Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Weather forecasters: East Africa should be prepared for further food insecurity

By Katy Migiro; Editing by Rebekah Curtis13 February 2012 NAIROBI (AlertNet) – East Africa, still battling a hunger crisis, should be prepared for another dry spell and further food insecurity due to the persistence of La Niña weather conditions that last year brought severe drought to the region, weather forecasters have warned. “La Niña conditions […]

Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources to visit region hit by burning Chevron rig fire

By Ejiofor Alike in Lagos and Chineme Okaforin Abuja15 February 2012 Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke will this weekend embark on an assessment tour of the site of the recent fire outbreak that resulted from an explosion from a new gas well head at Funawa 5 gas platform along the Koluama River in […]

Leaked documents reveal Heartland Institute’s assault on climate science: ‘Dissuading teachers from teaching science’

[Update: The “dissuading teachers” document is probably fake, but the rest appear legit. ] [Desdemona wonders if the commercial mass media will give this story the same attention that the manufactured “Climategate” affair received.] By Phil Plait15 February 2012 The Heartland Institute — a self-described “think tank” that actually serves in part as a way […]

Various radioactive products from Japan

Scraped from Ex-SKF, 14 Feb 2012 to 30 May 2011. Note: “Bq/Kg”  means Becquerels/kilogram. 14 February 2012: 91,600 Bq/Kg of Radioactive Cesium from Sunflowers in Iitate-mura, Fukushima 58,000 Bq/Kg of Cesium in Recycled Farm Soil in Chiba: Unthinking, Mind-Numbing Urge to Recycle Even After Nuclear Disaster 3,000 Bq/kg of Radioactive Cesium in Dried Daikon in […]

Oregon preparing for debris from Japanese tsunami

Media Contact: Mark Floyd, 541-737-0788       Jack Barth, 541-737-1607      Kathy Higley, 541-737-0675      Jamie Doyle, 541-572-5263 CORVALLIS, Oregon, 1 February 2012 – As the one-year anniversary of the devastating 11 March 2011, Japanese earthquake approaches, and debris from the ensuing tsunami moves closer to the West Coast, a group of Oregon agencies, university scientists, political staff, non-governmental […]

Cupid’s Lament: Global warming could melt Valentine’s Day favorites

Cupid’s Lament Technorati Tags: agriculture,global warming,climate change,Indonesia,Africa,crop failure

Texas drought: 20 percent of freshwater fish threatened with extinction

By John Nielsen-Gammon 13 February 2012 The University of Texas’s new Center for Integrated Earth System Science is hosting its first public event today: a water forum entitled “Texas Drought 2012 — Are We Prepared?” The morning talks featured status reports from various state and regional agencies, while the afternoon featured water research tools and capabilities […]

10 million face drought in the Sahel – ‘The cycles are getting closer together’

NIAMEY, Niger, 28 January 2012 (UPI) – An estimated 10 million people across Africa’s arid Sahel region are feeling the effects of drought, humanitarian agencies say. A survey by the U.N. Children’s Fund estimated there will be 1 million cases of severe malnutrition caused by the drought, with between 25 percent and 60 percent of […]

Thailand flooding costs Lloyd’s of London $2.2 billion – Total cost estimated at $15-$20 billion

By Juliette Garside, www.guardian.co.uk 14 February 2012 Lloyd’s of London has estimated that it is liable for $2.22bn (£1.4bn) of net claims from the flooding that devastated Thailand last year. In a first calculation of its liability for the damage, released to the City on Tuesday, the insurance market said the claims were unlikely to […]

Microbial ecosystems changing as oceans warm

Media Contact: David Stauth, 541-737-0787      Stephen Giovannoni, 541-737-1835      CORVALLIS, Oregon – As oceans warm due to climate change, water layers will mix less and affect the microbes and plankton that pump carbon out of the atmosphere – but researchers say it’s still unclear whether these processes will further increase global warming or decrease it. The […]

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