Deaths from overdoses, alcohol use, or suicide in Washington state, 2015-2020. Nearly 3,900 Washingtonians died from “deaths of despair” in 2020, an increase of almost 600 since 2019. Graphic: Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times

“Deaths of despair” spiked in Washington state in 2020, exceeding deaths from COVID-19

By Gene Balk 10 January 2022 (Seattle Times) – They’ve come to be known as “deaths of despair” — fatalities from drug overdoses, alcohol use, and suicide. Research has shown they’ve been on the rise for decades in the United States and have contributed to the decline in life expectancy over the last few years. Since the […]

Temperature forecast for South America, 10 January 2022 - 23 January 2022. Temperatures in Argentina were expected to may soar above 40°C (104°F) in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Santa Fe, Entre Rios and Santiago del Estero. Graphic: WeatherOnline

Argentina braces for heatwave, with temperatures set to pass 40°C (104°F) – Buenos Aires could become the hottest place on Earth for a few hours – 4 found dead with piranha bites in Paraguay while swimming to escape heat

7 January 2022 (Buenos Aires Times) – An extreme heatwave is expected to hit Argentina, with experts warning temperatures may soar above 40°C in parts of the provinces of Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Santa Fe, Entre Rios and Santiago del Estero. According to a specialist weather company, some of the aforementioned places could become the hottest […]

Promo still for the film “Don’t Look Up” showing Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio. Photo: Netflix

The most depressing thing about “Don’t Look Up” (isn’t what you think)

By Andrew P. Street 1 January 2022 (Independent Australia) – Don’t Look Up, Adam McKay’s star-studded Netflix satire about scientists desperately (and unsuccessfully) attempting to warn a jaded and deeply compromised world about the imminent arrival of an extinction-level comet, has already garnered a veritable encyclopedia of hot takes. But as best as I can see, […]

New confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions reported in the United States, 26 October 2021 - 27 December 2021 and forecast to 28 January 2022. The number of new daily confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions will likely increase, with 24,700 to 53,700 new confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions likely reported on 28 January 2022. The forecast may not fully account for the emergence and rapid spread of the Omicron variant or changes in reporting during the holidays. Graphic: CDC

U.S. hospitals are in serious trouble – “Too many facilities are pulling from the same labor pool, and if that pool is sick, where are the reinforcements?”

By Ed Yong 7 January 2022 (The Atlantic) – When a health-care system crumbles, this is what it looks like. Much of what’s wrong happens invisibly. At first, there’s just a lot of waiting. Emergency rooms get so full that “you’ll wait hours and hours, and you may not be able to get surgery when […]

Homes are engulfed by flames as the Marshall Fire spreads through Superior, Colorado on 30 December 2021. Photo: Sean David Van De Riet / Reuters

More than 40 percent of Americans live in counties hit by climate disasters in 2021 – “More people are living in more flammable landscapes. More people are going to be interfacing with disaster.”

By Sarah Kaplan and Andrew Ba Tran 5 January 2022 (The Washington Post) – 2021 ended as it began: with disaster. Twelve months after an atmospheric river deluged California, triggering mudslides in burned landscapes and leaving a half-million people without power, a late-season wildfire destroyed hundreds of homes in the suburbs of Denver. In between, Americans suffered blistering heat […]

Global greenhouse gas emissions, 1990-2020. The reduction in emissions in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession was 10 times greater than the impact on emissions from the 2008 global financial crisis. Graphic: Rhodium Group

Global greenhouse gas reduction in 2020 from pandemic and global recession “was 10 times greater than the impact on emissions from the 2008 global financial crisis”

By Alfredo Rivera, Shweta Movalia, Hannah Pitt, and Kate Larsen 23 December 2021 (Rhodium Group) – Understanding annual trends in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a critical input for decision-makers in their efforts to reach net-zero emissions, whether is at the national, state, city, or corporate levels. Tracking emissions of the 190+ Parties to the […]

COVID-19 daily cases per 100,000 in Puerto Rico, 4 January 2022. Graphic: Covid Act Now

Puerto Rico battles COVID-19 surge, imposes new measures

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, 4 January 2022 (AP) – Puerto Rico on Tuesday imposed new measures to fight a surge in COVID-19 cases that has overwhelmed medical staff in the U.S. territory and led to temporary shortages of testing kits. All private businesses that cater to the public must close from midnight to 5 a.m., […]

Screenshot from a video of Qtuber Cirsten Tien Soong Weldon on 28 December 2021, before she succumbed to COVID-19. She is clearly ill and has a deep cough but still promotes anti-vaccine disinformation before discussing election conspiracy theories. At the end of the video, she mentions her “flu” and says she won’t be webcasting because she’s traveling. Video: Sorry Antivaxxer

QAnon star who called for Dr. Fauci “to be hung from a rope” and said only “idiots” get vaccinated dies of COVID

By Will Sommer 7 January 2022 (The Daily Beast) – A leading QAnon promoter who urged both her followers and strangers she passed on the street not to take the COVID vaccine died Thursday of the coronavirus, making her just the latest vaccine opponent killed by the disease. Cirsten Weldon had amassed tens of thousands […]

A scientist with PROMIS/GEUS checks instruments on the Greenland ice sheet, 1 September 2021. The ice is darkened by an unprecedented algae bloom caused by persistent cloudy and rainy conditions in 2021 that promoted ice algae growth. Photo: GEUS

Algae blooms darken Greenland ice sheet after unprecedented rainfall in 2021 – “I never saw the ice as dark as this”

5 January 2022 (PROMICE) – GEUS and PROMICE professor Jason Box recently made the front page in Danish national media with testimony of algal blooms and rain on the Greenland ice sheet. PROMICE field work helps quantify the ice algae blooms and their effect on melting. In Autumn 2021, Professor Jason Box and two PROMICE […]

Number of flights performed by the global airline industry, 2004-2022. The value for 2022 is a forecast. Figures prior to 2016 were taken from previous reports. 2021 figure was estimated. Graphic: Statista

Near-empty flights crisscross Europe to secure landing slots – “The EU surely is in a climate emergency mode”

By Raf Casert 6 January 2022 BRUSSELS (AP) – Europe’s sky is filling up with near-empty polluting planes that serve little other purpose than safeguarding airlines’ valuable time slots at some of the world’s most important airports. The highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19 has put many off flying, and because of it, getting people and goods […]

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