Desdemona Despair – Page 99 – Blogging the End of the World™

This frame grab from video provided by KK Productions shows a massive flood of water, mud, and debris flowing in the Chamoli District after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in the Tapovan area of the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, Sunday, 7 February 2021. Photo: KK Productions / AP

February 8, 2021

Rescuers search for 171 missing people after Indian glacier causes devastating flood – “Most scholars of Himalayan rivers have been warning about these risks for decades”

By Hannah Ellis-Petersen 8 February 2021 DELHI, India (The Guardian) – Twenty six bodies have been recovered in the Indian Himalayas and scores more people are still missing after a second day of rescue efforts after a glacier break that caused an avalanche of water and debris to engulf a river valley and demolish two […]

Video clip showing a cloudburst and flooding, shown in Aon’s “Weather, Climate and Catastrophe Insight: 2020 Annual Report”. Video: Aon

January 30, 2021

2020 was costliest year on record for severe convective storms – U.S. hit by record-breaking 12 named storm landfalls – China saw most widespread Yangtze River floods since 1998

CHICAGO, 25 January 2021 (Aon) – Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement, and health solutions, today launches its global Weather, Climate & Catastrophe Insight: 2020 Annual Report. The report evaluates the impact of global natural disaster events to identify trends, manage volatility and enhance resilience. The report reveals […]

Map showing market losses per postcode in the “Black Summer” bushfires in Australia, 30 December 2019 - 5 January 2020. Graphic: PERILS AG

January 18, 2021

Final insured losses for “Black Summer” bushfires of 2019/2020 in Australia estimated at A$1.866 billion

ZURICH, 6 January 2021 (PERILS) – PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organisation providing industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, has today disclosed its fourth and final industry loss estimate for the Australian bushfires of 2019/2020. The final estimate of the insurance market loss is AUD 1,866m. This compares to the third loss estimate of AUD 1,861 million which […]

A bushfire rages near Perth, Australia, on 5 January 2021. Bushfires burned out of control in Geraldton and Beechina in the Shire of Mundaring in the late afternoon. Photo: The West Australian

January 18, 2021

The pandemic taught us how not to deal with climate change

By James Temple 1 January 2021 (Technology Review) – There’s a case to be made that 2020, for all the sacrifices it demanded and tragedies it inflicted, could at least mark a turning point on climate change. It’s now possible that global oil demand and greenhouse-gas emissions may have already peaked in 2019, since the pandemic could slow economic […]

A Florida manatee has the word “Trump” carved in its back, causing serious scarring. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the harassment of this manatee. The animal was reported to federal authorities over the weekend of 9 January 2021. The animal was reported swimming in the Blue Hole, the headwaters of the Homosassa River. The USFWS is looking for any information regarding the harassment of this animal. Call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation hotline at 888-404-3922 to report information. Video: Citrus County Chronicle

January 14, 2021

Someone carved “Trump” on a Florida manatee, causing serious scarring – “This abhorrent action goes beyond the bounds of what is considered cruel and inhumane”

By Johnny Diaz 11 January 2021 (The New York Times) – The sighting in Florida this week of a manatee with “Trump” in block letters on its back has prompted an investigation and a plea for help from a nonprofit conservation group. The Center for Biological Diversity said it was offering a $5,000 reward for […]

Infographic showing costs of natural disasters in 2020. Global losses from natural disasters in 2020 came to US$210 billion. The hurricane season in the North Atlantic was hyperactive, with a record-setting 30 storms, 13 of which reached hurricane status. Graphic: Munich Re

January 10, 2021

Global natural disaster figures for 2020 – “The hurricane season in the North Atlantic was hyperactive”

7 January 2021 (Munich Re) – Global losses from natural disasters in 2020 came to US$ 210bn, of which some US$ 82bn was insured. Both overall losses and insured losses were significantly higher than in the previous year (2019: US$ 166bn and US$ 57bn respectively). The US share of losses was rather high: Natural disasters in the […]

Annual deaths in England and Wales, 1900-2020. Deaths have been rising recently as life expectancy improvements have stalled, but the jump in 2020 to over 600k is clear. Only one previous year has topped 600k: 1918, the year of the “Spanish” flu. Graphic: Nick Stripe / ONS

January 10, 2021

England and Wales recorded most deaths last year for a century – “Without all our efforts, 2020 could have been much worse”

LONDON, 6 January 2021 (Reuters) – England and Wales recorded the most deaths in 2020 of any year in more than a century, with the COVID-19 pandemic leading to a rise in the number of excess deaths, a senior statistician said on Wednesday. About 604,000 deaths were registered in the two countries in the last […]

Trump insurrectionists attack police inside the Capitol Building, 6 January 2021. Video: Jon Farina / CNN

January 9, 2021

How the attack on the U.S. Capitol happened, from planning to siege to arrests – “The lack of security at the Capitol was not an accident”

By Cam Wolf 8 January 2021 (GQ) – Wednesday’s attack on the US Capitol is already one of the most unforgettable events in American history. The Capitol building was last breached when British forces invaded during the War of 1812. 209 years later, a mob of insurrectionists attacked the building at the behest of none […]

The central estimate of the CO2 rise forecast for 2020-2021 in the context of the frequency distribution of the observed annual rise for each year in the Mauna Loa record. The horizontal red bar shows the forecast uncertainty range of ± 0.55 ppm. Graphic: Met Office

January 9, 2021

Atmospheric carbon dioxide to pass iconic threshold in 2021 – “Emissions have now returned almost to pre-pandemic levels … The human-caused build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere is accelerating”

By Grahame Madge 8 January 2021 (Met Office) – In 2021, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will reach levels 50% higher than before the industrial revolution, due to human-caused emissions, says a Met Office forecast. The Met Office predicts that annual average CO2 concentration at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, will be 2.29 ± 0.55 parts per million (ppm) […]

Average annual global temperature (deg C) relative to 1850-1900. 2020 tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record. Data: ERA5 / Copernicus Climate Change Service. Graphic: The Guardian

January 9, 2021

2020 tied 2016 for hottest year ever recorded – “The extraordinary climate events of 2020 show us we have no time to lose”

By Damian Carrington 8 January 2021 (The Guardian) – The climate crisis continued unabated in 2020, with the joint highest global temperatures on record, alarming heat and record wildfires in the Arctic, and a record 29 tropical storms in the Atlantic. Despite a 7% fall in fossil fuel burning due to coronavirus lockdowns, heat-trapping carbon dioxide continued to build […]