Currently — September 1st, 2022

The weather, currently.

Temperatures in Los Angeles County could approach all-time record highs over the next few days as a prolonged extreme heatwave sets in.

An excessive heat warning is in effect for much of Southern, Central, and Northern California over the next five days with an intense high pressure center pushing warm and dry air towards the coast. That weather pattern is also nearly ideal for rapid growth of wildfires.

On Wednesday, temperatures in Los Angeles County rose above 110 deg F (43.3 deg C), with even higher temperatures expected as the heat wave peaks on Sunday and Monday.

On Wednesday, California issued an urgent call for residents to conserve power, and is expected to issue further alerts over the coming days in an effort to prevent rolling blackouts.

So far, 2022 is one of the driest and hottest years ever measured in California as a decades-long megadrought continues, exacerbated by fossil fuel-driven climate change.

-Eric Holthaus

What you need to know, currently.

“How inappropriate it is to call this planet Earth,” science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once remarked, “when it is clearly Ocean.” The ocean covers more than seventy percent of the world and absorbs roughly a third of mankind’s carbon emissions — yet it remains largely unprotected and unregulated. This past Saturday, negotiations at the UN headquarters stalled when diplomats failed to reach a decision on a treaty deal that would protect biodiversity in two thirds of ocean areas that remain outside of individual countries' jurisdictions.

“The oceans sustain all life on Earth, but for the last two weeks, the self-proclaimed High Ambition Coalition has not shown enough ambition or urgency until the final hours,” said Laura Meller, of Greenpeace. “As a result, they have failed to deliver a strong Global Ocean Treaty that can protect the high seas. They promised a treaty in 2022, and time has all but run out. They shouldn’t shoulder all responsibility, other countries have been deliberately obstructive, but failure to deliver a treaty at these talks jeopardizes the livelihoods and food security of billions of people around the world.”

Protecting marine biodiversity is particularly important as the ocean is opened up to deep sea mining and becomes yet another extraction zone.