Washington Post (April 1)
“Earth has a long-running fever that shows little signs of easing. The planet has set high temperature records in each of the last nine months, and March is poised to become the 10th. Multiple locations around the world observed unprecedented heat on the month’s final weekend, as if to put an exclamation mark on this exceptional run of warmth.”
Tags: Earth, Exceptional, Fever, Heat, High, March, Planet, Records, Temperature, Unprecedented, Weekend, World
Washington Post (August 22)
“As a heat dome promises to smash more records this week across swaths of the Midwest, South and Southeast. The country can expect that extreme heat, which already kills more people than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined, will only worsen in the coming summers.” Cities can do little “to reduce the intensity of hurricanes” or change the path of tornadoes, but they can intervene to “reduce heat-wave intensity.” Almost “80 percent of the U.S. population lives” in cities where “the urban heat island effect can increase temperatures by 8 degrees.” Measures like requiring “reflective building materials, such as cool roofs;” and “increasing green spaces” can lower “peak temperatures by as much as 2 to 9 degrees Celsius.”
Tags: Cool roofs; Green spaces, Extreme, Floods, Heat dome, Heat wave, Hurricanes, Intensity, Intervene, Records, Reflective building materials, Summers, Temperatures, Tornadoes, U.S., Urban heat island
Washington Post (August 3)
“The world just got its first real taste of what life is like at 1.5 degrees Celsius.” July was far and away the hottest month ever recorded. Previously, “the world had briefly passed over 1.5 degrees for a few times” but always during the Northern Hemisphere’s winter, which muted “impacts on the largest population centers. This was the first month where temperatures were that far above preindustrial levels and most of the world’s population was under hot, summer conditions.”
Tags: 1.5 degrees, Hot, Hottest, Impacts, July, Northern Hemisphere, Population centers, Preindustrial levels, Records, Summer conditions, Temperatures, Winter
The Guardian (July 26)
“Every one of Japan’s 47 prefectures posted a population drop in 2022, while the total number of Japanese people fell by nearly 800,000,” marking “two new unwelcome records for a nation sailing into uncharted demographic territory, but on a course many other countries are set to follow.”
Tags: 2022, Demographic, Drop, Japan, Population, Prefectures, Records, Uncharted, Unwelcome
Newsweek (April 30)
“Familiar alarm bells sounded in Japan this month as year-end population figures and new projections combined to paint an uncertain future for Asia’s No. 2 economy.” The latest figures show a “12th consecutive annual decline” with the nation’s population standing “at 124.94 million for the year to October, a decrease of over half a million people from 2021.” Moreover, “the working population, aged 15 to 64, fell to 74.2 million, and those above 65 reached 36.23 million—both respective records.” Japan is approaching the “point of no return.”
Tags: 124.94 million, Alarm bells, Asia, Decline, Decrease, Japan, No. 2 economy, Point of no return, Population, Projections, Records, Uncertain future
BBC (November 15)
“Britain’s stock market has lost its position as Europe’s most-valued,” marking “the first time Paris has overtaken London since records began…. The combined value of British shares is now around $2.821 trillion (£2.3 trillion), while France’s are worth around $2.823 trillion.” Factors behind the shift include “a weak pound, fears of recession in the UK and surging sales at French luxury goods makers.”
Tags: $2.823 trillion, Britain, Europe, Fears, First, France, London, Most-valued, Overtaken, Paris, Recession, Records, Shares, Stock market, Surging sales, UK, Weak pound
BBC (November 3)
“The Bank of England has warned the UK is facing its longest recession since records began, as it raised interest rates by the most in 33 years,” indicating that “the UK would face a ‘very challenging’ two-year slump with unemployment nearly doubling by 2025.” The BoE’s forecast paints “a picture of a painful economic period, with the UK performing worse than the US and the Eurozone.”
Tags: 2025, BOE, Challenging, Doubling, Forecast, Interest rates, Longest, Painful, Recession, Records, Slump, U.S., UK, Unemployment, Warned, Worse
Wall Street Journal (November 1)
The European Union’s statistics agency released figures that surprised most economists. “Consumer prices were 10.7% higher in October than a year earlier.” This marks “the fastest rate of increase since records began in 1997, two years before the euro was launched,” while at the national level “Germany’s measure of inflation was the highest since December 1951.”
Tags: 10.7%, 1997, Consumer prices, Economists, EU, euro, Fastest, Germany, Highest, Increase, Inflation, October, Records, Statistics agency, Surprised
BBC (July 20)
“Heat records tumbled and firefighters faced new blazes as much of Western Europe baked in a gruelling heatwave.” The UK “saw temperatures of more than 40C (104F) for the first time.” Germany had “its hottest day of the year,” as did the Netherlands, while in France “37,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes” due to wildfires. In the past week, Portugal alone has recorded “more than 1,000 heatwave-related deaths.”
Tags: Blazes, Deaths, Firefighters, France, Germany, Gruelling, Heat, Heatwave, Netherlands, Portugal, Records, Temperatures, UK, Western Europe, Wildfires
Washington Post (June 25)
“In a blistering hot June around the Northern Hemisphere, in which heat records have fallen on every continent, Japan is the latest to swelter. On Saturday, temperatures there shot above 104 degrees (40 Celsius) for the first time on record during the month, another clear sign of the sweeping effects of human-caused climate change.”
Tags: 40 degrees, Blistering, Climate change, Effects, Hot, Human-caused, Japan, June, Records, Sign, Swelter, Temperatures
