Global human population size and annual growth rate estimates, 1950-2022, and medium scenario with 95 per cent prediction intervals, 2022-2050. Over the one hundred years from 1950 to 2050, the world population was growing the fastest in the period 1962-1965, when it was increasing on average by 2.1 per cent per year. Since then, the pace of population growth has slowed by more than half owing to reduced levels of fertility. In 2020, and for the first time since 1950, the rate of population growth fell below 1 per cent per year and it is projected to continue to slow in the next few decades and through the end of this century. The global population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, and add 1.18 billion in the following two decades, reaching 9.7 billion in 2050. Graphic: UN DESA
Global human population size and annual growth rate estimates, 1950-2022, and medium scenario with 95 per cent prediction intervals, 2022-2050. Over the one hundred years from 1950 to 2050, the world population was growing the fastest in the period 1962-1965, when it was increasing on average by 2.1 per cent per year. Since then, the pace of population growth has slowed by more than half owing to reduced levels of fertility. In 2020, and for the first time since 1950, the rate of population growth fell below 1 per cent per year and it is projected to continue to slow in the next few decades and through the end of this century. The global population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, and add 1.18 billion in the following two decades, reaching 9.7 billion in 2050. Graphic: UN DESA

31 December 2022 (Desdemona Despair) – Like the year 2021, 2022 started with Desdemona obsessively tracking statistics on the Covid pandemic. The incredibly contagious Omicron variant was raging throughout the world, dwarfing the scale of the previous waves. Some of Desdemona’s friends fell ill with the disease. Fortunately, none of them died, because they were vaccinated, but some suffered for months with long Covid. A few suffer still.

Daily reported Covid cases per 100,000 people in the United States, 15 March 2020-15 December 2022. The Omicron wave in late 2021 and early 2022 is highlighted. Graphic: Covid Act Now
Daily reported Covid cases per 100,000 people in the United States, 15 March 2020-15 December 2022. The Omicron wave in late 2021 and early 2022 is highlighted. Graphic: Covid Act Now

In February 2022, excess deaths during the pandemic in the U.S. exceeded one million, and by May, deaths attributed directly to Covid surpassed the one million mark. As The Washington Post reminded us, we weren’t supposed to get anywhere near 1 million COVID deaths in the U.S. Then we did. The lethal effect of relentless anti-vaccine disinformation from far-right sources became visible in the mortality statistics, with the excess death rate for Republicans 76 percent higher than the excess death rate for Democrats.

Excess death rates for Florida and Ohio relative to 2019, 2018-2022. The figure plots monthly excess deaths for Florida and Ohio based on mortality records linked to voter registration files. The first panel plots aggregate excess death rates. The second panel plots excess death rates separately for registered Republicans and Democrats. The third panel plots the percentage point difference in excess deaths between Republicans and Democrats after regression adjusting for year-month-by-age-bin-by-county differences. The error bars reflect the pointwise 95 percent confidence interval. Graphic: Wallace, et al., 2022
Excess death rates for Florida and Ohio relative to 2019, 2018-2022. The figure plots monthly excess deaths for Florida and Ohio based on mortality records linked to voter registration files. The first panel plots aggregate excess death rates. The second panel plots excess death rates separately for registered Republicans and Democrats. The third panel plots the percentage point difference in excess deaths between Republicans and Democrats after regression adjusting for year-month-by-age-bin-by-county differences. The error bars reflect the pointwise 95 percent confidence interval. Graphic: Wallace, et al., 2022

By the end of 2022, the total Covid mortality in the U.S. approached 1.1 million people, with more than 100 million cases – nearly one-third of the U.S. population.

Total COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States, 30 December 2022. Graphic: John Hopkins University
Total COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States, 30 December 2022. Graphic: John Hopkins University

Globally, estimates of Covid deaths from the start of the pandemic through 2022 ranged between 5.4 million and 6.7 million, but in December 2022, The World Health Organization reported that the actual worldwide death toll may be three times higher than official records, at nearly 15 million lives. Mortality in India alone may be as high as 6.5 million dead.

Global excess and reported COVID-19 deaths and death rates per 100,000 population, January 2020-January 2022. (a) Cumulative global excess death estimates and the cumulative reported COVID-19 deaths by month from January 2020 to December 2021. (b) Global excess death rates per 100,000 population and the reported COVID-19 death rates per 100,000 population, also by month, from January 2020 to December 2021. On both plots, the central lines of the excess mortality series show the mean estimates, and the shaded regions indicate the 95 percent uncertainty intervals. Graphic: Msemburi, et al., 2022 / Nature
Global excess and reported COVID-19 deaths and death rates per 100,000 population, January 2020-January 2022. (a) Cumulative global excess death estimates and the cumulative reported COVID-19 deaths by month from January 2020 to December 2021. (b) Global excess death rates per 100,000 population and the reported COVID-19 death rates per 100,000 population, also by month, from January 2020 to December 2021. On both plots, the central lines of the excess mortality series show the mean estimates, and the shaded regions indicate the 95 percent uncertainty intervals. Graphic: Msemburi, et al., 2022 / Nature

Opioid overdose mortality

Also in May 2022, it was announced that another lethal epidemic in the United States – deaths of despair from opioid overdoses – exceeded a record 100,000 in 2021.

The lyrics of “Morning in America“, the 2019 track by Durand Jones & the Indications, were more relevant two years after it was released:

A junkie waits in Jacksonville
Prescription for the pain
As what the doctor ordered
Comes screaming through the vein

By the end of 2022, the CDC concluded that the 2021 death toll from drug overdoses had exceeded 106,000 people. There is every reason to expect that 2022 numbers will break this sad record, and Desdemona almost certainly will feature data showing record opioid mortality in next year’s Doomiest Graphs collection.

Age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving opioids in the United States, by type of opioid, 2001-2021. Graphic: Spencer, et al., 2022 / CDC / NCHS
Age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving opioids in the United States, by type of opioid, 2001-2021. Graphic: Spencer, et al., 2022 / CDC / NCHS

Life expectancy

To nobody’s surprise, U.S. life expectancy dropped for the second consecutive year in 2021. In the first two years of the Covid pandemic, the estimated American lifespan shortened by nearly three years. The last comparable decrease happened in the early 1940s, during the height of World War II.

U.S. life expectancy at birth, by sex, 2000 2021. Estimates are based on provisional data for 2021. Provisional data are subject to change as additional data are received. Estimates for 2000-2020 are based on final data. Graphic: NCHS
U.S. life expectancy at birth, by sex, 2000 2021. Estimates are based on provisional data for 2021. Provisional data are subject to change as additional data are received. Estimates for 2000-2020 are based on final data. Graphic: NCHS

CDC officials blamed COVID-19 for about half of the decline in 2021, when new coronavirus variants caused waves of hospitalizations and deaths. Other contributors to the decline were the usual American problems: drug overdoses, heart disease, suicide, and chronic liver disease. In other words, despair.

Global human development decline

It wasn’t only the U.S. that saw breakpoints in curves that once were thought to be ever-brightening. Globally, the Human Development Index (HDI), which measures a nation’s health, education, and standard of living, declined for two years in a row, erasing the gains of the preceding five years. For the first time in the 32 years that the UN Development Program has been calculating it, the HDI declined globally for two years in a row, falling back to its 2016 levels, reversing much progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Share of countries in which the HDI value declined in that year (percent), 1991-2021. Recent declines in the Human Development Index (HDI) are widespread, with over 90 percent of countries enduring a decline in 2020 or 2021. The periods of the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic are indicated. Graphic: UNDP
Share of countries in which the HDI value declined in that year (percent), 1991-2021. Recent declines in the Human Development Index (HDI) are widespread, with over 90 percent of countries enduring a decline in 2020 or 2021. The periods of the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic are indicated. Graphic: UNDP

The reversal was global, with more than 90 percent of countries registering a decline in their HDI score in either 2020 or 2021 and more than 40 percent declining in both years, signaling that the crisis continued to deepen for many in 2022.

Another measure of human development, prevalence of undernourishment (POU), also continued to worsen in 2022, even before the Russia’s war denied a hungry world most of the agricultural output of Ukraine. The UN report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 found that world hunger rose in 2021, with 2.3 billion people facing moderate or severe difficulty obtaining adequate food.

Estimated increase in the number of undernourished people (NoU) in 2022 caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. From a regional perspective, vulnerable populations in sub-Saharan Africa and the Near East and North Africa are the most at risk of increased undernourishment due to the invasion. The low-income level, associated with the high shares of food expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa, and the particularly high dependency of the Near East and North Africa diets on imported wheat, especially from Ukraine and the Russian Federation, make poor consumers extremely vulnerable to wheat, maize, and vegetable oil price shocks. Graphic: FAO
Estimated increase in the number of undernourished people (NoU) in 2022 caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. From a regional perspective, vulnerable populations in sub-Saharan Africa and the Near East and North Africa are the most at risk of increased undernourishment due to the invasion. The low-income level, associated with the high shares of food expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa, and the particularly high dependency of the Near East and North Africa diets on imported wheat, especially from Ukraine and the Russian Federation, make poor consumers extremely vulnerable to wheat, maize, and vegetable oil price shocks. Graphic: FAO

The UN reported, “The most recent evidence available suggests that the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet around the world rose by 112 million to almost 3.1 billion, reflecting the impacts of rising consumer food prices during the (COVID-19) pandemic.”

It warned that Russia’s war on Ukraine, “is disrupting supply chains and further affecting prices of grain, fertilizer and energy,” resulting in more price increases in the first half of 2022. Simultaneously, more frequent and extreme climate disasters are also disrupting supply chains and agriculture, especially in low-income countries.

Abrupt climate change

The background against which all this human chaos is unfolding is the rapidly changing global climate. In 2022, there was no paucity of climate catastrophe.

Probably the single most devastating climate disaster is the ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa, where four consecutive rainy seasons have failed, and the fifth has underperformed. By December 2022, around 20.2 million children faced the threat of severe hunger, thirst, and disease, compared with 10 million in July 2022.

Regional Operational Priority Map for humanitarian relief efforts during the Horn of Africa drought, November 2022. Humanitarians have robustly prioritized the response but are being forced to make impossible choices. Faced with under-funding, humanitarians are working intensively to ensure that people facing the most urgent and life-threatening needs in the three countries hardest-hit by the Horn of Africa drought are reached first. In each country, geographic areas are regularly reviewed and prioritized for response, with partners reaching more than 75 per cent of people classified as Priority 1, versus around 58 per cent for Priority 2 and 54 per cent for Priority 3. Graphic: OCHA
Regional Operational Priority Map for humanitarian relief efforts during the Horn of Africa drought, November 2022. Humanitarians have robustly prioritized the response but are being forced to make impossible choices. Faced with under-funding, humanitarians are working intensively to ensure that people facing the most urgent and life-threatening needs in the three countries hardest-hit by the Horn of Africa drought are reached first. In each country, geographic areas are regularly reviewed and prioritized for response, with partners reaching more than 75 per cent of people classified as Priority 1, versus around 58 per cent for Priority 2 and 54 per cent for Priority 3. Graphic: OCHA

Other unprecedented climate disasters struck parts of the world that had been spared so far. Perhaps the most startling was the desiccation of Europe, as the hottest summer on record cooked off surface water and left rivers dry throughout the continent.

Boreal summer (June to August) averages of European-mean surface air temperature anomalies, 1979-2022, relative to 1981-2010. Data: ERA5. Graphic: Copernicus Climate Change Service / ECMWF
Boreal summer (June to August) averages of European-mean surface air temperature anomalies, 1979-2022, relative to 1981-2010. Data: ERA5. Graphic: Copernicus Climate Change Service / ECMWF

Freja Vamborg, a senior scientist with the Copernicus Climate Change Service said, “An intense series of heatwaves across Europe paired with unusually dry conditions, have led to a summer of extremes with records in terms of temperature, drought and fire activity in many parts of Europe, affecting society and nature in various ways. The data shows that we’ve not only had record August temperatures for Europe but also for summer, with the previous summer record only being one year old.”

On the other side of the planet, Australia experienced two record-breaking flooding events, in March and October. But the most catastrophic flooding happened in Pakistan. After suffering through an unprecedented spring heatwave that saw weeks of temperatures repeatedly hitting nearly 50°C (122°F), record floods submerged one-third of the country in August 2022. By December, 20 million flood victims needed immediate aid to survive the looming harsh winter.

