Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle.
Our Daily Planet is a daily morning email (M-F) to keep you informed of the stories shaping our environment. If these issues matter to you, we’d like to be the best ten minutes of your morning.
Why This Matters: Some cities gained not just weeks, but more than a month of summer. What could be so bad about more summer and less winter? (We can just imagine the tweets were the President to get a hold of this fact) Let us count the ways: it lengthens the time vulnerable populations are heat stressed, it could decrease water availability, it might expand the wildfire season, as well as increase pests harmful to forestry and agriculture, not to mention humans. And if the change is this significant, the ripple effects on other species besides us humans are too numerous to count, but will no doubt be significant as well.
By The Numbers
The 10 major U.S. cities that have seen the lengthiest increase of summer over the past 30 years are: Honolulu, 38 days; Miami, 37 days; San Francisco, 32 days; New Orleans, 25 days; Phoenix, 23 days; Tucson, 21 days; El Paso, 20 days; Houston, 18 days; and Las Vegas, 18 days. The 10 major U.S. cities with the longest decrease in winters are: Los Angeles, 52 days; Miami, 49 days; Juneau, Alaska, 32 days; Orlando, 30 days; New Orleans, 28 days; Anchorage, 25 days; Phoenix, 25 days; Honolulu, 23 days; San Francisco, 23 days; and Philadelphia, 22 days. This research is consistent with a similar study conducted in Australia, which is also experiencing longer summers and shorter winters. The same is happening all over the globe in fact. London‘s winter is now 36 days shorter than 30 years ago, and its summer is 17 days longer, for example. In northern Canada and Alaska, the shortening of winter is particularly significant, but the shorter winters are also quite dramatic in Southern California and South Florida. As for the warmest May, the largest temperature spike was in Siberia, where it was up 10 degrees Celsius on average levels.
by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer This March will continue to bring more severe weather to the United States. An atmospheric river event — the “Pineapple Express” — is forecast to induce a rainy season in Washington and Oregon, as well as an increased risk of avalanches in the Pacific Northwest. As the Pineapple Express […]
We feel so badly for everyone in Texas suffering through days of bitter cold, many without heat. But the people at the northern U.S. end of the polar vortex are reeling from the cold as well. Low-temperature records are being broken in the northern plains — it’s so cold there that even Siberia was warmer. […]
After snowstorms swept across the South this week, 14 states are expecting power outages, frozen roads, and dangerous conditions. Hundreds of millions will be impacted by the storm. Millions will be experiencing rolling blackouts in the coming days due to stress on the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).
Why This Matters: Although it might seem that this polar vortex is an exception to global temperature rise, research says that erratic, far-reaching polar systems like the one we’re seeing now can be directly related to warming temperatures in the Arctic.
Subscribe to the email that top lawmakers, renowned scientists, and thousands of concerned citizens turn to each morning for the latest environmental news and analysis.
Want the lastest climate news summarized for you each morning?
Our Daily Planet is your daily dose of the stories shaping our world and the ways that you can take action. From the climate crisis to the protection of biodiversity, if these issues matter to you then please subscribe & stay informed!
Your privacy is Important! We promise never to use your email address to send you spam or advertisements.