Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Antarctic ice shelf dwindles as satellite continues to look on

By Wynne Parry, LiveScience5 April 2012 As a European satellite enters its second decade in orbit, it continues to observe the retreat of an Antarctic ice sheet, which has been dwindling due to warming. The satellite, Envisat, was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) on March 1, 2002. One of its first observations was […]

Science and the doubting conservatives

1 April 2012 (Los Angeles Times) – With so many scientific issues becoming battlefields in the culture wars — from climate change to stem-cell research to evolution (see above) — we hardly needed a new study to tell us that scientists have become a favorite target of the right. Yet a paper written by University […]

Graph of the Day: 2011-2012 Ratio of U.S. Heat to Cold Records

By Steve Scolnik 2 April 2012 (Capital Climate) – U.S. daily record high temperatures continued to surge into the end of March, with new heat records overwhelming cold records by the incredible ratio of 35.3 to 1. The total number of heat records was 6,182, nearly double the number in the sweltering month of August […]

Tornadoes and climate change 2012

In recent years, meteorologists have documented a rash of unusually early tornadoes. In addition, tornadoes are moving northward. The early March swarm of tornadoes was driven in part by unusually warm temperatures. Climate Nexus Infographics Technorati Tags: global warming,climate change,North America

MIT researchers predict ‘global economic collapse’ by 2030 – ‘We are not on a sustainable trajectory’

By Eric Pfeiffer, The Sideshow4 April 2012 A new study from researchers at Jay W. Forrester’s institute at MIT says that the world could suffer from “global economic collapse” and “precipitous population decline” if people continue to consume the world’s resources at the current pace. [Here’s a pdf of Dr. Turner’s 2008 paper: “A comparison […]

Pace of dolphin die off slows in Alabama, strandings still above normal in Mississippi and Louisiana

By Ben Raines, Press-Register5 April 2012 The stench of death was heavy along the rocks of Dauphin Island’s Katrina Cut last week. Midway across the mile-wide rock wall, wedged between two boulders at the water’s edge, a dolphin carcass washed back and forth in the gentle waves. Most of its backbone protruded from skin bleached […]

A divorce settlement for the Eurozone

By Arnab Das and Nouriel Roubini2 April 2012  The European Central Bank has averted disaster, sparking a powerful relief rally – but nothing fundamental has been resolved. Greece may need another debt restructuring; Portugal and Ireland may need restructuring too. Spain and Italy may yet come under the gun. Banking crises are hardly ever resolved […]

Photo gallery: A disappearing town in the shadow of Big Coal

By Nicole Cohen4 April 2012 Ten years ago this spring, the residents of Cheshire, Ohio, had a decision to make: They could stay in their homes and suffer the effects of pollution from a nearby coal-burning power plant; or they could let that plant’s owner buy them out and, building by building, dismantle their town. […]

Masters Tournament azaleas respond to abnormally warm winter – ‘We’re so far ahead of schedule, we might miss the bloom’

  By Michael Buteau 2 April 2012 Even truckloads of ice may not be enough to maintain one colorful tradition of the Masters Tournament by the time the golf season’s first major championship begins this week. Most of the thousands of azaleas that line the fairways of Augusta National Golf Club probably are already in […]

Video: Stern of cargo ship Rena sinks in rough seas

VIDEO: Wrecked ship Rena’s stern sinks in NZ Stern of container ship MV Rena sinks off a New Zealand holiday spot due to rough seas, Maritime New Zealand says. Rough Cut (no reporter narration). Stern of cargo ship Rena sinks in rough seas Technorati Tags: coral,pollution,Oceania,oil spill,penguin,ecosystem disruption,habitat loss

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