Why California’s wildfires are so destructive, in five charts

By Christie Aschwanden, Anna Maria Barry-Jester, Maggie Koerth-Baker, and Ella Koeze 16 November 2018 (FiveThirtyEight) – The Camp Fire in Northern California has already been the most lethal and most destructive in state history, and it continues to burn. The death toll, currently at 63, is expected to grow — more than 600 people are […]

Smoke days are now California’s snow days

By Amanda Mull 17 November 2018 (The Atlantic) – The particulates in smoke don’t destroy homes. They don’t down trees. But in the case of wildfires, smoke’s impacts—and dangers—can reach hundreds of miles further than the flames themselves. As of Friday evening, the Camp Fire raging in Butte County, north of the San Francisco Bay […]

Global warming on track to make world “uninsurable”: insurance giant IAG

By James Fernyhough 15 November 2018 (The Australian Financial Review) – Insurance giant IAG has warned a failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could result in a world that is “pretty much uninsurable”, with poorer communities likely to bear the brunt of the effects. In Australia, IAG said temperature increases of more than 3 degrees […]

France’s climate change commitments trigger rising diesel prices and street protests – Protester killed when driver is panicked by demonstrators

By James McAuley 17 November 2018 PARIS (The Washington Post) – The French president is under fire again, this time over rising fuel prices. On Saturday, some 244,000 protesters, many clad in yellow vests, not only took to the streets, but in many places literally took the streets, according to the French Interior Ministry. The […]

UN: Venezuelan migrant exodus hits 3 million people – “Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have largely maintained a commendable open-door policy”

By Stephanie Nebehay; editing by John Stonestreet 8 November 2018 GENEVA (Reuters) – Three million Venezuelans have fled economic and political crisis in their homeland, most since 2015, the United Nations said on Thursday. The exodus, driven by violence, hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicines, amounts to around one in 12 of the population. […]

Scientists acknowledge key errors in study of how fast the oceans are warming

By Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis 13 November 2018 (The Washington Post) – Scientists behind a major study that claimed the Earth’s oceans are warming faster than previously thought now say their work contained inadvertent errors that made their conclusions seem more certain than they actually are. [cf. Earth’s oceans have absorbed 60 percent more […]

California wildfires: Air quality rated “world’s worst”

16 November 2018 (BBC News) – Northern California’s air quality has become the worst in the world, according to monitoring groups, as the state battles devastating fires. Air quality network Purple Air said on Thursday the air is now worse than smoggy cities in India and China. Schools have cancelled classes, flights have been delayed, […]

Number of people missing in California wildfires passes 630 – With 63 confirmed dead, Camp Fire is deadliest in state’s history

16 November 2018 (CBS) – The number of people missing in California’s wildfires has soared to over 600, and the death toll has risen to 66. In the “Camp Fire” in Northern California, 631 people were unaccounted for after officials on Thursday added more than 500 names of people reported missing.Hundreds of others are living […]

The Rhine river, a lifeline of Germany, crippled by one of the worst droughts on record – “I’ve never experienced so little water here”

By Christopher F. Schuetze 4 November 2018 KAUB, Germany (The New York Times) – Just after sunrise, Capt. Frank Sep turned to his ship’s radio for the defining news of his day: the water level in Kaub, the shallowest part of the middle section of the Rhine, Germany’s most important shipping route. The news was […]

Scientists: Wind and drought worsen fires, not bad management – “Instead the result of our baking of our forests, woodlands, and grasslands with ever-worsening climate change”

By Seth Borenstein 12 November 2018 WASHINGTON (AP) – Both nature and humans share blame for California’s devastating wildfires, but forest management did not play a major role, despite President Donald Trump’s claims, fire scientists say.Nature provides the dangerous winds that have whipped the fires, and human-caused climate change over the long haul is killing […]

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