A “once-in-200 years” heat wave caught Southeast Asia off guard. Climate change will make them more common.

Map showing the thermal comfort index in Southeast Asia, averaged over the period 1 April 2023 - 25 May 2023. Thailand saw its hottest day in history at 45.4 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit) on 15 April 2023, while neighboring Laos topped out at 43.5 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit) for two consecutive days in May 2023, and Vietnam’s all-time record was broken in early May 2023 with 44.2 degrees Celsius (112 degrees Fahrenheit). Data: Copernicus Climate Change Service. Graphic: Lou Robinson / CNN

June 11, 2023

A “once-in-200 years” heat wave caught Southeast Asia off guard. Climate change will make them more common.

By Carlotta Dotto, Krystina Shveda, and Lou Robinson 7 June 2023 HONG KONG (CNN) – Every day, countless mopeds crisscross the congested city of Hanoi, in Vietnam, with commuters traveling to work or motorbike taxis dropping off everything from parcels to cooked food and clients. One of them is Phong, 42, who starts his shift […]

Smoke billowed from a fire near the town of Shelburne on 29 May 2023, when an astronaut on the International Space Station took this photograph. By the morning of 31 May 2023, after four days of burning, the fire had scorched 17,000 hectares (66 square miles) near the southern tip of Nova Scotia. It became the largest forest fire in the province’s history, according to CBC Nova Scotia, exceeding the area burned (13,000 hectares) by a fire in Guysborough County over six days in June 1976. Photo: Wanmei Liang / NASA Earth Observatory

June 11, 2023

How climate change factored into Nova Scotia’s wildfires – “All our infrastructure was built for a climate that doesn’t exist anymore”

By Nathan Coleman 7 June 2023 (The Weather Network) – Wildfires raging across Canada have already scorched more than 10 times the land than usual, causing a massive amount of damages in multiple provinces as dangerous air quality lingers overhead. “All our infrastructure was built for a climate that doesn’t exist anymore,” University of Toronto atmospheric physics […]

A view of the drought that affected the Los Bermejales reservoir, which was at 18 percent of its capacity in Arenas del Rey in Granada, Spain, on 13 May 2023. Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

June 11, 2023

Europe is struggling with a precarious water situation ahead of another drought-riven summer in 2023 – “A few years ago, I would never have imagined that water would be a problem here in Europe, especially in Germany or Austria”

By Sam Meredith 5 June 2023 (CNBC) – European policymakers are battling to get to grips with a growing water crisis ahead of what researchers fear could be yet another climate crisis-fueled summer of drought. Water resources in Europe are growing increasingly scarce because of the deepening climate emergency, with record-breaking temperatures through spring and a historic winter […]

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration at Mauna Loa observatory, 1958-2023. In 2023, heat-trapping carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere increased to a record high in its annual Spring peak, jumping at one of the fastest rates on record. Graphic: UC San Diego / Scripps Institution of Oceanography

June 11, 2023

Atmospheric carbon dioxide hits new peak in 2023, growing at near-record rate – “Not only is CO2 continuing to increase despite efforts to reduce emissions, but it’s increasing faster than it was 10 or 20 years ago”

By Seth Borenstein 5 June 2023 (AP News) – The cause of global warming is showing no signs of slowing as heat-trapping carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere increased to record highs in its annual Spring peak, jumping at one of the fastest rates on record, officials announced Monday. Carbon dioxide levels in the air are now the […]

The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River in the 1960s, before the Clean Air Act. Photo: Chester Higgins / EPA

June 11, 2023

35 vintage photos taken by the EPA reveal what American cities looked like before pollution was regulated

By James Pasley 8 June 2023 (Insider) – Don’t let the soft, sepia tones fool you. The United States used to be dangerously polluted. Before President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, the environment and its well-being was not a federal priority. In the early 1970s, the EPA launched the “The Documerica […]

