“Record rainfall in Western Australia’s Nullabor has plunged Australia’s largest sheep station underwater and closed Perth’s main arterial road to the rest of the country.
“Floodwaters have cut access to the Trans-Australian Railway line and the Eyre Highway, both vital freight paths in and out of Western Australia.”
“Australia Warns of Critical Financial Risks From Climate Change…
“Australia’s worsening climate change may see insurance companies and banks withdraw their services from communities vulnerable to extreme events, potentially triggering “cascading effects” across the economy, a new government report warned.”
“Hobart endures hottest night in 112 years as severe heatwave hits south-eastern Australia.
“Saturday was the hottest March day on record for Edithburgh on South Australia’s Yorke peninsula (41.7C) and Kanagulk (40.6C) in western Victoria. The overnight low temperature in Hobart was 24.3C – the warmest night in the Tasmanian capital since 1912…”
“There are growing fears of an alarming shift in Antarctic sea ice…
“Researchers were shocked when the ice failed to recover during the Antarctic winter in the middle of last year, remaining so far below average that “our statistical models didn’t work anymore”, says Edward Doddridge at the University of Tasmania in Australia.”
“Bird flu virus found in king penguins as scientists fear global spread…
“The cases were confirmed in samples sent back to the UK to the International Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza at the Apha laboratories in Weybridge, Surrey.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/bird-flu-penguins-antarcita-spread-b2510978.html
“Brazil’s staggering dengue fever crisis is a warning to the world…
“The disease is ripping through much of South America, where scientists say rising temperatures due to climate change have both extended the territorial range of the mosquito that carries dengue and increased its proliferation.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/10/dengue-fever-brazil-outbreak-epidemic/
“EU food giants turn blind eye to deforestation in Argentina.
“This is the second part of a cross-border investigation conducted by Voxeurop and Periodistas por el Planeta into how soy from deforestation-prone areas in Argentina arrives in Europe by exploiting legal loopholes and abusing self-regulation.”
https://euobserver.com/world/158204
“EXTRAORDINARY HEAT IN THE AMERICAS – records all over from Mexico to Argentina.
“Guyana beat again its national record, like every single month previously. Colombia is constantly >40C in the lowlands. French Guiana 35.2 St Laurent do Moroni it’s beating records nearly every single day.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1767324210202816704
“HISTORIC – unbelievable heat MEXICO & Central America.
“46.5C [115.7F] El Pujal – it has never been that hot anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere in the first half of March. 33.0 Pachuca 2300m asl record tied; 30.0 Quetzaltenango GUATEMALA all time high tied! 34.3 Carravelle MARTINIQUE record.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1766599161976099288
“B.C. winemakers rethinking industry after climate catastrophes.
“Record-breaking heat. Wildfires and smoke that repeatedly contaminated grapes. A destructive cold snap in 2022. Then, the hammer blow — another deep freeze this January that is estimated to have inflicted up to 99 per cent crop loss across the province, wiping out this year’s vintage.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wine-okanagan-climate-1.7140333
“Fort McMurray prepares for wildfire season after a record warm, dry winter.
“The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo has crews out FireSmarting across the region. Fort McMurray experienced its second driest and third warmest on record.”
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2317012547739
“Trees are expanding north in Alaska’s Arctic as a result of sea ice loss.
“A group of scientists studying tree cover in Alaska’s Brooks Range found that trees are expanding north and at higher elevations, in part due to the loss of Arctic sea ice, which is disappearing because of human-caused global warming.”
“England’s largest rhododendron bush has flowered a month ahead of schedule after the country experienced the hottest February on record.
“The bush in Horsham, West Sussex, is covered in red and pink buds and bigger than ever, with a circumference of 115m and able to fit a double-decker bus inside.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/11/west-sussex-rhododendron-bush-blooms-early/
“The wettest February since 1836 will lead to a “horrific” harvest, farmers have warned.
