Heat Check

By Justine Calma, Grist

Improving cooling center signage and generally making the facilities more inviting is part of New York City’s $106-million “Cool Neighborhoods” plan, launched last year to mitigate the health risks of extreme heat.

Heat Waves Bother You? Under Trump Climate Policies, Add Another 12°F

By Joe Romm, Climate Progress

Typical five-day heat waves in the U.S. will be 12°F warmer by mid-century alone, according to the U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA), which the White House itself reviewed and approved last November.

Puerto Rico Confronts a New Hurricane Season — And Old Injustices

By Basav Sen, Foreign Policy In Focus

This was no mere “natural” disaster. The impacts of Hurricane Maria were to a large extent attributable to inequalities of race, income and — critically — access to political power.

Where There’s Smoke

By Margaret Welsh, New Economics Foundation

The fires raging on moorland outside Manchester have fallen off the front pages of the national press. But they tell a vital story of climate change, land management, and our broken economic system.

We’ve Entered the Era of ‘Fire Tsunamis’

By Eric Holthaus, Grist

Life in the Rocky Mountains is frequently extreme as blizzards, baking sun, and fires alternate with the seasons. But fire tsunamis? Those aren’t normal. On Thursday, one observer described a “tsunami” of flames overnight at the Spring Creek fire near La Veta in the south-central part of the state. And you can’t stop tsunamis.

Our Energy Challenge in 6 Eye-Popping Charts

By David Spratt, Climate Code Red

And the big picture? Despite 25 years of global climate policy-making, decarbonisation rates are not even close to what is required.

Sea Level Rise due to Antarctic Ice Melt has ‘Tripled over Past Five Years’

By Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief

The rate of sea level rise resulting from the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet has tripled over the past five years, according to new research from a global team of scientists.

Hurricane Maria was so Much Worse than we Thought

By Eric Holthaus, Grist

People in Puerto Rico have endured the devastation left behind by Hurricane Maria since the storm hit 8 months ago, with many still struggling to get clean water and medical care. Now there’s evidence that the death toll from Maria and its aftermath has been far worse than previously thought

The Keeling Curve at 60: A Portrait of Climate Crisis

By Ian Angus, Climate and Capitalism

What the Keeling Curve shows, then, are two separate but connected rifts in Earth’s metabolism. First, an increase in total CO2 that breaks with at least 800,000 years of history. Second, increased CO2 is changing the way that plants absorb and emit CO2, and that in turn is altering a seasonal cycle that has likely been unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.

Great Barrier Reef at ‘Unprecedented’ Risk of Collapse after Major Bleaching Event

By Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief

The record-breaking marine heatwave in 2016 across the Great Barrier Reef has left much of the coral ecosystem at an “unprecedented” risk of collapse, research shows. A new study published in Nature finds that the surge in sea temperatures during the 2016 bleaching event led to an immediate and long-lasting die-off of coral.