Data captured by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus satellite on 30 August 2022 was used to map the extent of flooding currently devastating Pakistan. Photo: ESA
Data captured by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus satellite on 30 August 2022 was used to map the extent of flooding currently devastating Pakistan. Photo: ESA

Abrupt climate change is driven almost entirely by human emissions of greenhouse gases. As Desdemona reports every year, greenhouse gas levels again hit new highs. The 2022 World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reported the biggest year-on-year jump in methane concentrations in 2021 since systematic measurements began nearly 40 years ago.

The increase in the atmospheric CO2 level from 2020 to 2021 was larger than the average annual growth rate over the last decade. Measurements from WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch network stations showed that these levels continued to rise in 2022 over the entire globe.

Mole fraction of atmospheric methane (CH4), 1984-2021. Graphic: WMO
Mole fraction of atmospheric methane (CH4), 1984-2021. Graphic: WMO

WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas remarked, “The continuing rise in concentrations of the main heat-trapping gases, including the record acceleration in methane levels, shows that we are heading in the wrong direction.” He added, “We need to transform our industrial, energy, and transport systems and whole way of life. The needed changes are economically affordable and technically possible. Time is running out.”

The UN concurred with WMO in a new study, Emissions Gap Report 2022: The Closing Window – Climate crisis calls for rapid transformation of societies. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, remarked, “This report tells us in cold scientific terms what nature has been telling us, all year, through deadly floods, storms, and raging fires: we have to stop filling our atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and stop doing it fast. We had our chance to make incremental changes, but that time is over. Only a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster.”

Global greenhouse (GHG) emissions under different scenarios and the emissions gap in 2030 (median estimate and tenth to ninetieth percentile range). Emissions under current policies are projected to reach 58 GtCO2e in 2030. This is 3 GtCO2e higher than the estimate of last year’s report. About half of the increase is due to the harmonization, about one quarter to the change of global warming potentials (GWPs), and the remainder to the methodological choice of only selecting model studies that explicitly account for the most recent current polices and NDC estimates. Graphic: UNEP
Global greenhouse (GHG) emissions under different scenarios and the emissions gap in 2030 (median estimate and tenth to ninetieth percentile range). Emissions under current policies are projected to reach 58 GtCO2e in 2030. This is 3 GtCO2e higher than the estimate of last year’s report. About half of the increase is due to the harmonization, about one quarter to the change of global warming potentials (GWPs), and the remainder to the methodological choice of only selecting model studies that explicitly account for the most recent current polices and NDC estimates. Graphic: UNEP

With the world at war and economic shocks from the ongoing Covid pandemic disrupting global supply chains, the likelihood of a global transformation of our industrial, energy, transport systems, and whole way of life in a sustainable direction seems more remote than ever.

A transformation is likely to happen, but Desdemona expects it to go in the opposite direction.

Richest people in UK use more energy flying than poorest do overall – “There is so much social injustice engrained in those who don’t have enough energy”

Energy footprints of British households in 2019, from international and domestic aviation (red) and everything else (grey), in the top 10 percent and the bottom 20 percent of incomes. The 102 gigajoules (GJ) used for flying by the average adult in the top 10% of earners in that year was more than the average person in the bottom fifth of earners used for everything, including flying, driving, and heating their homes. Data: Baltruszewicz, et al., 2022 / Ecological Economics. Graphic: Tom Prater / Carbon Brief

Long Covid responsible for thousands of U.S. deaths, but true numbers are likely much higher – “This is very clearly data from folks who got very sick, ended up at the hospital with sustained organ damage”

Provisional number of deaths with COVID-19 and deaths mentioning long COVID in the United States, by month and year of death, 1 January 2022-30-June 2022. Graphic: Ahmad, et al., 2022 / NVSS / CDC

WHO study reports global Covid death toll likely three times higher than official records – Pandemic may have claimed nearly 15 million lives, more than 2.7 times official reports of 5.4 million – India mortality alone may be 6.45 million dead

Global excess and reported COVID-19 deaths and death rates per 100,000 population, January 2020-January 2022. (a) Cumulative global excess death estimates and the cumulative reported COVID-19 deaths by month from January 2020 to December 2021. (b) Global excess death rates per 100,000 population and the reported COVID-19 death rates per 100,000 population, also by month, from January 2020 to December 2021. On both plots, the central lines of the excess mortality series show the mean estimates, and the shaded regions indicate the 95 percent uncertainty intervals. Graphic: Msemburi, et al., 2022 / Nature

Record 106,699 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2021 – Overdose deaths have risen fivefold over the past 2 decades – Mortality rate now 32.4 per 100,000 people

Age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths in the United States, by sex, 2001–2021. Graphic: Spencer, et al., 2022 / CDC / NCHS

UNICEF: More than twenty million children suffering in Horn of Africa as drought intensifies – Two million people displaced internally, 9.5 million livestock dead – “We fled hunger, but hunger followed us here”

Map showing the Rainfall Accumulation Anomaly in the Horn of Africa during the 2010-2011, 2016-2017, and 2020-2022 droughts. Communities in the Horn of Africa are in the midst of a likely fifth consecutive failed rainy season — with the October-December 2022 rains beginning poorly and forecasts indicating they are likely to underperform — and may face a sixth failed season in March-May 2023. The October-December 2020, March-May 2021, October-December 2021 and March-May 2022 seasons were all marred by below-average rainfall, leaving large swathes of Somalia, southern and south-eastern Ethiopia, and northern and eastern Kenya facing the most prolonged drought in recent history, while the March-May 2022 rainy season was the driest on record in the last 70 years. The 2020-2022 drought has now surpassed the horrific droughts in 2010-2011 and 2016-2017 in both duration and severity and will continue to deepen in the months ahead, with catastrophic consequences. Data: USGS FEWS NE (Africa CHIRPS Anomaly 3-Monthly, MAM and OND). Graphic: OCHA

Intergenerational audit for the UK in 2022 – “Decades of low pay growth, higher housing costs, and high and rising intergenerational wealth inequality means the young entered this crisis with low levels of financial resilience”

Median real (CPIH-adjusted) hourly employee pay (2022 prices) by cohort in the UK, 1975-2020. Generational pay progress has stalled for those born after 1980. Graphic: Resolution Foundation

Unprecedented Arctic wildfires fuel climate warming cycle – “Larger and more intense wildfires could substantially accelerate the release of permafrost carbon into the atmosphere”

The effect of Arctic wildfires on carbon release: Arctic wildfires accelerate the release of organic carbon from the soil into the atmosphere, which can strengthen the feedback to warming. Graphic: V. Altounian / Science

Greta Thunberg effect evident among Norwegian youth – Thunberg says she’s ready to hand over megaphone – “We should also listen to reports and experiences from people who are most affected by the climate crisis”

Proportion of climate survey respondents in Norway who expressed they were concerned or unconcerned about climate change, 2017-2021. Respondents ranked how concerned they were about climate change on a scale from 1 to 4. Since 2017, nearly 3000 young people aged 17 to 20 participated in the survey. Graphic: Haugseth, et al., 2022 / Sociology

Big oil is behind conspiracy to deceive public, first climate racketeering lawsuit says – “What’s different about this case is that we have their enterprise in writing: the decision by rival companies, their front groups, scientists, and associations to act together to change public opinion”

Rising sea surface temperatures in the Caribbean Sea since 1901. The waters around Puerto Rico have warmed by heat two degrees Fahrenheit. Data: EPA Climate Change Indicators in the United States. Graphic: EPA

December 2022 serving up baked Alaska and warming most of Arctic – “Record-setting weather like we’re seeing plenty of examples of in recent years does tell a real story of climate heating”

Map showing GFS 2m Temperature Anomaly for 20 December 2022. Much of the Arctic in December 2022 experienced a burst of freak warming. Graphic: Climate Reanalyzer

67 journalists killed so far in 2022 – “The surge in the killings of journalists and other media workers is a grave cause of concern and yet another wake up call for governments across the globe to take action in the defence of journalism, one of the key pillars of democracy”

Map showing nations where journalists were killed or imprisoned during 2022. The IFJ released the latest figures ahead of International Human Rights Day, recording 67 killings of journalists and media staff in the line of duty in 2022 compared to 47 last year - a reversal of the decline recorded in recent years. Graphic: IFJ

Europe’s 2022 heatwave may have caused more than 20,000 “excess” deaths – “I consider this the most impactful heatwave since 2003”

Sea surface temperature anomalies in the Mediterranean Sea on 19 June 2022. Graphic: European Union / Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service

NOAA: Human-caused climate change fuels warmer, wetter, stormier Arctic

Arctic annual air surface temperatures from October 2021 to September 2022 were the sixth warmest dating back to 1900. The image on the left depicts the departure from the average near-surface temperature across the Arctic during this period, with redder colors showing areas of greater than average warmth. The graphic on the right shows how the rate of Arctic air temperature warming has outpaced the rate of global warming. Data: ERA5 and NASA. Graphic: NOAA / Climate.gov

The U.S. maternal health divide: The limited maternal health services and worse outcomes of states proposing new abortion restrictions

Maternal Deaths per 100,000 Births, by State Abortion Policy, 2018-2020. Maternal death rates were 62 percent higher in 2020 in abortion-restriction states than in abortion-access states (28.8 vs. 17.8 per 100,000 births). Notably, across the three years presented in this graph, the maternal mortality rate was increasing nearly twice as fast in states with abortion restrictions. Graphic: Commonwealth Fund

The collapse of insects – “They’re the fabric tethering together every freshwater and terrestrial ecosystem across the planet”

Number of Western Monarch butterflies (left) and butterfly surveys (right), 1997-2021. In the western United States, the number of individual butterflies has been steadily decreasing over the past four decades, at a rate of around 1.6% every year, according to a March 2021 study in the journal Science. The iconic Monarch butterfly is one of the species in trouble. Warmer autumn temperatures, an effect of climate change, may be interfering with the butterflies’ hibernation-like period known as diapause. So rather than slowing down ahead of winter, the insects are staying awake longer, expending more energy, and eventually starving to death. In July 2022, the migratory monarch was added to the IUCN’s global endangered species list. Graphic: Catherine Tai / Reuters

Fentanyl’s scourge plainly visible on streets of Los Angeles

Ryan Smith, a 36-year-old homeless addict, falls asleep after smoking fentanyl in Los Angeles, Thursday, 18 August 2022. Nearly 2,000 homeless people died in the city from April 2020 to March 2021, a 56 percent increase from the previous year, according to a report released by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Overdose was the leading cause of death, killing more than 700. Photo: Jae C. Hong / AP Photo

Amazon deforestation in Brazil remains near 15-year high in 2022 – “If da Silva wants to decrease forest destruction by 2023, he must have zero tolerance for environmental crime from Day One of his administration”

Smoke rises from a forest fire in the Transamazonica highway region, in the municipality of Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil, 17 September 2022. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon slowed slightly last year, a year after a 15-year high, according to closely watched numbers published Wednesday, 30 November 2022. Photo: Edmar Barros / AP Photo

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina: Data on a post-Dobbs world – “In just four short months post-Dobbs, thousands of women’s lives were impacted”

Abortion laws by U.S. state in 2022 after the after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health U.S. Supreme Court decision. Graphic: Center for Reproductive Rights

China’s superrich decimated as economic downturn wipes out billions – “This year has seen the biggest fall in the Hurun China Rich List of the last 24 years”

Number of U.S. dollar billionaires in China, 1999-2022. The year 2022 saw the biggest fall in the Hurun China Rich List in the 24 years of its existence. Data: Hurun Research Institute. Graphic: James P. Galasyn

Europe experienced warmest October on record in 2022 – “Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish”

Average near-surface air temperature percentiles for October 2022. Colour categories refer to the percentiles of the temperature distribution as calculated from the 1991–2020 reference period. The “warmest” category refers to the period 1979-2022. Graphic: Copernicus Climate Change Service / ECMWF

Greenhouse gas levels hit new highs in 2022 – Biggest increase in methane since measurements began – “The continuing rise in concentrations of the main heat-trapping gases, including the record acceleration in methane levels, shows that we are heading in the wrong direction”

Mole fraction of atmospheric methane (CH4), 1984-2021. Graphic: WMO

Lula insists “Brazil is back” at UN climate summit

Deforested area of Amazon rainforest in Brazil, 2006-2021, with large increases shown during the Bolsonaro regime. Data: Brazil National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Graphic: DW

Global human population hits 8 billion – “We are already overstretching what we have: the housing, roads, the hospitals, schools. Everything is overstretched.”