“Many parts of southern England recorded more than twice the average rainfall. Seeds which were planted in the autumn and January have simply rotted in the soil before germinating.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nrz5v09g3o
“EU Faces Systemic Financial Shocks From Global Warming…
““It’s not that we face a major financial shock tomorrow but it is accumulating. If we start talking about major investments in general into our infrastructure or if we make wrong choices in investing in the way we are constructing our society . . . the risks are getting higher and higher.””
https://stratnewsglobal.com/world-news/eu-faces-systemic-financial-shocks-from-global-warming/
“Five dead, two children missing after weekend storms in southern France.
“Five people died over the weekend when violent storms swept southern France, authorities said Monday, March 11, as rescue services continued their search for missing people, including two children.”
“Truffle hunters vs winemakers: Climate change is making Italy’s esteemed producers compete for land.
“White Alba truffles and Piedmont red wines typically pair well together. But rising temperatures are creating a rift in the region. The disappearing art of truffle hunting is facing a new and “grave threat” from winemakers in northern Italy.”
“Barcelona’s Catholics pray for rain amid worst drought.
“A religious procession took place with a figure of Christ on the cross carried through the city. The figure of Sant Crist de la Sang, or Holy Christ of the Blood, has been used to summon rain for centuries, according to Brother lluis Ignasi Bonastre.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/barcelonas-catholics-pray-rain-amid-080145510.html
“Rain-free corner of Murcia named the driest spot in Europe.
“…there’s one corner in the south of the Region of Murcia, stretching from Cabo Tiñoso all the way across to the border with Almería… which has just been given the dubious honour of becoming the driest area not only in Spain, but in the entire European continent. This area has experienced the least amount of rainfall, by far, over the past five months.”
https://murciatoday.com/rain_free-corner-of-murcia-named-the-driest-spot-in-europe_1000014908-a.html
“Thousands still missing six months after Libya floods.
“It has been six months since devastating floods struck north-eastern Libya. It caused two dams near the city of Derna to collapse. Over 4,300 people are believed to have been killed in the floods, but half a year later, thousands remain missing.”
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240311-thousands-still-missing-six-months-after-libya-floods
“THOUSANDS OF RECORDS ALL OVER AFRICA.
“47.2 [117F] South Africa, 45.5 Cameroon, 45 Niger and Chad, etc… Records smashed in nearly every single country from North to South from West to East. Never happened anything like this anywhere in the world in climatic history.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1767270281448456281
“Zambia’s Cholera Outbreak Rings Warning Bells on Climate Change.
“Climate change is reversing precious progress made on global health across the African continent. In southern Africa, higher than usual rainfall has caused pit latrines to overflow, contaminating local water supplies. As a result, health workers in Zambia are battling the country’s worst cholera outbreak in decades.”
“Climate injustice: Malawi crippled by global warming it didn’t create…
“Last month was the world’s hottest February on record and the ninth consecutive month of record temperatures… Malawi, which contributes just 0.04% to global emissions, is among the global climate index’s top five countries to be impacted.”
“Tropical Storm Filipo Builds as It Nears Mozambique.
“Nation is still recovering from damaging cyclones Freddy, Idai… Tropical Storm Filipo is bearing down on Mozambique’s coast, where it’s forecast to make landfall south of the port city of Beira on Tuesday, bringing winds of up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) an hour and torrential rain.”
“Torrential rains and thunderstorms have swept through several governorates in the Sultanate of Oman, leading to severe floods and activating emergency protocols.
“The North Al Batinah Governorate, particularly the areas of Liwa and Shinas, along with Buraimi Governorate’s Madha, experienced intense early morning rainfall Saturday…”
“Flash floods, rains in Balochistan suspend Pak-Iran transport service.
“Flash floods, triggered by heavy rains in Chagai, Noshki and other districts of Balochistan, have blocked national highways and washed away railway tracks at many points, suspending transport services between Pakistan and Iran.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1820895/flash-floods-rains-suspend-pak-iran-transport-service
“India’s water problems set to get worse as the world warms.
“Winter storms that provide crucial snow and rainfall to northern India are arriving significantly later in the year compared to 70 years ago, a new study has found, exacerbating the risk of catastrophic flooding while also reducing vital water supplies for millions of residents of India.”
