2020: Thoughts for the year
Wow, what a year this has been. I think I have lived through quite a few chaotic and wild years in my life. But so far, I have never lived through a year that tried to kill us in the most inventive ways possible.
What is it you say? A year does not have intention so it can’t aspire to kill us? Well, let’s see…
January: Australian bushfires
The year started with a continuation of some of the worst bushfires Australia had ever seen. Between June 2019 and March 2020, a total of 18.6 million hectares (46 million acres) of land burnt down. 5,900 buildings got destroyed and 34 people lost their lives. On top of that, an estimated three billion animals were killed and it is believed that some species were driven to extinction by the fires.
And if you think that 18.6 million hectares of burnt down land aren’t all that much, have a look at the projection of the destroyed area on other countries.
The area destroyed by the Australian bushfires
Source: BBC
February to December: Covid-19
Need I say more? At the time of writing, we are at 1.6 million confirmed deaths (with probably a much higher number of cases undiagnosed). My heart goes out to everyone who lost a loved one in this pandemic.
Total confirmed deaths from Covid-19
Source: Our World in Data
May: Murder hornets land in the United States
It is about 2 inches (5cm) long and comes from East and Southeast Asia. It has a stinger that is 6mm long, or about four times as long as that of a honeybee. Its sting can cause kidney failure and multiple stings can kill a human. Indeed, an estimated 50 people die of its sting every year in Asia. I am – of course – talking about Vespa mandarinia, commonly known as the Asian giant hornet or the Asian murder hornet. And now, it has come to the North-western United States where it threatens humans and may cause massive destruction amongst local bee populations as well.
A murder hornet on a human hand
Source: NUMBER7isBEST
June: I can’t breathe
After George Floyd was killed on the streets of Minneapolis by a police officer, the streets all over the United States and Europe erupted. By the end of June, 14,000 protesters had been arrested. 96.3% of demonstrations remained peaceful and without injuries to anyone but the remaining 3.7% caused the largest property damages from civil unrest in US history. Thankfully, nobody was killed during these protests, but let us not forget that the protests were triggered by excessive force by some police officers. A 2019 study by researchers from Northwestern University showed that black men have a staggering 1 in 1,000 chance of being killed by police. Encounters with the police in the United States are deadly serious, not just in 2020.
Risk of being killed by police in the US
Source: Edwards et al. (2019).
July: The first hurricane in the Caribbean…
On 25 July, Hanna made landfall in Texas as a category 1 hurricane. It was the first hurricane of the season to make landfall in the United States and little did we know that in the end there would be so many named storms this year that we would literally run out of letters in the alphabet. In the end, NOAA counted 30 storms for a new record high with hurricane Iota the last major storm, so far. In total, the hurricane season in the Caribbean killed at least 426 people and caused damages of $33.7bn. Later in November, the year’s most powerful storm, Typhoon Goni, would hit the Philippines. That storm had sustained one-minute wind speeds of up to 315km/h (195mph) and killed at least 10 people. But what really got me about this year’s hurricane season is that I learned about a type of storm I didn’t know existed. In mid-August, a derecho, or inland hurricane, tore through Iowa and Illinois. Covering a length of 400 miles the storm killed at least four people and destroyed homes with wind speeds up to 213km/h (126mph). In essence, it was a category 4 hurricane in the middle of the US countryside.
Timeline of the 2020 hurricane season
Source: Wikipedia
August: Beirut harbour explosion
On 4 August, a massive explosion in the harbour of Beirut devastated property worth c. $15bn, left 300,000 homeless, injured 6,500, and killed at least 204 people. The cause was an estimated 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that wasn’t stored properly. The explosion had the power of 1,100 tonnes of TNT or the equivalent of 1,000 car bombs or two Tomahawk cruise missiles. The explosion could be felt in Cyprus, more than 200km away.
Beirut harbour before and after the explosion
Source: BBC
September: US wildfires
The Australian bushfire season was over but in the United States things only got started. Wildfires in the United States encompassed “only” 2.7m hectares (6.7m acres), but still managed to destroy 14,000 buildings and kill at least 46 people.
Size of US wildfires
Source: BBC
October: Alaska’s coming mega-Tsunami
Ok, this one hasn’t happened, yet, but in October, NASA warned that new research has convinced geologists that an entire mountainside near Barry Glacier in Alaska is at risk of collapsing into the fjord below. The landslide would create a mega-tsunami that would be intensified by the narrow shape of the fjord. Scientists estimate that this mega-tsunami would unleash about 16 times more debris and 11 times more energy than the 1958 mega-tsunami in Alaska. That tsunami created the tallest wave in modern history reaching 1,700 feet (518m) and was triggered by an earthquake of magnitude 7.8. And as if on cue, an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 shook Alaska on 19 October, triggering a tsunami warning.
Alaskan glacier at risk of causing a mega-Tsunami
Source: NASA
November: The rapture – literally
As if all these events weren’t enough, the rapture seems to have started in New York City. A man in the Bronx was minding his own business, passing a bus stop when all of a sudden, the pavement cracked and swallowed him into a 4.5m (15 feet) deep hole. On the plus side, the man could have had worse injuries if his fall wasn’t softened by the dozens of rats living in the sewage underneath. On the other hand, the man was stuck in the hole for 30 minutes and didn’t dare to call for help because rats were crawling all over him and he feared they would crawl into his mouth if he opened it. You win some, you lose some…
If you’re interested in more details, there is CCTV camera footage.
December: The one really good news
But no matter how bad 2020 was, towards the end of the year we had one major piece of good news that made up for all the trouble.
No, not that one. And not the other one either.
I am talking about the discovery of two new species of larger gliders in Australia. These aggressively cute animals live in the forests of Eastern Australia jumping and gliding from tree to tree to get to their favourite food: eucalyptus leaves.
Honestly, they are hands down the cutest animals on earth.
They're really cute, but do not feed them after midnight!
Super recap, thanks for your daily notes which are concise and always interesting because they are slightly off-the-run, a real differentiating factor.