Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Graph of the Day: Oyster harvests in the Chesapeake Bay, 1880-2008

July 2010 (Chesapeake Bay Foundation) – Oyster harvests tumbled by two-thirds between the 1890s and 1930, but then remained relatively stable at a lower level until the 1950s. Then a pair of diseases hit. MSX and Dermo are both caused by parasites that attack and frequently kill oysters, although they are harmless to people. Compounded […]

Rates of change in Earth’s surface temperature unprecedented for at least the past 1,000 years – ‘There’s not going to be anything close to equilibrium’

By James Sullivan  10 March 2015 (Science Recorder) – According to a new paper published Monday in Nature Climate Change, it’s about to get a whole lot hotter – that’s the projected trend after looking at the weather over 40-year periods. While the fact that next century may bring us temperatures over the two degree […]

Public opposition forces major changes for California’s Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan

By Chris Clarke10 March 2015 (KCET) – Stringent criticism of a draft of a 12,000-page plan that would manage renewable energy development on 22 million acres of the California desert has forced a drastic change in strategy for the agencies pushing the plan. The Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, known as the DRECP and released […]

What’s behind the recent surge of Amazon deforestation? ‘If you cleared illegally, you got away with it. And the expectation is that if you clear illegally now, sooner or later there will be another amnesty.’

By Richard Schiffman9 March 2015 (Yale Environment 360) – Ecologist Philip Fearnside has lived and worked in the Brazilian Amazon for 30 years and is one of the foremost authorities on deforestation in the world’s largest tropical forest. A professor at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon, Fearnside has focused his work on […]

Climatology versus pseudoscience: Exposing the failed predictions of global warming skeptics – ‘I was surprised at how accurate mainstream climate scientists’ predictions have been, even using the earliest global climate models’

By Greg Laden11 March 2015 (Science Blogs) – Dana Nuccitelli is a key communicator in the climate change conversation. He is co-writer with John Abraham at the Climate Consensus – the 97% blog at the Guardian, and has contributed hundreds of entries to John Cook’s famous site SkepticalScience.com. He has measurably helped people to understand […]

Climate change: why the Guardian is putting threat to Earth front and centre

By Alan Rusbridger6 March 2015 (The Guardian) – Journalism tends to be a rear-view mirror. We prefer to deal with what has happened, not what lies ahead. We favour what is exceptional and in full view over what is ordinary and hidden. Famously, as a tribe, we are more interested in the man who bites […]

Why fresh water shortages will cause the next great global crisis – ‘For us, water is now more important than oil’

By Robin McKie, science editor7 March 2015 (The Guardian) – Water is the driving force of all nature, Leonardo da Vinci claimed. Unfortunately for our planet, supplies are now running dry – at an alarming rate. The world’s population continues to soar but that rise in numbers has not been matched by an accompanying increase […]

First major protest against the water crisis in São Paulo – ‘Police will guard the water for those who can pay for it, while we die of thirst’

By Mídia NINJA and Laura Capriglione  27 February 2015 (NINJA) – The Iguatemi Mall, on Faria Lima Avenue, did not seem to welcome the crowd. Neither did the Rolls Royce store, on Cidade Jardim Avenue. These sacred luxury consumer temples (where the water tanks are always full), lowered their doors before the march that brought […]

Peak Coal in China? Not so fast

By Robert Wilson27 February 2015 (Carbon Counter) – China’s coal consumption officially fell by 2.9% last year for the first time in 14 years. Is this evidence of “peak coal” in China as some are already claiming or a temporary blip? Let’s begin with an obvious problem. China’s coal demand officially declined 14 years ago. […]

Graph of the Day: Three waves of drought in 21st Century California

By Bob Henson27 February 2015 (Wunderground.com) – […] California is entering its fourth consecutive year of widespread drought, as measured by the U.S. Drought Monitor, which takes into account soil conditions and streamflow as well as precipitation. This is the third multiyear drought in California since 2000, and as Figure 3 shows, it’s the worst […]

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