Sometimes it’s best to focus on specifics, as when we weigh what we can do about climate change as individuals. But sometimes we should also update our grasp of the bigger picture. The articles below provide especially good current overviews for several major topics.
On public opinion in US: “Climate change actions are far more popular than people in U.S. realize,” Robin Lloyd, Scientific American.
On extreme weather: “Revealed: how climate breakdown is supercharging toll of extreme weather,” Damian Carrington, The Guardian. And here’s the data from Carbon Brief that informs this article, in the form of a world map with lots of links: “Mapped: How climate change affects extreme weather around the world.”
On other impacts, including what’s happening in the Arctic, Antarctic, and boreal forests: “Climate change’s impact intensified as U.S. prepares to take action,” Chris Mooney, Brady Dennis, and Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post. While this story is tied to news events, it also includes strong big-picture contexts.
On human health: “58% of human infectious diseases can be worsened by climate change – we scoured 77,000 studies to map the pathways,” Tristan McKenzie, Camilo Mora, and Hannah von Hammerstein, The Conversation. For another description of this study, see this piece in EOS (the science news magazine published by the American Geophysical Union) by Jenessa Duncombe. And for an interactive graphic about the data, see here.
Also on human health, see this story about the 2021 update of the annual “Countdown on health and climate change” from the Lancet, Britain’s top medical journal: “Inaction on climate change imperils millions of lives, doctors say,” Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post.
On the links between biodiversity and climate change (both problems and solutions), this piece is excellent: “Explainer: Can climate change and biodiversity loss be tackled together?” Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief.
This, too, is worth your time: “Apocalypse papers’: Scientists call for paradigm shift as biodiversity loss worsens,” Kristoffer Tigue, Inside Climate News.
Finally, on the less quantifiable but significant (and growing) emotional impacts of climate change: “The era of climate change has created a new emotion,” Madeline Ostrander, The Atlantic.
This series is curated and written by retired Colorado State University English professor and close climate change watcher SueEllen Campbell of Colorado. To flag works you think warrant attention, send an e-mail to her any time. Let us hear from you.
