Climate

Global trends in economics, climate and technology are weighing on young adults, a report finds. It recommends overhauling how we approach mental health care.

In a conversation on X, Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk spoke for a bit about climate change. Here’s what they got wrong and what they got right.

It is halfway through August and this year’s Danger Season, the period between May and October when climate change makes summers extremely hot and brings more intense hurricanes, heat waves, flooding, and wildfires. Just this past week, the US was hit with record heat, wildfires, and a hurricane, with 2024 already ranking second for the number of billion-dollar disasters recorded. 

In our Danger Season tracker, we are keeping tabs on how many people in the US, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands have been under heat, storm, flooding, or fire weather alerts issued by the National Weather Service.

Danger Season got a quick jump start early this year. By May 7, nearly one-third of the population had been under at least one alert, a number that jumped to half the population (nearly 170 million persons) by May 20. Extreme weather alerts continued to spread quickly throughout the US. On June 2, 75% (three-quarters) of all people in the country had faced at least one alert, and by June 22 that number reached 95%.

As of August 13, nearly everyone in the US has faced an extreme weather alert, and we still have most of August, as well as September and October to go. Only 79 counties and municipios (the county equivalent in Puerto Rico) throughout the country representing about 1% of the country’s population and located mostly in Michigan, Minnesota, Alaska, and Wisconsin have not faced an alert as of August 13. 

Who are most vulnerable and most impacted? 

In 2022, we reported that counties with at least 21 heat alerts (amounting to nearly three weeks’ worth of heat alerts though not necessarily in a row) were mostly in a handful of states in the Midwest and South. In these communities, poverty levels tend to be higher than the national average, and many communities lack the economic means to protect themselves during extremely hot weather and any other type of extreme weather.  

To determine which populations may be more vulnerable to the extreme climate impacts that occur during Danger Season, I relied on the White House’s Climate Justice and Economic Screening Tool (CEJST). CEJST does not include race or ethnicity, instead classifying communities as “disadvantaged” if they meet at least one of multiple categories of climate and economic burdens such as expected losses from flooding, as well as disparities related to energy, health, housing, and transportation. Though it omits race and ethnicity, the tool’s results confirm what environmental justice advocates have said for a long time—that race is the strongest predictor of climate and pollution burdens.  

In 2024, many counties that have at least 25% or more of their communities deemed disadvantaged also had at least 21 days of extreme heat alerts so far this Danger Season. And many of these counties have large metro areas where lots of Latinos, African Americans, and other people of color live. And on August 2, Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index reminded us how much climate change is responsible for the brutal heat, as nearly half of the US population was under heat alerts that were three times as likely to exist due to climate change.  

Many disadvantaged communities across the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and parts of the Great Plains and the South have faced multiple extreme heat alerts between May 1 and August 13 of 2024.

Not just heat, but atmospheric conditions that lead to wildfires prevailed in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest. Fire weather alerts are issued by the National Weather Service when the atmospheric conditions that make wildfires more likely are ripe, such as low humidity, temperatures above 75⁰F, and wind speed in excess of 15 miles per hour. And similar to heat alerts, most places with a high total number of fire weather alerts (I picked 14 in this case, or two weeks’ worth of alerts—again, not necessarily consecutive) are also home to many disadvantaged communities. Indeed, in July, large wildfires broke out across these regions and forced thousands to evacuate. These fires destroy people’s homes and other property, and their risks and costs keep climbing.  

Many disadvantaged communities across the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest have faced multiple extreme fire weather alerts between May 1 and August 13 of 2024.

As I write this, rain has been pouring almost uninterruptedly in Washington, DC and the surrounding suburbs where I live, as Tropical Storm Debby makes its way northeast. It’s much worse in South Carolina, where people faced record rainfall, extensive flooding, and tornadoes. Unfortunately, it’s not the first time this year that a storm has pummeled communities. In late April and the first days of May, eastern and southeastern Texas was flooded with heavy rains. Then Hurricane Beryl, after a long tour that began early in the southeast part of the Atlantic, ran roughshod across Houston and other nearby parts of Texas, knocking out power for 2.7 million folks across the state and costing upwards of one billion dollars in grid repairs.  The map below captures areas that have had at least 7 flood alerts so far this Danger Season. 

Many disadvantaged communities across coastal and inland areas faced multiple flood weather alerts between May 1 and August 13 of 2024.

During Danger Season, many of these impacts occur simultaneously. Just on August 9 alone, millions of people were under heat flood alerts from most of Texas through the South and Southeast and under flood alerts in most of the Eastern Seaboard. And some counties such as Florida were under both types of alerts on the same day.