Global human population, 1700-2022. On 15 November 2022, the world’s population was estimated to reach 8 billion people, having grown by 1 billion since 2010. This is a remarkable milestone given that the human population numbered under 1 billion for millennia until around 1800, and that it took more than 100 years to grow from 1 to 2 billion. By comparison, the increase of the world’s population over the last century has been quite rapid. Despite a gradual slowing in the pace of growth, the global population is projected to surpass 9 billion around 2037 and 10 billion around 2058. Graphic: UN DESA

Global Carbon Budget 2022: Global carbon emissions in 2022 remain at record levels – No sign of decrease in global CO2 emissions – “This year we see yet another rise in global fossil CO2 emissions, when we need a rapid decline”

Components of the global carbon budget and their uncertainties, 1960-2021 and projected to 2022. Components are presented individually for (a) fossil CO2 and cement carbonation emissions (EFOS), (b) growth rate in atmospheric CO2 concentration (GATM), (c) emissions from land-use change (ELUC), (d) the land CO2 sink (SLAND), (e) the ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN), and (f) the budget imbalance that is not accounted for by the other terms. Positive values of SLAND and SOCEAN represent a flux from the atmosphere to land or the ocean. All data are in GtC yr−1 with the uncertainty bounds representing ±1 standard deviation in shaded colour. Data sources are as in Fig. 3. The red dots indicate our projections for the year 2022, and the red error bars the uncertainty in the projections. Graphic: Friedlingstein, et al., 2022 / Earth System Science Data

World Cup 2022: The “mirage” of carbon offsetting

Satellite view of the turf farm site in the Qatar desert, August 2021. World Cup organisers have created a large-scale tree and turf nursery, the largest turf farm in the world, according to the organisers, in the middle of the desert. It covers an area of 425,000 m2. While irrigation uses treated sewage water, the claim that this will absorb CO2 emissions from the atmosphere and contribute to reducing the impact of the event is not credible as this carbon storage is unlikely to be permanent in these artificial and vulnerable green spaces, while carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for centuries to millenia. Lusail stadium is the largest of the FWC stadiums, with a capacity of 80,000 seats. It is represented here to show the scale of the turf farm. Lusail stadium is not located next to the turf farm. Photo: Google Earth

8 billion people: Four ways climate change and population growth combine to threaten public health, with global consequences

Absolute change in days of crop growth duration, 1981-2021, compared to a 1981-2010 baseline, globally and by WHO region. Maize, rice, soybean, spring wheat, and winter wheat are shown. Relative to 1981-2010, higher temperatures in 2021 shortened crop growth seasons globally by 9.3 days for maize, 1.7 days for rice and 6 days for winter and spring wheat, and heatwave days in 2020 were associated with 98 million more people reporting moderate to severe food insecurity. Graphic: The Lancet

State of the Global Climate 2022: Sea level rise accelerates, European glacier melt shatters records, extreme weather causes devastation – “What climate scientists have warned about for decades is upon us”

Near-surface temperature differences relative to the 1981–2010 average for 2022 to September. The map shows the median anomaly calculated from six data sets: HadCRUT5, ERA5, JRA-55, GISTEMP, NOAAGlobalTemp, and Berkeley Earth. Graphic: WMO

UN: Inadequate progress on climate action makes rapid transformation of societies only option – “It is a tall, and some would say impossible, order to reform the global economy and almost halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but we must try”

Projections of GHG emissions under different scenarios to 2050 and indications of emissions gap and global warming implications over this century (medians only). Looking beyond 2030, this figure projects global GHG emissions out to 2050 under different scenarios and indicates the associated global warming implications over this century. The figure illustrates the substantial increase in the emissions gap for 2050 if climate efforts implied by current policies and NDC scenarios are continued without further strengthening. Implementation of net-zero targets by around mid-century would significantly reduce these gaps, but even then, gaps with the 1.5°C scenarios would remain. Graphic: UNEP

Summer 2022 was deadliest on record for heat-related mortality in Arizona’s biggest county – Maricopa County’s 359 heat-associated fatalities in 2022 outpace 339 deaths in 2021

Heat-related deaths in Maricopa County, Arizona, 2001-2022. The temperature hit 110F or higher on 22 days in 2022, yet it was only the 20th hottest summer on record, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). It did not drop below 80F on 75 percent of nights between June and August. Heat effects are cumulative, and the body cannot begin to recover until the temperature drops below 80F. Data: Maricopa County, office of vital registration and office of medical examiner, Arizona department of health services. Graphic: The Guardian

New push to shore up shrinking Colorado River could reduce water flow to California – “We are in a dire situation. Every water user, every water use sector, every state has to reduce their water use.”

Water flows down the Colorado River at the Glen Canyon Dam near Page, Arizona. White surfaces along the banks of the river and lake show previous water levels in the second-largest reservoir in the U.S. Photo: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Over-dependence on fossil fuels risks the health of current and future generations – “Climate change is driving severe health impacts all around the world, while the persistent global fossil fuel dependence compounds these health harms amidst multiple global crises”

Map showing population-weighted mean changes in extremely-high and very-high fire danger days in 2018-2021 compared with 2001-2004. Human exposure to days of very-high or extremely-high fire danger increased in 61% of countries from 2001-2004 to 2018-2021. Globally, people experienced an average of nine more days of very-high or extremely-high meteorological wildfire danger in 2018-2021 compared with 2001-2004, with 110 (61%) of 181 countries having an increase—a pattern caused by climate variation rather than demographic shifts. The yearly average wildfire exposure increased by 9.17 million person-days between 2003-2006 and 2018-2021. Increases were observed in 21 (64%) of 33 low HDI countries compared with 27 (42%) of 65 very high HDI countries, which could reflect differences in wildfire prevention and management. Graphic: Romanello, et al., 2022 / The Lancet

UN: Almost 1 million drought-hit Somalis in al-Shabab areas – Onset of the October-December deyr rains has either been late or performed poorly across most of Somalia

Somalis who left rural areas due to drought receive nutritional assistance at a camp for the internally displaced on the outskirts of Baidoa, in the Southwest State of Somalia, Wednesday, 12 October 2022. Photo: Geneva Costopulos / WFP / AP

Water woes loom in the Alps amid climate change – “Reduced quantities of water and limited reliability of water supply will be a major issue in the coming decades”

Projected changes in surface temperatures in the Alps, 2021-2050. The Alpine region experiences a higher temperature rise than peri-Alpine areas or at least that the temperature changes start earlier. Large parts of Bavaria, Lombardy and other regions depend on ecosystem services provided by the Alps. Decreasing quantities of water and a reduced reliability of supply will become major issues in the coming decades. This affects not only the drinking water supply but also agriculture, energy production, and industrial cooling demand. Graphic: FAU

Oil giants’ massive profits revive calls for windfall taxes – “The Russian war in Ukraine has changed the energy markets, reduced energy availability and increased prices”

Quarterly profits of five major oil companies in the West, 2018-2022 in billions of U.S. dollars. Data for Shell, BP, Chevron, Exxon, and Total Energies are shown. In Q3 2022, global energy giants including Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N) posted another round of huge quarterly profits, benefiting from surging natural gas and fuel prices that have boosted inflation around the world and led to fresh calls to further tax the sector. Four of the five largest global oil companies have now reported results, combining for nearly $50 billion in net income, lifted by tight global markets and disruption following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Graphic: Reuters

As Halloween approaches and fentanyl drives overdose deaths, mistaken beliefs persist – “No one is trying to addict little kids to fentanyl”

Number of fatal drug overdoses in the U.S. involving any opioid, synthetic opioids, heroin or prescription opioids, 1999-2020. Deaths in US involving fentanyl have continued to spike since 2013. Data: CDC WONDER. Graphic: Kavish Harjai / AP News

More Americans die younger in states with conservative policies, study finds – “State policy matters. We always get the promise from conservative states that we’re going to cut your taxes and regulation and make the environment better for business, and it comes with a cost.”

Estimated percent difference in all-cause mortality rates when a U.S. State’s policy liberalism score is 1 versus 0, for various lag times between the policies and mortality. Blue dots mean a more liberal version of the policy is associated with lower mortality and red dots mean a more conservative version is associated with lower mortality. Dark blue and red dots indicate that the association is significant at α

WWF’s Living Planet Report 2022 reveals devastating 69 percent average drop in wildlife populations since 1970 – “We have cut away the very foundation of life and the situation continues to worsen”

Map showing Biodiversity Intactness Index for the year 2020 at 0.25° resolution. The global average is 77 percent. Data: Natural History Museum, 2022. Graphic: WWF / ZSL

UNICEF: Heatwaves to impact almost every child on earth by 2050 – “The climate crisis is a child rights crisis, and it is already taking a devastating toll on children’s lives and futures”

A child in a refugee camp carries water in Somalia, 2022. Somalia faces widespread famine after four failed rainy seasons, with a fifth season underway that likely will fail too, along with the sixth early in 2023. Photo: Fazel / UNICEF

Prolonged drought brings famine, death, and fear to Somalia – “We’d grieve, stop for a while, pray. We’d bury them beside the road.”

Aerial view of people arriving at a displacement camp in southern Somalia in late September 2022. Photo: Jerome Delay / AP Photo

Five years after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s power grid is still costly and unreliable – Puerto Rico struggles to recover after Hurricane Fiona razed crops

People walk on a street affected by the passing of Hurricane Fiona in Penuelas, Puerto Rico, 19 September 2022. Ricardo Arduengo / REUTERS

Warmer air and warmer water are combining to melt Greenland ice sheet – “This unfortunately adds to the overwhelming body of evidence showing the sensitivity of the Greenland ice sheet to climate change”

(a) Ocean thermal forcing (shaded areas) at the ocean bottom or 1000 m (whichever is shallower) and annual submarine melt rate (filled squares) at Greenland’s marine-terminating glaciers. The black dotted line shows the 1,000 m isobath and delineates the extent of the continental shelf. The black dashed regions on the ice sheet delineate the hydrological catchments for three large example glaciers: Jakobshavn Isbrae (JI), Helheim (HH) and Kangerdlugssuaq (KG). The five ice sheet regions considered throughout the paper—south (SO), central-west (CW), northwest (NW), northeast (NE) and north (NO)—are delineated by the black ticks. Other labels are the Irminger Sea (Irm), Davis Strait (Dav) and Denmark Strait (Den). Bathymetry is from ref. 42 and ref. 43. (b) Subglacial discharge (x axis, note logarithmic scale) and ocean thermal forcing (y axis) for each marine-terminating glacier. The background shading shows the resulting submarine melt rate. Glaciers are coloured by their regional grouping. The larger squares and error bars show the median and interquartile range for each region, respectively. (c) Submarine melt rate versus grounding line depth by region with fitted linear trends (all significant at the 5% level) as dashed lines. All the results shown in these plots are annually averaged over 1979–2018. Graphic: Slater and Straneo, 2022 / Nature Geoscience

Warming waters causing mass die-off of Alaska snow crabs – Total numbers down 84 percent since 2018 – “The cold-water habitat they need was virtually absent, which suggests that temperature is really the key culprit in this population decline”

Annual temperatures for Alaska, 1900-2018. Alaska’s ten coldest years on record (blue dots) all occurred before 1980. Meanwhile, nine of its ten warmest years on record have occurred since 1980. Data: NASA GISS and UAF / Brian Brettschneider. Graphic: Rick Thoman / Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy

2022 heat wave drove unprecedented melt of Swiss glaciers – “2022 was a disastrous year for Swiss glaciers: all ice melt records were smashed by the great dearth of snow in winter and continuous heat waves in summer”

Percent change in ice volume for Swiss glaciers, 2001-2022. Melt rates in 2022 far exceeded the previous records from the hot summer of 2003. Glaciers in Switzerland lost around 3 cubic kilometres of ice in 2022, more than 6 percent of the remaining volume. By way of comparison, up to now, years with an ice loss of 2 percent have been described as “extreme”. The loss was particularly dramatic for small glaciers. Graphic: M. Huss / Swiss Academy of Sciences

The Great Salt Lake is on the brink of collapse – “It’s terrifying”

Elevation of the Great Salt Lake, 1850-2022. As of 29 September 2022, lake levels dropped below where the Saltair station could measure. Graphic: Dr. Carie Frantz / Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences / Weber University

Countries where the most people are killed defending the environment

Colombian natives and activists during a protest in Bogotá, Colombia, on 23 August 2019. Photo: RAUL ARBOLEDA / AFP / Getty Images

A single, devastating California fire season wiped out years of efforts to cut emissions – “California’s wildfire CO2 emissions from 2020 are approximately two times higher than California’s total greenhouse gas reductions since 2003”

Annual wildfire emissions and CO2e emissions in California from individual sectors, 2003-2020. Data: Jerrett, et al., 2022 / Environmental Pollution. Graphic: Los Angeles Times

Anti-vaccine rhetoric in U.S. caused elevated Republican mortality from COVID – “Overall, the excess death rate for Republicans was 76 percent higher than the excess death rate for Democrats”

Excess U.S. death rates by county vaccination rate relative to 2019, before and after vaccine availability. The graph shows average excess death rates for Republicans and Democrats in each county for Covid Pre-Vaccine (April 2020 to March 2021) and Covid Post-Vaccine (April 2021-December 2021). The circles are each county, and diamonds are binned means for each party. The curves are quadratic fits using least squares. Graphic: Wallace, et al., 2022

Droughts, Ukraine war push global grain stocks toward worrying decade low – “It’s lining up to be like 2012. No one wants to admit it, but it’s true.”

