Closeup of the map Trump presented to the media in the White House in Washington on 4 September 2019, showing the projected path of Hurricane Dorian. The projected path of Hurricane Dorian has been extended into Alabama by amateurish drawing with a Sharpie, Trump’s favorite type of pen. When asked by reporters whether the map had been altered, Trump said he didn’t know how it had been amended. Photo: Tom Brenner / Bloomberg
Closeup of the map Trump presented to the media in the White House in Washington on 4 September 2019, showing the projected path of Hurricane Dorian. The projected path of Hurricane Dorian has been extended into Alabama by amateurish drawing with a Sharpie, Trump’s favorite type of pen. When asked by reporters whether the map had been altered, Trump said he didn’t know how it had been amended. Photo: Tom Brenner / Bloomberg

31 December 2019 (Desdemona Despair) – In 2019, the climate data show Earth’s climate system unraveling mostly as predicted, although faster than expected by some. But the really scary chart was penned by none other than the President of the United States himself.

Trump would not be gainsayed by the National Weather Service and insisted that Hurricane Dorian posed a threat to Alabama, even though NWS was quite confident in predicting no impact. A stroke of his Sharpie remedied the offending chart. Science in the U.S. now hangs on political whim.

It’s like the President of Brazil saying that scientists studying deforestation in the Amazon are lying about their data. And it’s like Australia’s PM Scott Morrison denying that the megafires consuming his country are a climate catastrophe. The authoritarian style is to assert absurd claims as truth, against all facts, to solidify the support of followers; dissonance reduction is a powerful tool of social control.

Desdemona has worried frequently about the time when the overwhelming volume of scientific data would reveal abrupt climate change to any reasonable observer. Will we mobilize at the required “world war” scale, or will we listen to authoritarian madmen and kill the messengers?

15 climate disasters of 2019 that cost more than $1 billion – “It is no wonder youth around the world are taking to the streets to demand that we write a different story towards a better future”

Extreme weather events across the world caused more than $100 billion worth of damage in 2019. The most financially costly disasters were wildfires in California, which caused $25 billion in damage, followed by Typhoon Hagibis in Japan ($15 billion) and floods in the American mid-west ($12.5 billion) and China ($12 billion). The events with the greatest loss of life were floods in Northern India which killed 1,900 and Cyclone Idai which killed 1,300. Data: Christian Aid. Graphic: The Guardian

Poverty grew in one-third of U.S. counties despite strong national economy

Small area income and poverty estimates (SAIPE), 2007-2018. Data: U.S. Census Bureau Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program. Graphic: U.S. Census Bureau

China imprisoned more journalists than any other country in 2019

Number of journalists imprisoned per country on 1 December 2019. Data: Committee to Protect Journalists. China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt the world’s worst jailers of journalists. Graphic: A. Bhandari / Reuters

In 2019, 214 grey whales washed up dead on the West Coast of North America – “They get eaten alive”

The tail of a male grey whale that stranded near Victoria, B.C. in April 2019, with skin eaten by an infestation of cyamids, or whale lice. Photo: Fisheries and Oceans Canada

In tougher times, China falls back on coal – “There’s a deep contradiction in this”

Satellite view of construction at the Shentou coal-fired power station in Shanxi, China. In July 2017, China’s National Energy Administration ordered the plant’s owners to stop construction of two 1,000 megawatt units at the plant; in September 2017 the order was changed to “postpone.” Construction on the two units officially resumed on 28 March 2019. Photo: Google

Close to half of U.S. population projected to have obesity by 2030 – “The prevalence of adult obesity and severe obesity will continue to increase nationwide, with large disparities across states and demographic subgroups”

Obesity rates in the United States by state, 2000-2019 and projected to 2030. Data: Ward, et al., 2019. NEJM Graphic: Elijah Wolfson / TIME

U.S. life expectancy continues to decline – Working-age Americans dying at higher rates, especially in economically hard-hit states – “This is a distinctly American phenomenon”

Life expectancy for United States and 50 States, grouped by census region, 1959-2016. Graphic: Woolf and Schoomaker, 2019 / JAMA

2019 Human Development Report says unchecked inequality growth may trigger a “new great divergence” in society not seen since the Industrial Revolution – “This is the new face of inequality”

The geographic breakdown of each percentile of the global distribution of income evolved, 1990-2016. In 1990, 33 percent of the population of the world’s top 0.001 percent income group were residents of the United States and Canada. In 2016, 5 percent of the population of the world’s top 0.001 percent income group were residents of the Russian Federation. Data: Alvaredo, et al., 2018, based on data from the World Inequality Database http://WID.world. Graphic: UNDP

Drought, heat, and Victoria Falls: The spectre of hot drought

Trend in October rainfall at Victoria Falls 1064 m elevation, 1976-2016. Graphic: Kaitano Dube

Greenland losing ice seven times faster than in the 1990s – Sea level rise from Greenland melt tracking highest climate projections

Greenland ice thickness loss, 1993-2019. Graphic: IMBIE / CPOM / Leeds University

Australia could see hottest day on record as Perth heatwave conditions travel east – “We’re expecting some incredibly warm conditions as we head into next week”

Sunset at Hillary’s Boat Harbour, Perth, 12 December 2019. Perth experienced several more days of near 40C temperatures in December 2019. Photo: Andrew O’Connor / ABC News

Oceans losing oxygen at unprecedented rate, experts warn

Global pattern in the cumulative development of coastal hypoxia in the periods before 1969, 1970-1989, and 1990-2015. Each red dot represents a documented case related to human activities. Green dots are sites that have improved. Since the 1960s, the global number of hypoxic systems has about doubled every ten years up to 2000. Data: Based on Diaz and Rosenberg (2008), Diaz, et al. (2010), and Conley et al. (2011). Graphic: Laffoley and Baxter, 2019 / IUCN

Global carbon emissions growth slows, but still hits record high in 2019 – “Emissions cuts in wealthier nations must outpace increases in poorer countries where access to energy is still needed”

Carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas, petroleum, coal, and land use changes, 1998-2017, in gigatons of CO2 per year. Graphic: GCP

Graph of the Day: The staggering millennial wealth deficit – “To catch up to Gen Xers, millennials would need to triple their wealth in just four years. To reach boomers, their net worth would need a sevenfold jump.”

Share of national wealth owned by each generation, by median cohort age. Baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — collectively owned 21 percent of the nation’s wealth by the time their generation hit a median age of 35 in 1990. Generation X (born from 1965 to 1980) came of age during the era of wage stagnation and growing inequality ushered in by the 1970s and ’80s. When the typical Gen Xer reached 35 in 2008, his or her share of the nation’s wealth was just 9 percent, less than half that of boomers at a comparable point in life. Millennials haven’t hit the 35 mark yet — that won’t happen until about 2023 — but their financial situation is relatively dire. They own just 3.2 percent of the nation’s wealth. To catch up to Gen Xers, they’d need to triple their wealth in just four years. To reach boomers, their net worth would need a sevenfold jump. Graphic: Gray Kimbrough / The Washington Post

Faded Texas oil field offers austerity lesson for U.S. shale – “There’s an inflection point coming here because production growth is going to slow down massively”

Oil production from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, 2012-2019. New drilling in Eagle Ford only replaces production declines from old wells. Data: BloombergNEF. Graphic: Bloomberg

Quality of U.S. jobs declining drastically – “The long-term loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs over the past thirty years has produced troubling ripple effects for many Americans”

Average weekly earnings of private services sector and goods producing sector jobs, 1964-2018. Graphic: Cornell Law School

35 years of climate change in one video

Animation showing the age of the Arctic sea ice between 2015 and 2019. Video: NASA

World must cut carbon emissions by 7.6 percent every year for next decade to meet 1.5°C Paris target – “It is very disturbing that in spite of the many warnings, global emissions have continued to increase and do not seem to be likely to peak anytime soon”

GHG emissions in GtCO2e materials production by material and by the first use of materials. In 2015, the production of materials caused GHG emissions of approximately 11.5 GtCO2e, up from 5 GtCO2e in 1995. The largest contribution stems from bulk materials production, such as iron and steel, cement, lime and plaster, other minerals mostly used as construction products, as well as plastics and rubber. Two thirds of the materials are used to make capital goods, with buildings and vehicles among the most important. While the production of materials consumed in industrialized countries remained within the range of 2–3 GtCO2e, in the 1995–2015 period, those of developing and emerging economies have largely been behind the growth. In this context, it is important to keep in mind the discussion about the point of production and points of consumption. Graphic: UNEP

Greenhouse gas concentrations in atmosphere reached yet another high in 2018

Globally averaged CO2 mole fraction (a) and its growth rate (b) from 1984 to 2018. Increases in successive annual means are shown as shaded columns in (b). The red line in (a) is the monthly mean with the seasonal variation removed; the blue dots and line depict the monthly averages. Observations from 129 stations have been used for this analysis. Graphic: WMO

Why the electric-car revolution may take a lot longer than expected – MIT analysis finds steady declines in battery costs will stall soon

Radar plots of urban types based on identified factors. For each city we collect information on 64 urban indicators, from which we identify nine dominant factors: metro, bus rapid transit (BRT), bikeshare, development, population, sustainability, congestion, sprawl, and network density (Oke, et al. 2018). We then cluster the 331 cities on these nine factors, producing 12 unique city types Radar plots indicate normalized factor scores (from 0 to 1) averaged for all cities in each type; adapted from Oke, et al. (2018). The “Congested Boomer” type represents rapidly growing megacities with severe congestion problems and low metro availability, particularly in India; notable members are Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. Graphic: MIT

Rising sea levels are swallowing North Carolina’s Outer Banks beaches, new report says

NOAA’s GOES East satellite captured this view of the strong Category 1 storm at 8:20 a.m. EDT, just 15 minutes before the center of Hurricane Dorian moved across the barrier islands of Cape Hatteras. Photo: NOAA

Amazon rainforest sees biggest spike in deforestation in more than a decade – “Forests fall, indigenous leaders are killed, and environmental laws are shattered”

An aerial view of the Cachimbo Biological Reserve in Altamira, Brazil, reveals the scale of the burned land in the Amazon basin, in August 2019. Critics of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro trace the recent spike in fires to his administration’s anti-environmental policies. Photo: João Laet / AFP / Getty Images

The climate chain reaction that threatens the heart of the Pacific – “When are the fish coming?”

