On Nov. 15, 2022, as projected by The United Nations, Earth’s population reached eight billion, approximately 11 years after the global population reached seven billion. According to The New York Times, the global population growth rate is expected to slow in the next few decades. Countries like the U.S. and China are expected to have lower growth rates, while poorer countries are expected to grow faster, with India predicted to become the world’s most populous nation in 2023.
Elon Musk’s turbulent takeover of Twitter has caused confusion on the platform, with mass layoffs of employees and impersonations of accounts such as Eli Lilly, which resulted in the pharmaceutical company’s stock drop, according to NBC News. An NBC News timeline of the saga explains that this all began in April 2022, when Musk first started purchasing shares of the social media platform.
Nov. 15, 2022, was the first snow of the season for students at Mount Holyoke College. Despite the early snow shower, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that this winter will see “drier-than-average conditions across the South with wetter-than-average conditions for areas of the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest.”
On Nov. 4, 2022, the United States Environmental Protection Agency published a press release announcing “public engagement and input opportunities,” designed to gather feedback from the public on potential climate change and pollution reduction programs. These new programs are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law this past August, according to the press release. The EPA’s public engagement effort is made up of four elements: a “Request for Information,” expert input, a listening session and a webpage dedicated to the new programs, the press release stated. The RFI consists of six public dockets, each of which describes a potential program and has a section for comments.
The Earth and moon aligned with the sun on Nov. 8, 2022, to form the second total lunar eclipse of the year, and the last one until 2025, ABC News reported. The article explained that a total lunar eclipse is caused by the perfect alignment of the sun, Earth and moon, when the moon passes directly through the Earth’s shadow. NASA reported that totality occurred between 5:17 and 6:42 a.m. EST with partial and penumbral phases ending at 8:50 a.m. EST.
This year marks the 27th Conference of The Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, also called COP27. From Nov. 6 to 18, climate activists, negotiators, ministers, mayors, civil society members, heads of state and CEOs will be gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt for the largest annual gathering on climate change and climate action, according to the United Nations’ official website.
On Oct. 19, 2022, a group of researchers reported finding the remains of a Neanderthal family — the first discovery of its kind — to the scientific journal Nature. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the remains were found alongside animal bones and stone tools inside the Chagyrskaya Cave in Siberia.
