“It may be too much to take in all at once, but h/t to Leon Simons for pointing me to NOAA ERSST V5 Global Sea Surface Temperatures monthly data beginning 1854, current through March, 2024.
“I included the 50 year average for 1900-1949 for good measure. This really is the beginning of the end of everything.
“That’s right. Sea surface temperatures were fully 9.1 standard deviations above the 1940-1989 baseline in August, 2023. Last month, they were “only” 7.7σ.”
https://twitter.com/EliotJacobson/status/1789081688297050324
“HISTORIC EVENT: Unbelievable 51.1C/124F at Gallinas MEXICO yesterday, HOTTEST DAY IN MAY IN NORTH AMERICA HISTORY.
“World climatology is being rewritten with this brutal heat wave which has no end in sight. By far, the worst ever recorded in North American history.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1789026949987189223
“Rolling Blackouts Hit Several Cities as Heat Wave Scorches Mexico.
“There were rolling blackouts in multiple cities across Mexico on Tuesday, as people in several states reeled from soaring temperatures and the national energy authority briefly declared a state of emergency.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/world/americas/mexico-blackout-heat-wave.html
“Mexico is fighting 159 active wildfires across the country…
“The heat wave has increased demand for power, prompting the country’s grid operator to declare the system in a state of emergency [amidst rolling blackouts] on Thursday evening for the second time this week.”
https://time.com/6976775/mexico-wildfires-heatwave/
“HISTORIC MEXICO CITY 34.3c [93.7F] It beats is all time high temperature again. Data since 1877 [remember the city is over 2000m asl].
“Mexico is living BY FAR the worst heat wave in history and the record heat from Texas to Argentina in 100% of the countries is the worst Americas have ever experienced.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1788845454223913011
“North America’s biggest city is running out of water. Mexico City is staring down a water crisis. It won’t be the last city to do so…
“After abysmally low amounts of rainfall over the last few years, the reservoirs of the Cutzamala water system that supplies over 20 percent of the Mexican capital’s 22 million residents’ usable water are running out.”
https://www.vox.com/24152402/mexico-city-day-zero-water-resource-management-solutions
“RECORD HEAT ALL OVER AMERICAS. Thousands of records are smashed in every country from Mexico to Bolivia including all of the Caribbean, unprecedented heat event spreading millions of Km2.
“COSTA RICA just had is Hottest May day on record 40.4 [104.72F] at Cerro Huacalito.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1788666767838965955
“Caribbean to brace for record heat season…
“The report forecasts that the period from May to July, which marks the early phase of the Caribbean Heat Season in the Caribbean Islands and Belize, will be significantly hotter than usual. The forecast highlights intense, nearly record-breaking levels of nighttime and daytime heat, compounded by rising humidity levels from June to September.”
“Bananas at risk of devastating disease and extreme heat, Colombian farmers warn…
“Small-scale producers in the northern Magdalena region who supply bananas to the UK say the impacts of climate change have increased their costs and hit yields by as much as 50%.”
“Brazil’s orange output to hit over 30-year low on disease, weather.
“Brazil’s orange production is expected to hit its lowest level in more than three decades in 2024/25, research center Fundecitrus said on Friday, as farmers grapple with adverse climate conditions and a citrus disease known as greening. Brazil is the world’s largest producer and exporter of orange juice…”
https://kdal610.com/2024/05/10/brazils-orange-output-to-hit-over-30-year-low-on-disease-weather/
“In Brazil, fresh rains pound flood-hit south and evacuations double.
“The deluge – which experts link to climate change exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon – has affected almost 2 million people, leaving 116 dead and 756 injured. Another 143 people are still missing, according to authorities.”
“In the High Arctic [Svalbard], a Manhattan-size piece of land with geopolitical implications has hit the market for €300 million…
“The sale comes as the Arctic experienced its warmest summer in 2023, and the Svalbard region has had less sea ice, more rain and higher temperatures because of climate change. The sea-ice loss is a boon to Russia, which has been gaining access to additional shipping routes and energy reserves as the territory opens up.”
“Mosquitoes have been discovered in Scotland for the first time and are spreading to every corner of the country, researchers say.
