Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Brexit costs investors $2 trillion, the worst one-day drop ever – British pound sterling falls below Friday’s 31-year low amid uncertainty

By Javier E. David26 Jun 2016 (CNBC) – The U.K.’s referendum to leave the European Union was a costly decision in more ways than one. Worldwide markets hemorrhaged more than $2 trillion in paper wealth on Friday, according to data from S&P Global, the worst on record. For context, that figure eclipsed the whipsaw trading […]

Graph of the Day: World primary energy consumption, 1990-2015

9 June 2016 (BP) – World primary energy consumption grew by a below-average 1.0% in 2015, the slowest rate of growth since 1998 (other than the decline in the aftermath of the financial crisis). Growth was below average in all regions except Europe and Eurasia. All fuels except oil and nuclear power grew at below-average […]

Groundwater pumping sinks Beijing region at increasing rate

By Brett Walton15 June 2016 (Circle of Blue) – Beijing, one of the world’s most water-scarce large cities, has long drawn on groundwater reserves to supply more than 20 million people. The unrelenting pressure for water, though, is causing the land to shift and sink and buckle, which puts subway and high-speed rail lines, buildings, […]

What it might take to protect the world’s biggest naval base from rising seas

By Carolyn Beeler26 June 2016 (PRI) – When US Secretary of State John Kerry wanted to push his country to take the lead on climate change, it was no accident that he chose to give a speech in Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk Naval Station is the biggest naval installation in the world. But, Kerry said last […]

This chart shows what’s at stake in the quest to stop global warming

By Chris Mooney 23 June 2016 (Washington Post) – Here at the Energy and Environment blog, we cover, regularly, the tipping points of climate change — how, for instance, the glaciers of West Antarctica may already have passed a key threshold that leads to unstoppable melt. We cover the history of the Earth’s climate — […]

How much worse can Venezuela get?

By Ben Raderstorf and Michael Shifter26 June 2016 (Slate) –  Venezuela faces a disaster. Over the past month, food riots have broken out across the country as mostly empty supermarkets are looted. Its capital, Caracas, is now the most violent city in the world. The economy is in a tailspin, set to contract 10 percent […]

California firefighters begin grim search for more wildfire victims

By Trevor Hughes26 June 2016 LAKE ISABELLA, California (USA TODAY) – As crews searched Saturday for more wildfire victims, officials said scorching heat predicted for the next week will likely help fuel the deadly Erskine Fire and complicate efforts to control the blaze. Two people are confirmed dead in the 35,000-acre wildfire that began Thursday […]

Climate scientists predict more blazing heat, drought, fires, and millions of dead trees in the U.S. West – ‘The climate is changing, and these fires are a very strong indicator of that’

By Darryl Fears23 June 2016 (Washington Post) – The burning sensation in the southwestern United States was diagnosed by climate scientists more than a year ago. As California broiled in high temperatures and drought last year, academic institutions across the country released study after study that suggested rising temperatures and less moisture were part of […]

Pacific Northwest orcas are starving – ‘There simply aren’t enough salmon out there for them to eat’

By David Neiwert24 June 2016 (Crosscut) – Vancouver photographer Mark Malleson took this photograph of the Southern Resident killer whale known as J-34, or Doublestuf, breaching while he was in the interior waters of the Salish Sea this spring. It’s a remarkable and frightening photo for orca lovers, because the male orca’s ribs appear to […]

California beekeepers feel the sting of stolen hives

By Jodi Helmer6 June 2016 (NPR) – Between December and March, beekeepers send millions of hives to California to pollinate almond trees. Not all of the hives make it back home. “The number of beehive thefts is increasing,” explains Jay Freeman, a detective with the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. In California, 1,734 hives were stolen […]

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