Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

This old Earth is warming up: Young- Earth creationists mock climate science

By Phil Plait24 March 2014 (Slate ) – As you may recall, last month Bill Nye “debated” creationist Ken Ham about evolution. There was a lot of pre-debate debate about it, mostly in the form of asking if it even makes sense for a science-based person to debate someone who clearly ignores any and all […]

By hiring a climate disinformer, Nate Silver undermines his entire premise of data-driven journalism

By Laurence Lewis23 March 2014 (DailyKos) – Nate Silver claims that his new blog is a data journalism organization. Silver is a numbers guy, and because his analyses of political polls proved more accurate than those made by the often inept traditional media competition, he has become celebrated as a genius, if not quite a […]

Scientists urge ban on roads in intact wilderness areas – ‘We’ll have another 25 million kilometers of paved roads by 2050—enough to encircle the Earth more than 600 times’

21 March 2014 (mongabay.com) – A group of prominent scientists chose to mark the second International Day of Forests by urging the world to support an initiative that aims keep wild areas free of roads. Roadfree, an initiative led by Member of the European Parliament Kriton Arsenis, has been growing in prominence over the past […]

New report exposes nine of the dirtiest U.S. fisheries – ‘Hundreds of thousands of dolphins, whales, sharks, sea birds, sea turtles, and fish needlessly die each year as a result of indiscriminate fishing gear’

Contact: Dustin Cranor, dcranor@oceana.org, 954-348-1314, 954-348-1314 (cell); Amelia Vorpahl, avorpahl@oceana.org, 202-467-1968, 202-476-0632 (cell) Washington, D.C., 20 March 2014 (Oceana) – Today, Oceana released a new report exposing nine of the dirtiest fisheries in the United States. These nine fisheries combined throw away almost half of what they catch and are responsible for more than 50 […]

New index reveals that recent UK floods could signal climate change – ‘To experience four of the six most severe episodes in the last 30 years is disconcerting’

21 March 2014 (PhysOrg) – A new investigation of long-term weather records suggests that recent flooding in the south of England could signal the onset of climate change. The research, from UWE Bristol, Loughborough University and the University of East Anglia has produced a new index of flooding trends called the Fluvial Flood Indices. This […]

Mountain birds climb with increasing temperatures – ‘We call it an escalator to extinction, as the birds are going up until they run out of room’

By ANNA JOHNSON5 March 2014 (Cornell Daily Sun) – Recent research has found that as tropical temperatures climb as a result of climate change, mountain-dwelling tropical birds are doing the same. While climate change is not a new concept, the study conducted in Papua New Guinea aimed to examine the virtually unexplored question of climate […]

This year’s World Water Day focuses on water and energy, but energy companies seem complacent about water risks

By Dave Tickner    21 March 2014 (Guardian Professional) – All hydro, no power? Yesterday afternoon I made a list. I’d like to share it with you: Alon, Solar Alliance, Eskom, GDF Suez, Iberdrola, Ranhill Berhad, Sasol. Can you guess what it’s about? If not, don’t fret. All will be revealed. I made the list while […]

Bitterness over Exxon Valdez oil spill lingers, 25 years on – ‘When the court case was finally adjudicated, the people got pennies on the dollar they really deserved’

By Gregor Waschinski 9 hours ago Washington (AFP) – On a cold March night 25 years ago, the supertanker Exxon Valdez struck a reef off the coast of Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the sea. Images of oil-soaked birds and fouled beaches horrified the United States, leading to tighter regulation and […]

Massachusetts houses wrecked repeatedly by sea rebuilt with taxes – ‘We always knew it was unsustainable there’

By Beth Daley9 March 2014 SCITUATE (Boston Globe) – Over and over again, the Atlantic has taken aim at 48 Oceanside Drive. Almost four decades ago, it slammed the seafront house clear off its foundation. Thirteen years later, ocean water poured through the roof during a nor’easter. So often has the sea catapulted grapefruit-sized rocks […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of slash-and-burn forest fires in Southeast Asia

By Holli Riebeek18 March 2014 (NASA) – Fire and smoke dominate the landscape in this image of Southeast Asia taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on 18 March 2014. Marked in red, the fires burn largely in the subtropical forests common in northern Indochina. Most fires in this region […]

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