2020 has seen record Atlantic hurricanes and western wildfires, devastating floods in Asia and Africa and a hot, melting Arctic. It's not just been a disastrous year, but a year of disasters. A look back:
This combination of satellite images provided by the National Hurricane Center shows 30 hurricanes which occurred during the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. Nature struck relentlessly in 2020 with record-breaking and deadly weather and climate related disasters. From the most named storms in the Atlantic with a record number of them intensifying rapidly to the largest area of the western U.S. states burned by wildfires, to killer floods in Asia and Africa and a hot, melting Arctic, 2020 was more than a disastrous year, it was a year of disasters. (National Hurricane Center via AP)
FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2020, file aerial photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, flooding is seen in Bikou township of Longnan city in northwestern China's Gansu Province. (Du Zheyu/Xinhua via AP, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 21, 2020, file photo, firefighters watch flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in the Berryessa Estates neighborhood of unincorporated Napa County, Calif. The blaze, the fifth largest in California history, forced thousands to flee and destroyed more than 1,000 homes and other structures. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2020, file photo, Bradley Beard walks with a shovel through his daughter's destroyed trailer home, after searching in vain for the water shutoff valve for the property in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, in Hackberry, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2020, file photo, a resident walking through a flooded street looks back at storm damage caused by Hurricane Eta in Planeta, Honduras. As Eta moved back over Caribbean waters, governments in Central America worked to tally the displaced and dead, and recover bodies from landslides and flooding that claimed dozens of lives from Guatemala to Panama. (AP Photo/Delmer Martinez, File)
FILE - In this July 17, 2020, file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, water flows out from sluiceways at the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River near Yichang in central China's Hubei Province. Engorged with heavy rains, China's mighty Yangtze River crested again in July, as destructive seasonal floods have grown in force since June. (Zheng Jiayu/Xinhua via AP, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 27, 2020, file photo, vehicles drive through a flooded road after heavy monsoon rains, in Karachi, Pakistan. Heavy monsoon rains lashed many parts of Pakistan as well the southern port city of Karachi, leaving flooding streets, damaging homes and displacing scores of people. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2020, file photo, rescuers use an inflatable boat as they evacuate people from a flooded neighborhood in Neijiang in southwestern China's Sichuan Province. (Chinatopix via AP, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2020, file photo, a person walks on a boardwalk at the salt flats at Badwater Basin, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. Death Valley recorded a scorching 130 degrees (54.4 degrees Celsius) the day before. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 26, 2020, file photo, a man carries goods as he wades through flooded street after heavy monsoon rains, in Karachi, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan, File)
Baby sharks are being born smaller, undernourished and exhausted as climate change warms the world's oceans, researchers say.
Dear EarthTalk: Given the economic slowdown around the world due to the coronavirus in 2020, was there a positive impact on climate change? — M. Stiles, Meriden, Connecticut The coronavirus pandemic has certainly led to a decrease in industrial activity and resulting greenhouse gas emissions during its reign over the planet. A recent study by German researchers calculated that global carbon ...
