50 doomiest images of 2017

Desdemona Despair

31 December 2017 (Desdemona Despair) – This photo, by Hal Bernton of The Seattle Times, captures the zeitgeist of 2017: humans blithely golfing while their immediate environment burns. Behind the golfers, the Eagle Creek Fire rages on both sides of the Columbia River Gorge, in Washington and Oregon, on 4 September 2017.

You might think this is an aberration, but here’s a similar scene in Los Angeles from two days earlier:

In this photo, by Irfan Khan of The Los Angeles Times, golfers at Angeles National Golf Course play while the La Tuna fire burns nearby in the Verdugo Hills. The La Tuna fire portended the enormous Thomas fire, which in December still burns as the largest wildfire on record in California.

But nevermind, we need to play the back nine.

It’s this kind of indifference to the world that dooms humanity. Even when thousands of scientists band together to warn people that industrial civilization is rapidly destroying the biosphere, literally nothing happens.

We see this indifference on a large scale, with the U.S. government’s under-reaction to the destruction of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria. Desdemona sees this as the first discrete climate-change catastrophe to hit North America, causing hundreds of thousands of climate refugees to abandon the island for the mainland. It would take a sustained, large-scale effort costing many billions of dollars to rebuild the island to the point that it can sustain its population of 3.5 million people. So far, there’s not much evidence that the U.S. will commit to it. The indifference is deafening.

Here are fifty or so images picked from Desdemona’s 2017 posts. They show the consequences of human indifference to the natural world and to future generations. Indifference is learned, not innate; humans could do something about the destruction, but the trends show that we won’t.

• 2016 doomiest graphs
• 2016 doomiest graphs, images, and stories
• 2015 doomiest graphs, images, and stories
• 2014 doomiest graphs, images, and stories
• 2013 doomiest graphs, images, and stories
• 2012 doomiest graphs, images, and stories
• 2011 doomiest graphs, images, and stories
• 2010 doomiest graphs, images, and stories

—

ELVAS, Portugal, 20 June 2017 (Los Angeles Times) – Once shaded in canopies of leaves, the N-236-1 is a rural road that cuts through central Portugal, hugging hillsides pungent with eucalyptus and pine.

Now it is littered with husks of burned cars. Along the shoulder, ashen wisps of tree trunks stand sentinel like totem poles. A headline in Portugal’s Expresso newspaper calls it “The Saddest Street in Portugal.”

It’s where many of the 64 victims of Portugal’s deadliest wildfire were burned alive last weekend, trapped in their cars. [Reminiscent of Australia’s “Black Saturday” forest fires in 2009. –Des]

Reeling from its deadliest forest fire, Portugal finds a villain: eucalyptus trees – Questions swirl over “road of death”

—

16 October 2017 (Protect Mother Earth) – Hurricane Ophelia’s strong winds are blamed for fanning flames of deadly forest fires in Portugal and Spain

At least six people have been killed and around 25 others injured – mainly firefighters – during Portugal’s worst day of the year for forest fires.

Around 500 blazes were reported in the country’s central and northern regions where a state of emergency has been declared.

Soaring temperatures of up to 36 degrees celsius have been recorded – extraordinary for mid-October.

Video: Deadly forest fires sweep across Portugal and northern Spain

—

The Eagle Creek fire burns above Bonneville Dam on Sunday, 4 September 2017. Photo: Arianna Frye

5 September 2017 (Reuters) – An Oregon wildfire that has damaged landmarks in the scenic Columbia River Gorge slowed its push toward evacuated houses near the city of Portland on Wednesday, officials said.

As dozens of blazes raged across the U.S. West, the so-called Eagle Creek Fire near Portland merged late Tuesday with another blaze, the Indian Creek Fire. The two combined have charred 30,930 acres (12,520 hectares), officials said.

Heavy fire activity was expected to continue through September in much of the West, and through October in parts of the northern Rocky Mountains and California, the National Interagency Fire Center said, citing hot and dry weather conditions as the primary cause.

The Eagle Creek Fire, burning in the Columbia River Gorge, forced hundreds of people to evacuate homes earlier this week in communities east of Portland, including Warrendale, Dodson and Latourell, and sent ash falling on the city itself.

Eighty-one large wildfires covering more than 1.4 million acres (570,000 hectares) were burning in the western part of the United States Wednesday, a day after federal officials said 200 active duty military personnel would help fight the fires.

“It’s very unusual to have this many fires burning this many acres across such a broad area at this time in September,” National Interagency Fire Center spokeswoman Jennifer Jones said.

Wildfires sweep across U.S. West, slow push toward Portland – “It’s very unusual to have this many fires burning this many acres across such a broad area at this time in September”

—

C-130 pilots with the California National Guard fight the Pier Fire in Sequoia National Forest. It had grown to over 20,000 acres by 5 September 2017. Photo: Tech. Sgt. Jeff Allen / 146th Airlift Wing

Williams Lake, B.C., 19 August 2017 (250 News) – This summer has been the worst wildfire season on record in British Columbia and as a result those fighting the blazes and others working in emergency management have been working harder than ever.

Potent mix of record heat and dryness fuels wildfires across the U.S. West and British Columbia – “These unprecedented extreme events are exactly the types of events that are more likely due to the global warming that’s already occurred”

Long wildfire season in British Columbia exhausting for firefighters, emergency personnel

—

Satellite view of a heavy pall of smoke drifting over northern Canada, 15 August 2017. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP acquired the data for this image. The image is a mosaic composed from several satellite overpasses because the affected area is so large. Photo: Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory

15 August 2017 (NASA) – For more than a month, dozens of large fires have raged in British Columbia. Since early July 2017, wildfire has burned through coniferous forests stressed by heat, drought, and infestations of mountain pine beetles. In early August, another cluster of intense fires flared up in Northwest Territories when a cold front pushed through the region with powerful winds.

The resulting smoke plumes were thick enough and high enough in the atmosphere to break a record. According to Colin Seftor, an atmospheric researcher for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) on Suomi NPP recorded aerosol index (AI) values as high as 49.7 on 15 August 2017—more than 15 points higher than the previous record set in 2006 by fires in Australia.

Record-breaking smoke over Canada from British Columbia forest fires – “If and when the plume drifts over populated areas, it may turn day into night”

—

Design for the 2017 Burning Man Temple, made from 3,000 boards milled from trees killed by the recent California drought. Graphic: Steven Brummond, Marisha Farnsworth, and Mark Sinclair / Temple2017.org

24 August 2017 (SFist) – You’ll notice this year’s Burning Man Temple looks a lot different than previous years’ laser cut jigsaw designs of David Best. Best has handed off the task to his previous lead engineers and architects, who’ve come up with a simple but striking concept composed of flat panels. But that’s not the most significant difference in this year’s Temple, as this year’s builders have a new ecological focus in which they’re using wood from trees killed by drought conditions and global warming [cf. Carbon footprint of Burning Man: 27,000 tons of CO2 per year].

