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We’ve just had a year in which every month was a record-setter

✇Ars Technica
John Timmer
A red and orange background, with a thermometer representing extreme heat in the center.

Enlarge (credit: Uma Shankar sharma)

June 2023 did not seem like an exceptional month at the time. It was the warmest June in the instrumental temperature record, but monthly records haven't exactly been unusual in a period where the top 10 warmest years on record have all occurred within the last 15 years. And monthly records have often occurred in years that are otherwise unexceptional; at the time, the warmest July on record had occurred in 2019, a year that doesn't stand out much from the rest of the past decade.

But July 2023 set another monthly record, easily eclipsing 2019's high temperatures. Then August set yet another monthly record. And so has every single month since, a string of records that propelled 2023 to the warmest year since we started keeping track.

Yesterday, the European Union's Copernicus Earth-monitoring service announced that we've now gone a full year where every single month has been the warmest version of that month since we've had enough instruments in place to track global temperatures.

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Saudi Arabia Eyes a Future Beyond Oil

✇NYT: Technology
Stanley Reed
The kingdom is trying to juggle its still-vital petroleum industry with alternative energy sources like wind and solar as it faces pressure to lower carbon emissions.

© Iman Al-Dabbagh for The New York Times

Arrays of solar panels help power the Jazlah Water Desalination plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

California Will Add a Fixed Charge to Electric Bills and Reduce Rates

✇NYT: Technology
Ivan Penn
Officials said the decision would lower bills and encourage people to use cars and appliances that did not use fossil fuels, but some experts said it would discourage energy efficiency.

© Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Utility companies across the country have long pushed for fixed charges to help cover the cost of maintaining and improving grid equipment like power lines and substations

Environmental Changes Are Fueling Human, Animal and Plant Diseases, Study Finds

✇NYT: Science
Emily Anthes
Biodiversity loss, global warming, pollution and the spread of invasive species are making infectious diseases more dangerous to organisms around the world.

© Bill Draker/Rolf Nussbaumer Photography, via Alamy

White-footed mice, the primary reservoir for Lyme disease, have become more dominant in the U.S. as other rarer mammals have disappeared, one potential explanation for rising disease rates.

What Makes a Society More Resilient? Frequent Hardship.

✇NYT: Science
Carl Zimmer
Comparing 30,000 years of human history, researchers found that surviving famine, war or climate change helps groups recover more quickly from future shocks.

© Wirestock, Inc., via Alamy

The city of Caral thrived in Peru between about 5,000 and 3,800 years ago. It was then abandoned for centuries before being briefly reoccupied.

Honda Commits to E.V.s With Big Investment in Canada

✇NYT: Technology
Jack Ewing
The Japanese automaker, which has been slow to sell electric vehicles, said it would invest $11 billion to make batteries and cars in Ontario.

© Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

Honda has said that it would retool its factory in Marysville, Ohio, to make electric vehicles in 2026. The investment in Canada is a sign that the company expects the technology to grow in popularity.
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