Blogging the End of the World™
5 December 2014 (CSI) – Public discussion of scientific topics such as global warming is confused by misuse of the term “skeptic.” The Nov 10, 2014, New York Times article “Republicans Vow to Fight EPA and Approve Keystone Pipeline” referred to Sen. James Inhofe as “a prominent skeptic of climate change.” Two days later Scott […]
By Erik de Castro, with additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco, Manny Mogato, Karen Lema, and Neil Jerome Morales in Manila; Writing by Rosemarie Francisco; Editing by Nick Macfie9 December 2014 MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine emergency workers were struggling on Tuesday to reach coastal villages on an island hardest hit by a typhoon where thousands of […]
[Greenspan and Deardorff also research how obesity affects the onset of puberty, e.g., “Onset of Breast Development in a Longitudinal Cohort”, 2013. –Des] 2 December 2014 (NPR) – Many girls are beginning puberty at an early age, developing breasts sooner than girls of previous generations. But the physical changes don’t mean the modern girls’ emotional […]
(FAO) – The latest estimates indicate that 805 million people – about one in nine of the world’s population – were chronically undernourished in 2012–14, with insufficient food for an active and healthy life. This number represents a decline of more than 100 million people over the last decade and of 209 million since 1990–92. […]
8 December 2014 (Al Jazeera) – The Maldives, a tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean, has run out of water. A popular tourist destination surrounded by pristine seas and turquoise-blue ocean vistas, the archipelago has declared a state of emergency after a fire at its only desalination plant led to the shortage that has […]
By Erik de Castro, with additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco, Manny Mogato, Erik dela Cruz, and Neil Jerome Morales in Manila; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Alex Richardson8 December 2014 MANILA (Reuters) – Typhoon Hagupit weakened to a tropical storm as it churned close to the Philippine capital on Monday, after killing 27 people on […]
3 December 2014 (AFP) – The melt rate of glaciers in the fastest-melting part of Antarctica has tripled over the past decade, researchers said Tuesday in an analysis of the past 21 years. Glaciers in the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica are losing ice faster than another part of Antarctica and are the biggest contributor […]
By Emily Atkin 4 December 2014 (Climate Progress) – A nature reserve has been flooded with oil and more than 80 people have been hospitalized from exposure to toxic fumes after approximately 600,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from a pipeline in southern Israel on Wednesday, according to media reports there. The massive spill, which […]
By BRAD BROOKS and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON 4 December 2014 SÃO PAULO (Associated Press) – Vera Lucia de Oliveira looks to the sky, hoping for any sign of rain. For weeks, the taps in her home have run dry as São Paulo has suffered its worst drought in eight decades, with rainfall at one-third the […]
By Tom Randall5 December 2014 (Bloomberg) – Record rains fell in California this week. They’re not enough to change the course of what scientists are now calling the region’s worst drought in at least 1,200 years. Just how bad has California’s drought been? Modern measurements already showed it’s been drier than the 1930s dustbowl, worse […]