Map showing average surface sea temperature in the Sea of Okhotsk, compared with the late 1800s. Data: Berkeley Earth. Graphic: John Muyskens / The Washington Post

More than 11,000 scientists issue warning of climate emergency – “An immense increase of scale in endeavors to conserve our biosphere is needed to avoid untold suffering due to the climate crisis”

Graphs showing change in global human activities from 1979 to the present. Graphic: Ripple, et al., 2019 / BioScience

As deadly Australia bushfires rage, Sydney may be running out water

Greater Sydney dam levels on 17 November 2019. Dams in greater Sydney are currently at 46.6 percent capacity. According to the NSW water authority, they are on track to hit 40 percent, which means Level 2 water restrictions would be imposed by February 2020 or March 2020. Since June 2019, the greater Sydney area in New South Wales state has been under Level 1 water restrictions, which limit water usage in filling pools or running hoses unattended. It is the first time the restrictions have been implemented since 2003, during a drought that lasted until 2009. If dam levels drop just a few percentage points in greater Sydney, residents could face even harsher water restrictions. Graphic: WaterNSW

“Their house is on fire”: the pension crisis sweeping the world – “We just have to explain to millennials that their parents might have to move back in with them”

Former HSBC employees protest about unfair cuts, or “clawbacks”, to their pensions outside of the HSBC annual general meeting at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, England, 13 April 2019. Photo: The Telegraph

More than half of India coal-fired power plants set to miss pollution deadline – Less than 2 percent currently in compliance

Photo of an oxygen bar in Delhi, India on 15 November 2019. A 15-minute session costs $7.00. Photo: Reuters

Dangerous air pollution in India forces Delhi schools to close for 2nd time in 2 weeks – “I cannot play outside because the air is too toxic to breathe”

Smog blankets India’s capital Delhi, 14 November 2019. Photo: Arshad R. Zargar / CBS

Another total fire ban in place for Sydney as death toll rises to four – “You haven’t had bushfires like these bushfires before”

Satellite view of smoke from wildfires in New South Wales, Australia, 6 November 2019 - 14 November 2019. Photo: NASA EISDIS Worldview

Arctic shifts to a carbon source due to winter soil emissions – “The warmer it gets, the more carbon will be released into the atmosphere from the permafrost region, which will add to further warming”

Projected (a) mean winter (Oct-April) soil temperature, (b) mean winter air temperature, (c) mean leaf area index (July-August), (d) annual gross primary productivity (GPP), (e) mean non-summer (NS; September - May) unfrozen soil moisture, (f) mean summer soil moisture (June-August), and (g) cumulative summer precipitation (June-August) for the northern permafrost region from 2018 through 2100 under RCP 4.5 (blue) and 8.5 (red) based on ESM ensemble outputs. Graphic: Natali, et al., 2019 / Nature Climate Change

Just 15 years of post-Paris emissions to lock in 20 cm of sea level rise in the year 2300 – “Emissions today will inevitably cause seas to rise a long way into the future. This process cannot be reversed. It is our legacy for humankind.”

Country-specific total CO2 emission shares GtC per year of the biggest 5 emitters. Graphic: Nauels, et al., 2019 / PNAS

Flooded Future: New elevation maps triple estimates of global risk from sea-level rise and coastal flooding – “By 2100, land now home to 200 million people could sit permanently below the high tide line”

Permanent inundation surfaces predicted by CoastalDEM and SRTM given the median K17/RCP 8.5/2100 sea-level projection. Locations include (a) the Pearl River Delta, China; (b) Bangladesh; (c) Jakarta, Indonesia; and (d) Bangkok, Thailand. Low-lying areas isolated from the ocean are removed from the inundation surface using connected components analysis. Current water bodies are derived from the SRTM Water Body Dataset. Gray areas represent dry land. Axis labels denote latitude and longitude. Graphic: Kulp and Strauss, 2019 / Nature Communications

October 2019: A month of extreme weather for the U.S. – “This early-October heat wave appears to the most intense and anomalous on record for such a large region of the U.S.”

Comparison of weekly U.S. Drought Monitor for 30 July 2019 and 1 October 2019 shows the rapid progression of drought across the south-central and southeast U.S. Graph: National Drought Mitigation Center

India air pollution deteriorates to “hazardous” rating – “Pollution has reached unbearable levels across North India”

Map of air pollution in India showing Air Quality Index meters maxed at 999 on 3 November 2019. Graphic: AQICN

Scientists update status of polar bear populations with 2019 data

Summary of polar bear population status in 2019 by regional subpopulation, showing populations with decreasing trends. Graphic: IUCN / SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG)

China’s 2019 coal imports set to rise by more than 10 percent, to around 320 million tons

China monthly coal imports, 2015-2019. Graphic: Reuters

America’s air quality worsens since Trump election, ending years of gains – “This increase is a real about-face”

Air pollution (fine particulate matter PM2.5) in the United States, 2009-2018. in 2016, pollution started to increase significantly in the U.S. Midwest and West. Data: National Bureau of Economic Research. Graphic: The New York Times

“It’s a nightmare”: Zimbabwe struggles with hyperinflation – Extreme poverty surges to 34 percent as 1 million more added to poor bracket – “People should brace for worse”

Map of Zimbabwe showing the Acute Food Insecurity Phase for June 2019 to September 2019 and October 2019 to January 2020. Graphic: FEWS NET

Falling up: A look back at the 2019 Arctic summer – New record daily lows for sea ice extent in July and early August

This animation shows Arctic sea ice decline from 1979 to 2019 from pink to purple, with dark purple in 2019. This animation is based on the Chartic Interactive Sea Ice Graph. Graphic: M. Scott / NSIDC

Facing unbearable heat, Qatar has begun to air-condition the outdoors – “The Persian Gulf is a prophecy of what’s to come”

In Doha, Qatar, Fans equipped with misters blow moist air on evening diners who sit beside cooling units. Overnight lows rarely dip below 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Photo: Salwan Georges / The Washington Post

Top investment banks provide $713 billion to expand fossil fuel industry since Paris climate change agreement – “We can all sit around pointing fingers at each other, but that doesn’t help solve what is a really complex and multifaceted problem”

Total fossil fuel financing by investment banks in 2016, 2017, and 2018. The financing has been led by the Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase, which has provided $75 billion (£61 billion) to companies expanding in sectors such as fracking and Arctic oil and gas exploration. Graphic: RAN

September 2019 hottest on record globally, second hottest in U.S. history – All-time record for 12-month rainfall in U.S.

Statewide rankings for average temperature and precipitation for September 2019 compared to each September since records began in 1895. Graphic: NOAA / NCEI

If warming exceeds 2°C, Antarctica’s melting ice sheets could raise seas 20 meters in coming centuries

The pattern of normalized relative sea-level (RSL) from Glacial Isostatic Adjustement (GIA) simulations of a 20-m rise in eustatic sea level (ESL). Graphic: Grant, et al., 2019 / Nature

Billions face food, water shortages over next 30 years as nature fails – Study paints “a deeply worrying picture of the societal burdens of losing nature”

Global variability in nature’s contributions to people, for water quality regulation, coastal risk reduction, and crop pollination. Graphic: Chaplin-Kramer, et al., 2019 / Science

For the first time in history, U.S. billionaires paid a lower tax rate than the working class in 2018

Total U.S. Tax Rate (Federal, State and Local), 1950-2018, by income decile. Graphic: The New York Times

America’s sexually transmitted infection rates are out of control – “Systems that identify, treat, and ultimately prevent STDs are strained to near-breaking point”

Rates of reported cases of primary and secondary syphilis in the U.S. by region, 2009-2018. In 2018, the West had the highest rate of reported P&S syphilis cases (15.0 cases per 100,000 population), followed by the South (11.1 cases per 100,000 population), the Northeast (8.7 cases per 100,000 population), and the Midwest (7.1 cases per 100,000 population). During 2017–2018, the P&S syphilis rate increased 16.4% in the Midwest, 15.6% in the South, 15.4% in the West, and 10.1% in the Northeast. Graphic: CDC

U.S. millennials and Gen X are both stressed, broke, and in debt – “Deaths of despair” on the rise with millennials

Alcohol, drug, and suicide deaths among young adults (ages 20–34), 1999–2017. Data: Trust for America’s Health and Well Being / Trust analysis of National Center for Health Statistics data, CDC. Graphic: TFAH

Fires still being set in blazing Bolivia – Up to 18 million wild animals killed, including 500 rare jaguars – “Bolivia needs to rethink its agricultural strategy, as the future of its immeasurable biodiversity is at stake”

The sun shines orange through through smoke from wildfires in Bolivia in September 2019. Photo: Adolfo Lino / Mongabay

Extreme rainfall variability driving tree growth reductions in western U.S. – “Key Southwest tree species may be at risk as precipitation extremes intensify”

Map showing the coefficient of variation of precipitation (CVP) and its historical and projected changes in the continental United States. (A and B) Historical (1981–2010) CVP from PRISM for the cool and warm seasons, respectively. The bounding box in (A) indicates the Southwest region used for subsequent regional analyses. (C and D) PRISM-estimated historical change in CVP (∆CVPhistorical) from the early 20th century (1901–1930) to the late 20th/early 21st century (1981–2010) for the cool and warm seasons. Graphic: Dannenberg, et al., 2019 / Science Advances

More than half of Europe’s endemic trees face extinction – “This report shows how dire the situation is for many overlooked, undervalued species that form the backbone of Europe’s ecosystems”

The distribution of threatened tree species, Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable (CR, EN, and VU), in Europe. Data: European Red List of trees 2019. Graphic: IUCN

Landmark “United in Science” report brings together world’s leading climate science organizations

Map showing 2015–2019 five-year average temperature anomalies relative to the 1981-2010 average. Data: NASA GISTEMP v4. through June 2019. Graphic: WMO

Imelda rainfall is now 7 times more likely than 30 years ago – Climate change is making flooding more frequent in southeast Texas

72-hour rainfall totals from Tropical Storm Imelda compared with Hurricane Claudette in 1979, Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, and Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Imelda covered an area as large as Claudette and bigger than Allison but fell short of Harvey. Graphic: Jesse Ferrell / WeatherMatrix

Drought exacerbates wildfires in Australia rainforest

Satellite view of Gondwana rainforest fires, 4-15 September 2019. Photo: NASA Worldview

Munich Re: Climate change and its consequences – 18 of the 20 warmest years are in the period 2001-2018

People wait outside of their stranded vehicles along Interstate 10 westbound at T.C. Jester, Thursday, 19 September 2019. The freeway is closed because of high water eastbound on the freeway from Tropical Storm Imelda. Photo: Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle / AP

Disaster strikes in Bolivia as agricultural fires lay waste to unique forests – “Fire is a monster and is threatening us. Everything is ashes and fear.”

Satellite data show fire activity is still heavy around Roboré, Bolivia but is intensifying in the northern and western portions of the Santa Cruz region. Data: NASA FIRMS / “VIIRS Active Fires”. Accessed through Global Forest Watch on 6 August 2019. Graphic: Mongabay

Earth warming more quickly than thought, new climate models show – “We have better models now. They have better resolution, and they represent current climate trends more accurately.”