Roughly 100 million trees have died in California forests over the course of the drought, according to Cal Fire estimates, all of which need to be cleared and burned to control fire risks. PG&E was tasked with clearing 300 large Ponderosa pine trees killed by bark beetles that were threatening power lines near Yosemite, and now those dead trees are getting a last bit of life at Burning Man.

That wood has been milled into the 3,000 boards being used to create this year’s Temple. “It’s about a hundred thousand pounds of wood,” Temple engineer Mark Sinclair told NBC Bay Area. “It’s not structural grade wood but it’s good enough for our purposes.”

Burning Man Temple being built from trees killed in California drought

—

Forest fires consume parts of the community of Vichuquen in Chile’s Maule Region, 27 January 2017. Photo: Martin Bernetti / AFP / Getty Images

27 January 2017 (Los Angeles Times) – Chile’s worst ever wildfires threatened the city of Concepcion and the nation’s wine industry Friday, a day after flames destroyed a town about 200 miles south of the nation’s capital.

President Michelle Bachelet’s office said the fires had killed 11 people, forced the evacuation of more than 5,000 and burned nearly 900,000 acres, mainly forests.

Most of the evacuees come from the town of Santa Olga, southwest of Santiago, which was destroyed Thursday.

“We are facing a serious situation and can only succeed if we work together,” Bachelet told reporters Friday morning after coordinating relief efforts at a meeting at the La Moneda presidential palace. Earlier in the week, Bachelet said the fires were the worst in the country’s history.

Worst wildfires on record in Chile have killed 11 people – “The greatest forest disaster in our history”

—

In southern Greenland, a fire that could be fueled by degraded permafrost burns 150 kilometers northeast of Sisimiut, the second-largest city in the territory. Officials aren’t sure how the fire started or when it might end. This 8 August 2017 image was captured by a European Space Agency satellite in natural colors with highlights from near infrared and shortwave infrared imaging. Photo: Pierre Markuse / ESA

11 August 2017 (Eos) – In a real clash of fire and ice, a massive wildfire in southern Greenland has captured the world’s attention.

At the end of July, a couple of NASA satellites detected hot spots in Greenland that indicated fire, said Mark Ruminski, a team leader for a hazard mapping system of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But fires are unexpected in Greenland, so he and his team thought it might be an error in the data.

Then a civilian pilot snapped pictures of a wildfire near Sisimiut, the second-largest city in Greenland. When clouds cleared a few days later, NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite and the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellites captured photos of the largest of the fires from high above.

Although the current fire’s cause remains a mystery, peat from thawed permafrost could be its fuel, said Jessica McCarty, a geographer at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, who specializes in geospatial analysis of wildfires.

Permafrost, or permanently frozen soil, lies under multiple meters of an “active” soil layer that thaws seasonally. But in certain areas, when ice within the thawing permafrost layer melts, it can expose peat, a material that forms after decomposing plants get smashed down for centuries.

If the fire is being fueled by thawed permafrost, there may be underlying climate change implications, McCarty continued. “The climate change [connection] is that there would be no fires here in Greenland if there were no fuel, and the only way that there’s fuel is if the permafrost is [thawed].”

“Personally, this is very disturbing to me,” McCarty said, because the fire indicates significant permafrost degradation “sooner than [scientists] thought it would happen.” Researchers project significant permafrost loss in Greenland by the end of the century. Not 2017, she said.

Greenland fires ignite global warming fears – “Fire itself will add to the problem and accelerate thawing of permafrost”

—

2 July 2017 (The Siberian Times) – Scientists have located two fresh craters formed on Yamal peninsula this year, with the latest exploding on 28 June with the eruption picked up by new seismic sensors specifically designed to monitor such events, The Siberian Times can disclose.

First pictures of the large craters – or funnels as experts call them – are shown here, and add to four other big holes found in recent years and examined by experts, plus dozens of tiny ones spotted by satellite.

The formation of both craters involved an explosion followed by fire, evidently signs of the eruption of methane gas pockets under the Yamal surface.

People in Seyakha village heard a “loud explosion-like bang” then saw a fire and clouds of black smoke, according to reports.

“Big bang” and “pillar of fire” as latest of two new craters forms this week in the Arctic

—

21 February 2017 (British Antarctic Survey) – Currently a huge iceberg, roughly the size of Norfolk, looks set to break off Larsen C Ice Shelf, which is more than twice the size of Wales. Satellite observations from February 2017 show the growing crack in the ice shelf which suggests that an iceberg with an area of more than 5,000 km² is likely to calve soon. [Five months later, it happened: Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf calves trillion ton iceberg. –Des]

Researchers from the UK-based MIDAS project, led by Swansea University, have reported several rapid elongations of the crack in recent years. BAS scientists are involved in a long-running research programme to monitor ice shelves to understand the causes and implications of the rapid changes observed in the region. They shot this footage as they flew over the ice shelf on their way to collect science equipment.

Video: Flyover of Larsen C Ice Shelf crack, February 2017

—

_{The giant iceberg A68 detaches from the Larsen-C ice shelf in Antarctica on 1 August 2017, left, and on 25 September 2017. Photo: Airbus / AFP / Getty Images}

27 September 2017 (NBC News) – After breaking free from Antarctica this summer, a giant iceberg roughly the size of Delaware is moving on to open waters.

New satellite images from TerraSAR-X show the iceberg known as A68 has begun to drift away from the Larsen C ice shelf and is being driven by currents, potentially toward the South Atlantic.

After breaking free from Antarctica this summer, a giant iceberg roughly the size of Delaware is moving on to open waters.

New satellite images from TerraSAR-X show the iceberg known as A68 has begun to drift away from the Larsen C ice shelf and is being driven by currents, potentially toward the South Atlantic.

The iceberg— weighing an estimated 1.12 trillion tons — officially ripped from the frozen formation in July in a process known as calving, according to scientists at the University of Swansea in Britain. It’s such a colossal chunk of ice that maps of the peninsula must be redrawn.

The remaining ice shelf will be closely watched for signs of collapse. There also remains the possibility that the iceberg could pose a risk to cruise ships passing from South America.

Giant iceberg that broke free from Antarctica has begun drifting

—

19 April 2017 (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) – In the first such continent-wide survey, scientists have found extensive drainages of meltwater flowing over parts of Antarctica’s ice during the brief summer. Researchers already knew such features existed, but assumed they were confined mainly to Antarctica’s fastest-warming, most northerly reaches. Many of the newly mapped drainages are not new, but the fact they exist at all is significant; they appear to proliferate with small upswings in temperature, so warming projected for this century could quickly magnify their influence on sea level. An accompanying study looks at how such systems might influence the great ice shelves ringing the continent, which some researchers fear could collapse, bringing catastrophic sea-level rises. Both studies appear this week in the leading scientific journal Nature.