“Driven by climate change, at least 16 types of mosquito have found their way to Scotland and are now set to rival the famous Scottish midge.”
“The ‘era of cheap food is over,’ warns Waitrose boss [UK].
“He said that climate change is going to impact “the quality of the food, the availability of the food, and the price of the food”… Six in 10 (60%) shoppers said they had noticed supermarket products running out of stock, with fruit and vegetables, and eggs and dairy products emerging as the most cited items impacted.”
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/the-era-of-cheap-food-is-over-warns-waitrose-boss/
“Polish farmers march against ‘green poison’ EU climate change rules…
“Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of the Polish capital Warsaw on Friday to show their opposition to European Union environmental regulations that farmers say are driving them out of business.”
“Eight hundred protesters attempt to storm German Tesla factory.
“About 800 people took part in the protest, according to the organizing group Disrupt Tesla, which claims the expansion would damage the environment. Tesla has attracted intense backlash since the company opened the factory in March 2022, and later announced plans to expand into a nearby forest…”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/10/tesla-protest-germany-factory
“ABSOLUTE MADNESS IN SOUTH AFRICA and NAMBIA – Every single day record heat with an eternal summer.
“Maxes 35/40C [104F], tropical nights even above 1000m asl 3 weeks ahead of winter! May records broken yesterday: Namibia Tmin 20.5 Keetmashoop maxes 35/36C.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1788928301236449618
“‘When he is older there will be no rain’: how southern Madagascar is coping in a climate crisis…
“More than 1.6. million people in Madagascar rely on food aid and half of children under five are chronically malnourished, the result of severe drought since 2019. The climate crisis has made the timing of the rainy season unpredictable.”
“In Kenya’s flooded slums, people mourn their losses and slam their leaders…
“Though Kenya’s government had warned people that it would forcefully evacuate anyone living in the settlements along swollen riverbanks and overflowing dams, the demolition of makeshift houses began a day before the 48-hour deadline, catching many people unaware.”
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/05/10/1250193947/floods-kenya
“Record rainfall forces Gulf cities to rethink climate change…
“A climate change monitor estimates that global warming made the Gulf deluge 10-40% more intense than it would have been in the pre-industrial era… More than 142 millimeters (5.6 inches) of rain fell in Dubai over a 24-hour period, paralyzing the Gulf’s business hub and leaving a wide swath of damage.”
“Flash floods kill 72 people in one day in northern Afghanistan…
“Hedayatullah Hamdard, the head of the provincial natural disaster management department, told VOA by phone that the casualties could rise as many people are missing. He said residents across several Baghlan districts suffered losses after flooding caught them off guard…”
https://www.voanews.com/a/flash-floods-kill-at-least-50-in-one-day-in-north-afghanistan/7606488.html
“Two people died and six were injured due to uprooting of trees as a massive dust storm accompanied by thunderstorms and rain hit Delhi-NCR on Friday night…
“Nine flights, including two Air India flights at Delhi airport, were diverted to Jaipur due to a sudden change in the city’s weather…”
“Guangxi [southern China] was hit by heavy rain early this morning, with 84 mm [3.3 inches] of rainfall in 1 hour and 280 mm [11 inches] of rainfall in 8 hours. Many road sections were flooded.”
https://twitter.com/yangyubin1998/status/1788783276204966372
“Record heatwave in Thailand kills 61 people since start of 2024, more than all of 2023.
“The Thai health ministry said on Friday that 61 people have died from heatstroke since the beginning of 2024, compared with 37 in all of 2023. A wave of exceptionally hot weather blasted Thailand in recent weeks, prompting authorities to issue warnings…”
“Philippine 4-day work week? Extreme heat reignites talks on flexible deal.
“Local government units around the country have implemented temporary compressed work weeks. Yet Filipinos’ opinions on shortened work weeks are mixed, even as neighbouring nations like Singapore have started the shift.”
“Record heat in OCEANIA no-stop. Surabaya INDONESIA hottest night in May with a min. temperature of 28.0C [82.4F].
