climate change – Page 3 – Desdemona Despair

Myanmar’s rare earth mining industry has become the world’s largest supply, yet the mines’ toxic by-products are poisoning nearby waterways, wildlife, and communities. Photo: Global Witness

July 28, 2024

Transition minerals: A climate solution that could cost the earth – “We need a just, fair, and equitable transition from fossil fuels to renewables”

10 July 2024 (Global Witness) – Renewable energy is often hailed as a panacea for the energy crisis. But without better consultation and regulation, plans to expand mining for minerals central to the energy transition could be disastrous for people and the planet. To tackle the climate crisis, we need to transition away from fossil […]

Screenshot of the Maricopa County Heat-Related Deaths Dashboard on 28 July 2024. Heat killed 27 people in the county, which is home to Phoenix, and is suspected as the cause of 396 other deaths in 2024. Graphic: Maricopa County

July 28, 2024

Hundreds of people may have died from heat in one Arizona county in 2024 – Heat-related deaths are underestimated in 297 of the most populous U.S. counties

By Rachel Ramirez 24 July 2024 (CNN) – Hundreds of people may have died from heat in Arizona’s Maricopa County amid another record-breaking summer in the state. Heat has killed 27 people in the county, which is home to Phoenix, and is suspected as the cause of 396 other deaths so far this year, according to […]

Daily global average surface air temperature for 2024 (red), 2023 (orange), and all years between 1940 and 2022 (grey). Red shading indicates the difference between the daily global average temperatures from 2023 to 2024, for days where 2024 has been warmer than 2023. Data for 22 July 2024 is preliminary. Data: ERA5 via Climate Pulse. Graphic: C3S / ECMWF

July 28, 2024

New record daily global average temperature reached in July 2024 – “What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records”

23 July 2024 (Copernicus Climate Change Service) – The Earth has just experienced its warmest day in recent history, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) data. On 22 July 2024, the daily global average temperature reached a new record high in the ERA5 dataset, at 17.16°C. This exceeds the previous records of 17.09°C, […]

Glow from Park Fire burns is seen along Cohasset Road near Chico, California, U.S. 25 July 2024. Photo: Fred Greaves / REUTERS

July 27, 2024

A “catastrophic” start to wildfire season in Oregon sparks alarm – Oregon wildfire explodes to half the size of Rhode Island – “This is perhaps the worst I’ve seen in terms of the number of fires on the landscape in the last decade in the state of Oregon”

By Jules Feeney 27 July 2024 LOS ANGELES (The Guardian) – Oregon’s wildfire season is off to an explosive start with more than 1 million acres charred in less than a month, as experts warn that extreme heat and unusual lightning strikes are creating “catastrophic conditions” for fires to ignite and spread. The state is currently […]

June global surface air temperature anomalies, 1979-2024. This graph shows global-mean surface air temperature anomalies relative to 1991-2020 for each June from 1979 to 2024. June 2024 marked the 13th consecutive month of record-breaking global temperatures, and the 12th in a row above 1.5°C with respect to pre-industrial. Data: ERA5. Graphic: Copernicus Climate Change Service / ECMWF

July 27, 2024

June 2024 sizzled to 13th straight monthly heat record – “It’s not that records are being broken monthly but they are being shattered by very substantial margins over the past 13 months”

By Seth Borenstein 7 July 2024 (AP) – Earth’s more than year-long streak of record-shattering hot months kept on simmering through June, according to the European climate service Copernicus. There’s hope that the planet will soon see an end to the record-setting part of the heat streak, but not the climate chaos that has come […]

Stormwater flows into Biscayne Bay, 1 June 2024 - 18 June 2024. The flows from the Little River exceeded rates of 2000 cubic feet per second, causing very low salinity in the bay, resulting in large-scale fish kills. Graphic: Miami Waterkeeper

July 27, 2024

Record flooding yields massive fish kill in miles-long stretch of Biscayne Bay – “These events are anything but normal”