Water is streaming across Antarctica – New survey finds liquid flow more widespread than thought

—

People stroll through the snow-free Chicago Zoo on 19 February 2017. Photo: Jim Schulz / Chicago Zoological Society

1 March 2017 (EcoWatch) – Chicago, a city well known for its windy and snowy winters, is experiencing some unusually warm weather. For the first time in 146 years, there was no documented snow on the ground in January and February, according to the local National Weather Service.

January and February are usually the coldest months of the year. As NBC News noted, the city usually averages more than 40 inches of snow per winter and prepares for months to handle with the onslaught of snow with its fleet of snow plows and salt trucks that service more than 280 snow routes.

But the last measurable day of snow was on Christmas Day when two inches covered the ground. In fact, from Feb. 17-22, Chicago set new winter records with six consecutive days of temperatures in the high 60s to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chicago has no snow in January and February for the first time in 146 years of recordkeeping

—

A girl walks through floodwater outside her home in the El Indio settlement on the outskirts of Piura, in northern Peru, in March 2017. Photo: Ernesto Benavides / AFP

24 March 2017 (International Business Times) – At least 84 people have been killed been killed in floods and landslides caused by El Niño storms wreaking havoc across Peru. About half of the country is in a state of emergency to expedite resources to the hardest hit areas, mostly in the north where rainfall has broken records. Flash floods have destroyed more than 145,000 homes and 5% of the Andean nation’s roads.

In the normally dry Lima, where a third of Peruvians live, school classes have been suspended and running water restricted after treatment plants were clogged with debris from mudslides. People living in flooded neighbourhoods now face the spectre of diseases thriving amid pools of stagnant water.

IBTimes UK presents powerful photos showing the scale of the most devastating environmental calamity to strike the Andean nation in two decades.

Photo gallery: Floods and landslides across Peru, March 2017

—

Bangladeshi school children walk through a flooded field as they return home after school at Demra, 16 August 2017. The mix of rainwater and toxic waste from industries has turned the water green. Photo: Suvra Kanti Das / ZUMA / REX Shutterstock

18 August 2017 (Hindustan Times) – A humanitarian crisis is unfolding across large areas of South Asia, with more than 16 million people affected by monsoon floods in Nepal, Bangladesh and India, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in statement in Kathmandu on Friday. 

“This is fast becoming one of the most serious humanitarian crises this region has seen in many years and urgent action is needed to meet the growing needs of millions of people affected by these devastating floods,” said Martin Faller, deputy regional director for Asia Pacific, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

“Millions of people across Nepal, Bangladesh, and India face severe food shortages and disease caused by polluted flood waters,” he said.

“More than one-third of Bangladesh and Nepal have been flooded and we fear the humanitarian crisis will get worse in the days and weeks ahead,”  Faller said.

Record flooding affects 16 million in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India – “This is fast becoming one of the most serious humanitarian crises this region has seen in many years”

—

Cars drive through the debris of a hailstorm in Argentina that dumped almost five feet of hailstones in minutes, 28 October 2017. Photo: SMN Argentina

28 October 2017 (The Independent) – The aftermath of a storm which dumped up to five feet of water and hail in Argentina has been revealed in images released by the World Meteorological Organisation.

Officials said a fierce hailstorm hit towns in the central Argentinian province of Cordoba on Thursday afternoon, leaving roads closed and vehicles unable to move.

The incredible photos show fire fighters rescuing cars stuck up to their windows in hailstones and a road swamped in debris.

Dramatic photos show sea of hail swamping cars in Argentina – Hailstorm dumps almost five feet of hailstones in minutes

—

A woman wades through a submerged street at the UNESCO heritage ancient town of Hoi An after typhoon Damrey hits Vietnam, 6 November 2017. Photo: Reuters

7 November 2017 (VOA News) – Vietnamese officials say the death toll from a powerful typhoon that struck the country’s south-central coast last week has risen to 69.

The Disaster Management Authority says another 30 people are still missing in the aftermath of Typhoon Damrey, which caused extensive damage throughout Khanh Hoa province.

More than 116,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged due to widespread flooding, which have also filled reservoirs to near-capacity.

Death toll in Vietnam from Typhoon Damrey rises to 69

—

Before and after of the flooding on Buffalo Bayou in Houston from Hurricane Harvey, 27 August 2017. Photo: streetreporter / YouTube

28 August 2017 (The Washington Post) – The record-shattering rains behind the flood catastrophe in Southeast Texas will continue for several more days and are predicted to expand into southwest Louisiana, where double-digit rainfall totals are likely.

As of early Monday, locations near Houston in Harris County had seen up 35 inches, and isolated areas to the northeast up to 40 inches. According to the National Weather Service, the forecast of more than a foot of additional rainfall “would have devastating consequences on the continuing rescue and recovery efforts.”

Some areas could see storm rainfall totals exceeding 50 inches, which would break Texas state records.

The Weather Service office serving Houston described the rain amounts so far “unfathomable.” The 16.07 inches that fell on Houston’s George Bush Airport on Sunday marks the single wettest day in Houston history, making up nearly a third of the 49.77 inches the city sees in an average year. More than two feet fell over the weekend, a record two-day amount.

The August rainfall in Houston, largely from Harvey, shattered its record for any month by a whopping 13.47 inches.

This flood disaster has easily surpassed the havoc wrought by the landmark Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, the Weather Service said.

Rains from Harvey obliterate records, flood disaster to expand

—

31 August 2017 (NASA) – On 31 August 2017, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired natural-color images of extensive flooding along the Texas coast and around the Houston metropolitan area in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Note the tan and brown rivers and bays full of flood water from Harvey. Scientists and civil authorities have some concerns about urban and industrial pollutants being mixed into the floodwater runoff. Along the coast, muddy, sediment-laden waters from inland pour into the Gulf of Mexico, which also was churned up by the relentless storm.

According to the National Weather Service, 51.88 inches of rain were recorded at Cedar Bayou, Texas—the highest rainfall total for any storm in recorded U.S. history. Meteorologists at The Washington Post noted that that is as much rain as usually falls in Houston in an entire year and in Los Angeles in four years. By most accounts, Harvey produced more cumulative rainfall than any storm in the U.S. meteorological record—as much as 24 trillion gallons of water (unofficial estimates).