“In VIETNAM minimum temperatures over 30c in the South. Endless record heat in 100% of tropical countries.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1788870663798714400
“Spill warning for Sydney’s Warragamba dam as Bunbury recovers from freak WA tornado.
“Warragamba dam could spill over the Mother’s Day weekend amid severe weather warnings on the east coast, and after a tornado tore through the West Australian city of Bunbury, injuring two people.”
“NEW ZEALAND between record warmth in its tropical territories and record cold mainland.
“27.0 [80.6F] MINIMUM at Raratonga COOK ISLANDS Hottest May night on record beaten again; NEW ZELAND May cold records: -5.2 [22.6F] Taumarunui; -2.6 Levin; -2.5 Whitianga.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1788746898532147676
“EXTRAORDINARY HEAT 116F [46.7C] Falcon Dam. HOTTEST DAY EVER RECORDED IN MAY IN TEXAS TIED, and hottest day ever in USA that early.
“Dozens of records destroyed in Texas and Florida, even all time highs for any month like 111F at Mc Allen. A day which is rewriting US climatic history.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1788713363494535450
“Apocalyptic storms are battering the south with baseball-sized hail, lightning strikes and possible tornadoes closing in on residents – and there’s more to come.
“Powerful winds threatened several states in the Southeast on early Friday, as people elsewhere in the U.S. cleared debris from deadly severe weather that produced tornadoes in several states…”
“Thousands ordered to evacuate Fort Nelson, B.C., due to wildfire…
“Residents of the town of Fort Nelson and Fort Nelson First Nation have been ordered to evacuate due to an out-of-control wildfire in northeast B.C., according to an evacuation order issued by the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and the nation shortly before 7:30 p.m. PT on Friday.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/zombie-fires-fort-nelson-risk-1.7200810
“Drought fuels wildfire concerns as Canada braces for another intense summer…
“Wildfire fighting is becoming a year-round effort in Canada, with blazes smouldering through the winter, often underground… “We’ve seen this before but never at this scale,” wildfire expert Michael Flannigan B.C. Innovation Research Chair in Predictive Services, Emergency Management and Fire Science at Thompson Rivers University, told the Washington Post.”
“Record-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere…
“The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide laden in the world’s atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas that is heating the planet.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/09/carbon-dioxide-atmosphere-record
“‘The stakes could not be higher’: world is on edge of climate abyss, UN warns.
“The world is on the verge of a climate abyss, the UN has warned, in response to a Guardian survey that found that hundreds of the world’s foremost climate experts expect global heating to soar past the international target of 1.5C.”
“Climate change: Is it time to say goodbye to far-flung family vacations?
“They say you should travel far and wide while young. However, global warming stepped in. So should our children only know far-off places through snapshots posted on Instagram?”
“Biodiversity loss is biggest driver of infectious disease outbreaks, says study…
““The take-home messages are that biodiversity loss, climate change and introduced species increase disease, whereas urbanisation decreases it,” said lead researcher Prof Jason Rohr from the University of Notre Dame in the US.”
“Cows have human flu receptors, study shows, raising stakes on bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle…
““We now have a piece of data that suggests the risk profile is higher,” said Dr. Sam Scarpino, a computational biologist and director of AI and life sciences at Northeastern University… “I think we now have more than enough information to conclude that what has to happen is, we need to stop transmission in dairy cattle…””
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/09/health/bird-flu-cows-human-receptors/index.html
“The FDA is gearing up for a bird flu pandemic in people that could kill one in four of those it infects…
“Dr Robert Califf told a Senate Committee that officials were drawing up plans to roll out tests, antiviral drugs and vaccines in the event the virus jumps to humans… ‘[The] real worry is that it will jump to the human lungs where, when that has happened in other parts of the world… the mortality rate has been 25 percent.’”
You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back on Monday with an “Economic” thread.
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Nicholas Stern, speaking the (endlessly repeated) last hopes of humanity:
“It is not too late to (insert supersytemic self-regulatory fantasy)”
Humanity: “It is never too late to not do what could never be done.”
“It is never too late to not do what could never be done.”
That’s about where I get to, Martin. Does feel like we are the butt of some cosmic joke, at times.
