Lake Sawa in Iraq, 6 July 2022. The lake is filled with only 5 percent to 10 percent of its initial area. Photo: Laurence Geai / Le Monde

Iraq’s fertile valley is dying – Authorities estimate that the Euphrates could dry up as early as 2040

By Hélène Sallon 21 August 2022 (Le Monde) – From the top of the old tourist complex built on the shores of Lake Sawa, in the province of Al-Muthanna in southern Iraq, the desert stretches as far as the eye can see. The buildings have been abandoned since the 2003 US-British invasion. “In the past, […]

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

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

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. […]

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

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 […]

A sunken boat that sat underwater for years has been exposed as Lake Mead continues to recede after years of chronic overuse and drought worsened by rising temperatures. Photo: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Facing “dead pool” risk, California braces for painful water cuts from Colorado River – “It’s very scary. If there’s no river, then you have no community.”

By Ian James 4 September 2022 (Los Angeles Times) – California water districts are under growing pressure to shoulder substantial water cutbacks as the federal government pushes for urgent solutions to prevent the Colorado River’s badly depleted reservoirs from reaching dangerously low levels. California has the largest water entitlement of any state on the Colorado […]

The dried-up river Tille in Lux, France in 2022. Photo: Nicholas Garriga / Associated Press

Europe was once green and water-rich. Now, it’s more and more like California – “Climate change kills. It kills people, kills our ecosystem, the biodiversity.”

By Jaweed Kaleem and Scott Johnson 4 September 2022 (Los Angeles Times) – Each spring and summer, Frederic Esniol plants millions of seeds for lettuce sold at big grocery chains, making his family farm a jewel of this historically bountiful region of France. But this year, a menacing combination of dry skies and record-setting heat […]

In the summer months, forest fires cover large parts of the Republic of Sakha with dense smoke. Image from an expedition cruise in August 2021, during which sediments from numerous lakes were sampled. Photo: Ramesh Glückler

In East Siberia, extreme wildfires are on the rise – “A shift in forest structure may result in a positive feedback on currently intensifying wildfires”

29 August 2022 (AWI) – In the past several years, East Siberia has repeatedly been hit by extreme wildfires. In order to understand which conditions promote the occurrence of wildfires in the region, a team of researchers led by Ramesh Glückler and Elisabeth Dietze from the Alfred Wegener Institute has now investigated the connections between […]

A firefighting vehicle rolls through the burn zone of the Route fire near Castaic, California in August 2022. Photo: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Headlines for 3 September 2022 – China warns of “severe” threat to harvest after hottest summer on record – Dry pastures force Texas ranchers to slaughter ever more cows

3 September 2022 (Desdemona Despair) – The terrible summer of 2022 has overwhelmed Desdemona’s ability to track the climate disasters that are multiplying around the world. There’s no reason to expect the rate of environmental catastrophe to slow, so Des has decided that automation is necessary to keep this blog relevant and current. The idea […]

Aerial view of Lake Powell in Page, Arizona on 5 April 2022, showing water levels at a historic low. Photo: RJ Sangosti / MediaNews Group / The Denver Post / Getty Images

A shrinking Lake Powell heralds an even worse water crisis in the Southwest’s future – “These trends are on a tragic collision course, underscoring the urgency once again of concerted action on climate”

By Matthew Rozsa 29 August 2022 (Salon) – As climate change worsens, Americans who live in the Southwest will be hit very, very hard: experts predict that large cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas are going to be uninhabitable within decades, as will the surrounding metropolitan areas in their home states of Arizona and Nevada. Those regions […]

Firefighters embrace as they work to contain a fire in Saint-Magne, as wildfires continue to spread in the Gironde region of southwestern France, 11 August 2022. Stephane Mahe / REUTERS

Drought in England, fires rage in France as heatwave persists

By Stephane Mahe and Manuel Ausloos 13 August 2022 SAINT-MAGNE, France (Reuters) – Firefighters from across Europe came to France’s rescue on Friday to battle a massive wildfire, while fire also raged in Portugal and parts of England faced a severe drought, as successive heatwaves renewed the focus on climate change risks. Much of Europe […]

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