Graph of the Day – Page 79 – Desdemona Despair

This forecast for 6 June 2019 shows the temperature anomaly (difference from normal) in India. Red shades show areas where the temperature is hotter than normal. Graphic: WeatherBell Analytics

June 17, 2019

Indian villages lie empty as drought forces thousands to flee – Sick and elderly left to fend for themselves – No water left in 35 major dams

By Sam Relph 11 June 2019 DELHI (The Guardian) – Hundreds of Indian villages have been evacuated as a historic drought forces families to abandon their homes in search of water. The country has seen extremely high temperatures in recent weeks. On Monday the capital, Delhi, saw its highest ever June temperature of 48C. In Rajasthan, […]

Erosion in Akiak, Alaska swallowed 75 to 100 feet of Kuskokwim River banks along the village on 20 May 2019. Photo: Ivan Ivan / City of Akiak / KYUK News

June 16, 2019

Alaska is melting and it’s likely to accelerate global heating – “Every year there’s a new temperature record, it’s getting worse and worse and you feel like a broken record saying it”

By Oliver Milman 14 June 2019 (The Guardian) – A city in western Alaska has lost a huge stretch of riverbank to erosion that may turn it into an island, amid renewed warnings from scientists over the havoc triggered by the accelerating melting of the state’s ice and permafrost. Residents of the small city of […]

One-in-30-year heat-related mortality that is avoidable by stabilizing future warming at the 1.5° and 2°C Paris Agreement thresholds rather than 3°C. The point estimates show the mean 1-in-30-year mortality level across 101 plausible exposure-response relationships, whereas the error bars show the 95% eCI accounting for uncertainties from internal climate variability and the exposure-response relationship. All estimates assume constant population. Confidence intervals that do not include 0 (dotted line on each panel) indicate a statistically significant number of avoidable deaths. The size of each bubble on the central map is proportional to the square root of the city’s population in July 2016. The color of each bubble indicates the city’s projected population change between 2015 and 2040. Graphic: Lo, et al., 2019 / Science Advances

June 16, 2019

Adjusting carbon emissions to the Paris climate commitments would prevent thousands of heat-related deaths per city – “Compelling evidence for the heat-related health benefits of limiting global warming to 1.5°C”

5 June 2019 (University of Bristol) – Thousands of annual heat-related deaths could be potentially avoided in major US cities if global temperatures are limited to the Paris Climate Goals compared with current climate commitments, a new study led by the University of Bristol has found. The research, published today in the journal Science Advances, is […]

Indexed trend of feelings of worry, sadness, and stress, 2008-2018. Globally, feelings of sadness, stress, and worry have increased by a combined average of eight percentage points. Data: Gallup World Poll, IEP. Graphic: IEP

June 13, 2019

Global peacefulness improves for first time in five years, but world still less peaceful than a decade ago

12 June 2019 (IEP) – The 13th edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) report, the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness, reveals that the average level of global peacefulness improved for the first time in five years. However, despite improvement, the world remains considerably less peaceful now than a decade ago, with the […]

Spatial patterns of projected biomass changes. Shown are global ensemble projections at a 1 × 1 degree resolution for (A, C, and E) RCP2.6 and (B, D, and F) RCP8.5. (A and B) Multimodel mean change (percent, n = 10) in total marine animal biomass in 2090–2099 relative to 1990–1999 without fishing. (C and D) Variability among different ecosystem model and ESM combinations expressed as 1 SD. (E and F) Model agreement (percent) on the direction of change. Graphic: Lotze, et al., 2019 / PNAS

June 13, 2019

Study projects substantial declines in large fish and marine species with warming oceans – “There are substantial consequences for marine ecosystems on a global scale”

By Alison Auld 11 June 2019 (Dal News) – Populations of large fish and other marine species will decline steadily if little is done to stem the effects of climate change, according to a study led by Dalhousie University researchers that shows how greenhouse gas emissions could cause widespread global stock losses and habitat shifts. […]

The Chilean crocus, Tecophilaea cyanocrocus. Photo: Richard Wilford

June 12, 2019

Almost 600 plant species have already gone extinct – “Plant extinction is bad news for all species”

By Amanda Gonzalez Bengtsson 11 June 2019 (Stockholm University) – For the first time ever, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Stockholm University, have compiled a global analysis of all plant extinction records documented from across the world. This unique dataset published today in leading journal, Nature Ecology & Evolution, brings together data […]

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro talks to journalists. Photo: Brazil’s Presidency / Flickr Commons

June 11, 2019

Brazil guts environmental agencies, clears way for unchecked deforestation – “If before, staff were already being attacked by loggers, imagine what it is like with the president’s endorsement of the criminals”

By Sue Branford and Thais Borges 10 June 2019 (Mongabay) – The Brazilian government’s environmental agency, IBAMA, has so far this year imposed the lowest number of fines for illegal deforestation in at least 11 years, while the country’s other leading environmental agency and its federal parks’ protector, ICMBio (the Chico Mendes Institute), did not […]

Carbon emissions from the power sector 2018. Graphic: BP

June 11, 2019

BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2019: “A growing mismatch between hopes and reality”

By Spencer Dale 11 June 2019 (BP) – The Statistical Review of World Energy has been providing timely and objective energy data for the past 68 years. In addition to the raw data, the Statistical Review also provides a record of key energy developments and events through time. My guess is that when our successors […]

June 10, 2019

Simultaneous heatwaves caused by anthropogenic climate change – “If in future more and more key agricultural regions and densely populated areas are affected by simultaneous heatwaves, this would have severe consequences”

By Peter Rüegg 9 April 2019 (ETH) – Without the climate change caused by human activity, simultaneous heatwaves would not have hit such a large area as they did last summer. This is the conclusion of researchers at ETH Zurich based on observational and model data. Many people will remember last summer – not only […]

June 9, 2019

“Day Zero” in India looming for millions

By Dr. Jeff Masters 6 June 2019 (Weather Underground) – In early 2018, a three-year drought pushed Cape Town, South Africa, within weeks of experiencing “Day Zero”—the day when the city would run out of water and the taps be shut off. Fortunately, extreme water conservation efforts and the arrival of timely rains pushed “Day […]