Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid, Spain on 11 December 2019. Photo: Cristina Quicler

Five reasons the COP25 climate talks failed – “The world is screaming out for climate action but this summit has responded with a whisper”

25 December 2019 (AFP) – The climate summit in Madrid earlier this month did not collapse — but by almost any measure it certainly failed. Five years after the fragile UN process yielded the world’s first universal climate treaty, COP25 was billed as a mopping-up session to finish guidelines for carbon markets, thus completing the […]

Water towers of the World: the most important mountainous and glacial regions in the Americas, which serve as the “water towers” for billions living downstream. Data: Walter Immerzeel, Utrecht University. Graphic: Brian T. Jacobs / National Geographic

World’s supply of fresh water in trouble as mountain ice vanishes – 1.9 billion people at risk from mountain water shortages – “The most important water towers are also among the most vulnerable”

By Alejandra Borunda 9 December 2019 (National Geographic) – High in the Himalaya, near the base of the Gangotri glacier, water burbles along a narrow river. Pebbles, carried in the small river’s flow, pling as they carom downstream. This water will flow thousands of miles, eventually feeding people, farms, and the natural world on the vast, […]

The tail of a male grey whale that stranded near Victoria, B.C. in April 2019, with skin eaten by an infestation of cyamids, or whale lice. Photo: Fisheries and Oceans Canada

In 2019, 214 grey whales washed up dead on the West Coast of North America – “They get eaten alive”

By Lisa Johnson 28 December 2019 (CBC News) – The first grey whale found dead in B.C. last year was in such rough shape that someone called to report it was tangled up in a big pink buoy. The pink wasn’t plastic, officials learned when they arrived to tow the skinny male to shore near […]

Orthodox Jewish women mourn during the funeral service of Mindel Ferencz who was killed in a kosher market that was the site of a gun battle in Jersey City, N.J., Wednesday, 11 December 2019. Ferencz, 31, and her husband owned the grocery store. The Ferencz family had moved to Jersey City from Brooklyn. Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AP Photo

Number of U.S. mass killings hit new high in 2019, most were shootings – “This seems to be the age of mass shootings”

By Lisa Marie Pane 28 December 2019 (AP News) – The first one occurred 19 days into the new year when a man used an ax to kill four family members including his infant daughter. Five months later, 12 people were killed in a workplace shooting in Virginia. Twenty-two more died at a Walmart in El Paso […]

The water at Balmoral beach in New South Wales has turned black after Australia's recent deadly bushfires, 9 December 2019. Local woman Imogen Brennan shared videos of the beach on social media. Video: Imogen Brennan / BBC

Video: Bushfire ash washes up on Australian beach

24 December 2019 (news.com.au) — Ash and burned debris from trees washed up on beaches on the New South Wales south coast as weeks-old bushfires burned on Thursday, 24 December 2019. Two major uncontained bushfires had threatened coastal communities and forced evacuations in the area. The Currowan Fire had burned over 200,00 hectares since breaking […]

Study skins of the extinct Lana’i and Kaua’i ‘akiaola. Photo: Paul Sweet / AMNH

All of the species declared extinct in the 2010-2019 decade – “The trends that connect these 160 extinctions are true of the biodiversity crisis more generally”

By Ryan F. Mandelbaum 16 December 19 (Gizmodo) – Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta Island tortoises, died in 2012. George’s story is the perfect extinction story. It features a charismatic character with a recognizable face, an obvious villain, and the tireless efforts of naturalists. The population of the Pinta Island tortoise species was […]

Satellite view of construction at the Shentou coal-fired power station in Shanxi, China. In July 2017, China’s National Energy Administration ordered the plant’s owners to stop construction of two 1,000 megawatt units at the plant; in September 2017 the order was changed to “postpone.” Construction on the two units officially resumed on 28 March 2019. Photo: Google

In tougher times, China falls back on coal – “There’s a deep contradiction in this”

By Stephanie Yang 23 December 2019 BEIJING (The Wall Street Journal) – China’s efforts to wean itself off coal are losing steam, as the world’s biggest carbon emitter is putting economic growth and energy security above its ambitions to be a leader in combating climate change. Coal consumption is back near peak levels after rebounding […]

Obesity rates in the United States by state, 2000-2019 and projected to 2030. Data: Ward, et al., 2019. NEJM Graphic: Elijah Wolfson / TIME

Close to half of U.S. population projected to have obesity by 2030 – “The prevalence of adult obesity and severe obesity will continue to increase nationwide, with large disparities across states and demographic subgroups”

BOSTON, 18 December 2019 (Harvard Chan School) – About half of the adult U.S. population will have obesity and about a quarter will have severe obesity by 2030, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study also predicts that in 29 states, more than half of the […]

Tree buds in the Apothecary Garden, also known as the Botanic Garden of Moscow State University, in Moscow, Russia, 18 December 2019. Photo: Shamil Zhumatov / REUTERS

Moscow wonders where winter has gone as temperatures hit 133-year high – “This is not our winter. It came from somewhere else.”

By Dmitry Antonov, Gennadiy Novik, and Dmitry Madorsky 18 December 2019 MOSCOW (Reuters) – Residents of Moscow are wondering where winter has gone as the highest December temperatures for 133 years deprive the Russian capital of its customary covering of snow. “This is not our winter,” said pensioner Ludmila Biryukova. “It came from somewhere else.” […]

Life expectancy for United States and 50 States, grouped by census region, 1959-2016. Graphic: Woolf and Schoomaker, 2019 / JAMA

U.S. life expectancy continues to decline – Working-age Americans dying at higher rates, especially in economically hard-hit states – “This is a distinctly American phenomenon”

By Mary Kate Brogan 26 November 2019 (Virginia Commonwealth University) – Mortality rates among working-age Americans continue to climb, causing a decrease in U.S. life expectancy that is severely impacting certain regions of the United States, according to a Virginia Commonwealth University study set to publish Tuesday in JAMA. The report, “Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates in […]

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