Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

U.S. runs out of firefighting funds during worst wildfire season on record

By Darryl Fears7 October 2012 In the worst wildfire season on record, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service ran out of money to pay for firefighters, fire trucks and aircraft that dump retardant on monstrous flames. So officials did about the only thing they could: take money from other forest management programs. But many […]

U.S. water costs rushing higher

By Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY4 October 2012 While most Americans worry about gas and heating oil prices, water rates have surged in the past dozen years, according to a USA TODAY study of 100 municipalities. Prices at least doubled in more than a quarter of the locations and even tripled in a few. Consumers could […]

High Arctic warming surpasses Viking era, study shows

By Alister Doyle; Editing by Jason Webb27 September 2012 OSLO (Reuters) – Temperatures high in the Norwegian Arctic are above those in a natural warm period in Viking times, underscoring a thaw opening the region to everything from oil exploration to shipping, scientists said on Thursday. Last week, sea ice on the Arctic Ocean set […]

Climate expert: Record loss of arctic ice could impact U.S.

By Steve Pomplun 21 September 2012 Ice covering the Arctic Ocean melted to the smallest areal extent ever recorded this year, falling to 1.3 million square miles at its lowest point on Sept. 16, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. That’s less than half of the normal area covered by ice at […]

A forecast for the American West: hot and hotter

By Alyson Kenward4 October 2012 Over the summer and on into the fall, images of flames, smoke plumes, firefighting teams and ruined homes have been on replay, and with good reason: As of Aug. 31, this year tied the record for total acreage burned by wildfires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than […]

Graph of the Day: Decline in Coral Cover of the Great Barrier Reef, 1985-2012

ABSTRACT: The world’s coral reefs are being degraded, and the need to reduce local pressures to offset the effects of increasing global pressures is now widely recognized. This study investigates the spatial and temporal dynamics of coral cover, identifies the main drivers of coral mortality, and quantifies the rates of potential recovery of the Great […]

Drought stressing U.S. farmers and ranchers – ‘If it’s doing this for the next two years, I can’t see us being able to keep going’

BUTLER, Missouri – They have canceled vacations. Their children are forgoing out-of-state colleges for cheaper ones close to home. They are delaying doctor’s visits, selling off land handed down through generations and resisting luxuries like new smartphones. And then there is the stress — sleepless nights, grumpiness and, in one extreme case, seizures. Lost amid […]

Video: Weathergirl Goes Rogue 2: Still Hot, Still Crazy

It’s still hot and that’s crazy, but important people aren’t talking about it. Your favourite weather presenter is back with more of the bad news you hate to love. More videos at Deep Rogue Ram. Weathergirl Goes Rogue 2: Still Hot, Still Crazy Technorati Tags: global warming,climate change,coal,conflict,North America,agriculture,crop failure,famine

Climate-change denial getting harder to defend, but ‘skeptics’ keep shifting their arguments

By Glen M. MacDonald4 October 2012 It was a long hot summer. The United States experienced the warmest July in its history, with more than 3,000 heat records broken across the country. Overall, the summer was the nation’s third warmest on record and comes in a year that is turning out to be the hottest […]

Oil and Nature: A Landscape Reconfigured

By EMMA BRYCE25 September 2012 In the stark white space of the Aperture Gallery in Chelsea, billboard-size photographs present an array of haunting scenes. A chemical plant with a cemetery in the foreground. An empty basketball court alongside a turreted oil refinery. A lush swamp filled with trees, one of which has a Shell Oil […]

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