The USGS post High Plains Aquifer Groundwater Levels Continue to Decline (6/16/17) summarizes the results from the USGS report Water-Level and Recoverable Water in Storage Changes, High Plains Aquifer, Predevelopment to 2015 and 2013–15. In 2015, total recoverable water in storage in the aquifer was about 2.91 billion acre-feet, which is an overall …
Read More »Where are women less likely than men (ages 30-70) to die of a major disease?
The Our World in Data post, Why do women live longer than men? by Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Diana Beltekian (8/14/18) answers the question with the graph copied here. As the next chart shows, in most countries for all the primary causes of death the mortality rates are higher for men. …
Read More »What do we know about nighttime minimum temperatures?
The recent article on Climate.gov Extreme overnight heat in California and the Great Basin in July 2018 by Rebecca Lindsey (8/8/18) provides an overview in context. As the NCEI’s Deke Arndt has blogged about before, nighttime low temperatures are increasing faster than daytime high temperatures across most of the contiguous United States. For …
Read More »How much vacation time do workers get?
Statista put together a chart (copied here) of vacation time for 12 countries selected from OECD data (see table PF2.3.A) of 42 countries in the post Vacation: Americans Get A Raw Deal by Niall McCarthy (8/8/18). Of the 42 countries listed the U.S. is the only one with a statutory minimum …
Read More »How does the U.S. use its land?
The Bloomberg article Here’s How America Uses Its Land by Dave Merrill and Lauren Leatherby (7/31/2018). The article arrives at the graph copied here and it is worth scrolling through the article to see the graphs along the way with associated facts. More than one-third of U.S. land is used for pasture—by far the …
Read More »What are the recent Mauna Loa CO2 measurements?
The NOAA article Another Climate Milestone on Mauna Loa (6/7/18) provides an overview of CO2 measurement at the Mauna Loa site. In particular, Carbon dioxide levels measured at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory averaged more than 410 parts per million in April and May, the highest monthly averages ever …
Read More »How many people are there and how many can the earth support?
The article in The Conversation 7.5 billion and counting: How many humans can the Earth support? by Andrew D. Hwang (7/9/18) provides some details. The graph here, copied from the article provides population number and future estimates. For real populations, doubling time is not constant. Humans reached 1 billion around 1800, a doubling time …
Read More »What are the prospects for high school grads?
The EPI article Class of 2018 High school edition by Elise Gould, Zane Mokhiber, & Julia Wolfe (6/14/18) provides a thorough review. Figure I from the report, copied here, shows 2000 and 2018 wages for high school grads not enrolled in further schooling by race and gender. In 2018, young workers with a high …
Read More »Which river basins have the most surface area covered by streams and rivers?
Also, why would we want to know this? NASA’s Vital Signs of the Planet feature How wide are the world’s rivers? by Adam Voiland (7/18/18) answers the questions. Most scientists who study rivers rely on measures of discharge, the volume of water transported through a given cross-section of a river. Much …
Read More »What is the poverty rate in OECD countries?
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) defines poverty as an income below half the median household income. The chart here was created using the most recent year of data from the OECD poverty rate page . The U.S. leads the pack with a rate of 17.8%, with Israel right …
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