Climate Point: The clock is ticking
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I’m Dinah Pulver, a national climate and environment writer at Paste BN.
The Doomsday Clock was moved forward on Jan. 24 to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been since the clock started after World War II.
A gathering storm of consequences happening around the world prompted the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to adjust the hands on its clock face, explains Elizabeth Weise, a journalist with Paste BN’s climate team. Midnight on the clock face represents Armageddon.
The Bulletin hoped to send an urgent message about the potential impacts of dire events happening around the world, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, global warming and the increasing risks posed by potential pandemics as people encroach on the world’s wild spaces.
“We live today in a world of interlocking crises, each illustrating the unwillingness of leaders to act in the true long-term interests of their people,” said Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Speaking of crises, the United States led the world last year in costly disasters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with 18 billion-dollar disasters, as shown in this graphical analysis.
California's rainy start to the new year was yet another disaster for the state, but it's not alone in its complicated recovery efforts. Kevin Crowe, a Paste BN data analyst, looked at disasters in the nation by county, dating back to 1990. Counties in Kentucky and Oklahoma led the list of major disaster declarations since 1990. At the top, Lawrence County, Kentucky, and Caddo County, Oklahoma, were tied at 30. The counties have been battered by severe storms and tornadoes.
Read on for more:
A whale die-off
At least 20 marine mammals, including humpback whales, sperm whales and even an endangered North Atlantic right whale calf, have been found dead along the nation’s Atlantic Coast beaches since Dec. 1.
Investigations are ongoing, but federal officials disputed concerns that the developing offshore wind industry could be causing the deaths.
In other news, the Cape Cod Times reported right whales were seen feeding at the surface in Cape Cod, and also followed up on the report of the entangled right whale seen off the North Carolina coast.
Climate exposure
To learn more about the impact of climate-related exposures, the Federal Insurance Office hopes to assess the availability, affordability and sustainability of insurance in areas considered highly exposed to climate-driven weather events. However, insurers and North Carolina state regulators are pushing back, reports Gareth McGrath, with the Paste BN Network in North Carolina.
Warmer winter temperatures
Warmer temperatures in the Great Lakes are rippling through the region. Ice in the Great Lakes is at a near record low this winter and that impacts snowfall and the food chain, reports Caitlin Looby with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Several fish species in the lake need the ice to help with spring reproduction, and a lack of ice also brings more snow.
World's largest toad?
In Australia, park rangers found a toad that could be the world’s largest. Dubbed “Toadzilla,” she was found in a rainforest in Conway National Park. But the cane toad wouldn't be long-lived after its discovery. An invasive species that could lay up to 35,000 eggs, the toad was euthanized and its body donated to science.
For stories that require a subscription, sign up and get access to Paste BN and 200 other news sites across the country. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox for free once a week, sign up here.