Danger Season alerts on Friday, August 9, 2024. Heat alerts in yellow cover a large swath including the Southwest and Southeastern US, while flood alerts (in green) show widespread threats from Tropical Storm Debby across the Eastern Seaboard. Blue counties in Florida indicate where heat and flood alerts were issued on the same day.  What could be in store for the rest of the 2024 Danger Season?  

August through September are peak hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. NOAA just revised down their May hurricane season forecast slightly, but it still expects an above-normal season with 8 to 13 hurricanes (and 4 to 7 of these predicted to be Category 3 or higher), a worrisome number of potentially catastrophic events. At the moment, Tropical Storm Ernesto has prompted a tropical storm watch for Puerto Rico and a hurricane watch for the US Virgin Islands and the islands Vieques and Culebra, two inhabited islands that are part of the Puerto Rican archipelago.

In terms of wildfires, the National Interagency Fire Center’s outlook for August through October—a time that is often the height of the wildfire season—shows significant potential for wildfires in the Pacific Northwest and parts of the Southwest. And we are not out of the hot season yet—the National Weather Service’s Heat Risk tool is forecasting moderate or worse heat-related impacts mostly in some parts of the Southern United States for this week, and it’s too early to tell with certainty what temperatures will look like before the end of Danger Season in October.

We need immediate and sustained action

Climate change is fueling this new dangerous regime of extreme weather. Our government and industries need a sustained and steep downward path to reduce heat-trapping emissions, and we also need continuous resources and additional measures such as investments to protect people from the Danger Season impacts that are happening now. In addition, our own UCS experts have recommendations across these climate impacts from how to redress injustices brought on by hurricanes and heat in coastal regions, to protecting people and property from climate-fueled wildfires, as well as the critical infrastructure on which we rely to conduct our daily lives.

Canada’s boreal forests are burning faster than they can regrow, but controlled fires may be one of the best ways to protect local communities.

Trump talked about ‘nuclear warming’ while Musk said the only reason to quit fossil fuels is that their supply is finite

Donald Trump and Elon Musk both made discursive, often fact-free assertions about global heating, including that rising sea levels would create “more oceanfront property” and that there was no urgent need to cut carbon emissions, during an event labeled “the dumbest climate conversation of all time” by one prominent activist.

Trump, the Republican US presidential nominee, and Musk, the world’s richest person, dwelled on the problem of the climate crisis during their much-hyped conversation on X, formerly known as Twitter and owned by Musk, on Monday, agreeing that the world has plenty of time to move away from fossil fuels, if at all.

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In probably the hottest summer ever, workers are organizing in 13 cities to raise alarm about workplace heat exposure

As temperatures in Baltimore neared 100F earlier this month, 36-year-old sanitation worker Ronald Silver II died after he was found lying on the hood of a car and asking for water.

It’s the kind of tragic workplace heat-related death that advocates say could have been avoided with the right labor protections. So this week, during what will probably be the US’s hottest summer on record, frontline workers are organizing actions in 13 cities across the country, raising the alarm about workplace heat exposure.

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Opposition and media turn on government as firefighters work to contain ‘scattered hotspots’

Greek authorities are continuing to battle scattered fires on the outskirts of Athens as officials take stock of the damage wreaked by a disaster that forced mass evacuations and killed at least one person.

On Tuesday, the third day of one of the worst wildfires in living memory, firefighters were helped by a drop in winds as they sought to contain the remnants of an inferno that had reached the capital’s northern suburbs and decimated homes and businesses.

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Greece’s opposition wasted little time Tuesday lambasting prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre right government for what has been described as a lacklustre response to the inferno.

Stefanos Kasselakis, who heads the main opposition Syriza party, said that he had only witnessed three water-bombing aircraft in action – and not the 35 that officials had cited – when he visited the operational headquarters of the civil protection ministry.

I will say yet again that from the eruption of the fire on Sunday the time that it took to respond by air was five minutes and with fire engines seven minutes.

The reality is this: that despite the speed of the operational response – the new dogma that in combination with the technical support of drones has been enforced with the hundreds of fires confronted this summer – when extreme conditions prevail the problem becomes insurmountable.

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In today’s newsletter: As visitors overwhelm Venice, Barcelona and other famous cities, a model rewarding travellers for being more responsible could inspire other municipalities

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Good morning. Today we’re taking a little trip to Copenhagen to explore a new pilot initiative designed to reward tourists for “climate-friendly actions”. The CopenPay scheme has been designed to encourage visitors to act a bit more responsibly and think about their impact on the environment during trips to the Danish capital.

In return for small environmental actions – like cycling to attractions or fishing litter out of the canals – visitors have been rewarded with small gifts such as free ice-cream and museum tours.

Climate crisis | Hot weather inflamed by carbon pollution killed nearly 50,000 people in Europe last year, with the continent warming at a much faster rate than other parts of the world, research has found. Heat-related mortality was highest in Greece, with 393 deaths per million people.

