Statista has the answer with their post Defense Expenditures Of NATO Countries by Niall McCarthy (7/11/18). They created the infographic copied here. The following infographic shows how much money NATO members spend on defense as well as its estimated share of GDP. While Germany spent over $45 billion on its military equating to 1.2 …
Read More »What happened to Iceberg A68 from Larsen C?
On July 12 2017 Iceberg A68, a slab of ice 5,800 km in area and weighing more than 1 trillion tonnes, calved from Larsen C. (project Midas 7/19/17) A year later, where is A68: As can be seen in the satellite image animation, over the last year A-68 has not …
Read More »What is the story of suicides in the U.S.?
The article in the Conversation, Why is suicide on the rise in the US – but falling in most of Europe? by Steven Stack (6/28/18), tries to get at the story. The first chart (copied here), clearly shows that the suicide rate rose from 199-2015 overall and considerably more for the 45-54 age …
Read More »How hot has it been this week?
The Washington Post article, Red-hot planet: All-time heat records have been set all over the world during the past week by Jason Samenow (7/5/18), provides a nice overview of the record setting heat during this past week (map posted here copied from the article). In North America: Montreal recorded its highest temperature in recorded …
Read More »Do we disagree with factual statements that we think are opinions?
The Pew Research Center’s article Distinguishing Between Factual and Opinion Statements in the News by Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, Michael Barthel, and Nami Sumida (6/18/18) addresses this question and more. A new Pew Research Center survey of 5,035 U.S. adults examines a basic step in that process: whether members of the public can recognize news as …
Read More »How much are 30 year temperature averages increasing?
Changes in 30 year temperature averages depend on where you live, but Climate Central’s New Normal: Temperatures Are Trending Up Across U.S. (3/16/18) has graphs for major cities across the U.S. The one here is for the U.S. Normal temperatures, generally defined to be the 30-year average at a location, are …
Read More »How has forest area changed around the world?
Our World in Data answers the question with an interactive chart of forest area by country and regions from 1990 to 2015. In that time period the world has lost 1.29 million square km of forest area (41.28 to 39.99). On the other hand, the U.S. and China both increased …
Read More »What economic impacts does some college education have on men?
The article in the Conversation 22 percent of men without college don’t have jobs. Here’s why they’re being left behind. by Erin Wolcott (6/7/2018) makes two points: But the unemployment rate doesn’t tell the full story because it only includes people actively looking for work. People who report not having looked for work in …
Read More »How fast is Antarctica melting (and a quick calculus project)?
A recent NYT article, Antarctica Is Melting Three Times as Fast as a Decade Ago by Kendra Pierre-Louis (6/13/2018), states clearly that Antarctica is melting, well, three times faster than a decade ago, which is a rate of change statement. Rapid melting should cause some concern since: Between 60 and …
Read More »How much are the oceans warming?
A year ago Climate Central posted the article Oceans Are Heating Up with a graph of sea surface temperature anomalies while providing context on issues of ocean warming: 93 percent of the excess heat absorbed by the climate system goes into our oceans, creating major consequences. While more extreme storms and rising …
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