Equilibrium climate sensitivity estimates from IPCC AR5, CMIP5, and early CMIP6 models. Graphic: Stephen Belcher / Carbon Brief

Summer 2019 in the Northern Hemisphere tied for warmest summer on record – Five hottest NH summers have occurred in the past five years

August 2019 Blended Land and Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies in degrees Celsius. Graphic: NOAA

Dangerous new hot zones are spreading around the world

Map showing 2014-2018 global temperature change, compared with 1880-1899 temperatures. Data: Berkeley Earth. Graphic: The Washington Post

U.S. obesity rates hit historic highs in 2018 – Nine states reach adult obesity rates of 35 percent or more – “These latest data shout that our national obesity crisis is getting worse”

Adult obesity in the U.S. by state in 2018, with top ten states highlighted. Graphic: Trust for Americas Health

U.S. deficit tops $1 trillion in 11 months, highest in 7 years – “Absent more responsible budgets, the deficit and interest costs will continue to grow rapidly, diminishing America’s future”

U.S. federal budget deficits and discretionary spending, 2009-2019. Data: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget / U.S. OMB / CBO. Graphic: CNN

Hawaii’s warmest summer on record and Alaska’s second warmest in 2019

Hawaii was surrounded by waters with warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures on 9 September 2019. Departures from the seasonal norm are shown in degrees Celsius. On this date, Lihue, Kauai observed its 17th consecutive day of a daily record high temperature being set or tied. This is likely the longest such stretch for any official weather station with a long period of record (more than 50 years) at any site in the U.S. climate database. Graphic: Tropical Tidbits

Australia rainforest burns as bushfires arrive early – Queensland faces worst fire threat in recorded history – “This isn’t the new normal. We’re going to see much worse. The pace of the change is going to accelerate.”

The Sentinel-2 satellite captured a headfire in heath fuels burning as a part of the Shark Creek bush fire near Yamba, 8 September 2019. Photo: Nicholas McCarthy

Amazon deforestation and development heighten Amazon fire risk – “Most of the current fires are related to the deforestation process”

Fractional area of agriculture and secondary vegetation in the Brazilian Amazon under the two analyzed land-use change scenarios (“Sustainability” and “Fragmentation”) by the mid (2041-2070) and the end (2071-2100) of the 21st century. Graphic: Fonseca, et al., 2019 / Global Change Biology

Real U.S. debt levels could be a shocking 2,000 percent of GDP – “We are quickly approaching a situation where we have dug ourselves a debt hole which is going to have profoundly negative effects on the economy for probably decades”

U.S. debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 1940-2019 and projected to 2029. Federal debt held by the public is projected to rise steadily over the coming decade, from 79 percent of GDP in 2019 to 95 percent of GDP in 2029. It would continue to grow after 2029. Relative to the size of the economy, federal debt in 2019 is projected to be nearly twice its average over the past 50 years. At the end of 2029, debt is projected to reach a higher level than it has at any point since just after World War II. Graphic: CBO

There is no Plan B for dealing with climate change – “With regard to the climate crisis, yes, it’s time to panic”

Change in surface temperatures from present, 20000 ybp to 2071-2095. Graphic: Clark, et al., 2016 / Nature Climate Change

NOAA staff warned in Sept. 1 directive against contradicting Trump – “This is the first time I’ve felt pressure from above to not say what truly is the forecast”

Closeup of the map Trump presented to the media in the White House in Washington on 4 September 2019, showing the projected path of Hurricane Dorian. The projected path of Hurricane Dorian has been extended into Alabama by amateurish drawing with a Sharpie, Trump’s favorite type of pen. When asked by reporters whether the map had been altered, Trump said he didn’t know how it had been amended. Photo: Tom Brenner / Bloomberg

No large oil companies are “Paris-aligned” – Newly-sanctioned oil development projects will take the world past 1.5ºC

Aerial view of an oil sands field (bitumen mine) in Alberta, Canada. Photo: Jennifer Grant / Pembina Institute / Northern Lifeblood

NASA satellites confirm Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate

Map showing active fire detections in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil as observed by Terra and Aqua MODIS satellites between 15 August 2019 and 22 August 2019. Photo: Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory

Boris Johnson’s burqa comments caused surge in anti-Muslim attacks in 2018 – Abuse incidents jumped by 375 percent in the week following PM’s article

Anti-Muslim incidents reported to Tell MAMA between 30 July 2018 and 25 August 2018. Graphic: Tell MAMA UK

Great Barrier Reef outlook downgraded to “very poor” as threats mount – “We’ve had ten years of warnings, ten years of rising greenhouse emissions, and ten years watching the Reef heading for a catastrophe”

Top: Opal Reef in the northern Great Barrier Reef before, during and after the 2016 mass bleaching event. (left to right: September 2015, April 2016, November 2016). Bottom: Double Cone Island in the Whitsundays area of the Great Barrier Reef in 2014, post-cyclone Debbie in 2017 and mid-2018 (left to right). Photo: Taylor Simpkins / Australian Institute of Marine Science

It’s getting harder and harder to limit global warming to 2°C – “It is partly this hope in future technologies that delays action”

Global annual net CO2 emissions and negative carbon emissions required to achieve the Paris climate goal of 1.5°C. This animation uses the functional form from Raupach et al., 2014 for positive emissions, adding residual, hard-to-mitigate emissions of 5 percent of the current level, and negative emissions using the ramp of a cosine function. Σ indicates the cumulative emissions 2019-2100. Graphic: Robbie Andrew

Australia greenhouse emissions set new seven-year highs on natural gas boom – “Australia is on a collision course with climate catastrophe”

Percentage change in Australia carbon emissions, by sector, since year to March 1990. Graphic: Department of the Environment and Energy

Can we survive extreme heat? Humans have never lived on a planet this hot, and we’re totally unprepared for what’s to come

Projected change in average surface temperature in Phoenix, Arizona between 2000 and 2050. Graphic: Vox

Deforestation, climate crisis could crash Amazon tree diversity – “Deforestation is no longer the only major threat to the Pan-Amazon”

Map showing Amazonian species richness (number of species per grid cell) affected by global change and deforestation. (a) Original AOO only. (b) Original AOO and 2050 IGS53,54. (c) Original AOO and 2050 BAU53,54. (d) 2050 RCP 2.6 AOO only. (e) 2050 RCP 2.6 AOO combined with 2050 IGS deforestation. (f) 2050 RCP 2.6 AOO combined with 2050 BAU deforestation, (g) 2050 RCP 8.5 AOO only. (h) 2050 RCP 8.5 AOO combined with 2050 IGS deforestation. (i) 2050 RCP 8.5 AOO combined with 2050 BAU deforestation. Colour scale indicates decrease in AOO from blue (forested area) to red (loss in AOO). Graphic: Gomes, et al., 2019 / Nature Climate Change

Indonesia announces site of capital city to replace sinking Jakarta – Choice of Borneo for £27 billion project raises fears of forest destruction and pollution

Satellite views of land subsidence in Jakarta Indonesia in 1984-1991 and 2010-2015. Data: Subsidence data courtesy of Irwan Gumilar of Geodesy Research Group of ITB; satellite images via Landsat 5 and Landsat 8. Graphic: The New York Times

Flying above the Amazon fires, “all you can see is death”

Aerial view of a wildfire burning in the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Brazil, 26 August 2019. The Brazilian state of Rondonia has 6,436 fires burning so far this year in it, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Photo: Natalie Gallón / CNN

Farmers in Chile losing freshwater battle with lithium mines – “We’ll be left here with no water, no animals, no agriculture – with nothing”

Aerial view of brine pools at the SQM lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat in the Atacama desert of northern Chile, 10 January 2013. Photo: Ivan Alvarado / Reuters

U.S. set to drown the world in oil – “The sheer scale of this new production dwarfs that of every other country in the world”

Projected share of production from new oil and gas fields, 2020-2029. The majority of the world’s new oil and gas set to come from the U.S. Graphic: Global Witness

Extreme ice smasher storm headed for the Arctic, two months early

Weather projection on 21 August 2019 showing extreme low pressure headed for the northern Canada, causing an “Arctic ice smasher” storm that is arriving about two months early for the Arctic. Graphic: The Weather Network

Record number of fires burning in Brazil rainforest – Bolsonaro blames conservationists, after he defunded environmental agencies

Satellite view of wildfires in South America on 21 August 2019. Wildfires raging in the Amazon rainforest hit a record number in 2019, with 72,843 fires detected in August by Brazil’s space research center INPE. Graphic: INPE

5.4 million hectares ablaze in Siberia – “Almost four million hectares that are burning now are impossible to extinguish with any group of forces”

Aerial view of Siberia wildfires in Buryatiya, 14 August 2019. Photo: The Siberian Times

Atmospheric vapor deficit causing worldwide loss of vegetation

Comparison of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) trends over the globally vegetated areas between two periods of 1982–1998 and 1999–2015. (A) NDVI trend of 1982–1998. (B) NDVI trend of 1999–2015. (C) Differences of NDVI trend between 1999–2015 and 1982–1998. The insets (I) show the relative frequency (percent) distribution of significant decreases (Dec*; P < 0.05), decreases (Dec), increases (Inc), and significant increases (Inc*), and the insets (II) show the frequency distributions of the corresponding ranges. Graphic: Yuan, et al., 2019 / Science Advances

Breaching carbon threshold could lead to mass extinction – Carbon dioxide emissions may trigger “reflex” in global carbon cycle, with devastating consequences

Excitation near the saddle-node bifurcation and steady-state solutions for global carbon cycle model. Graphic: Rothman, 2019 / PNAS

Lowest sockeye salmon count on record at the Ballard Locks – “The salmon population is just not healthy anymore”

People watch sockeye salmon it the fish allder at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Seattle, on 23 June 2017 Photo: Hiram M. Chittenden Locks

First evidence of human-caused climate change melting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Linkages between Amundsen Sea winds and global SST and SLP. Time series of zonal wind and zonal total stress over the PITT box, the SOI and the IPO. The legend shows the unit for each time series, and scaling for the axis values where appropriate. Graphic: Holland, et al., 2019 / Nature Geoscience

July 2019 was Earth’s hottest month in recorded history – 2019 almost certain to be among the five warmest years on record

July 2019 blended land and sea surface temperature anomalies in degrees Celsius and in percentiles. Graphic: NOAA / NCEI

Fracking prompts global spike in atmospheric methane – “This recent increase in methane in massive”

Gas storage tanks receiving natural gas from feeder pipelines before compression for transport in high-pressure pipelines at the Haynseville shale formation, Texas. This photo was taken with a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera tuned to the infrared spectrum of methane, allowing visualization of methane, which is invisible in the normal camera view and to the naked eye. Photo: Sharon Wilson / Howarth, 2019 / Biogeosciences

No end to crisis in sight as drought grips India’s Chennai – “The civil strife in this country will start from water, not from religion”

Satellite view of Chennai Lake as it dries up, from 5 Feb 2019 to 15 July 2019. Photo: Copernicus / FT

A quarter of humanity faces looming water crises – “The picture is alarming in many places around the world”

Map of world water stress projected to 2020, 2030, and 2040. Data: World Resources Institute; United Nations. Graphic: The New York Times

Media coverage creates false balance on climate science, study shows – “Climate change contrarians” receive 49 percent more media coverage than scientists

