Desdemona Despair – Page 29 – Blogging the End of the World™

A sick sea lion and her pup are shown recovering from domoic acid poisoning at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, California, on 6 July 2023. During the summer of 2023, the center cared for sea lions that were sickened by a historically bad algal bloom along California’s Coast. Photo: Yannick Peterhans / USA TODAY

July 9, 2023

“Death coming out of the ocean”: Red tide killing California sea lions, dolphins – “I have been a marine mammal veterinarian for 35 years, and this is definitely the worst in my professional lifetime”

By Amanda Lee Myers 8 July 2023 (USA TODAY) – Jalapeño the sea lion turned up on a crowded California beach in a daze, experiencing seizures and heavily pregnant. Instead of giving birth in a remote location like sea lions prefer, Jalapeño had her pup on Southern California’s Hermosa Beach on a busy Saturday, surrounded by throngs […]

A researcher stands in a glacier cave on Svalbard, Norway. In 2023, scientists discovered that as the Arctic warms, shrinking glaciers are exposing bubbling groundwater springs which could provide an underestimated source of the potent greenhouse gas methane. Photo: Gabrielle Kleber

July 8, 2023

Shrinking Arctic glaciers are unearthing a new source of methane – “The amount of methane leaking from the springs we measured will likely be dwarfed by the total volume of trapped gas lying below these glaciers, waiting to escape”

By Catherine Martin-Jones 6 July 2023 (University of Cambridge) – As the Arctic warms, shrinking glaciers are exposing bubbling groundwater springs which could provide an underestimated source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, finds new research published today in Nature Geoscience. The study, led by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University Centre in Svalbard, […]

Map showing temperatures around the world and numbers of people killed by heatwaves, 4 July 2023. Data: Zoom Earth. Graphic: Anadolu Agency / Getty

July 8, 2023

Striking map charts deadly heatwaves killing people around the world in 2023

By Katherine Fidler 5 July 2023 (Metro) – A striking map [by Anadolu Agency –Des] shows how soaring temperatures are affecting people around the world – 48 hours after the world recorded its hottest-ever day. Using June as a snapshot, the infographic highlights just some of the regions struck by intense heat – including the […]

Police talk to Greta Thunberg as they move climate activists from the organization Ta Tillbaka Framtiden, who are blocking the entrance to Oljehamnen in Malmo, Sweden, 19 June 2023. Photo: Johan Nilsson / TT News Agency / REUTERS

July 8, 2023

Greta Thunberg charged with disobeying police order at climate protest – “The climate crisis is already a matter of life and death for countless people. We chose to not be bystanders, and instead physically stop the fossil fuel infrastructure. We are reclaiming the future.”

STOCKHOLM, 5 July 2023 (Reuters) – Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has been charged with disobeying a police order to leave a climate protest in the southern city of Malmo on 19 June 2023, according to daily Sydsvenskan. On the day of the incident, Thunberg wrote in an Instagram post that protesters had blocked the […]

Construction site of the Gemini solar project in southern Nevada. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife show the bureau’s Las Vegas field office drafted several versions of a “record of decision” that would have denied the permit application for Gemini. The drafts listed several objections, including harm to desert tortoises, loss of space for off-road vehicle drivers and disturbance of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail, which runs through the project site. Photo: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

July 3, 2023

Solar sprawl is tearing up the Mojave Desert. Is there a better way?

By Sammy Roth 27 June 2023 (Los Angeles Times) – High above the Las Vegas Strip, solar panels blanketed the roof of Mandalay Bay Convention Center — 26,000 of them, rippling across an area larger than 20 football fields. From this vantage point, the sun-dappled Mandalay Bay and Delano hotels dominated the horizon, emerging like […]

Temperature forecast for the Iberian Peninsula during the week of 26 June 2023. Graphic: AEMET

July 3, 2023

Spain weathers scorching temperatures as heatwaves become more frequent – “In the last 12 years the frequency of heatwaves in June has tripled”

MADRID, 26 June 2023 (Reuters) – Areas of southern Spain such as Seville and Cordoba registered scorching temperatures of up to 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit) on Monday as the first heatwave of the summer hit the Iberian country, sending people to seek shade from a blistering sun. Heatwaves in June have become more frequent […]

Heat index forecast for the United States, 3 July 2023 - 8 July 2023. An estimated 76 million people in the U.S. were exposed to dangerous heat on 2 July 2023. Graphic: The Washington Post

July 2, 2023

Summer in the Southern U.S. is becoming unbearable – “This is how it’s going to be: Things will get hotter, storms will get worse, wildfire smoke will get more common. All the while, the ruts of inequity will be worn deeper, the same people time and time again placed on the front lines of catastrophe.”

By Olivia Paschal 1 July 2023 (The Atlantic) – A few weeks ago, as the first wave of smoke from the Canadian wildfires rolled south, I was getting ready to drive from Charlottesville, Virginia, about 18 hours west to my hometown of Rogers, Arkansas, to visit family. I figured that by the time I hit […]

People watch the sunset as the smoke from wildfires is visible in Toronto on 28 June 2023. Photo: Chris Young / AP

July 2, 2023

Canada marks worst wildfire season on record in 2023 – Wildfires have burned 19.5 million acres across Canada this year so far

By Somayeh Malekian, Emma Ogao, and Victoria Beaule 1 July 2023 LONDON (ABC News) – Canada’s wildfire season is now the worst ever recorded as the country has exceeded the largest area ever burned in a year, totaling more than 19.5 million acres so far. There are at least 500 active fires burning around the […]

Global Negative Experience Index, 2006-2022. As it does every year, Gallup asked adults in 142 countries and areas in 2022 if they had five different negative experiences on the day before the survey -- and then compiled the results into an index. Higher scores on the Negative Experience Index indicate that more of the population is experiencing these negative emotions. In 2022, about four in 10 adults worldwide said they experienced a lot of worry (41%) or stress (40%), and nearly one in three experienced a lot of physical pain (32%). More than one in four experienced sadness (27%), and slightly fewer experienced anger (23%). Worry, stress and sadness remained near their record highs set in 2021, although each declined one percentage point in 2022. The percentage of adults worldwide who experienced physical pain increased one point, while the percentage who experienced anger remained at 23% for the second year in a row. Graphic: Gallup

July 2, 2023

Global rise in unhappiness leveled off in 2022 – Worry, stress, and sadness remained near their record highs set in 2021

By Julie Ray 27 June 2023 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Gallup) – Emotionally, the world was no worse off in 2022 than it was in 2021, but it is still in a heightened negative state, according to Gallup’s latest annual global update on the negative and positive experiences that people have daily. The well-documented global rise in negative emotions such as […]

A car moves through a neighborhood in West Austin that lost power on 18 February 2021 during blackouts that left millions of Texans without power or heat following a devastating winter storm. Photo: Jordan Vonderhaar / The Texas Tribune

July 2, 2023

Texas power struggle: How the top wind power state in the U.S. turned against renewable energy – State lawmakers push bills to support fossil fuel-burning power plants and restrict renewable energy development – “Right now, the wind blows strongly against renewables, and that’s where we are”

By Emily Foxhall, Kai Elwood-dieu, and Zach Despart 25 May 2023 (Texas Tribune) – State Rep. Jared Patterson disagreed with his Republican colleague that Texas should keep supporting the booming renewable energy industry here. Rep. John Smithee was arguing on the House floor in early May that certain solar and wind farms should be eligible […]