Climate Corner – 10 items in the news this summer

Our climate crisis committee is keeping up with the information you need to know about.

1. July 2019 surpasses July 2016 as the hottest month in recorded history

2. For the first time ever, more US electricity generation came from renewables than from coal

3. Germany records the highest temperature in the country’s history; India bakes at 123 degrees as reservoirs go dry

4. People around the world could be ingesting five grams of microplastic each week, the equivalent of eating a credit card

5. More than 11 million people are now employed in renewable energy worldwide

6. Brazil’s new president increases development in the Amazon, which is now being burned and cleared at a rate never seen before; in related news, a new study reveals the tipping point of the Amazon is reached after 40 percent of the land is cleared – the rest of the forest dies on its own

7. For the first time, a North Pacific right whale is heard singing. Only 30 such whales remain in the Bering Sea

8. Emissions of powerful greenhouse gas methane from ammonia-fertilizer plants are 100 times greater than reported by the industry

9. National Weather Service radar picks up an 80 mile wide blob of ladybugs at 9,000 feet above Southern California

10. NYT Headline: Human activity now threatens 1 million species with extinction