Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Great barrier reef obituary goes viral, to the horror of scientists – ‘The message should be that it isn’t too late, not we should all give up’

[Although this obituary is cleverly written, the GBR’s situation is bad enough, and overstating it isn’t helpful. Nevertheless, this was possibly the GBR’s worst year in its 600,000 year history, with 22 percent of the reef totally bleached. The inexorable trends in acidification and ocean warming suggest that we may still witness the death of […]

Report revels 56 percent of UK species have declined since 1970 and 1,199 species are threatened with extinction

By Dr. Barnaby Smith14 September 2016 (CEH) – The State of Nature 2016 UK report is launched by Sir David Attenborough and UK conservation and research organisations at the Royal Society in London this morning (Wednesday, September 14). Following on from the first State of Nature report published in 2013 the report reveals that over […]

Image of the Day: Native American woman prays in front of police blockade at Dakota Access Pipeline protest

6 October 2016 (Sacred Stone Camp) – From the front line of the battle to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline: this Warrior Woman in prayer is faced by officers and a road block preventing entry through the town of St Anthony, North Dakota. #NoDAPL #RezpectOurWater #SacredStoneCamp #RedWarriorCamp. Photo: Rob Wilson Photography Sacred Stone Camp Technorati […]

New images show scale of Haiti destruction from Hurricane Matthew

6 October 2016 (BBC News) – New images show the extent of devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, with one town virtually wiped out and at least 23 people dead. The death toll is expected to rise amid concern over an area in the south-west which remains largely cut off. Images from one of […]

Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacted bluefin tuna spawning habitat in Gulf of Mexico – ‘Population shows little evidence of rebuilding’

30 September 2016 (Stanford University) – The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was one of the largest environmental disasters in history, releasing roughly 4 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. For Atlantic bluefin tuna, it occurred at the worst time of year, during peak spawning season, when eggs and larval fish that […]

Unprecedented Arctic change demands action: World Meteorological Organization

28 September 2016 (WMO) – Dramatic and unprecedented warming in the Arctic is driving sea level rise, affecting weather patterns around the world and may trigger even more changes in the climate system. The rate of change is challenging the current scientific capacity to monitor and predict what is becoming a journey into uncharted territory. […]

Survey finds trust in climate scientists low among U.S. Republicans, much higher among liberal Democrats

By Cary Funk and Brian Kennedy4 October 2016 (Pew Research Center) – Political fissures on climate issues extend far beyond beliefs about whether climate change is occurring and whether humans are playing a role, according to a new, in-depth survey by Pew Research Center. These divisions reach across every dimension of the climate debate, down […]

Hurricane Matthew leaves ‘catastrophic’ devastation in Caribbean – U.N. calls it the largest humanitarian event in Haiti since 2010 quake

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – A United Nations official says Hurricane Matthew has caused the biggest humanitarian crisis in Haiti since the devastating earthquake of 2010. Deputy Special Representative for Haiti Mourad Wahba says in a statement that many people have been forced from their homes and communications systems have been knocked out in the country’s […]

No country on Earth is taking the 2 degree climate target seriously

By David Roberts 4 October 2016 (Vox) – One of the morbidly fascinating aspects of climate change is how much cognitive dissonance it generates, in individuals and nations alike. The more you understand the brutal logic of climate change — what it could mean, the effort necessary to forestall it — the more the intensity […]

Hawaii’s only native bees placed on Endangered Species list

HONOLULU, 30 September 2016 (AP) – Federal authorities added seven yellow-faced bee species, Hawaii’s only native bees, for protection under the Endangered Species Act Friday, a first for any bees in the United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the listing after years of study by the conservation group Xerces Society. The group […]

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