Special sponsor for August 2024 is Cassandra Mountain. Many thanks!
“Severe drought has returned to the Amazon. And it’s happening earlier than expected.
“Holder of one-fifth of the world’s fresh water, the Amazon is beginning the dry season with many of its rivers already at critically low levels, prompting governments to anticipate contingency measures to address issues ranging from disrupted navigation to increasing forest fires.”
“ABSOLUTELY EXTRAORDINARY – one of the most extreme meteorological events ever recorded in the world. OVERNIGHT MINIMUM OF 29.7c [85.5F] at Filadelfia PARAGUAY in mid winter.
“It obliterates the record of hottest winter night in the WHOLE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1819806562921160968
“Apocalyptic swarm of locusts invades Argentina.
“Residents living in the Argentinian province of Córdoba are concerned about an apocalyptic plague of locusts… An amateur filmmaker captured the insect invasion with a drone.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/animals/apocalyptic-swarm-of-locusts-invades-argentina/vi-AA1oh16g
“EXCEPTIONAL HEAT WAVE IN THE CARIBBEANS. San Juan PUERTO RICO tied its hottest night in climatic history with a MIN. temperature of 83F/28.3C
“ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA also tied its National hottest night in climatic history with a Tmin of 28.2C (set few few weeks ago).”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1820571008266559962
“Hurricane Debby blows cocaine worth over $1 million onto beach in Florida Keys, U.S. Border Patrol says.
“Hurricane Debby brought more than powerful winds and storm surge to Florida — packages of cocaine worth more than $1 million also made landfall, officials said, marking the latest in a string of recent discoveries of drugs along Florida shores.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-debby-cocaine-1-million-onto-florida-beach-us-border-patrol/
“Tropical Storm Debby hits Florida with floods, threat of record rain in Georgia and the Carolinas…
“Tropical Storm Debby slammed Florida on Monday with torrential rain and high winds, contributing to at least four deaths in the state… Record-setting rain was causing flash flooding, with up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) possible in some areas…”
“Climate change deniers make up nearly a quarter of US Congress.
“A total of 123 elected federal representatives – 100 in the House of Representatives and 23 US senators – deny the existence of human-caused climate change, all of them Republicans, according to a recent study of statements made by current members.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/05/climate-change-denial-congress
“Historic Park Fire surpasses 402,000 acres as California wildfire activity surges 2,816%…
“The Park Fire is now the fourth largest wildfire to ever tear across California. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Monday the fire has grown to 402,042 acres and is more than a third contained after days of destroying hundreds of structures.”
“‘Fire clouds’ from super-hot wildfires are on the rise as Earth warms…
“The monstrous fires that are now charring vast areas of western North America aren’t just colossal and fast-moving, they have also created their own thunderstorms — an example of exotic fire behaviour that scientists say is becoming more common as the climate changes.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02530-2
“Forests destroyed by wildfires emit carbon long after the flames die – new study…
“Because of the large amount of carbon stored in boreal forests, fires here can release much more CO₂ into the air than forest fires elsewhere, amplifying climate change. Their CO₂ sinks recover slowly, with the burnt area continuing to release CO₂ for several years after the fires die.”
“People are being urged to stay away from the banks of the Chilcotin and Fraser rivers after water finally breached the dam created by last week’s huge landslide.
“The province of British Columbia issued an emergency alert Monday morning… “I cannot underline enough how extremely dangerous the valley is right now,” Emergency Preparedness and Climate Change Minister Bowinn Ma told reporters at the 2 p.m. briefing.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/chilcotin-landslide-aug-5-1.7285664
“Calgary airport terminal damaged as severe thunderstorms pummel region…
“Meteorologists were tracking the storms, which were capable of producing very strong wind gusts, “baseball size or greater hail” and torrential rain, Environment Canada said in multiple warnings.”
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/calgary-weather-warning-large-hail-august-5-2024
“Ottawa set a national record for weather alerts last year as the storm-tossed capital faced 66 weather warnings and advisories.
“Environment and Climate Change Canada data shows Ottawa narrowly beat its own record, established in 2022, when the city was the subject of 65 weather alerts.”
