The global COVID-19 lockdowns caused fossil carbon dioxide emissions to decline by an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes in 2020 - a record drop according to researchers at the University of East Anglia, University of Exeter and the Global Carbon Project. It means that in 2020 fossil CO2 emissions are predicted to be approximately 34 GtCO2, seven per cent lower than in 2019. Emissions from transport account for the largest share of the global decrease. Those from surface transport, such as car journeys, fell by approximately half at the peak of the COVID lockdowns. Total CO2 emissions from human activities - from fossil CO2 and land-use change - are set to be around 39 GtCO2 in 2020. Video: UEA

COVID lockdown causes record drop in carbon dioxide emissions for 2020

11 December 2020 (UEA) – The global COVID-19 lockdowns caused fossil carbon dioxide emissions to decline by an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes in 2020 – a record drop according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA), University of Exeter, and the Global Carbon Project. The fall is considerably larger than previous significant decreases […]

Income inequality in the United States, 1913-2019. The U.S. shows a rise in the concentration of incomes unseen in other rich nations. The top 10% increase from 34% to 45% between 1980 and 2019. Half of the American population was shut from pretax economic growth. Graphic: World Inequality Database

Global inequality data update shows rise in concentration of U.S. incomes unseen in other rich nations – Latin America and the Middle East stand as the world’s most unequal regions

10 November 2020 (WIL) – The World Inequality Lab releases today a major update of global inequality data for 173 countries, making up 97% of the world population and 7.5 billion people. The data published distributes economic growth within each country making it possible to track inequality and poverty over time, countries and regions. These […]

Cumulative change in U.S. jobs since before the pandemic, 6 December 2020. Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Graphic: Ella Koeze / The New York Times

U.S. job market slowed further in November 2020 – “We’re going to have a few of the toughest months of this pandemic, and there will be a lot of scars left to heal”

6 December 2020 (The New York Times) – The American economic recovery continues to slow, stranding millions who have yet to find a new job after being thrown out of work by the coronavirus pandemic. The latest evidence came Friday when the Labor Department reported that employers added 245,000 jobs in November, the fifth month in a […]

Environmental relevance of 6PPD-quinone. (A) Using retrospective UPLC-HRMS analysis of archived sample extracts, 6PPD-quinone was quantified in roadway runoff and runoff-impacted receiving waters. Each symbol corresponds to duplicate or triplicate samples, boxes represent first and third quartiles. For comparison, the 0.8 pg/L LC50 value for juvenile coho salmon and detected 6PPD-quinone levels in 250 and 1000 mg/L TWP leachate are included. (B) Predicted ranges of potential 6PPD-quinone mass formation in passenger cars (e.g., 4 tires, -36 kg tire rubber mass) and heavy trucks, (e.g., 18 tires, -900 kg of tire rubber) (represented in orange) and measured 6PPD-quinone concentrations in affected environmental compartments (represented in blue, with experimental data italicized). Predicted ranges reflect calculations applying 0.4-2% 6PPD per total vehicle tire rubber mass followed by various yield scenarios (1-75% ultimate yields) for 6PPD reaction with ground-level ozone to form 6PPD-quinone. Graphic: Tian, et al. / Science

Tire dust killing coho salmon returning to Puget Sound, new research shows – “I find it incredibly sad to watch the adults when they are sick”

By Lynda V. Mapes 3 December 2020 (Seattle Times) – First they circle. Then they gasp at the surface of the water. Soon they can’t swim. Then they die. For decades now, scientists have known something was killing beautiful, adult coho salmon as soon as they hit Seattle’s urban waters, ready to spawn. They had […]

Record flooding caused this landslide in Haines, Alaska on 2 December 2020. Photo: Seaba Heli / Facebook

“The wettest day ever”: At least 6 people missing, homes destroyed after record-breaking Southeast Alaska rainstorm

By Jessica Flores 3 December 2020 (USA TODAY) – Evacuations and search and rescue efforts were underway Wednesday after a record-breaking rainstorm swept across Southeast Alaska, triggering mudslides and widespread flooding. Multiple precipitation records were broken Tuesday across the region, including a single-day rainfall record from 1946, according to the National Weather Service in Juneau. […]

National Risk Index (NRI) map of the United States. Graphic: FEMA

New FEMA index shows riskiest spot for rising seas is 50 miles from the ocean

By Thomas Frank 25 November 2020 (E&E News) – The county most at risk for coastal flooding is not in Florida, North Carolina or New Jersey, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It’s not even on a coast. It’s Cowlitz County, Washington, population 102,000, about 50 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean on the […]

U.S. adult obesity rate by state, 2019. Graphic: Trust for America’s Health

U.S. adult obesity rate tops 40 percent, highest ever recorded – Obesity is single highest risk factor in COVID-19 mortality – “That’s extremely alarming in terms of its medical implications”

18 September 2020 (NBC News) – A new report reveals the adult obesity rate in the United States now stands at more than 42 percent, the highest it’s ever been.   Twelve states have an obesity rate of more than 35 percent.  “That’s extremely alarming in terms of its medical implications,” says John Auerbach, president […]

August 2020 blended land and sea surface temperature percentiles. Graphic: NOAA / NCEI

August 2020 was the world’s second-warmest August on record – The year 2020 has more than a 99.9 percent chance to rank among the five warmest years on record

By Jeff Masters, Ph.D. 15 September 2020 (Yale Climate Connections) – August 2020 was the second-warmest August since global record keeping began in 1880, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, or NCEI, reported September 14. The month was just 0.04 degrees Celsius behind the record set in August 2016. NASA rated the month as the third-warmest August on […]

The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite captured this extremely think blanket of smoke along the West Coast on 9 September 2020. OMPS measured smoke clouds over the western U.S. with higher aerosol index values than anything Colin Seftor, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, says he has ever seen with the instrument. Graphic: Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory

California’s wildfire smoke plumes are unlike anything previously seen – California fire carbon emissions in 2020 exceed previous record by nearly 2 times

By Matthew Cappucci 12 September 2020 (The Washington Post) – More than 3.1 million acres have burned in California this year, part of a record fire season that still has four months to go. A suffocating cloud of smoke has veiled the West Coast for days, extending more than a thousand miles above the Pacific. And the […]

Satellite view of the Northridge Terrace neighborhood in Phoenix, Oregon before and after wildfire, 10 September 2020. Photo: Maxar Technologies

Satellite images show Phoenix and Talent, Oregon, have been “substantially destroyed” by wildfire – “This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state’s history”

By Paul P. Murphy 10 September 2020 (CNN) – Swaths of the small southern Oregon cities of Phoenix and Talent now lie in ash, satellite images show, as wildfires wage unprecedented destruction across the US West. A massive burn scar cuts through parts of Talent and Phoenix, home to about 11,000 people combined. The wounded terrain, seen […]

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