Climate change

The Guardian -   The FIFA tournament is being played across 16 host cities, including 11 in the US. That includes southern cities such as Miami, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta, where temperatures during games could top 85F or even 90F.

The matches come as forecasts show much of the US facing above-normal temperatures....Heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather. Workers at previous World Cups have suffered and even died in sweltering heat, and experts warn this year’s tournament could be the hottest since the first in 1930.

Thousands of World Cup workers are expected to labor in conditions exceeding recommended heat-exposure limits, putting them at risk of heat exhaustion and other illnesses, according to a study published this week.

“If you think about the delivery people, the law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs, people selling concessions or collecting tickets, a whole network of people are going to face heat-related hazards,” said Andrew Grundstein, a geographer and climatologist at the University of Georgia who led the study.

Inside Climate News -   The starry night sky has always anchored humanity’s sense of place in a vast universe. It’s a map guiding travelers, a calendar for migrations and harvests, a wellspring of stories. But a surge of commercial satellite launches into the upper fringes of Earth’s atmosphere threatens the relationship between people and the celestial commons by crowding the night sky and polluting the atmosphere, scientists warn. 

Research shows potential impacts on Earth’s climate, including a 2025 paper led by a NASA scientist that found accumulations of metal particles from satellites disintegrating in the upper atmosphere can alter temperatures and wind flows, with ripple effects on surface climate patterns.

More than 15,000 active and inactive satellites orbit Earth, up from under 1,000 at the start of the century, and scientists estimate that hundreds of them are overhead at any given hour over North America and Europe. Now several companies want to launch huge fleets of satellites over the next 10 to 20 years, pending regulatory approval and financing.