In addition to providing satellite imagery and data of the storm, NASA has started flying its Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) aboard a Gulfstream III aircraft to collect high-resolution radar observations over rivers, flood plains, and critical infrastructure. That data can be compared and combined with SAR data from satellites such as the European Space Agency’s Sentinel 1A and 1B mission. To read more about NASA’s response to Hurricane Harvey, click here.

Image of the Day: Satellite view of flood waters across Texas, 31 August 2017

—

People walk out onto what is normally four feet of water in Old Tampa Bay, Sunday, 10 September 2017, in Tampa, Florida. Hurricane Irma and an unusual low tide pushed water out more than 100 yards. Photo: Chris O’Meara / AP Photo

11 September 2017 (NBC News) – Add this to the list of what makes Hurricane Irma an unprecedented storm: Its strength literally changed the shape of the ocean.

Before making landfall in Florida on Sunday, the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record sucked water inward away from shorelines, leaving bays along the Gulf Coast practically dry.

That depleted canals, grounded boats, and, in Florida’s Sarasota Bay, stranded manatees in knee-high mud. Videos and photos went viral of water receding as far as the eye could see, from shorelines in the Bahamas up through Florida’s west coast.

Meteorologists warned the water would return after Irma’s eye passed through.

“The wind direction will shift to onshore, causing water levels along the southwest coast of Florida to rapidly rise in a matter of minutes. MOVE AWAY FROM THE WATER! Life-threatening storm surge inundation of 10 to 15 feet above ground level is expected in this area,” the National Weather Service in Miami warned Sunday afternoon.

“Once in a lifetime tidal event”: Why Hurricane Irma drained shorelines

—

GOES-16 satellite image of Hurricane Maria just before sunset, at 5:17 pm EDT Monday, 18 September 2017. Photo: NOAA / RAMMB

18 September 2017 (Weather Underground) – Category 5 Hurricane Maria made a direct hit on the small Lesser Antilles island of Dominica (population 72,000) near 9 pm EDT Monday, becoming Dominica’s first Category 5 landfall on record. At the time of landfall, an Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft measured surface winds of 160 mph and a central pressure of 924 mb. Maria likely did catastrophic damage to Dominica.

Maria put on an incredible display of rapid intensification on Monday, going from a low-end Category 1 storm with 75 mph winds and a pressure of 982 mb at 0Z Monday, to a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds and a 925 mb pressure 24 hours later. There have now been two Atlantic Category 5 storms in 2017: Maria and Irma. The Atlantic has had only five other years on record with multiple Cat 5s: Dean and Felix in 2007; Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005; Carla and Hattie in 1961; and two Cat 5s each in 1932 and 1933.

Category 5 Hurricane Maria hits Dominica – Prime Minister calls damage “devastating” and “mind boggling”

—

Infrared GOES-16 satellite image of Hurricane Maria on 10:51 am EDT Tuesday, 19 September 2017. Photo: RAMMB / CIRA@CSU

19 September 2017 (Weather Underground) – After a direct hit on the small Lesser Antilles island of Dominica on Monday night, followed by a brief weakening, Hurricane Maria reintensified to Category 5 strength with winds of 160 mph on Tuesday morning. Maria will likely be a catastrophic Category 5 or high-end Category 4 storm when it hits the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Wednesday morning. Preliminary reports out of Dominica indicate that Maria likely did catastrophic damage there. The northern eyewall of Maria also grazed the southwest corner of Guadaloupe Island on Monday night, and heavy damage was reported there. The core of the hurricane missed Montserrat, Saba, and St. Kitts and Nevis, but these islands have been experiencing sustained tropical storm-force winds and heavy rain squalls.

There is increasing confidence that Maria will reach St. Croix and Puerto Rico on Wednesday with catastrophic results.

Hurricane Maria heads for catastrophic hit on Puerto Rico, St. Croix

—

Infrared GOES-16 satellite image of Hurricane Maria on 10:51 am EDT Tuesday, 19 September 2017. Photo: RAMMB / CIRA@CSU

Image of the Day: Eye of Hurricane Irma, 4 September 2017

—

Hurricane Irma, a record Category 5 storm, is seen in this NOAA National Weather Service National Hurricane Center image from GOES-16 satellite taken on 5 September 2017. Photo: Noaa National Weather Service / National Hurricane Center

6 September 2017 (Newsweek) – Hurricane Irma made landfall on the small island of Barbuda as a lCategory 5 hurricane Wednesday as it heads toward the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida.

The size of the storm left hurricane and weather scientists speechless. “I am at a complete and utter loss for words looking at Irma’s appearance on satellite imagery,” wrote Taylor Trogdon, a scientist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center‏ on Twitter.

Irma strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane Tuesday with winds up to 185 mph. The storm is most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s so strong it is even showing up on scales for measuring earthquakes.

“No way to sugarcoat it. Irma is the type of tropical cyclone that wipes everything, including all vegetation, clean from small islands,” wrote Anthony Sagliani, the Meteorological Operations Manager at weather data firm Earth Networks.

Hurricane Irma leaves scientists at an “utter loss for words” as it hits Barbuda

—

Surgeons work on a patient, in near-total darkness, at Dr. Isaac Gonzalez Martínez Oncological Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Photo: Carlos Giusti / AP

29 October 2017 (The Atlantic) – It’s been over a month since the last of Maria’s Category 4 hurricane-strength winds swept over Puerto Rico, but there is still damage yet to come.

The darkness is persistent. Power and clean water are still tenuous and reliant on generators and outside aid. Contamination threatens basic necessities for dozens of municipalities, and the death toll—already likely a serious undercount—is only rising as diseases and the attrition from devastated infrastructure take their toll. Even with the aid of the federal government and the military, a health-care system facing multiple threats might not be able to protect some of the island’s most vulnerable citizens.

Puerto Rico’s dire health-care crisis – More than a month after Hurricane Maria, citizens are face limited access to medical help and increasing threat of illness

—

After Hurricane Irma, satellite images indicated a widespread browning of many Caribbean islands in the storm’s destructive path. These natural-color images, captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite, show Barbuda and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands before and after the storm. Photo: Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory

14 September 2017 (PRI) – Barbuda has been left completely devastated by Hurricane Irma. An estimated 95% of Barbuda’s structures are damaged, and the entire island of around 1,800 people has been evacuated.

“The damage is complete,” says Ambassador Ronald Sanders, who has served as Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the U.S. since 2015. “For the first time in 300 years, there’s not a single living person on the island of Barbuda — a civilization that has existed on that island for over 300 years has now been extinguished.”

According to Sanders, Irma was “the most ferocious, cruel and merciless storm” in the island’s history. The hurricane was 378 miles wide when it descended on Barbuda, which is just 62 square miles.

“This was a huge monster,” he says. “The island and the people on the island had absolutely no chance.”

