Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

25 percent increase in U.S. suicide rate since 1999 – Half of states saw rises of more than 30 percent – “Firearms make up about half of all suicides”

By Susan Scutti 8 June 2018 (CNN) – Suicide rates increased by 25 percent across the United States over nearly two decades ending in 2016, according to research published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Twenty-five states experienced a rise in suicides by more than 30 percent, the government report finds. […]

Hottest May on record in U.S. leaves dust bowl in the dust

By Bob Henson  6 June 2018 (Weather Underground) – After one of the coldest Aprils in U.S. history, last month delivered a stunning switch—the warmest May for the contiguous U.S. in records going back to 1895. May came in at 5.21°F above the 20th-century average, which beats out the Dust Bowl month of May 1934 […]

At FEMA, Trump remained mum on new Puerto Rico death toll

By Jeremy Diamond 6 June 2018 (CNN) – President Donald Trump visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday, just over a week after a new Harvard study estimated more than 4,600 people in Puerto Rico died in Hurricane Maria and its aftermath.But even as he was briefed on the upcoming hurricane season, the President […]

EPA spokesperson for Scott Pruitt calls reporter for The Atlantic “a piece of trash”

By Max Greenwood 6 June 2018 (The Hill) – A spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) derided a reporter for The Atlantic as a “piece of trash” as he ended a phone call with her. Reached by phone, EPA spokesperson Jahan Wilcox declined to comment for a story about a top aide to Administrator […]

Judge orders EPA to produce science behind Administrator Scott Pruitt’s global warming denial

By Scott Waldman5 June 2018(E&E News) – EPA must produce the opposing body of science Administrator Scott Pruitt has relied upon to claim that humans are not the primary drivers of global warming, a federal judge has ruled. The EPA boss has so far resisted attempts to show the science backing up his claims. His […]

Think the big banks have abandoned coal? Think again

By Emily Flitter 28 May 2018 (The New York Times) – Starting three years ago, the largest American banks vowed to cut back on lending to the coal industry. “The bank has a responsibility to help mitigate climate change by leveraging our scale and resources to accelerate the transition from a high-carbon to a low-carbon […]

Global warming hits poorest nations hardest – “The richest countries that produced the most emissions are the least affected by heat”

30 May 2018 (University of Melbourne) – Australia will still be the lucky country when it comes to changes in local climate as a result of climate change if global average surface temperatures reach the 1.5°C or 2°C limit set by the Paris agreement. But in other countries right across the tropics, including close neighbour […]

Government raid fails to stop illegal gold mining, death threats on Amazon’s Tropas River

By Rosamaria Loures, Sue Branford, and Maurício Torres 31 May 2018 (Mongabay) – “The gold mining in our territory is bringing a lot of illness, a lot of malaria. It’s bringing alcohol into our communities. It’s bringing drugs into our territory,” said Maria Leusa, a Munduruku female warrior and a leading member of the Ipereg […]

Poverty is rising faster in U.S. suburbs than in cities – Between 2000 and 2016, earnings declined in all types of communities

By Scott W. Allard 3 June 2018 (Business Insider) – In the US, the geography of poverty is shifting.According to a May report from the Pew Research Center, since 2000, suburban counties have experienced sharper increases in poverty than urban or rural counties.This is consistent with research across the U.S. over the past decade – […]

Graph of the Day: Carbon emissions projected in 1992 compared with observed emissions

By Robert Rohde 13 May 2018 (Twitter) – In 1992, the world adopted the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to fight global warming. The same year, the IPCC released a set of projections for future CO2. The most widely used, IS92a, depicted global growth under business-as-usual. Today, CO2 is only ~5 ppm below […]

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