By Margaret Wong 23 July 2024 (The Cool Down) – Biscayne Bay is reeling from its fourth major fish kill in as many years, triggered by recent record flooding in South Florida. What’s happening? Torrential rains have inundated the region, causing a significant influx of freshwater into the bay, which has led to low salinity […]

The Utility Disconnections Dashboard shows the number and rate of disconnections by utility in each U.S. state. Indiana has the highest disconnection rate. Places with particularly high disconnection rates include Alabama, where the city of Dothan’s municipal utility has disconnected an average of 5 percent of its customers, and Florida, where the city of Tallahassee has a disconnection rate of more than 4 percent. Large investor-owned utilities in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Indiana also top the charts in disconnections, with average rates near 1 percent. Graphic: Energy Justice Lab / CC BY-ND

July 27, 2024

America faces a power disconnection crisis amid rising heat: In 31 states, utilities can shut off electricity for nonpayment in a heat wave –

By Sanya Carley and David Konisky 5 July 2024 (The Conversation) – Millions of Americans have been sweltering through heat waves in recent weeks, and U.S. forecasters warn of a hot summer ahead. Globally, 2023 saw the warmest June on record, according to the European Union’s climate change service. That heat continued into July, with some of […]

Difference between modelled and reported methane intensities by type of company. Modelled emissions are compared with the methane emissions reported by each company in its sustainability reporting or its public communication. The global average ratio on this set of companies is 16.1, with a relative standard deviation of 79.3 percent. Each type of company within this set does not contribute similarly to these global metrics. Integrated companies have the highest average ratio between model and reporting out of all the types of companies, at 19.2 and a relative standard deviation of 64.7 percent, which means that some Integrated companies reporting are much closer to the values for their corresponding model than others. National oil companies (NOCs) have the lowest median ratio with 4.0 but their average is the second highest at 15.2, strongly influenced by one of the companies in the category that has a factor of 51.2, while the remaining 4 have an average of 6.2. Independent companies have the lowest average with 12.6 and a relative standard deviation of 65.2 percent, which shows the importance of the regions of operation in the results of different models. Graphic: Peyle, et al., 2024

July 27, 2024

We used satellite imagery and AI to see who’s keeping their climate pledges – Almost none of the signatories of the Global Methane Pledge are following through on their commitment – On average, companies emit methane intensities 16 times larger than reported

By Antoine Rostand 17 July 2024 (Fortune) – Committing countries or companies to climate pledges doesn’t guarantee that those pledges will be honored. After all, the planet is getting a great deal hotter every year, with the record-breaking temperature in India in May just the latest example. If companies and countries were fully honoring their […]

Neighbors look at a car crushed by a large tree in the wake of Hurricane Irene on 28 August 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland. Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images

July 27, 2024

Baltimore judge tosses climate case, hands win to Big Oil – “This decision is the oil companies’ dream. This is what they would love to happen to all those cases.”

By Aman Azhar 13 July 2024 (Inside Climate News) – In a first of its kind decision, a Maryland judge on Wednesday tossed Baltimore City’s climate suit against major oil giants on the grounds that it is not the role of the state courts to address a global issue like climate change. Originally filed in […]

Wildfires that threatened Jasper for days reached the Alberta mountainside town Wednesday evening, 24 July 2024. Shown here are properties are engulfed in flames at the corner of Cabin Creek Drive and Patricia Street. Photo: CBC

July 27, 2024

Canada mourns as Jasper, jewel of the Rockies, burns – Much of town incinerated by 100 meter-high walls of flame driven by tropical storm-force winds – “There are no tools we have in our tool box to deal with it”

By Max Matza and Eloise Alanna 26 July 2024 MONTREAL (BBC News) – Tears welled in Tasha Porttin’s eyes as she reminisced on the sheer beauty of the place she’s called home for 10 years. Jasper’s mountain peaks and the picture-perfect pine trees that frame its vivid baby-blue lakes make it a popular tourist destination […]