Global Forest Watch is a way to track deforestation worldwide. Fifty soccer fields per minute for the past 13 years.
Update (November 19, 2019): Deforestation in the Amazon was the highest in a decade last year at nearly 3800 square miles. That was a 30 percent increase over the previous year. The figure doesn't even include the damage from this year's fires.
Update (November 24, 2019): A paper published in Science Advances notes that "full carbon accounting requires the consideration of forgone carbon sequestration, selective logging, edge effects, and defaunation". This meant that the total calculated carbon impact of clearing intact forests increased by over six times.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Inequality Overview
The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality has released The Poverty and Inequality Report 2014. I think I've seen similar data on the trend for share of real income before, but the report goes into other aspects of inequality as well.
Update (February 23): Thomas Frank says we all need to start talking about class.
Update (March 28): Matt Bruenig collects a series of graphs depicting the impact of class from childhood to death.
Update (April 2): Lynn Stuart Parramore describes how the upcoming generational transfer of wealth through inheritance is going to make inequality worse.
Update (April 12): Anat Shenker-Osorio writes about how to frame the political discussion on inequality. A lot of people don't respond to the fact that there's an income or wealth "gap". More effective was to talk about how inequality destabilizes the economy. And I think that does get at a better understanding of the issue. It's not necessarily the case that someone having more is inherently "unfair", but rather the extremes we're heading toward put all of us at risk.
Update (April 13): Jason Linkins explains why most Americans are not "making it" after the Great Recession.
Update (April 20): Could there be a connection between high inequality in the United States and low rankings in the Social Progress Index?
Update (May 4): David Atkins describes four ways by which the top has disguised the upward transfer of wealth by making the rest of us feel better off than we are.
Update (February 23): Thomas Frank says we all need to start talking about class.
Update (March 28): Matt Bruenig collects a series of graphs depicting the impact of class from childhood to death.
Update (April 2): Lynn Stuart Parramore describes how the upcoming generational transfer of wealth through inheritance is going to make inequality worse.
Update (April 12): Anat Shenker-Osorio writes about how to frame the political discussion on inequality. A lot of people don't respond to the fact that there's an income or wealth "gap". More effective was to talk about how inequality destabilizes the economy. And I think that does get at a better understanding of the issue. It's not necessarily the case that someone having more is inherently "unfair", but rather the extremes we're heading toward put all of us at risk.
Update (April 13): Jason Linkins explains why most Americans are not "making it" after the Great Recession.
Update (April 20): Could there be a connection between high inequality in the United States and low rankings in the Social Progress Index?
Update (May 4): David Atkins describes four ways by which the top has disguised the upward transfer of wealth by making the rest of us feel better off than we are.
Update (July 3, 2016): Nancy Isenberg describes five myths about class in the U.S.1) Push people away from defined-benefit pensions and into stocks and 401(k)s.2) Push more people into buying real estate, and increase home prices by all means possible.3) Democratize consumer debt, especially through credit cards.4) Reduce the cost of goods through free trade policies.
The working class is white and male.
Most Americans don’t notice class differences.
Class mobility is uniquely American.
With talent and hard work, you can rise above your class.
Class oppression isn’t as significant as racial oppression.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Oceans Warming Rapidly
Data from the National Oceanographic Data Center shows that the heat content of the global ocean is increasing at a rate three times as fast as the average for the previous 16 years. The so-called pause in atmospheric warming really means that a lot of heat is being absorbed by the ocean.
Update (July 22): A study by Shaun Lovejoy at McGill University describes the so-called pause as no more than natural variability.
Update (July 24): Joe Romm reports on work showing that the temperature rise of the past 15 years has been underestimated due to missing data from the arctic. Most heat does go into the oceans, but land temperatures may be set to rise rapidly.
Update (August 26): James Conca explains that there is "more than one way to heat a planet".
Update (January 25, 2015): The heat content of the oceans continues to go up and in 2014 the Earth had the greatest amount of thermal energy than any year on record.
Update (January 18, 2016): A study published in Nature Climate Change finds that half of additional heat content of the oceans has been absorbed in the past 18 years. In that time, the portion of additional heat found in the deep ocean has increased from 20 to 35 percent--which means three and a half times as much heat.
Update (January 28, 2018): A study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences announced that 2017 was the largest thermal energy anomaly on record in the global ocean. For comparison, the amount of energy increase in the ocean equals about 700 times the total annual electrical generation in China.
Update (July 22): A study by Shaun Lovejoy at McGill University describes the so-called pause as no more than natural variability.
Update (July 24): Joe Romm reports on work showing that the temperature rise of the past 15 years has been underestimated due to missing data from the arctic. Most heat does go into the oceans, but land temperatures may be set to rise rapidly.
Update (August 26): James Conca explains that there is "more than one way to heat a planet".
Update (January 25, 2015): The heat content of the oceans continues to go up and in 2014 the Earth had the greatest amount of thermal energy than any year on record.
Update (January 18, 2016): A study published in Nature Climate Change finds that half of additional heat content of the oceans has been absorbed in the past 18 years. In that time, the portion of additional heat found in the deep ocean has increased from 20 to 35 percent--which means three and a half times as much heat.
Update (January 28, 2018): A study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences announced that 2017 was the largest thermal energy anomaly on record in the global ocean. For comparison, the amount of energy increase in the ocean equals about 700 times the total annual electrical generation in China.
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