Media article co-visibility network-individual level. Clustered representation of the co-visibility network: nodes are climate change contrarians (CCCs) and climate change scientists (CCSs) who have at least one media article associated with at least one other individual. Links are colored according to three types: links between members of the CCC (CCS) group are red (blue) and links between groups are black; the percentages of links by type are reported in parentheses (e.g., 52 percent of links are within the CCC group). We used a modularity-maximizing clustering algorithm48 to identify three communities, with nodes ordered along each spine according to its network centrality—as such, the most prominent individuals are located at the apex. Two communities are well mixed, whereas the third represents an extremely polarized echo chamber comprised primarily of CCC. (inset) Magnification of the apex showing the most prominent individuals. Graphic: Peterson, et al., 2019 / Nature Communications

State of the Climate in 2018: 2018 was the fourth-hottest year on record, behind 2016, 2015, and 2017

Landsat 8 images from 21 July 2018 (left) and 16 September 2018 (right) illustrating the Taku Glacier transient snowline. The 21 July 2018 snowline is at 975 m and the 16 September 2018 snowline is at 1400 m. Average end-of-summer snowline is 975 m; the 2018 end-of-summer snowline was the highest observed in the 73-year record. Graphic: AMS

U.S. racks up wettest calendar year to date in July 2019

Graphs showing total precipitation averaged across the 48 contiguous U.S. states from January to July, 1895-2019; Statewide rankings for average precipitation for July 2019, as compared to each July since records began in 1895; and Statewide rankings for average temperature for July 2019, as compared to each July since records began in 1895. Graphic: NOAA / NCEI

World food security increasingly at risk due to “unprecedented” climate change impact, new UN report warns

Graphs from the “Climate Change and Land 2019” report by the IPCC, showing changes relative to 1961 of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, world agricultural production, food demand, and desertification and land degradation. Graphic: IPCC

Image of the Day: Satellite view of 5 million km² of Siberia covered by smoke from wildfires, 11 August 2019

Satellite view showing more than 5 million km² of Siberia covered by smoke from wildfires, 11 August 2019. For comparison, the area of EU is about 4.5 million km², and the area of contiguous U.S. about 8.1 million km². Satellite image: MODIS / Terra. Graphic: Antti Lipponen

Global sea level rise began accelerating “30 years earlier” than previously thought

Annual increase in global average sea from 1900 to present. The blue line shows data from the tide gauges, while the red is from satellite altimetry. Graphic: Carbon Brief

AccuWeather misleads on global warming and heat waves, a throwback to its past climate denial

A thermometer show the temperature of over 40 degrees at the Volklingen Ironworks in Volklingen, Germany on 24 July 2019. Photo: Harald Tittel / AFP / Getty Images

European heatwave made up to 100 times more likely due to global warming – “The July 2019 heatwave was so extreme over Europe that the observed magnitudes would have been extremely unlikely without climate change”

Temperature field over Europe on 25 July 2019 12 UTC at 850 hPa (colors) together with 500 hPa (isolines) as obtained from ECMWF analyses. Graphic: ECMWF

88 percent decline of big freshwater animals over 40-year period – “The results are alarming and confirm the fears of scientists involved in studying and protecting freshwater biodiversity”

Species richness of freshwater megafauna in the year 1500 and in the 21st Century in Europe. Graphic: Fengzhi He, 2019

Arctic fires fill Northern Hemisphere skies with soot

Animation showing the concentration of black carbon particulates — commonly called soot — around the Arctic from 1 July 2019 to 29 July 2019. Graphic: Lauren Dauphin / NASA Earth Observatory

Here’s the data on U.S. white supremacist terrorism the Trump administration has been “unable or unwilling” to give to Congress

Targets of violent extremists in the U.S. in 2018. The largest percentage of attacks was against African Americans (“Black People”). Graphic: New Jersey Office of Homeland Security Preparedness (NJOHSP)

Baked Alaska: State endures warmest month on record in July 2019

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured an image of thick wildfire smoke swirling over the state on 8 July 2019. Meteorologists in Fairbanks reported visibility had dropped to less than one mile due to smoke, and air quality sensors in the city reported skyrocketing levels of particulates in the air. Photo: NASA Earth Observatory

“Sticker shock” for California wildfire areas as insurance rates double, and policies are dropped – “It’s time to address the impact that more severe weather is having on Americans instead of fighting about climate change”

An artist, moved by what was left behind of his friend's home after a wild fire, used the site as a canvas. Shane Grammer said he was devastated to find out how many people he knows were left homeless by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California. His friend, Shane Edwards, agreed to let him create a mural on what remained of his burned-down home. After three hours, Grammer had created a striking image of a beautiful woman that is giving people hope on 4 January 2019. Photo: Inside Edition

Top ten UK’s hottest years all since 2002 – None of the ten coldest years occurred after 1963

UK maximum temperature for 28 June 2018, actual value. Graphic: Met Office

Siberia forest fires spark potential “disaster” for Arctic – 12 million hectares have burned in Russia this year – “The most important event on the planet right now? Arctic climate chaos.”

Breakup of sea ice on the north coast of Greenland, 14-29 July 2019. Photo: Nick Humphrey / NASA Worldview

Brazil’s Amazon deforestation surge is real, despite President Bolsonaro’s denial – Brazil environmental agencies and deforestation controls “effectively dismantled”

IBAMA environmental agency agents investigate illegal deforestation in Jamanxim National Forest in Pará state, Brazil. Photo: Mongabay

Record-breaking European heat wave heads north, massive melting likely in Arctic – “This actually primes things for more sea ice loss later, on the order of weeks”

Daily sea ice conventration analysis for 27 July 2019. Graphic: NWS Alaska Sea Ice Program

Earth Overshoot Day 2019 is July 29, the earliest ever

Table showing how many Earths humanity would require if everybody in the world lived like the citizens of selected nations, according to Global Footprint Network in 2019. For the U.S., five Earths would be required. For India, 0.7 Earths would be required. Graphic: Global Footprint Network

The climate is warming faster than it has in the last 2,000 years

Distribution of warm and cold temperatures over the Common Era (bottom) and sensitivity plots. Graphic: Neukom, et al., 2019 / Nature

Water cycle speeding up over much of U.S. – “As the planet warms, we anticipate that the warmer air, which holds more moisture, will lead to more evaporation and precipitation”

Difference in water cycle intensity in the U.S., 1945-2014. Data: data from Huntington, Thomas, et al., 2018 / Journal of Hydrology. Graphic: Lauren Dauphin / NASA Earth Observatory

Pesticide exposure causes bumblebee flight to fall short – “The negative effects of pesticide exposure on flight endurance have the potential to reduce the area that colonies can forage for food”

Scatterplot showing key bumblebee flight performance indicator of endurance, distance flown in meters (A) for both the control (red circle) and pesticide‐treated (blue triangle) groups. Graphic: Kenna, et al., 2019 / Ecology and Evolution

Nutrient loading lowers resistance to thermal stress in Florida Keys corals – “These data make clear that this is not an ‘either temperature or nutrients’ situation, but rather a ‘both/and’ combination of multiple stressors”

Remote sensing imagery of discolored water and algal blooms in the Florida Bay and the Florida Keys region between 1992 and 2013 showing connectivity of the mainland and the lower Florida Keys, all outlined in red. (a) Landsat true color image on 29 May 1992 shows turbid water in western Florida Bay and discolored, black water in central Florida Bay that extends southward to the lower Florida Keys; (b) AVHRR reflectance image on 12 March 1996 shows high turbidity from the Shark River Slough plume extending beyond the lower Florida Keys towards Dry Tortugas; (c, d) VIIRS chlorophyll a anomaly images show phytoplankton blooms off Shark River Slough reaching the lower Florida Keys that were partially composed of the cyanobacterium, Synechococcus, on (c) 24 November 2013 and (d) 27 January 2014. Graphic: Lapointe, et al., 2019 / Marine Biology

All-time heat records melt in Europe – Paris warmer than Singapore at 42.6°C (108.7°F) – National records broken on Wednesday fell again on Thursday – “‘If you’d have said five years ago we’d see temperature records fall this frequently, I wouldn’t have believed you”

A woman walks past a window reflecting a thermometer showing a temperature of 41 degrees Celsius on 25 July 2019, in Paris, as a new heatwave hits the French capital. Photo: Dominique Faget / AFP / Getty Images

By 2050, many cities will have weather like they’ve never seen – “The fate of major tropical cities remains uncertain as many will experience unprecedented climate conditions”

Difference between future and current climate for London and an example of a similar current counterpart, Barcelona. Graphic: Bastin, et al., 2019 / PLOS ONE

Where lions once ruled, they are now quietly disappearing – Lion population has declined by 50 percent in 25 years

Lion population in Yankari National Park, 2006-2014, model fitted to time series (black squares are data, white circles are medians of the model-inferred true population sizes μt, and gray areas between dashes lines are 95 percent credible intervals). Graphic: Bauer, et al., 2015 / PNAS

76 billion opioid pills: Newly released federal data unmasks the epidemic – “America should brace itself for the harsh reality of the scope of the opioid epidemic”

Biggest opioid manufacturers, 2006-2012. Three companies manufactured 88 percent of the opioids: SpecGx, a subsidiary of Mallinckrodt; Actavis Pharma; and Par Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Endo Pharmaceuticals. Data: DEA. Graphic: The Washington Post

Nunavut is warmer than Victoria in long, hot summer across the Arctic – “It’s really quite spectacular. This is unprecedented.”

Temperature anomaly at 2m for the Northern Hemisphere on 20 July 2019. Graphic: Climate Reanalyzer

Current coal phase-out pledges are insufficient to hit Paris climate goal

Impact of the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) pledges. To keep global warming within 1.5 °C of pre-industrial levels, there needs to be a substantial decline in the use of coal power by 2030 and in most scenarios, complete cessation by 2050. Graphic: Jewell, et al., 2019 / Nature Climate Change

June 2019: Earth’s hottest June on record and greatest June heat wave in European history

Combined land and ocean temperature anomalies in June in Europe, 1910-2019. 26–30 June 2019 brought the greatest June heat wave in European history. Hundreds of stations with a long-term period of record (POR) set their all-time June maximum temperature records. Graphic: James P. Galasyn / NOAA

“Committed” CO2 emissions jeopardize international climate goals – Existing, planned fossil fuel-burning infrastructure must be retired early, replaced – “Without such radical changes, we fear the aspirations of the Paris agreement are already at risk”

Committed CO2 emissions from existing and proposed energy infrastructure. Estimates of future CO2 emissions by industry sector and country/region Emissions from existing infrastructure are shown by darker shading, and emissions from proposed power plants (i.e. electricity) are more lightly shaded. Graphic: Tong, et al., 2019 / Nature

Expert reaction to study looking at trees, carbon storage, and climate change – “It is time to stop suggesting there is a ‘nature-based solution’ to ongoing fossil fuel use. There isn’t. Sorry.”

