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

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

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

Map showing percent change in reported 12 month-ending count of U.S. drug overdose deaths, by jurisdiction, December 2019 to December 2020. Graphic: CDC

Drug overdose deaths in U.S. hit highest number ever recorded in 2020 – “This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, and the largest increase since at least 1999”

By Maggie Fox 14 July 2021 (CNN) – Drug overdose deaths rose by close to 30 percent in the United States in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020, according to provisional data released by […]

Number of undernourished people and prevalence of undernourishment globally, 2005-2020. The number of undernourished people in the world has been on the rise since 2015 and is back to levels seen during the global financial crisis in 2008–2009. Graphic: FAO

UN: World hunger continued its six-year rise in 2020 – Up to 160 million more people faced hunger in 2020 than in 2019 – “The world is at a critical juncture”

12 July 2021 (UNFAO) – The world is in a very different place to where it was six years ago when it committed to the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. At the time, we were optimistic that with transformative approaches, past progress could be accelerated, at scale, […]

Screenshot from the video, “Honest Government Ad | We Make Everything Good Sh!t”, by The Juice Media, 2 July 2021. Photo: The Juice Media / YouTube

Honest Government Ad: We Make Everything Good Sh!t – Australia science agencies “infiltrated and hollowed” out by fossil fuel industry

2 July 2021 (The Juice Media) – Hello, I’m from the Australien government. In today’s episode of “We Make Everythig Good Shit”, we look at the CSIRO, your trusted science agency, which has earned a reputation for great inventions: wifi, space stuff, Aeroguard. Unlike gas companies, which have earned a reputation for poisoning aquifers, ripping […]

Map showing the 30-year summer temperature increases for the continental United States, 1991-2020. Data: Provided by Atmospheric and Environmental Research/Verisk in July 2021. “The ridiculous temperatures in the Pacific Northwest may on one hand be considered a black swan (ultra-rare) event, but on the other hand are totally consistent with multi-decadal trends,” says meteorologist Judah Cohen. Graphic: Judah Cohen / Atmospheric and Environmental Research / Verisk / AP

Summer swelter trend: U.S. West gets hotter days, East hot nights – “Hotter summers for the broader region are here to stay”

By Seth Borenstein 4 July 2021 (AP) – As outlandish as the killer heatwave that struck the Pacific Northwest was, it fits into a decades-long pattern of uneven summer warming across the United States. The West is getting roasted by hotter summer days while the East Coast is getting swamped by hotter and stickier summer […]

Map showing ground temperatures in the Pacific Northwest during the record-breaking heatwave in June 2021. Ground temperatures reached as high as 145 degrees Fahrenheit (63 degrees Celsius) in Wenatchee, Washington. Graphic: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-3

Ground temperatures reached an astounding 145 degrees during the Pacific Northwest heatwave in early summer 2021

By Brian Kahn 29 June 2021 (Gizmodo) – Air temperatures during record-setting heatwave in the Pacific Northwest were bad enough. But the ground was on a whole other level. Stunning new satellite imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-3 satellite shows ground temperatures reached as high as 145 degrees Fahrenheit (63 degrees Celsius) in Wenatchee, Washington. Apparently […]

In a grim commentary on climate change, in 2009, British artist Banksy creatively vandalized this 1890 painting by Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstadt. The artwork, now titled Subject to Availability, has a surprise for Northwest locals — Mount Rainier. It sold at auction Wednesday, 28 June 2021, for 4,582,500 pounds, or $6,342,180. Photo: Christie’s Images Limited 2021

Artist Banksy’s “hijacked” painting of Mount Rainier sells for more than $6 million as global warming roasts the Pacific Northwest

By Megan Burbank 30 June 2021 (The Seattle Times) – As the Puget Sound region coped this week with extreme heat caused by climate change, one of the art world’s most audacious commentaries on the issue reemerged across the Atlantic. A 2009 work of creative vandalism from British artist and agitator Banksy, Subject to Availability, was sold […]

Senior ExxonMobil lobbyist on Capitol Hill Keith McCoy describes how ExxonMobil bribes U.S. Senators to kill climate policies in the U.S. During a secretly recorded interview 7 May 2021, McCoy names eleven U.S. senators who he says are “crucial” to ExxonMobil for sabotaging government action to save the planet: Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Senator Joe Manchin, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Senator Jon Tester, Senator Maggie Hassan, Senator John Barrasso, Senator John Cornyn, Senator Steve Daines, Senator Chris Coons, Senator Mark Kelly, and Senator Marco Rubio. Photo: Greenpeace / Channel 4 News

Revealed: ExxonMobil’s lobbying war on climate legislation – Senior lobbyist caught on camera, names 11 U.S. senators who are “crucial” to ExxonMobil attacks on climate policy

By Alex Thomson 30 June 2021 (Channel 4 News) – The explosive footage was obtained by Unearthed, Greenpeace UK’s investigative platform, who posed as head-hunters to obtain the information from one of ExxonMobil’s most senior Washington lobbyists. The recordings appear to reveal the secretive behind-the-scenes activities of a lobbyist for a company that claims in […]

Global quantities of cocaine seized, by region, 1998–2019. Quantities of cocaine seized reached record levels in 2019. In 2019, the global quantity of cocaine seized increased by 9.6 percent compared with the preceding year to reach 1,436 tons (of varying purities), a record high. The 90 percent increase in the quantities of cocaine seized between 2009 and 2019 is likely a reflection of a combination of factors, including an increase in cocaine manufacture (50 per cent between 2009 and 2019) and a subsequent increase in cocaine trafficking, as well as an increase in the efficiency of law enforcement, which may have contributed to an increase in the overall interception rate. Graphic: UNODC

Illegal drug trade back to business as usual in 2020 and 2021 – Cocaine production hits record high – Number of people using illegal drugs increased by 22 percent in 2010-2019 decade

By Pia Lee-Brago 28 June 2021 (The Philippine Star) – Around 275 million people used illegal drugs worldwide in the last year of unprecedented upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, up by 22 percent from 2010, and it is “business as usual” again for drug traffickers, according to the latest annual world drug report by […]

Risk levels for climate-sensitive health outcomes based on different greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation scenarios. Graphic: IPCC WG 2 Sixth Assessment Report / AFP

Hunger, drought, disease: UN climate report reveals dire health threats – “The basis for our health is sustained by three pillars: the food we eat, access to water, and shelter. These pillars are totally vulnerable and about to collapse.”

By Patrick Galey 23 June 2021 (AFP) – Hunger, drought and disease will afflict tens of millions more people within decades, according to a draft UN assessment that lays bare the dire human health consequences of a warming planet. After a pandemic year that saw the world turned on its head, a forthcoming report by […]

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