Land Loss — Portraits from a Crumbling Coastline
A slow-burning meditation on loss, Max Miechowski’s portrait of the British east coast documents the seaside communities living on the edge of the country—an area that is gradually disappearing due to coastal erosion.
Photographs by Max Miechowski
Essay by Sophie Wright
https://www.lensculture.com/articles/max-miechowski-land-loss-portraits-from-a-crumbling-coastline
The east coast is regarded as the fastest eroding coastline in Europe, the naturally-occuring process that has been happening for a long time now becoming more unpredictable in recent years due to the climate crisis. In his research, Miechowski discovered a map that predicted how the impact of erosion would play out in the areas he was visiting. The diagnosis was somber. Each year brought with it the forecast of gradual erasure; a path, a group of houses, a whole village, all destined to be lost to the sea. “It astounded me to imagine that the land I was standing on and the houses I was looking at would soon turn to nothing,” he says.
The Scottish beaches with the missing sand
Joanne MacAulay
Role,BBC Scotland News
7 May 2024
Many of Scotland’s beaches are still bearing the scars of a series of severe storms that have blasted the country in the past eight months.
Some have suffered a severe loss of sand and damage to adjacent structures such as paths and harbours.
Coastal experts are warning that they may not have enough time to recover before the next bad weather comes along.
Colin Cornwall from Portobello shows where the sand level used to be
Laura says: “In some areas, particularly here at Gullane, we’ve had more than 10m depth of dune that’s gone.
“We’ve been able to estimate that, particularly at Yellowcraig, that’s probably 80 years’ worth of dune development just because of the amount of material that’s coming out.
“Within that we’ve also lost a lot of the sea buckthorn that grows here on the dunes. A lot of that has been pulled out which holds the dunes together so it’s having a massive impact on the dunes system here. ”
Seems we may have underestimate the matter some…imagine that..
Vince, we lived in East Sussex before moving up to the Hebrides, and some of that chalky coastline is also collapsing. The beach where my eldest learnt to swim is no longer accessible:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-64184912
Recent News report on Scotland now enjoying mosquitoes. 16 varieties.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw0721l9183o#
Yes, not ideal, although tbh I find the midges we already have worse.
Midges actually lacerate the skin when they bite with little blades, whereas mosquitoes neatly pierce it with their syringe-like, oral apparatus. I react terribly to them and am constantly slathering myself in antihistamine through the summer months. 😆
The end!
I’m starting to wonder!
That bit about 9 standard deviations… Difficult to comprehend.
I’m going to start selling t-shirts that say:
“I survived one point five”
Record heat.
Record floods.
Record heat.
Record floods.
Record heat.
Record floods.
Don’t forget the wildfires.
Oh, and here comes a KILLER pandemic (if the brain-wasting prions don’t get you, is there any irony that it’s our hamburgers destroying us?)
“People mourn their losses”. Yep. Expect more of that.
I’m going to start selling t-shirts that say:
“nine billion served in the drive-thru of death”
Hmm.. Think it will get me arrested?
I wonder what would happen if I went to the Juneau City Council and made the following demands:
– What are you doing to prepare for this entire area being consumed by wildfires?
– What are you doing to prepare for this entire area being inundated by sea-level rise?
– What are you doing to prepare for a sudden cessation of global trade?
– What are you doing to prepare for a sudden disruption of fuel supplies?
– What are you doing to prepare for a sudden disruption of food supplies?
– What are you doing to prepare for widespread bank failures?
Something tells me I would get blank stares, at best.
Possibly arrested for “disturbing the peace”.
These would be great questions for 8 billion fools to ask themselves in a mirror. I’m sure their answer would be: “Be fruitful & multiply.”
You could always try gluing yourself to something, Jerry. That seems de rigueur these days.
On a more serious note, I don’t see much evidence of governments, national or local, engaging in the sort of contingency planning needed for what is coming down the pipe. Sweden actively encourages disaster-preparedness in its citizens but is an outlier, as far as I can tell.