World corn stocks in consumption days, 2008-2022 and projected to 2023. Poor weather in key agricultural regions from the United States to France and China is shrinking grain harvests and cutting inventories, heightening the risk of famine in some of the world's poorest nations. Data: International Grains Council. Graphic: Prinz Magtulis / Reuters

Consumer debt hits record for most Americans, except the wealthy – “If your costs are rising and your wages are not picking up, how are people going to fill that gap?”

U.S. consumer debt excluding mortgages, 1989-2022. The bottom 90 percent of US households by wealth saw a record jump in consumer debt from June 2021 to June 2022 amid historic inflation. Data: Federal Reserve. Graphic: Bloomberg

Study finds some 500,000 people have disappeared from U.S. workforce due to long COVID – “Many who fall ill but survive COVID-19 suffer from enduring health problems”

Labor force participation impacts of health-related absences event study. The figure plots coefficient estimates βk from Equation 1, which represents the effect of a health-related absence during the pandemic on the probability of labor force participation k months before or after the absence. The blue, orange, and gray lines respectively plot estimates without demographic controls, with demographic controls, and with controls for demographics and labor market status. Gaps between months 3 and 9 are due to sample rotation. The color bands depict pointwise 95-percent confidence intervals. Standard errors are clustered at the worker level. Graphic: Goda and Soltas, 2022 / NBER

Rising global temperatures linked to declining wellbeing – “The analysis paints a bleak picture of the future”

Potential effect of high-temperature days on global life evaluations, 2021-2030. The estimated 17 percent drop in life evaluation by 2030 again does not take adaptability and recovery into account. However, this estimation is based on the increase in the number of high-heat days people will face globally by 2030, and is substantively meaningful. Graphic: Gallup

World at risk of passing multiple climate tipping points above 1.5°C global warming

The location of climate tipping elements in the cryosphere (blue), biosphere (green) and ocean/atmosphere (orange), and global warming levels their tipping points will likely be triggered at 1.5°C. Researchers see signs of destabilisation already in parts of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, in permafrost regions, the Amazon rainforest, and potentially the Atlantic overturning circulation as well. Graphic: Earth Commission / Globaïa

OECD: Russia war, COVID virus, and climate hurting world’s poorest – “We are in an era defined by multiple crises, shocks, and uncertainty″

Women carry belongings salvaged from their flooded home after monsoon rains, in the Qambar Shahdadkot district of Sindh Province, of Pakistan, 6 September 2022. The war in Ukraine, the lingering coronavirus pandemic and climate change are putting intense pressure on the world's poorest, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned. Photo: Fareed Khan / AP Photo

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”

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

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

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

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

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

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.”

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

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

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

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”

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

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”

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

Glaciers and “zombie ice”: The planet is melting at both poles, research finds – “We are already into dangerous levels of greenhouse gases that will have consequences far beyond 10 inches of sea level rise”

Greenland ice sheet flow sectors, individual catchments and peripheral ice caps with regional correspondence between annual values of mass balance and accumulation area ratio (AAR). The whiskers and ± quantities indicate ensemble single s.d. The ice sector outlines are after Morlighem, et al., 2017. Graphic: Box, et al., 2022 / Nature Climate Change

Human Development Report 2022: For the first time, the Global Human Development Index declined for two years in a row, erasing the gains of the preceding five years – “The world is scrambling to respond to back-to-back crises”

Global Human Development Index, 1990-2021. In 2021, the global Human Development Index value had declined two years in a row, erasing the gains of the preceding five years. The periods of the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic are indicated. Graphic: UNDP

Satellite view shows Europe drying out in the drought of Summer 2022

Satellite view of Europe in Summer 2021 and Summer 2022. In 2022, drought affected the whole of Europe. Photo: Copernicus EU

At least one-third of Earth’s trees face extinction – Scientists issue “warning to humanity” that tree species extinction could bring economic as well as ecosystem crisis

The conservation status of the world’s 58,497 tree species in 2022. Graphic: BGCI

G7 company emissions falling short of global climate goal, study shows – “As we approach COP27, we must get our 1.5°C goal off life support”

The emissions reduction targets publicly disclosed by European companies are now aligned with a 2.4°C decarbonization pathway, or 2.2°C if corporate Scope 3 emissions (value chain) are excluded. Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands — all with targets that support 2.2°C — have the best-performing corporate sectors, inclusive of all value-chain emissions. However, despite this progress, the average temperature ratings for corporates remain well above 1.5°C across all major European economies. Data: CDP data, Oliver Wyman analysis. Graphic: CDP

Antarctica “doomsday glacier” could raise global sea levels by 10 feet – “Thwaites is really holding on today by its fingernails”

Map of Thwaites Glacier shown in Landsat 8 satellite imagery collected in February 2019. The track of the mission of the autonomous underwater vehicle is shown in orange. Changes in grounding line positions of Thwaites Glacier in the recent past shown by colored lines. Graphic: Alastair Graham / University of South Florida

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator says famine is at the door in Somalia – “The unprecedented failure of four consecutive rainy seasons, decades of conflict, mass displacement, severe economic issues are pushing many people to that brink”

Current food security outcomes, Baidoa and Burhakaba Districts in Bay of Somalia, July to September 2022 (left) and projected food security outcomes, Baidoa and Burhakaba Districts in Bay of Somalia, October to December 2022 (right). Famine (IPC Phase 5) is projected to emerge in three areas of Bay Region, Somalia, in late 2022 in the absence of urgent, multisectoral humanitarian assistance. Although levels of acute malnutrition among children and the rate of hunger-related deaths have not yet met the IPC’s technical definition of Famine (IPC Phase 5), those thresholds are expected to be reached during the October to December 2022 projection period based on currently available information that minimal humanitarian food assistance will be delivered in these areas in November and December due to funding constraints. Data: FEWS NET and FSNAU. Graphic: FEWS NET Somalia

Sleepwalking to destruction: World struck by relentless climate catastrophes – “We just would not get temperatures as high as we’ve seen without human-caused climate change”

Children use rafts to make their way along a waterlogged street in a residential area after a heavy monsoon rainfall in Hyderabad on 24 August 2022. Record monsoon rains were causing a “catastrophe of epic scale”, Pakistan's Climate Change Minister said August 24, announcing an international appeal for help in dealing with floods that have killed more than 800 people since June 2022. Photo: Akram SHAHID / AFP

Deforesters are plundering the Amazon. Brazil is letting them get away with it. – “No one goes to jail. They deforested 50 square miles. There were 23 arrests. In the end, no one’s in jail. And this was the biggest deforestation ring in Brazil.”

Deforested area in the Amazon per year (left) and Ibama infraction notices for deforestation in the Amazon (right) in January 2022. PRODES calculates deforestation rates from August through July of the next year. Infraction numbers are also shown for August through July. Data: National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Ibama, Observatório do Clima. Graphic: The Washington Post

Will the summer of 2022 hasten France’s efforts to fight climate change? – “The summer of 2022 is probably the coolest you have experienced or will experience in the next 20 years”

A firefighter adjusts his helmet as he stands guard to monitor a fire near Saint-Magne, southwestern France on 11 August 2022. Photo: Philippe Lopez / AFP

American Meteorological Society report: Record-high greenhouse gases and sea levels in 2021 – Ocean heat content highest on record

Changes in global average sea level (background map) and local sea level (dots) between 1993 and 2021. In the global ocean, sea level has risen nearly everywhere (blue). Coastal areas where sea level has fallen (brown) are places where the land is rising as it rebounds from being compressed by ice sheets and glaciers during the last ice age. NOAA Climate.gov map, based on data from University of Hawaii Sea Level Center. Graphic: NOAA

In East Siberia, extreme wildfires are on the rise – “A shift in forest structure may result in a positive feedback on currently intensifying wildfires”

In the summer months, forest fires cover large parts of the Republic of Sakha with dense smoke. Image from an expedition cruise in August 2021, during which sediments from numerous lakes were sampled. Photo: Ramesh Glückler

A shrinking Lake Powell heralds an even worse water crisis in the Southwest’s future – “These trends are on a tragic collision course, underscoring the urgency once again of concerted action on climate”

Aerial view of Lake Powell in Page, Arizona on 5 April 2022, showing water levels at a historic low. Photo: RJ Sangosti / MediaNews Group / The Denver Post / Getty Images

U.S. life expectancy plunged again in 2021, down nearly a year – Last comparable decrease was during height of World War II – “It’s a dismal situation. It was bad before and it’s gotten worse.”

U.S. life expectancy at birth, 1900-2021. Data: CDC. Graphic: Datawrapper

Arctic warming four times faster than rest of Earth – “Something is happening in the Arctic, and it will affect us all”

(a) Annual mean temperature anomalies in the Arctic (66.5∘–90∘N) (dark colours) and globally (light colours) during 1950–2021 derived from the various observational datasets. Temperature anomalies have been calculated relative to the standard 30-year period of 1981–2010. Shown are also the linear temperature trends for 1979–2021. (b) Annual mean temperature trends for the period 1979–2021, derived from the average of the observational datasets. Areas without a statistically significant change are masked out. (c) Local amplification ratio calculated for the period 1979–2021, derived from the average of the observational datasets. The dashed line in (b) and (c) depicts the Arctic Circle (66.5∘N latitude). Graphic: Rantanen, et al., 2022 / Communications Earth and Environment

July 2022: Earth’s 6th warmest July on record

Departure of temperature from average for July 2022, the sixth-warmest July for the globe since record-keeping began in 1880, according to NOAA. Record-warmest areas included parts of southern Europe and northern Africa, southern and eastern Asia, Brazil, Oceania, and southern Texas/northern Mexico. No large areas experienced record cold. Graphic: NOAA/NCEI

Canada village razed by wildfire wrestles with climate-proofing its future – “I’m not expecting I’ll be rebuilding ever”

Insured losses linked to extreme weather in Canada, 1983-2021. Data: Insurance Bureau of Canada. Graphic: Reuters

Image of the Day: Satellite view of Lake Mead in 2000 and 2022 – “Declining water levels due to climate change and 20 years of ongoing drought have reshaped the park’s shorelines”

Satellite view of Lake Mead on 6 July 2000 and 3 July 2022. Data: Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photo: Lauren Dauphin / NASA Earth Observatory

Wildfires in Europe have never been as large as in the summer of 2022 – In France and Spain, summer fires are nearly six times larger than average

The area of forest fires recorded in 2022 for 11 European countries and the Mediterranean basin, compared with the average from 2006 to 2021. Data are current to 21 July 2022. Data: European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). Graphic: Le Monde

U.S. Central states, Texas break power use records again in heat wave – Texas Gov. Abbott’s inaction leads to huge electricity bills

Aerial view of a structure burning during a wildfire in Palo Pinto County, Texas on Monday, 18 July 2022. The 110-degree heat wave caused a record 24 wildfires in Texas this week. Two Texas wildfires consumed at least 21 homes amid the record heat wave. Photo: KDFW FOX 4 / AP

UK shatters record for highest temperature as Europe sizzles – Major incident declared in London as fires burn – Dozens of temperature records fall in France as fires rage in southwest

A wildfire burns near a wind turbine at night outside Tabara, Zamora, during the second heatwave of the year in Spain, 18 July 2022. Photo: Isabel Infantes / REUTERS

World Bank calls for sovereign debt changes ahead of looming crises – “There are more Sri Lankas on the way”

Three-wheelers queue to buy petrol due to fuel shortage, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 5 July 2022. Dinuka Liyanawatte / REUTERS

