Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

More than one million salt water fish found dead in fresh water creeks in New Jersey

24 August 2016 (The Big Wobble) – The borough has been cleaning up dead fish for three days in a fish kill that is now estimated to be in the millions of fish. What is strange, very strange is, the peanut bunker fish are salt water fish and Waackaack Creek is fresh water? Mayor George […]

In major shift, International Criminal Court to prosecute environmental crimes

By Mihai Andrei 16 September 2016 (ZME Science) – In what has been hailed as a major shift, the International Criminal Court (ICC) will also start focusing on crimes linked to environmental destruction, the illegal exploitation of natural resources and unlawful dispossession of land. The ICC is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that sits […]

Number of South Sudan refugees passes one million – ‘Most of those fleeing South Sudan are women and children’

16 September 2016 (UN) – As instability and violence persist in the world’s newest country, the number of South Sudanese seeking safety and shelter in neighbouring countries has crossed the one million mark, the United Nations refugee agency said today. “Most of those fleeing South Sudan are women and children,” Leo Dobbs, a spokesperson for […]

Costa Rica halts police cooperation with turtle protection activists, endangers turtle hatcheries – ‘Costa Rica is a country where rescuing turtles can literally get you killed’

16 September 2016 (Sea Shepherd) – The Costa Rican Government is forcing Sea Shepherd to shut down Operation Jairo II, a campaign to protect endangered sea turtles. Any Sea Shepherd volunteer found patrolling beaches or engaging in sea turtle conservation work will be detained and deported. In Costa Rica, the Jaco Police teamed with Sea […]

In a hungry Venezuela, buying too much food can get you arrested

By Mariana Zuñiga and Nick Miroff 15 September 2016 BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela (Washington Post) – The hunt for food started at 4 a.m., when Alexis Camascaro woke up to get in line outside the supermarket. By the time he arrived, there were already 100 people ahead of him. Camascaro never made it inside. Truckloads of Venezuelan […]

Study links altered brain chemistry, behavioral impairments in fish exposed to elevated CO2

MIAMI, 12 September 2016 (University of Miami) – In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers from the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University showed that increased carbon dioxide concentrations alters brain chemistry that may lead to neurological impairment […]

Bioethicist: The climate crisis calls for fewer children

By Travis N. Rieder11 September 2016 (The Conversation) – Earlier this summer, I found myself in the middle of a lively debate because of my work on climate change and the ethics of having children. NPR correspondent Jennifer Ludden profiled some of my work in procreative ethics with an article entitled, “Should we be having […]

Photo gallery: Hermit crabs who live in trash

By Anika Burgess 6 September 2016 (Atlas Obscura) – With a new report released yesterday into the vast increases in ocean temperatures, human activity on marine life affects all ends of the food chain. Take, for example, the coenobita purpureus, or blueberry hermit crabs, of Okinawa. Like other hermit crabs, they also need shells to […]

Global warming increased chances of record rains in Louisiana by at least 40 percent

7 September 2016 (NOAA) – Human-caused climate warming increased the chances of the torrential rains that unleashed devastating floods in south Louisiana in mid August by at least 40 percent, according to a team of NOAA and partner scientists with World Weather Attribution (WWA) who conducted a rapid assessment of the role of climate on […]

Unprecedented atmospheric behavior disrupts one of Earth’s most regular climate cycles ‘forever’

9 September 2016 (Oxford University) – The normal flow of air high up in the atmosphere over the equator, known as the quasi-biennial oscillation, was seen to break down earlier this year. These stratospheric winds are found high above the tropics, and their direction and strength changes in a regular two to three-year cycle, which […]

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