Getting prepared might help a family last a year or two longer than those who do not prepare. But for what end. So that the family can have more children during that one or two year period? Well maybe Netflix and Amazon will still be broadcasting even after there are no more people around to watch the broadcasts. How that would work technicall speaking i can not sa. But considering how impotrant it is for such corporations to squeeze every dollar out of the masses that can be squeezed I expect that the management will have taken some measures to ensure that broadcasts continue even after the collapse of industrial civili7ation.
“Getting prepared might help a family last a year or two longer than those who do not prepare. But for what end?”
This is a fair point, Curt. How much can governments realistically do and with what end goal?
They could be climate-proofing existing infrastructure rather than building more. Tokyo’s huge underground flood water diversion facility springs to mind as an example… But then how long are cities going to be viable full stop?
There is a growing awareness that food is getting more expensive and that gaps are starting to appear on the shelves. Governments could capitalise on this with “Dig for Victory!” type campaigns, to encourage tubs of potatoes in every garden etc. Again, that might be scant protection against the sort of hardships that may be looming but time is valuable, so perhaps worthwhile to extend the horizon, so to speak.
Governments could also think seriously in terms of euthanasia options for ailing citizens whose treatment has become non-viable, although I imagine any policy-maker even broaching the topic would be dismissed as a crank.
The legal cull is well underway in Canada through what we call MAID – “medical assistance in dying”! As my (Green) MP noted, the government is putting effort into helping people die well but still sorely lacking when it comes to helping people live well. (This in the context of disabled benefits.) As we all collectively lose our minds from grief, the current “temporary exclusion” for persons whose only ailments are mental health may be put aside — for now it’s in place until 2027. “On February 29, 2024, legislation to extend the temporary exclusion of eligibility to receive MAID in circumstances where a person’s sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness received royal assent and immediately came into effect. The eligibility date for persons suffering solely from a mental illness is now March 17, 2027.” https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/ad-am/bk-di.html. Maybe it’s an improvement on starvation or dismemberment, I dunno. Anyway I hope you & yours enjoyed the Aurora!
Shane, my apologies – your comment was caught in moderation; I think because it had two links. Re the aurora, I was an idle swine and slept through the whole thing. 😂
It does sound as if that law could be construed as encouraging disabled or mentally ill people in the direction of suicide. I wasn’t aware that Canada had such a high euthanasia rate… Here in the UK, headlines tend to revolve around the famous Swiss clinic, Dignitas, which is the preferred destination for terminally ill Brits, or the situation in the Netherlands, which seems to mirror that facilitated by the new Canadian legislation; for example:
“‘My 33-year-old anorexic daughter died by euthanasia – my husband and I stood by her’… In the Netherlands, where the Beukemas live, euthanasia for mental illness has been a reality for more than 20 year.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/euthanasia-anorexia-husband-didnt-agree-netherlands/
It is hard to know what to think about this at the best of times, let alone in the context of limits to growth, climate breakdown, impending collapse etc. At the margins, the “cost of living crisis” is also a “cost of not dying prematurely” crisis, and life expectancy in countries like the US and UK has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, so we have already moved into an era where survival is tougher and life perhaps held a little cheaper.
Think the era of cheap food is spot on for most here that regards it as a right to have access to whenever we go to the store. The article regarding Brazil and it’s orange crop is just one of many …. bananas, coffee, cocoa, potatoes, rice etc, that are being significantly curtailed by climate change. Dr. James Hansen warned of such in his book of intolerable food inflation…seems it’s happening sooner than later.
I’m waiting to see junk food & all the different named sugar waters disappear from store shelves.The obese aren’t going to be happy. How dare any situation deprive me of all my gluttonous desires. If we don’t have plastic bottled sugar drinks how will we get our minimum daily requirement of microplastics? Looks like critical thinking is losing to stupidity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCEoq26ceng
TR, I’m waiting for it also! Want to see folks shuffling and shedding the weight.
I must confess, I enjoy my sweets….but unlike many do not starve my body with junk food. Yes, the people will suffer in another manner…now they are being exploited by agribizz with addictions….in the future we will be lean and mean and our senses sharp. Chasing after a rat should be a memorable event when hungry..like many do so in the slums of India