Graph of the Day – Page 4 – Desdemona Despair

Gun-related mass murders and fatalities in the U.S., 2019-2023. The pace of mass murder shootings continued to accelerate in the U.S. in 2023, hitting new records for both the number of attacks and the number of people killed. The year ended with a grim toll of 40 mass murder shootings, which left 207 people dead. Data: gunviolencearchive.org. Graphic: The Messenger

December 30, 2023

Mass shooting deaths in U.S. hit record in 2023: More than 200 people killed in 40 mass murders – “People are just getting numb to it”

By Safia Samee Ali 25 December 2023 (The Messenger) – The pace of mass murder shootings continued to accelerate in the U.S. in 2023, hitting a new record for both the number of attacks and the number of people killed. The year ended with a grim toll of 40 mass murder shootings — which left […]

Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2021 and trend since 2000, including inventory-based Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) CO2 in GtCO2e (top) and Per capita GHG emissions in 2021 and trend since 2000, including inventory-based LULUCF CO2 in tCO2e/capita (bottom). Graphic: UNEP

December 29, 2023

Petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels, says UN report – “These plans throw humanity’s future into question. Governments must stop saying one thing and doing another.”

By Damian Carrington 8 November 2023 (The Guardian) – The world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over, a UN report has found. Experts called the plans “insanity” which “throw humanity’s future into question”. The energy plans of the petrostates contradicted their climate policies and pledges, the report said. […]

A map of the world plotted with some of the most significant climate events that occurred during November 2023. Graphic: NOAA/NCEI

December 29, 2023

NOAA reports 2023 hottest year on record, so far – “We will look back at 2023 and think of it as: remember that year that wasn’t so bad?”

By Lauren Sommer 28 December 2023 (NPR) – As 2023 draws to a close, it’s going out on top. “It’s looking virtually certain at this point that 2023 will be the hottest year on record,” says Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, a non-profit that analyzes climate trends. Though temperature records from December have […]

A church is surrounded by water in a flooded neighborhood in Kherson, Ukraine, following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June 2023. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka / Associated Press

December 28, 2023

Water increasingly at the center of conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East – “It’s very disturbing that in particular attacks on civilian water infrastructure seem to be on the rise”

By Ian James 28 December 2023 (Los Angeles Times) – Six months ago, an explosion ripped apart Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine, unleashing floods that killed 58 people, devastated the landscape along the Dnipro River and cut off water to productive farmland. The destruction of the dam — which Ukrainian officials and the European Parliament blame on Russia, […]

Map showing seasonal distribution of cumulative concentrations of target contaminants in the dissolved phase of snow collected in snow pits at the top of each glacier in the snowpack on north-western Spitsbergen. Spring – S; Winter – W; Fall – F. BP3 and BPA not displayed in the HDF S sample. Graphic: D'Amico, et al., 2023 / Science of The Total Environment

December 26, 2023

Traces of sunscreen agents in the snow at the North Pole – “Many of the contaminants we have analysed had never been identified in Arctic snow before”

20 December 2023 (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) – Traces of sunscreen agents were found at the North Pole, on the glaciers of the Svalbard archipelago. They were mainly deposited in winter, when night falls over the Arctic. A study conducted by researchers from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the Institute of Polar Sciences – National […]