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-set-national-record-for-weather-alerts-last-year
“Greenland fossils reveal greater sea-level threat from climate change…
“Scientists have discovered plant and insect remains under a two-mile-deep (three km) ice core extracted from the center of the island, providing the clearest proof yet that nearly all of this vast territory was green, [[indicating] even greater potential for global sea level rise due to human-caused climate than previously thought.”
“Blue-green algal blooms in Lough Neagh [Northern Ireland] could have a profound ecological impact and present potentially significant environmental and public health risks…
“…the hazardous algal bloom that developed in 2023 was “an unprecedented environmental perturbation… likely due to a combination of excess nutrient in the water, climate change and the effects of invasive species.””
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp811242krzo
“‘It made me cry’: photos taken 15 years apart show melting Swiss glaciers.
“A tourist has posted “staggering” photos of himself and his wife at the same spot in the Swiss Alps almost exactly 15 years apart, in a pair of photos that highlight the speed with which global heating is melting glaciers.”
“This July was the hottest and the seventh driest since [records began in] 1901, the HungaroMet weather service said on Monday.
“HungaroMet said the median temperature in July was 24.53 degrees Celsius, 3 degrees higher than the average between 1991 and 2020, making it the hottest since 1901.”
“Swathes of Romania face drought leading to empty reservoirs and failing crops.
“Locals say some regions haven’t seen any rain for three months. An ongoing heatwave has led to severe drought in some parts of Romania, with a number of lakes drying up and countless crops dying or being damaged.”
“Extreme heat. What is happening with the climate in Mykolaiv [Ukraine]?
“…if the official record temperature reached a record 42 degrees, in fact the air on the streets warmed up to 60 degrees Celsius… due to the abnormal heat in the South Bug river, a fish plague was recorded, several more such cases were recorded in the Khadzhibey estuary during the month.”
https://nikvesti.com/en/news/business/climate-change-mykolaiv-extreme-heat
“Firefighters continued to battle flames in Croatia and Albania on Sunday as heatwaves and drought seize nations.
“Wildfires are scorching Albania and Croatia as blistering heat grips the continent. Albanian firefighters battled flames in villages near the capital of Tirana on Sunday.”
“Greece experiences hottest July on record, national observatory reports.
“Scientists explain that the temperatures during July 2024 far exceeded the usual temperatures for this time of year across the country. It exceeded the average temperature of the period 1991-2020 by +2.9°C and the previous hottest July of 2012 by +0.3°C.”
“I’ve rarely ever seen such a high amount of available atmospheric moisture content over one of the driest regions on Earth.
“The anomalously northward-displaced ITF is resulting in a dramatic increase in precipitable water anomalies over the eastern Sahara [Egypt and Sudan], maxing out at ~9 sigma.”
https://x.com/WxNB_/status/1820506349111050482
“AFRICA HEAT WAVES. Fierce heat from North to South passing from the centre.
“49C [120.2F] again in ALGERIA; KENYA HOTTEST AUGUST NIGHT EVER: Tmin 27.0 Lodwar; SOUTH AFRICA, Namibia, Zimbabwe 35C in winter, even on the coast and on the highlands.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1820527488453542186
“As Dams Overflow, Cape Town Braces for Future Droughts…
“Cape Town, which came dangerously close to running out of water in 2018 amid the worst drought on record, is considering building new desalination plants and treating wastewater to diversify its future supply and reduce reliance on dams.”
“Dam collapse in Russian republic of Buryatia triggers state of emergency.
“According to the head of Buryatia, two sections of the federal highway “Ulan-Ude – Chita” have been submerged, and traffic has been blocked. Additionally, three bridges have been washed out due to rising water levels in the rivers.”
“Severe hailstorm damages Uzbekistan Airways plane; no injuries reported…
“Photos of an Uzbekistan Airways plane with damage to its nose section circulated on social media. The press service of the airline informed that the incident occurred on August 3rd with an Airbus A320 flying from Krasnoyarsk to Tashkent.”
“Extreme weather events forced at least 38,000 people from their homes in Afghanistan in the first six month of this year… more than in the whole of 2023, said Save the Children.
“…there were more displacements in the first half of this year due to droughts, extreme temperature, floods, landslides, avalanches and storms than in all of 2023…”
“At least 12 people were killed and 21 other injured in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province due to heavy rains and flash floods, local news outlets reported on Sunday.
“The flash floods washed away the bridge on the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road, destroyed crops, and submerged hundreds of homes in the province.”
