News not involving COVID-19. See also: POST-COVID for assessments and reports on what comes next.
— Alaska is known to be home to 8 million common murres across the state — a quarter of the species' world population. But that's not the case anymore. The common murre started washing up on beaches all over Alaska, starved, emaciated.
— The culprit — climate change. Researchers concluded that a 2014 heatwave in the waters of the north Pacific Ocean, known as The Blob, disrupted the common murre's food web. It created a catastrophic rippling effect, causing 4 million common murres to starve to death within just a couple of years.
— The total damage wrought by weather disasters in 2024 was $402 billion, 20% higher than the 10-year inflation-adjusted average. Gallagher Re's historical database extends back to 1990.) A separate report issued January 18 by insurance broker Aon put the total damage wrought by weather disasters in 2024 at $348 billion, with 53 billion-dollar weather disasters.
— As of 2023, the global average LCoE of offshore wind farms was right around $75 per megawatt-hour. China spends around $65.7/MWh while the UK spends a bit less at roughly $50/MWh. Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands all have an LCoE of about $84/MWh. The United States pays a bit of a premium compared to the rest of the world, at around $89.33/MWh. NYC's new clean energy project will cost significantly more. Along with the lease, the company locked in a contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to deliver power at a strike price of $155 per megawatt-hour over the next 25 years — nearly double the national average.
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