For first time in 300 years, there’s not a single living person on the island of Barbuda – “Climate change is here to stay. It’s a reality, despite all of the naysayers.”

Image of the Day: Hurricane Irma turns Caribbean Islands brown

—

CRUZ BAY, U.S. Virgin Islands, 12 September 2017 (The Washington Post) – The Asolare restaurant is gone, practically blown off its cliff, along with its world-famous carrot ginger soup. The facade of Margarita Phil’s is a junkyard of yellow and vermilion planks. Multimillion-dollar homes and aluminum huts alike lie in ruins.

On the island of St. John, that was only Irma’s beginning. Once a lush gem in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a chain steeped in the lore of pirates and killer storms, this 20-square-mile island is now perhaps the site of Irma’s worst devastation on American soil.

Six days after the storm — some say several days too late — the island finally has an active-theater disaster zone. Military helicopters buzz overhead and a Navy aircraft carrier is anchored off the coast, as the National Guard patrols the streets.

The Coast Guard is ferrying the last of St. John’s dazed tourists to large cruise ships destined for Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. More than a few locals, cut off from the world with no power, no landlines and no cellular service — other than the single bar you might get above Ronnie’s Pizza — are leaving, too, some of them in tears.

The streets of Cruz Bay, the largest town of this island of roughly 5,000, were a bizarre tableau of broken businesses and boats on sidewalks. Beyond belief, the Dog House bar had not only a generator but satellite TV, and folks streamed in and out, some stepping over debris holding beers.

After Hurricane Irma, a once-lush gem in the U.S. Virgin Islands reduced to battered wasteland

—

6 November 2017 (BBC News) – A huge mass of plastic bottles, cutlery and polystyrene plates has been found floating in the Caribbean. The “sea of plastic” stretches for miles. Underwater photographer Caroline Power was there to witness it first-hand.

“Photos don’t exactly do it justice. It was one of the most devastating and disgusting things that you could imagine to see in the water. We must have gone through an area about five miles wide that had just garbage strewn everywhere. You know on the surface you could see plastic floating and underneath the surface there were plastic bag after plastic bag. I mean it was just unbelievable. It was just everywhere.

“And then we reached an area where we thought we’d seen the worst, and then after that it was just even … there was even more trash. An area about two miles wide had these trash lines that were maybe up to 30 meters wide that just stretched from horizon to horizon. It almost looked like a floating island.”

Giant mass of plastic waste taking over the Caribbean – “One of the most devastating and disgusting things that you could imagine to see in the water”

—

A bleached coral near the Great Barrier Reef on 16 March 2017. Photo: Reuters

11 April 2017 (The Atlantic) – At about the same moment that millions of Americans sat staring at their television or laptop or phone—watching the results from the presidential election stream in, seeing state after state called for Donald Trump—Kim Cobb was SCUBA diving near the center of the Pacific Ocean. She did not watch the same trickle of news as other Americans. She surfaced, heard the results, and dove in the water again. She was, after all, attending to devastation.

Cobb is a climate scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology. On November 8, she was on her most recent of many research trips to Kiritimati Island reef, the largest coral atoll in the world. (Kirimati is pronounced like Christmas.) She first began studying the reef in 1997, during the last big El Niño warming event; she has returned nearly every year since. Last year, she went three times.

“We had been waiting for the big one. And boy… did it happen,” she told me earlier this year. “It really rolled out at an unprecedented magnitude. This particular El Niño event had its maximum temperature loading almost in a bulls-eye almost around Kirimati Island.”

By any measure, its caused a cataclysm. Eighty-five percent of the corals in the reef died: They will never recover, disintegrating into sand over the next several years. Two-thirds of the surviving corals bleached in some way, meaning they did not reproduce and may have sustained long-term damage.

Ruins, not reefs: How global warming is fast-forwarding coral science – “Almost none of this reef has made it through 2015 and 2016. It’s the wholesale destruction of the reef.”

—

Tropical marine invertebrates called pyrsomes are appearing in record numbers on the U.S. West Coast in areas where they had rarely been seen before. Photo: Steve Morey / National Geographic

JUNEAU, Alaska, 3 July 2017 (The Associated Press) – Strange sea creatures that resemble large pink thimbles are showing up on the coast of southeast Alaska for the first time after making their way north along the West Coast for the last few years.

Scientists say the creatures are pyrosomes, which are tropical, filter-feeding spineless creatures usually found along the equator. They appear to be one long pink tube, but in reality, they’re thousands of multi-celled creatures mushed together, generally about 6 inches (15 centimeters) long.

Pyrosomes have been working their way north, Ric Brodeur, a researcher with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Associated Press on Monday.

Brodeur, who is based at the agency’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Oregon, said pyrosomes were first seen on the Oregon coast in 2014 and every year since. More recently, the animals have made their way up farther north on the Washington state coast, Canada’s British Columbia and Alaska.

Jim Murphy, a biologist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said pyrosomes spotted near Alaska this year marked the first documented presence of the animals that far north, and their appearance is cause for concern.

“It means that we are clearly seeing really big changes in the marine ecosystem,” he told The Juneau Empire.

Tropical sea creatures seen for first time near Alaska – “We are clearly seeing really big changes in the marine ecosystem”

—

Sections of the newly exposed bed of Kluane Lake contain small pinnacles. Wind has eroded sediments with a harder layer on top that forms a protective cap as the wind erodes softer and sandier sediment below. These pinnacles, just a few centimeters high, are small-scale versions of what are sometimes termed “hoodoos.” Photo: Jim Best / University of Illinois

17 April 2017 (The Guardian) – An immense river that flowed from one of Canada’s largest glaciers vanished over the course of four days last year, scientists have reported, in an unsettling illustration of how global warming dramatically changes the world’s geography.

The abrupt and unexpected disappearance of the Slims river, which spanned up to 150 metres at its widest points, is the first observed case of “river piracy”, in which the flow of one river is suddenly diverted into another.

For hundreds of years, the Slims carried meltwater northwards from the vast Kaskawulsh glacier in Canada’s Yukon territory into the Kluane river, then into the Yukon river towards the Bering Sea. But in spring 2016, a period of intense melting of the glacier meant the drainage gradient was tipped in favour of a second river, redirecting the meltwater to the Gulf of Alaska, thousands of miles from its original destination.

The continental-scale rearrangement was documented by a team of scientists who had been monitoring the incremental retreat of the glacier for years. But on a 2016 fieldwork expedition they were confronted with a landscape that had been radically transformed.

Receding glacier causes immense Canadian river to vanish in four days – “Day by day we could see the water level dropping”

—

Aerial view of the once-mighty 800km Cauvery River, a major lifeline in southern India on which millions of farmers depend, now a dessicated channel of dust. Photo: Channel New Asia

INDIA, 25 July 2017 (Channel New Asia) – Years of scanty and inadequate rainfall have led to the drying up of water reservoirs and village water bodies in southern India, especially the grain-growing regions of Tamil Nadu which is facing its worse drought in 140 years.

