“Some 1 million people in South Sudan have been displaced or isolated for months by the worst flooding in memory, with the intense rainy season a sign of climate change.
“The waters began rising in June, washing away crops, swamping roads and worsening hunger and disease in the young nation struggling to recover from civil war. Now famine is a threat.”
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/children-die-hands-floods-ravage-south-sudan-75001947
“‘The sea is rising, the climate is changing’: the lessons learned from Mozambique’s deadly cyclone…
“Nearly two years on from Idai, Mozambique is trying to rebuild. But we are living in a time of record-breaking natural disasters: extreme droughts, epic floods, apocalyptic wildfires.”
“Floods and damage to homes have been reported in parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal [South Africa] as torrential downpours continue into the new year.
“Johannesburg emergency management services (EMS) spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi said parts of Lenasia extension one and Protea Glen were flooded.”
“The rain that hit the city of Rio de Janeiro this Saturday, 2, caused floods and interdictions on city streets… As of 11:03 am, the city called in 21 sirens to alert residents of nine favelas about the risk of landslides and the need to look for safe places to protect themselves.”
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kByUI_pHFHo&t=223s
“After significant flooding in Warrnambool caused by a “once in 50 years” storm, much of central and eastern Victoria [Australia] is being told to brace for heavy rain and damaging wind.
“Almost 50 millimetres [2 inches] of rain fell in the town in about an hour… Across just 12 minutes, more than 30 millimetres fell on the town, flooding streets…”
“Aussie farmer witnesses more rain fall in 24 hours than an entire year: 74mm [2.9 inches] had fallen in just 24 hours. It was more rain than the region had experienced in all of 2019.”
“A tropical cyclone warning has been issued for parts of northern Queensland, where residents have been warned to brace for gale force winds, abnormally high tides, large waves and heavy rainfall.
“The conditions may lead to flash flooding, the Bureau of Meteorology warned on Sunday.”
“Leading ski areas in Japan have reported up to a metre (40 inches) of snowfall in 72 hours to see in the New Year. However one, Geto Kogen, has reported 220cm (over 7 feet) falling in three days, including 105cm in the past 24 hours alone.
“The latest big falls come a fortnight after the country’s ski areas reported up to three metres (10 feet) of snowfall in seven days in the lead up to Christmas.”
https://www.inthesnow.com/huge-new-years-snowfalls-in-japan/
“Parts of Western Visayas and Southern Luzon [Philippines] greeted the New Year inundated by heavy rain and floods which forced more than 17,000 people to flee their homes in Negros Occidental province, officials said on Friday…
“…many communities in 23 towns and a city in the provinces of Sorsogon, Camarines Sur and Albay were hit by floods and landslides.”
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1378449/new-year-floods-slides-hit-negros-bicol
“The wet weather has been so persistent that the 318.6mm [11.2 inches] of rain that fell in Changi [Singapore] from Friday, the first day of this year, was more than the average of 238.3mm for the month of January, said national water agency PUB on Saturday on Facebook.
“On Saturday, the heaviest rainfall of 210.6mm[8.3 inches] was also recorded in Changi between 12am and 7pm.”
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/wet-and-windy-start-to-the-new-year-continues-into-saturday
“About 1,000 people in Malaysia’s southern state of Johor have been placed in temporary evacuation centres after flooding caused by two days of heavy rain which started on Friday (Jan 1).
“Four districts – Kulai, Johor Bahru, Kluang and Kota Tinggi – were hit by flooding…”
“Ice blankets the desert in Al Qassim, Saudi Arabia January 1 2021.”
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmZll97i8OE
“Rescuers and foresters continue tackling a fire that has been raging since yesterday in the southeastern Russian city of Sochi and has already spread across 5.5 hectares (13.5 acres), the municipal authorities said on Saturday.
“The blaze started on Friday afternoon as dry litter caught fire in a forest next to the Golovinka village.”
https://www.urdupoint.com/en/world/russian-rescuers-continue-fighting-large-fore-1130429.html
“Kyiv [Ukraine] records warmest day in Dec over 140 years:
“For the first time in 140 years, the average daily air temperature was registered in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv on December 30, that is + 5.3°C, which was 0.7°C up against a record high temperature registered on December 30, 1913.”
“Global warming is putting the traditional post-prandial glass of port at risk as Portugal’s Douro Valley faces rising temperatures and lower rainfall.
“A report from Symington Family Estates, the group behind brands including Graham’s, Cockburn’s, Dow’s and Warre’s, contains a stark warning on the effects of climate change.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/climate-change-knocks-ports-sweet-spot-dp8s7sv6d
“The average temperature recorded in Uccle [Belgium] for 2020 was 12.2°C [54F], an absolute record high since records began in 1833, according to the annual report of the Royal Meteorological Institute, RMI.