How an atmospheric river hit Sydney – “We’re seeing these events which we call one-in-1000 year events or one-in-100 year events now becoming one-in-one year events”

The Turner family children were rescued from the second story of their Shanes Park home in north-west Sydney on 5 July 2022, after the fourth flood in less than 18 months. Photo: Dean Sewell / The Sydney Morning Herald

UN report: World hunger rose again in 2021, with 2.3 billion people severely or moderately hungry – “This year’s report should dispel any lingering doubts that the world is moving backward in its efforts to end hunger”

Prevalence of undernourishment (left axis) and number of undernourished people (right axis), 2005-2021. World hunger rose further in 2021, following a sharp upturn in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The persistence of the pandemic and its enduring consequences, which exacerbated existing inequalities, have contributed to further setbacks in 2021 toward achievement of the Zero Hunger target by 2030. Between 702 and 828 million people in the world faced hunger in 2021. Considering the middle of the projected range (768 million), hunger affected 46 million more people in 2021 compared to 2020, and a total of 150 million more people since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Graphic: FAO

Gallup Global Emotions Report 2022: World unhappier, more stressed out than ever – “2 billion people are so unhappy with where they live, they wouldn’t recommend it to anyone they know”

Gallup Worldwide Negative Experience Index, 2006-2021. Globally, unhappiness has been rising for a decade. In 2021, negative emotions — the aggregate of the stress, sadness, anger, worry, and physical pain that people feel every day — reached a new record in the history of Gallup’s tracking. As 2021 served up a steady diet of uncertainty, the world became a slightly sadder, more worried, and more stressed-out place than it was the year before, which helped push Gallup’s Negative Experience Index to yet another new high of 33 in 2021. Graphic: Gallup

BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2022: Carbon emissions rebound after pandemic dip – Coal prices surge – “The world remains on an unsustainable path”

Change in primary energy by fuel, 2007-2021. Primary energy in 2021 grew by its largest amount in history, with emerging economies accounting for most of the increase. Primary energy grew by 31 exajoules (EJ) in 2021, the largest increase in history and more than reversing the sharp decline seen in 2020. Primary energy in 2021 was 8 EJ above 2019 levels. The increase in primary energy in 2021 was driven by emerging economies, which increased by 13 EJ, with China expanding by 10 EJ. Taking 2020 and 2021 together, primary energy consumption in emerging economies increased by 15 EJ, largely reflecting growth in China (13 EJ). In contrast, energy demand in developed economies in 2021 was 7 EJ below 2019 levels. The increase in primary energy between 2019 and 2021 was entirely driven by renewable energy sources. The level of fossil fuel energy consumption was unchanged between 2019 and 2021, with lower oil demand (-8 EJ) offset by higher natural gas (5 EJ) and coal (3 EJ) consumption. Graphic: BP

Horn of Africa braces for “explosion of child deaths” as hunger crisis deepens – Three million livestock have died since mid-2021 from drought and disease

The bones of other animals surround an emaciated cow in Ethiopia’s Somali Region. Carcasses are a daily reminder of the devastation caused by the 2021-22 drought. Photo: Michael Tewelde / WFP

Somalia faces grim humanitarian catastrophe – “When we lost our livestock, we lost our minds”

Map showing the March-to-May (Gu) 2022 rainfall as percent of average in the Horn of Africa. The March/April to June 2022 Gu season rainfall was below average across the country, worsening the existing drought conditions in Somalia. The seasonal rains, which started in mid to late April appear to be ending early by late May/early June 2022. The rains were characterized by heavy storms lasting a few hours and were concentrated within a short period. Heavy downpours led to high runoff and limited replenishment of pasture and water resources. The poor spatial and temporal distribution could not sustain crop growth nor replenish the water sources adequately. This map compares the 2022 Gu seasonal rainfall with the long-term average for the same season. Northern parts of Somalia recorded 30 percent to 60 percent of the average rainfall while central and southern regions received 45 percent to 75 percent of average. This is also consistent with observed rainfall data from rain-gauge stations. Data: CHC / CHIRPS. Graphic: FAO

Carbon dioxide emissions from cement production double in 20 years – “Each person on the planet is consuming on average more than a kilogram of cement per day”

Total annual global cement emissions, 1990-2021. Making cement emits carbon dioxide two ways, one from the chemical process and the other from heating the chemicals. Global carbon dioxide emissions from cement making have tripled in the last 30 years and doubled in the last 20 years. Data: Robbie Andrew / CICERO Center for International Climate Research. Graphic: Camille Fassett / AP

Digital surveillance in a nation of criminalized healthcare – Here’s a list of online healthcare resources as access to abortion in U.S. plummets

Distance women must travel to receive abortion services after anti-abortion trigger laws go into effect, 24 June 2022. At the start of June 2022, nearly all women in America lived within a few hours’ drive of an abortion clinic. But with Roe v. Wade overturned, and the constitutional right to an abortion ended, clinics are quickly closing in huge swaths of the country. a quarter of U.S. women of reproductive age could have to travel more than 200 miles to obtain a legal abortion. Under the farthest-reaching scenarios, that number could rise to nearly half. Graphic: The New York Times

Global Peace Index 2022: Peacefulness declines to lowest level in 15 years – “The economic value of lost peace reached record levels in 2021”

Map showing the Global Peace Index in 2022. The average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.3 percent in the 2022 GPI. Graphic: IEP

Graph of the Day: Life expectancy by U.S. congressional district, 2010–2015

Life expectancies across congressional districts in the United States, 2010-2015. Graphic: Takai, et al., 2022 / Social Science and Medicine

Drought-stricken U.S. warned of looming “dead pool” – “It’s like watching this slow-motion catastrophe kind of unfold”

Lake Mead water levels, 2017-2022. Graphic: Water-Data.com

Amazon deforestation in April 2022 increased by 54 percent, making it the worst April in the last 15 years

Aerial view of an illegal mining operation on Yanomami land in Roraima, in the Amazon rainforest. By April 2021, a Greenpeace flyover had already shown the expansion of the mine in the Yanomami land, which a year later was the second most deforested indigenous territory in the entire Amazon. Photo: Christian Braga / Greenpeace

World cereal production, utilization, stocks, and trade all likely to contract in 2022/23 – U.N. forecast shows first decline in world cereal utilization in twenty years

World cereal production, utilization, stocks, 2012-2022 and projected to 2023. Based on world cereal production and utilization estimates, cereal stocks at the end of seasons in 2022 are seen rising above their opening levels but remaining below the record levels reached in 2018/19. Global trade in cereals in 2021/22 is estimated below the 2020/21 record level, mostly owing to an expected fall in global maize trade and reflecting the impact of disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine. Looking forward to the 2022/23 season, early prospects for cereal production in 2022 point to a likely decrease, which would mark the first decline in four years. Graphic: FAO

India’s savage heat exacts heaviest toll on outdoor workers – Humid heat causes 650 billion hours of annual lost labor globally, up at least 9 percent over four decades – “This is not just exhaustion or discomfort. It is actually killing people.”

Map showing spatial extent of heavy labor losses due to humid heat. Per capita heavy labor lost (a)–(c) and population-weighted heavy labor lost (d)–(f) for the Lancet Countdown method ('LCHCC', (a), (d)) and the laboratory exposure response to heat ('Laboratory', (b), (e)). Panels on right show the zonal median (c) and zonal sums (f) of heavy labor losses. Maps in the top row show mean h person−1 yr−1 lost due to background heat and humidity combined with internal heat generation in individuals conducting heavy labor. Maps in the bottom row display 'population-weighted' labor loss, which is defined as the product of the mean per-capita hours lost overlaid and the ILO heavy labor sector proportion of the working-age population (ages 15+) for 163 countries for which the data are available. Shading around zonal median (top right) and zonal sum (bottom right) lines outlines the range of zonal values for individual years. Graphic: Parsons, et al., 2022 / Environmental Research Letters

“Deaths Of Despair” on the rise in Pierce County, WA – “COVID-19 has been hard on everyone”

Pierce County drug poisoning deaths, January 2018–April 2021. Many of Pierce county's recent drug poisoning deaths included more than one drug. In 2019, Pierce County drug poisoning deaths were flattening along with state and were trending downward. However, drug poisoning deaths have risen dramatically in 2020 and 2021 despite increased harm reduction efforts, relaxed drug charges and relaxed Medications for Opioid Use disorder (MOUD) prescribing practices. Pierce County’s heroin deaths outpaced the State (comparison not shown). The number of heroin-involved deaths may be higher, since the body might metabolize heroin before labs detect it. Whites and males had the most poisoning deaths. Groups experiencing structural racism and inequitable health outcomes had the highest rates of poisoning deaths. These groups include American Indian/Alaska Natives, Hispanic/Latinx, and Black/African Americans. Deaths involving illicit fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, continued to surge into 2021. Locally, illicit drug makers and distributors add fentanyl to counterfeit prescription pills, tar heroin, and powders like methamphetamine without users’ knowledge. As a result, fentanyl is cheaper, easier to obtain, gets users hooked more quickly and keeps them coming back for larger doses. Both Pierce County and the State have experienced dramatic increases in poisoning deaths involving methamphetamine and other stimulants in 2020 and 2021, to which Naloxone (an emergency opioid blocker) doesn’t respond. Graphic: TPCHD

Siberia tundra could virtually disappear by mid-millennium – Larch forests could spread northward at a rate of 30 km per decade – “At this point, it’s a matter of life and death for the Siberian tundra”

Projected forest position in Siberia and tundra area at year 3000 CE for different climate mitigation scenarios and under potential cooling back to 20th-century temperatures after peak temperatures have been reached. The area of tundra changes over time and can only partly recover when temperatures cool and forests recede (plots next of the maps show years 2000–3000 CE). Only tundra areas above the treeline (Walker et al., 2005) are considered. Map projection: Albers Equal Area. Graphic: Kruse and Herzschuh, 2022 / eLife

Gun violence now Number 1 cause of death for U.S. children – “The fact that this is the leading cause of death among kids is obscene”

Elena Mendoza, 18, grieves in front of a cross honoring her cousin, Amerie Jo Garza, one of the victims killed in the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Thursday, 26 May 2022. Photo: Jae C. Hong / AP Photo

Greenhouse gas pollution trapped record 49 percent more heat in 2021 than in 1990 – Methane increase in 2021 largest since 1982 – “The primary gases responsible for climate change continue rising rapidly”

Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI), 1700-2021. For 2021, the AGGI was a record high 1.49, representing an increase in total direct radiative forcing of 49 percent since 1990. The atmospheric abundance of CO2 has increased by an average of 1.88 ppm per year over the past 42 years (1979-2021). This increase in CO2 is accelerating — while it averaged about 1.6 ppm per year in the 1980s and 1.5 ppm per year in the 1990s, the growth rate increased to 2.4 ppm per year during the last decade (2011-2021). The annual CO2 increase from 1 January 2021 to 1 January 2022 was 2.60 ± 0.08 ppm. Graphic: Montzka, 2022 / NOAA

A hot, deadly summer is coming in 2022 with frequent blackouts – “We really expect these problems to get worse in the next five years”

Map showing land surface temperature across most of India, 29 April 2022. In Spring 2022, India faced a prolonged heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 42°C in numerous cities across the country. This came just weeks after India recorded its hottest March since the country’s meteorological department began its records over 120 years ago. This image, produced using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission, shows the land surface temperature across most of the nation. According to the India Meteorological Department, maximum air temperatures reached 43-46°C over most parts of Rajasthan, Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh and East Uttar Pradesh; in many parts over Gujarat, interior Odisha; and in some parts of Madhya Maharashtra on 28 April 2022. Graphic: ESA

WMO: Four key climate change indicators broke records in 2021 – Past seven years have been the warmest seven years on record – “A dismal litany of humanity’s failure to tackle climate disruption”

Global map showing the highest marine heatwave (MHW) category experienced at each pixel in 2021 (reference period 1982–2011). Light grey indicates that no MHW occurred in a pixel over the entire year. (b) Stacked bar plot showing the percentage of the surface of the ocean experiencing an MHW on any given day of the year. (c) Stacked bar plot showing the cumulative percentage of the surface of the ocean that experienced an MHW over the year. Note: These values are based on when in the year a pixel first experienced its highest MHW category, so no pixel is counted twice. Horizontal lines in this figure show the final percentages for each category of MHW. (d) Stacked bar plot showing the cumulative number of MHW days averaged over the surface of the ocean. Note: This average is calculated by dividing the cumulative sum of MHW days per pixel weighted by the surface area of those pixels. Data: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (NOAA OISST). Graphic: Robert Schlegel

