Introducing EarthOne: An Eco-Warrior Playground
When AsiaOne rolled out EarthOne, it wasn’t just a new section—it was a bold salute to a planet we’re all supposed to love, plus a shoutout to science. If you’re hunting for bite‑sized, headline‑friendly stories, you’ve landed in the right place.
2021 – A Year of Weather Drama
Picture this: a global weather extravaganza that smashed almost every record, with a side of heartbreak, coughing‑up crops, and a handful of wildfires setting off a new carbon leaderboard. Here’s a quick recap of the headline moments that Reuters watched unfold.
February Highlights
- Texas Cold Snap – In what should have been a mild chap, a sudden freeze turned Texas into the North Pole of the Sunbelt. A nasty storm claimed 125 lives and left millions paralyzed by power loss.
- Kenyan Locusts – The East African countryside faced a swarming emergency, as locusts gutted fields in a split‑second assault. Climate scientists hammered home that the weird weather patterns, driven by warming air, set the stage for this insect melee.
March Milestone
- Beijing’s Sandstorm – A dramatic dust veil rolled over the city, turning the sky orange and halting flights. The desert’s hard haul prompted yearly volunteer “tree‑planted” missions that help anchor soil and pry wind out of the mix.
June Resurgence
- <strongWestern Drought – A relentless soak‑dry grip from early 2020 fanned the Western U.S., pushing farmers to ditch their crops, triggering emergency measures, and causing the Hoover Dam’s waters to tumble to historic lows.
- <strongHeatwave Havoc – The U.S. and Canada’s Pacific Northwest felt a killer heatwave where officials declared the temperature trend “virtually impossible” without climate change cuddling the planet. Power lines melted, roads shrunk, and cooling centers had to step in for the city dwellers. Portland skated its record high at 116 °F.
Why All This Matters
These aren’t isolated blips—they’re sharpened by a planet that keeps steaming up. The evidence lines up: as the atmosphere warms over the next decade, the storms, droughts, heatwaves, and alien rain outs are not just potential future hazards—they’ll get worse.
Scroll down to catch more EarthOne announcements, whether it’s a sea‑level report, a news‑worthy forestry initiative, or another carbon‑meat headline. Stay curious and stay green!
July – The Flooding Season of the Year
When a whole year’s worth of rain poured onto Henan province over just three days, the result was heartbreaking: over 300 people lost their lives. In the same month, European skies went wild—Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands were drenched to the bone, claiming nearly 200 souls.
- Henan, China: 300+ deaths, a year’s rain in 3 days.
- Germany, Belgium & Netherlands: almost 200 fatalities from sudden downpours.
- Scientists say climate change made those floods 20 % more likely.
July – Wildfires on the West Coast
America’s West Coast rolled out a record heatwave that combined with a severe drought, sparking two colossal wildfires. These blazes tore through California and Oregon, ranking among the states’ biggest ever.
- Heat and drought— the classic “double trouble” combo— engineered the burn.
- Scientists claim more frequent and fierce fires are a direct result of the planet warming.
July – South America’s Dry Spell
Bigger than a dry spell, it’s a desert uprising: Chile’s megadrought has stretched for a decade, while Brazil announced its wettest year in a century.
- Argentina: The Paraná river plummeted to its lowest level since 1944.
- Heatwaves are outnumbering the old, cold‑storm generation, leaving everyone gripped by dryness.
August – Mediterranean Meltdown
Algeria, Greece and Turkey all felt the heat’s wrath, pulling thousands from homes for fear of the flames. Two souls perished in Greece; Algeria lost at least 65.
- Greece’s tale: temperatures that topped 46 °C left firefighters scrambling.
- Severe blazes were fuelled by a record-breaking heatwave.
Late August – The Vanishing Glaciers
In the Alps, Swiss ski resort workers covered a May Grand Tater’s glacier to keep what ice could stay. Switzerland has already lost 500 glaciers and might see 90 % of its remaining 1,500 shrink away by century’s end, provided emissions stay high.
- Solar warming = glaciers retreating.
- Travelers may lose the iconic icy slopes they’re fans of.
August/September – Hurricane Ida’s Deadly Long‑Haul
Hurricane Ida roared into Louisiana as a Category‑4 beast, taking nearly 100 lives and injuring billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure.
- Ida’s tender moist remnant formed flash floods in the Northeast.
- Climate kick‑starts storms to become stronger, hang longer over land, & happen more frequently.
September – Russia’s Permafrost Pile‑Up
Below the roofs and streets of Russia, buried ice that had held up for ages is now melting. This thaw under the land shakes foundations as a behind‑the‑scenes villain of a hot world.
- Permafrost was a solid base for the last Ice Age.
- Now, global warming threatens its stability.
November – The Worst Floods of a Century in South Sudan
Like a slow‑moving continental flood, 780,000 people, about 1 in 14, have suffered the floods in the rain‑heavy season. Scientists predict this will only intensify as temperatures rise.
- Record-flooding in three consecutive years.
- Water is the current heart‑beat of the nation’s stress.
November – Montreal’s “Storm of a Thousand Days”
In British Columbia, a storm dumped a month’s rainfall in just two days, launching floods, mudslides, highway chaos, and bridge wreck‑age.
- It ranks as the most costly disaster in Canada’s history.
- Rain came from an atmospheric river (a long stretch of water‑vapor). Experts say these will grow longer & possibly more destructive as the planet continues to warm.
Conclusion – The Changing Climate, The Rising Risk
Each of these months tells a story that’s 100% ours to read. From flooding to wildfires, from glaciers to permafrost, climate change is seeping into all corners of humanity’s existence. The message? We’ve got to listen, learn, and act—before our world turns into more of a drama than a story we can bear.
