Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

U.S. West braces for flooding as huge mountain snowpack melts and reservoirs fill

GRAND COULEE DAM, Washington, June 2 (Associated Press) — The giant concrete dams of the Pacific Northwest are overflowing with water. Wyoming has deployed National Guard troops to pile up sandbags. A federal official compares the impending situation to a bucking bull ready to storm out of his chute. States across the West are bracing […]

Video: Venting radioactive steam inside Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1

This video was released by TEPCO on 4 June 2011. It shows radioactive steam venting somewhere in the Unit 1 reactor building. [Update: Ex-SKF has the scoop] Packbot video was taken on 3:30PM on June 3. It looks as if the water was boiling. From Yomiuri Shinbun (1:14PM JST 6/4/2011): 東京電力は4日、福島第一原子力発電所1号機の原子炉建屋1階南東部の床を貫通する気体輸送用の配管周辺の隙間から湯気が上がっているのを、調査に入った米国製ロボット「パックボット」で確認、撮影したと発表した。 On June 4, TEPCO […]

Fukushima Unit 1 reactor building radiation up to 4,000 millisieverts per hour

TOKYO, June 4 (Kyodo) – The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Saturday it has detected radiation of up to 4,000 millisieverts per hour at the building housing the troubled No. 1 reactor. The radiation reading, taken as Tokyo Electric Power Co. sent a robot into the No. 1 reactor building on […]

Fukushima radioactive water may breach plant’s storage trenches in 5 days – Level plunges in Unit 1 reactor

By Tsuyoshi Inajima2 Jun 2011 Radioactive water accumulating in Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant may start overflowing from service trenches in five days, potentially increasing the contamination from the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been manually pumping water into overheating reactors after cooling systems broke down and much of that has […]

Operator of the world’s largest oil tanker fleet gives up on global recovery

By Gus Lubin 25 May 2011 Norway’s Frontline, which operates the world’s largest oil tanker fleet, announced an 81-percent decline in net income for the first quarter compared to last year. The company issued a grim outlook: “It is hard to see a strong recovery in the tanker market as long as the net supply […]

If Monterrey falls, Mexico falls

By Robin Emmott, with additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; Editing by Kieran Murray and Claudia Parsons1 Jun 2011 MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Mario Ramos thought it was a bad joke when he received an anonymous email at the start of this year demanding $15,000 a month to keep his industrial tubing business operating […]

Maplecroft: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, and USA rated ‘high risk’ for short-term energy security

June 2 (Maplecroft) – New research that evaluates worldwide energy security, has identified the G7 economies of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA as being at ‘high risk’ in the short-term, whilst China and countries from the oil producing MENA region are highlighted as facing increasing challenges in the future. Risk analysis and mapping […]

Exceptional, extreme drought ongoing for most of Texas – Falcon Lake dropping ‘at a staggering pace’

By Robert Burns, Texas A&M3 June 2011 COLLEGE STATION — A few areas received rain, but except for parts of north-central and extreme northeast Texas, the state continued to suffer from moderate to exceptional drought, according the U.S. Drought monitor. Even where the drought had lifted, Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel reported shortages of hay […]

Graph of the Day: Loss of Headwater Streams to Mountaintop Mines and Valley Fills in Central Appalachian Coalfields, 2011

Map showing loss of headwater streams to mountaintop mines and valley fills (MTM-VF). This diagram depicts the loss of stream miles and channel complexity that can result from extensive mountaintop mining and valley filling. Solid blue lines inside valley fill areas represent buried streams. Note that some headwaters above filled areas are disconnected from the […]

Australia warns climate change threatens Kakadu park

By Rob Taylor; Editing by Ed Davies2 June 2011 CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia warned on Thursday that its World Heritage-listed outback Kakadu wetland, made famous in the “Crocodile Dundee” films, was at severe risk from climate change, as the government faced a growing battle to introduce a carbon tax. Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s one-seat majority […]

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