Ukraine | Ukrainian forces have captured 1,000 sq km (386 square miles) of Russia’s bordering Kursk region, Kyiv’s top commander has claimed, as Vladimir Putin vowed a “worthy response” to the attack. 121,000 people have fled the region since the incursion began.

UK news | A shop security guard has described how he overpowered a knifeman as he stabbed an 11-year-old girl and her mother, 34, in a “horrific” and apparently random attack in London’s busy Leicester Square in front of shocked workers and tourists.

UK news | A “series of errors and misjudgments” in Valdo Calocane’s mental health care led to him being discharged, despite repeatedly not taking medication and showing signs of aggression, months before he killed three people in Nottingham, a report says. The Care Quality Commission warned of “systemic issues with community mental health care”.

Technology | Labour MPs have begun quitting X in alarm over the platform’s direction, with one saying Elon Musk had turned it into “a megaphone for foreign adversaries and far-right fringe groups”. Meanwhile, Donald Trump gave a rambling interview to Musk on the platform that was marred with technical issues initially preventing many users from watching the conversation.

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If elected, the Democrat is likely to face a trade-off over manufacturing jobs and economic independence from China

Every US presidential election is consequential but American voters face an unusually weighty decision in 2024. The outcome will have implications for foreign policy, social policy, and the integrity of the political system. But none of its consequences will be more profound or far-reaching than on global efforts to combat the climate crisis.

As president, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement, while the US under Joe Biden rejoined it. Trump has promised to expand oil and gas production, and his campaign has said he will again withdraw the US from the Paris accord if he wins a second term.

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UN troops are shoring up flood defences in the South Sudan town. But with record rains forecast, the lives of tens of thousands of displaced people could be at risk

Surrounded by towering mud ramparts, the 300,000 residents of Bentiu in South Sudan will spend today, like tomorrow, anxiously scanning the gathering storm clouds. They live in one of the most vulnerable towns on Earth: a sprawling settlement whose streets lie below the water level of a huge lake that is steadily rising on all sides.

Without the dykes built to encircle the capital of the country’s notoriously volatile Unity state, Bentiu would be completely submerged. But fears are mounting that attempts to preserve Bentiu are futile and that it could soon be washed away, potentially with huge loss of life – a catastrophic impact of the climate crisis on a fragile state.

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The delicate balance of one the planet’s largest natural systems for storing carbon depends on the humble black spruce tree.

‘Integrated’ work to help biodiversity and tackle climate crisis can also benefit humanity, says Dr Trisha Gopalakrishna

Restoring and protecting the world’s forests is crucial if humanity is to stop the worst effects of climate breakdown and halt the extinction of rare species.

Researchers have been concerned, however, that actions to capture carbon, restore biodiversity and find ways to support the livelihoods of the people who live near and in the forests might be at odds.

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A new study shows how deadly warming can be, and how behavioral and social changes can reduce mortality.

Continent is warming at much faster rate than other parts of world, leading to fires, drought and health problems

Hot weather inflamed by carbon pollution killed nearly 50,000 people in Europe last year, with the continent warming at a much faster rate than other parts of the world, research has found.

The findings come as wildfires tore through forests outside Athens, as France issued excessive heat warnings for large swathes of the country, and the UK baked through what the Met Office expects will be its hottest day of the year.

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Number of people seeking emergency care for heat-related illnesses is up in cities including Rome, Florence and Venice

The number of people accessing emergency care for heat-related illnesses has risen sharply in some of Italy’s most popular tourist cities, as the country experiences an intense heatwave that is failing to deter visitors.

Italy has been engulfed in consecutive heatwaves since around the middle of June. Some central and southern areas are expected to record temperatures above 40C in the coming days.

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Earth’s warming could trigger sweeping changes in the natural world that would be hard, if not impossible, to reverse.

Unprecedented summer temperatures after the warmest winter ever have turned terrain into a tinderbox, environmentalists say

AFP reports from Penteli:

Thick smoke from burning trees filled a small square in Penteli where local resident Mariana Papathanasi said they could only pray that their houses would be saved.

“There is still a strong fire. Some houses were burned after midnight and we are trying to protect our local restaurant,” the 49-year-old supermarket employee told AFP.

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In some fast-growing Sun Belt cites, “the overnight lows kind of sneak up on you.”

Firefighters have been tackling a fast-moving wildfire outside Athens that caused residents to flee their homes as the blaze continued to spread through the night. The fire, fuelled by rising temperatures and windy weather, burned down trees, houses and cars. More than 400 firefighters were deployed as flames quickly reached Varnavas, a village 22 miles (35km) north of the capital. At least 10 areas have been evacuated so far

• Greek officials advise staying in with windows shut due to fires near Athens

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