Water activist Dr Rajendra Singh said: “We have not seen a drought of this intensity before. People have lost hope in life and are committing suicide.”

“People are leaving the villages and moving to the cities… They don’t have food to eat and water to drink. There is no fodder for the livestock,” added the winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and the Stockholm Water Prize.

The once-mighty 800km Cauvery River, a major lifeline in southern India on which millions of farmers depend, has turned into dust tracts in several sections before it trickles down to the Bay of Bengal.

Dense forests once helped to retain water on the hill slopes, enabling slow percolation into the streams that feed the river. But widespread deforestation along the Cauvery Basin has led to soil erosion and a reduction in rainfall.

Bauxite mining has also wreaked havoc and contributed to a collapse of groundwater levels.

As once-mighty Cauvery River dies, India could be facing its “greatest human catastrophe” ever

4 May 2017 (AccuWeather) – Less than a week after enduring the hottest April day on record, Beijing was struck by a choking dust storm on Thursday and may not experience relief through Friday.

The dust storm has been sweeping from Mongolia and China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to northeastern China from Wednesday night through Thursday.

The dust reached Beijing during the early morning hours of Thursday and held a grip on the city through the day.

Choking dust storm engulfs Beijing, less than a week after hottest April day on record

—

School children hold banners take out march to express their distress on the alarming levels of pollution in the city, in New Delhi, India, 15 November 2017. Photo: Manish Swarup / AP Photo

NEW DELHI, 15 November 2017 (Associated Press) – Hundreds of students marched Wednesday in India’s capital to demand action to improve the city’s toxic air.

New Delhi has been wrapped in a choking haze for much of the past week. The smog did lift a little in time for the march at Nehru Park by students from 15 private schools.

The march was organized by representatives from the United Nations, private schools and the Sonalika company, a tractor maker.

Charvi Thakkar, 13, said she felt the pollution had risen to an extreme level and that her grandmother, uncle and brother were no longer able to comfortably breathe.

“We need to stop this,” she said. “Because this is what we are providing for our children, for the next generation. If we are not able to breathe properly, then there is no future.”

No significant relief from Delhi air pollution in sight – Landfill fire rages as city chokes – Students march to demand cleaner air

—

Dead grey-headed flying foxes in South Australia. Photo: Wildlife Aid

12 February 2017 (Gizmodo) – If you’ve ever seen Australia’s grey-headed flying fox, you know that they’re absolutely terrifying. With an average wingspan of over 3 feet, these threatened animals are sometimes called megabats. But you haven’t really seen terrifying until you’ve seen the flying fox dying by the hundreds, which is precisely what’s happening Down Under right now.

Most of Australia is experiencing an absolutely insane heatwave this weekend. And while there are some heartening images being circulated on social media, like of this koala getting a drink of water from a helpful human friend, the deaths of the gigantic freak bats is both sad and haunting to watch.

At least 100 flying foxes have died in South Australia so far, as temperatures in the state top 113 degrees Fahrenheit. The flying foxes are literally dying upside down in the trees. Other videos show dozens of the animals lying along the roadside. […]

To make matters worse, the eastern states of Australia are currently experiencing terrible wildfires. In fact, the state of New South Wales (the one with Sydney for those not up on Australian geography) still has over 30 uncontained fires as of Sunday night local time.

“This is the worst day we’ve seen in the history of NSW when it comes to fire danger ratings and fire danger conditions,” Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters today.

Gigantic bats are dying upside down, making Australia’s heatwave look like a horror movie

—

Aerial view of the body of one of Kenya’s last tusker elephants, Satao II. Satao II was found dead on 4 January 2017 after being shot with a poisoned arrow. Photo: Tsavo Trust

7 March 2017 (Independent) – One of Kenya’s last tusker elephants has been killed by poachers, conservationists have said.

Satao II’s body was found during a routine aerial reconnaissance by the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) near the Voi river in Tsavo East National Park, according to the Tsavo Trust, a non profit conservation group which helps manage the park. 

While the cause of death is unknown, the trust said it was “believed to be from poisoned arrow”.

Satao II, one of the last “giant tusker” elephants, killed in Kenya by poachers

—

An orphaned baby rhino stands next to its dead mother after she was slaughtered by poachers for her horn on a private rhino owners farm over the weekend of 1 July 2017. Photo: Bonné de Bod / Susan Scott

5 July 2017 (The Daily Mail) – A heartbreaking photo of an orphaned baby rhino standing next to its dead mother after she was slaughtered by poachers for her horn has become the tragic symbol of a weekend rhino massacre in South Africa.

The picture of the calf was posted online by anti-poaching campaigners in South Africa on Monday after nine rhinos were killed on a private farm.

Another six rhinos were killed in just 24 hours on Sunday at a game reserve and further killings took the confirmed death toll up to 20 in one weekend.

Despite the white rhino being on the endangered species list with fewer than 20,000 white rhinos left in the wild, hunters are still slaying them for their horns, with 139 slaughtered in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal alone so far this year.

Orphaned for its mother’s horn: Baby rhino left alone as poachers slaughter up to 30 animals in one weekend in South Africa

—

Leg of a slaughtered polar bear on Vilkitsky Island in the Kara Sea. The remains of six slaughtered polar bears, ‘beheaded with their skins removed’ were discovered during an expedition by the Russian Centre of Arctic Exploration in August 2017. Photo: Russian Centre for Arctic Exploration

4 August 2017 (The Siberian Times) – The gruesome evidence of illegal hunting was found on uninhabited Vilkitsky Island in the Kara Sea.

The carcasses and used gun cartridges were found by members of an ecological clean-up team sent to the remote territory.

Summer thawing meant the polar bear remains became visible.

There are claims that local police initially sought to cover up the crime – possibly suggesting an elite hunting group was involved in the bloody massacre. But the prosecutor’s office subsequently opened a criminal probe.

Andrey Baryshnikov, head of the Russian Centre of Arctic Exploration, said: ‘When they spotted the carcasses they immediately got in touch with me via satellite connection because this is a very serious case.

“We passed the information to the police.”

A case was opened once law enforcement received the gruesome pictures of the polar bear remains.

“For now we cannot say exactly how old the bears were, or whether they were were male, female or cubs; nor is it clear how long the carcasses were there.”

Deputy governor of Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region Alexander Mazharov said: “There were many polar bears at Vilkitsky island and unfortunately poachers came to hunt them.” […]

The skulls of the polar bears had been removed in a way that is consistent with trophy hunters.