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-india-problems-worse-world.html
“No crops, no brides: how rising seas are killing India’s coastal villages…
““When the soil turned salty, our crops shrivelled,” says Vaidehi Kardi, 64, a Tandahar resident. “Gradually, the water too turned salty and our lives withered. It has become difficult to get our sons married. Everyone feels our village is not safe any more.””
“Can one day of the year pass without Thailand breaking heat records? NEVER.
“Another stifling hot night with minimum temperature of 29.0C [84.2F] at Bangkok Klong Thoey and at Rayong, they tie the March hottest nights on record. It will just get worse and worse, no end in sight…”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1766818094511432119
“At least 26 people killed after floods, landslides hit Indonesia’s Sumatra.
“Giving the update on Monday, officials reported that 11 others are missing, and warned that the casualty count could rise. Rescuers have recovered more bodies as the waters recede following flash floods and landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains.”
“CHART OF THE DAY: The cocoa rally.
“Cocoa prices hit a fresh record high, fast approaching the once unthinkable $7,000 per tonne level. At current levels, we will see soon widespread retail price increases for all kinds of chocolate.”
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1767307982910406993
“Banana prices to go up as temperatures rise, says expert.
“Pascal Liu, senior economist at the World Banana Forum, says climate impacts pose an “enormous threat” to supply, compounding the impacts of fast-spreading diseases. The forum meets in Rome on Tuesday to tackle challenges facing the fruit.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68534309
“Why more CO2 could be bad news for crops…
“Models show that in mid- and low-latitude areas, where most of the world’s breadbaskets are located, the yields from many crops will likely decrease over time. Boote: “There’s a very slow decline initially … but it becomes more severe the more the temperature goes up.”
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/03/why-more-co2-could-be-bad-news-for-crops/
“This is a great visualization of the Global Sea Surface Temperatures, which have been breaking daily record highs for almost 365 days.
“Much of the heat is about to enter the atmosphere, causing a lot of extreme weather around the world in 2024. Hold on to your hats!”
https://twitter.com/LeonSimons8/status/1767211845440401609
“[Global sea surface temp] Going up again. 21.22°C yesterday.
“”O snail, climb Mt. Fuji, but slowly, slowly”” — Kobayashi Issa.”
https://twitter.com/EliotJacobson/status/1767231593138303460
“Sea-surface temperature pattern effects have slowed global warming and biased warming-based constraints on climate sensitivity [making them overly-confident]
“The findings suggest that observed warming over recent decades provides very little information about climate sensitivity… this introduces a major uncertainty in climate projections.”
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2312093121
“Y-Axis alert! Code UFB!
“The latest data from CERES was just released and the 36-month running mean for the Earth Energy Imbalance is at yet another record high, at 1.6W/m², equivalent to 13 Hiroshimas per second or about 1.23B Hiroshimas of Earth heating over the last 36 months.”
https://twitter.com/EliotJacobson/status/1767305134688837826
“Minimisation Is The New Denial…
“Nowhere does the scientific community twist and turn itself into more knots to avoid telling it like it is, than when talking about the ‘1.5°C above pre-industrial’, average global temperature limit.”
https://jacksondamian.substack.com/p/minimisation-is-the-new-denial
You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an “Economic” thread.
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Great round-up of round-up truth-teller Javkson Damian, but then we are left with plaintive cries of “drastic action now!” from our putative Mr. Truth.
“Drastic action” across the globe – great. Um, by what mechanical process? For this species? All of goin’ Amish, right now, right everywhere, justly and holding our sweet hands together? Thereby instantly canceling all of our historical mining, mechanization, money?
Check out r/collapse, folks. Commenters there are going full-bore extinction now, as in a couple years, 2030, at the end of this summer, and they mean it.
Yes, Martin, I also took the time to read that write up by Jackson…hard hitting truth and well written….very long but needed to be done…doubt anything we do makes a “material” difference in the outcome(s). Art Berman been doing a round of interviews on YouTube and in one pointed out the obvious, it will take decades to make a transition, if that was possible, which it is not. Also, mentioned how many international meetings, conferences to curb greenhouse gas emissions have there been, yet it’s been a sharp upward trend…
And with it the population too..
