Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

The alarming statistics that show the U.S. economy isn’t as good as it seems – “We have a ‘Two Realities’ economy in America”

By Heather Long 25 May 2018 (The Washington Post) – The U.S. economy has a problem. The usual economic bench marks look really good: America in 2018 is enjoying faster growth, low unemployment, record numbers of job openings and a stock market near an all-time high. Yet an alarming number of Americans are still struggling […]

Cyclone Mekunu slams Oman and Yemen, killing at least six – Up to eight years’ worth of rainfall fell in three days – “It was a scary feeling, as if it was the end of world”

By Eric Zerkel 27 May 2018 (The Weather Channel) – Tropical Cyclone Mekunu made landfall overnight Saturday in Oman as a Category 3 hurricane equivalent storm, dumping more than two years’ worth of rain in a single day on one of the country’s most populous cities and killing at least four people there after killing […]

Trump opens door to dangerous fracking in Northern Arizona – Plan to auction 4,200 acres sidesteps environmental review, threatens national park, groundwater, river

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona, 21 May 2018 (Center for Biological Diversity) – A new Trump administration plan proposes to auction off 4,200 acres of public land for oil and gas development in northern Arizona. The lands straddle the Little Colorado River, are within three miles of Petrified Forest National Park, and are near habitat for a federally […]

April 2018 was 3rd warmest on record for the globe

17 May 2018 (NOAA) – While North America had its coldest April since 2013, the rest of the world was downright balmy. Record and near-record-warm temperatures were felt across Europe and from Argentina to Australia, making it the third hottest April on record globally. Climate by the numbers The average global temperature for April 2018 […]

Humans have destroyed 83 percent of wild mammals and reduced the total biomass of the biosphere to half of its pre-human value

By Damian Carrington 21 May 2018 (The Guardian) – Humankind is revealed as simultaneously insignificant and utterly dominant in the grand scheme of life on Earth by a groundbreaking new assessment of all life on the planet. The world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things, according to the study. Yet since […]

São Paulo faces another drought as Brazil’s second corn crop yields 10 million tons less than last season – “We have learned little or nothing from the crisis”

By Roberto Samora and Ana Mano; editing by Grant McCool 24 May 2018 SAO PAULO (Reuters) – A severe drought has compromised Brazil’s second corn, the country’s largest crop of the cereal, which is now expected to be 10 million tonnes lower than last season, consultancy Agroconsult said on Thursday. The firm, which is leading […]

Global warming broadens threat of emerald ash borer – “This should be a wake-up call for how we think about invasive species”

17 May 2018 (University of Waterloo) – More Canadian cities will experience damage from the emerald ash borer than previously thought. As a result of climate change and fewer days of extreme cold, the beetle may eat its way further north than originally estimated. Kim Cuddington, a professor of biology at the University of Waterloo, […]

Emissions of ozone-destroying CFC-11 are rising again – “It is taking us away from timely recovery of the ozone layer”

16 May 2018 (NOAA) – Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, were once considered a triumph of modern chemistry. Stable and versatile, these chemicals were used in hundreds of products, from military systems to the ubiquitous can of hairspray.Then in 1987, NOAA scientists were part of an international team that proved this family of wonder chemicals was damaging […]

Trump on abused immigrant children: “They’re not innocent”– Border Patrol accused of sexually and physically abusing child detainees

By Luke Darby 25 May 2018 (GQ) – The Trump administration called immigrant children future criminals on the same day Border Patrol was accused of sexually and physically abusing child detainees.In April of 2017, when Donald Trump ordered his first missile strike in Syria, the president said that he was moved by the images of […]

Cyclone duo hits Middle East – Severe Tropical Storm Mekunu to hit Oman, may become Oman’s strongest storm on record

25 May 2018 (NOAA) – The NOAA-20 satellite captured this image of severe tropical cyclone Mekunu nearing the southern Arabian Peninsula on 24 May 2018. The dangerous Category 3 storm rapidly intensified in the warm waters of the Arabian Sea and had sustained winds of 115 mph, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported in its […]

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