Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Deffeyes: Macondo – Fukushima

By Kenneth S. Deffeyes29 March 2011 One of my former students, Joel Achenbach, has a book being released this week about the BP blowout. (A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea.) His e-mail a week ago asked whether there were parallels between the BP Macondo blowout and the damaged nuclear reactors at Fukushima. My […]

Pakistan’s fish stocks depleting fast

By Shahid ShahSaturday, March 26, 2011 KARACHI: Pakistan’s fish stocks are depleting at a rate of 15 percent a year, a top exporter said. M Faisal Iftikhar, chairman Pakistan Fisheries Exporters Association (PAKFEA), said that fish stocks were depleting quickly. A fisherman with more than 40 years in the business said no survey of fish […]

Marine mammal deaths from BP Deepwater Horizon disaster vastly underestimated

March 29, 2011 (ScienceBlog) – The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 devastated the Gulf of Mexico ecologically and economically. However, a new study published in Conservation Letters reveals that the true impact of the disaster on wildlife may be gravely underestimated. The study argues that fatality figures based on the number of recovered animal […]

‘Suicide squads’ paid huge sums to stabilize nuclear reactor – Tepco CEO missing

By David McNeill in Tokyo30 March 2011 Workers at Japan’s stricken nuclear plant are reportedly being offered huge sums to brave high radiation and bring its overheated reactors under control, as plant operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, battles to stop a spreading contamination crisis which could see another 130,000 people forced to leave their […]

Borneo tribes: 30-year regime ‘has destroyed everything’

24 March 2011 (Survival International) – Tribespeople in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, say the 30-year rule of Chief Minister Taib Mahmud has ‘raped’ their land, destroyed their rainforests and brought ‘hardship and suffering’. This Saturday, March 26, will mark Taib Mahmud’s 30th anniversary as head of the rainforest state. Malaysia’s longest-serving Chief […]

Graph of the Day: Oil Price and Recessions, 1973-2010

By Gail the Actuary28 March 2011 The idea that high oil prices cause recessions shouldn’t be any surprise to those who have been following my writings, those of Dave Murphy, or those of Jeff Rubin. Last month, though, the Wall Street Journal finally decided to mention the idea to its readers, in an article called […]

Contrails warm the world more than aviation emissions

By Michael Marshall29 March 2011 The innocuous white vapour trails that criss-cross the sky may not be as harmless as they look. In fact, they might have contributed to more global warming so far than all aircraft greenhouse gas emissions put together. High-altitude clouds like cirrus warm the planet by trapping heat. Contrail “cirrus” does […]

Gulf spill sickness wrecking lives

Nearly a year after the oil disaster began, Gulf Coast residents are sick, and dying from BP’s toxic chemicals. By Dahr Jamil 9 March 2011 “I have critically high levels of chemicals in my body,” 33-year-old Steven Aguinaga of Hazlehurst, Mississippi told Al Jazeera. “Yesterday I went to see another doctor to get my blood […]

Musk ox herd perishes in storm surge in Alaska preserve

By Mike CampbellMarch 28, 2011 At least 32 musk oxen in the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve perished during a nasty storm surge last month, and officials are worried many more may be buried deeper in the ice and out of sight. The carcasses were discovered March 15 frozen in ice on the northern coast […]

Russian boreal forests undergoing vegetation change, study shows

Contact: Fariss Samarrai, fls4f@virginia.edu28 March 2011 (University of Virginia) Russia’s boreal forest – the largest continuous expanse of forest in the world, found in the country’s cold northern regions – is undergoing an accelerating large-scale shift in vegetation types as a result of globally and regionally warming climate. That in turn is creating an even […]

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