Map showing drought and famine prediction priority areas in Somalia by district, 31 August 2022. Famine is projected in Baidoa and Burhakaba districts, Bay region, during October-December 2022 unless life-saving assistance is urgently ramped up to reach the people most in need. About 7.8 million Somalis have been affected by the worst drought in four decades, with more than 1 million displaced by drought including nearly 99,000 in August Graphic: OCHA

Humanitarian organizations estimate one person dying of hunger every four seconds – “It is abysmal that with all the technology in agriculture and harvesting techniques today, we are still talking about famine in the 21st century”

20 September 2022 (Al Jazeera) – One person is estimated to be dying of hunger every four seconds, more than 200 NGOs have warned, urging decisive international action to “end the spiralling global hunger crisis”. In an open letter addressing world leaders gathering in New York for the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, 238 organisations from […]

Satellite view of Hurricane Fiona at 1 p.m. on Monday, 19 September 2022. Photo: NOAA

Hurricane Fiona unleashes “catastrophic” damage, Puerto Rico governor says

By Arelis R. Hernández, Jason Samenow, Praveena Somasundaram, and Reis Thebault 19 September 2022 (The Washington Post) – Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said Monday that Hurricane Fiona has caused “catastrophic” destruction in urban areas, killing at least one person and leaving nearly the entire island archipelago without power. The slow-moving Category 1 storm could drop upward […]

Number of U.S. real estate parcels with any area below boundary tideline in 2050 by state. Graphic: Climate Central

Rising seas threaten U.S. tax bases as private property falls below tidelines – Tidal flooding to swamp $34 billion in real estate within 30 years

PRINCETON, N.J., 8 September 2022 (Climate Central) – New analysis from Climate Central quantifies the risk of sea level rise to the tax bases of hundreds of coastal counties across 24 states and Washington, D.C. as more land falls beneath the tideline. By 2100 more than 1 million properties with a combined assessed value exceeding $108 billion are projected to be […]

Sadness, Stress, and Worry scores for Afghanistan, 2008-2021. In 2021, Sadness, Stress and Worry hit record-high Levels in Afghanistan. Graphic: Gallup

Who are the unhappiest people in the world? In Afghanistan and Lebanon, more people live in misery than anywhere else on the planet

By Julie Ray 8 September 2022 (Gallup) – Unhappiness continued to rise worldwide in 2021, as the world overall became a sadder, more worried and more stressed-out place. But in two countries — Afghanistan and Lebanon — more people were living in misery than anywhere else on the planet. Last year, Afghanistan and Lebanon posted […]

Two men walk through rushing water on Front Street in Nome, Alaska, just a half block from the Bering Sea, on 17 September 2022. Photo: Peggy Fagerstrom / AP

Western Alaska confronts damage after historic storm – “Boats are going to be scattered all over the tundra”

By Taylor Telford 18 September 2022 (The Washington Post) – Floodwaters began receding in Alaska on Sunday, revealing the damage after the remnants of a typhoon lashed the state with its fiercest storm in years. The full extent of the storm’s impact may not be clear for days, but residents across the state’s low-lying western coast […]

Boat operators, who have come from miles around to work as ferrymen in submerged areas, use power lines as navigation landmarks in Dadu, Pakistan, on Tuesday, 13 September 2022. They have become a lifeline for residents who are trying to save the livestock and belongings that were not washed away by floodwaters. Photo: Kiana Hayeri / The New York Times

In Pakistan’s record floods, villages are now desperate islands – WHO warns of soaring water-borne diseases – “Even the goats are sick”

ISLAMABAD, 18 September 2022 (Press Trust of India) – The World Health Organisation has expressed fears about an impending second disaster of water-borne diseases in Pakistan in the wake of devastating floods that has wreaked havoc in several parts of the country. In a statement issued by the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the global health watchdog said that water supply […]

Methane plume from a coal vent over Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania. Graphic: Carbon Mapper

Study finds super-emitters responsible for nearly 40 percent of methane emissions in five U.S. basins – “These findings drive home the need for swift action to advance strong methane rules in the U.S.”

PASADENA, 13 September 2022 (JPL) – A study released today by Carbon Mapper, University of Arizona, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Arizona State University, and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) shows that strong methane point sources contribute an average of 40% of total emissions across multiple basins in the U.S., revealing that a small number of […]

Electricity fed into the German power grid from conventional and renewable sources (percent) in 2021 and 2022. Graphic: Destatis

Germany generates almost one-third of its electricity from coal as it replaces Russian gas before winter – Coal-generated electricity up 17 percent in 2022 on the same period in 2021

By Zahra Tayeb 8 September 2022 (Insider) – Germany is relying more on coal to generate electricity, as Russian gas cuts force the country to seek alternative sources of fuel before winter.  The European nation produced 82.6 kilowatt-hours of electricity from coal-fired power plants in the first six months of 2022, a 17.2% rise from […]

Daily surface air temperature anomaly for July 2022 relative to the daily average for the period 1991–2020. Data: ERA5. Graphic: Copernicus Climate Change Service / ECMWF

Europe’s hot summer of 2022 shatters records – “We’ve not only had record August temperatures for Europe but also for summer, with the previous summer record only being one year old”

By Matt McGrath 8 September 2022 (BBC News) – This summer was the hottest on record in Europe, according to data from EU satellite monitoring. A series of extreme heatwaves and a long running drought saw June, July and August shatter the previous high mark for temperature. The Copernicus Climate Change Service said the data showed August […]

Sea surface temperature anomaly for the Atlantic Ocean, 5 August 2022. Graphic: Scott Duncan

An intense marine heat wave is setting ocean temperature records in the North Atlantic – “Every marine heat wave is going to be warmer than the last because of rises in greenhouse gases”

By Denise Chow 7 September 2022 (NBC News) – It’s not just land seeing record heat waves. Ocean waters in the Northern Hemisphere have been unusually warm in recent weeks, with parts of the North Atlantic and northern Pacific undergoing particularly intense marine heat waves. Sea surface temperatures in these regions hit record levels this […]

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