World map showing risk assessment of future changes in potential tree cover. (A) Illustration of expected losses in potential tree cover by 2050, under the “business as usual” climate change scenario (RCP 8.5), from the average of three Earth system models commonly used in ecology (cesm1cam5, cesm1bgc, and mohchadgem2es). (B) Quantitative numbers of potential gain and loss are illustrated by bins of 5° along a latitudinal gradient. Graphic: Bastin, et al., 2019 / Science

Global warming drives 8X increase in California summer wildfires and 5X increase in area burned – “The ability of dry fuels to promote large fires is nonlinear”

Area burned by California wildfires in thousands of square kilometers, 1972-2018. Specific regions studied are at upper left. Graphic: Williams, et al., 2019 / Earth’s Future

Melting of Himalaya glaciers has doubled in recent years

https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/06/19/melting-himalayan-glaciers-doubled/

Global vaccination rates stalled in 2018 due to conflict, inequality, and complacency – Measles cases more than doubled to almost 350,000 – 20 million children missed out on lifesaving measles, diphtheria, and tetanus vaccines

Coverage of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV3) vaccine, in the high income group, 2008-2018. Data: WHO/UNICEF national immunization coverage estimates, 2018 revision. Graphic: WHO/UNICEF

Over 820 million people suffer from hunger, with number increasing for third straight year – Overweight and obesity rising in almost all countries

Number of undernourished people and prevalence of undernourishment globally, 2005-2018. The number of undernourished people in the world has been on the rise since 2015 and is back to levels seen in 2010–2011. Graphic: FAO

Shifts to renewable energy can drive up energy poverty, study finds – “We don’t think of energy as a human right when it actually is”

Energy consumption and income inequality in the Philippines, 1990-2015. Data: McGee and Greiner, 2019 / Energy Research and Social Science. Graphic: James P. Galasyn

Decades-long butterfly study shows 33 percent population loss – “These declines in abundance are happening in common species”

Ohio statewide butterfly population trends of nine resident species with annual variation. Plotted are model predictions for each year based on the fixed effects of year (solid line) and annual random effects (dots) to show annual variation about the trend line. Shading shows 95 percent confidence intervals based on bootstrapped model fits in the poptrend package for the temporal trend and for the annual random effects. The first year’s estimate is set to a value of 1 as a baseline for relative population changes. Graphic: Wepprich, et al., 2019 / PLOS ONE

Wettest 12 months in U.S. history, yet again

Estimates of rainfall rates in the Washington, D.C. area on 8 July 2019 from NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory. Graphic: NASA

Trump officials deleting mentions of “climate change” from U.S. Geological Survey press releases – “It’s an insult to the science”

Example of coastal flooding in Alamitos Bay, California with 0.25 m of sea level rise and storms. This example illustrate that there are locations with significant flood risks for small amounts of sea level rise when storms are considered. Graphic: Barnard, et al., 2019 / Scientific Reports

The silent proliferation of small dams in the Amazon rainforest

Satellite view of the proliferation of small dams in the Amazon rainforest, visible as “water mirrors”. Photo: Imazon / Sentinel 2

Anchorage, Alaska roasts in 90°F heat, smashing all-time record by 5°F

GFS 2-meter temperature anomaly forecast for Alaska on 6 July 2019. Graphic: Tropical Tidbits

Global warming made record-breaking June 2019 European heatwave at least five times likelier – “This is a strong reminder again that climate change is happening here and now. It is not a problem for our kids only.”

The rank of the highest 3-day averaged mean temperature in June 2019. Dark red shows where it was the warmest 3-day heat wave in June since 1950, bright red the second-highest, etc. Graphic: E-OBS

“Precipitous” fall in Antarctic sea ice since 2014 revealed – “The rapid decline has caught us by surprise and changes the picture completely”

Annual average sea-ice extent in the Southern Ocean, 1979-2019. Sea ice extent in Antarctica has plunged since 2014. Data: Parkinson, 2019 / Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Graphic: The Guardian

A longer dry season in the Congo Rainforest – “Dry season length is one of the most crucial climate limitations for sustaining rainforest”

Spatial patterns of linear trends of the JJA DSL from four precipitation datasets for the period 1988–2013. Graphic: Jiang, et al., 2019 / Nature Climate Change

Villagers accuse city of seizing water as drought parches “India’s Detroit” – “Private tankers have fitted more than eight bore wells in our village and are indiscriminately extracting thousands of liters of water every day”

Groundwater levels across Chennai, June 2018 and June 2019. Wells in Anna Nagar and Choolaimedu in June 2019 were dry. Data: The Rain Centre, Chennai / Gaurav Dogra. Graphic: Reuters

Alaska could see all-time temperature record today in “unbelievable” heat wave – “It’s not just the magnitude of the heat, it’s how long it will last”

The jet stream wanders around Alaska, trapping a record-breaking heatwave over Anchorage, 3 July 2019. Graphic: The Weather Channel

June 2019 hottest ever recorded on Earth – “Temperature records haven’t just been broken. They have been obliterated.”

Map showing the anomalies in temperature (°C) estimated from ERA5 during the 5-day period of 25-29 June 2019. Graphic: ECMWF / Copernicus Climate Change Service

Why India’s Chennai has run out of water

Residents get water from a community well in Chennai after reservoirs for the city ran dry in June 2019. The bustling capital of Tamil Nadu state usually receives 825 million litres of water a day, but authorities are currently only able to supply 60 percent of that. With temperatures regularly hitting 40 degrees Celsius, reservoirs have run dry and other water sources are dwindling each day. Photo: Arun Sankar / AFP

Too much water or too little: Hydropower fights wild weather as climate changes rapidly

A motorist drives on top of the Kariba Dam wall in Kariba, Zimbabwe, 19 February 2016. Photo: Philimon Bulawayo / REUTERS

Glacier National Park’s name will outlive its glaciers – “It’s just kind of sad to see”

Ice extent for selected glaciers in Glacier National Park in 1966 and 2015. Graphic: The New York Times

U.S. federal debt on track to reach unsustainable level in 30 years, CBO reports

U.S. federal deficit projected to 2049. If current laws generally remained unchanged, large budget deficits would boost federal debt to unprecedented levels over the next 30 years. Graphic: CBO

All-American Despair: For the past two decades, a suicide epidemic fueled by guns, poverty, and isolation has swept across the U.S. West, with middle-aged men dying in record numbers

Rise in U.S. suicide rates between 1999 and 2016, by state. Data: CDC National Vital Statistics System / CDC Vital Signs, June 2018. Graphic: CDC

Wildfires and power cuts plague Europe as heatwave breaks records – Hottest day in French history beats record by 1.8°C (3.2°F) – 2019 on track to be among hottest years ever

Observed temperatures in Southern France on 28 June 2019. At least 12 French stations broke the old national record of 44.1°C, with a peak of 45.9°C in Gallargues-le-Montueux. Graphic: infoclimat.fr

France, Russia top list of anti-vaccine nations – Social media the vector for “real infection of misinformation”

Share of people who believe vaccines are safe in 2018. Data: Gallup World Poll 2018. Graphic: Wellcome

Two-thirds of global drug deaths now from opioids: UN drugs report – Cocaine production at all-time high

Overdose deaths, by opioid category in the United States of America, 1999–2017. Data: Holly Hedegaard, Arialdi M. Miniño, and Margaret Warner, “Drug overdose deaths in the United States, 1999–2017”, NCHS Data Brief, No. 329 (Hyattsville, Maryland, United States, National Center for Health Statistics, November 2018). Graphic: UNODC

France, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic set June heat records, worst still to come – Spain battles worst Catalonia wildfire in 20 years

Trees burn at night during a forest fire near Maials, west of Tarragona, Spain, 27 June 2019 Photo: Albert Gea / REUTERS

Dangerous June heat wave envelops Western Europe – Germany sizzles in record June heat

Heat forecast for Europe on 25 June 2019. The most widespread anomalous heat, with temperatures more than 12°C (22°F) above average (pink colors), are predicted on Wednesday and Thursday. Graphic: The Weather Company

Europe braces for scorching heatwave with temperatures “unprecedented for the month of June”

Surface temperature anomaly forecast for Europe, 22 June 2019. Graphic: weathermodels.com

Warming Arctic permafrost releasing 12 times more nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, than previously thought – “This needs to be taken more seriously than it is right now”

Permafrost forms a grid-like pattern in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in Alpine, Alaska, a 22.8 million acre region managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska's North Slope. USGS has periodically assessed oil and gas resource potential there. Photo: David Houseknecht / USGS

U.S. consumer debt is now above levels hit during the 2008 financial crisis

Total U.S. consumer debt, 2003-2019. Data are through the first quarter of 2019. Data: New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel / Equifax. Graphic: MarketWatch

12 million pills and 700 deaths: How a few pill mills helped fan the U.S. opioid inferno – “There was just so much money”

Statistically significant drug overdose death rate increase from 2016 to 2017 U.S. States. Graphic: CDC

Show your stripes: Iconic global warming imagery goes local

Warming stripes for Washington state, 1895-2018. Graphic: Climate Central

Refugees at “the highest level” seen by UN agency in its nearly 70-year existence – Record displacement shows “we’re almost unable to make peace”

Proportion of refugees displaced out of the world population, 2009-2018. Graphic: UNHCR

Most of the world faces record-high temperatures every year without serious climate action

Maps indicating the number of high monthly temperature records set per decade during the period 2070–2099. a–d, Number of years with at least one month during the year setting a high monthly temperature record (RCP8.5 (a), RCP2.6 (b)), and total number of months setting high temperature records (RCP8.5 (c), RCP2.6 (d)). Multi-model means. Graphic: Power and Delage, 2019 / Nature Climate Change

Indian villages lie empty as drought forces thousands to flee – Sick and elderly left to fend for themselves – No water left in 35 major dams

This forecast for 6 June 2019 shows the temperature anomaly (difference from normal) in India. Red shades show areas where the temperature is hotter than normal. Graphic: WeatherBell Analytics

Alaska is melting and it’s likely to accelerate global heating – “Every year there’s a new temperature record, it’s getting worse and worse and you feel like a broken record saying it”

Erosion in Akiak, Alaska swallowed 75 to 100 feet of Kuskokwim River banks along the village on 20 May 2019. Photo: Ivan Ivan / City of Akiak / KYUK News

Adjusting carbon emissions to the Paris climate commitments would prevent thousands of heat-related deaths per city – “Compelling evidence for the heat-related health benefits of limiting global warming to 1.5°C”

One-in-30-year heat-related mortality that is avoidable by stabilizing future warming at the 1.5° and 2°C Paris Agreement thresholds rather than 3°C. The point estimates show the mean 1-in-30-year mortality level across 101 plausible exposure-response relationships, whereas the error bars show the 95% eCI accounting for uncertainties from internal climate variability and the exposure-response relationship. All estimates assume constant population. Confidence intervals that do not include 0 (dotted line on each panel) indicate a statistically significant number of avoidable deaths. The size of each bubble on the central map is proportional to the square root of the city’s population in July 2016. The color of each bubble indicates the city’s projected population change between 2015 and 2040. Graphic: Lo, et al., 2019 / Science Advances

Study projects substantial declines in large fish and marine species with warming oceans – “There are substantial consequences for marine ecosystems on a global scale”

