Climate activist Greta Thunberg spoke before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Europe, Eurasia, Energy and the Environment Subcommittee, and the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, on 18 September 2019. Photo: Alastair Pike / AFP / Getty Images

Climate activist Greta Thunberg tells U.S. Congress to listen to scientists and take real action, submits IPCC report – “I am submitting this report as my testimony because I don’t want you to listen to me, I want you to listen to the scientists”

By Leah Asmelash 18 September 2019 (CNN) – Greta Thunberg has had a busy week. On Wednesday, the Swedish 16-year-old climate activist appeared in front of Congress before a hearing on climate change, just days after she met with former President Barack Obama. Thunberg, though, told Congress she didn’t have any prepared remarks. Instead, she said she was […]

August 2019 Blended Land and Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies in degrees Celsius. Graphic: NOAA

Summer 2019 in the Northern Hemisphere tied for warmest summer on record – Five hottest NH summers have occurred in the past five years

By Andrew Freedman 16 September 2019 (The Washington Post) – The Northern Hemisphere just had its hottest summer on record since 1880, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data released Monday. NOAA found the average global surface temperature taken by thousands of thermometers, buoys and other sensors on land and sea tied with that of 2016 […]

Eni Norge’s “Goliat” FPSO arrives in Hammerfest, Norway, on 17 April 2015, from South Korea after a 63-day voyage covering 15,608 nautical miles. When the “Goliat” came on stream later in 2016, it was the world’s northernmost producing offshore oil field. Photo: Fredrik Refvem / Stavanger Aftenblad

Cowboy Nation: Norway’s Wild West fantasy – “It’s your misfortune and none of my own”

By Henrik Olav Mathiesen 11 September 2019 (The Dark Mountain Project) – Equinor is the publicly owned Norwegian company firmly intent upon wreaking havoc on the world for as long as possible. Off our own shores – and far beyond. In 2017, the company won the bid for two licences to drill offshore in the […]

Greta Thunberg attends a Senate climate change task force meeting in Washington DC, 17 September 2019. Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Climate activist Greta Thunberg tells U.S. Congress: “I know you are trying but just not hard enough. Sorry.” – Barack Obama meets with Greta: “You and me, we’re a team”

By Lauren Gambino 17 September 2019 WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Guardian) – At a meeting of the Senate climate crisis task force on Tuesday, lawmakers praised a group of young activists for their leadership, their gumption and their display of wisdom far beyond their years. They then asked the teens for advice on how Congress might […]

Adult obesity in the U.S. by state in 2018, with top ten states highlighted. Graphic: Trust for Americas Health

U.S. obesity rates hit historic highs in 2018 – Nine states reach adult obesity rates of 35 percent or more – “These latest data shout that our national obesity crisis is getting worse”

WASHINGTON, DC, 12 September 2019 (Trust for America’s Health) – Nine U.S. states had adult obesity rates above 35 percent in 2018, up from seven states at that level in 2017, an historic level of obesity in the U.S., according to the 16th annual State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America report [pdf] released today by the […]

U.S. federal budget deficits and discretionary spending, 2009-2019. Data: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget / U.S. OMB / CBO. Graphic: CNN

U.S. deficit tops $1 trillion in 11 months, highest in 7 years – “Absent more responsible budgets, the deficit and interest costs will continue to grow rapidly, diminishing America’s future”

By Niv Elis 12 September 2019 (The Hill) – The U.S. government deficit surpassed $1 trillion in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, over $100 billion more than the same period last year, according to official Treasury figures released Thursday. Last week, data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the […]

Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), speaks at a meteorological convention, Tuesday, 10 September 2019, in Huntsville, Alabama. Jacobs both defended the administration and thanked a local weather office that contradicted Trump’s claims about Hurricane Dorian threatening Alabama. Photo: Jay Reeves / AP Photo

In agency-wide email, NOAA chief moves to regain scientists’ trust after defending incorrect Trump tweet

By Jason Samenow 13 September 2019 (The Washington Post) – Neil Jacobs, the acting head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sent an all-staff email Friday afternoon in an apparent effort to repair damage from an unusual 6 September 2019 statement that sided with President Trump rather than agency weather forecasters. The controversial NOAA […]

A herd of musk ox graze in an area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Photo: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge / AP

Trump administration opens huge wildlife refuge in Alaska to drilling – “This destructive, unlawful plan would sell off one of America’s last great wildlands to the highest bidder”

By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin 13 September 2019 (The Washington Post) – The Trump administration on Thursday said it would seek to open up the entire coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, picking the most aggressive development option for an area long closed to drilling. In filing […]

Hawaii was surrounded by waters with warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures on 9 September 2019. Departures from the seasonal norm are shown in degrees Celsius. On this date, Lihue, Kauai observed its 17th consecutive day of a daily record high temperature being set or tied. This is likely the longest such stretch for any official weather station with a long period of record (more than 50 years) at any site in the U.S. climate database. Graphic: Tropical Tidbits

Hawaii’s warmest summer on record and Alaska’s second warmest in 2019

By Christopher C. Burt 10 September 2019 (Weather Underground) – Although 2800 miles of open ocean separate them, both Anchorage, Alaska and Honolulu, Hawaii experienced their warmest climatological summers (June-August) on record this year. It appears that this was Alaska’s second warmest summer (following that of 2004) but it is likely that it was Hawaii’s […]

Abaco residents are evacuated from the island at the airport in the wake of Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco, Bahamas on 8 September 2019. Photo: Loren Elliott / Reuters

Trump administration will not grant protected status to Bahamians affected by Dorian

By Priscilla Alvarez 10 September 2019 WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Trump administration will not grant temporary protected status, a form of humanitarian relief, to Bahamians affected by Hurricane Dorian, according to an administration official. The source did not say when the decision was made, but President Donald Trump appeared to be at odds with one […]

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