Really can’t add anything to Justin’s collection today…oh well..there will be more tomorrow
“Drastic action…”
Growth appears embedded in the DNA of the self-organising totality, so it is destined to blindly pursue that goal until physical limits cause it to break up. Us, its human constituents, are just along for the ride.
A green energy transition is a mirage. Renewables are additive, just enabling more economic activity, environmental destruction and, ironically, fossil fuel consumption. At least, this is Tim Garrett’s argument, and I am swayed by it.
I suppose it is possible that some minority group could go rogue and impose some drastic action on the totality by, for example, geo-engineering by stealth, sabotaging key economic hubs or attempting population reduction.
It all ends up the same, unfortunately, ie with a whole lot of death and suffering.
Hello Pan, excellent longread on ‘minimising’ what awaits us
…..These professional greens avoid communicating that none of these good deeds (however sincere their intentions) have any impact whatsoever on our apocalyptic trajectory – because only radical systemic changes that produce reductions in all non-essential human activities can do that now. To be fair, like most workers in business and the media, they would lose their jobs if they did so……
That is exactly the tragic fate of all these ‘greens’ …. they do know it when you argue with them (which I sometimes do) But then I pour them a glass of red wine ‘to keep it cosy’ and indeed it’s just about their NGO grant money and project applications within that rigid framework of ‘transition hopes’ and ‘we have to do something…. yeah sure make sure you get money in for yet another plan on ‘sustainability’ in the ‘broadest sense of the word.
“I pour them a glass of red wine ‘to keep it cosy’”.
That is a stylish strategy, Zip. I have done my fair share of running around screaming that the house is on fire, but perhaps it is best now just to smile and nod, and keep the booze flowing.
Not bad and very similar [published 1 day before] to the Jackson Damian piece.
The author is disappointed by the IPCC for doing what it was created for (control the message) by the nations that have extracted and/or burned the most carbon. I once thought it had a different/better purpose too.
Mainstream Climate Science: The New Denialism?
This is a bit of a long one! So here’s my “Executive Summary” so you can decide whether to commit the time to the rest of it: mainstream climate scientists run the risk of becoming the new climate deniers. As in:
1. The speed with which the climate is now changing is faster than (almost) all scientists thought possible.
2. There is now zero prospect of holding the average temperature increase this century to below 1.5°C; even 2°C is beginning to slip out of reach. The vast majority of climate scientists know this, but rarely if ever give voice to this critically important reality.
3. At the same time, the vast majority of people still haven’t a clue about what’s going on – and what this means for them and everything they hold dear.
4. The current backlash against existing (already wholly inadequate) climate measures is also accelerating – and will cause considerable political damage in 2024. Those driving this backlash represent the same old climate denial that has been so damaging over so many years.
5. The science-based institutions on which we depend to address this crisis have comprehensively failed us. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is incapable of telling the whole truth about accelerating climate change; the
Conference of the Parties (under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) has been co-opted by the fossil fuel lobby to the point of total corruption.
6. By not calling out these incontrovertible realities, mainstream scientists are at risk of becoming the new climate deniers.
“It’s not just the right-wing crazies (of whom, more later) who follow that line. All sorts of serious commentators have subscribed (for years!) to the hypothesis that there’s only so much climate truth the little people can deal with.”
“Doomist thinking is dangerous because it breeds paralysis and disengagement, which is precisely what the forces of climate inaction want.” “Doomism is ultimately a luxury that only a few can afford.”
Brilliant! So we’re the ones responsible for the lack of political traction, by virtue of a surfeit of hairshirt misery that only the middle class can afford!
These accusations of doomism are not new. Writing back in 2019, US author Jonathan Franzen put it like this:
“If you’re younger than 60, you have a good chance of witnessing the radical destabilisation of life on Earth – massive crop failures, apocalyptic fires, imploding economies, epic flooding, hundreds of millions of refugees fleeing regions made uninhabitable by extreme heat or permanent drought. If you’re under 30, you’re all but guaranteed to witness it.
