Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

BP loses renewed bid to halt oil spill settlement payments – ‘No credible evidence of fraud’

By Margaret Cronin Fisk28 August 2013 (Bloomberg) – BP Plc lost a renewed bid to suspend payments from the court-supervised program administering its settlement of claims tied to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. An investigation of alleged wrongdoing at the Mobile, Alabama, claims assistance center didn’t find “any credible evidence of fraud,” U.S. […]

Denmark defends whale and dolphin slaughter in Faroe Islands – 1,085 dolphins killed since 21 July 2013

[Keep in mind that Japan still poaches dolphins at Taiji and whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary; Iceland and Norway continue to poach whales in the Atlantic.] By Erwin Vermeulen 28 August 2013 (SSCS) – On 27 August 2013, around 2pm local time, another 51 Pilot whales were butchered in the Ferocious Isles. This time […]

Forest fires in Indonesia trigger haze fear in Singapore

By Elga Reyes  28 August 2013 (Eco-Business) – The province of Riau in Sumatra, Indonesia has been covered in smog since early this week when the number of fire hotspots spiked at 488, the highest level in two months following Southeast Asia’s worst haze pollution in 16 years. The smoke, mostly contained in the provincial […]

Unprecedented floodwaters continue to rise In Russia’s Far East – Some towns to be rebuilt in new, flood-safe areas

29 August 2013 (RFE/RL) – The level of the Amur River near the city of Khabarovsk in Russia’s Far East has reached a record high of 750 centimeters as devastating floods caused by heavy rains continue. Dams have been quickly built near Khabarovsk to protect two major power stations from water levels as high as […]

Amur flooding breaks records in China – Flood peak reaches Harbin – ‘This flood peak will last longer than that of the 1998 floods’

28 August 2013 (CCTV) – As the Heilongjiang river records its biggest flood in over a century, another major river in the region, the Songhuajiang, has seen its flood peak reach Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang province. As the flood peak passed through Harbin Tuesday morning, it recorded the highest water level on this […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of Rim fire entering Yosemite Valley, 26 August 2013

By Adam Voiland27 August 2013 (NASA) – On 26 August 2013, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the Rim fire burning in and near Yosemite National Park. Red outlines indicate hot spots where MODIS detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with fire. Rim Fire, California Technorati Tags: […]

Kansas drought update: Some counties improve, others in emergency status

By BECCY TANNER27 August 2013 (The Wichita Eagle) – The good news is that some of us are no longer are in the direct throes of drought. The bad news is that many Kansas residents still are. Gov. Sam Brownback has updated the Drought Emergency, Warnings and Watches, placing 25 counties in drought watch, 20 […]

Seeking food and supplies, isolated Peru tribe tries to make contact, sparking standoff

By Frank Bajak20 August 2013 LIMA, Peru (AP) – Members of an Indian tribe that has long lived in voluntary isolation in Peru’s southeastern Amazon attempted to make contact with outsiders for a second time since 2011, leading to a tense standoff at a river hamlet. Authorities are unsure what provoked the three-day encounter, but […]

Graph of the Day: UK Farmland Bird Indicator, 1970-2011

The UK Farmland Bird Indicator, 1970-2011, showing differing trends for specialist and generalist species. Data are from the RSPB, BTO, JNCC, and Defra. The numbers in brackets refer to the number of species in each group. Specialist species have decline by over 60% in 40 years. Graphic: RSPB 22 May 2013 (RSPB) – Trends in […]

VIdeo: Flyby of the Yosemite Rim Fire from National Guard firefighting plane

24 August 2013 (MAFFS) – MAFFS 4 Rim Fire on 23 August 2013 at 16:15. MAFFS 4 Rim Fire on 23Aug2013 at 16:15146AW Channel Islands Air National GuardUS Forest Service Cal FIREAerial Firefighting MAFFS 6 Rim Fire 23Aug13 1615 Technorati Tags: California,North America,forest fire,wildfire,drought,global warming,climate change

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