Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

U.S. infections from tick, fleas, and mosquito bites have tripled since 2004 – As climate warms, “it enables these ticks to expand to new areas”

1 May 2018 (E360 Digest) – The number of people in the United States infected by mosquito, tick, and flea-transmitted diseases have tripled, increasing from 27,388 cases in 2004 to 96,075 in 2016, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control. Since 2004, nine insect-borne diseases have also been discovered or introduced […]

Climate change making California’s drought-flood cycle more volatile – “These are actually huge changes occurring – they’re just on opposite ends of the spectrum”

By David Colgan 23 April 2018 (UCLA) – California is headed for a future of precipitation extremes.Research by UCLA climate scientists, published today in Nature Climate Change, projects that the state will experience a much greater number of extremely wet and extremely dry weather seasons — especially wet — by the end of the century. […]

While journalists were mad at Michelle Wolf, the Justice Department was found quietly deleting references to press freedom

By Luke Darby 30 April 2018 (GQ) – Donald Trump’s path to the White House has given at least one key lesson to rank-and-file Republicans: They no longer have to pay lip service to mainstream, commonly held values that they actually abhor. Trump’s cabinet in particular has leaned in to this particularly hard. Late last […]

Central American “caravan” women and children enter U.S., defying Trump – “We crossed the whole of Mexico”

By Delphine Schrank 1 May 2018 SAN YSIDRO PORT OF ENTRY (Reuters) – Hopes rose on Tuesday among a caravan of migrants who traveled from Central America to seek asylum in the United States after U.S. border authorities allowed the first small group of women and children entry from Mexico overnight.Gathering people along the way, […]

Graph of the Day: Lies and misleading claims by President Trump, January 2017 – April 2018

By Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo, and Kelly Meg 1 May 2018 (The Washington Post) – In the 466 days since he took the oath of office, President Trump has made 3,001 false or misleading claims, according to The Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president. [For context, […]

A Hawaiian island got about 50 inches of rain in 24 hours. Scientists warn it’s a sign of the future – “Our communities are scaled and built for a climate that no longer exists”

By Heidi Chang 28 April 2018 (Los Angeles Times) – Since the 1940s, the Hawaiian island of Kauai has endured two tsunamis and two hurricanes, but locals say they have never experienced anything like the thunderstorm that drenched the island this month. “The rain gauge in Hanalei broke at 28 inches within 24 hours,” said […]

At the U.S. border, a diminished migrant caravan readies for an unwelcoming reception

By Nick Miroff 27 April 2018 TIJUANA, Mexico (The Washington Post) – The American president, a former real estate mogul, does not want Byron Garcia in the United States. But the Honduran teenager was too busy building his own hotel empire this week to worry much about that. Vermont Avenue and Connecticut Avenue were his. […]

Unprecedented wave of large-mammal extinctions linked to ancient humans – “What we’re doing is potentially erasing 40 to 45 million years of mammal body-size evolution in a very short period of time”

By Scott Schrage 19 April 2018 (University of Nebraska–Lincoln) – Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and other recent human relatives may have begun hunting large mammal species down to size — by way of extinction — at least 90,000 years earlier than previously thought, says a new study published in the journal Science.Elephant-dwarfing wooly mammoths, elephant-sized ground […]

Harvey recovery funds may prioritize wealthy, advocates say – “It’s absolutely a civil rights issue”

AUSTIN, Texas, 27 April 2018 (AP) – Advocacy groups said Friday that Texas is poised to unfairly distribute billions in federal funding provided for housing repairs following Hurricane Harvey’s devastation — prioritizing wealthy homeowners over poorer victims in ways that could constitute racial discrimination. At issue is a draft state rebuilding plan that says homeowners […]

Trump has shrunk Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent – Here’s a look at what America stands to lose

By Jeremy Berke 25 April 2018 (Business Insider) – President Donald Trump announced the reduction of two national monuments in Utah in December 2017. Bears Ears was reduced by 85 percent in the months that followed, in the largest acreage reduction of a national monument to date. Trump also cut Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in […]

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