Polar bear rugs are highly sought after in black market sales, where they can fetch around $17,000 each.

Massacre of polar bears by trophy hunters on remote Arctic island

—

Poached reindeer carcasses float in the Khatanga River in the far north of Siberia. Photo: Sergey Burlaku / The Siberian Times

7 February 2017 (The Siberian Times) – A small motorboat stalks a herd of reindeer as they cross the Khatanga River in the far north of Siberia. In a barbaric act, poachers use axes and cleavers to cut the antlers from the helpless animals as they swim in the cold Arctic waters.

Often, the frontal bone of the animal is yanked off too, and the highly productive male creatures die in or close to the river. Evidence of this cruelty litters the river here in the north of Krasnoyarsk region.

Deeply disturbing pictures here show how the crossing of the Khatanga and its tributaries is used by poachers to shoot reindeer. Raids by the employees of the Taimyr Nature Reserve in summer reveal the corpses of the deer dumped along the river.

How poaching is killing off the world’s largest reindeer herd on Taimyr Peninsula

—

7 December 2017 (National Geographic) – When photographer Paul Nicklen and filmmakers from conservation group Sea Legacy arrived in the Baffin Islands in late summer, they came across a heartbreaking sight: a starving polar bear on its deathbed.

Nicklen is no stranger to bears. From the time he was a child growing up in Canada’s far north the biologist turned wildlife photographer has seen over 3,000 bears in the wild. But the emaciated polar bear, featured in videos Nicklen published to social media on December 5, was one of the most gut-wrenching sights he’s ever seen.

Heart-wrenching video shows starving polar bear on iceless land – “We stood there crying, filming with tears rolling down our cheeks”

—

An elephant calf and its mother run across a road close to a crowd that has hurled flaming tar balls and crackers at them in West Bengal. This photo, named ‘Hell is Here’, is the winner of Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017. Photographer Biplab Hazra writes, ‘The calf screams in confusion and fear as the fire licks at her feet.’ Photo: Biplab Hazra

8 November 2017 (The Independent) – An image of a baby elephant fleeing a mob that has just set it on fire has won top entry in a pan-Asian wildlife photography competition, the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017.

It shows the calf and its mother running across a road close to a crowd that has hurled flaming tar balls and crackers at them, reportedly to ward the elephants away from human settlements.

The picture, titled “Hell is here” and taken by Biplab Hazra, a wildlife photographer from West Bengal state, won the 2017 Sanctuary’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.

Speaking to the Indian Express afterwards, Mr Hazra said the two elephants “somehow survived” the brutal mob attack.

Announcing the award for the photo, taken in West Bengal, which has often been in the news for human deaths caused by encounters with elephants, Sanctuary magazine said “this sort of humiliation … is routine”.

Photo of baby elephant on fire after being attacked by mob wins international award – “The calf screams in confusion and fear as the fire licks at her feet”

—

Hundreds of long-finned pilot whales are stranded at Farewell Spit, one of New Zealand’s most beautiful beaches, at sunrise on Friday, 10 February 2017. Photo: Jane Ussher / ThisNZLife

10 February 2017 (Associated Press) – It was the sound of soft sighs and cries in the half-light that first struck Cheree Morrison, and then as the dawn broke she began to see the extent of the carnage — more than 400 whales had swum aground along a remote New Zealand beach.

About 275 of the pilot whales were already dead when Morrison and two colleagues found them Friday on Farewell Spit at the tip of the South Island. 

Within hours, hundreds of farmers, tourists and teenagers were racing to keep the surviving 140 or so whales alive in one of the worst whale strandings in the nation’s history. 

Morrison, a magazine writer and editor, stumbled on the whales after taking a pre-dawn trip with a photographer and a guide to capture the red glow of the sunrise. 

“You could hear the sounds of splashing, of blowholes being cleared, of sighing,” she said. “The young ones were the worst. Crying is the only way to describe it.” 

416 beached whales propel New Zealanders into frenzied rescue mission – “The young ones were the worst. Crying is the only way to describe it.”

—

A stranded manatee in Manatee County, Florida, Sunday, 10 September 2017. The mammal was stranded after waters receded from the Florida bay as Hurricane Irma approached. Photo: Michael Sechler / The Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, 10 September 2017 (Associated Press) – Two manatees were stranded after Hurricane Irma sucked the water out of Sarasota Bay, in Florida’s Manatee County.

Several people posted photos of the mammals on Facebook Sunday, hoping rescue workers or wildlife officials would respond. Michael Sechler posted that the animals were far too massive to be lifted, so they gave them water.

Marcelo Clavijo posted that a group of people eventually loaded the manatees onto tarps and dragged them to deeper water.

People save manatees marooned in drained Florida bay after Hurricane Irma sucked the water out of Sarasota Bay

—

A boy in the village of Aucho in Quemchi, Chile, scoops dead fish from a huge kill of millions of sardines, 26 January 2017. Photo: Soy Chile

27 January 2017 (Soy Chile) – A new natural phenomenon associated with the stranding of millions of dead sardines was exposed Thursday afternoon on the beach in the village of Aucho in Quemchi.

The finding has powerfully attracted the attention of the inhabitants of this coastal sector which did not hesitate to go to the edge of the place to verify the situation.

Yohana Rodríguez, enterprising tourist said that were a few visitors who checked in the first instance the sighting of the fish in all an extension of the beach and that intensified this morning Friday.

“Tourists were found with the surprise of this stranding of sardines and today we went to see how big it was and was clear indeed fed up small sardine,” explained local entrepreneur.

The villager of Auchao added that “what caught our attention days ago is that there were too many seagulls”. [Translation by Bing.]

Millions of sardines wash up dead on beach in Chile

—

Greenpeace Philippines created and installed a giant whale art piece made out of plastic pollution at the Sea Side Beach Resort in Naic, Cavite. The 50-foot installation was on display until 14 May 2017. Photo: Vince Cinches

12 May 2017 (Plastic Pollution Coalition) – Greenpeace Philippines recently created and installed a giant whale art piece made out of plastic pollution at the Sea Side Beach Resort in Naic, Cavite. The 50-foot installation will be on display until 14 May 2017.

“Listen to the dead whale’s wake-up call, look closer and see what plastic pollution does to the ocean,” writes Greenpeace Philippines. “We hope that this installation encourages the public to take action and #RefusePlastic.”

Plastic is a material made to last forever, yet 33 percent of all plastic, such as single-use water bottles, bags, and straws, are used just once and thrown away. Over 260 species, including invertebrates, turtles, fish, seabirds, and mammals, have been reported to ingest or become entangled in plastic debris, resulting in impaired movement and feeding, reduced reproductive output, lacerations, ulcers, and death.