Sri Lanka is the first domino to fall in the face of a global debt crisis – Will Bangladesh be next? – “I’m deeply concerned about developing countries”

A protester in Sri Lanka hurls a tear-gas canister back at the police officers who fired it, 19 May 2022. Photo: Atul Loke / The New York Times

Spain endures record heatwave as May 2022 to become hottest month of the century – Morocco suffers hottest day in May on record

Surface temperature map for Europe and North Africa on 20 May 2022. Morocco observed its hottest day in May on 20 May 2022, recording a temperature of 45.7°C (114°F). With some areas reaching a scorching 44ºC in Spain on 21 May 2022, this unprecedented heatwave could make May the hottest month of the century. Graphic: Scott Duncan

U.S. surpasses record 100,000 overdose deaths in 2021 – “2022 will probably be as horrible as 2021 was, quite possibly worse”

Map showing percent change in predicted 12 month-ending count of drug overdose Deaths, by U.S. jurisdiction, December 2020 - December 2021. Graphic: CDC / National Center for Health Statistics

New NASA data show Earth heating at unprecedented rate – “Like 800,000 nuclear power plants of 1 GW capacity heating Earth 24/7, 365 days a year”

Earth energy imbalance, global net flux, 2001-2021. The 12-month EEI, Mar 2021-Feb 2022, set another record. The annual Earth’s Energy Imbalance was +1.52 W/m2, the energy equivalent to 1 million Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs every day. Data: NASA CERES. Graphic: Leon Simons

Earth’s atmospheric CO2 hits highest recorded level in human history – Unprecedented level comes as greenhouse gas emissions continue around the world

Global daily atmospheric CO2, 2012-2022. The figure shows daily averaged CO2 from four GML Atmospheric Baseline observatories; Barrow, Alaska (in blue), Mauna Loa, Hawaii (in red), American Samoa (in green), and South Pole, Antarctica (in yellow). The thick black lines represent the average of the smoothed seasonal curves and the smoothed, de-seasonalized curves for each of the records. These lines are a very good estimate of the global average levels of CO2. Data for 2022 are through 7 May 2022. Graphic: NOAA

Heatwave breaks records in India and it’s not even summer yet – “Hottest summer ever” for at least five states

Maximum temperatures at various locations in India, 27 April 2022. Graphic: India Meteorological Department / India.com News

Humanity entering “spiral of self-destruction”, UN warns – “By deliberately ignoring risk and failing to integrate it in decision making, the world is effectively bankrolling its own destruction”

SDG Indicator 16.1.1 Detected victims of intentional homicide, by sex (women) vs. SDG Indicator 1.5.1 Number of people affected by disaster. Research shows that violence against women and girls increases in the aftermath of disasters. At the extreme end of the scale, this takes the form of intentional homicides. Data: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs analysis based on Global Sustainable Development Goal Indicators Database (UN DESA, 2021). Graphic: UNDRR

Vast forest losses in 2021 imperil global climate targets, report says – “We’re seeing fires burning more frequently, more intensively and more broadly than they ever would under normal conditions”

Russia tree cover loss, 2001-2021. The rate of loss in in boreal forests reached unprecedented levels in 2021, increasing by 29 percent over 2020. An unprecedented fire season in Russia drove much of this increase. Russia experienced the worst fire season since record-keeping began in 2001, with more than 6.5 million hectares of tree cover loss in 2021. While fires are a natural part of boreal forest ecosystems, larger, more intense fires are worrying. Hotter, drier weather related to climate change has led to fire-prone conditions, drier peatlands and melted permafrost. Siberia’s vast peatland area — the largest in the world — stores massive amounts of carbon, which is released into the atmosphere when peat dries up. Melting permafrost also releases stored carbon and methane. These conditions may represent a new normal, impacting people living in Siberia and creating a feedback loop in which increasing fires and carbon emissions reinforce each other and lead to worsening conditions. Graphic: WRI

WHO estimates nearly 15 million deaths associated with COVID-19, more than double the official toll – “When you have a massive outbreak where people are dying in the streets because of a lack of oxygen, we end up never knowing just how many people died”

Global distribution of estimated excess mortality rate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for the cumulative period 2020–21. Although reported COVID-19 deaths between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 totaled 5.94 million worldwide, IHME estimates that 18.2 million (95 percent uncertainty interval 17.1–19.6) people died worldwide because of the COVID-19 pandemic over that period, as measured by excess mortality. Graphic: Wang, et al., 2022 / The Lancet

Europe turns into cocaine hub as multi-billion-euro market expands, EU says

Global quantities of amphetamine-type stimulants seized, 2009-2019. Data: Responses to the annual report questionnaire (UNODC, 2021). Graphic: EMCDDA

Climate disasters in Latin America threaten to drive six million into poverty in next decade

Climate change impacts on poverty by 2030 in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Additional people living in extreme poverty as a percent of the total population, by country (left); additional people living in extreme poverty, by country (right). Climate change could drive millions of people in LAC back into extreme poverty. Graphic: World Bank

Europe suffered year of climate chaos in 2021 with hottest summer on record – “We are facing a lot of challenges”

European surface air temperature anomalies for summer (JJA) 1950–2021, relative to the average for the 1991–2020 reference period. In 2021, summer temperatures were about 1 degree Celsius above the average over the past three decades, with Italy even recording temperatures of 48.8C – a provisional record for the whole of Europe. Data source: ERA5, E-OBS. Credit: C3S / ECMWF / KNMI

Russia’s war on Ukraine dims global economic outlook as inflation accelerates – Africa faces new shock as war raises food and fuel costs – “This crisis unfolds even as the global economy has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic”

Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in Africa in 2019 (left), and top eight wheat importers in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 (right). Challenges for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa will increase as Russia’s war on Ukraine persists. Graphic: IMF

World Health Organization warns of obesity epidemic in Europe – “Overweight and obesity rates have reached epidemic proportions across the region and are still escalating”

Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents aged 5–19 years in the WHO European Region, by sex, 1975–2016. Graphic: WHO

The next global debt crisis is hiding in plain sight – With emergency debt moratoriums ending, vulnerable households and businesses confront loan repayments they can no longer afford

World Bank COVID-19 Business Pulse Survey Dashboard, March 2022. Data cover 24 middle-and low-income countries. As of January 2021, 40 percent of surveyed businesses expected to be in arrears within six months, including more than 70% of firms in Nepal and the Philippines and over 60 percent of firms in Turkey and South Africa. Graphic: World Bank

California snowpack in “grim” condition, water resources say – “We’ve had the driest start to the year on record”

California snow water content for 4 April 2022, percent of April 1 average. Graphic: California Department of Water Resources

RSF’s 2022 World Press Freedom Index: a new era of polarisation – Journalism situation classified “very bad” in record number of 28 countries

Press freedom situation in 180 countries and territories, 2013-2022. Graphic: Reporters Sans Frontières

EIU Democracy Index reached all-time low in 2021 – Fewer than half (45.7 percent) of the world’s people now live in a democracy of some sort – “Another bad year for democracy”

Evolution of democracy by category, 2008-2021. The EIU Democracy Index score ranges from 0 to 10, with 10 being best. this chart shows what has happened to the average global score across the five categories of the index between 2008 — before the global financial crisis — and 2021. The categories that have recorded the biggest deterioration in global terms are civil liberties (-1.00 on a 0-10 scale) and electoral process and pluralism (-0.47). Suggesting a possible correlation, functioning of government and political culture both recorded a very similar decline in their average global scores (-0.38 and -0.37 respectively). Graphic: EIU

Pakistan and India suffer extreme spring heatwaves – “We are living in hell”

2m surface temperature over Asia on 30 April 2022. Pakistan temperatures soared up to a scorching 49C (120.2F), one of the hottest temperatures ever recorded on Earth in April. Graphic: Climate Reanalyzer

Antisemitism rose dramatically in 2021 – “Right at the outset of the pandemic in 2020, conspiracy theories began to sprout around the world, blaming the Jews and Israel for spreading the virus”

Vandals defaced Jewish gravestones with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery near Strasbourg in eastern France, 3 December 2019. Photo: AFP

We weren’t supposed to get anywhere near 1 million COVID deaths in the U.S. Then we did.

Total COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States, 30 April 2022. Data: COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Graphic: Johns Hopkins University

Indonesia bans palm oil exports as global food inflation spikes – “Sky would be the limit for edible oil prices now”

U.S. soybean oil futures, U.N. FAO edible oils index, and Malaysia palm oil futures, 2002-2022. Global edible oil prices have soared to all-time highs in 2022 on supply shocks. Graphic: Refinitiv / Reuters

U.S. consumer debt jumped by $40 billion in February 2022, an annual increase of 11.3 percent and a new high

Percent change of total consumer credit, seasonally adjusted at an annual rate, March 2002-February 2022. Debt levels jumped by nearly $42 billion to a total of almost $4.5 trillion, an annual increase of 11.3 percent, seasonally adjusted, which set a new high and far outperformed economists’ expectations. In January 2022, total credit had grown only 2.4 percent. Graphic: U.S. Federal Reserve Board

Japan population plummeted by 640,000 in 2021 for biggest drop on record – People aged 14 or younger accounted for a record-low 11.8 percent

Population of Japan and annual population growth rate, 1950-2020. Graphic: Worldometer

New data show how drought in the Horn of Africa is driving up acute hunger – “The scale of the devastation in terms of hunger and lost livelihoods will be appalling”

Concurrent shocks affecting the food security of households in the Horn of Africa in 2022. Graphic: FAO

Increase in atmospheric methane set another record during 2021 – Carbon dioxide levels also record a big jump – “The evidence is consistent, alarming, and undeniable”

Monthly mean atmospheric methane abundance, 1983-2021. The globally-averaged, monthly mean atmospheric methane abundance is determined from marine surface sites. Values for 2021 are preliminary. Graphic: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory

Millions dying across the world due to poor-quality air that 99 percent of world’s population breathes – “After surviving a pandemic, it is unacceptable to still have 7 million preventable deaths and countless preventable lost years of good health due to air pollution”

A haze caused by dust covers the capital Nicosia, in the southeast Mediterranean island of Cyprus, on Monday, 4 April 2022. The World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. health agency, says nearly everybody in the world breathes air that doesn't meet its standards for air quality. WHO is calling for more action reduce fossil-use use that generate pollutants that cause respiratory and blood-flow problems and lead to millions of preventable deaths each year. Photo: Petros Karadjias / AP Photo

DEA warns of “mass overdose events” from fentanyl as deadly trend spreads across U.S. – “I’ve been doing drug-trends research for 20 years, and fentanyl’s growth is the biggest, fastest shift we’ve ever seen—and also the most lethal”

Death rates from all drug poisonings per 100,000 Washington state residents, 2003-2020. Graphic: UW ADAI

The FAO Food Price Index makes a giant leap to another all-time high in March 2022

FAO Food Price Index (left) and FAO Food Commodity Price Indices (right), January 2021 - March 2022. Graphic: FAO

Lake Powell hits historic low, raising hydropower concerns – “We clearly weren’t sufficiently prepared for the need to move this quickly”

A houseboat rests in a cove at Lake Powell near Page, Arizona on 30 July 2021. In the summer of 2021, the water levels hit a historic low amid a climate change-fueled megadrought engulfing the U.S. West. Severe drought across the West drained reservoirs in 2021, slashing hydropower production and further stressing the region’s power grids. And as extreme weather becomes more common with climate change, grid operators are adapting to swings in hydropower generation. Photo: Rick Bowmer / AP Photo

Amid backsliding on climate, the renewables effort now must be tripled – “A litany of broken climate promises”

Global net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions projected to 2050. Projected global GHG emissions from Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs) announced prior to COP26 would make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C and also make it harder after 2030 to limit warming to below 2°C. Graphic: IPCC

Empty canals, dead cotton fields: Arizona farmers are getting slammed by 2022 water cuts in the U.S. West – “We’re not making one dime off this farm right now”

Lake Mead end of month elevations, projections from the February and March 2022 24-month study inflow scenarios. Water year 2022 got off to a promising start in the Colorado River Basin with a wetter-than-normal October, but it was followed by the second-driest November on record and resulted in a loss of 1.5 million acre-feet of inflow for Lake Powell compared to the previous month’s projections. December projections showed the reservoir dropping below the target elevation of 3,525 feet as early as February 2022. As defined in the Drought Response Operations Agreement, the target elevation provides a sufficient buffer to allow for response actions to prevent Lake Powell from dropping below the minimum power pool elevation of 3,490 feet, the lowest elevation that Glen Canyon Dam can generate hydropower. Graphic: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

