchester, England

By Bob Henson 29 June 2018 (Weather Underground) – June will segue into July this weekend with much of the central and eastern U.S. enduring a blistering, dangerous heat wave that could extend into the July 4 holiday in some areas. Excessive heat warnings were already in place Friday morning for parts of 11 states […]

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg pledges to donate $4.5 million to the UN Climate Change Secretariat to make up for Trump’s shortfall – “America made a commitment”

15 June 2018 (Second Nexus) – When President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, he didn’t just damage the global environment. He damaged the country’s reputation. Since World War II, the United States has pledged to be a global leader, using its wealth, power and influence to make decisions that impact […]

Resettlement needs set to rise to 1.4 million people in 2019, UN refugee agency reports – Europe will need to shelter almost 40 percent more people

25 June 2018 (UN News) – Close to 1.4 million people will need resettlement in countries free from war and persecution in 2019, the UN refugee agency, said on Monday, citing growing forced displacement across the globe.Resettlement – the transfer of refugees from the country where they have claimed asylum to a safe “third country” […]

The future we don’t want: Billions of urban citizens at risk of climate-related heat waves, drought, flooding, food shortages, and blackouts by 2050

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, 19 June 2018 (Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy) – Billions of people in thousands of cities around the world will be at risk from climate-related heatwaves, drought, flooding, food  shortages,  blackouts  and  social  inequality by  mid-century without  bold  and urgent  action  to  reduce  greenhouse  gas  emissions. Fortunately,  cities  […]

Trump administration plan shifts NOAA focus away from climate science to homeland and national security – “A shocking change in the mission of one of the nation’s premier scientific agencies”

By John Schwartz 24 June 2018 (The New York Times) – The Trump administration appears to be planning to shift the mission of one of the most important federal science agencies that works on climate change — away from climate change.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the Department of Commerce, operates […]

Two charts demolish the notion that undocumented immigrants commit more crime – “The criminal conviction rate for legal immigrants is about 85 percent below the native-born rate”

By Christopher Ingraham 19 June 2018 (The Washington Post) – The Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies are predicated, in part, upon the notion that immigrants who are in the country illegally represent a threat to public safety.The White House, for instance, has sent out regular email blasts to reporters with alarmist accounts of crime committed […]

One of the last known jaguars in U.S. killed – “This tragedy is piercing”

By Vaishnavi Vaidyanathan 23 June 2018 (IBT) – Officials at the Center for Biological Diversity said one of the last two jaguars known to be living in the United States was shown dead in a photo released Thursday.The photo provided to the Arizona Daily Star showed a jaguar pelt looked like that of the the […]

Meet Benny the dog, Washington state’s newest weapon in the fight against illegal wildlife trafficking

By Sarah Wu 22 June 2018 (The Seattle Times) – With his paws perched against towering stacks of furniture, Benny forced his snout between two Saudi Arabian sofas and found a piece of elephant ivory that his handler had hidden as part of a drill. Smugglers trafficking in elephant ivory — one of the most […]

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