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/flash-floods-kill-12-in-northwestern-pakistan-35493
“Weather News: 9 Dead In UP, 5 In Rajasthan, Traffic Snarls Hit Assam’s Guwahati After Heavy Rains [India]…
“Parts of India continue to reel under severe monsoon rains and rain-related woes, including cloudbursts, floods, landslides, waterlogging and even deaths.”
“Calls to charity for elderly hit 1,620 a day as Hong Kong logs record heat high on Monday…
“Hong Kong’s hottest day of 2024 came two weeks after the world also notched up a heat record. The hottest day since records began was logged on July 22, when the global surface air temperature reached 17.15 degrees.”
“Shanghai issued its highest heat wave alert for the second time this week, forecasting that temperatures in parts of Pudong district will exceed 40C [104F]…
“China’s eastern, central and western regions have been struck by extreme weather conditions this summer, believed to be caused by climate change.”
“China’s awe-inspiring roads, bridges and urban structures now face the test of extreme weather…
“For many of China’s new urban areas, the focus of construction was often on “visible” achievements such as impressive skylines, dazzling light shows and spacious public venues. But spending on “invisible” infrastructure is often insufficient.”
“China floods: More than 28,000 people evacuated in Liaoning…
“According to the meteorologists, during the torrential rains, which have covered almost the entire territory of the province since Sunday, the largest amount of precipitation was recorded in one hour – 81.9 millimeters.”
https://fakti.bg/en/world/902428-china-floods-more-than-28000-people-evacuated-in-liaoning
“Japan just experienced its hottest day in recorded history at a national scale with an incredible 301 weather stations recording a high temperature exceeding 35°C (95°F).
“The longevity of this heatwave is staggering.”
https://x.com/WxNB_/status/1820183324263952551
“Extreme heat in South Korea kills 11 and decimates livestock.
“Of the more than 257,000 farm animals that have died in the heat since July 11 are nearly 236,000 poultry and about 6,000 flatfish… Soaring temperatures in July followed the hottest June on record in South Korea, with four times the number of heatwave days than average.”
“Palau again! The tiny country in OCEANIA broke its record of its hottest August day in history with 34.3C [93.7F] after breaking the records of the hottest May, June and July.
“In just 3 days August has broken thousands of records in every continent.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1819905145372561424
“Massive global sea surface temperature f&%kery continues on. The biosphere is in uncharted territory.
“The maximum global SST measured on August 3rd, for any year from 1982 to 2022, was 20.77°C… Aug. 3, 2024: 20.98°C; Aug. 3, 2023: 21.03°C.”
https://x.com/EliotJacobson/status/1820123988787655053
“Breaking News! Code Yikes!
The latest data from NOAA shows CO₂ at 425.55 ppm, up 3.72 ppm over the last year.
“Atmospheric CO₂ is now growing at the second fastest rate on an annualized basis. The last time CO₂ grew this fast was in early 2017.”
https://x.com/EliotJacobson/status/1820601300977058293
“Carbon ‘insets’ tackle emissions by unleashing the power of capitalism…
“Back in 2018, Gene Gebolys’s biofuel company got an unexpected inquiry. Could the group bring a batch of sustainable aviation fuel from its California refinery to Davos Switzerland so that elites attending the World Economic Forum could refuel their private jets for a lower-carbon return journey?”
https://www.ft.com/content/6820fbaf-83f6-4735-9470-c8a8630b6957
“Rising methane emissions from wetlands may undermine climate targets…
“just as many countries are starting to take steps to reduce methane emissions from fossil fuels and agriculture, climate change is causing methane emissions from wetlands and other hard-to-control natural sources to rise.”
“As climate change shakes up global map of venomous snakes, health risks abound…
“The projections show that Asia will be the continent with the highest rates of snake migration. Nepal, Niger, Namibia, China and Myanmar will be some of the countries most susceptible to witnessing the arrival of venomous snakes from neighboring nations.”
“Climate Change Is Making Seafood Dangerous to Eat…
“…various types of seafood are under threat. A new report from the European Food Safety Authority warns that warming ocean temperatures put fish consumers at greater risk of ingesting a flesh-eating virus.”
https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/climate-change-flesh-eating-bacteria-seafood
“Will eating insects save the planet?