Spatial patterns of projected biomass changes. Shown are global ensemble projections at a 1 × 1 degree resolution for (A, C, and E) RCP2.6 and (B, D, and F) RCP8.5. (A and B) Multimodel mean change (percent, n = 10) in total marine animal biomass in 2090–2099 relative to 1990–1999 without fishing. (C and D) Variability among different ecosystem model and ESM combinations expressed as 1 SD. (E and F) Model agreement (percent) on the direction of change. Graphic: Lotze, et al., 2019 / PNAS

Almost 600 plant species have already gone extinct – “Plant extinction is bad news for all species”

The Chilean crocus, Tecophilaea cyanocrocus. Photo: Richard Wilford

Brazil guts environmental agencies, clears way for unchecked deforestation – “If before, staff were already being attacked by loggers, imagine what it is like with the president’s endorsement of the criminals”

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro talks to journalists. Photo: Brazil’s Presidency / Flickr Commons

BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2019: “A growing mismatch between hopes and reality”

Carbon emissions from the power sector 2018. Graphic: BP

“Day Zero” in India looming for millions

The annual average change in land-based water (as groundwater stored in aquifers, surface water in lakes and rivers, and ice in glaciers) measured by the GRACE satellites between 2002 and 2017. Northern India has seen some of the world’s greatest losses of groundwater (over 2 cm/yr, or over a foot in 16 years) due to intensive pumping. In the Upper Ganges and Lower Indus aquifers that lie under India and Pakistan, the amount of water taken out is more than 50 times the amount that goes back in through natural rainfall and melting snow in the Upper Ganges, and 18 times in the Lower Indus. Graphic: Dr. Jay Famiglietti / Global Institute for Water Security / University of Saskatchewan

Graph of the Day: Carbon emissions and human population, 1751-2018

Graph of the Day: Carbon emissions and human population, 1751-2018

It’s not your imagination: Allergy season gets worse every year – Pollen allergy seasons continue to get longer and more intense as temperatures rise

Aerial view of tree pollen in Durham, North Carolina, on 8 April 2019. Photo Jeremy Gilchrist

Wettest 12 months in U.S. history, again – “The last twelve months beat the previous record, set just a month ago, by a full 1.48 inches”

U.S. shallow groundwater wetness percentile from 11 May 2019 to 13 May 2019. Graphic: NASA Earth Observatory

Abnormal high temperatures in Alaska disrupt isolated communities, upset subsistence hunting patterns, and cause deaths – “It’s hard to characterize this anomaly, it’s just pretty darn remarkable for that part of the world”

Aerial view of sea ice in the Bering Sea in 2014 (left) and 2019 (right). In March 2019, the Bering Sea had much less ice than usual. Photo: NOAA

Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere hit record high in May 2019

Monthly mean atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, from March 1958 to May 2019. Graphic: NOAA

Flooded farms in the U.S. Midwest can’t plant crops – Corn and soybean acres not planted at record high – “The frequency of these disasters, I can’t say we’ve experienced anything like this since I’ve been working in agriculture”

A farm field is flooded by waters from the Missouri River, in Bellevue, Nebraska, on 29 May 2019. Photo: Nati Harnik / AP

Graph of the Day: NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index, 1700-2018

Global average abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2018. Graphic: NOAA

The methane detectives: On the trail of a global warming mystery – “The bottom line is that methane is going up and doesn’t look like it will stop anytime soon”

Zonally averaged methane (CH4) growth rate versus sine‐of‐latitude (equal area) and time for 2005–2018. Graphic: Nisbet, et al., 2019 / Global Biogeochemical Cycles

The wealth detective who finds the hidden money of the super rich – “The bottom half of Americans combined have a negative net worth”

Share of U.S. Wealth Held by the Top 1 percent, 1917-2016. Data: Gabriel Zucman. Graphic: Bloomberg Businessweek

Louisiana unveils ambitious plan to help people get out of the way of climate change

Flood risk on the Louisiana coast. Louisiana’s 1,500-page strategy divides the flood-prone southeast into low, moderate, and high risk zones. Graphic: Bloomberg

Exponential growth in impacts from abrupt climate change

Exponential increase in global flooding events. Global flooding events have increased 15 times since 1950 (ending in 2018). Global flood events have doubled in number every 17 years. If this exponential rise continues, it means a rise in global flood events by 24 times by 2030 and 36 times by 2040 (relative to 1950). Graphic: Nick Humphrey

Get ready for tens of millions of climate refugees

Projected change in population density in Ethiopia by 2050 under a pessimistic climate change scenario. As climate change worsens even moderately, it could cause water shortages in Ethiopia severe enough to prompt 1.5 million Ethiopians to migrate by 2050. They’ll most likely move out of the northern highlands and Addis Ababa into the southern highlands and Ahmar Mountains. Addis Ababa lies at the center of Ethiopia’s agricultural region, and lower crop yields will result in movement out of the urban center, which is currently the hub of the country’s economic development. Graphic: The World Bank Groundswell Report

Summer extremes of 2018 linked to stalled giant waves in jet stream

Composite plots of wave-7 events: a recurrent teleconnection. (a) Composite plot of surface temperature anomalies over the NH mid-latitudes (30°N–67.5°N) during weeks of high wave-7 amplitudes (>1.5σ, N: 43 weeks, see table S1) in summer (JJA) over the NH mid-latitudes (30°N–67.5°N) observed over the period 1979–2017. (b) 300 mb meridional wind speeds (northward: red; southward: blue) during those events. The filled stippling in (a) and (b) indicates grid-cells with significant deviations from JJA climatology using a significance test that accounts for the false discovery rate (FDR) associated with multiple testing, while the grid-points marked with hollow stippling indicate local significance. Graphic: Kornhuber, et al., 2019 / ERL

Scientists race against time to find out if Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier is doomed – “This is where rapid change is really happening, and we’re actually standing and looking at the bit that’s rapidly changing”

Global sea level rise with the Thwaites Glacier and the ice of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Graphic: PRI

World’s rivers awash with dangerous levels of antibiotics – “It’s quite scary and depressing”

Percentage of river sites that tested positive for unsafe levels of antibiotics. 35 percent of river sites tested in Africa exceeded safe limits for concentrations of antibiotics. Data: Alistair Boxall and John Wilkinson. Graphic: The Guardian

Sea level rise could displace millions of people within two generations

Reconstructed sea level for the last 2500 years. Note the marked increase in rate since about 1900 that is unprecedented over the whole time period. Graphic: Kopp et al., 2016 / Robert Kopp

A quarter of West Antarctic ice is now unstable – “A wave of thinning has spread rapidly across some of Antarctica’s most vulnerable glaciers, and their losses are driving up sea levels around the planet”

A quarter of West Antarctic ice is now unstable – “A wave of thinning has spread rapidly across some of Antarctica’s most vulnerable glaciers, and their losses are driving up sea levels around the planet”

In 1982, Exxon predicted 2019’s ominous carbon dioxide milestone

Growth of atmospheric CO2 projected to 2100 by Exxon-Mobil in 1982. Red lines show where Exxon thought the world’s carbon dioxide levels and temperatures would be in 2019. Graphic: Exxon / InsideClimate News

Occurrence of back-to-back heat waves likely to accelerate with global warming – “Compound heat waves are projected to grow more rapidly than simple heat waves”

Occurrence of back-to-back heat waves likely to accelerate with global warming – “Compound heat waves are projected to grow more rapidly than simple heat waves”

Atmospheric carbon dioxide exceeds 415 ppm for the first time in human history – “We don’t know a planet like this”

Atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa Observatory, 1958-2019. This daily record of atmospheric carbon dioxide, from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, is sometimes referred to as the "Keeling curve", after Geochemist Charles David Keeling. Graphic: Scripps Oceanography

Global fossil fuel subsidies hit record $5.2 trillion – Efficient pricing would lower global carbon emissions by 28 percent and fossil fuel air pollution deaths by 46 percent

Global energy subsidies, 2010–2017, showing trends in global pre-tax and post-tax fossil fuel subsidies. The post-tax fossil fuel subsidies are 15-20 times larger than pre-tax subsidies. Post-tax subsidies have been reasonably stable, varying between 5.4 and 6.5 percent of global GDP between 2010 and 2017. In nominal terms, global subsidies were $4.7 and $5.2 trillion for 2015 and 2017 respectively. The bottom line from Figure 2 is that there has not been a sharp increase in the pricing of environmental costs at the global level, despite some progress on fuel price reform and carbon pricing at the national level. Graphic: IMF

Climate change has worsened global economic inequality – “Most of the poorest countries on Earth are considerably poorer than they would have been without global warming,”

Economic impact of historical global warming. The map on the left shows countries where per capita GDP increased or decreased as a result of global warming between 1961 and 2010. The map on the right shows the same information from 1991, after economic data became available for more countries. Graphic: Diffenbaugh and Burke, 2019 / PNAS

Loss of marine stratocumulus clouds could trigger a mega-hothouse climate – “Transitions to a much warmer climate may occur in the future if CO2 levels continue to rise”

Loss of marine stratocumulus clouds could trigger a mega-hothouse climate – “Transitions to a much warmer climate may occur in the future if CO2 levels continue to rise”

North Atlantic Ocean phytoplankton decline coincides with warming temperatures over the last 150 years – “10 percent of the marine food base in this region has been lost over the industrial era”

North Atlantic Ocean phytoplankton decline coincides with warming temperatures over the last 150 years – “10 percent of the marine food base in this region has been lost over the industrial era”

Civilization destroying nature at rate “unprecedented in human history” – Up to 1 million species threatened with extinction, many within decades

Civilization destroying nature at rate “unprecedented in human history” – Up to 1 million species threatened with extinction, many within decades

Poll finds world negative experiences remained at record-high level in 2018 – Anger increased by two points, hitting a new high

Poll finds world negative experiences remained at record-high level in 2018 – Anger increased by two points, hitting a new high

Reducing air pollution may worsen droughts globally – “It’s mind boggling. There is a really clear signal of the effects of human greenhouse gases on the hydroclimate.”

