Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Racking systems to hold solar panels sit empty on top of an old strip mine in Portage, Pennsylvania, on Monday, 25 April 2022. The fallout from a trade probe is rippling through the US solar industry, delaying projects and threatening to slow the renewable energy transition. Photo: Justin Merriman / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Solar energy projects are grinding to a halt in the U.S. amid investigation into parts from China – “We’re getting crushed because we literally can’t buy a module today”

By Ella Nilsen 6 May 2022 (CNN) – The solar energy industry has been thrown into a panic and projects are grinding to a halt after the Biden administration launched an investigation that some solar CEOs worry could tank the industry. The Commerce Department launched the probe in March into whether four countries in Southeast Asia that supply […]

Global quantities of amphetamine-type stimulants seized, 2009-2019. Data: Responses to the annual report questionnaire (UNODC, 2021). Graphic: EMCDDA

Europe turns into cocaine hub as multi-billion-euro market expands, EU says

By Francesco Guarascio 6 May 2022 BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe is increasingly becoming a hub for production and trans-shipment of cocaine to other regions of the world, in addition to being a major consumption market, EU agencies said on Friday, warning also about the expanding methamphetamine industry. After cannabis, cocaine is the most consumed drug […]

Drought has reduced the water level in Lake Mead so much that Southern Nevada Water Authority's original water intake valve in Lake Mead -- in service since 1971 -- was visible above the water line in April 2022. The original intake is no longer in use since it cannot draw water. Photo: Southern Nevada Water Authority

Lake Mead plummets to record low, exposing original 1971 water intake valve – Dead man found in barrel at lake bottom, authorities say more bodies likely to turn up – “This is a crisis. This is unprecedented.”

By Stephanie Elam 29 April 2022 (CNN) – The U.S. West is in the grips of a climate change-fueled megadrought, and Lake Mead — the largest manmade reservoir in the country and a source of water for millions of people — has fallen to an unprecedented low. The lake’s plummeting water level has exposed one of the reservoir’s original water […]

Climate change impacts on poverty by 2030 in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Additional people living in extreme poverty as a percent of the total population, by country (left); additional people living in extreme poverty, by country (right). Climate change could drive millions of people in LAC back into extreme poverty. Graphic: World Bank

Climate disasters in Latin America threaten to drive six million into poverty in next decade

By David Callaway 26 April 2022 MANAGUA, Nicaragua (Callaway Climate Insights) – As Latin America prepares for another disastrous hurricane season, two major intergovernmental reports are pointing to the need for urgency in reversing years of climate-related disasters that have driven more people into poverty. A report by the World Bank this month said over the past […]

European surface air temperature anomalies for summer (JJA) 1950–2021, relative to the average for the 1991–2020 reference period. In 2021, summer temperatures were about 1 degree Celsius above the average over the past three decades, with Italy even recording temperatures of 48.8C – a provisional record for the whole of Europe. Data source: ERA5, E-OBS. Credit: C3S / ECMWF / KNMI

Europe suffered year of climate chaos in 2021 with hottest summer on record – “We are facing a lot of challenges”

By Gloria Dickie and Kate Abnett 22 April 2022 (Reuters) – Europeans endured the hottest summer on record last year, with wildfires, floods and intense heatwaves hitting the continent, according to a report by EU scientists released Friday. Summer temperatures were about 1 degree Celsius above the average over the past three decades, with Italy even recording […]

Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in Africa in 2019 (left), and top eight wheat importers in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 (right). Challenges for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa will increase as Russia’s war on Ukraine persists. Graphic: IMF

Russia’s war on Ukraine dims global economic outlook as inflation accelerates – Africa faces new shock as war raises food and fuel costs – “This crisis unfolds even as the global economy has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic”

By Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas 19 April 2022 (IMF) – Global economic prospects have been severely set back, largely because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This crisis unfolds even as the global economy has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic. Even before the war, inflation in many countries had been rising due to supply-demand imbalances and […]

Coastal flooding at the historic site at Jamestown, Virginia in 2009. Three feet of water accumulated after a storm. Such events now occur several times a year, and the site is often closed for safety reasons. Photo: Michael Lavin / Jamestown Rediscovery

Jamestown: America’s first English settlement now endangered by rising sea level – “There is basically a five-year window at Jamestown”

By Jane O’Brien 4 May 2022 JAMESTOWN, Virginia (BBC News) – One of the most important historic sites in America has been put on a list of endangered places. Preservation groups warn that Jamestown, Virginia, may not survive another generation because of climate change. In 1607, the small island near the mouth of the Chesapeake […]

Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents aged 5–19 years in the WHO European Region, by sex, 1975–2016. Graphic: WHO

World Health Organization warns of obesity epidemic in Europe – “Overweight and obesity rates have reached epidemic proportions across the region and are still escalating”

3 May 2022 (AFP) – The WHO said Tuesday that “epidemic” overweight and obesity rates are linked to over 1.2 million deaths annually across Europe, calling for swift policy changes to reverse the dangerous trend. Obesity rates in the region have ballooned by 138 percent in the past five decades, the World Health Organization said […]

World Bank COVID-19 Business Pulse Survey Dashboard, March 2022. Data cover 24 middle-and low-income countries. As of January 2021, 40 percent of surveyed businesses expected to be in arrears within six months, including more than 70% of firms in Nepal and the Philippines and over 60 percent of firms in Turkey and South Africa. Graphic: World Bank

The next global debt crisis is hiding in plain sight – With emergency debt moratoriums ending, vulnerable households and businesses confront loan repayments they can no longer afford

By Carmen Reinhart and Leora Klapper 2 May 2022 WASHINGTON (Project Syndicate) – When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, private-debt crises were probably already brewing—albeit hidden from view—in many parts of the world, as a result of the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the war is pushing even more countries toward similar […]

California snow water content for 4 April 2022, percent of April 1 average. Graphic: California Department of Water Resources

California snowpack in “grim” condition, water resources say – “We’ve had the driest start to the year on record”

By Phil Mayer 29 April 2022 (KRON) – While there were some April showers in California this year, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said Friday that what’s left of the Northern Sierra snowpack is “grim.” “The Department of Water Resources’ Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit conducted the final snow survey of the […]

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