You can keep on hoping that catastrophe is preventable, and feel ever more frustrated or enraged by the world’s inaction. Or you can accept that disaster is coming, and begin to rethink what it means to have hope today.”
Franzen got enthusiastically jumped on at the time for depressing and disempowering people. Particularly young people. (The irony of that is even richer, five years on!)
https://www.jonathonporritt.com/mainstream-climate-science-the-new-denialism/
Many thanks for that, FamousDrScanlon.
Jonathon Porritt is a new name to me… I see he founded and directed Forum for the Future until his retirement last year, at which he declared: “Our reality is extraordinarily simple. Things are going to get worse. And, then, they’re going to get worse again. And, then, they’re going to get a lot worse after that.””
Yep.
https://www.edie.net/why-jonathon-porritts-next-step-is-focusing-on-intergenerational-climate-work/
Thanks for the link… I really like his ‘reasoning’ with a clear message.
By the way, I am curious if ‘the doomers’ won’t get a bigger stage after all I have a degree in philosophy and have taught ‘some classes’ on Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm understanding….
It very much depends on what fractiousness and the conflicts over, say, resource availability, food, energy and water, ‘population movements’ are going to create simultaneous problems. Whether the ‘political right’ can simply put all the problem like ‘climate’ in the same corner remains to be seen.
Bear in mind climate is just ‘one of the problems’ we are ‘bending’ to in our wisdom of the utopian economic ‘growth paradigm’
I like reading such phrases, as in Brazil’s dengue outbreak, as being “a warning to the world”. Lol, like that makes the slightest difference in “the world’s” behavior.
And as for minimization being the new denial, I can’t help but point out that the NOAA’s website, that is reading CO2 again today @ >5.25ppm’s higher than last year’s reading, states that:
“When the trend for atmospheric CO2 trend begins to falter and fall, we can expect global average temperature to follow.”
The corollary to which is that, “when the trend for the rate of accumulation of atmospheric CO2 begins to double from a mere year ago, we can expect global avg temp’s to follow”, yet never does the news industry more assiduously ignore this vital reading than when temperatures have been spiking for, per Eliot Jacobsen, more than 365 days.
This rate of accumulation has been higher than the 2.5ppm’s avg for going on 6 mos now, and not a murmur has been heard about this alarming trend ANYwhere. Now THAT’s minimization.
“… temperatures have been spiking for, per Eliot Jacobsen, more than 365 days.”
Nahel Belgherze is reporting that, “As crazy as it may sound, Global sea surface temperatures have now been at all-time record warm levels for an entire year. This is perhaps one of the most absurd and alarming graphs I have ever plotted.”
https://twitter.com/WxNB_/status/1767593012501082166
Okay kiddies,when you clean your plate of the above articles,you can have a serving of both of these desserts.
“This past winter, however, was 5.2 degrees above the norm, breaking the old record by more than a full degree — “as much of a difference as you’d ever find in climate,” Phillips said, adding that a tenth of a degree is usually considered significant.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/these-are-numbers-are-just-wow-this-winter-was-warmest-in-canadian-records-by-a/article_12cbce98-dd7e-11ee-a1da-7b7004389e4f.html
“The average temperature across the contiguous U.S. last month was 41.1 degrees F, 7.2 degrees F above the 20th-century average and ranking as the third-warmest February in NOAA’s 130-year climate record. Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin each had their warmest February on record. An additional 20 states saw their top-10 warmest February on record.”
https://www.noaa.gov/news/us-had-its-warmest-winter-on-record
These huge anomalies, sustained as they are, are even more alarming to me than the freakish spikes we’ve seen in recent years, like the one in Antarctica or the Pacific NW that saw Canada hit 49.6C.
The delusions of collapse are here and everyday i can see it more and more. Not only is the us empire collapsing and the eu and uk add in lack of resources and climate instability on steroids. Those in charge are doubling down on stupid everyday. Tech will fix it lets go to the moon and lets mine asteroids for minerals. Along with corruption of everything and scams everywhere. The fall will not be pretty at all.