The Guardian (April 6)
“An unprecedented leap of 38.5C in the coldest place on Earth is a harbinger of a disaster for humans and the local ecosystem.” The record-setting leap at documented Concordia research station, along with other “events have raised fears that the Antarctic, once thought to be too cold to experience the early impacts of global warming, is now succumbing dramatically and rapidly to the swelling levels of greenhouse gases that humans continue to pump into the atmosphere.”
Tags: 38.5C, Antarctic, Atmosphere, Coldest, Concordia, Disaster, Earth, Ecosystem, GHG, Global warming, Harbinger, Humans, Impacts, Succumbing, Unprecedented
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
Associated Press (January 10)
“Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold and showed more signs of a feverish planet…. The European climate agency Copernicus said the year was 1.48 degrees Celsius (2.66 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.”
Tags: 1.48°C, Climate, Copernicus, Earth, Europe, Feverish, Heat records, Planet, Shattered, Threshold, Warming
Washington Post (November 19)
“In 1798, British economist Thomas Malthus forecast that an increasing population would soon outstrip, disastrously, nature’s capacity to feed so many people…. And yet here we are: The world’s population has octupled since Malthus’s day, more than doubled since 1968, and living standards around the world have vastly, though unevenly, improved during that time.” It is worth celebrating November 15, the day “Planet Earth welcomed its eight-billionth living inhabitant.”
Tags: 1798, Celebrating, Earth, Economist, Forecast, Inhabitant, Living standards, Malthus, Nature’s capacity, Octupled, Outstrip, Population
Washington Post (April 28)
“Not since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs—along with at least half of all other beings on Earth—has life in the ocean been so at risk. Warming waters are cooking creatures in their own habitats…. If humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase…roughly a third of all marine animals could vanish within 300 years.”
Tags: Asteroid, Dinosaurs, Earth, Emissions, GHG, Habitats, Humanity, Life, Marine animals, Ocean, Risk, Vanish, Warming waters
AP News (January 13)
“Earth simmered to the sixth hottest year on record in 2021.” This “did not represent a cooling off of human-caused climate change” as La Nina lowered temperatures. Indeed, 2021 was the hottest La Nina year ever and “part of a long-term warming trend that shows hints of accelerating.” Data from both NASA and NOAA show “the last eight years have been the eight hottest on record.”
Tags: 2021, Accelerating, Climate change, Cooling, Earth, Hottest, Human, La Nina, NASA, NOAA, Record, Temperatures, Warming trend
The Guardian (January 11)
“If you want to know how fast climate change is happening, the answer is in the oceans.” Last year, they “absorbed heat equivalent to seven Hiroshima atomic bombs detonating each second, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.” Global ocean temperature data “paint a clear picture: the Earth is warming, humans are the culprit, and the warming will continue indefinitely until we collectively take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Tags: Atomic bombs, Climate change, Culprit, Earth, Emissions, GHGs, Heat, Hiroshima, Humans, Oceans, Temperature data, Warming
Washington Post (November 9)
“After nine days of grand pronouncements, pledges and plans, scientists delivered a rude awakening to a COP26 summit that has been called ‘the last, best hope’ for climate action: Earth is on track to warm about 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit), eclipsing the world’s shared climate goal by a full degree.”
Tags: 2.5 degrees, Climate action, COP26, Earth, Hope, Plans, Pledges, Pronouncements, Rude awakening, Scientists, Summit
The Guardian (June 30)
“Canada is a warning: more and more of the world will soon be too hot for humans…. Without an immediate global effort to combat the climate emergency, the Earth’s uninhabitable areas will keep growing.”
Tags: Canada, Climate emergency, Combat, Earth, Global effort, Humans, Immediate, Too hot, Uninhabitable, Warning, World
The Economist (May 1)
Taiwan is now “the most dangerous place on Earth.” An extreme “exercise of high-calibre ambiguity has kept the peace” for decades, but that’s rapidly disintegrating as positions polarize. “America and China must work harder to avoid war over the future of Taiwan.”
