Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Those three percent of scientific papers that deny climate change? A review found them all flawed

By Katherine Ellen Foley 5 September 2017 (Quartz) – It’s often said that of all the published scientific research on climate change, 97% of the papers conclude that global warming is real, problematic for the planet, and has been exacerbated by human activity.But what about those 3% of papers that reach contrary conclusions? Some skeptics […]

South Asia floods: Estimated 40 million across India, Bangladesh, Nepal affected

By Anne Barker 8 September 2017 (ABC News) – An estimated 40 million people in South Asia are struggling to rebuild their lives after massive floods devastated the region nearly a month ago.Entire villages across Bangladesh, India, and Nepal remained submerged under water since the floods began in mid-August.Authorities have described it as the region’s […]

Hasten efforts to achieve sustainable global goals, urges deputy UN chief – “Our assessment clearly shows that the pace of progress is insufficient”

8 September 2017 (United Nations) – Noting the efforts being undertaken around the globe to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed called for picking up the pace to ensure that the 2030 deadline is met.“The SDGs have jumped from the General Assembly Hall to communities across the world [and] […]

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort ordered to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Irma

By Rachel Lewis 8 September 2017 (TIME) – President Donald Trump’s seaside resort Mar-a-Lago and the surrounding barrier islands have been ordered to evacuate as the ferocious Hurricane Irma approaches Florida.Palm Beach County officials ordered that residents of the islands and low-lying areas should start to leave by 10 a.m. on Friday, the Miami Herald […]

Extremely dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Irma headed for Florida – If you are in a mandated evacuation zone, evacuate

Dr. Jeff Masters 8 September 2017 (Weather Underground) –  Hurricane Irma weakened from Category 5 to Category 4 strength on Friday morning, but still represents an extreme danger to much of Southern Florida, as well as portions of northern Cuba and the southernmost Bahama Islands.If you live by the coast in an area that that […]

Now we have a moral duty to talk about climate change

By Mark Lynas 31 August 2017 (CNN) – This is what climate change looks like. Entire metropolitan areas — Houston in the United States and Mumbai in India — submerged in catastrophic floods.Record-breaking rainfall: Harvey’s 50-plus inches of torrential deluge set a new national tropical cyclone rain record for the continental United States.They used to […]

Six Republican lawmakers vote against Hurricane Harvey aid – Texas governor estimates damage at $180 billion, possibly the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history

By Kathryn Watson 8 September 2017 (CBS News) – Four Texas Republicans on Friday voted against the bill that included aid for Hurricane Harvey recovery in their state, along with a debt limit extension.The House approved the legislation 316-90, in a vote that authorized $15.3 billion in aid for those affected by Harvey, raised the […]

Hurricane Harvey and the storms to come – In the leadup to the historic flood, Texas Republicans abetted Trump’s climate-change delusions

By Elizabeth Kolbert 4 September 2017 (The New Yorker) – On 29 August 2005, at six-ten in the morning, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the border of Mississippi and Louisiana, just east of New Orleans. Katrina had spent days wobbling over the Gulf of Mexico, and by the time it reached the coast it was […]

Triple Trouble: Cat 5 Irma, Cat 3 Jose, Cat 1 Katia – Atlantic hurricane season has now produced more than a year’s worth of major hurricanes before the season is even half over

Dr. Jeff Masters 7 September 2017 (Weather Underground) – Hurricane Irma plowed through the Turks and Caicos Islands (population 31,000) on Thursday evening, as it headed west-northwest at 16 mph towards The Bahamas and Florida. Irma maintained Category 5 intensity with 175 mph winds as its eye crossed the small privately-owned Big Ambergris Cay, but […]

They thought the monsoons of 2017 were calm. Then came the deadly floods. “We were taken completely by surprise. We had no information whatsoever from any agency about the rising water levels.”

By Suhasini Raj and Jeffrey Gettleman 7 September 2017MURMALA, India (The New York Times) – As the floodwaters sloshed into her hut, Phoolvati, a poor and landless woman living in a farming village in Bihar State, scrambled to grab some jewelry, a soccer ball and a wad of rupees — the last of the family’s […]

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