Blogging the End of the World™
By Sue Sturgis8 October 2015 (Facing South) – South Carolina continues to assess the damage from the historic rains that fell between Friday and Monday and dumped as much as 20 inches of rain in some parts of the state. At least 16 people were killed and more than a dozen dams breached in the […]
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ10 October 2015 MIAMI (The New York Times) – Amid the alligators, oversize iguanas, pythons and giant snails that habitually seize the spotlight in Florida, there stands a more mundane but no less iconic creature that roams the state: the Florida black bear. The bears, or those who represent their interests, recently got […]
By Tim Gaynor9 October 2015 GENEVA, 9 October 2015 (UNHCR) – UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres today appealed to the European Union to provide “massive support” to Greece to meet the needs of up to 6,000 refugees arriving each day as winter looms across Europe. He stressed that Greek authorities alone were not […]
[UPDATE: Des was suspicious of this number and emailed BLM. Turns out it’s a typo. The actual number is 9,276,416 acres burned year-to-date]. 10 October 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – Just last week, the NIFC site computed the year-to-date acres burned for 2015 to be neck-and-neck with the most recent record year, 2006, at slightly above […]
By Joseph Serna10 October 2015 (Los Angeles Times) – A heat wave gripped Southern California on Friday, with one Ventura County community hitting the highest temperature reading since record-keeping began. A weather station near Camarillo Airport recorded 108 degrees, breaking the all-time high of 103 recorded on 23 September 1978. Elsewhere, triple-digit readings were recorded […]
9 October 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – 2015 is likely to be among the worst years for forest fires on record. A lot of this destruction is caused by fires that are intentionally set to clear forests for agriculture. In Sumatra and southern Borneo, rainforest and peatlands are burned to make room for palm oil plantations. […]
By Damian Carrington 7 October 2015 (The Guardian) – Fires raging across the forests and peatlands of Indonesia are on track to pump out more carbon emissions than the UK’s entire annual output, Greenpeace has warned. As well as fuelling global warming, the thick smoke choking cities in the region is likely to cause the […]
By Cynthia Walley9 October 2015 (African Parks) – It is with deep regret that African Parks announces the death of Garamba rangers Anselme Kimbesa Muhindo, Andre Gada Migifuloyo, and Djuma Adalu Uweko, and Colonel Jacques Sukamate Lusengo, the member of the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), who was assisting with patrols. The four men leave their […]
Guest post by Alexander Ač9 October 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – Sea level rise (SLR) is recognized as one of the least adaptable impacts of ongoing climate change. Once a certain area is permanently flooded with saline water, people have to leave. Forever. Thus SLR projections gain a lot of attention not only in the climate […]
By Alison GillespieOctober 6, 2015 (smithsonian.com) – It isn’t hard to find the big tree they call Lady Liberty in Florida. It stands at the end of a boardwalk about 16 miles north of Orlando, along with many gums, oaks, and magnolias in the middle of a small public park. What is hard is photographing […]
