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Europe
Combining Contact Tracing Apps
This week, the European Commission announced an attempt to linkup contact tracing apps across member state borders. The number of virus cases and related hospitalizations have increased again in recent weeks across the continent, and six countries, including the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Latvia are testing technology to link their national apps amid this rise in infections. This map by Statista shows the countries where COVID-19 contact tracing apps have been deployed or are currently being developed–many located in Europe. The European Union hopes that having one app across its 27 member states may improve COVID-19 outcomes and allow for a broader reopening of their economy. According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, there has been a combined number of 184,380 deaths from COVID-19 in the European Union, European Economic Area, and the United Kingdom thus far.
This map depicts the countries that are developing or have rolled out COVID-19 contact tracing apps. Click on the map to learn more.
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Greenland
Massive Ice Loss
Due to the rise in Greenland’s average temperature, the Arctic’s largest remaining floating ice shelf is facing rapid disintegration at accelerating rates. Yesterday, scientists at the National Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland reported a 42 square mile piece of ice (twice the size of Manhattan) broke off the ice shelf. Visible by satellite, the now separate piece of ice is known as the Spalte Glacier. Greenland is especially vulnerable to climate change: experts say the region has warmed about 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1980. Melting glaciers contribute dramatically to rising sea levels. Greenland lost enough ice to melting in 2019 to cover the entire state of California in over four feet of water.
This map depicts the Arctic’s largest ice shelf and the now free-floating Spalte Glacier. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: DailyMail
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United States
Smoke Spreading Across Country
Smoke from the wildfires raging in the Pacific coast has reached the East Coast. According to NOAA and NASA satellite imagery as well as reports, changing winds have spread the smoke and associated aerosols across the midwest and the great plains, reaching as far as eastern Canada and Rochester, New York. A study released in 2017 found naturally burning timber and brush from wildfires release particle pollution known to endanger human health at a rate three times as high as levels previously measured by the EPA. Air quality in parts of Oregon is currently measuring as high as 515 on the Air Quality Index, far worse than cities known for poor air quality including New Delhi and Beijing, which measure below 200 and 100 respectively.
This map depicts the spread of smoke across the continental United States. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: Though this area receives too much precipitation to be considered a true desert, what area of glacial silt bills itself as the eastern-most desert in the United States?
A: Desert of Maine
When glaciers receded from Maine after the last ice-age ten thousand years ago, they left behind layers of granular glacial silt resembling sand. Though the area would now be covered with fertile topsoil, sand is trucked-in to maintain the Desert of Maine as a tourist attraction, visited by 30,000 people a year.
Source
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Q: With an area of 19 square miles (49 square km), which lake is the only natural lake in Ghana?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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