Blogging the End of the World™
By Divina M. Suson and Erwin M. Mascariñas 2 January 2022 SURIGAO CITY, Surigao del Norte, Philippines (Philippine Daily Inquirer) – When asked about their fishing boats during a disaster damage assessment just days after Typhoon Odette (international name: Rai) struck on 16 December 2021, many fishermen in the city’s coastal villages replied, “zero visibility.” […]
By Evan Bush 2 January 2022 (NBC News) – Humans have infected wild deer with Covid-19 in a handful of U.S. states and there’s evidence the virus has been spreading between deer, according to recent studies, which outline findings that could complicate the path out of the pandemic. Scientists swabbed the nostrils of white-tailed deer […]
By Alicia Victoria Lozano 2 January 2022 (NBC News) – With at-home Covid-19 tests in high demand and their efficacy in question, health departments from California to Massachusetts are turning to sewage samples to get a better idea of how much the coronavirus is spreading through communities and what might be in store for health care […]
1 January 2022 (Desdemona Despair) – The year started with a fascist insurrection in the U.S. and ended with record COVID-19 case rates. In between, the forces of sedition and antiscience merged to form a monstrous alliance of violence, delusion, and ignorance amplified by social media and automation. The internet – once conceived as the […]
31 December 2021 (UNICEF) – As Filipino families gather this New Year’s Eve to welcome 2022, there are 846,000 children who need help after Typhoon Rai/Odette destroyed their homes. A more infectious strain of COVID-19 and continued heavy rainfall over typhoon-affected areas pose an additional danger and can further slow down aid efforts. Working with […]
31 December 2021 (Desdemona Despair) – For Des, 2021 was the second year of studying pandemic numbers daily and obsessively. In the U.S., the go-to site was Covid Act Now, which presents the latest data at the county level. Tracking the changing numbers every day was like watching the weather report, but with mass death […]
31 December 2021 (Desdemona Despair) – If you’ve been on the internet for a few years, you may have encountered a skirmish with climate denialists or evolution “skeptics”. Frequently, these threads start with a “concern troll” who questions some aspect of science and insinuates corruption or deception on the part of scientists. The accusations are […]
By Trevor Hughes and Doyle Rice 30 December 2021 BOULDER, Colorado (USA TODAY) – Several grass fires near Boulder, Colorado, forced thousands of people to flee their homes Thursday, officials said, as high winds knocked down live power lines. The National Weather Service called it a “life-threatening” situation, as one gust of 110 mph was […]
By Vivian Wang and Joy Dong 30 December 2021 (The New York Times) – China, racing to control one of its worst outbreaks in a single city since the beginning of the pandemic, has put in place a sweeping lockdown and mass testing drives, making clear that the country has no intention of abandoning its “zero […]
29 December 2021 (DW) – Ever-growing environmental threats are pushing many animals and plants to the brink of extinction — the scale of which hasn’t been seen since dinosaurs died out, the German branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said on Wednesday. The stark warnings came as WWF Germany released its “Winners and Losers of 2021,” an annual […]
