Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Documentary on Fukushima town screened at Berlin film festival

BERLIN, 13 February 2012 (Kyodo) – A documentary film featuring residents forced to evacuate their town, home to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, was screened Sunday at the Berlin International Film Festival. “I hope nobody in the world will have such an experience like ours again,” Katsutaka Idogawa, mayor of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, […]

Video: Cleanup at New Zealand shipwreck

By Arlene Paredes8 February 2012 The ill-fated MV Rena, which brought to New Zealand its worst maritime disaster, has so far cost $130 million, and $28 million of this amount has come from taxpayers, the Bay of Plenty Times reported. However, another episode of bad weather has disrupted the operations to fully assess the damage […]

Pro-oil lobby urged feds to deliver climate-change solutions as Canada’s environmental reputation sinks

By Mike De Souza, mdesouza@postmedia.com, Postmedia News 12 February 2012 OTTAWA – A taxpayer-funded pro-oil lobbying retreat, involving Canada’s European diplomats and industry, has urged the federal government to deliver real climate change solutions to restore the country’s sagging environmental reputation. The two-day retreat, held 1-2 February 2011 in London, England, concluded that Canada’s foreign […]

As climate changes, ‘100-year floods’ may happen every three to 20 years

By Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office13 February 2012 Last August, Hurricane Irene spun through the Caribbean and parts of the eastern United States, leaving widespread wreckage in its wake. The Category 3 storm whipped up water levels, generating storm surges that swept over seawalls and flooded seaside and inland communities. Many hurricane analysts suggested, based […]

Lost at sea: Overfishing costs £2.7 billion and 100,000 jobs

Contact: Rupert Crilly, rupert.crilly@neweconomics.org, +44 (0)207 820 6389 10 February 2012 Research published today by nef finds that poor management of fish stocks is draining jobs and profits. The report, Jobs Lost at Sea [pdf], estimates the benefits of rebuilding 43 European stocks (out of more than 150) and finds that: Restoring these 43 stocks […]

Canada to kill thousands of wolves to reverse caribou decline caused by tar-sands development

By Dean Kuipers9 February 2012 Woodland caribou herds in Canada are declining, and tar sands development is a big part of the reason why. But Canada’s national and provincial governments know what do about that: Kill the wolves. That’s the crux of new posts by both Grist and the National Wildlife Federation, which are following […]

In Fukushima, a confused nuclear cleanup – ‘It’s a scam’

By HIROKO TABUCHI10 February 2012 IITATE, Japan – As 500 workers in hazmat suits and respirator masks fanned out to decontaminate this village 20 miles from the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, their confusion was apparent. “Dig five centimeters or 10 centimeters deep here?” a site supervisor asked his colleagues, pointing to a patch of […]

Video: Rescuers respond to largest dolphin stranding on record in Northeast U.S.

In this short video, produced by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW Marine Mammal Rescue and Research team staff and volunteers help as many dolphins as possible during one of the largest common dolphin stranding events on record. For more info, visit http://ifaw.org Amazing Marine Mammal and Rescue Team efforts – Winter 2012 By […]

Texas drought: ‘This is the worst year ever for quality of deer, no question’

By Kim Gierke Special to the Standard-Times11 February 2012 SAN ANGELO, Texas – The West Texas deer season wrapped up in January and, as expected, it was the worst season in recent memory. The drought of 2011 had a devastating impact on the deer herd and forced hunters, guides and taxidermists to scramble to make […]

600 dead in record Europe freeze – Tens of thousands stranded by snow

By Sahit Muja, NY Economy and Politics Examiner11 February 2012 Europe’s record freezing temperatures have claimed hundreds of lives, snarled traffic and trapped hundreds of thousand of residents in remote villages . At least seven people died and three others were missing after an avalanche hit the village in Kosovo. There are reports of weather-related […]

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