WMO: Antarctic heat, rain, and ice prompt concern – “This event is rewriting record books and our expectations about what is possible in Antarctica”

Antarctic sea ice extent for 25 February 2022, was 1.92 million square kilometers (741,000 square miles). The orange line shows the 1981 to 2010 average extent for that day. Graphic: National Snow and Ice Data Center

March 2022 set new U.S. tornado record for second year in a row – Scientists are seeing a dangerous shift in early-spring tornadoes

Number of March tornadoes across the United States, 2013-2022. March 2022 saw more tornadoes in the U.S. than any March on record. Data: NCDC / Storm Prediction Center Graphic: CNN

A world that’s more expensive is starting to destroy demand – “A renewed spike in gas prices would see demand destruction become more widespread”

Futures prices of West Texas intermediate crude oil and lithium, May 2021-March 2022. Graphic: Bloomberg

Microplastics found in human blood for first time – “Our study is the first indication that we have polymer particles in our blood”

Concentrations of plastic particles by polymer type in whole blood samples of 22 donors (duplicates a and b, except for No. 6, 9, 15 and 18). All values are greater than the limit of quantification (LOQ). Graphic: Leslie, et al., 2022 / Environment International

FAO alarmed by uncertainty over wheat harvest in Ukraine – “War could seriously escalate food insecurity globally, when international food and input prices are already high and volatile”

Map showing projected global changes in the number of undernourished people under the severe scenario over the medium term, March 2022. Graphic: FAO

Australia’s cataclysmic floods raise specter of permanent retreat as towns become uninsurable – Sydney to be hit by another 100mm (4 inches) of rain in four days as bureau warns of flood fatigue – “The taxpayer is now the insurer”

Aerial view of the town of Beenleigh, Queensland on 29 February 2022 compared with 2 March 2022 (after flooding). The images were captured by the Nearmap proprietary aerial camera system attached to planes. Photo: Nearmap / The Washington Post

Graph of the Day: Daily high surface temperature at Dome C in Antarctica, 18 March 2022

Daily high surface temperature at Dome C at the top of the Antarctic Plateau, on 18 March 2022. Graphic: Dr. Robert Rohde

Amid war and disease, World Happiness Report 2022 shows bright spot, but anger grows in South Asia

Regional Trends of Negative Affect and Stress, 2006-2021. Negative affect as a whole was highest and rising in MENA and South Asia, with the increase greatest in South Asia. All regions have more negative affect now than ten years ago, except for Eastern Europe. Graphic: SDSN World Happiness Report

Brown carbon from biomass burning imposes strong Arctic warming feedback – “We expect an increasing importance of brown carbon in the warming of the circum-arctic in the future”

Geographical distribution of the measured mass light absorption coefficient (at 365 nm, babs-365, Mm−1, M = 10−6) of water-soluble brown carbon (BrC) in the circum-Arctic. The data dots are plotted at the middle of each sample. The shading was interpolated based on the measurements using the Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis method in the software Ocean Data View. The color range is set as the 10th and 90th percentiles of babs-365. The observed babs-365 of water-soluble BrC at Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) from August to September (2012) for PM10 samples (diamond) and at Alert from May to early June (1991) for total suspended samples (square) is also shown for comparison. Graphic: Yue, et al., 2022 / One Earth

The Amazon Rainforest is approaching a tipping point beyond which it would become savannah – “When it will be observable, it would likely be too late to stop it”

Changes in Amazon vegetation resilience since the 1990s and from 2003. (a) A map of the Kendall τ values of individual grid cells from 2003. (b) Histogram of the Kendall τ values for the Amazon rainforest, considering data from 2003 onwards. Of the grid cells, 76.2 percent have a positive Kendall τ value from 2003 onwards and 77.8 percent have this for the full time series. (c) Mean Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD) AR(1) time series (solid line) along with ±1 s.d. (dotted lines) created from grid cells that have BL fraction ≥80 percent in the Amazon basin and also contain no human land use (main text and Methods). The full AR(1) time series from 1991 (grey) has a Kendall τ value of 0.589 (P = 0.006) and from 2003 (black), a value of 0.913 (P 

It’s 70°F (40°C) warmer than normal in eastern Antarctica – “This event is completely unprecedented and upended our expectations about the Antarctic climate system”

Simulation of 2m temperature anomaly centered over Antarctica on 18 March 2022. Parts of eastern Antarctica saw temperatures hover 70 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) above normal for more than three days. On 18 March 2022, the surface temperature in Vostok leaped to 0°F (-17.7 Celsius), the warmest it’s been there during March since record keeping began 65 years ago. It broke the previous monthly record by a staggering 27 degrees Fahrenheit (15 Celsius). Graphic: WeatherBell

Brazil detects record Amazon deforestation in January and February 2022 – Forest destruction rate in 2021 was highest in ten years

Aerial view of an area in the Amazon deforested for the expansion of livestock, in Lábrea, Amazonas state. The Amazon is still covered in smoke and torn by criminal and unrestrained destruction, according to overflights produced by the Amazon in Flames Alliance, organized by Amazon Watch, Greenpeace Brazil and the Brazilian Climate Observatory. The expedition took place between September 13th and 17th 2021, in the cities of Porto Velho (Rondônia state) and Lábrea (southern Amazonas state). Photo: Victor Moriyama / Amazônia em Chamas / Greenpeace

FAO Food Price Index rose to new all-time high in February 2022

FAO Food Price Index, January 1961 - February 2022. In February 2022, the FAO Food Price Index (FFPI), averaged 140.7 points, up 5.3 points (3.9 percent) from January and as much as 24.1 points (20.7 percent) above its level a year ago. This represents a new all-time high, exceeding the previous top of February 2011 by 3.1 points. The February rise was led by large increases in vegetable oil and dairy price sub-indices. Cereals and meat prices were also up, while the sugar price sub-index fell for the third consecutive month. Graphic: FAO

U.S. energy projections to 2050: Fossil fuels still most-consumed energy sources through 2050 – Energy consumption increases as population and economic growth outweigh efficiency gains – Energy‐related CO2 emissions dip through 2035 but climb later

Projected U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by fuel source in the AEO2022 reference case (left) and U.S. Energy-related CO2 emissions by AEO2022 economic growth cases (right). Energy‐related CO2 emissions dip through 2035 before climbing in later projection years. Graphic: EIA

Pacific Northwest heatwave in 2021 was a glimpse of global warming in North America – “We’re exposed to untold damage”

Global and regional risks for increasing levels of global warming. (a) Global surface temperature change increase relative to the period 1850-1900. (b) Reasons for concern (RFC) impact and risk assessments assuming low-to-no adaptation. (c) Impacts and risks to terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. (d) Impacts and risks to ocean ecosystems. (e) Climate-sensitive health outcomes under three adaptation scenarios. Graphic: IPCC

Spring 2022: In parts of California and Arizona, spring leaf out is earliest on record – In parts of Texas, spring bloom is latest on record   

Map showing the Spring First Leaf Index Anomaly in the United States in 2022. In parts of California and Arizona, this year's spring leaf out is the earliest in the 40-year record. Graphic: National Phenology Network

The global expansion of authoritarian rule – “The present threat to democracy is the product of 16 consecutive years of decline in global freedom”

Map showing no-contest elections, coups, and power grabs globally in 2021. Numbers indicate score declines for events in 2021, on a 100-point scale, in the 2022 edition of the “Freedom in the World” report. Coups were more common in 2021 than in any of the previous 10 years. Graphic: Freedom House

Radiation spikes around Chernobyl after Russian invasion of Ukraine

Graph showing a spike in gamma radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on 24 February 2022, after Russian military forces invaded Ukraine on a manufactured pretext. The spike was likely due to the movement of heavy military equipment in the area lifting radioactive dust into the air. The measured value is 54,200 nSv/hour. Graphic: SSE Ecocentre / SaveEcoBot

Graph of the Day: U.S. COVID-19 vaccinations by partisan lean, February 2021 – February 2022

COVID-19 fully vaccinated levels out of total population by U.S. county, 1 February 2021 - 21 February 2022. In February and March 2021, there was virtually no partisan gap, when only seniors, healthcare workers, and some and other select groups were eligible to get COVID-19 vaccines. Starting in early April 2021, when all U.S. adults became eligible for the vaccine, the partisan divide started to ramp up quickly. The red/blue divide increased month after month regardless of other factors. Data: CDC / COVID Act Now / state health departments. Graph: Charles Gaba / ACA Signups

Gas flaring soars in Mexico, derailing its climate change pledges as it seeks to boost oil output – “It’s like hell”

A man stands on the roof of a house in Colonia El Carmen as a red glare emanates from flares dotted around the Cactus gas processing center, run by state oil company Pemex, in Reforma municipality in Chiapas, Mexico. Photo: Edgard Garrido / REUTERS

Onset of modern sea level rise began in 1863, international study finds – “We can be virtually certain the global rate of sea-level rise from 1940 to 2000 was faster than all previous 60-year intervals over the last 2,000 years”

(a) Total, (b) global, (c) linear, and (d) regional and local nonlinear sea-level rise (SLR) rates for three sites (New Jersey, Cheesequake; Florida, Nassau; Scotland, Kyle of Tongue) are shown with the time of emergence for each site. Model predictions are the mean with 1σ uncertainty. Note variable y-axes. Graphic: Walker, et al., 2022 / Nature Communications

Nowhere is safe: Record number of patients contracted Covid in the hospital in January 2022

Weekly average count of “hospital onset” COVID-19 patients in the United States, April 2020 - February 2022. During the Omicron wave, more patients than ever caught COVID-19 at hospitals (nosocomial infections). Data: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Graphic: Allan James Vestal / POLITICO

Graph of the Day: Generational wealth gap in the United States, 1989-2020

Generational wealth gap in the United States, 1989-2020. In 1998, the American population under 40 years old held 13.1 percent of America’s total wealth. In 2020, those under 40 hold only 6 percent of the total wealth. This means that millennials and Generation X own less than half of the wealth that older generations owned when they were the same age. Graphic: Self Financial, Inc.

U.S. coastline to see up to a foot of sea level rise by 2050 – Report projects a century of sea level rise in 30 years – “These numbers mean a change from a single flooding event every 2-5 years to multiple events each year”

Maps showing regional sea level linear rates of rise (mm/year) from satellite altimetry over three different time periods: (a) 1993–2006, (b) 2007–2020, and (c) 1993–2020. Linear rates of change of relative sea level (ocean and land height changes) from tide gauges over the same time period are also shown (circles). Graphic: Sweet, et al., 2022 / NOAA

Glyphosate herbicide residues in soil affect hormone levels in crop plants – “Ubiquitous herbicide residues have multifaceted consequences by modulating the hormonal equilibrium of plants”

Phytohormone pools affected by GBH, phosphate fertilizer and their combination in three crop species. Phytohormones, their precursors and metabolites; compounds that were analyzed in this study are indicated with abbreviations after the compound name. Additional compounds (without abbreviations) were added to show common pathway intermediates and to show biosynthetic origins of phytohormones. Chorismate derives from the shikimate pathway which includes the target site of glyphosate. By blocking the EPSPS enzyme, an essential biosynthetic step is corrupted, which is often shown to cause decreased biosynthesis of metabolites synthesized downstream of the shikimate pathway. Centrally placed hexahedron highlights the possible interactions between hormones also known as hormone crosstalk. Symbols (arrows and stops) besides and below metabolites (left side = oat, right = potato, and below = strawberry) indicate the effect of treatment (blue = phosphate, yellow = GBH, blue + yellow = phosphate + GBH) on each plant species corresponding to significances shown in Figure 2 (N = 40). Graphic: Fuchs, et al., 2022 / Frontiers in Plant Science

U.S. “excess deaths” during pandemic surpass 1 million, with Covid killing most but other diseases adding to the toll, CDC says – “We did not handle it well. That’s glaringly obvious.”