Evolutionary changes in floral, vegetative, reproductive and rewarding traits, and attractiveness of Viola arvensis. We measured floral traits (a, b) in the first five developed flowers per individual (N ≈ 4000). (a) Floral area (multiplication of labellum width × corolla length). (b) Number of nectar guides. (c) Rosette diameter, measured on each plant at the start of flowering (n = 792). (d) Log-ratio of seeds produced in self-pollination compared to open pollination as a proxy of selfing ability, measured by collecting one fruit in self-pollination and one in open pollination per plant (n = 693). (e) Nectar production measured as the sum of the volume in three flowers per plants on fifty plants per population (n = 400). (f) Bumblebee preferences measured as proportion of visits per plant to a mixed plantation of 10 plants of the ancestral and 10 of the descendant populations of a single locality, exposed together to bumblebees. We recorded the number of visits to each plant by a flying bumblebee for 10 to 15 min in 6 to 8 replicates per location and divided it by the total number of visits during the flight (only visited plants are represented). The first two letters are the name of the locality (Co, Commeny; Cr, Crouy; Gu, Guernes; Lh, Lhuys). ‘A’ (triangles) ancestral population (collected in 2000 for Co, 1993 for Cr, 2001 for Gu and 1992 for Lh) and ‘D’ (circles) descendant population (all collected in 2021). Graphic: Samson Acoca-Pidolle, et al., 2023 / New Phytologist

December 26, 2023

Flowers “giving up” on scarce insects and evolving to self-pollinate, say scientists – “Our results show that the ancient interactions linking pansies to their pollinators are disappearing fast”

By Phoebe Weston 19 December 202 (The Guardian) – Flowers are “giving up on” pollinators and evolving to be less attractive to them as insect numbers decline, researchers have said. A study has found the flowers of field pansies growing near Paris are 10% smaller and produce 20% less nectar than flowers growing in the same fields […]

Trends in the prevalence of severe obesity among U.S. children aged 2 to 4 years enrolled in WIC from 2010 to 2020 by (A) sex, (B) age, (C) race and ethnicity, and (D) household income. Graphic: Zhao, et al., 2023 / Pediatrics

December 26, 2023

New study bolsters evidence that severe obesity is increasing in young kids in the U.S. – “We are thinking it’s going to get worse”

By Mike Stobbe 17 December 2023 NEW YORK (AP) – A new study adds to evidence that severe obesity is becoming more common in young U.S. children. There was some hope that children in a government food program might be bucking a trend in obesity rates — earlier research found rates were dropping a little about a […]

Estimates of individuals experiencing homelessness in the U.S. by sheltered status, 2007-2023. Graphic: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

December 26, 2023

Homelessness in U.S. rose to record level in 2023, government says – “Without a significant policy response, this problem will continue to get worse”

By Jason DeParle 15 December 2023 (The New York Times) – Homelessness surged this year to the highest level on record, the federal government reported on Friday. An annual head count, conducted in January, found the homeless population had increased by more than 70,000 people, or 12 percent. That is the largest one-year jump since the Department […]

Graph showing temperatures and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide over the past 66 million years. Paleo-CO2 (including 95 percent credible intervals) is superimposed on the GMST trend over the past 66 million years. Age and CO2 labels highlight notable climate extrema and transitions as described in the text. Graphic: CenCO2PIP, Science 2023

December 25, 2023

A new 66 million-year history of carbon dioxide offers little comfort for today – “Regardless of exactly how many degrees the temperature changes, it’s clear we have already brought the planet into a range of conditions never seen by our species”

By Kevin Krajick 7 December 2023 (Columbia Climate School) – A massive new review of ancient atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels and corresponding temperatures lays out a daunting picture of where the Earth’s climate may be headed. The study covers geologic records spanning the past 66 million years, putting present-day concentrations into context with deep time. Among […]

Screenshot of the Human Climate Horizons platform, showing projected sea level rise (cm) in the 2040-2059 time horizon under the intermediate carbon emissions scenario (SSP2-4.5). Australis, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and and the Pacific islands of Oceania are shown. The global average sea level rise is projected to be more than 18 cm. Graphic: UNDP

December 25, 2023

Climate change’s impact on coastal flooding to increase by five times over this century – “The effects of rising sea levels will put at risk decades of human development progress in densely populated coastal zones which are home to one in seven people in the world”

28 November 2023 (UNDP) – According to new data on the Human Climate Horizons platform, a collaboration between the Climate Impact Lab and UNDP, increased coastal flooding this century will put over 70 million people in the path of expanding floodplains. Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, and Small Island Developing […]