North America – Page 27 – Desdemona Despair

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

November 1, 2022

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”

NAIROBI, 27 October 2022 – As intensifying climate impacts across the globe hammer home the message that greenhouse gas emissions must fall rapidly, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report finds that the international community is still falling far short of the Paris goals, with no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place. However, the Emissions Gap Report […]

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

October 29, 2022

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

By Anita Snow 25 October 2022 PHOENIX (AP) – This summer was the deadliest on record for heat-associated fatalities in Arizona’s largest county amid a growing wave of homelessness. Public health statistics this week confirmed a record 359 such deaths just days before the end of the six-month heat season. The jump in deaths raises questions about […]

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

October 29, 2022

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.”

By Ian James 28 October 2022 (Los Angeles Times) – With the nation’s two largest reservoirs continuing to decline, federal officials announced plans Friday to revise their current rules for dealing with Colorado River shortages and pursue a new agreement to achieve larger reductions in water use throughout the Southwest. The Biden administration announcement represents a […]

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

October 28, 2022

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

By Geoff Mulvihill 28 October 2022 (AP News) – Lillianna Alfaro was a recent high school graduate raising a toddler and considering joining the Army when she and a friend bought what they thought was the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in December 2020. The pills were fake and contained fentanyl, an opioid that can be 50 […]

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

October 28, 2022

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.”

By Adrianna Rodriguez 26 October 2022 (USA TODAY) – The United States has a working-age mortality problem: Americans die younger than people in most other high-income countries. While many blame drug overdoses, rising suicide rates, and bad health habits, a new study suggests policymakers may play a bigger role than previously thought. Researchers looked at policies relating […]

Plastic Waste in Canggu Beach, Bali. A tourist walks along a beach covered in piles of debris and plastic waste in Canggu, Bali, Indonesia, 12 December 2021. Photo: Made Nagi / Greenpeace

October 26, 2022

Plastic recycling is a dead-end street: year after year, plastic recycling declines even as plastic waste increases

WASHINGTON, D.C., 24 October 2022 (Greenpeace USA) – Most plastic simply cannot be recycled, a new Greenpeace USA report concludes. Circular Claims Fall Flat Again, released today, finds that U.S. households generated an estimated 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, only 2.4 million tons of which was recycled. The report also finds that no […]

Water levels are low at San Luis Reservoir, which stores irrigation water for San Joaquin Valley farms, in Gustine, California, 14 September 2022. As climate change brings hotter temperatures and more severe droughts, cities and states around the world are facing water shortages as lakes and rivers dry up. Photo: AP Photo / Terry Chea

October 24, 2022

California wells run dry as drought depletes groundwater – “Most residents have had their wells for many years and all of a sudden the water stops flowing”

By Terry Chea 4 October 2022 FAIRMEAD, California (AP) – As California’s drought deepens, Elaine Moore’s family is running out of an increasingly precious resource: water. The Central Valley almond growers had two wells go dry this summer. Two of her adult children are now getting water from a new well the family drilled after […]

A view of a fallow field and a dry irrigation canal in Palo Verde, California, U.S., 19 September 2022. Photo: Aude Guerrucci / REUTERS

October 23, 2022

California drought withers tomatoes, pushing grocery prices higher – “There’s just not enough water to grow everything that we normally grow”

By Nathan Frandino, Christopher Walljasper, and Aude Guerrucci 10 October 2022 FIREBAUGH, California (Reuters) – A lack of rain and snow in central California and restricted water supplies from the Colorado River in the southernmost part of the state have withered summer crops like tomatoes and onions and threatened leafy greens grown in the winter. […]

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

October 22, 2022

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

By Fred Imbert 22 October 2022 (CNBC) – When Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico in September, Felipe Pérez was ready. Pérez, the owner of local sandwich shop chain El Meson, equipped his stand-alone locations with power generators and water tanks in the event of a prolonged outage like the one after Hurricane Maria, the devastating […]

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

October 21, 2022

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”

20 October 2022 (CBS News) – Climate change is a prime suspect in a mass die-off of Alaska’s snow crabs, experts say, after the state took the unprecedented step of canceling their harvest this season to save the species. According to an annual survey of the Bering Sea floor carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, […]