The Census Bureau post Black High School Attainment Nearly on Par with National Average by Jennifer Cheeseman Day (6/10/2020) notes: In 1940, when the U.S. Census Bureau started asking about educational attainment, only 7% of Blacks had a high school education, compared with 24% for the nation as a whole. …
Read More »How hot was May 2020?
From the NOAA Global Climate Report – May 2020: The global land and ocean surface temperature for May 2020 tied with 2016 as the highest in the 141-year record at 0.95°C (1.71°F) above the 20th century average of 14.8°C (58.6°F). The 10 warmest Mays have all occurred since 1998; however, the 2014–2020 …
Read More »What is the connection between crime and lead?
Kevin Drum asks a good question in his post How Many Cops Does New York City Need? First note that violent crime has been dropping since around 1990 (see his graph copied here for examples). In particular for NYC: The per capita number of police officers increased by about 10 …
Read More »How has Covid-19 impacted unemployment by race?
The chart here comes from using FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data). Since at least the 1970s Hispanic or Latino (using FRED terms) unemployment was consistently between Black or African American and White and more recently slightly closer to White unemployment. For possibly the first time since the 1970s Hispanic or …
Read More »How many jobs from 18-32?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics post People born in early 1980s held an average of 8.2 jobs from ages 18 through 32 (6/3/2020) includes the graph copied here. They note Women with higher levels of education held more jobs than women with lower levels. Women with a bachelor’s degree …
Read More »What is our wet bulb temperature limit?
From the climate.gov article Brief periods of dangerous humid heat arrive decades early by Alison Stevens (5/12/2020): The paper authors used an index called “wet-bulb temperature” based on weather station temperature and humidity data. The reading, from a thermometer when covered in a wet cloth, is related to how muggy …
Read More »Do we use more coal or renewable energy?
The EIA article U.S. renewable energy consumption surpasses coal for the first time in over 130 years by Mickey Francis (5/28/2020) has the data. In 2019, U.S. annual energy consumption from renewable sources exceeded coal consumption for the first time since before 1885, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s …
Read More »How many billion-dollar disasters?
The Climate.gov article 2010-2019: A landmark decade of U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters by Adam B. Smith (1/8/2020) reports: During 2019, the U.S. experienced a very active year of weather and climate disasters. In total, the U.S. was impacted by 14 separate billion-dollar disasters including: 3 major inland floods, 8 …
Read More »How hot was April 2020?
For those of us living in the northeast or a good part of the U.S. we might have felt that April was cold and it was. It is easy to use that as evidence that climate change is “fake news” yet it is good to keep in mind that if …
Read More »Where are COVID-19 predictions?
The COVID-19 Projections web page contains daily updates of predictions for COVID-19. For example, the graphs copied here provide predictions for deaths per day, total deaths, and the reproduction number. Users can select projections for individual states and countries. The pages provide full model details which can be useful for …
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