While long and severe drought in the US state of Georgia is officially “over”, and water restrictions going “off” across the US Southeast, the Canadian prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as pictured) are suffering an historic drought that may have serious impacts on farmers and food production. The Globe & Mail reports that “In […]
By Adam Morton The ocean is warming about 50 per cent faster than reported two years ago, according to an update of the latest climate science. A report compiling research presented at a science congress in Copenhagen in March says recent observations are near the worst-case predictions of the 2007 report by the United Nations’ […]
From Calculated Risk: This graph shows Capacity Utilization. This series is at another record low (the series starts in 1967). In addition to the weakness in industrial production, there is little reason for investment in new production facilities until capacity utilization recovers. … Industrial Production Declines, Capacity Utilization at Record Low Technorati Tags: financial collapse
Reindeer and caribou numbers are plummeting around the world. By Matt Walker The first global review of their status has found that reindeer and caribou numbers are plummeting around the world. It is increasingly difficult for the deer to survive in a world warmed by climate change and altered by industrial development, say scientists. The […]
From Calculated Risk: This graph shows the unemployment rate by four level of education. … Note that the unemployment rate has risen sharply for all categories in 2009. For “less than a high school diploma” the rate has increased from 9% in 2009 to almost 16% in May. Education matters! Unemployment Rate and Level of […]
From Calculated Risk: From MarketWatch: U.S. consumer debt falls by $15.7 billion Consumer credit fell by $15.7 billion, or 7.4% at an annual rate, to $2.52 trillion. It was the second largest decline in outstanding debt on record, exceeded by March’s $16.6 billion drop. This graph shows the year-over-year change in consumer credit. Consumer credit […]
From Calculated Risk: Mark Lomanno, President of Smith Travel Research gave a presentation on hotel performance in New York. Stacey Higgins at HotelNewsNow has some details: NYU: By the numbers When contrasting this downturn with others, one of the most important differences is that as demand has declined at historically low rates, supply is still […]
From the Human Impact Report, page 85: The approach of comparing the trends in weather-related and geophysical disasters is based on an analysis of loss-generating events in the publication Journal of Flood Risk. The article states that by “Assuming the socio-economic driving factors behind loss-generating events to be the same for all causes, the difference […]
From Calculated Risk: The graph is of the monthly Philly Fed data of the number of states with one month increasing activity. Most of the U.S. has been in recession since December 2007 based on this indicator. Almost all states showed declining activity in April. Still a widespread recession. … Philly Fed State Coincident Indexes […]
American west threatened by more heatwaves than past models have predicted By Hannah Hoag Extreme temperatures are expected to become more common in the western United States by 2040 if greenhouse gases continue to rise, researchers say. Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and his colleagues simulated climate change […]
