DoomiestGraph – Page 30 – Desdemona Despair

Global Human Development Index, 1990-2021. In 2021, the global Human Development Index value had declined two years in a row, erasing the gains of the preceding five years. The periods of the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic are indicated. Graphic: UNDP

September 17, 2022

Human Development Report 2022: For the first time, the Global Human Development Index declined for two years in a row, erasing the gains of the preceding five years – “The world is scrambling to respond to back-to-back crises”

NEW YORK, 8 September 2022 (UNDP) – The world is lurching from crisis to crisis, trapped in a cycle of firefighting and unable to tackle the roots of the troubles that confront us. Without a sharp change of course, we may be heading towards even more deprivations and injustices, warns the United Nations Development Programme […]

Satellite view of Europe in Summer 2021 and Summer 2022. In 2022, drought affected the whole of Europe. Photo: Copernicus EU

September 17, 2022

Satellite view shows Europe drying out in the drought of Summer 2022

By Ed Browne 7 September 2022 (Newsweek) – Scientists have released images of Europe from space that show just how arid the landscape has become as part of what may be the region’s worst drought in 500 years. Europe, like large swathes of the United States, is currently in the grip of extraordinary drought conditions that are […]

The conservation status of the world’s 58,497 tree species in 2022. Graphic: BGCI

September 17, 2022

At least one-third of Earth’s trees face extinction – Scientists issue “warning to humanity” that tree species extinction could bring economic as well as ecosystem crisis

LONDON, 1 September 2022 (BGCI) – Today a new paper by leading scientists and the Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) reveals the severe impact that tree species extinction will have on other species, ecosystems and livelihoods. This comes exactly one year on from the landmark State of the World’s Trees report, which examined global tree species and found that a […]

The emissions reduction targets publicly disclosed by European companies are now aligned with a 2.4°C decarbonization pathway, or 2.2°C if corporate Scope 3 emissions (value chain) are excluded. Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands — all with targets that support 2.2°C — have the best-performing corporate sectors, inclusive of all value-chain emissions. However, despite this progress, the average temperature ratings for corporates remain well above 1.5°C across all major European economies. Data: CDP data, Oliver Wyman analysis. Graphic: CDP

September 7, 2022

G7 company emissions falling short of global climate goal, study shows – “As we approach COP27, we must get our 1.5°C goal off life support”

By Juliette Portala 6 September 2022 (Reuters) – Companies in the Group of Seven (G7) economies are failing to meet Paris Climate Agreement objectives, non-profit disclosure platform CDP and global management consultancy Oliver Wyman said on Tuesday, based on current corporate pledges to cut emissions. [Missing the Mark: 2022 analysis of global CDP temperature ratings […]

Map of Thwaites Glacier shown in Landsat 8 satellite imagery collected in February 2019. The track of the mission of the autonomous underwater vehicle is shown in orange. Changes in grounding line positions of Thwaites Glacier in the recent past shown by colored lines. Graphic: Alastair Graham / University of South Florida

September 7, 2022

Antarctica “doomsday glacier” could raise global sea levels by 10 feet – “Thwaites is really holding on today by its fingernails”

By Li Cohen 6 September 2022 (CBS News) – The loss of a glacier the size of Florida in Antarctica could wreak havoc on the world as scientists expect it would raise global sea levels up to 10 feet. It’s already melting at a fast rate — and scientists say its collapse may only rapidly […]

Current food security outcomes, Baidoa and Burhakaba Districts in Bay of Somalia, July to September 2022 (left) and projected food security outcomes, Baidoa and Burhakaba Districts in Bay of Somalia, October to December 2022 (right). Famine (IPC Phase 5) is projected to emerge in three areas of Bay Region, Somalia, in late 2022 in the absence of urgent, multisectoral humanitarian assistance. Although levels of acute malnutrition among children and the rate of hunger-related deaths have not yet met the IPC’s technical definition of Famine (IPC Phase 5), those thresholds are expected to be reached during the October to December 2022 projection period based on currently available information that minimal humanitarian food assistance will be delivered in these areas in November and December due to funding constraints. Data: FEWS NET and FSNAU. Graphic: FEWS NET Somalia

September 5, 2022

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator says famine is at the door in Somalia – “The unprecedented failure of four consecutive rainy seasons, decades of conflict, mass displacement, severe economic issues are pushing many people to that brink”

Mogadishu, 5 September 2022 (OCHA) – The Somalia Food Security and Nutrition analysis report shows concrete indications that famine will occur in Baidoa and Burhakaba districts in south-central Somalia between October and December. Full remarks to the press by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths I have been shocked to my […]

Children use rafts to make their way along a waterlogged street in a residential area after a heavy monsoon rainfall in Hyderabad on 24 August 2022. Record monsoon rains were causing a “catastrophe of epic scale”, Pakistan's Climate Change Minister said August 24, announcing an international appeal for help in dealing with floods that have killed more than 800 people since June 2022. Photo: Akram SHAHID / AFP

September 5, 2022

Sleepwalking to destruction: World struck by relentless climate catastrophes – “We just would not get temperatures as high as we’ve seen without human-caused climate change”

By Nick O’Malley 3 September 2022 (The Sydney Morning Herald) – Authorities are having difficulties finding the words to properly capture the devastation caused by the floods that have swept across Pakistan in recent days, killing more than 1400 people and displacing up to 50 million as water inundates about a third of the country. […]

$Deforested area in the Amazon per year (left) and Ibama infraction notices for deforestation in the Amazon (right) in January 2022. PRODES calculates deforestation rates from August through July of the next year. Infraction numbers are also shown for August through July. Data: National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Ibama, Observatório do Clima. Graphic: The Washington Post$

September 5, 2022

Deforesters are plundering the Amazon. Brazil is letting them get away with it. – “No one goes to jail. They deforested 50 square miles. There were 23 arrests. In the end, no one’s in jail. And this was the biggest deforestation ring in Brazil.”

By Terrence McCoy 30 August 2022 BRASILÉIA, Brazil (The Washington Post) – Daniel Valle sped down Highway 317, closing in on the first targets of the day. He was in a hurry. Deforestation alerts had tripled in recent weeks. Police were warning that armed criminal groups had invaded new territory. Another season of destroying the […]

A firefighter adjusts his helmet as he stands guard to monitor a fire near Saint-Magne, southwestern France on 11 August 2022. Photo: Philippe Lopez / AFP

September 5, 2022

Will the summer of 2022 hasten France’s efforts to fight climate change? – “The summer of 2022 is probably the coolest you have experienced or will experience in the next 20 years”

4 September 2022 (France24) – The summer of 2022 was a record-breaking season, marked by several heatwaves, forest fires, and severe drought. These extreme weather events seem to have increased awareness of climate change among the French. But will it be followed by concrete action? Heatwaves, fires, drought, violent storms… The summer of 2022 broke […]

Changes in global average sea level (background map) and local sea level (dots) between 1993 and 2021. In the global ocean, sea level has risen nearly everywhere (blue). Coastal areas where sea level has fallen (brown) are places where the land is rising as it rebounds from being compressed by ice sheets and glaciers during the last ice age. NOAA Climate.gov map, based on data from University of Hawaii Sea Level Center. Graphic: NOAA

September 4, 2022

American Meteorological Society report: Record-high greenhouse gases and sea levels in 2021 – Ocean heat content highest on record

31 August 2022 (NOAA) – Greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea levels and ocean heat content reached record highs in 2021, according to the 32nd annual State of the Climate report. The international annual review of the world’s climate, led by scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information and published by the Bulletin of the […]