An aerial view shows low water levels at Lake Oroville, which is the second largest reservoir in California and according to daily reports of the state's Department of Water Resources has declined to near 35 percent capacity due to record drought and heat, near Oroville, California, 16 June 2021. Photo: Aude Guerrucci / REUTERS

California calls for power conservation as new 2021 heatwave looms

8 July 2021 (Reuters) – California’s power grid operator on Thursday issued a “flex” alert for Friday, asking consumers to conserve energy from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. as high demand driven by extreme heat could trigger a capacity shortfall on the state’s electric grid. If the grid is still unable to meet power needs […]

Total greenhouse gas emissions from China and OECD nations, 1990-2019. In 2019, China’s GHG emissions passed the 14 gigaton threshold for the first time, reaching 14,093 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MMt CO2e). This represents a more than tripling of 1990 levels, and a 25 percent increase over the past decade. As a result, China’s share of the 2019 global emissions total of 52 gigatons rose to 27 percent. Data: Rhodium Group / UNFCCC. Graphic: Rhodium Group

China’s greenhouse gas emissions exceeded the developed world for the first time in 2019

By Kate Larsen, Hannah Pitt, Mikhail Grant, and Trevor Houser 6 May 2021 (Rhodium Group) – Each year Rhodium Group provides the most up-to-date global and country-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimates through the ClimateDeck (a partnership with Breakthrough Energy). In addition to our preliminary US and China GHG estimates for 2020, Rhodium provides annual estimates of economy-wide emissions—including all […]

Anomalies of 2021 highest daily maximum temperature (TXx) in Western North America, assuming the rest of the summer is cooler than the June 2021 heatwave. Note that some stations do not have data up to the peak of the heatwave yet and hence underestimate the event. The black box indicates the study region. Data: GHCN-D downloaded on 4 July 2021. Graphic: Philip, et al., 2021 / World Weather Attribution

Western North American extreme heat in 2021 virtually impossible without human-caused climate change

7 July 2021 (World Weather Attribution) – During the last days of June 2021, Pacific northwest areas of the U.S. and Canada experienced temperatures never previously observed, with records broken in many places by several degrees Celsius. Multiple cities in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington and the western provinces of Canada recorded temperatures […]

Screenshot from the video, “Honest Government Ad | We Make Everything Good Sh!t”, by The Juice Media, 2 July 2021. Photo: The Juice Media / YouTube

Honest Government Ad: We Make Everything Good Sh!t – Australia science agencies “infiltrated and hollowed” out by fossil fuel industry

2 July 2021 (The Juice Media) – Hello, I’m from the Australien government. In today’s episode of “We Make Everythig Good Shit”, we look at the CSIRO, your trusted science agency, which has earned a reputation for great inventions: wifi, space stuff, Aeroguard. Unlike gas companies, which have earned a reputation for poisoning aquifers, ripping […]

Map showing the 30-year summer temperature increases for the continental United States, 1991-2020. Data: Provided by Atmospheric and Environmental Research/Verisk in July 2021. “The ridiculous temperatures in the Pacific Northwest may on one hand be considered a black swan (ultra-rare) event, but on the other hand are totally consistent with multi-decadal trends,” says meteorologist Judah Cohen. Graphic: Judah Cohen / Atmospheric and Environmental Research / Verisk / AP

Summer swelter trend: U.S. West gets hotter days, East hot nights – “Hotter summers for the broader region are here to stay”

By Seth Borenstein 4 July 2021 (AP) – As outlandish as the killer heatwave that struck the Pacific Northwest was, it fits into a decades-long pattern of uneven summer warming across the United States. The West is getting roasted by hotter summer days while the East Coast is getting swamped by hotter and stickier summer […]

Video showing the Atami mudslide, 3 July 2021. At least two people were killed and more than twenty were missing after two days of record-breaking rainfall. Video: Eyepress via Reuters

2 killed, 20 missing after record rain triggers mudslide in Japan resort town – Two-day rainfall exceeded average for entire month of July

By Jan Wesner Childs 4 July 2021 (The Weather Channel) – Two people died and at least 20 remained missing after a wave of black mud, water and debris slammed into houses southwest of Tokyo Saturday amid days of heavy rainfall. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters that 19 people had been rescued as more […]

Map showing ground temperatures in the Pacific Northwest during the record-breaking heatwave in June 2021. Ground temperatures reached as high as 145 degrees Fahrenheit (63 degrees Celsius) in Wenatchee, Washington. Graphic: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-3

Ground temperatures reached an astounding 145 degrees during the Pacific Northwest heatwave in early summer 2021

By Brian Kahn 29 June 2021 (Gizmodo) – Air temperatures during record-setting heatwave in the Pacific Northwest were bad enough. But the ground was on a whole other level. Stunning new satellite imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-3 satellite shows ground temperatures reached as high as 145 degrees Fahrenheit (63 degrees Celsius) in Wenatchee, Washington. Apparently […]

A man carrying multiple jugs of water walks through a sprinkler during a period of record-breaking temperatures in Vancouver on Monday, 28 June 2021. Photo: Ben Nelms / CBC

Heatwave likely contributed to 719 sudden deaths in British Columbia this week – Temp records fall across Alberta and Saskatchewan – “We haven’t experienced anything like this in the province previously”

By Brittany Roffel 2 July 2021 (CBC News) – The BC Coroners Service has reported 719 sudden deaths in the past week, triple the number that would normally occur in the province. “We are releasing this information as it is believed likely the extreme weather B.C. has experienced in the past week is a significant […]

In a grim commentary on climate change, in 2009, British artist Banksy creatively vandalized this 1890 painting by Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstadt. The artwork, now titled Subject to Availability, has a surprise for Northwest locals — Mount Rainier. It sold at auction Wednesday, 28 June 2021, for 4,582,500 pounds, or $6,342,180. Photo: Christie’s Images Limited 2021

Artist Banksy’s “hijacked” painting of Mount Rainier sells for more than $6 million as global warming roasts the Pacific Northwest

By Megan Burbank 30 June 2021 (The Seattle Times) – As the Puget Sound region coped this week with extreme heat caused by climate change, one of the art world’s most audacious commentaries on the issue reemerged across the Atlantic. A 2009 work of creative vandalism from British artist and agitator Banksy, Subject to Availability, was sold […]

Residents rest at a cooling center during a heat wave in Portland, Oregon on 28 June 2021. Photo: Maranie Staab / Bloomberg

Climate change in the U.S. has gotten deadly, and it will get worse – “The suffering here and now is because we have not heeded the warnings sufficiently”

By Sarah Kaplan 3 July 2021 PORTLAND, Oregon (The Washington Post) – The emergency department at Oregon Health Sciences University had rarely been this busy, even during the worst stages of the covid-19 pandemic. Physicians raced to provide fluids to patients who arrived breathless, dizzy, and drenched in sweat. Others were brought in on stretchers, […]

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