Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

An apocalyptic end to world’s biggest bubble – Denial, addictions feed inability to deal with population

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch 25 October 2011 SAN LUIS OBISPO, California (MarketWatch) – The theme: Repent. Haunting images of fanatical serial killers warning, “The End is Near, Repent!” That message seared my brain as the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” rode into Dexter’s dark world, the Miami Metro Police cable TV series. Now duty […]

Extreme melting on Greenland ice sheet observed – Glacial melt cycle could become self-amplifying

ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2011) – The Greenland ice sheet can experience extreme melting even when temperatures don’t hit record highs, according to a new analysis by Dr. Marco Tedesco, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at The City College of New York. His findings suggest that glaciers could undergo a self-amplifying […]

Thai government says ‘flooding is beyond our control now’ – ‘The amount of water is gigantic’ says PM

By Anuchit Nguyen and Supunnabul Suwannakij27 October 2011 Thailand’s government said it is losing the battle to protect Bangkok from rising floodwaters, and plans to open evacuation centers in eight provinces as the deluge forces more residents to give up their homes. “The flooding is beyond our control now,” said Pracha Promnog, who heads the […]

Rena oil pumping passes halfway mark – Nearly 1400 birds found dead so far

October 26 (Big Pond) – New Zealand salvage crews have passed the halfway mark in pumping oil from the stranded and broken ship Rena, but are warning they still face a Herculean task to get the rest out. There was around 1700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil on Rena when it grounded on the Astrolabe […]

Maplecroft: World’s fastest growing populations increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change

October 26 (Maplecroft) – The fourth release of Maplecroft’s Climate Change and Environment Risk Atlas includes a new Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) that analyses and maps climate change vulnerability down to 25km² worldwide. It reveals that some of the world’s fastest growing populations are increasingly at risk from the impacts of climate related natural […]

Thousands flee Bangkok fearing surging floods – One airport shuts down

BANGKOK (AP) – Bangkok residents jammed bus stations and highways on Wednesday to flee the flood-threatened Thai capital, while others built cement walls to protect their shops or homes from advancing waters surging from the country’s flooded north. “The amount of water is gigantic,” Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said. “Some water must spread into Bangkok […]

First look at U.S. pay data, it’s awful

By David Cay Johnston19 October 2011 Anyone who wants to understand the enduring nature of Occupy Wall Street and similar protests across the country need only look at the first official data on 2010 paychecks, which the U.S. government posted on the Internet on Wednesday. The figures from payroll taxes reported to the Social Security […]

Outside Cleveland, snapshots of poverty’s surge in the suburbs

By SABRINA TAVERNISE24 October 2011 PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio — The poor population in America’s suburbs — long a symbol of a stable and prosperous American middle class — rose by more than half after 2000, forcing suburban communities across the country to re-evaluate their identities and how they serve their populations. The increase in the […]

Comprehensive study finds Fukushima nuclear disaster released more radioactive xenon than Chernobyl

By Geoff Brumfiel, with additional reporting by David Cyranoski and Rina Nozawa25 October 2011 The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more radiation than the Japanese government has claimed. So concludes a study1 that combines radioactivity data from across the globe to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from […]

Polar bears ill from accumulated environmental toxins

Contact: Senior Scientist Christian Sonne, csh@dmu.dk, Department of Bioscience and National Centre for Environment and Energy, Aarhus University Tel.: +45 3078 3172 / +45 8715 870413 October 2011 New doctoral thesis documents that industrial chemicals are transported from the industrialised world to the Arctic via air and sea currents. Here, the cocktail of environmental toxins […]

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