Climate Emergency
Another summer of uncontrollable wildfires, another year towards a run-away climate emergency.
Large-scale and intense wildfires carrying smoke across northern hemisphere | The Guardian
The northern hemisphere has had a large number of intense wildfires in the first half of summer, carrying vast amounts of smoke across Eurasia and North America…
Emissions from Russian wildfires in June and July were higher than for the preceding two years, and fires in the region of Amur Oblast led to the estimated release of 17.2 megatonnes of carbon for the two-month period, the highest in 22 years.
Earth just set its hottest days on record in thousands of years
“We are now in truly uncharted territory and as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years,” Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo said.
The records, which exceeded the old milestone set last July, very likely stands as the hottest day in thousands of years, based on tree ring records, ice cores and other so-called paleoclimate data.
How Kamala Harris and Donald Trump compare on climate change » Yale Climate Connections
Harris has made clear throughout her career that she views climate change as a significant threat…
If elected president, Harris is “widely expected to try to protect the climate achievements of the Biden administration,” according to the New York Times.
In contrast, Trump has falsely called climate change a hoax
CrimethInc. : Ahead of Another Summer of Climate Disasters, Let’s Talk about Real Solutions
In cooperation with Freedom, we present a short text from Peter Gelderloos exploring why the strategies that mainstream environmental movements are currently employing to halt industrially-produced climate change are failing—and what we could be doing instead…
The mainstream climate movement begins from a premise that guarantees failure.
Not just failure. Catastrophe. And the more effective it is, the more harm it will cause.
Let’s explore why.
Yes, they knew. And most US law makers also knew but denied it. And not long after the public knew. You know who still isn’t acting? MOST OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC.
We don’t get a pass. The 10% of the Global North, especially in the US, continue to live lifestyles of over-consumption, air travel, maximum heating/cooling comfort, oversized houses, oversized vehicles. TODAY. WE KNOW.
US oil company ran 1977 article predicting climate crisis could cause starvation | The Guardian
Marathon Petroleum predecessor warned of potential for ‘social and economic calamities’ in decades-old publication
The sooner the better.
When is the global population expected to peak? And how will we adapt? - Vox
The headline was clear: We are well past the days of worrying about having more people than the Earth can handle. The UN’s demographers now expect the number of people on the planet to peak at a bit under 10.3 billion in 2084.
That’s two years earlier than the UN was predicting peak population as recently as 2022, and considerably earlier than forecasts from just a few years before, when population wasn’t expected to peak until the 22nd century.
“The scope of the problem is vast.”
Even that is an understatement. We cannot be ready because this is now an existential crisis for civilization as we know it. It’s that simple.
The U.S. is nowhere near ready for climate change » Yale Climate Connections
The situation has now reached the point where the government can’t possibly make whole all those wiped out by a disaster, let alone buy out all of the properties that have flooded repeatedly or finance all the beach nourishment projects that could defend coastal property against sea level rise and stronger storms.
Brutal truth.
Listen to this conversation with Saul Williams about the historical and ongoing colonialism by the Global North of the Global South. It’s white supremacy in service of resource extraction, plain and simple.
“I think people just really have no idea what is coming, because we have no way of visualizing that through our own personal experiences, or that of the last 250 years,” said Randall Parkinson, a coastal geologist at Florida International University. “It’s not something where you go, ‘I know what that might look like because I’ve seen that.’ Because we haven’t.
Living and surviving in the climate emergency will become increasingly difficult and, frankly, miserable.
Have you tried to imagine what it will be like in 20 years?
The New York Times reports on soaring heat related emergencies and deaths in the US:
Extreme heat, intensified by climate change, has blanketed much of the United States this summer, killing more than a dozen people in Oregon in recent days. Large parts of California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah have been under excessive heat warnings, which local officials believe contributed to more than 90 deaths in the West this month.
How Science Fiction Can Inspire Environmentalism and Climate Action - ZNetwork
As the rhyme suggests, cli-fi is a sub-genre of sci-fi. It tends to be speculative, to focus on anthropogenic global warming, and to examine the effects of climate change on human communities. Frequently, as with Atwood’s trilogy, there is a dystopian slant.
In keeping with the complexity of climate change itself, cli-fi is multiform, encompassing science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, magical realism, fable, satire, and everything in between.
Our new reality is constant adaption to extreme heat and other effects of the ongoing climate emergency: The mayor of Athens, Greece on extreme heat in the capital city: “It’s about survival”. The plan includes more cooling centers, water stations and planting a lot more trees for shade.
The Guardian reports on the mayor of Athens’s top priority:
Ensuring that the people of Greece’s capital – mainland Europe’s hottest metropolis – survive the summer. After a June that was the hottest on record, the city has already witnessed record-breaking temperatures and wildfires.
Sadly this won’t register as a problem for most people.
When a recognized animal like the polar bear goes extinct, that will get some attention. And yes, the polar bears will go extinct. If you think otherwise you’re living in a delusion about where we are in timeline of this climate emergency. This is happening right now. Extinctions are happening now.
Sea level rise wipes out a U.S. species for the first known time
The loss of the only known stand of Key Largo tree cactus in the U.S. shows how rising seas can alter the coastal environment.
Tiny Life Journal - How I’m surviving summer without taking a flight in service of a vacation:
I understand that long distance vacations are a luxury and not a necessity of life. I choose to respect my fellow humans and the other species of the planet rather than shit on them.
Equally predictable: the 10% of the Global North will keep on flying to vacations, driving SUVs without concern and otherwise carry on as though there is no problem and nothing they can do.
Earth sees warmest June on record, boosts odds of warmest year
June was the warmest such month on record worldwide, according to figures released Monday, extending a heat streak even longer.
The monthly milestone increases the odds that 2024 will eclipse 2023 as the warmest year on record, and adds to the consecutive months that exceeded the crucial 1.5°C threshold in the Paris Agreement.
Pearls and Irritations have an excellent post about The Invisible Doctrine by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison. The new book, a critique of neoliberalism as the ideological source of the myriad crises we now face.
The book argues passionately for urgent system change, away from the control currently exercised by profit makers, and the need to strengthen governance and how the economy operates, though expanded participatory democracy. This is a well written, quite brief book that deserves a wide readership by those of us concerned about the many crises that now threaten our human future.
“The developed countries, the major emitters, are not taking this matter seriously.”
As the earliest Category 5 storm ever observed in the Atlantic carves a path of destruction through the Caribbean, we get an update on damage from Hurricane Beryl from the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves. He describes the disaster scenes he witnessed and discusses the rising challenge of extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis.
Tragic. The devastation is hard to comprehend. This is the long emergency.
Hurricane Beryl's Aftermath: Carriacou Residents' Survival Stories - YouTube
We survived Hurricane Beryl. Now what? It's heart wrenching and inspiring to hear from residents in Carriacou who have lost everything in this powerful hurricane. As the only journalists on the island, I need your help. This is a very raw video, I walk around and talk to the people so you can hear directly from them about this Hurricane, it's impacts and how they can still smile in the face of having no hope but to wait for help to arrive.
This seems like a problem the Republican Governor of Florida should be dealing with.
Miami Is Entering a State of Unreality - The Atlantic
“Rain bombs” such as Invest 90L are products of our hotter world; warmer air has more room between its molecules for moisture. That water is coming for greater Miami and the 6 million people who live here. This glittering city was built on a drained swamp and sits atop porous limestone; as the sea keeps rising, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts that South Florida could see almost 11 extra inches of ocean by 2040.