Aerial view of vehicles stranded in floodwater on 20 July 2021 after record rainfall in Zhengzhou, Henan Province of China. Photo: Jiao Xiaoxiang / VCG / Getty Images

Rescue efforts launched after record floods in central China displace 1.2 million – “Worst rain in a thousand years” in Henan province, “worst in Zhengzhou history” with a year’s worth of rain falling in a single day

By Alicia Chen, Lyric Li, and Eva Dou 21 July 2021 (The Washington Post) – Wang Peng rushed to join flood rescue efforts in Zhengzhou on Wednesday, as the central Chinese city was inundated with record rain. But his group of volunteers found themselves overwhelmed, with streets turned into rivers. “Once I got to the […]

Global map showing COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people, 20 July 2021. The map shows the huge difference in vaccination rates between some wealthy nations and the rest of the world. Graphic: Max Roser / Our World In Data

Map shows striking vaccination divide between rich countries and the rest of the world – “We are making conscious choices right now not to protect those in need”

By Sinéad Baker 19 July 2021 (Business Insider) – A map shows the huge difference in vaccination rights between some rich countries and the rest of the world. The graph, produced by Max Roser of the site Our World in Data, shows the proportion of each country to receive at least one dose of a coronavirus […]

A woman collects water from a puddle in the dried Manambovo river bed in Tsihombe, Madagascar, 2 May 2021. Photo: Viviane Rakotoarivony / UN / REUTERS

UN says 400,000 are approaching starvation in Madagascar amid back-to-back droughts – “This is not because of war or conflict, this is because of climate change”

UNITED NATIONS, 26 June 2021 (AP) – The U.N. World Food Program says southern Madagascar is in the throes of back-to-back droughts that are pushing 400,000 people toward starvation, and have already caused deaths from severe hunger. Lola Castro, WFP’s regional director in southern Africa, told a news conference Friday that she witnessed “a very dramatic […]

Daily new Covid cases per 100,000 people in Florida, 20 July 2021. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday downplayed the recent spike in coronavirus cases in his state, and criticized public health officials who continue to push unvaccinated Americans to get Covid-19 shots. Graphic: Covid Act Now

Florida governor DeSantis downplays increase in COVID-19 cases after selling “Don’t Fauci My Florida” merch

By Max Greenwood 20 July 2021 ORLANDO, Florida (The Hill) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday downplayed the recent spike in coronavirus cases in his state and criticized public health officials who continue to push unvaccinated Americans to get Covid-19 shots. “It’s a seasonal virus and this is the seasonal pattern it follows […]

Flames and smoke rise from the Bootleg fire in southern Oregon on Wednesday, 14 July 2021. The largest fire in the U.S. on Wednesday was burning in southern Oregon, to the northeast of the wildfire that ravaged a tribal community less than a year ago. The lightning-caused Bootleg fire was encroaching on the traditional territory of the Klamath Tribes, which still have treaty rights to hunt and fish on the land, and sending huge, churning plumes of smoke into the sky visible for miles. Photo: John Hendricks / Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal / AP

Can America save itself? Between the pandemic and climate change, the outlook is grim.

By Joel Mathis 19 July 2021 (The Week) – Is the pandemic akin to climate change? Back in March 2020, my colleague Ryan Cooper argued that it was, in an article that has haunted me ever since.  “This is what an uncontrolled, exponentially-accelerating crisis looks like on the ground: first slow, then all at once,” Cooper wrote of […]

Satellite view of the Great Salt Lake on 24 September 2011 and 9 July 2021. Photo: ESA / Sentinel 2 / NASA Worldview / LANDSAT 5

Great Salt Lake is shrinking fast – Scientists demand action before it becomes a toxic dustbin – “We’re on the doorstep of a catastrophe”

By Lucy Kafanov, Leslie Perrot, and Eliott C. McLaughlin 17 July 2021 Great Salt Lake, Utah (CNN) – Great Salt Lake is also known as America’s Dead Sea — owing to a likeness to its much smaller Middle Eastern counterpart — but scientists worry the moniker could soon take new meaning. Human water consumption and […]

Satellite view of smoke from wildfires in the Yakutia region of Siberia, 18 July 2021. Photo: NASA / EOSDIS

Siberia permafrost ablaze with hundreds of wildfires in world’s coldest region – Half are burning unchecked due to firefighter shortage – “Siberia is dying now”

13 July 2021 (The Siberian Times) – Wildfires on permafrost are ravaging Yakutia – or the Sakha Republic, the largest and coldest entity of the Russian Federation. The scale is mesmerising. There are some separate 300 fires, now covering 12,140 square kilometres – but only around half of these are being tackled, because they pose […]

Aerial view of Erftstadt-Blessem, Germany before and after the record flood on 14 July 2021. Photo: Google Earth / @BezRegKoeln / BBC News

Desperate search for survivors as western Europe reels from a “catastrophe of historic proportion” – Flood deaths rise to 188 in Europe, more than 1000 missing – “It’s terrifying” says Angela Merkel

By Ralph Brock and Romana Fuessel 18 July 2021 BERCHTESGADEN/BISCHOFSWIESEN, Germany (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the flooding that has devastated parts of Europe as “terrifying” on Sunday after the death toll across the region rose to 188 and a district of Bavaria was battered by the extreme weather. Merkel promised swift financial […]

Affordable rents in the U.S. in 2021 and wage earners grouped by earnings. Even under the best of circumstances, rent is unaffordable for most low-wage workers. Graphic: NLIHC

Minimum wage workers can’t afford rent anywhere in America – “In no state, metropolitan area, or county can a full-time minimum-wage worker afford a modest two-bedroom rental home”

By Anna Bahney 15 July 2021 (CNN) – Housing has become so expensive in the United States that the typical minimum wage worker cannot afford rent, according to a new report. There is no state, county or city in the country where a full-time, minimum-wage worker working 40 hours a week can afford a two-bedroom […]

Thousands of dead mussels are seen at the waterline in British Columbia, killed by the deadly heatwave 2021. More than one billion marine animals along Canada’s Pacific coast are likely to have died from the record heatwave, experts warn, highlighting the vulnerability of ecosystems unaccustomed to extreme temperatures. Photo: Christopher Harley / The Guardian

Heat dome probably killed 1 billion marine animals on Canada coast in 2021 – “A lot of species are not going to be able to keep up with the pace of change”

By Leyland Cecco 8 July 2021 TORONTO (The Guardian) – More than one billion marine animals along Canada’s Pacific coast are likely to have died from last week’s record heatwave, experts warn, highlighting the vulnerability of ecosystems unaccustomed to extreme temperatures. The “heat dome” that settled over western Canada and the north-western US for five days pushed temperatures […]

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