Mexico – Page 4 – Desdemona Despair

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

February 19, 2022

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”

15 February 2022 (NOAA) – The United States is expected to experience as much sea level rise by the year 2050 as it witnessed in the previous hundred years. That’s according to a NOAA-led report updating sea level rise decision-support information for the U.S. released today in partnership with half a dozen other federal agencies. […]

Fake photo of rafts at the National Butterfly Center dock in Mission, Texas, composed and disseminated by Brian Kolfage as part of a QAnon/MAGA disinformation campaign. Kolfage was indicted in 2021 for fraud for his “We Build The Wall” fundraising scheme and had his Twitter account suspended for repeated violent threats. The National Butterfly Center was forced to close for the weekend of 28 January 2022 because of credible threats from QAnon/MAGA conspiracy theorists. Photo: National Butterfly Center

January 29, 2022

QAnon conspiracy theorists force National Butterfly Center to shut down for the weekend – “We simply cannot risk the safety and lives of our staff and visitors during this dangerous time”

By Shoshana Wodinsky 28 January 2022 (Gizmodo) – After spending years coming after furniture and pizza, QAnon followers are finally ruining life for butterflies and those who enjoy them. Far-right conspiracy theories have latched onto baseless claims that major Texas butterfly sanctuary is a hub for sex trafficking, leading to real-world threats against the sanctuary’s staff. On Thursday, […]

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

January 29, 2022

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”

By Mike Stobbe 20 January 2022 NEW YORK (AP) – Antibiotic-resistant germs caused more than 1.2 million deaths globally in one year, according to new research that suggests that these “superbugs” have joined the ranks of the world’s leading infectious disease killers. The new estimate, published Thursday in the medical journal Lancet, is not a […]

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

January 27, 2022

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

CHICAGO, 25 January 2022 (Aon) – Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, today published its 2021 Weather, Climate and Catastrophe Insight, which evaluates the increasing frequency and severity of disruptive natural disasters and how their resulting economic losses are protected globally. This data serves as the foundation for insights that can help […]

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

January 23, 2022

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

By Erin McCormick 23 January 2022 (The Guardian) – For the last nine years, Sam Quinones has been studying the changing face of drug use, sales, and addiction in the United States. In his new book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, he tracks […]

Map showing the 12 worst countries in the Global Impunity Index 2021. CPJ’s Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go free. Editor’s note: This map reflects that CPJ holds Russian authorities responsible for press freedom violations in Ukraine’s Crimea. Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea led to de facto control of its media sphere, with Russian authorities jailing independent journalists, closing down media outlets and forcing critical journalists to flee. Graphic: CPJ

November 7, 2021

CPJ’s Global Impunity Index 2021: Killers of journalists still get away with murder – No one held to account in 81 percent of journalist murders during the last 10 years

By Jennifer Dunham 28 October 2021 (CPJ) – Somalia remains the world’s worst country for unsolved killings of journalists, according to CPJ’s annual Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where members of the press are singled out for murder and the perpetrators go free. The index showed little change from a year earlier, with Syria, […]

South African environmental activist Fikile Ntshangase was assassinated by four gunmen in her own home on 22 October 2020. “Mama” Ntshangase was a leading member of the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation, which is taking legal action against the proposed expansion of an open-cast coal mine operated by Tendele Coal near Somkhele, situated near Hluhluwe–Imfolozi park, the oldest nature reserve in Africa. Photo: Rob Symons / All Rise

September 13, 2021

Record number of environmental activists murdered in 2020 – “Fighting the climate crisis carries an unbearably heavy burden for some, who risk their lives to save the forests, rivers, and biospheres”

By Claire Marshall 13 September 2021 (BBC) – A record number of activists working to protect the environment and land rights were murdered last year, according to a report by a campaign group. 227 people were killed around the world in 2020, the highest number recorded for a second consecutive year, the report from Global […]

Total greenhouse gas emissions from China and OECD nations, 1990-2019. In 2019, China’s GHG emissions passed the 14 gigaton threshold for the first time, reaching 14,093 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MMt CO2e). This represents a more than tripling of 1990 levels, and a 25 percent increase over the past decade. As a result, China’s share of the 2019 global emissions total of 52 gigatons rose to 27 percent. Data: Rhodium Group / UNFCCC. Graphic: Rhodium Group

July 8, 2021

China’s greenhouse gas emissions exceeded the developed world for the first time in 2019

By Kate Larsen, Hannah Pitt, Mikhail Grant, and Trevor Houser 6 May 2021 (Rhodium Group) – Each year Rhodium Group provides the most up-to-date global and country-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimates through the ClimateDeck (a partnership with Breakthrough Energy). In addition to our preliminary US and China GHG estimates for 2020, Rhodium provides annual estimates of economy-wide emissions—including all […]

Satellite view of Tropical Storm Andres on 9 May 2021. Photo: CNN Weather

May 10, 2021

Earliest tropical storm on record develops in the eastern Pacific

By Haley Brink 9 May 2021 (CNN) – The first tropical storm of the 2021 eastern Pacific hurricane season formed off the southwest coast of Mexico on Sunday. Tropical Storm Andres is the earliest tropical storm to ever form during the satellite era in the eastern Pacific, surpassing Adrian in 2017. Andres also holds the […]

Global map showing large-scale protests against COVID-19 control measures, defined as those that lead to arrests, in January 2021. Nations in green imposed large-scale lockdowns in 2021. Graphic: Al Jazeera / World Happiness Report

March 21, 2021

World Happiness Report 2021: Reasons for Asia-Pacific success in suppressing COVID-19 – Death rate in Asia-Pacific nations 42 times lower than North Atlantic nations

By Jeffrey D. Sachs 20 March 2021 (Sustainable Development Solutions Network) – […] Perhaps the most notable variation across world regions of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the far lower mortality rate (deaths per million) in the Asia-Pacific region (northeast Asia, southeast Asia, and Oceania) compared with the North Atlantic region (the US, Canada, the […]