Desdemona Despair – Page 6 – Blogging the End of the World™

Map showing geomorphological data and icefield reconstruction of the Juneau Icefield for the “Little Ice Age” (LIA) maximum. Graphic: Davies, et al., 2024 / Nature Communications

July 5, 2024

Melting of Alaska’s Juneau Icefield accelerates, losing snow nearly 5 times faster than in the 1980s – “When you go there the changes from year-to-year are so dramatic that it just hits you over the head”

By Seth Borenstein 2 July 2024 (AP) – The melting of Alaska’s Juneau icefield, home to more than 1,000 glaciers, is accelerating. The snow covered area is now shrinking 4.6 times faster than it was in the 1980s, according to a new study. Researchers meticulously tracked snow levels in the nearly 1,500-square mile icy expanse going back […]

Flames consume a home on Bessie Lane as the Thompson Fire burns in Oroville, California, Tuesday, 2 July 2024. An extended heat wave blanketing Northern California resulted in red flag fire warnings and power shutoffs. Photo: Noah Berger / AP Photo

July 5, 2024

Insurance crisis that started in Florida and California is spreading – “Insurance companies are responding to the fact that we’re seeing more frequent and more severe climate events, and the fact that they’re paying out more than they’re bringing in”

By Scott Cohn 2 July 2024 (CNBC) – An insurance crisis that has sent premiums skyrocketing and caused carriers to flee coastal states like Florida and California is spreading, and it is fundamentally changing the real estate market in states across the country. “Not only is the cost higher than people anticipated, but just the inability to […]

Homes destroyed by Hurricane Beryl lie in Clifton, Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thursday, 4 July 2024. Photo: Lucanus Ollivierre / AP Photo

July 5, 2024

Hurricane Beryl batters Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula as Texas officials urge coastal residents to prepare – 11 dead across the Caribbean – “This is a determined storm that is still strong”

By Martín Silva and John Myers Jr. 5 July 2024 TULUM, Mexico (AP) – Beryl battered Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday after hitting near the resort town of Tulum, whipping trees and knocking out power, while officials in Texas urged coastal residents to prepare as the storm moves toward the Gulf of Mexico. Beryl hit Mexico as […]

Map showing reduction of stored groundwater in the U.S. Southwest, April 2002 - September 2023. Gravity measurements from the GRACE series of satellites show that the decline in water levels in the Great Basin region from April 2002 to September 2023 has most severely affected portions of southern California (indicated in red). Record snowfall in recent years has not been enough to offset long-term drying conditions and increasing groundwater demands in the U.S. Southwest. Graphic: Hall, et al., 2024 / Geophysical Research Letters

July 5, 2024

NASA satellites find record snow didn’t offset Southwest U.S. groundwater loss – “In years like the 2022-23 winter, I expected that the record amount of snowfall would really help to replenish the groundwater supply. But overall, the decline continued.”

By James R. Riordon 17 June 2024 (NASA GSFC) – Record snowfall in recent years has not been enough to offset long-term drying conditions and increasing groundwater demands in the U.S. Southwest, according to a new analysis of NASA satellite data [Snowfall Replenishes Groundwater Loss in the Great Basin of the Western United States, but […]

Diagram showing how microplastics enter the human body and are detected in semen by using Raman spectroscopy. Graphic: Li, et al., 2024 / Science of The Total Environment

July 5, 2024

Microplastics found in every human semen sample tested in study – “There is a need for action to avoid additional permanent damage to the planet and the human body”

By Damian Carrington 10 June 2024 (The Guardian) – Microplastic pollution has been found in all human semen samples tested in a study, and researchers say further research on the potential harm to reproduction is “imperative”. Sperm counts in men have been falling for decades and 40% of low counts remain unexplained, although chemical pollution has been implicated by many […]

Maps of near-bottom dissolved oxygen in the continental shelf waters off the United States Pacific Northwest, 1950-2021. About half of the water near the seafloor off the Pacific Northwest coast experienced low-oxygen conditions in 2021. Data from 1950 to 1980 are from the World Ocean Database32, data from 2009–2018 are from the NOAA Groundfish survey, and data from 2021 are from this study. Graphic: Barth, et al., 2024 / Nature Scientific Reports

July 5, 2024

Pacific Northwest coast suffers from low oxygen, study finds – “As we keep changing the climate, it’s going to become the norm. What’s pretty remarkable is that 50 percent of the continental shelf is going to be low oxygen.”

By Amanda Zhou 10 June 2024 (The Seattle Times) – About half of the water near the seafloor off the Pacific Northwest coast experienced low-oxygen conditions in 2021, according to a new study. And those hypoxic conditions, which are expected to become common with global warming, threaten the food web, the study found. The study […]

Map of the U.S. showing 11 weather and climate disasters each costing $1 billion or more that occurred between January and May, 2024. Graphic: NOAA / NCEI

July 5, 2024

Billion-dollar disasters swept across the U.S. in Spring 2024

By Meredith Garofalo 13 June 2024 (Space.com) – Two severe weather events in May brought the number of billion-dollar disasters for the United States in 2024 up to nearly a dozen. The month began with a tornado outbreak from May 6 to May 10 that stretched across 23 states, going from South Dakota to Florida. […]

An abandoned home sits across from a vacant lot Wednesday, 22 May 2024, in Hannibal, Missouri. Photo: Jeff Roberson / AP Photo

July 5, 2024

For shrinking Mississippi River towns, frequent floods worsen fortunes – “Everybody’s gone. This is a ghost town.”

By Michael Phillis, Jim Salter, and Camille Fassett 11 June 2024 WEST ALTON, Missouri (AP) – Devastating flooding, driven in part by climate change, is taking an especially damaging toll on communities that once thrived along the banks of America’s most storied river. Flooding has pushed people out of their homes near the Mississippi River at […]

People walk through waist-deep water in a flooded street as they evacuate on 12 June 2024, in Hollywood, Florida. On 12 June 2024, Gov. DeSantis signed the state budget after cutting almost $1 billion from the fiscal plan, including about $205 million in stormwater, wastewater, and sewer projects. Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images

July 5, 2024

Florida governor Ron DeSantis cuts stormwater flooding funding amid Florida deluge – “All those storm water projects he cut look pretty stupid right now”

By Jordan King 13 June 2024 (Newsweek) – Communities in Florida were hit with heavy rainfall and intense flooding on the same day Governor Ron DeSantis cut budgets for multiple water projects. On 12 June 2024, DeSantis signed the state budget after cutting almost $1 billion from the fiscal plan, the Tampa Bay Times reported—including about $205 […]

A firefighter runs while battling the Thompson Fire burning in Oroville, California, Tuesday, 2 July 2024. An extended heat wave blanketing Northern California resulted in red flag fire warnings and power shutoffs. Photo: Noah Berger / AP Photo

July 5, 2024

Evacuations ordered as new California wildfire ignites in scorching heat wave

By Patrick Smith 5 July 2024 (NBC News) – Scorching temperatures on the Fourth of July fueled wildfires in California that have burned through the night, as warnings from meteorologists that the holiday period could be hit by dangerously high heat came to pass. With much of the country in the grip of a heat wave that is set to […]