Trends in the Global Drought Atlas (GDA). Regions are projected to become drier or wetter as the world warms. More intense browns mean more aridity; greens, more moisture. Gray areas lack sufficient data so far. A new study shows that observations going back to 1900 confirm projections are largely on target. Graphic: Marvel, et al., 2019 / Nature

Graph of the Day: Class Mobility in the U.S. for Children Born Between 1940 and 1984

Probability of upward class mobility in the U.S. for cohorts born between 1940-1984. Data: Opportunity Insights. Graphic: James P. Galasyn

Going 100 percent renewable power means a lot of dirty mining – “If not managed responsibly, this has the potential for new adverse environmental and social impacts”

Cumulative demand from renewable energy and storage by 2050 relative to reserves in three scenarios for selected battery metals (left) and solar PV metals (right). Graphic: Institute for Sustainable Futures

Rapid permafrost thaw unrecognized threat to landscape, global warming researcher warns – “We are watching this sleeping giant wake up right in front of our eyes”

Rapid permafrost thaw unrecognized threat to landscape, global warming researcher warns – “We are watching this sleeping giant wake up right in front of our eyes”

Anti-Semitic attacks rise worldwide in 2018, led by U.S., west Europe – “Jews in some countries feel they live in a state of emergency”

Major violent anti-Semitic incidents worldwide in 2018 by country. Graphic: Kantor Center

Measles cases break record since disease was eliminated in United States in 2000 – “The suffering we are seeing is avoidable”

Measles cases in the United States, from 1 January 2019 to 26 April 2019. Measles cases in the U.S. have now exceeded the highest number on record in a single year since the disease was eliminated in 2000. The states that have reported cases to CDC are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington. Graphic: CDC

Greenland ice sheet melting six times faster than in the 1980s – “It is a bit scary to see how fast it is changing”

Ice loss trends in Greenland, 1972–2018. (A) Glacier catchments/basins for the GIS and seven regions overlaid on a composite map of ice speed (12). (B–D) For 1972–2018, the percentage (B) thickness change, (C) acceleration in ice flux from each basin, and (D) cumulative loss per basin. The surface area of each circle is proportional to the change in ice discharge caused by a change in (B) thickness or (C) speed; the (blue/red) color indicates the (positive/negative) sign of the change in (B) thickness, (C) speed, and (D) mass. Graphic: Mouginot, et al., 2019 / PNAS

Vietnam just observed its highest temperature ever recorded: 110 degrees, in April – “It is unbreathable outside in this heat”

Vietnam just observed its highest temperature ever recorded: 110 degrees, in April – “It is unbreathable outside in this heat”

Americans’ stress, worry, and anger reached highest recorded levels in 2018

Stress, worry, and anger in the U.S., 2006-2018, measured by Gallup's annual polling on the world's emotional state. Graphic: Gallup

The world lost a Belgium-sized area of primary rainforests in 2018

Tropical primary forest loss, 2002-2018 and three-year moving average. Graphic: WRI / Global Forest Watch

U.S. runs largest monthly budget deficit on record in February 2019 – Deficit for first five months of FY 2019 hits $544.2 billion, up 40% from FY 2018

U.S. runs largest monthly budget deficit on record in February 2019 – Deficit for first five months of FY 2019 hits $544.2 billion, up 40% from FY 2018

Kenneth threatens to bring extreme rains to cyclone-ravaged Mozambique – Rapid intensification expected

Predicted surface winds (colors) of Tropical Cyclone Kenneth at 6Z (2 am EDT) Thursday, 25 April 2019, from the 12Z Tuesday run of the HWRF model. The model predicted that Kenneth would be approaching landfall in northern Mozambique, south of Palma (population 52,000) as a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds. Graphic: tropicaltidbits.com

Advocates hoped U.S. census would find diversity in agriculture, but it found old white people – “We have seen a 30-year decline in almost every single metric”

Share of U.S. agricultural producers under age 35 in 2017. Data: USDA. Graphic: The Washington Post

Due to humans, extinction risk for 1,700 animal species to increase by 2070 – “Losses in species populations can irreversibly hamper the functioning of ecosystems and human quality of life”

Global habitat loss and extinction risk of terrestrial vertebrates under future land-use-change scenarios. Graphic: Powers and Jetz, 2019 / Nature Climate Change

Middle class declining in OECD nations – “Today the middle class looks increasingly like a boat in rocky waters”

Middle class declining in OECD nations – “Today the middle class looks increasingly like a boat in rocky waters”

Yukon warmest it has been in 13,600 years – “This region has been warming at an exceptional rate”

ΔT reconstructions and climate forcings. a Northern extratropical (30–90°N) multi-proxy ΔT reconstruction11 (red; filled area = ±1σ uncertainty) and mean 1997–2016 GISTEMP37 annual ΔT for the same area (red star); b E. Beringia multi-proxy ‘all-temperature’ composite9; c E. Beringia composite pollen- (blue) and midge-based (orange) summer ΔT reconstructions9; d DHP174 (Dempster Highway Peatland, near 174 km marker) δDpore ice-based summer ΔT reconstruction (blue; filled area = ±1σ; this study) and smoothed 1900–2017 May–September GISTEMP ΔT anomalies for the study area (red; n.b., GISTEMP anomalies were smoothed with a 40-year cubic spline and normalised to the twentieth century mean of the δDpore ice ΔT reconstruction; a 1991–2001 data gap in GISTEMP was filled with ERA-interim data64); e 40-year smoothed Arctic (60–90°N) multi-proxy ΔT reconstruction7 (green; filled area = ±1σ) and mean 1997–2016 GISTEMP37 annual ΔT for the same area (green star); f June–September insolation at 65°N65; g Vostok, Law Dome and Mauna Loa composite pCO2 record66,67,68. Grey bars highlight warming intervals in the δDpore ice-based ΔT reconstruction that are also evident in other ΔT reconstructions in E. Beringia and at broader spatial scales. Graphic: Porter, et al., 2019 / Nature Communications

Big cities, bright lights and up to 1 billion bird collisions each year in the U.S.

Average cumulative distribution of migrant birds during (a) spring and (b) fall migrations from 1995 to 2017 measured by weather surveillance radar (WSR). Circles indicate WSR station locations and are scaled to cumulative migration activity. The magnitudes of spring and fall cumulative movements are standardized to the same range. (c) Log10-scaled mean radiance of ALAN measured by the VIIRS on the Suomi- NPP satellite. Graphic: Horton, et al., 2019 / Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Canada warming at twice the global rate, government report finds – “Northern Canada has warmed and will continue to warm at more than double the global rate”

Observed changes (°C) in annual temperature across Canada between 1948 and 2016, based on linear trends. Graphic: CBC News / CCCR 2019

25th anniversary edition of WMO’s State of the Climate report shows accelerating global warming impacts – “The data released in this report give cause for great concern”

Above: Surface-air temperature anomaly for 2018 with respect to the 1981–2010 average. Data: ECMWF ERA-Interim data, Copernicus Climate Change Service. Below: Global mean temperature anomalies, 1850-2018, with respect to the 1850–1900 baseline, for the five global temperature datasets. Data: UK Met Office Hadley Centre. Graphic: WMO

Amphibian “apocalypse” caused by most destructive pathogen ever – Chytrid fungi have caused extinctions and declines in at least 501 frog and salamander species

Global distribution of chytridiomycosis-associated amphibian species declines. Bar plots indicate the number (N) of declined species, grouped by continental area and classified by decline severity. Brazilian species are plotted separately from all other South American species (South America W); Mesoamerica includes Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands; and Oceania includes Australia and New Zealand. No declines have been reported in Asia. n, total number of declines by region. Graphic: Scheele, et al., 2019 / Science

“Doomsday vault” town warming faster than any other on Earth – “The brutality of nature used to bring joy, but now it scares people”

Cumulative monthly mass balances of Svalbard glaciated area 1999-2017. Graphic: Norwegian Centre for Climate Services

Global carbon emissions hit record high in 2018 – Global energy demand rose at fastest pace in last decade, driven by record temperature extremes

Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions by source, 1990-2018. Graphic: IEA

Direct killing by humans pushing Earth’s biggest animals toward extinction – “70% of megafauna species are decreasing and 59% are threatened with extinction”

Current threats to megafauna. Shown are percentages of threatened megafauna species in each class facing different types of threats. We used the top‐level coded threat data on species Red List fact sheet pages, grouping threats 5.1/5.4 together as “Harvesting,” 5.2/5.3 as “Logging,” 2.1/2.2 as “Cropping,” and 2.3/2.4 as “Livestock/aquaculture.” Only threatened species with coded threat information available (145/155) were used for this plot. Only the seven most common threats for each group are shown. No panel is shown for the single threatened amphibian species, the Chinese giant salamander. It was threatened by harvesting, system modifications, pollution, logging, energy, and cropping. Similarly, no panel is shown for the single threatened bird species, the Somali Ostrich, which was threatened by harvesting, livestock, and cropping. Graphic: Ripple, et al., 2019 / Conservation Letters

Global warming taking toll on $20 billion ski industry – Snowpack in Western U.S. declined 41 percent from 1982 to 2016 – “Where is my livelihood in the future, in three to four, five years?”

Decline of snowpack in the Southwest U.S., 1982-2016. The pink-to-red areas on this map of the Four Corners region shows statistically significant decreases in annual snow mass since 1982. Those areas correspond to many of the region’s highest mountain ranges. Darker colors represent larger trends. Graphic: Patrick Broxton

U.S. falls to 19th in World Happiness Report, continuing slow decline since at least 2000 – “This year’s report provides sobering evidence of how addictions are causing considerable unhappiness and depression in the U.S.”

World dynamics of happiness, 2005-2018. The three panels show the global and regional trajectories for life evaluations, positive affect, and negative affect. The whiskers on the lines in all figures indicate 95% confidence intervals for the estimated means. Graphic: World Happiness Report 2019

Highest sea level rises in U.S. are in Texas and Louisiana, annual report finds

Observed sea level rise in Rockport, Texas and Grand Isle, Louisiana, 1969-2018 and projected to 2050. Graphic: William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Trump regulation rollbacks will result in more than 200 million tons of additional greenhouse emissions each year – “The Trump administration has taken historically unprecedented actions to roll back years of environmental progress”

Projected increases in U.S. air pollution due to the Trump administration's rollback of Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources (NSPS) regulations. Graphic: NYU School of Law

Destruction from sea level rise in California could exceed worst wildfires and earthquakes – “These are significant events that are going to recur and be ten times the scale of the worst wildfires and earthquakes that we’ve experienced in modern California history”

Potential flooding in Del Mar, California caused by sea level rise and a 100-year storm. Graphic: U.S. Geological Survey

3-5°C temperature rise is now “locked-in” for the Arctic

The melting cryosphere: changes in Arctic sea ice extent. Graphic: UNEP / GRID-Arendal

From Global North to Global South, a winter and summer of record temperature extremes – Only small portions of Earth saw record cold weather

Maximum temperature anomalies for Europe (°C) on 27 February 2019 (left map), and 28 February 2019 (right map), two of the warmest winter days on record for the continent. Graphic: ECMWF analysis, ERA-interim, / @gjvoldenborgh / World Meteorological Organization

U.S. credit card debt closed 2018 at a record $870 billion – Overall consumer debt reached a record $13.5 trillion

U.S. household credit card debt, 2003-2018. Data: New York Federal Reserve. Graphic: Bloomberg

Heatwaves sweeping oceans “like wildfires”, scientists reveal – “You see the kelp and seagrasses dying in front of you. Within weeks or months they are just gone, along hundreds of kilometres of coastline.”

