Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

U.S. spying network shows contempt for environment – ‘It is illegal for the U.S. government to use the IRS as a weapon against a U.S. non-profit at the request of a foreign nation’

  By  Nikolas Kozloff23 November 2013 (Huffington Post) – Despite mounting evidence that global warming is leading to devastating environmental disasters in the Pacific region, the U.S. and its partners are suspicious of climate change advocates. Rather brazenly, Washington and its Pacific allies spy on those who are intent on reining in global warming. Indeed, […]

As wolves die out on remote national park in Michigan, debate brews over whether to intervene

By JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer19 December 2013 TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan (AP) – For visitors to Isle Royale National Park, nothing beats the spine-tingling thrill of a wolf’s howl piercing an otherwise silent night — or a glimpse of the wily beast slipping across a forest path. But such experiences are becoming increasingly rare, and […]

The entire UN climate report in 19 illustrated haiku

By Anna Fahey 16 December 2013 (sightline.org) – Reports released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) can be daunting, even for science and policy insiders. The full Physical Science Assessment, the first installment of the Fifth Assessment Report [PDF], released in manuscript form earlier this year, is over 2,000 pages long. And even […]

2013 in review: a year of increasing extreme weather events

By John Vidal18 December 2013 (theguardian.com) – 2013 was the seventh warmest year on record and saw one of the strongest cyclones, some of the longest heatwaves and the most topsy-turvy weather experienced in decades. Nowhere is thought to have witnessed faster change than Nikkaluokta, a small Lapland village above the Arctic circle in northern […]

Conservative groups spend $1 billion a year to fight action on climate change – ‘It is not just a couple of rogue individuals doing this. This is a large-scale political effort.’

By Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent 20 December 2013 (theguardian.com) – Conservative groups have spent $1bn a year on the effort to deny science and oppose action on climate change, according to the first extensive study into the anatomy of the anti-climate effort. The anti-climate effort has been largely underwritten by conservative billionaires, often working […]

Locals marvel and worry at the ‘snow shortage’ in Siberia – ‘I cannot believe my eyes. This doesn’t happen.’

By Anna Liesowska17 December 2013 (Siberian Times) – We highlight December images taken in recent days in two Siberian cities Krasnoyarsk and Barnaul showing scenes that locals insist are unprecedented in living memory. The startling pictures from Krasnoyarsk show an almost total absence of snow yet as every school child around the world knows, snow […]

Australia Climate Council warns on big and frequent bushfires

By Matt Johnston9 December 2013 (Herald Sun) – Victorians should prepare for more intense bushfires to flare up more often, a report on climate change warns.  The Climate Council, which was the government funded Climate Commission before Prime Minister Tony Abbott removed it from the public purse, will release its report into bushfire risks today. […]

Graph of the Day: November 2013 global land and ocean temperature anomalies

17 December 2013 (NCDC) – According to NOAA scientists, the globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for November 2013 was the highest for November since record keeping began in 1880. It also marked the 37th consecutive November and 345th consecutive month (more than 28 years) with a global temperature above the 20th century […]

Maine governor: Stop being so negative about global warming

By Tom Moroney    18 December 2013  (Bloomberg News) – Paul LePage, Maine governor and climate-change skeptic, has found a new way to enrage environmentalists. Global warming is not only real, he now says: It’s a gold mine. Specifically, the Arctic ice melt could create faster shipping routes to Europe, Russia, and Asia and a chance […]

Global warming: The changing face of the Arctic

By Nicole Mortillaro      9 December 2013 TORONTO (Global News) – Autumns are now longer and warmer than they once were in the Arctic, and the first cases of sunburn were reported to researchers by Inuit in Tuktoyaktuk, according to a study on the effects of climate change on the Inuit culture. In the same study, […]

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