Satellite view of the Camp Fire in California in 2018. The Camp Fire was the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history, burning nearly 14,000 homes and killing 85 people. Photo: Maxar / USA TODAY

A decade of change from 300 miles above

By Jim Sergent 27 December 2019 (USA TODAY) – The end of each decade affords us a chance to look at our world from the proverbial 30,000-foot view and see how we’ve changed. With the help of Maxar, a provider of advanced, space-based technology solutions, Google and NASA, we’ve taken many more steps back – […]

A cargo ship transits the Panama Canal on 21 April 2019 on its way to the Atlantic Ocean, while tree trunks that used to be submerged are exposed due to the low water levels of Gatún lake, Panama. An intense drought related to this year’s El Niño phenomenon has precipitously lowered the level of Panama’s Gatún Lake, forcing the country’s Canal Authority to impose draft limits this week on ships moving through the waterway’s recently expanded locks. Photo: Arnulfo Franco / AP Photo

Water shortages dog Panama Canal, 20 years after its transfer – “It really has been the driest dry season we’ve had in the history of the canal”

31 December 2019 (DW) – The Panama Canal’s handover from the United States 20 years ago has been marked in Panama amid water supply worries. Managers say less rainfall due to climate change has depleted the inter-ocean conduit’s Gatun Lake. President Laurentino Cortizo hoisted a giant Panamanian flag outside Canal headquarters Tuesday as its operators […]

A kangaroo rushes past a burning house on 31 December 2019 in Conjola, on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Photo: Matthew Abbott / The New York Times / Redux / Eyevine

Australia authorities plead for last-ditch evacuation, with terrible fire conditions ahead

By Ben Smee 3 January 2020 (The Guardian) – Australian authorities have made a final plea for people to flee bushfire-affected areas in three states before the onset of extreme conditions so dangerous that firefighters may be unable to defend entire towns. On Friday, authorities in New South Wales urged people still in a 14,000 […]

Global primary energy consumption by region, 2010-2050. Data: U.S. Energy Information Administration International Energy Outlook 2019 reference case. Graphic: EIA

EIA projects nearly 50 percent increase in world energy usage by 2050, led by growth in Asia – Carbon dioxide emissions to grow from all three fossil fuel sources

3 January 2020 (EIA) – In its newly released International Energy Outlook 2019 (IEO2019) Reference case, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that world energy consumption will grow by nearly 50 percent between 2018 and 2050. Most of this growth comes from countries that are not in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and […]

WFP Global Hotspots 2020: Countries most at risk of sliding further into crisis. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has identified 15 critical and complex emergencies at risk of descending further into crisis without a rapid response and greater investment. While WFP continues to provide extensive assistance to high-profile emergencies such as Yemen and Syria, Global Hotspots 2020 highlights the fastest deteriorating emergencies requiring the world’s urgent attention. Graphic: WFP

World Food Programme forecasts global hunger hotspots as a new decade dawns

ROME, 1 January 2020 (WFP) – Escalating hunger needs in sub-Saharan Africa dominate a World Food Programme (WFP) analysis of global hunger hotspots in the first half of 2020 with millions of people requiring life-saving food assistance in Zimbabwe, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central Sahel region in the coming months. […]

Aerial view of smoke rising from a bushfire burning at East Gippsland, Victoria, 2 January 2020. Photo: EPA / BBC News

Tens of thousands stranded while attempting to flee Australia fires – Cashless economy collapses as ATMs fail, supermarket looted – “We have no capacity to contain these fires”

By Ben Smee and Luke Henriques-Gomes 2 January 2020 (The Guardian) – Tens of thousands of people remained stranded on Thursday evening while attempting to flee bushfire-ravaged areas of the south-east Australian coast – having earlier been urged to leave before the return of extreme and dangerous weather conditions. The mass evacuation of communities in […]

Youths pull out an ox stuck in muddy waters in the drying Mabwematema dam in Zimbabwe on 25 December 2019. Photo: Zinyange Auntony / AFP / Getty Images

The 2010s were a lost decade for climate. We can’t afford a repeat, scientists warn.

By Sarah Kaplan 31 December 2019 (The Washington Post) – At the start of the last decade, Kallan Benson was 5 years old, her favorite story was “The Secret Garden,” and Earth was in the midst of its warmest year on record. Benson had heard about climate change (her mother is an environmental scientist), but she […]

Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. When asked about abrupt clikmate change, she says that we’re witnessing an exciting “feminist climate renaissance”. Photo: Violetta Markelou / Huffington Post

We spoke to five climate experts about what gives them hope – “I have a tenuous relationship with hope these days, but I am certainly bolstered by the fact that we already have all the solutions we need”

By Kyla Mandel 26 December 2019 (Huffington Post) – This year comes to a close after an onslaught of bleak and terrifying revelations about the state of our planet. Glaciers are melting, species are dying, forests are burning and climate tipping points ― thresholds which, if breached, will usher in uncontrollable warming ― are about […]

One woman shared this picture of her young son wearing a mask and life jacket as the family fled on to a boat to escape the bushfires at Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia on 30 December 2019. Photo: ABC News (Australia)

Raging wildfires trap 4,000 at Australian town’s waterfront – Military deployed to help rescue effort – “It should have been daylight but it was black like midnight and we could hear the fire roaring”

By Tristan Lavalette 31 December 2019 PERTH, Australia (AP) – Wildfires burning across Australia’s two most populous states Tuesday trapped residents of a seaside town in apocalyptic conditions and killed at least two people while more property along the country’s east coast fell victim to a devastating fire season. About 4,000 residents in the southeastern […]

This before-and-after image shows satellite images of Lake Kariba, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, in December 2018 and December 2019. The lake has dropped to critically low levels. Photo: NASA Earth Observatory

Drought threatens millions in Southern Africa – “This year’s drought is unprecedented, causing food shortages on a scale we have never seen here before”

By Michael Carlowicz 17 December 2019 (NASA) – Southern Africa is suffering through its worst drought in several decades and perhaps a century. Diminished and late rainfall, combined with long-term increases in temperatures, have jeopardized the food security and energy supplies of millions of people in the region, most acutely in Zambia and Zimbabwe. According […]

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