Aerial view of melting permafrost near a research site in Arctic Canada. The unprecedented melt rate creates thermokarst, an irregular landscape dotted by lakes, holes, and mounds. Photo: Louise Farquharson

Arctic permafrost melting 70 years sooner than expected, study finds – “This change is unprecedented on this kind of time scale”

By Jan Wesner Childs 14 June 2019 (The Weather Channel) – Scientists studying climate change expected layers of permafrost in the Canadian Arctic to melt by the year 2090. Instead, it’s happening now. A new study published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters revealed that unusually warm summers in the Canadian High Arctic between 2003 […]

Buenos Aires in darkness after a massive power outage struck South America on 16 June 2019. Photo: Lucas Rodriguez

50 million people lose electricity during “unprecedented” South America blackout – “The funny part is that we don’t have electricity, but we have internet in our phones”

By Eliott C. McLaughlin 16 June 2019 (CNN) – A “massive failure” in an electrical interconnection system left Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay completely without power, a utility distributor said Sunday. Parts of Chile and southern Brazil are experiencing outages as well, said Edesur, the Buenos Aires-based company. The company later posted an updated statement removing […]

New York State Attorney General Letitia James holds a press conference at the Office of the Attorney General in New York, 28 March 2019. The New York attorney general's office did not engage in prosecutorial misconduct in investigating Exxon for climate fraud, a judge ruled on Wednesday 12 June 2019. Photo: Timothy A. Clary / Getty Images

Judge rejects Exxon challenges to New York’s climate fraud suit – No prosecutorial misconduct in Exxon climate fraud investigation

By Karen Savage 12 June 2019 (Climate Liability News) – A judge dismissed several claims by Exxon to stop New York State’s lawsuit against the oil giant for alleged climate fraud, including charges of prosecutorial misconduct and conflict of interest. New York Supreme Court Judge Barry Ostrager on Wednesday rejected claims by Exxon that the New York attorney general’s […]

List environmental regulations rolled back by the Trump administration, updated on 7 June 2019. Graphic: The New York Times

83 environmental rules being rolled back under Trump

By Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-ripka, and Kendra Pierre-Louis 7 June 2019 (The New York Times) – President Trump has made eliminating federal regulations a priority. His administration, with help from Republicans in Congress, has often targeted environmental rules it sees as burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other big businesses. [cf. Trump regulation rollbacks will […]

Indexed trend of feelings of worry, sadness, and stress, 2008-2018. Globally, feelings of sadness, stress, and worry have increased by a combined average of eight percentage points. Data: Gallup World Poll, IEP. Graphic: IEP

Global peacefulness improves for first time in five years, but world still less peaceful than a decade ago

12 June 2019 (IEP) – The 13th edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) report, the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness, reveals that the average level of global peacefulness improved for the first time in five years. However, despite improvement, the world remains considerably less peaceful now than a decade ago, with the […]

Spatial patterns of projected biomass changes. Shown are global ensemble projections at a 1 × 1 degree resolution for (A, C, and E) RCP2.6 and (B, D, and F) RCP8.5. (A and B) Multimodel mean change (percent, n = 10) in total marine animal biomass in 2090–2099 relative to 1990–1999 without fishing. (C and D) Variability among different ecosystem model and ESM combinations expressed as 1 SD. (E and F) Model agreement (percent) on the direction of change. Graphic: Lotze, et al., 2019 / PNAS

Study projects substantial declines in large fish and marine species with warming oceans – “There are substantial consequences for marine ecosystems on a global scale”

By Alison Auld 11 June 2019 (Dal News) – Populations of large fish and other marine species will decline steadily if little is done to stem the effects of climate change, according to a study led by Dalhousie University researchers that shows how greenhouse gas emissions could cause widespread global stock losses and habitat shifts. […]

Environmentalist José Luis Álvarez Flores, an activist who fought to conserve wildlife, was found murdered between the borders of Tabasco and Chiapas on 11 June 2019. Photo: Reforma

Environmental activist who fought illegal mining murdered in Chiapas – “This is abominable, he was a nice person, his fault was to fight against the illegal extraction of sand”

11 June 2019 (Mexico News Daily) — An environmental activist from Tabasco who worked to preserve the habitat of howler monkeys was found dead yesterday in Chiapas. The body of José Luis Álvarez Flores was found in Calatraba, a community in the municipality of Palenque. The 64-year-old was reportedly shot at least five times. Álvarez […]

William Happer, who serves on the National Security Council, is pushing to create a climate review panel that would question the overwhelming scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming. Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones

White House tried to stop climate science testimony, documents show – “I have never heard of basic facts being deleted from or blocked from testimony”

By Lisa Friedman 8 June 2019 WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – The White House tried to stop a State Department senior intelligence analyst from discussing climate science in congressional testimony this week, internal emails and documents show. The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research declined to make changes to the proposed testimony and […]

Aerial view of Staten Island with proposed sea wall indicated. Graphic: Vox.png

Video: New York is building a wall to hold back the ocean

10 June 2019 (Vox) – Climate change is leading to increasingly violent storms. Can seawalls hold back floods? Staten Island recently received funding for a nearly 5-mile-long seawall to protect its coast. But the plan raises a lot of questions. We’re living in a dangerously dynamic world: Hurricanes are getting worse, wildfires are rampant in […]

The Chilean crocus, Tecophilaea cyanocrocus. Photo: Richard Wilford

Almost 600 plant species have already gone extinct – “Plant extinction is bad news for all species”

By Amanda Gonzalez Bengtsson 11 June 2019 (Stockholm University) – For the first time ever, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Stockholm University, have compiled a global analysis of all plant extinction records documented from across the world. This unique dataset published today in leading journal, Nature Ecology & Evolution, brings together data […]

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