Trends in the annual number of marine heatwave (MHW) days in the periods 1925–1954 and 1987–2016 across the global ocean. Data: Smale, et al., 2019 / Nature Climate Change. Graphic: The Guardian

Sharp rise in methane levels threatens world climate targets – “What we are now witnessing is extremely worrying”

Global monthly mean atmospheric methane 1984-2018. Graphic: NOAA

Nearly 50 per cent of India facing drought as groundwater depletion increases – “We are not enhancing groundwater recharge, and drought conditions are making us extract more and more water”

Mean annual (A) precipitation, (C) streamflow and (E) temperature in India, 1901-2012 (IMD Sheffield Datasets). The corresponding Mann-Kendall slope value is shown in figs (B), (D) and (F). Graphic: Jayadevan and Mishra, 2019 / Climate Change and Water Resources in India

Freedom in the World 2019: Democracy in Retreat

Cover of the Freedom House report, “Freedom in the World 2019: Democracy in Retreat”. Graphic: KAL

A record 7 million Americans are 3 months behind on their car payments, a red flag for the economy

Number of Americans who are more than 90 days past due on auto loan payments, 1999-2018. Data: NY Federal Reserve. Graphic: Heather Long / The Washington Post

50M gallons of polluted water pours daily from U.S. mine sites

This map shows polluted water discharge flow from 43 U.S. mining sites and levels of treatment of polluted discharge. Red locations indicate discharge for sites with zero treatment or storage of contaminated water. Graphic: Phil Holm / AP Graphic

Major northeastern snowstorms expected to continue with climate change – “The big nor’easters are not just going to go away”

Ensemble mean annual snowfall in New England, in inches per year for the periods (a) 1990-2005, (b) 2026-2035, and (c) 2071-2080, and percentage of snowfall attributed to extratropical cyclone (ETCs) (d.-f.). Graphic: Zarzycki, 2018 / Geophysical Research Letters

Highly unusual upward trends in rapidly intensifying Atlantic hurricanes are caused by global warming

Highly unusual upward trends in rapidly intensifying Atlantic hurricanes are caused by global warming

Global insect population faces “catastrophic” collapse – “If we destroy the basis of the ecosystem, which are the insects, then we destroy all the other animals that rely on them for a food source”

Global insect population faces “catastrophic” collapse – “If we destroy the basis of the ecosystem, which are the insects, then we destroy all the other animals that rely on them for a food source”

U.S. wealth concentration returns to levels not seen since the Roaring Twenties – The 400 richest Americans own more than bottom 150 million – “For the rich, wealth begets power”

U.S. wealth concentration returns to levels not seen since the Roaring Twenties – The 400 richest Americans own more than bottom 150 million – “For the rich, wealth begets power”

New study establishes link between climate change, conflict, and migration – “In a context of poor governance and a medium level of democracy, severe climate conditions can create conflict over scarce resources”

Total marginal effect of Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) on conflict for the 2010–2012 period. Graphic: Abel, et al., 2019 / Global Environmental Change

2018 fourth warmest year in continued warming trend, according to NASA, NOAA – The past five years are, collectively, the warmest years in the modern record

2018 fourth warmest year in continued warming trend, according to NASA, NOAA – The past five years are, collectively, the warmest years in the modern record

Huge cavity in Antarctic glacier signals rapid decay

Huge cavity in Antarctic glacier signals rapid decay

January was officially Australia’s hottest month on record – “The exceptional story here was temperature: maximum temperatures, minimum temperatures, and mean temperatures, and those records go back to 1910”

January was officially Australia’s hottest month on record – “The exceptional story here was temperature: maximum temperatures, minimum temperatures, and mean temperatures, and those records go back to 1910”

America conquest cooled Earth’s climate – The Great Dying of the indigenous peoples of the Americas contributed to the Little Ice Age

Global atmospheric CO2 time series. (A) The CO2 concentrations recorded in two Antarctic ice cores: Law Dome (grey, MacFarling Meure et al., 2006) and West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide (blue, Ahn et al., 2012). (B) Carbon isotopic ratios recorded in CO2 from the WAIS Divide ice core (black, Bauska et al., 2015) showing an increased terrestrial carbon uptake over the 16th century (B). Yellow box is the span of the major indigenous depopulation event (1520–1700 CE). Loess smoothed lines for visual aid. Error bars are the 1-σ standard deviation. Graphic: Koch, et al., 2019 / Quaternary Science Reviews

Brazil’s government may push the Amazon to destruction

Disturbed fraction of vegetation across South America simulated by the HadGEM2-ES Earth System Model, at 1860, 2005, and four future scenarios at 2100: RCP2.6 (high mitigation), RCP4.5, RCP6.0, and RCP8.5 (high emissions). Graphic: Marengo, et al., 2018 / Frontiers in Earth Science

Public health emergency declared over measles in anti-vax hotspot near Portland, Oregon

Heat map of county-level nonmedical exemptions (NME) rates for vaccination in the U.S., 2016-2017. Graphic: Olive, et al., 2018 / PLOS Medicine

Adelaide breaks its all-time heat record, hitting 46.6C, in extreme Australia heatwave – 2,500 camels dying of thirst shot

Map of global temperatures, 24 January 2019. Australia is the hottest place on Earth, as numerous records fall during the extreme heatwave there. Graphic: Windy.com / Alexei T / Twitter

More animal species under threat of extinction, new method shows

Red-breasted Pygmy-parrot, photographed on 10 August 2009 in the Arfak mountains, West Papua, Indonesia. Photo: Collaertsbrothers / Flickr

Drilling toward disaster: Why U.S. oil and gas expansion Is incompatible with climate limits – “The U.S. is moving further and faster than any other country to expand oil and gas extraction”

CO2 emissions from developed fossil fuel reserves, compared to carbon budgets (as of January 2018) within range of the Paris climate goals. Graphic: Oil Change International

Tamino: The Oz heat distribution – In Alice Springs, “the number of very hot days each year (100°F or hotter) has nearly tripled” since early 20th century

Number of very hot days in Canberra, Australia, 1914-2018. The red curve is a quasipoisson regression. Graphic: Tamino / Open Mind

World Economic Forum posts “Global Risks Report 2019” – In the “Age of Anger”, a tremendous increase in mutual hatred

Cover of the World Economic Forum report, “Global Risks Report 2019”. Graphic: WEF

Antarctic sea ice dips to record-low extent for early January

Antarctic sea ice extent has been running well below all other years during the first two weeks of January 2019. Graphic: National Snow and Ice Data Center

Davos climate obsessions contain clues for policymaking – The environment has replaced the economy and finance on the global elite’s worry list

The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Landscape 2019. 'Extreme Weather Events' and 'Failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation' are in the highest impact / highest likelihood quadrant. Graphic: World Economic Forum Global Risks Perception Survey 2018–2019

The hottest 15 places in the world today are all in Australia as record heatwave rages on – Thousands of flying foxes dead – “One of the worst things is in the aftermath and you hear the mums calling out for their pups”

Maximum Temperatures globally, 17 January 2019. The top 15 temperatures are all in Australia. Graphic: El Dorado Weather

New global study reveals rising soil temperatures in permafrost regions around the world – “The permafrost isn’t simply warming on a local and regional scale, but worldwide and at virtually the same pace as climate warming”

New global study reveals rising soil temperatures in permafrost regions around the world – “The permafrost isn’t simply warming on a local and regional scale, but worldwide and at virtually the same pace as climate warming”

Australia extreme heatwave continues – “code red” issued as Port Augusta hits 48.9C – Sydney is hottest place on Earth

Penrith, NSW, Australia was the world's hottest place on 7 January 2018 (47.3C). But the most above average was the Arctic north of Finland, which really shouldn't be above -- or anywhere near -- 0C at this time of year. Graphic: Andrew B. Watkins / ClimateReanalyzer

Antarctica losing six times more ice mass annually now than 40 years ago – “We expect multi-meter sea level rise from Antarctica in the coming centuries”

(A) Ice speed of the Antarctic Ice Sheet derived from multisensor data for the time period 2014–2016 (11) with 18 subregions A–K (black thin lines) delineated from surface slope and ice flow direction data (SI Appendix, Fig. S3). (B) Change in flow speed from the time period 2007–2008 to 2014–2015 color-coded from blue (deceleration) to red (acceleration). Grey areas have no data. (C) Basin names for subregions and ocean temperature at 310-m depth from the Southern Ocean State Estimate (SOSE) (12) color-coded from cold (blue) to warm (red). White areas in the ocean are shallower than 310 m depth. (D) Bed topography between 0 and 1,100 m depth, with SLE of each basin in centimeters of SLE (1, 13). (E) Change in grounding line ice discharge, D, for 1979–2017 for the 18 major subregions in billions of tons per year with percentage change in speed color-coded from red (acceleration) to blue (deceleration) and circle radius proportional to change. (F) Total change in mass of major basins color-coded from blue (gain) to red (loss) for 1979–2017 with circle radius proportional to the absolute mass balance. Graphic: Rignot, et al., 2019 / PNAS

Global warming of oceans equivalent to an atomic bomb per second – Total heat taken up by oceans over the past 150 years was 1,000 times the annual energy use of the entire global population

Cumulative heat uptake from 1871 to 2017 (joules per year) shown for different ocean regions, contributing to the integrated passive heat storage (A) globally and (B) in the Atlantic Ocean. Note the different scales for the two panels. Graphic: Zanna, et al., 2019 / PNAS

U.S. carbon emissions surged in 2018 even as coal plants closed – “We haven’t yet successfully decoupled U.S. emissions growth from economic growth”

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, 1990-2018. Graphic: The New York Times / Rhodium U.S. Climate Service

Data mining adds evidence that war is baked into the structure of society – “There is little evidence that humankind is progressing toward a more peaceful world”

The probability P(X≥x) of war fatalities (per war); the black point marker represents the empirical distribution, the green line is the best fit obtained by means of lognormal function and the red line is a best fit of power law cutting the tails of distribution. In the subfigure we show the power law fit of a tail distribution. Graphic: Martelloni, et al., 2019 / Arxiv

Antarctic sea ice is “astonishingly” low this melt season

Antarctic sea ice concentration on 1 January 2019. The Ross Sea is on the lower edge of West Antarctica and Amundsen is north and near this map’s West Antarctica labeling. Graphic: National Snow and Ice Data Center

Worst mass extinction event in Earth’s history was caused by global warming analogous to current climate crisis

This illustration shows the percentage of marine animals that went extinct at the end of the Permian era by latitude, from the model (black line) and from the fossil record (blue dots). A greater percentage of marine animals survived in the tropics than at the poles. The color of the water shows the temperature change, with red being most severe warming and yellow less warming. At the top is the supercontinent Pangaea, with massive volcanic eruptions emitting carbon dioxide. The images below the line represent some of the 96 percent of marine species that died during the event. Graphic: Justin Penn and Curtis Deutsch / University of Washington

U.S. national debt rises $2 trillion under Trump

U.S. federal debt held by the public, 1790-2018 and projected to 2030. Graphic: Congressional Budget Office

Amazon deforestation increase continued in November 2018 – Deforestation was four times higher than in November 2017

Imazon's SAD bulletin on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon for November 2018. In November 2018, 1,463 km² of deforestation were detected by SAD (deforestation alert system) in the Amazon rainforest. This number represents an increase of four times over the same month of the previous year. Graphic: Imazon