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

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

By Carly Cassella 10 October 2022 (Science Alert) – Without urgent and major interventions, America’s Great Salt Lake could experience ecosystem collapse in the next few years. In a worst-case scenario, according to findings presented at the Geological Society of America’s 2022 Connects Conference in Colorado this past weekend, the world-famous body of salt-water has […]

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

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”

By Hayley Smith 20 October 2022 (Los Angeles Times) – A nearly two-decade effort by Californians to cut their emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide may have been erased by a single, devastating year of wildfires, according to UCLA and University of Chicago researchers. The state’s record-breaking 2020 fire season, which saw more than 4 million acres […]

A couple stands on what was an ancient packhorse bridge exposed by low water levels at Baitings Reservoir in Yorkshire as record high temperatures hit Ripponden, England, 12 August 2022. Widespread drought that dried up large parts of Europe, the United States and China this past summer was made 20 times more likely by climate change, according to a new study. Photo: Jon Super / AP Photo

Climate change made 2022 summer drought 20 times more likely – “The impacts are very clear to people and are hitting hard, not just in poor countries, like the flooding Pakistan, but also in some of the richest parts of the world, like western central Europe”

By Drew Costley 5 October 2022 (AP) – Drought that stretched across three continents this summer — drying out large parts of Europe, the United States, and China — was made 20 times more likely by climate change, according to a new study. Drought dried up major rivers, destroyed crops, sparked wildfire, threatened aquatic species, […]

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

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”

By Donald Moynihan 7 October 2022 (Slate) – For at least a year now, there has been strong but largely circumstantial evidence that right-wing anti-vaccine rhetoric was having deadly consequences in the United States. Despite early wide-scale access to COVID-19 vaccines, the U.S. has outstripped its peer countries when it comes to the all-important measure of mortality known as “excess […]

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

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?”

By Alex Tanzi 26 September 2022 (Bloomberg) – Most Americans are more indebted than ever, underscoring a persistent and widening wealth divide in the US. Consumer debt, including credit cards, rose to an all-time high for the 118 million US households among the bottom 90%, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest data on the distribution of household […]

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

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”

By Ciara Linnane 14 September 2022 (MarketWatch) – Some 500,000 workers have permanently disappeared from the U.S. workforce because of long COVID, according to a new report from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The report found that most patients who have suffered the lingering effects of the virus for months after infection moved straight from […]

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

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

By Benedicte Clouet and Nicole Willcoxon 31 August 2022 (Gallup) – As people around the world suffer through concurrent extreme heat waves, droughts, and wildfires, the effects of climate change are becoming a grim, global reality. Despite robust evidence of the environmental and economic costs of rising temperatures, far less is known about how these […]

A darkened street in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan on Friday, 23 September 2022. People in Puerto Rico fear an extended blackout after Hurricane Fiona struck. Photo: Erika P. Rodriguez / The New York Times

Puerto Ricans fear extended blackout after Hurricane Fiona – Crops ravaged near peak harvest, Puerto Rico farmers say

By Laura N. Pérez Sánchez 24 September 2022 SAN JUAN, P.R. (The New York Times) – Michelle Rivera trudged slowly up the stairs of her apartment building, stopping to collect her breath and regain the strength to carry one more gallon of water to her home on the eighth floor. It was Friday, the sixth […]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial