Climate-related Weather Events to Break Records in US this Year, Data Shows

CLIMATE CRISIS IN U.S.

Kiran Pandey

Down To Earth | November 03, 2020

Destruction caused by Hurricane Delta in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Photo: @WildlingPrincss / Twitter

Extreme weather events caused by climate change will break records across the United States this year in all probability, new data has shown, even as the country is voting for its next president November 3, 2020.

Between January and September, the United States has been hit by 16 billion-dollar weather / climate disaster events, according to recent data released by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) October 7.

La Nina is Back; What does that mean for Africa, Asia

CLIMATE CRISIS

Kiran Pandey

Down To Earth | October 30, 2020

The 2010 floods in Pakistan were attributed to La Nina. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The La Niña weather phenomenon is back in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean after nearly a decade’s absence, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its latest Global Seasonal update released October 29, 2020

La Niña will result in sea surface temperatures between two and three degrees Celsius cooler than average, Maxx Dilley, deputy director in charge of Climate Services Department at WMO, was quoted as saying in a press statement.

Healthy Diet Means a Healthy Planet? Not Always, Says Study

HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT 

Madhumita Paul

Down To Earth | October 30, 2020

Adoption of a healthy diet has long been associated with making the planet healthier. But a new study has challenged the link between healthy eating and environment sustainability, saying these diets can have a negative influence on the environment.

The study, published in Nutrition Journal 27 October, 2020, evaluated the relationship between observed diet quality and environment using a nationally representative data on food intake. Higher diet quality was associated with greater per capita total food demand, as well as greater retail loss, inedible portions, consumer waste, and consumed food, according to the study.

Inside a Comet: Philae’s Final Secret

COMETS

Shamini Bundell

Nature | October 28, 2020

The Philae lander’s unfortunately bumpy arrival on comet 67P six years ago, bouncing across the surface and landing on its side, made it impossible to sample the comet’s icy interior. When Philae went into hibernation that seemed to be the end of the story. Now a painstaking investigation has reconstructed Philae’s final journey and discovered data that allows them to measure the strength of the ice inside the comet – the first time this kind of direct measurement has been made.

An Interview with Julia Bell

INTERVIEW ON BOOK

Fran Lock interviews Julia Bell

Culture Matters | October 28, 2020

Background

Julia Bell is a writer and Reader in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, where she is the Course Director of the MA in Creative Writing. Her recent creative work includes poetry, lyric essays and short stories published in the Paris Review, Times Literary Supplement, The White Review, Mal Journal, Comma Press, and recorded for the BBC. She is the author of three novels with Macmillan in the UK (Simon & Schuster in the US) and is co-editor of the bestselling Creative Writing Coursebook (Macmillan) updated and re-issued in 2019.

She is interested in the intersection between the personal and the political, and believes that writing well takes courage, patience, attention and commitment. Radical Attention is Julia’s latest book and is available from Peninsula Press here.

Coal Monologues

POETRY 

Willie Hershaw

Culture Matters | November 02, 2020

I received the Abbot’s orders
inby the big pink house:
“Yoke Joseph and Mary,
to an oxen cart – take shovels, creels.
Wrap up – it’s wet and marshy with few paths.
Go roughly east for around six miles,
keep to the right of the hills.
You’ll see there’s previous pits dug out,
shallow indentations like plague graves.
The treasure’s beneath the turf.
The shiny black stones await, not deep,
that will warm us through the winter,
bake our bread, brew our beer.
Four days should do it.
Take Brother Peter too,
he is simple but could pull up an oak…