2017 was a hard year for India – Air pollution and floods claimed many lives; failing public healthcare killed children; ministry predicted water scarcity by mid-century

30 December 2017 (IndiaSpend) – A bumper harvest crashing prices, pollution worsening in Delhi and other north Indian cities due to crop stubble burning and power plants, and the lack of infrastructure and manpower in public health centres leading to deaths of children across the country. These were the key points of worry for India […]

What was it like to be India in a warming world in 2017?

By Aruna Chandrasekhar 29 December 2017 (The Wire) – In 2017, weather reports were bumped up to the front page because the impact of climate change was becoming more visible than ever. Devastating cyclones, thousands lost to floods and drought in South Asia, thousands more displaced, infernal heat-waves sweeping cities, air pollution stealing hundreds of […]

The places that may never recover from the Great Recession – One in six Americans lives in “economically distressed communities”

By Alana Semuels  29 December 2017 HEMET, California (The Atlantic) – Many cities across America are doing better today than they were before the recession. This is not one of them. A decade after the start of the Great Recession, it struggles with pervasive crime and poverty. “We’re still recovering—we were really hit hard on […]

A response for people using record cold U.S. weather to refute global warming – “Even as climate warms, we will always have winter”

By Marshall Shepherd 28 December 2017 (Forbes) – If you are reading or watching the news, winter weather is the current headline. Negative wind chills, feet of lake effect snow in the Great Lakes region, and possibly the coldest New Year’s Eve ball drop in almost a half century are on tap. Forecasts are suggesting […]

2017 is a record-breaker for climate disasters – “The Trump administration has spent its 2017 dismantling federal actions designed to both address the root causes of climate change and to prepare for its impacts”

By Alice Hill 20 December 2017 (CNN) – As this year comes to a close, 2017 is on track to set the all-time record for the most billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in any single year in US history. There were 15 in the first nine months (equal to all of 2011, which set the […]

Video: 100 days after Hurricane Maria, more than one million Puerto Ricans without power after botched response by Trump administration – “We seem to be going from crisis to crisis”

28 December 2017 (MSNBC) – Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico, talks with Joy Reid about the challenges the island is still dealing with months after catastrophic hurricanes, problems made worse by the Trump administration’s bungling of the response and the new Republican tax law. Puerto Rico crisis lingers as Trump administration […]

Thousands of Puerto Rico police owed overtime call in sick

By Danica Coto 28 December 2017 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Thousands of police officers are calling in sick every day in Puerto Rico, partly to press demands for unpaid overtime pay for hurricane recovery efforts as concerns grow over people’s safety in a U.S. territory struggling to restore power. The increase in absences […]

Astronaut Mark Kelly: This year has been an unequivocal disaster for the future of the planet

By Mark Kelly 26 December 2017 (CNN) – In 2001, I flew my first flight into space aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. Roughly a decade later, I commanded that same space shuttle on its final flight. That trip was my fourth journey — and at least for now, my final one — from this planet into […]

As migrants flee for Canada, fears are rising over the perils of frigid illegal crossings – “They’re nice-dressed families — like they could be your neighbor — but they are scared and don’t know what else to do”

By Tim Craig 15 December 2017 NOYES, Minnesota (The Washington Post) – Chad Cosley tracks them as if they were deer. He looks for footprints and frequently checks his network of trail cameras, which had been documenting wildlife along the U.S.-Canada border but now also capture would-be refugees fleeing the United States under President Trump. […]

Record low sea-ice extent in the Chukchi Sea

6 December 2017 (NSIDC) – November 2017 will be remembered not for total Arctic ice extent, which was the third lowest recorded over the period of satellite observations, but for the record low extent in the Chukchi Sea. This is a key area for Arctic Ocean access, and is an indicator of oceanographic influences on […]

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