“Climate change is shifting our relationship with food and many believe insects are a viable, environmentally sustainable protein alternative to meat, given the high carbon footprint of livestock farming…”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/4/will-eating-insects-save-the-planet
“All-night streetlights make leaves inedible to insects, study finds…
“Streetlights left on all night cause leaves to become so tough that insects cannot eat them, threatening the food chain, a study has found. Scientists noticed that trees in urban ecosystems showed far less damage than those in more rural areas.”
“Jane Goodall Thinks It’s Not Too Late to Save the World.
“The world, the famed primatologist says, isn’t what it used to be—but there’s still time to save it, if we treat crises like climate change, biodiversity loss, and poverty as one… Everything is connected, she says.”
https://www.wired.com/story/wired-czechia-jane-goodall-q-and-a-conservation/
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You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an ”Economic” thread.
Is it too late to go sniff up the beaches in the Florida Keys?
“i got the keys keys keys”
– future
https://youtu.be/SFLSOIufuhM?si=LgnBjUnUHax0qlyV
“So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key.” –
“Already Gone” – Jack Tempchin, Robert Arnold Strandlund
“I’m a blunt gettin’ smoked and I can’t wake up!”
Good, old KRS-One. Re that DJ Khaled track, I thought Jay-Z hated auto-tune. 😆
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7poEK71Yxog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH5qJNl8qDM
😉
Thanks, TR – a nice, bluesy number celebrating the joys of getting stoned. Very different to KRS-One’s take! Weed has inspired a lot of music, now that I come to think about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGbP_kTM4CA
“The world isn’t what it used to be.”
Understatement of the century! Thanks, Jane, but we already noticed that.
In all seriousness, I had just been thinking the same thing. Look at all the stuff being destroyed. All over the world. Look at all the places being fucked-up beyond all recognition.
Now look at what it used to be like.
Oddly enough that’s actually still possible. One of the more compelling experiences in VR is the app “Google Earth”. If you have a decent (read: gaming) computer and a low-cost VR headset then you can explore the world in 3D. The fidelity is amazing, especially in some of the more popular cities. Better yet, google has allowed people to upload their own 360deg panoramas to “Street View” for several years now. It literally feels like you are standing there. Anywhere in the world.
I wonder what Lahaina used to look like? Or Paradise? Or Jasper?
Now take that to the next level. Pick a few key spots in the world and recreate in VR what they looked like before industrial civilization. Healthy, bountiful wildlife. Healthy, bountiful forests. Healthy, bountiful fish. Healthy, bountiful insects. All of it gone now. Along with the glaciers. All gone.
We had such a lovely little planet once. Enough to make a grown man cry.
Indeed. Here’s an oldie but goodie:
“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on the land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.” ~ Aldo Leopold
Excellent, thank you!
I haven’t come across that quote before, Kali.
In a way, I am grateful that I am not an ecologist or activist by background. That must be a particularly painful journey to the realisation that nothing is going to change, until the laws of physics rein us humans in.
Have you seen Dutchsinse’ site? Altho it’s about earthquakes, it shows the eye-boggling extent of fracturing sites, which make the earth look like an alien planet.
https://www.dutchsinse.com/
Thanks, Rob. Looks like he has a popular YouTube channel, too:
https://www.youtube.com/@dutchsinse
I have only experienced one earthquake in my life. I was in Antigua, perhaps 15 or 16 years ago, and was woken up by the building shaking. Terrifying it was, and this was a measly 5 on the Richter scale.
I can’t imagine what a 7 or 8 would be like. And, for those don’t know, the Richter is a base-ten logarithmic scale, so even a 6 is ten times worse than a 5.
In other climate news, someone on reddit pointed to an exposé by Naomi Oreskes detailing all of the in-depth conversations around climate change 50 years ago, leading up to the creation of the Clean Air Act.
If the question ever becomes a legal one, then the evidence is clear. We knew exactly how fucked the world would be, right about now, if we didn’t radically dial down the economy. Especially the fossil fuel and automobile industries.
We doubled down instead, and now? Yep, we be fucked.
We have had the information but not the agency to do much about climate change.
Kind of reminds me of the Vogon spaceship commander’s final riposte to humanity before destroying Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass in “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.” Although, I guess that version of humanity had neither the knowledge nor the agency to avert their fate:
“There’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.
