By Jason Horowitz 24 July 2018 MATI, Greece (The New York Times) – They nearly reached the water.As wind-fueled wildfires that killed at least 80 people in vacation areas outside Athens bore down on their seaside resort, 26 men, women and children gathered in the hope that they could find the narrow path leading to […]
By Niki Kitsantonis, Richard Pérez-Peña, and Russell Goldman 24 July 2018 ATHENS (The New York Times) – Fast-moving wildfires near Athens have killed at least 74 people, officials said on Tuesday, and have forced thousands of tourists and residents to flee in cars and buses, on foot, aboard boats and on makeshift rafts. In desperation, […]
WASHINGTON, 20 July 2018 (IFAW) – Conservationists are calling for an immediate end to commercial whaling in Iceland after genetic testing revealed a whale harpooned in Icelandic waters earlier this month was a rare blue/fin whale hybrid.There was international outcry after it was revealed that on July 7, whalers working for Kristjan Loftsson’s Hvalur hf, […]
21 July 2018 (The Economist) – Squeezing the top one percent ought to be the most natural thing in the world for politicians seeking to please the masses. Yet, with few exceptions, today’s populist insurgents are more concerned with immigration and sovereignty than with the top rate of income tax. This disconnect may be more […]
By Christopher C. Burt 13 July 2018 (Weather Underground) – The first five months of 2018 were the fourth warmest in global records going back to 1880, according to NOAA. Along the way, a number of extreme heat events have occurred already this year. In recent weeks across the Northern Hemisphere, these records have included […]
By Jonathan Watts 18 July 2018 (The Guardian) – At least 11 wildfires are raging inside the Arctic Circle as the hot, dry summer turns an abnormally wide area of Europe into a tinderbox.The worst affected country, Sweden, has called for emergency assistance from its partners in the European Union to help fight the blazes, […]
By Bob Henson 18 July 2018 (Weather Underground) – Temperatures soared into the nineties Fahrenheit north of the Arctic Circle on Tuesday and Wednesday, as 2018’s parade of exceptional heat continued marching across the Northern Hemisphere. This week has been northern Scandinavia’s turn under the sizzling klieg lights, including Lapland (Sápmi), the region of northern […]
Dr. Jeff Masters 16 July 2018 (Weather Underground) – June 2018 was the planet’s fifth-warmest June since record keeping began in 1880, said NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) on Monday. NASA rated June 2018 as tied for third-warmest June on record. NOAA found that the only warmer June months were 2016, 2015, 2017 […]
18 July 2018 (BBC News) – Forest fires raging across Sweden as far north as the Arctic Circle have prompted authorities to ask for international assistance. On Wednesday afternoon, 44 fires were burning from Lapland in the far north to the southern island of Gotland. Hot weather and persistent drought are the main causes, and […]
By Fintan O’Toole 26 June 2018 (The Irish Times) – To grasp what is going on in the world right now, we need to reflect on two things. One is that we are in a phase of trial runs. The other is that what is being trialled is fascism – a word that should be […]