“It was also the first time the average had risen above 12°C, according to the RMI, which said the norm was 10.6°C.”
“2020 was a year of extremes for the UK with the wettest February on record, the sunniest spring, a heatwave in the summer and a day in October breaking rainfall records, says the Met Office.”
https://solihullobserver.co.uk/news/a-year-of-extremes-met-office-notes-impact-of-climate-change/
“Britain could be hit by a new ‘Beast from the East’ in the next fortnight as forecasters warn of ‘sudden stratospheric warming’ above the Arctic.
“Temperatures could hit -10 degrees celsius, roads will become treacherously icy and snow is expected to fall across the country, as police warn against all but essential travel.”
“The quick-clay landslide happened about 20 kilometers north of Oslo and follows a month of record rainfall.
“About 1,000 people were evacuated from the area after the landslide devastated large parts of the village.”
“Finland. A record warm year, in Helsinki, it did not snow for the first time in 176 years:
“In Helsinki, the nation’s capital, for the first time in 176 years (no measurements have been taken before), no snow fell whatsoever in January.
“It appeared in trace quantities only in the spring.”
“For the second time in less than a decade, Northeast Pennsylvania experienced heat in 2020 like never before.
“The National Weather Service reported Friday that the average temperature last year at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport was 53.6 degrees, making it the warmest year locally since official record-keeping began in 1901.”
“Think Phoenix. Think Yuma. Think Las Vegas. Think Abu Dhabi, even Riyadh. From a drought standpoint, 2020 in Tucson resembled those rain-starved desert cities far more than itself during our driest year on record.
“…Tucson got only 4.17 inches of rain last year… The previous record low rainfall came 96 years ago — 5.07 inches in 1924, the National Weather Service said.”
“New research from West Coast oceanographers provides insight into the cause of toxic algae blooms that caused shellfish closures and marine mammal deaths near the Oregon-California border.
“The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Climate, shows climate change and a 2013-2015 Pacific Ocean heatwave, often called “the blob,” have together increased the growth of toxic algae off the coastline…”
“The storm [hammering the far western Aleutian Islands on Thursday], which has been described as a “bomb cyclone,” has already set records for the lowest sea level pressure ever recorded in Alaska and is considered the “deepest” cyclone in the state since record keeping began in the 1950s, according to climatologist Brian Brettschneider.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/bomb-cyclone-breaks-records-off-alaska/
“As Arctic sea ice steadily disappears and temperatures rise across the region, the tundra has generally been greening, with shrubs and small trees growing more robustly.
“But a new study of growth rings in Arctic shrubs reveals a countervailing trend — the withering of plants in some areas because summer conditions have grown too hot and dry.”
“Planet Earth’s success in staying habitable for billions of years is partly down to luck, according to a new study.
“A mass simulation experiment suggests most planets would not have been able to cope with changes to their climate while still supporting life for the three billion years Earth has, scientists have said.”
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here. I’ll be back with an ‘Economic’ thread tomorrow.
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“… experiment suggests most planets would not have been able to cope with changes to their climate while still supporting life …”
The Drake equation has better data now for the “f sub l” term. The number of planets with life.
We also know the value of the “L” term now even though most people will not admit that it is only about 250 years. 250 years is the amount of time it takes to use up all of the hydrocarbon fuels on the planet, or cause it to overheat because too much hydrocarbon fuels have been burnt.
Lou, I recall Paul Chefurka wrote a very good article in that vein: http://www.paulchefurka.ca/Fermi.html
A Happy New Year to you, btw!
“If there is enough carbon available, the species will become technologically advanced, will send out signals for a short while and will then go extinct due to an inability to adapt to the planet’s changing climate. The species will not climb out of its gravity well and fly to the stars, because the energy required will all be soaked up in its own growth, and extinction will happen …”
Apparently great minds do think alike. 🙂
Happy NewYear, Harry!
Actually, there is some subtlety to the end fate of the hypothetical intelligent species. If there is a smaller amount of carbon, the species can have a moment-in-the-sun event, followed by a return to hunting and gathering. If there is too much carbon, extinction is inevitable.
And I like my reason that no species ever figures it out in time:
Evolution works slowly, and so regardless where the intelligent species evolved, it is (by definition) well adapted to its original environment, whether that is the savanna, the swamp, the sea, or whatever. The species therefore cannot be adapted to the technological environment that precedes any space exploration. Since the species is not adapted to technology, it cannot make good decisions (i.e. wear the fucking mask) in that fast paced and complex world.
Conclusion:
I have lived during the best/most comfortable/most interesting/easiest time that has ever been and the best time that ever will be, and I lived most of it as a privileged white male. No complaint that I might imagine is valid.