A giant beached whale sculpture illustrates the plastic pollution problem

—

(A) Plastic debris on East Beach of Henderson Island. Much of this debris originated from fishing-related activities or land-based sources in China, Japan, and Chile (Table S5). (B) Plastic items recorded in a daily accumulation transect along the high tide line of North Beach. (C) Adult female green turtle (Chelonia mydas) entangled in fishing line on North Beach. (D) One of many hundreds of purple hermit crabs (Coenobita spinosa) that make their homes in plastic containers washed up on North Beach. Photo: Lavers and Bond, 2017 / PNAS

15 May 2017 (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies) – The beaches of one of the world’s most remote islands have been found to be polluted with the highest density of plastic debris reported anywhere on the planet, in a study published in the prestigious US scientific journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Despite being uninhabited and located more than 5000 kilometres from the nearest major population centre, Henderson Island is littered with an estimated 37.7 million pieces of plastic.

During the most recent scientific expedition to the island led by the British nature conservation charity RSPB, the study’s lead author, IMAS researcher Dr Jennifer Lavers, found the beaches littered by up to 671 items per square metre, the highest density ever recorded.

“What’s happened on Henderson Island shows there’s no escaping plastic pollution even in the most distant parts of our oceans,” Dr Lavers said.

“Far from being the pristine ‘deserted island’ that people might imagine of such a remote place, Henderson Island is a shocking but typical example of how plastic debris is affecting the environment on a global scale.

No escaping ocean plastic: 37 million bits of litter on one of world’s remotest islands

—

Photographer Justin Hofman caught a tiny sea horse latched onto a cotton swab along the coast of Sumbawa Island in Indonesia, one of one of the most biodiverse nations in the world. Photo: Justin Hofman

15 September 2017 (Mic) – The world’s oceans are going to have more plastic in them than fish by 2050, according to World Economic Forum projections. But we don’t need to wait for the future to witness grim scenes of polluted waters.

Just look at the photo below. Photographer Justin Hofman caught a tiny sea horse latched onto a cotton swab along the coast of Sumbawa Island in Indonesia, one of one of the most biodiverse nations in the world.

“After 10 minutes, the tide started to turn and all this junk started to flow through,” the 33-year-old said in a phone call from Monterey, California. “It first grasped onto a piece of sea grass, then there was a little wispy piece of plastic that it grabbed onto, and the next thing it was this Q-tip. It was this weird progression of going from natural to unnatural in this short span.”

Hofman said that he was “surprised at how good the coral” in the area was, but the waters were otherwise heavily polluted. The white blurry spots in the photo’s background are actually bits of plastic drifting around, and the water started to stink as sewage came through (which he thinks made him sick the next day).

“I was just in the Arctic a couple weeks ago and we watched a polar bear dig through trash and eat plastic. It was pretty heartbreaking stuff,” he said. “I’ve seen dynamite fishing, shark fishing, starving polar bears, whales caught in nets … a lot of depressing shit.

“I do truly feel like I carry this weight sometimes,” he added.

Justin Hofman’s viral sea horse photo shows the heartbreaking state of our polluted oceans

—

Aerial images produced by the MAAP Project showing before (July 2010) and after (June 2017) the construction of the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River. Photo: DigitalGlobe / ACT / Airbus / Apollo Mapping

15 September 2017 (Mongabay) – On 23 August 2017, Brazil’s president Michel Temer issued a decree revoking the RENCA (National Reserve of Copper and Associated Minerals), an area the size of Switzerland on the northern side of the Amazon River straddling the states of Pará and Amapá. The Ministry of Environment had not been consulted and Brazil’s environmentalists and public were caught by surprise. Actually, in March the Temer administration had announced its intention of revoking the RENCA at a convention of mining companies in Canada. The choice of venue is telling.

Mining in the Amazon rainforest unleashed by Brazil president

—

24 February 2017 (Imazon) – This map of protected areas in the south of the Amazon shows the deforestation pressure that already happens around conservation units that will be reduced, if the Provisional Measure is adopted.

Image of the Day: Map of protected Amazon forest and encroaching deforestation, February 2017

—

One of the first images of the melted nuclear fuel at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the lower part of a control rod mechanism inside reactor Unit Three, revealed on 21 July 2017. Photo: TEPCO / AFP

23 July 2017 (BBC News) – An underwater robot has captured what is believed to be the first images of melted nuclear fuel deposits inside Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, its operator Tepco says.

Large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers were seen underneath its unit three reactor.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said that the images – revealed on Friday – were the first “high likely” sighting of melted fuel since the 2011 disaster.

“There is a high possibility that the solidified objects are mixtures of melted metal and fuel that fell from the vessel,” a spokesman said.

“Melted nuclear fuel” finally found at Fukushima

—

On 26 September 2017, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite captured this natural-color images of a large phytoplankton bloom in western Lake Erie. Photo: Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory

11 October 2017 (The Plain Dealer) – Approaching the end of another summer marked by a substantial algal bloom in Lake Erie’s western basin, environmental and conservation groups released separate reports Tuesday that came to the same conclusion:

Ohio, Michigan and Ontario are falling far short in their efforts to reduce and eliminate the seasonal menace.

“The longer we wait to start putting algae-causing, pollution-reduction measures into practice, the worse the problems will become,” said Kristy Meyer, vice president of policy for the Ohio Environmental Council.

Lake Erie algal bloom cleanup falling far short of 40 percent phosphorus reduction goal

—

Thousands of used butane cans used to process concentrated marijuana dumped in the forest in Humboldt County, California are pictured in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters, 25 July 2017. Photo: California Department of Fish and Wildlife / Reuters

WEAVERVILLE, California, 6 August 2017 (Reuters) – Pollution from illegal marijuana farms deep in California’s national forests is far worse than previously thought, and has turned thousands of acres into waste dumps so toxic that simply touching plants has landed law enforcement officers in the hospital.

The volume of banned or restricted pesticides and illegally applied fertilizers in the woods dwarfs estimates by the U.S. Forest Service in 2014, when a top enforcement official testified that the pollution was threatening forest land in California and other states.

California accounts for more than 90 percent of illegal U.S. marijuana farming, with much of it exported to other states from thousands of sites hidden deep inside forested federal land, and more on private property, law enforcement officials said. The state is still developing a licensing system for growers even though legal retail sales of the drug will begin next year, and medical use has been allowed for decades.

Ecologist Mourad Gabriel, who documents the issue for the Forest Service as well as other state, local and federal law enforcement agencies, estimates California’s forests hold 41 times more solid fertilizers and 80 times more liquid pesticides than Forest Service investigators found in 2013.

Toxic waste from U.S. pot farms alarms experts – “They are like superfund sites”

Source: http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2017/12/50-doomiest-images-of-2017.html