Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Texas fracking boom sucks away precious water from beneath the ground, leaving cattle dead, farms bone-dry, and people thirsty – ‘When the water is gone. That’s it. We’re gone.’

Suzanne Goldenberg 11 August 2013 Barnhart, Texas    (The Guardian) – Beverly McGuire saw the warning signs before the town well went dry: sand in the toilet bowl, the sputter of air in the tap, a pump working overtime to no effect. But it still did not prepare her for the night last month when she […]

Video: Projected increase in potential evaporation in North America through 2100

9 August 2013 (NASA) – This animation shows the projected increase in potential evaporation through the year 2100, relative to 1980, based on the combined results of multiple climate models. The maximum increase across North America is about 1 mm/day by 2100. This concept, potential evaporation, is a measure of drying potential or “fire weather.” […]

Graph of the Day: Fraction of land surface at risk of severe ecosystem change as a function of global mean temperature

1 June 2013 (World Bank) – Climate change in the 21st century poses a large risk of change to the Earth’s ecosystems: Shifting climatic boundaries trigger changes to the biogeochemical functions and structures of ecosystems. Such changing conditions would render it difficult for local plant and animal species to survive in their current habitat. The […]

A side of climate change denial with your coffee? ALEC dishes up some hard-to-swallow spin with the Heartland Institute

By Lisa Graves8 August 2013 (PR Watch) – This morning in Chicago, hundreds of primarily Republican state legislators are getting more indoctrination against doing anything about climate change from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). This year, ALEC has chosen its long-time partner, the Heartland Institute, to help host the session. Heartland is so extreme […]

Algae blooms killing manatees, dolphins, and pelicans in Florida estuary – ‘We fear the fishery collapse may be forthcoming’

By MICHAEL WINES 7 August 2013 MELBOURNE, Florida (The New York Times) – The first hint that something was amiss here, in the shallow lagoons and brackish streams that buffer inland Florida from the Atlantic’s salt water, came last summer in the Banana River, just south of Kennedy Space Center. Three manatees — the languid, […]

For some climate scientists, speaking out is a moral obligation – ‘Decades after scientists recognized the global-warming problem, we still don’t have a climate policy in place’

By John Abraham and Andrew Dessler 6 August 2013 (The Guardian) – We scientists talk to each other … a lot. Usually it is about breaking studies or techniques that can help us better understand the world around us. On occasion, however, we talk about how to communicate our science to the world. We believe […]

Shanghai sets new all-time record (again) as heat wave bakes eastern China

By Justin Grieser8 August 2013 (Washington Post) – While the eastern U.S. and Canada have recently seen below-normal temperatures, a major summer heat wave has been the story in eastern China since early July. Shanghai saw its hottest July in 140 years as temperatures soared to 100ºF or higher for 10 straight days between July […]

Report: Climate change is impacting California water, forests, animals – ‘Together, these indicators paint a disturbing picture of how climate change is affecting our state and its growing threats to our future’

By Alicia Chang8 August 2013 LOS ANGELES (Washington Post) – Coastal waters off California are getting more acidic. Fall-run chinook salmon populations to the Sacramento River are on the decline. Conifer forests on the lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada have moved to higher elevations over the past half century. That’s just a snapshot of […]

New Mexico is the driest of the dry – ‘It’s all changed. This used to be shortgrass prairies. We’ve ruined it and it’s never going to come back.’

By JULIE CART6 August 2013 RIO GRANDE VALLEY, N.M. (Los Angeles Times) – Scientists in the West have a particular way of walking a landscape and divining its secrets: They kick a toe into loamy soil or drag a boot heel across the desert’s crust, leaning down to squint at the tiny excavation. Try that […]

Starved polar bear perished due to record sea-ice melt, says expert – ‘He had no external suggestion of any remaining fat, having been reduced to little more than skin and bone’

By Damian Carrington    6 August 2013 (The Guardian) – A starved polar bear found found dead in Svalbard as “little more than skin and bones” perished due to a lack of sea ice on which to hunt seals, according to a renowned polar bear expert. Climate change has reduced sea ice in the Arctic to […]

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