Climate

Extreme heat in Kases last month killed so many cattle that carcases were dumped in landfills or buried in unlined graves, Reuters reports. Normally processed as pet food or fertilizer, the 2,117 cows that died from heat exhaustion the weekend of June 11 overwhelmed standard operating procedures. Burying cattle in unlined pits is a risky option and last resort because of the potential for waste to seep into groundwater.

The average temperature in late July for Seattle, Washington, is 79 degrees Fahrenheit. But this week it could see 90 degree temperatures four days in a row, as National Weather Service (NWS) Seattle meteorologist Jacob DeFlitch told The Washington Post.

The processing of sugarcane has an enormous impact on the environment due to the emissions, wastewater runoff and solid waste produced by sugar mills. It also causes biodiversity loss when animal and plant habitat is destroyed to make way for sugarcane cultivation, according to the World Wildlife Fund website.

Six Congressional staffers were arrested Monday after a first-of-its-kind sit-in at Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s office demanding he give climate negotiations another try.

On Monday, meteorologists in Switzerland sent weather balloons over Alpine country in search for the freezing point. The weather balloons had to rise over 5,100 meters (over 17,000 feet), before finding the freezing point, setting a new record and breaking the previous highest freezing point of 27 years ago.

When the weather gets hotter, building materials including asphalt and concrete expand and crack, CNN explained. And this has led to incidents from London to China as aging infrastructure meets record high temperatures.

As a third of the U.S. population baked under heat warnings or advisories Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced a series of executive actions on the climate crisis. 

Migratory monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus plexippus) are now considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The species will now be listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species after habitat loss and climate change decimated the population.