Graph of the Day – Page 77 – Desdemona Despair

Map showing the anomalies in temperature (°C) estimated from ERA5 during the 5-day period of 25-29 June 2019. Graphic: ECMWF / Copernicus Climate Change Service

July 3, 2019

June 2019 hottest ever recorded on Earth – “Temperature records haven’t just been broken. They have been obliterated.”

By Conrad Duncan 2 July 2019 (The Independent) – Last month was the hottest June ever recorded, the EU’s satellite agency has announced. Data provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the EU, showed that the global-average temperature for June 2019 was […]

Residents get water from a community well in Chennai after reservoirs for the city ran dry in June 2019. The bustling capital of Tamil Nadu state usually receives 825 million litres of water a day, but authorities are currently only able to supply 60 percent of that. With temperatures regularly hitting 40 degrees Celsius, reservoirs have run dry and other water sources are dwindling each day. Photo: Arun Sankar / AFP

July 1, 2019

Why India’s Chennai has run out of water

By Nityanand Jayaraman 1 July 2019 (BBC News) – As I write this, it has rained in Chennai – the first real welcome shower, but one that lasted only 30 minutes. But, still, that has been enough to flood the streets and stall traffic. The irony is that Chennai’s vulnerability to floods and its water […]

A motorist drives on top of the Kariba Dam wall in Kariba, Zimbabwe, 19 February 2016. Photo: Philimon Bulawayo / REUTERS

June 30, 2019

Too much water or too little: Hydropower fights wild weather as climate changes rapidly

By Gerald Porter Jr. and Jeremy Hodges 22 June 2019 (Bloomberg) – The Kariba Dam has towered over one of Africa’s mightiest rivers for 60 years, forming the world’s largest reservoir and providing reliable electricity to Zambia and Zimbabwe. But as drought grips the region, flow on the Zambezi river has dwindled to a third of what […]

Ice extent for selected glaciers in Glacier National Park in 1966 and 2015. Graphic: The New York Times

June 30, 2019

Glacier National Park’s name will outlive its glaciers – “It’s just kind of sad to see”

By Doug Struck 18 June 2019 GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, MONTANA (The Christian Science Monitor) – Maria Clemens took time off from her post-college summer job on a Montana ranch to hike into this national park to see a glacier. “I don’t like it,” she pronounced on the trail as she returned. “It’s just kind of […]

U.S. federal deficit projected to 2049. If current laws generally remained unchanged, large budget deficits would boost federal debt to unprecedented levels over the next 30 years. Graphic: CBO

June 30, 2019

U.S. federal debt on track to reach unsustainable level in 30 years, CBO reports

By Jennifer Haberkorn 25 June 2019 (Los Angeles Times) – The nation’s federal debt by the end of the year will reach the highest level since shortly after World War II and is on pace to reach historic and unsustainable levels within 30 years, according to a government report released Tuesday. The federal debt already […]

In 2009, G20 governments pledged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, but a decade on they still provide billions of dollars of support to coal alone. G20 support for coal-fired power plants increased from $17 billion to $47 billion in just three years. Graphic: ODI

June 30, 2019

G20 countries triple coal subsidies despite climate crisis – “It has now been 10 years since the G20 committed to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, yet astonishingly some governments are actually increasing the amount they give to coal power plants”

By Damian Carrington 24 June 2019 (The Guardian) – G20 countries have almost tripled the subsidies they give to coal-fired power plants in recent years, despite the urgent need to cut the carbon emissions driving the climate crisis. The bloc of major economies pledged a decade ago to phase out all fossil fuel subsidies. The figures, published […]

Rise in U.S. suicide rates between 1999 and 2016, by state. Data: CDC National Vital Statistics System / CDC Vital Signs, June 2018. Graphic: CDC

June 30, 2019

All-American Despair: For the past two decades, a suicide epidemic fueled by guns, poverty, and isolation has swept across the U.S. West, with middle-aged men dying in record numbers

By Stephen Rodrick 30 May 2019 (Rolling Stone) – Toby Lingle was cremated in a 49ers cap, a Star Wars T-shirt and sunglasses shortly after his funeral at Highland Park Community Church in Casper, Wyoming. He was 43. The outfit was the daily wear for an aggressively coarse and casual man. Lingle was that guy, […]

Observed temperatures in Southern France on 28 June 2019. At least 12 French stations broke the old national record of 44.1°C, with a peak of 45.9°C in Gallargues-le-Montueux. Graphic: infoclimat.fr

June 29, 2019

Wildfires and power cuts plague Europe as heatwave breaks records – Hottest day in French history beats record by 1.8°C (3.2°F) – 2019 on track to be among hottest years ever

By Gus Trompiz and Joan Faus 29 June 2019 PARIS/MADRID (Reuters) – Hundreds of firefighters battled on Saturday to contain wildfires in southern France as a stifling heatwave brought record-breaking temperatures to parts of Europe, killing at least three people in Italy. In the Gard region, where France’s highest temperature on record was registered on […]

Share of people who believe vaccines are safe in 2018. Data: Gallup World Poll 2018. Graphic: Wellcome

June 29, 2019

France, Russia top list of anti-vaccine nations – Social media the vector for “real infection of misinformation”

By Michael Skapinker 26 June 2019 (Financial Times) – The richer countries are, the less their citizens believe that vaccines are safe. In the US and Canada, only 72 per cent believe vaccines are safe. In the northern European arc from Ireland and the UK through the Nordic countries, the figure is about 73 per […]

Overdose deaths, by opioid category in the United States of America, 1999–2017. Data: Holly Hedegaard, Arialdi M. Miniño, and Margaret Warner, “Drug overdose deaths in the United States, 1999–2017”, NCHS Data Brief, No. 329 (Hyattsville, Maryland, United States, National Center for Health Statistics, November 2018). Graphic: UNODC

June 28, 2019

Two-thirds of global drug deaths now from opioids: UN drugs report – Cocaine production at all-time high

26 June 2019 (UN News) – Opioids, which include both heroin and legal pain relievers, were responsible for around two-thirds of drug-related deaths in 2017, the latest World Drug Report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed on Wednesday. The study from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), also shows that the […]