Kansas wheat farmers in 2023 expected the worst harvest in 60 years due to ongoing drought. Photo: KCTV 5

June 11, 2023

Kansas wheat harvest in 2023 expected to be historically small due to two-year drought

By Morgan Mobley 5 June 2023 (KCTV) – Kansas has been called the country’s breadbasket. Now, wheat farmers in the state will reap their smallest harvest in more than 60 years. This will go directly down the chain, from farmers to consumers at the grocery store. Kansas flour mills will likely have to buy wheat […]

A home burns on 16 August 2021, south of Janesville, California. Photo: Ethan Swope / Associated Press

June 11, 2023

Allstate joins State Farm in suspending new policies in California – “The cost to insure new home customers in California is far higher than the price they would pay for policies due to wildfires, higher costs for repairing homes, and higher reinsurance premiums”

By Ryan Mac 4 June 2023 (The New York Times) – California property owners hoping to open new insurance policies are no longer able to do so with one of the nation’s largest homeowner insurance companies. Allstate, the state’s fourth-largest property and casualty insurance provider, has stopped selling new home, condominium or commercial insurance policies in California, […]

Views of the Manhattan skyline at 10:02 a.m., 11:56 a.m., 12:53 p.m., and 1:53 p.m. as smoke from Canada wildfires engulfed the Northeast U.S. on 7 June 2023. Photo: EarthCam

June 7, 2023

New York City air quality hits worst level on record as smoke from Canada wildfires engulfs the Northeast U.S. – “I can taste the air”

By Mike Ives and Liam Stack 7 June 2023 (The New York Times) – The sky in New York City rapidly darkened on Wednesday afternoon, as a plume of smoke from Canadian wildfires approached the nation’s largest city and sent the air quality index soaring past 324, the worst since the Environmental Protection Agency began […]

Change Over Time in (a) US Life Expectancy and (b) US Life Expectancy Gap and Rank Relative to Populous Countries (Population>500000), 1950-2021. Phase 1=1950–1954; phase 2=1955–1973; phase 3=1974–1982; phase 4=1983–2009; phase 5=2010–2019; phase 6=2020–2021. Bars plot the difference in life expectancy between the United States and the populous country (population >500000) with the highest life expectancy in the given year. The country with the highest life expectancy was Norway in 1950–1962 and 1976–1977, Sweden in 1963 and 1965–1975, the Netherlands in 1964, Japan in 1978–2007, Macao in 2008–2010, and Japan in 2011–2021. The line graph plots US rank relative to other populous countries, with higher rank denoting lower US life expectancy. Source: Author’s calculations based on UN data. Graphic: Steven H. Woolf MD, MPH, 2023 / AJPH

June 3, 2023

U.S. has been falling behind on life expectancy for decades – Between 1933 and 2021, 56 countries achieved higher life expectancy than U.S. – “Americans are sicker and die earlier than people in dozens of countries”

By Olivia Trani 1 June 2023 (VCU) – When it comes to public health, the United States is at a disadvantage compared with other developed countries. Americans experience more illness, have less access to health care and pay more for health services than citizens in other high-income countries. Americans also die earlier – and have been doing so […]

Composite image of Bruno Araújo Pereira, a renowned defender of the rights of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples, and Guardian reporter Dom Phillips. Both were murdered on 5 June 2022 for exposing organized crime committing acts of deforestation in Brazil. Graphic: Guardian Design / WWF / Getty Images / AP / AFP

June 3, 2023

One year after they were murdered, their work must go on – Forest defender Bruno Araújo Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips were assassinated in Brazil on 5 June 2022

By Katharine Viner 1 June 2023 (The Guardian) – Forest defenders should not be killed for exposing crimes. Journalists should not be killed for reporting facts. But, one year ago, the Guardian was devastated by the awful news that in the Amazon rainforest, two lives had been taken on the frontline of the battle to protect the […]

Desdemona Despair

Desdemona Despair