Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Army Corps of Engineers invades South Texas to clear the way for Trump’s border wall – Wildlife reserves and private property fall, National Butterfly Center sacrificed

By Jude Lieber 14 August 2017 (Liberty and Justice) – Marianna Trevino Wright: “This was a surreal moment for me, where reality is being denied, not only to me, but in the public realm, and the government has undertaken a campaign of deceit and deliberate misinformation.  People believe that this wall is going to be […]

Massacre of polar bears by trophy hunters on remote Arctic island

4 August 2017 (The Siberian Times) – The gruesome evidence of illegal hunting was found on uninhabited Vilkitsky Island in the Kara Sea. The carcasses and used gun cartridges were found by members of an ecological clean-up team sent to the remote territory. Summer thawing meant the polar bear remains became visible. There are claims […]

July 2017 equaled record July 2016 as the warmest July in the 137 years of modern record-keeping

15 August 2017 (NASA) – July 2017 was statistically tied with July 2016 as the warmest July in the 137 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. Last month was about 0.83 degrees Celsius warmer than the […]

Brazil firm wants to build new dams in Amazon’s Aripuanã basin – “This was a big cemetery, which contained all our ancestors, many generations of our tribe, in the middle of the construction site. It is a sacred place for us.”

By Sue Branford 10 August 2017 (Mongabay) – A Brazilian company, Intertechne Consultores, has asked Aneel, the federal Agency for Electric Energy, to authorize viability studies to build three new dams in the Aripuanã river basin — the Sumaúma and Quebra Remo dams along the Aripuanã River itself and the Inferninho dam along its tributary, […]

Record-breaking smoke over Canada from British Columbia forest fires – “If and when the plume drifts over populated areas, it may turn day into night”

By Adam Voiland 15 August 2017 (NASA) – For more than a month, dozens of large fires have raged in British Columbia. Since early July 2017, wildfire has burned through coniferous forests stressed by heat, drought, and infestations of mountain pine beetles. In early August, another cluster of intense fires flared up in Northwest Territories […]

Earth marks record highs for heat, pollutants, and sea level in 2016: American Meteorological Society climate report

12 August 2017 (AFP) – The Earth set a series of dire records in 2016, including hottest year in modern times, highest sea level and most heat-trapping gases ever emitted, a global climate report said yesterday. A range of key climate and weather indicators show the planet is growing increasingly warm, a trend that shows […]

Greenland fires ignite global warming fears – “Fire itself will add to the problem and accelerate thawing of permafrost”

By JoAnna Wendel 11 August 2017 (Eos) – In a real clash of fire and ice, a massive wildfire in southern Greenland has captured the world’s attention.At the end of July, a couple of NASA satellites detected hot spots in Greenland that indicated fire, said Mark Ruminski, a team leader for a hazard mapping system […]

Future of the 328 forest conservation units in Brazilian Amazon to be determined by Federal Supreme Court – “Brazil is currently experiencing an unprecedented offensive against the conservation units”

[Translation by Google.]16 August 2017 (Imazon) – The future of the 328 Federal Conservation Units (UCs), in addition to hundreds of states, throughout Brazil can be decided this week by the Federal Supreme Court (STF). This Wednesday (16 August 2017), two Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality (ADIs) – 4717 and 3646 – that deal with the […]

Fossil fuel subsidies are a staggering $5 trillion per year

By John Abraham 7 August 2017 (The Guardian) – Fossil fuels have two major problems that paint a dim picture for their future energy dominance. These problems are inter-related but still should be discussed separately. First, they cause climate change. We know that, we’ve known it for decades, and we know that continued use of […]

Yemen’s “man-made catastrophe” is ravaging country, senior UN officials tell Security Council

18 August 2017 (UN) – Warning about escalating suffering in Yemen’s man-made catastrophe, senior United Nations officials today addressed the Security Council, calling on the international community to push for a political solution to the more than two-year-old conflict. “Death looms for Yemenis by air, land and sea,” Special Envoy of the Secretary-General to Yemen, […]

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