By Julie Ray 25 April 2019 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Gallup) – Even as their economy roared, more Americans were stressed, angry, and worried last year than they have been at most points during the past decade. Asked about their feelings the previous day, the majority of Americans (55%) in 2018 said they had experienced stress during […]
By Mikaela Weisse and Liz Goldman 25 April 2019 (Global Forest Watch) – The tropics lost 12 million hectares of tree cover in 2018, the fourth-highest annual loss since record-keeping began in 2001. Of greatest concern is the disappearance of 3.6 million hectares of primary rainforest, an area the size of Belgium. The figures come […]
By Bob Henson 25 April 2019 (Weather Underground) – Tropical Cyclone Kenneth slammed onto the coast of far northern Mozambique around 4 pm Thursday afternoon local time (10:15 am EDT) as a potentially catastrophic Category 4 storm. Just before landfall, at 12Z (8 am EDT), Kenneth’s top sustained winds were pegged at 120 knots (140 mph)—solidly […]
By Bob Bryan22 March 2019 (Business Insider) – The US posted a record budget deficit in the month of February, according to a new report from the Treasury Department. The budget deficit for February came in at $234 billion, according to the Treasury, higher than the previous monthly record of $231.7 billion set in 2012. […]
By Dr. Jeff Masters 23 April 2019 (Weather Underground) – Five weeks after catastrophic Tropical Cyclone Idai brought Mozambique its greatest natural disaster in history—with over 600 killed and damages in excess of $1 billion—a new tropical cyclone, Kenneth, threatens the nation. As of the 10 am EDT Tuesday advisory from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), […]
By Oliver Milman 15 April 2019 SELMA, Alabama (The Guardian) – West Jefferson, Alabama, a somnolent town of around 420 people north-west of Birmingham, was an unlikely venue to seize the national imagination. Now, it has the misfortune to be forever associated with the “poop train”. David Brasfield, a retired coalminer who has lived in […]
By Julia Rosen 8 April 2019 (Los Angeles Times) – By the end of the century, the manifold consequences of unchecked climate change will cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars per year, according to a new study by scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency. Those costs will come in multiple forms, including water shortages, […]
By Laura Reiley and Andrew Van Dam 13 April 2019 (The Washington Post) – The Agriculture Department’s newly released 2017 Census of Agriculture is 820 pages of graphs, tables and puzzling shifts (half as many llamas but the number of minks rose toward 1 million). This census comes out every five years and is the most […]
4 March 2019 (NCEI) – Deadly severe wildfires in California have scientists scrutinizing the underlying factors that could influence future extreme events. Using climate simulations and paleoclimate data dating back to the 16th century, a recent study looks closely at long-term upper-level wind and related moisture patterns to find clues. The new research published by the Proceedings of the […]
By Jeffrey M. Jones 18 April 2019 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Gallup) – As Christian and Jewish Americans prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover, respectively, Gallup finds the percentage of Americans who report belonging to a church, synagogue or mosque at an all-time low, averaging 50% in 2018. U.S. church membership was 70% or higher from 1937 […]
