Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Arctic sea ice shrinks to smallest extent ever recorded

By John Vidal and Adam Vaughan, www.guardian.co.uk14 September 2012 Sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its smallest extent ever recorded, smashing the previous record minimum and prompting warnings of accelerated climate change. Satellite images show that the rapid summer melt has reduced the area of frozen sea to less than 3.5 million square […]

Graph of the Day: Union Membership in the U.S. and Canada, 1920-2009

Contact: Alan Barber (202) 293-5380 x11528 August 2012 Washington, D.C. (CEPR) – Unionization in the United States has been on the decline since the 1960s. While many reasons have been offered to explain this drop in the rate of unionization, a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research highlights the roles that […]

Food security effects of climate change will be felt in 10 years

Contact: Esther Harward, Press Officer, University of Leeds, +44 113 343 4196, e.harward@leeds.ac.uk 12 September 12 Research released today shows that within the next 10 years large parts of Asia can expect increased risk of more severe droughts, which will impact regional and possibly even global food security. The report, led by the University of […]

Ozone layer recovery to take 40 years: World Meteorological Organization

Contact: Clare Nullis, Press Officer, WMO, Tel +41 (0)22 730 8478 Michael Williams, Chief, Communications and Public Affairs. Tel: +41 (0)22 730 8315 GENEVA, 14 September 2012 (WMO) – An international agreement to phase out chemicals which attack the Earth’s vital ozone shield celebrates its 25th anniversary as a showcase for successful global environmental cooperation, […]

Thirty dead in Nigeria flood, 120,000 displaced – 500,000 displaced in Niger since July

Satellite view of Benue River, Nigeria in 2009   Satellite view of Benue River, Nigeria in 2012 KANO, Nigeria, 10 September 2012 (AFP) – The death toll from flooding in eastern Nigeria after heavy rain and the release of water from a dam in Cameroon has risen to 30, with some 120,000 people displaced, an […]

Georgia governor declines to declare drought

By Neela Banerjee16 September 2012 FAYETTEVILLE, Georgia (Los Angeles Times) – In this southern suburb of Atlanta, the lawns skirting the million-dollar homes are lush, and the swimming pools full. But farther south, the Flint River has thinned into mud flats at a time of year when surges of white water would normally be crashing […]

New York is lagging as seas and risks rise, critics warn – ‘You can’t make a climate-proof city’

By MIREYA NAVARRO10 September 2012 With a 520-mile-long coast lined largely by teeming roads and fragile infrastructure, New York City is gingerly facing up to the intertwined threats posed by rising seas and ever-more-severe storm flooding. So far, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has commissioned exhaustive research on the challenge of climate change. His administration is […]

Russia will not cut carbon emissions under extended Kyoto climate pact

By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya; Editing by Alister Doyle and Pravin Char13 September 2012 Moscow says Kyoto extension ineffective Says developing nations must be involved in emissions deal MOSCOW, 13 September 2012 (Reuters) – Russia confirmed on Thursday it would not make cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from 2013 under the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol, joining Canada and […]

U.S. declares disaster for fishery in Northeast – ‘This year has been the worst I’ve ever seen it’

By JESS BIDGOOD and KIRK JOHNSON13 September 2012 BOSTON – The Commerce Department on Thursday issued a formal disaster declaration for the Northeastern commercial groundfish fishery, paving the way for financial relief for the battered industry and the communities that depend on it. To many here, the declaration underscored the urgency of a groundfish depletion […]

Carbon Disclosure Project: ‘Extreme weather events are causing significant financial damage to markets’

Contact: Lisa Lee, Director of Communications, CDP Headquarters, London +44 (0)7554 430 962 / +44 (0) 20 7415 7196 lisa.lee@cdproject.net Catherine von Altheer, Communications Manager, CDP Headquarters, London+44 (0) 7794 003 903 | +44 (0) 20 7970 5682 Catherine.vonAltheer@cdproject.net 12 September 2012 London – Following increasing incidents of extreme weather events which disrupted business operations […]

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