Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Drought boosts California’s dependence on natural gas as hydroelectric shrivels

By Chris Clarke   18 March 2015 (KCET) – In a typical year, California gets almost a fifth of its energy from dams on its rivers and streams. But the last several years have been anything but typical: the ongoing drought has shrunk the state’s reservoirs and cut the amount of hydro power the state can […]

Massive sinkholes break open as Dead Sea shrivels – ‘It’s nature's revenge: These sinkholes are a direct result of the inappropriate mismanagement of water resources in the region’

By Molly Hunter17 March 2015 EIN GEDI, ISRAEL (ABC News) – There are more than 3,000 sinkholes on the banks of the Dead Sea – and they’re multiplying exponentially, according to environmentalists, as the body of water dries up. “It’s nature’s revenge,” said Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli Director at EcoPeace Middle East, an organization that […]

February 2015 was wettest month for São Paulo since 1995, but little help for reservoirs

9 March 2015 (The Economist) – February 2015 was the wettest month in the region around São Paulo since 1995, with rainfall 36% above the historical average [This isn’t evident from the graph. I think the author means “36% above the historical minimum.”  –Des]. But the water emergency in South America’s biggest metropolis is not […]

Vanuatu president on Cyclone Pam: ‘Climate change is contributing to this’ – Seychelles president: ‘A clear manifestation of climate change, which some persist to deny’

By Peter Walker and Paul Farrell16 March 2015 (The Guardian) – At least 24 people died when cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu at the weekend, authorities have confirmed. The storm flattened buildings, wrecked infrastructure and has left more than 3,000 people in the South Pacific island nation displaced. As the full scale of the storm remained […]

Denver records earliest 80-degree temperature in 143-year weather record

By Chris Spears16 March 2015 DENVER (CBS4) – The calendar might still show winter, but it felt more like early summer across Colorado on Monday. For the second day in a row new record high temperatures were set across the region. Denver’s high of 81°F at Denver International Airport on Mar. 16 broke the previous […]

Here are the water restrictions California should have passed today

By Alissa Walker17 March 2015 (Gizmodo) – After confronting the truth that we have only one year of water left, California passed new water restrictions today which are WIMPY AS HELL. Here, California, I fixed them for you. Admittedly, the impact of these restrictions is lessened because many of the state’s cities already have their […]

Graph of the Day: Decline of pollinator species, 1988-2012

10 February 2015 (Conservation Letters) – Red List Indices for (a) pollinating and non-pollinating bird species; (b) pollinating and non-pollinating mammal species; and (c) aggregated pollinating and non-pollinating birds and mammals. An RLI value of 1 equates to all species being Least Concern; an RLI value of 0 equates to all species being Extinct. Improvements […]

China has already exceeded its 2015 ‘cap’ on coal production

4 March 2015 (Carbon Counter) – China has put in place plans to “cap” coal consumption and production in 2020. For whatever reason, this is regularly rendered as “China has plans to peak coal consumption by 2020″. This is not exactly correct. The cap itself can, and probably will, simply increase after 2020. Another case […]

Once again, a record-hot winter for California

By Andrea Thompson 6 March 2015 (Climate Central) – As Yogi Berra famously said, “it’s déjà vu all over again.” While much of the eastern U.S. digs out from yet another snow and ice storm, the West has capped off a decidedly toasty winter. In fact, California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Washington each saw their […]

Poacher Profile: Spotlight on Vidal Armadores

25 February 2015 (Sea Shepherd Global) – In our Poacher Profile series, we take a closer look at the criminal profiteers who are behind Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fishing operations in the Southern Ocean. You may have heard the name Vidal Armadores linked to the 2 poaching vessels that were intercepted by the Sea […]

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