Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Graph of the Day: U.S. obesity prevalence by county, 2013

By Michael J. Paul 7 November 2017 (GIS Use in Public Health) – Today’s map of the day shows the prevalence of obesity in the United States by county. According to the Centers for Disease Control, a person with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30 is considered obese. From the […]

Manus Island police begin destroying shelters housing refugees – ““The conditions are appalling and it’s obvious you wouldn’t choose to stay here if you thought you could be safer elsewhere”

By Ben Doherty 10 November 2017 (The Guardian) – Papua New Guinean immigration officials and police have started destroying makeshift shelters built by about 600 refugees and asylum seekers who refuse to relocate from the now closed Manus Island detention centre.The initial efforts to dismantle the camp started on Friday, a day before a slated […]

India to spray capital from on high amid deepening smog emergency – Chief Minister calls capital a “gas chamber” as conditions expected to worsen over weekend

By Rupam Jain, with additional reporting by Manoj Kumar, Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Tom Lasseter and Nick Macfie 10 November 2017 NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India plans to spray water over its capital, New Delhi, to combat toxic smog that has triggered a pollution emergency, officials said on Friday, with conditions expected to worsen over […]

Industrial waste pollutes America’s drinking water – “I want to see our future generations have the time to grow up and not have to deal with young kids dying and sicknesses and illnesses”

By Jasmine Spearing-Bowen and Karl Schneider 17 August 2017 PHOENIX (News21) – In Ringwood, New Jersey, Ford Motor Co. dumped more than 35,000 tons of toxic paint sludge onto lands occupied for centuries by the Turtle Clan of the Ramapough Lenape tribe, poisoning groundwater with arsenic, lead and other harmful chemicals. Today, more than 43 […]

Everything you need to know about the massive Paradise Papers leak

5 November 2017 (Vice News) – A vast new trove of 13.4 million leaked documents dubbed the Paradise Papers have been published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) exposing the offshore banking activities of more than 120 politicians around the world. Included in the leak are documents connecting U.S. Commerce Secretary and billionaire […]

26 teenage girls found dead at sea – 400 refugees rescued in the Mediterranean over the weekend

By Kara Fox and Livia Borghese 7 November 2017 (CNN) – Italian authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of death of 26 teenage girls whose bodies were recovered in the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday. The girls, aged 14-18, are believed to have been migrants from Niger and Nigeria who had embarked on the […]

Chef José Andrés and the Trump administration are fighting over Puerto Rico – “I didn’t put the word ‘emergency’ in FEMA. They need to ask themselves what’s the definition of ‘emergency’. The definition of that to me is feeding people now.”

By Adrian Carrasquillo 6 November 2017 (BuzzFeed) – Celebrity chef José Andrés has helped cook and deliver 2.2 million meals in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria flattened the island, at one point cranking out 150,000 meals a day. But while his effort has been loudly praised across the country, the Trump administration, which awarded him […]

UN Human Rights Commission slams Australia on refugees policy amid Manus Island saga – PNG government threatens forcible removal – Activists scale Sydney Opera House

10 November 2017 (Reuters) – Australia needs to stop rejecting refugees and change its migration laws to come into line with international standards, the UN Human Rights Committee said in a report released overnight. The committee, which comprises 18 independent experts and monitors countries’ compliance with a global human rights treaty, says Australia should come […]

We can brighten clouds to reflect heat and reduce global warming. But should we? “If the catastrophes we are trying to avoid are in the next 30 or 40 years, this may be the only thing that will reduce heat”

By Stuart Leavenworth 8 November 2017 WASHINGTON (McClatchy) – Ever-higher temperatures are melting the ice sheets faster than projected. Sea level is rising. International efforts to reduce greenhouse gases are taking longer than expected. It’s a nightmare scenario that could soon demand an emergency response. What to do? One idea gaining traction is to seed […]

Republican-controlled Congress ordered destruction of U.S. satellite research into global warming – “This is like throwing away the medical records of a sick patient”

By Robin McKie 5 November 2017 (The Observer) – The Republican majority in the US Congress has been accused of deliberately obstructing research on global warming after it emerged that a critically important technique for investigating sea-ice cover at the poles faces being blocked. The row has erupted after a key polar satellite broke down […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial