Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

By Todd C. Frankel 29 May 2015 ALONG THE SALTON SEA, CALIFORNIA (Washington Post) – The bone-dry lake bed burned crystalline and white in the midday sun. Ecologist Bruce Wilcox hopped out of his truck and bent down to scoop up a handful of the gleaming, crusty soil. Wilcox squeezed, then opened his fist. The […]

By Chris Clarke29 May 2015 (KCET) – Stick a fork in the Hidden Hills Solar Electric Generating System. The 500-megawatt solar power tower project proposed for the Charleston View area in Inyo County, then put on the back burner in 2013, will be canceled by its owner, Oakland-based BrightSource Energy. The news came in an […]

Service interruption

In case you’re wondering about the lack of stories in the last couple of days, technical difficulties are preventing Des from posting. Google and Blogger have switched to OAuth2.0, and Desdemona’s preferred blog editor (Windows Live Writer) hasn’t been updated to the new interface. On 28 May 2015, Microsoft’s Scott Hanselman hinted that a solution […]

New science shows BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill is still killing dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico

20 May 2015 (PBS) – JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: the lasting impact of America’s biggest offshore oil spill. It comes as officials are grappling with a new spill along the coast of Southern California near Santa Barbara. It began yesterday when an onshore pipeline ruptured. Slicks are now spanning a total of nine miles and the […]

Governor says deadly flooding is worst ever seen in Texas area

By Jim Forsyth25 May 2015 (Reuters) – Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Monday likened the ferocity of flash flooding that killed at least three people to a tsunami, and authorities said a dam had given way in a state park. Abbott declared states of disaster in 24 counties and flew over the area south of […]

Alberta forest fire forces evacuation of oilsands facilities

23 May 2015 (CBC News) – Cenovus Energy and Canadian Natural Resources Limited have evacuated their facilities within the Cold Lake Air Weapons range, close to Alberta’s eastern border, due to an out-of-control forest fire in the area. “Yesterday, CNRL evacuated their plant facilities in the Primrose area and then, last night at 11 o’clock, […]

‘Epic’ flooding on Alaska’s Dalton Highway hinders North Slope oil operations

By Alex DeMarban21 May 2015 DEADHORSE (Alaska Dispatch News) – Unprecedented flooding continues to interfere with daily operations on the North Slope oil patch after surging waters wiped away swaths of the Dalton Highway and isolated a section of Deadhorse, the jumping-off point for the sprawling industrial region. “This is just epic,” said Mike Coffey, […]

Desalination: Could one of California’s drought solutions backfire?

By Jessica Rosenthal20 May 2015 California (FOX News Radio) – The obvious solution to California’s drought is water. A lot of it. A NASA analysis late last year found the state needs 11 trillion gallons to get out of the drought. And if it’s not coming from the sky, water agencies, politicians and regulators have […]

Primary rainforest cleared for massive palm oil plantations in Peru – 12,188 hectares of standing forest leveled

By John C. Cannon 20 May 2015 (mongabay.com) – More than 9,400 hectares of closed-canopy Amazonian rainforest has been removed for two oil palm plantations in the Peruvian region of Ucayali since 2011, according to scientists working for MAAP, the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project. The two plantations are linked to Czech entrepreneur Dennis […]

Top EU companies urge drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions – ‘We want a global climate deal that achieves net zero emissions – make it happen’

By Alister Doyle and Geert De Clercq, with additional reporting by Michel Rose and Jessica Chen; Editing by Ahmed Aboulenein and Pravin Char21 May 2015 PARIS (Reuters) – Top European companies urged governments on Thursday to set a goal of slashing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero well before 2100, saying that going green can […]

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