“…What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven’s sake, mankind, it’s only four light years away, you know. I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.”
In other climate news, a new paper detailing plant and insect remains found at the bottom of an ice-core that has been sitting in a freezer for 30 years. Turns out all those miles of ice are not as monolithic as once assumed.
The remains prove that there was once tundra sporting Arctic Poppies at locations that are currently under two miles of ice. Not that long ago, relatively speaking, maybe half a million years ago. CO2 levels were not much higher than they are now. This proves that the climate need not change much before the ice-sheets are doomed to melt.
Probably only needs to change about as much as we have already FUBAR’d it, as a matter of fact. Oops!
Greenland ice-core, if anyone was wondering.
That should be somewhere up in my laundry-list of climate woe, Jerry. ^^^
https://youtu.be/26lgtJKxE_E?si=ztRjUj0rZOtLmOOW
Things are so bad with infrastructure a cat 1 hurricane causing lots of problems
Heather, Debby may come back for a second bite of the cherry after this round of flooding:
“Debby Is Headed Back Out to Sea, Where It Will Refuel. The tropical storm continued to dump heavy rain as it meandered across the southeastern corner of Georgia. It could make a second landfall later this week after absorbing more Atlantic moisture.”
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/06/weather/debby-storm-forecast
I don’t think I will need to call out the Clever Apes about their O-word, for much longer.
Guy McPherson might be wrong. NTHE could occur in 2025. Gird your loins! Brace yourself! But don’t complain, this is what the “you” chose.
I’m an ecologist. I think my mind has meandered towards philosophy to cope now. It’s not the demise of humans we’re witnessing but the post climax of morally bankrupt and technically literate civilisation. Behind closed doors it’s known we can’t replace oil and continue on the west’s pointless consumption of resources whilst maintaining our decadently opulent lifestyles.
The scientist in me watches in fascination and awe as I never imagined I’d see the changes and events of the last decade in my lifetime.
An Inconvenient Truth is 100% accurate 20 years after release, rather astonishing viewing now. Tipping points will be ancient history by the time we recognise them. The wobble has passed, the new system balance is emerging and it’s not going to be pretty.
Thanks Harry for curating the evidence in one convenient stop.
PS The cocaine reminds of the kilos of barnacle encrusted packages washing up around Sydney’s coastline for months earlier this year
Sean, you are welcome.
Apparently, more Australians take cocaine than any other nationality on earth, with us Britons in second.
Anecdotally, it is popular amongst young adults in my corner of the Hebrides. Seems odd to me, as there just isn’t the stimulus here to match that wired energy, but perhaps my stereotype of users being wild-partying bankers or adverting execs in clubs and bars is outdated.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/cocaine-health-europe-drugs-study-b1128801.html
I appreciate your thoughts, Sean, from a bona fide ecologist. Yes, fascination, awe, and still…shock.
All good Panopticon & Cassandra, I need a place with understanding fellow witnesses.
Obviously my fellow countrymen have more money than sense. Beyond a simple leaf from the Erythroxylaceae family there’s too much blood on the snow.
PPS My original thought that inspired commenting. In 1st year at university, week 4 of Ecology 101, we were introduced to population studies. 1st graph the human population from BC to 1993, exponentially perfect in all its mathematical magic. Another graph shown later that lesson of boom crash populations. The two graphs were perfectly the same, just the second one plotted the 21st century.
A most perplexing realisation was triggered.
Perplexing indeed. 😆
One of my big ‘aha’ moments was looking at a graph Paul Chefurka had made, showing the tight correlation between oil production and world population growth, both soaring dizzyingly over the last century or so, of course. He later made one that neatly tied in global grain production, too.
Yet as obvious as that makes it, the economics “profession” to this day treats oil as tho it were simply another commodity. Peak oil? No prob … we’ll just replace it, ‘cause, ya know, that’s what economic theory says, and theory always trumps reality, n’est-ce pas?
The voices in my head always ask tough questions: How many people at the Olympics, at the Harris/Walz rally & anyplace else that has access to the Climate report, read it today?
Dying dumb is on many bucket lists. I think they will be successful.
Eating insects just gives you… worms, idiot idea, but good for getting rid of idiots if it saves the planet. Make sure politicians have the lions shear lol