Map showing estimated additional deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic above normal number of deaths, including COVID-19 and other causes. 91 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 are attributed directly to the disease. In the other 9 percent of deaths, COVID-19 was a contributing factor but not the primary cause. Data: CDC. Graphic: Dan Keating / The Washington Post

Megadrought in U.S. West worsens to driest in at least 1,200 years – “We need to be preparing for conditions in the future that are far worse than this”

U.S. Drought Monitor map of the U.S. West, 10 February 2022. In February 2022, 95 percent of the Western U.S. was experiencing drought conditions. In summer 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, two of the largest reservoirs in North America — Lake Mead and Lake Powell, both on the Colorado River — reached their lowest recorded levels. Graphic: Deborah Bathke / Richard Tinker NOAA / NWS / NCEP / CPC

Climate change-induced losses in the U.S. could total $14.5 trillion by 2070 – “In a climate-damaged world of 2070, the U.S. could lose nearly 4 percent of GDP in that year alone”

Estimated economic impacts of unmitigated climate change on seven geographical regions in the United States. Over the next 50 years, climate change-induced economic losses in the U.S. could total approximately $14.5 trillion in present-value terms. Graphic: Deloitte

COVID-19 mortality in U.S. exceeds 900,000 as Covid deaths surge in low-vaccination states – Tennessee has lowest vaccination rate and highest book-burning rate

Followers of Tennessee pastor and pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Greg Locke burn books on 2 February 2022. The books included Millennial staples like Harry Potter and Twilight. Photo: Tyler Salinas / Nashville Scene

Drug-resistant bacteria kill 1.2 million globally – “This new study clearly demonstrates the existential threat that resistance poses to global health and modern medicine”

Raw data and modelled estimates for the percentage of pathogen isolates that are resistant by country and territory, 2019. Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (A), isoniazid and rifampicin co-resistant (excluding XDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (B), third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli (C), carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (D), fluoroquinolone-resistant E coli (E), carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (F), and third-generation cephalosporin-resistant K pneumoniae (G). Locations with no data or modelled estimates are presented in white. XDR=extensively drug resistant. Graphic: Murray, et al., 2022 / The Lancet

Graph of the Day: New COVID-19 death rates in the U.S. by Trump county-level vote – Death rates are 4.1x higher in reddest decile vs. bluest – “Get vaccinated, for the love of God”

New COVID-19 death rates per 100,000 people in the United States since 30 June 2021 by Trump 2020 county-level vote percentage. Deciles are broken out by 2020 partisan lean as of 23 January 2022. Death rates are 4.1x higher in the reddest decile than the bluest. Data: Johns Hopkins University / New York Times / White House Covid Response Team, 23 January 2022. Even with similar case rates across all 10 deciles of the U.S. population, the death rate since June 2021 is still four times higher in the least-vaccinated tenth than the most-vaccinated tenth. Graphic: Charles Gaba / ACA Signups

“COVID parties” spread the virus on purpose. That’s “Russian roulette”, doctors warn

Nurse Marie-Laure Satta wipes her face during a pause in her New Year’s Eve shift in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, 31 December 2021. Photo: Daniel Cole / AP Photo

The rise of anti-vaccination social movements in a COVID-19 Infodemic era – “This pandemic has driven the largest-ever human behavior change at scale”

COVID-19 daily cases per 100,000 people in Tennessee, 26 January 2022. Graphic: Covid Act Now

World remembers Holocaust as antisemitism rises in pandemic – “The pandemic has acted like an accelerant”

German language posts (top) and French language posts (bottom) containing antisemitic content, 1 January 2020 - 8 March 2021. German language posts are shown only for Telegram, because the numbers of antisemitic posts on Facebook and Twitter and were low and constant. In France, the huge increase in antisemitic posts during the pandemic occurred almost entirely on Twitter. Graphic: EU

Aon: 2021 was third costliest year on record for weather and climate-related events – Germany, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, and China recorded the costliest insurance industry events on record

Cumulative global insured losses by peril in 2021. Aggregated costs for insurers have been largely dominated by the Tropical Cyclone and Severe Weather perils this century. The two perils combined for more than $1 trillion, or 60 percent of the total cumulative industry losses, of which roughly 74 percent was incurred in the United States. The Severe Convective Storm peril has also increasingly separated itself as accounting for the highest number of billion-dollar events. Graphic: Aon

“The deadliest drug we’ve ever known”: author Sam Quinones on how fentanyl and meth saturated the U.S.

Annual synthetic opioid mortality in the United States, 2000-2020. Data: CDC. Graphic: Families Against Fentanyl

Two years since Covid was first confirmed in U.S., the pandemic is worse than anyone imagined – “Everybody wants to get to this thing called endemic. I still don’t know what the hell that means.”

Coronavirus in the U.S., January 2020-January 2022, showing case rates, hospitalizations, and mortality. Data: Johns Hopkins University / Department of Health and Human Services. Graphic: CNBC

Oxfam report: Inequality Kills – Inequality contributes to the death of at least one person every four seconds, while a new billionaire is created every 26 hours

Infographic showing statistics from Oxfam’s annual inequality report, “Inequality Kills”, which in 2021 found that inequality is contributing to the death of at least 21,000 people each day, or one person every four seconds. Meanwhile, a new billionaire is created every 26 hours. Graphic: Oxfam

Hottest temperature in Australia since 1960 recorded in Western Australia’s north as mercury soars to 50.7°C (123.3°F)

Map showing the extent of the heatwave in Western Australia on 13 January 2022, with large areas seeing temperatures of more than 45°C (113°F). A small town in Western Australia’s Pilbara endured the hottest temperature recorded in Australia in 62 years, with the mercury soaring toward 50 degrees across most of the region. In Onslow it hit 50.7 degrees at 2.26pm, the hottest day in Australia history since 1960, when temperatures in Oodnadatta Airport in South Australia also hit 50.7. Graphic: Bureau of Meteorology MetEye

ICUs nearing capacity in at least 18 U.S. states – “The sudden and steep rise in cases due to omicron is resulting in unprecedented daily case counts, sickness, absenteeism, and strains on our health care system”

U.S. hospital utilization by facility, 10 January 2022. By mid-January 2022, at least 18 states had less than 15 percent capacity remaining in their ICU facilities, as the United States grappled with surging COVID-19 cases, according to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) data. Graphic: HHS Protect

For the insurance industry, 2021 was the second-highest loss year on record, after 2017 – “The 2021 disaster statistics are striking because some of the extreme weather events are of the kind that are likely to become more frequent or more severe as a result of climate change”

Map showing natural catastrophe loss event worldwide in 2021. In 2021, natural disasters caused overall losses of $280 billion, of which roughly $120 billion were insured. Alongside 2005 and 2011, the year 2021 proved to be the second-costliest ever for the insurance sector (record year 2017: $146 billion, inflation-adjusted) – overall losses from natural disasters were the fourth-highest to date (record year 2011: $355 billion). Graphic: Munich Re

The Great Resignation roars again: Here’s why more U.S. workers than ever quit in November 2021 – Nearly 3 million reported not working due to COVID-19 symptoms or caring for somebody who was sick

Daily positive COVID-19 test rate in the United States, 14 March 2020 - 5 January 2022. As of 11 January 2022, there were roughly 62.4 million cases and 841,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States. Over the previous 14 days, daily new cases increased by about 100 percent and daily deaths increased by about 13 percent. Graphic: Covid Act Now

Graph of the Day: Atmospheric CO2 vs. global temperature change and climate conference dates, 1958-2020

Trends in atmospheric CO2 vs. global temperature change, 1958-2020, with climate conference dates indicated. #climateINACTIONstripes Graphic: @MuellerTadzio / @wiebkemarie / @MariusHasenheit / @sustentioEU

U.S. reports 1.35 million COVID-19 cases in one day, shattering global record – More than 65,000 L.A. students and employees test positive as school resumes – U.S. breaks COVID-19 hospitalization record

Daily COVID-19 cases reported to the CDC, 23 January 2020 - 10 January 2022 CDC. The United States reported 1.35 million new coronavirus infections on 10 January 2022 CDC, the highest daily total for any country in the world, as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant showed no signs of slowing. The previous record was 1.03 million cases on 3 January 2022. The seven-day average for new cases tripled in two weeks to more than 700,000 new infections per day. Graphic: CDC

“Deaths of despair” spiked in Washington state in 2020, exceeding deaths from COVID-19

Deaths from overdoses, alcohol use, or suicide in Washington state, 2015-2020. Nearly 3,900 Washingtonians died from “deaths of despair” in 2020, an increase of almost 600 since 2019. Graphic: Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times

Argentina braces for heatwave, with temperatures set to pass 40°C (104°F) – Buenos Aires could become the hottest place on Earth for a few hours – 4 found dead with piranha bites in Paraguay while swimming to escape heat

Temperature forecast for South America, 10 January 2022 - 23 January 2022. Temperatures in Argentina were expected to may soar above 40°C (104°F) in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Santa Fe, Entre Rios and Santiago del Estero. Graphic: WeatherOnline

U.S. hospitals are in serious trouble – “Too many facilities are pulling from the same labor pool, and if that pool is sick, where are the reinforcements?”

New confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions reported in the United States, 26 October 2021 - 27 December 2021 and forecast to 28 January 2022. The number of new daily confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions will likely increase, with 24,700 to 53,700 new confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions likely reported on 28 January 2022. The forecast may not fully account for the emergence and rapid spread of the Omicron variant or changes in reporting during the holidays. Graphic: CDC

More than 40 percent of Americans live in counties hit by climate disasters in 2021 – “More people are living in more flammable landscapes. More people are going to be interfacing with disaster.”

Homes are engulfed by flames as the Marshall Fire spreads through Superior, Colorado on 30 December 2021. Photo: Sean David Van De Riet / Reuters

Global greenhouse gas reduction in 2020 from pandemic and global recession “was 10 times greater than the impact on emissions from the 2008 global financial crisis”

Global greenhouse gas emissions, 1990-2020. The reduction in emissions in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession was 10 times greater than the impact on emissions from the 2008 global financial crisis. Graphic: Rhodium Group

Puerto Rico battles COVID-19 surge, imposes new measures

COVID-19 daily cases per 100,000 in Puerto Rico, 4 January 2022. Graphic: Covid Act Now

Algae blooms darken Greenland ice sheet after unprecedented rainfall in 2021 – “I never saw the ice as dark as this”

A scientist with PROMIS/GEUS checks instruments on the Greenland ice sheet, 1 September 2021. The ice is darkened by an unprecedented algae bloom caused by persistent cloudy and rainy conditions in 2021 that promoted ice algae growth. Photo: GEUS

Near-empty flights crisscross Europe to secure landing slots – “The EU surely is in a climate emergency mode”

Number of flights performed by the global airline industry, 2004-2022. The value for 2022 is a forecast. Figures prior to 2016 were taken from previous reports. 2021 figure was estimated. Graphic: Statista

Extreme marine heatwave as waters off Sydney set to break temperature records – “It appears now to be reaching record levels and will likely be the hottest January on record”

An ocean heatwave is shown in this map off the coast of New South Wales, Australia, 30 December 2021. Graphic: OceanCurrent

Indiana life insurance CEO says deaths are up 40 percent among people ages 18-64 – “A three-sigma or one-in-200-year catastrophe would be a 10 percent increase over pre-pandemic, so 40 percent is just unheard of”

Daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in Indiana, 4 January 2022. Graphic: Covid Act Now

COVID-19 cases rise by 948 percent in Florida as Omicron drives huge wave across U.S. – “It’s every man/woman for themselves, because leadership is MIA” – Gov. DeSantis attacks scientists for “bad policy”

Daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in Miami-Dade County Florida, 31 December 2021. By the beginning of 2022, Covid-19 cases in Florida had risen by 948 percent in just two weeks, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant drove a huge wave of infections and hospitalizations across the U.S. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blamed “hysteria” and the Federal government. Graphic: Covid Act Now

Covid is rampant among deer, research shows – “The sheer possibility that these things are happening and it’s unknown makes this very unsettling”

Three SARS-CoV-2 lineages identified in white-tailed deer. (A) The number of weekly COVID-19 cases in humans in Ohio is presented from October 2020 – September 2021, shaded by the proportion of viruses sequenced each week in Ohio that belong to one of five Pango lineages (or “Other”). (B) Summary of six human-to-deer transmission events observed in Ohio, with putative deer-to-deer transmission. Graphic: Hale, et al., 2021 / Nature

Wastewater samples reveal record levels of COVID-19 across U.S.

COVID-19 virus concentration in U.S. sewage and new daily clinical cases per 100,000 people, 26 January 2020 - 22 December 2021. Wastewater samples in December 2021 revealed record levels of COVID-19 virus across the U.S. Clinical data: USAFacts. Graphic: Biobot Analytics