Graph of the Day – Page 28 – Desdemona Despair

World corn stocks in consumption days, 2008-2022 and projected to 2023. Poor weather in key agricultural regions from the United States to France and China is shrinking grain harvests and cutting inventories, heightening the risk of famine in some of the world's poorest nations. Data: International Grains Council. Graphic: Prinz Magtulis / Reuters

September 27, 2022

Droughts, Ukraine war push global grain stocks toward worrying decade low – “It’s lining up to be like 2012. No one wants to admit it, but it’s true.”

By Tom Polansek 26 September 2022 CHICAGO (Reuters) – The world is heading toward the tightest grain inventories in years despite the resumption of exports from Ukraine, as the shipments are too few and harvests from other major crop producers are smaller than initially expected, according to grain supply and crop forecast data. Poor weather […]

U.S. consumer debt excluding mortgages, 1989-2022. The bottom 90 percent of US households by wealth saw a record jump in consumer debt from June 2021 to June 2022 amid historic inflation. Data: Federal Reserve. Graphic: Bloomberg

September 27, 2022

Consumer debt hits record for most Americans, except the wealthy – “If your costs are rising and your wages are not picking up, how are people going to fill that gap?”

By Alex Tanzi 26 September 2022 (Bloomberg) – Most Americans are more indebted than ever, underscoring a persistent and widening wealth divide in the US. Consumer debt, including credit cards, rose to an all-time high for the 118 million US households among the bottom 90%, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest data on the distribution of household […]

Labor force participation impacts of health-related absences event study. The figure plots coefficient estimates βk from Equation 1, which represents the effect of a health-related absence during the pandemic on the probability of labor force participation k months before or after the absence. The blue, orange, and gray lines respectively plot estimates without demographic controls, with demographic controls, and with controls for demographics and labor market status. Gaps between months 3 and 9 are due to sample rotation. The color bands depict pointwise 95-percent confidence intervals. Standard errors are clustered at the worker level. Graphic: Goda and Soltas, 2022 / NBER

September 25, 2022

Study finds some 500,000 people have disappeared from U.S. workforce due to long COVID – “Many who fall ill but survive COVID-19 suffer from enduring health problems”

By Ciara Linnane 14 September 2022 (MarketWatch) – Some 500,000 workers have permanently disappeared from the U.S. workforce because of long COVID, according to a new report from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The report found that most patients who have suffered the lingering effects of the virus for months after infection moved straight from […]

Potential effect of high-temperature days on global life evaluations, 2021-2030. The estimated 17 percent drop in life evaluation by 2030 again does not take adaptability and recovery into account. However, this estimation is based on the increase in the number of high-heat days people will face globally by 2030, and is substantively meaningful. Graphic: Gallup

September 25, 2022

Rising global temperatures linked to declining wellbeing – “The analysis paints a bleak picture of the future”

By Benedicte Clouet and Nicole Willcoxon 31 August 2022 (Gallup) – As people around the world suffer through concurrent extreme heat waves, droughts, and wildfires, the effects of climate change are becoming a grim, global reality. Despite robust evidence of the environmental and economic costs of rising temperatures, far less is known about how these […]

The location of climate tipping elements in the cryosphere (blue), biosphere (green) and ocean/atmosphere (orange), and global warming levels their tipping points will likely be triggered at 1.5°C. Researchers see signs of destabilisation already in parts of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, in permafrost regions, the Amazon rainforest, and potentially the Atlantic overturning circulation as well. Graphic: Earth Commission / Globaïa

September 25, 2022

World at risk of passing multiple climate tipping points above 1.5°C global warming

8 September 2022 (Stockholm Resilience Centre) – Multiple climate tipping points could be triggered if global temperature rises beyond 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, according to a major new analysis published in the journal Science. Even at current levels of global heating the world is already at risk of passing five dangerous climate tipping points, and risks […]

Women carry belongings salvaged from their flooded home after monsoon rains, in the Qambar Shahdadkot district of Sindh Province, of Pakistan, 6 September 2022. The war in Ukraine, the lingering coronavirus pandemic and climate change are putting intense pressure on the world's poorest, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned. Photo: Fareed Khan / AP Photo

September 25, 2022

OECD: Russia war, COVID virus, and climate hurting world’s poorest – “We are in an era defined by multiple crises, shocks, and uncertainty″

By Paul Wiseman 19 September 2022 WASHINGTON (AP) – Russia’s war against Ukraine, the lingering coronavirus pandemic and the damage of climate change are putting intense pressure on the world’s poorest, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Monday. [States of Fragility 2022 –Des] The Paris-based OECD reported that 60 states, territories and locations […]

Map showing drought and famine prediction priority areas in Somalia by district, 31 August 2022. Famine is projected in Baidoa and Burhakaba districts, Bay region, during October-December 2022 unless life-saving assistance is urgently ramped up to reach the people most in need. About 7.8 million Somalis have been affected by the worst drought in four decades, with more than 1 million displaced by drought including nearly 99,000 in August Graphic: OCHA

September 25, 2022

Humanitarian organizations estimate one person dying of hunger every four seconds – “It is abysmal that with all the technology in agriculture and harvesting techniques today, we are still talking about famine in the 21st century”

20 September 2022 (Al Jazeera) – One person is estimated to be dying of hunger every four seconds, more than 200 NGOs have warned, urging decisive international action to “end the spiralling global hunger crisis”. In an open letter addressing world leaders gathering in New York for the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, 238 organisations from […]

Number of U.S. real estate parcels with any area below boundary tideline in 2050 by state. Graphic: Climate Central

September 18, 2022

Rising seas threaten U.S. tax bases as private property falls below tidelines – Tidal flooding to swamp $34 billion in real estate within 30 years

PRINCETON, N.J., 8 September 2022 (Climate Central) – New analysis from Climate Central quantifies the risk of sea level rise to the tax bases of hundreds of coastal counties across 24 states and Washington, D.C. as more land falls beneath the tideline. By 2100 more than 1 million properties with a combined assessed value exceeding $108 billion are projected to be […]

Sadness, Stress, and Worry scores for Afghanistan, 2008-2021. In 2021, Sadness, Stress and Worry hit record-high Levels in Afghanistan. Graphic: Gallup

September 18, 2022

Who are the unhappiest people in the world? In Afghanistan and Lebanon, more people live in misery than anywhere else on the planet

By Julie Ray 8 September 2022 (Gallup) – Unhappiness continued to rise worldwide in 2021, as the world overall became a sadder, more worried and more stressed-out place. But in two countries — Afghanistan and Lebanon — more people were living in misery than anywhere else on the planet. Last year, Afghanistan and Lebanon posted […]

Methane plume from a coal vent over Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania. Graphic: Carbon Mapper

September 18, 2022

Study finds super-emitters responsible for nearly 40 percent of methane emissions in five U.S. basins – “These findings drive home the need for swift action to advance strong methane rules in the U.S.”

PASADENA, 13 September 2022 (JPL) – A study released today by Carbon Mapper, University of Arizona, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Arizona State University, and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) shows that strong methane point sources contribute an average of 40% of total emissions across multiple basins in the U.S., revealing that a small number of […]