Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf calves trillion ton iceberg

By Martin O’Leary and Adrian Luckman 12 July 2017 (Project MIDAS) – A one trillion tonne iceberg – one of the biggest ever recorded – has calved away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The calving occurred sometime between Monday 10th July and Wednesday 12th July 2017, when a 5,800 square km section […]

Appeals court rules against EPA in methane gas regulations – “This ruling slams the brakes on the Trump administration’s brazen efforts to put the interests of corporate polluters ahead of protecting the public and the environment”

3 July 2017 (VOA News) – A U.S. federal appeals court ruled Monday that Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt lacks the authority to suspend rules that oil and gas companies monitor and fix methane gas leaks. Two of the three judges on the panel wrote that an order delaying such a rule is the […]

EPA axes 38 more science advisers, cancels panel meetings – “This says to me that they do not want objective science”

By Sean Reilly 20 June 2017 (E&E News) – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt continues to clean house at a key advisory committee, signaling plans to drop several dozen current members of the Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC), according to an email yesterday from a senior agency official.All board members whose three-year […]

Grapes shrivel as Spanish farmers lament a relentless drought

By Sam Jones 8 July 2017 Malpartida de Plasencia, Extremadura (The Guardian) – […] This is not a good year in Extremadura or elsewhere on the Iberian peninsula. Once again, drought has struck, devastating cereal crops, threatening the olive and grape harvest and leaving livestock short of food and water. “This is an awful year […]

State of emergency declared, towns evacuated in B.C. as wildfires burn out of control

By Maryse Zeidler 8 July 2017 (CBC News) – The province of British Columbia has declared a state of emergency, as wildfires burn out of control throughout most of the Interior. “​The extended weather forecast is calling for continued hot, dry weather, with risks of thunderstorms in many parts of the province,” the province said […]

Video: EPA launching program to challenge climate science

2 July 2017 (PBS) – In the latest move to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change, Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has recruited a team of researchers to challenge climate science. Emily Holden, who broke the story for E&E News’s ClimateWire, joins Hari Sreenivasan from Washington, D.C. EPA launching program to […]

New heat wave bakes Southwest U.S.

By Dr. Jeff Masters 8 July 2017 (Wunderground) – After suffering through the most intense heat wave ever to affect the region so early in the year during mid-June, the Southwest U.S. is once again roasting in record heat. On Friday, Death Valley, California hit 127°–a tie with 20 June 2017 as the hottest temperature […]

Industrial farming disrupts burn-regrowth cycle in grasslands, study finds – “Humans are interrupting the ancient, natural cycle of burning and recovery”

Irvine, California, 29 June 2017 (UCI) – The world’s open grasslands and the beneficial fires that sustain them have shrunk rapidly over the past two decades, thanks to a massive increase in agriculture, according to a new study led by University of California, Irvine and NASA researchers published today in Science.Analyzing 1998 to 2015 data […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of forest fires near Lake Baikal in June 2017

By Mike Carlowicz 25 June 2017 (NASA) – Wildfires spread across southern Siberia in late June 2017. According to Russian state media, at least 27,000 hectares (100 square miles) were burning in the Irkutsk Oblast region. Another 27,000 hectares burned in neighboring states and regions. More than 200 firefighters were sent to control the blazes. […]

Climate change-induced migration from Central America

By Stephanie Leutert 21 June 2017 (Lawfare) – Last Thursday and Friday, the United States and Mexico co-hosted top officials from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and other countries for the “Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America.” As the name suggests, the gathering aimed to spur a wide-ranging conversation for improving the region’s economic […]

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