Satellite view of a forest fire burning in the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine, not far from the nuclear power plant in April 2020. Photo: Planet Labs

Ukraine in flames: Chernobyl wildfire highlights a dangerous tradition – “We can’t afford to preserve such extreme traditions anymore”

By Veronika Melkozerova 18 April 2020 KYIV, Ukraine (NBC News) – Wind-whipped wildfires have in recent days raged perilously close to the exclusion zone at Chernobyl, the site of what is considered to have been the world’s worst nuclear disaster. But these fires were no accident — they were set by villagers who were clearing their land for […]

Aerial view of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burning after an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, off the southeast tip of Louisiana, 21 April 2010. Ten years after an oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, companies are drilling into deeper and deeper waters where the payoffs can be huge but the risks are greater than ever. Photo: Gerald Herbert / AP Photo

10 years after BP spill: Oil drilled deeper; rules relaxed – “I’m concerned that in the industry, the lessons aren’t fully learned — that we’re tending to backslide”

By Kevin Mcgill and Matthew Brown 18 April 2020 NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Ten years after an oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, companies are drilling into deeper and deeper waters, where the payoffs can be huge but the risks are greater than ever. Industry leaders and […]

U.S. Federal deficit as percent of GDP, 2010-2019 and projected to 2025. Total U.S. debt is projected to equal the size of the entire economy in 2020. Graphic: CRFB

U.S. debt to exceed the size of the economy in 2020 – Budget deficits will total more than $3.8 trillion – “At some point, such high and rising deficits and debt levels will prove unsustainable, and corrective action will be needed”

13 April 2020 (CRFP) – The United States entered the current public health and economic crisis facing high levels of debt and trillion-dollar deficits. Due to the effects of the crisis and legislation enacted to combat it, debt and deficits will now grow much higher, to never-before-seen levels both in dollars and as a share of Gross Domestic […]

Global real GDP level projected to 2021. The cumulative output loss is expected to reach $9 trillion. Graphic: IMF

IMF: Global economy will suffer worst year since Great Depression – “This is a crisis like no other”

By Paul Wiseman and Martin Crutsinger 14 April 2020 WASHINGTON (AP) – Beaten down by the coronavirus outbreak, the world economy in 2020 will suffer its worst year since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the International Monetary Fund says in its latest forecast. The IMF said Tuesday that it expects the global economy to […]

Aerial view of a field fire burning on 10 April 2020 in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine. Photo: Volodymyr Shuvayev / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images

Chernobyl wildfires reignite, stirring up radiation

By Maria Varenikova 11 April 2020 VINNYTSIA, Ukraine (The New York Times) – Firefighters have struggled to control wildfires burning through radioactive forest in the abandoned territory around the Chernobyl nuclear plant, where radiation levels are considerably lower than they were immediately after the 1986 accident but still pose risks. Radiation readings near the wildfires, where […]

A pile of ripe squash sits in a field, in Homestead, Florida, 28 March 2020. Thousands of acres of fruits and vegetables grown in Florida are being plowed over or left to rot because farmers can't sell to restaurants, theme parks or schools nationwide that have closed because of the coronavirus. Photo: Lynne Sladky / AP Photo

Coronavirus claims an unexpected victim: Florida vegetables

By Tamara Lush 8 April 2020 PALMETTO, Florida (AP) – Mounds of harvested zucchini and yellow squash ripened and then rotted in the hot Florida sun. Juicy tomatoes were left to wither — unpicked — in farmers’ fields. Thousands of acres of fruits and vegetables grown in Florida are being plowed over or left to […]

Weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance, 1967 - 28 March 2020. More than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week — a record — as political and public health leaders put the economy in a deep freeze, keeping people at home and trying to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus. In two weeks, nearly all the jobs created in the past five years have been erased. Data: Labor Department / FRED. Graphic: The Washington Post

More than 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in March 2020 – 20 million Americans predicted to be out of work by July in “best case” scenario – “We’ve never seen anything like this”

By Heather Long 2 April 2020 (The Washington Post) – More than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week — a record — as political and public health leaders put the economy in a deep freeze, keeping people at home and trying to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The past two […]

Map showing secondary locations of anonymized mobile devices that were active at a single Ft. Lauderdale beach during Spring break 2020, tracked as they went across the U.S. Graphic: Tectonix

Tracking mobile phone location data of Florida beachgoers during Spring break shows potential coronavirus spread

By Jason Murdock 27 March 2020 (Newsweek) – Heat maps created using data from citizens’ mobile devices are demonstrating just how quickly potential novel coronavirus cases can spread throughout the U.S. Location data from U.S. mobile technology company X-Mode is being fed into a mapping platform called Tectonix to analyze human movements during the COVID-19 […]

Locusts swarm in East Africa, 13 February 2020. Video: Channel 4 News / YouTube

East Africa faces dual shock from coronavirus and locust swarms – “My entire life in the world, I haven’t seen something like this before”

By Elliot Smith 23 March 2020 (CNBC) – Already being ravaged by the worst infestation of desert locusts in 70 years, East African economies are now staring down the barrel of the coronavirus pandemic. The region was the standout performer for economic growth in the subcontinent prior to the locust outbreak, which threatens the food security […]

Confirmed COVID-19 cases on 26 March 2020 in China, Italy, France, the U.S., South Korea, and Japan. Graphic: Mark Handley / UCL

Coronavirus pandemic could have caused 40 million deaths globally if left unchecked – “Health systems in all countries will be quickly overwhelmed”

By Ryan O’Hare 26 March 2020 (Imperial College London) – The outbreak of COVID-19 would likely have caused 40 million deaths this year in the absence of any preventative measures. This is one of the findings of a new analysis by researchers at Imperial College London, which estimated the potential scale of the coronavirus pandemic […]

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