Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Climate change, winter storms, and the future of European wine

By Peter Coy     13 February 2014 (Business Week) – You may have trouble believing that today’s mammoth snow-and-ice storm on the East Coast has anything to do with climate change, even though there’s strong scientific evidence that global warming makes erratic weather in the U.S. more likely by disrupting the jet stream. But while you […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of extratropical cyclone over the United Kingdom, 12 February 2014

By Adam Voiland12 February 2014 (NASA) – Soggy winters are not unusual in the United Kingdom, but this winter has been in a category of its own. UK Met Office meteorologists had just declared January 2014 the wettest month on record for parts of southern Britain when another series of storms swept across the area […]

Cracks found in floor near Fukushima radioactive water tanks – Contaminated snowmelt may have seeped into ground

12 February 2014 (The Asahi Shimbun) – Two cracks were discovered in a concrete floor near radioactive water storage tanks on the grounds of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the plant operator said Feb. 11. Officials with Tokyo Electric Power Co. said some of the contaminated water from the melting snow blanketing […]

In parched California, a message of aid and a warning from President Obama – ‘A changing climate means weather-related disasters like droughts, wildfires, storms, floods, are potentially going to be costlier and they’re going to be harsher’

By Diana Marcum and Evan Halper February 14, 2014, 9:14 p.m. FIREBAUGH, California (Los Angeles Times) – Standing Friday afternoon on cracked, parched earth where melons would usually grow, President Obama brought both a message of aid and an ominous warning to drought-stricken California as he outlined more than $160 million in federal assistance. The […]

Global warming, winter weather, and the Olympics – Five leading climate scientists weigh in

By ANDREW C. REVKIN14 February 2014 (The New York Times) – There’s a noteworthy letter in today’s edition of the journal Science, titled “Global Warming and This Winter’s Cold Weather,” that aims to cut through the flood of overwrought assertions about recent Northern Hemisphere winter weather in the context of global warming. It’s written by […]

Another day, another river ruined by a big coal-industry spill – ‘When this much coal slurry goes into the stream, it wipes the stream out’

By John Upton13 Februry 2014 (Grist) – The coal power industry has dumped a lot of toxic crap into yet another river. This latest incident is not to be confused with the spill of toxic coal-cleaning chemicals that poisoned a West Virginia river last month and left 300,000 people without drinking water. Nor is it […]

Marine heat waves causing ‘almost unprecedented’ damage to Australia corals – ‘To see them badly damaged, or completely dead, as a result of bleachings that happened over previous years, and likely the one in 2013, was surprising’

By Katie Valentine13 February 2014 (Climate Progress) – The Earth’s oceans are warming rapidly, absorbing about 90 percent of the heat created by anthropogenic climate change. Now, new research shows that this heat has caused “almost unprecedented” damage to ancient corals of the coast of Western Australia. The research, which has yet to be published […]

UK floods: Homes without power as new storm approaches – ‘This is an exceptional event. It was the highest rainfall in January since 1776 and we think it is likely December, January and February will be the highest for 250 years.’

13 February 2014 (BBC News) – Engineers are working to restore power to thousands of UK homes as forecasters warn a storm on Friday could be worse than Wednesday’s destructive weather. BBC Weather’s John Hammond said the storm, approaching from the Atlantic, would be “every bit as intense, if not more” compared with Wednesday’s. About […]

Ivory’s shocking toll: 65 percent of forest elephants killed in 12 years – ‘At least a couple of hundred thousand forest elephants were lost between 2002-2013 to the tune of at least sixty a day, or one every twenty minutes, day and night’

By Jeremy Hance 12 February 2014 (mongabay.com) – Forest elephants have suffered unprecedented butchery for their ivory tusks over the past decade, according to new numbers released by conservationists today in London. Sixty-five percent of the world’s forest elephants have been slaughtered by poachers over the last dozen years, with poachers killing an astounding nine […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of bushfires in Southeastern Australia, 9 February 2014

By Holli Riebeek11 February 2014 (NASA) – With high temperatures and strong winds, fire conditions reached dangerous levels on February 8-9, 2014, in the Australian state of Victoria. Several large bushfires burned in and around Snowy River National Park, producing dense clouds of smoke. The largest of the fires, Yalmy, had burned 79,893 hectares as […]

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