Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Trump E.P.A. blocks Obama-era clean water rule

By Coral Davenport 31 January 2018WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – The Trump administration has formally suspended a major Obama-era clean water regulation ahead of plans to issue its own version of the rule later this year. President Trump has taken aim at the bitterly contested rule, known as Waters of the United States, since […]

After the hurricane: In Barbuda, islanders fear their cherished lifestyle may be lost forever

By Anthony Faiola; Photos by Salwan Georges 16 January 2018 (The Washington Post) – Months after Hurricane Irma blazed its destructive path through the Caribbean, the once vibrant community on the tiny island of Barbuda is still struggling to rebuild paradise lost. Before the September storm, Barbuda was a forgotten Eden about the physical size […]

America’s top weather scientists offer to set Trump straight on climate change – “There is a wealth of comprehensive and accurate information on climate change available to you and your staff within government agencies”

By Josh Gabbatiss 1 February 2018 (The Independent) – Donald Trump has been sent a letter by the US’s top scientific organisation for weather and climate researchers, correcting him on points made in a recent interview.Talking to Piers Morgan, Mr Trump questioned much of the science of climate change, and appeared to suggest global temperatures […]

New Pentagon survey: Climate change-related risks to 50 percent of U.S. military infrastructure

By Caitlin Werrell and Francesco Femia 29 January 2018 (The Center for Climate and Security) – On Friday, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics released a comprehensive new survey of climate change-related risks to military infrastructure worldwide. The study, prosaically titled “Climate-Related Risk to […]

Satellite images show Cape Town’s dwindling reservoir as the city rapidly runs out of water

By Paul P. Murphy and Judson Jones 31 January 2018 (CNN) – New satellite images show just how far Cape Town’s biggest water reservoir has shrunk as the city nears the day when it completely runs out of water.Drought, population growth, and climate change are helping fuel Cape Town’s water crisis. Officials believe taps will […]

Phosphorus pollution reaching dangerous levels worldwide, new study finds

WASHINGTON D.C., 25 January 2018 (AGU) – Man-made phosphorus pollution is reaching dangerously high levels in freshwater basins around the world, according to new research. A new study published in Water Resources Research, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, estimated the global amount of phosphorus from human activities that entered Earth’s freshwater bodies from […]

Caribbean wobbles under the impact of climate change – “The task of rebuilding is beyond us”

By Peter Richards 30 December 2017 BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – In 2017, the Caribbean felt the full brunt of climate change with a warning that current trends indicate that there will be no respite. Within a two-week period, Hurricanes Irma and Maria brought home the reality of the impact of climate change as they churned […]

Whitefish Energy spent $150,000 lobbying Congress after Puerto Rico disaster

By Megan Janetsky and Geoff West 24 January 2018 (Center for Responsive {Politics) – The small Montana energy company that botched the critical rebuilding of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria spent $150,000 lobbying Congress last quarter amid investigations, a disclosure report filed Friday shows.The fourth quarter lobbying report shows that Whitefish paid […]

Trump budget seeks 72 percent cut to clean energy research, underscoring preference for fossil fuels – “It shows that we’ve made no inroads in terms of convincing the administration of our value”

By Chris Mooney and Steven Mufson 1 February 2018 (The Washington Post) – The Trump administration is poised to ask Congress for deep budget cuts to the Energy Department’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, slashing them by 72 percent overall in fiscal 2019, according to draft budget documents obtained by The Washington Post. Many […]

Ocean oxygen levels dropping as world warms – “The decline in ocean oxygen ranks among the most serious effects of human activities on the Earth’s environment”

4 January 2018 (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center) – In the past 50 years, the amount of water in the open ocean with zero oxygen has gone up more than fourfold. In coastal water bodies, including estuaries and seas, low-oxygen sites have increased more than 10-fold since 1950. Scientists expect oxygen to continue dropping even outside […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial