Very many thanks to this month’s kind sponsor, John Bee, who wishes me to exhort, “Go Steelers!”.
“We are in danger of forgetting what the climate crisis means: extinction…
“…the focus of governments, environmentalists and industry has become lopsided. Climate change sucks up all the attention. Nature loss loses. The world has never met a single target to stem the destruction of wildlife.”
“Staggeringly low sea ice extent in the European sector of the Arctic
“SST ANOMALIES 4c or more above the 1981-2010 average currently.”
https://x.com/Petagna/status/1853475797564108939
“Climate crisis leaves European farmers vulnerable to far right, say campaigners…
“The painful impacts of the climate crisis and globalisation have left farmers in Europe marginalised and vulnerable to populist politicians, warn anti-racism campaigners and academics.”
“Endless record heat in France. More monthly records broken today (see list by Meteociel).
“In 3 days High Tmax + High Tmin,France is close to 100 records and more are coming next days. Next days very warm in the West from Morocco to Iceland. Morocco can see up to 38C [100.4F]!
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1853141528929247332
“Climate change is amplifying Alpine hazards, study finds…
“The European Alps are warming more quickly than anticipated, raising concerns not only for environmental stability but also for outdoor enthusiasts and residents in the mountains.”
https://traveltomorrow.com/climate-change-is-amplifying-alpine-hazards-study-finds/
“November warmest nights again on Sonnblick, Austria.
“Jungfraujoch, Switzerland (3571 m) yesterday didn’t drop below 0C for the first time in November. Dozens of records again in France.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1852764827829039320
“Spain floods: searchers scour car parks and malls amid fears death toll will rise…
“On Sunday, a high-profile visit to the badly affected Valencian town of Paiporta was disrupted after a furious crowd threw mud at Sánchez, as well as the regional president, Carlos Mazón, King Felipe and Queen Letizia. There were also shouts of “Killers!” and “Get out!””
“Spain’s banks offer loan moratorium for households, businesses affected by floods.
“Spanish banks have offered mortgage holders, the self-employed and small businesses affected by the floods in southeast Spain a three-month loan moratorium during which they will not have to make monthly instalments, the banking associations said.”
“Spain floods latest: Barcelona put on highest alert as airport flooded and 70 flights cancelled…
“Footage from the city showed the runway completely submerged as one plane aborted a landing and the few planes left on the tarmac were forced to sludge through several inches of flood water.”
“Severe storm brings hail and floods to Paphos, Cyprus…
“Numerous trees and hail littered the streets, causing multiple vehicles to halt in the middle of the road. Several streets were also flooded due to heavy rains from the storm.”
https://watchers.news/2024/11/04/severe-storm-hail-floods-paphos-cyprus/
“Borno’s Flood-Affected Farmers Continue to Face Devastating Losses [Nigeria]…
“With over three decades of farming experience, Bukar told HumAngle that he has never witnessed a flood of such magnitude as his 3-hectare millet farm and additional hectares of guinea corn, beans, and cucumbers were destroyed entirely.”
https://humanglemedia.com/bornos-flood-affected-farmers-continue-to-face-devastating-losses/
“Four people killed in devastating Limpopo hailstorm [South Africa].
“Providing scant information on the deaths, Sekhukhune district spokesperson Lemson Moropyane said: “Two kids … drowned in a toilet hole full of water at Tukakgomo village at ward two, one man lost his life after a brick fell at him at ward 15 at Manyaka village.”
“Lightning strike kills 14 in refugee camp in Uganda.
“Fourteen people have been killed in a lightning strike on a makeshift church at a refugee camp in northern Uganda, police have said. A further 34 people were injured, police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke said.”
https://news.sky.com/story/lightning-strike-kills-14-in-refugee-camp-in-uganda-13247523
“Amazing Kenya. National record of November hottest night broken again!
“Minimum today was 28.6 [83.5F] at Lodwar. Record heat has been relentless for nearly 2 years every single month.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1853371576961679492
“EXTRAORDINARY HEAT IN CENTRAL ASIA. November records [shattered]…
IRAN: 34.8 [94.6F] Bam, 34.0 Saravan 1200m! 33.0 Nehbandan, 32.6 Yazd, 32.4 Zahedan, 31.6 Khor, 30.1 Birjand 1491m. 28.6 Shiraz… TURKMENISTAN 34.2 Serkhetabat 625m; UZBEKISTAN MINIMUM 19.7 Dehkanabad 940m!
KAZAKHSTAN 27C at 700m.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1853510717267439807
“HISTORIC HEAT IN PAKISTAN. 41.0 [105.8F] yesterday at Turbat ties the HIGHEST NOVEMBER TEMPERATURE IN PAKISTANI HISTORY.
“Hundreds of records destroyed all over Central Asia and Iran with unbelievable margins.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1853498404523180079
“Depleting Glaciers [Kashmir].
“A new government study has found that glacial lakes and other water bodies across the Himalayan region have witnessed a 10.81 per cent increase in area from 2011 to 2024 due to climate change. This phenomenon [is] attributed to rapid melting of glaciers…”
https://www.greaterkashmir.com/opinion/depleting-glaciers-2/
“China speaks of greater protection for Tibet’s glaciers, citing their alarming retreat…
“…scientific institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research had underscored the alarming rate of glacier retreat, attributing it to the escalating impacts of global climate change…”
“October 2024 in Hong Kong had an average temperature of 27.3C [74.7F], +1.6C above normal and was the HOTTEST OCTOBER ON RECORDS.
“It was also much drier than usual with a total rainfall of 11.3mm, only 9% percent of the normal figure of 120.3mm.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1853339770522587586
“EXTRAORDINARY WARMTH IN KOREAS. November Records smashed in North Korea:
“25.5 [77.9F] Singye; 24.6 Kusong; 24.3 Anju; 23.3 Huichon; 23.1 Sinuijiu… In South Korea still tropical nights: endless summer.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1852709561695666520
“EXTRAORDINARY IN JAPAN – HOTTEST NOVEMBER DAY IN JAPANESE HISTORY (outside the remote Marcus island) .
“32.2 [90F] Yakushima broke a record which was resisting from 1915. Dozens of records smashed with insane margins (see list) and hundreds more coming…”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1852868354614395313
“SE ASIA Endless record heat – stifling hot and humid nights continue. TMIN 28.8 [83.8F] Cuyo PHILIPPINES HOTTEST NOVEMBER NIGHT IN HISTORY.
“THAILAND:Tmin 28.1 Laem Chabang record again! Welcome to the SE Asia “cold season”.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1853020451007783319
“Philippines Braces for Another Typhoon After Storms Swamp Crops…
“The Philippines is set to be drenched by its fourth storm in just over a month… Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, is still reeling from a direct hit from Severe Tropical Storm Trami…”
“Australia has recorded its second-warmest October since national records began 114 years ago.
“Bureau of Meteorology data of average of daily maximums and minimum temperatures, collected from hundreds of weather stations, revealed last month was 2.51 degrees above average, reports Weatherzone.”
“One footballer killed and five others injured after lightning strikes pitch in horrific incident [Peru]…
“The Sun report that Jose Hugo de la Cruz Meza, 39, was killed instantly by the strike. Goalkeeper Juan Chocca Llacta was rushed to hospital with serious burns to his body.”
“Shocking videos of the tropical depression in Colombia…
“Colombia is experiencing a late rainy season. Although the second season of La Niña is expected to occur between the months of October and December in the country , it did not occur on time this time and local authorities had warned that this represented a delay in the rise of the country’s main reservoirs.”
“At least 4 dead and 2 missing due to heavy rains and flooding in Panama…
” At least four people have died and two are missing as heavy rains have caused rivers to overflow and landslides to form in several central and western Panama provinces, emergency officials said Sunday.”
“Extreme Rainfall Is Becoming More Frequent and Deadly…
“Torrential rains that triggered floods and landslides have killed hundreds of people and displaced millions across parts of Africa, Europe, Asia and the US in recent months. The unprecedented deluges overwhelmed even communities accustomed to extreme weather…”
“Tropical Storm Rafael triggers hurricane warning for Cayman Islands.
“The 17th named storm of an overactive Atlantic hurricane season will bring heavy rain to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands before strengthening to a hurricane and probably hitting Cuba…”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/04/tropical-storm-rafael-hurricane
“Will Lake Powell become Lake Mud? Inside the growing sediment crisis…
“Sediment is the walled molded mud that contains the Colorado River. It’s always been there, but historic droughts like those in 2002 and 2020 have caused the lifeline of the West to drop to alarming levels, exposing the mud.”
https://www.deseret.com/environment/2024/11/02/glen-canyon-dam-lake-powell-removal-sediment-problem/
“Texas sued New Mexico over Rio Grande water. Now the states are fighting the federal government…
“The states reached a proposed settlement agreement in 2022 out of court. But the federal government opposed the deal. The Supreme Court then ruled in June that the case could not be settled without the federal government’s consent.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/04/texas-new-mexico-water-dispute-rio-grande-supreme-court/
“Record Number of States Experiencing Drought…
“A tracking system for droughts in the U.S. marked a record last week: 48 out of 50 states made the list at once. Only Alaska and Kentucky did not have at least moderate drought conditions…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/04/climate/united-states-record-drought.html
“SE USA RECORD HEAT – Mind blowing MINUMUMS temperatures 75/82 between Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, monthly records broken up to 5+ margin and locally above July average!
“TMINS up to 81F in Louisiana! and 75F in Arkansas.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1853592989291163813
“JUST IN: Baton Rouge hits latest 90 degree temperature on record, again…
“After breaking the all-time record for the latest 90 degree temperature just last week, Metro Airport did it again on Monday. Previously, the latest date into the calendar year to hit 90 degrees was October 27—set earlier this year and in 1907.”
https://www.wbrz.com/news/just-in-baton-rouge-hits-latest-90-degree-temperature-on-record-again/
“Oklahoma braces for more severe weather after tornadoes leave thousands without power…
“Oklahoma was hit by twisters early Sunday that ripped roofs off buildings, flipped cars, and put at least 11 people in the hospital… more than 99,000 homes and businesses lost power during the overnight storms…”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/oklahoma-tornado-weather-map-news-b2641113.html
“Part of St. Francois County urged to evacuate as heavy rain puts levee at risk [Missouri]…
“Rain began falling Sunday evening across east central Missouri… As of Monday afternoon, over six inches of rain has fallen in that region, putting the levee near Iron Mountain Lake in danger of failing.”
“Our Fragile Infrastructure: Lessons From Hurricane Helene…
“The raging floods were triggered by unprecedented rainfall and winds, but a network of fragile dams also played a role. On Sept 27, when the floods hit, evacuation orders were issued to residents near a number of critical dams due to their reported “imminent failure” or “catastrophic collapse.””
“Weeks of drought in western Pennsylvania have caused river levels to sink so low that the historic Great Crossing Bridge has resurfaced for the first time in decades.
“The 200-year-old bridge, an 1818 structure of cut sandstone, typically lies 50 feet beneath the surface of the Youghiogheny River Lake.”
“New Yorkers urged to conserve water after driest October in 150 years [of records]…
“A drought watch is the first of three potential levels of water-saving directives, and Eric Adams pitched it in a social media video as a step to try to ward off the possibility of a worse shortage in the United States’ most populous city.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/02/new-york-water-shortage
“A stretch of historic November warmth is on tap for parts of southern Ontario this week as potent southerly winds blow record temperatures into the region…
“Where this event becomes unprecedented is the minimum temperature from the pre-dawn hours Tuesday morning to the pre-dawn hours Wednesday morning.”
“Breaking News! Code UFB!
“The final numbers are in and October, 2024, came in at 1.65°C over the 1850-1900 pre-industrial baseline [highest temp anomaly in ten months, according to Leon Simons]. The year to date is currently at 1.59°C over the pre-industrial baseline.”
https://x.com/EliotJacobson/status/1853048950993080441
“I hope this Northern Hemisphere forecast is wrong..
“El Niño has ended and we shouldn’t be reaching record highs any more this year. See 2016 (ending Super El Niño year) for comparison.”
https://x.com/LeonSimons8/status/1853361706010824861
“How Climate Change Ties To World Chocolate Output And Higher Prices…
“Higher temperature patterns alone or combined with more humidity from rain are changing environmental characteristics in a 40-degree wide area around the Earth where cocoa beans typically grow.”
“Conventional agriculture increases global warming while decreasing system sustainability…
“…we show that the global warming potential (GWP) of conventional agriculture of grain crops has increased eightfold from 1961 to 2020, whereas the sustainability index (SI) has decreased threefold. Tillage, synthetic fertilizers and irrigation together accounted for 90% of the increased GWP.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-024-02170-4
“Scientists may have figured out why methane is rising. The answer is scary…
“The culprits, scientists believe, are microbes — the tiny organisms that live in cows’ stomachs, agricultural fields and wetlands. And that could mean a dangerous feedback loop — in which these emissions cause warming that releases even more greenhouse gases — is already underway.”
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You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an “Economic” thread.
Abrupt loss of Barents Sea ice is one of the known global climate tipping points. Once it has gone the climate changes from an Arctic type to an Atlantic type and the ice (and presumably a lot of biosystems) is gone for good – or at least until the AMOC shuts off – as the freshwater cap is lost. There may be cascade effects to other tipping points like loss of Greenland ice, permafrost melt
There was such extraordinary warmth up there this summer and autumn, it’s no surprise ice is lacking – and it seems to be a persistent trend now. This article is from September:
“Warmest Svalbard summer ever. Three years in a row experts register record high temperatures on the archipelago, with August being unusually warm [the warmest month ever recorded there].”
https://www.thebarentsobserver.com/climate-crisis/warmest-svalbard-summer-ever/126004
Another secular sermon from “comment is free – all others pay cash” The British Guardian scolding humanity for not doing XYZ to save itself over the past five decades. Now, according to the anti doom-n-gloomed columnist, we might be getting “irreversible tipping points,” wherea before, we were getting, what, “reversible tipping points.” How do them things work, by the way. – you reach a point of no return, and then you magically return?
I did, think, if only for a brief moment, that humanity was on the tippling point of an intellectual breakthrough institute breakthrough, since a C&E link went to the Guardian’s “Age in Extinction” series.
But they mean only animal and plant extinction, not us exceptional humans. So please give to the Guardian securely in the knowledge that it will just the non-communicative species heading that way, not us comment is free types.
Martin, the headline also made me wonder if we had some bracing realism on our hands, but I’m afraid it is more narrative gatekeeping; patronising, too.
Her brainwave is that if we expand the messaging around the climate crisis to incorporate harm to cute creatures then people’s sentimentality will galvanize them. Also, the message needs to be hopeful because “doom and gloom cause people to switch off”.
Crazy that the Youghiogheny River is international news. Sunny cloudless day after sunny cloudless day here in western PA. Oh yeah and Go Steelers!
Here We Go, Steelers! Beast mode! 😤
My great-grandmother, Dolly, was from Pennsylvania, so this is a bandwagon I am comfortable jumping on. 😂
Kinda related to climate change…
https://phys.org/news/2024-11-rainwater-samples-reveals-literally-chemicals.amp
Rainwater samples reveals it’s literally raining ‘forever chemicals’ in Miami
by Angela Nicoletti , Florida International University
PFAS are practically everywhere,” said FIU Assistant Professor of Chemistry and study author Natalia Soares Quinete. “Now we’re able to show the role air masses play in potentially bringing these pollutants to other places where they can impact surface water and groundwater.”
Once in the environment, they accumulate over time. People can ingest or inhale them, and exposure has been linked to liver and kidney damage, fertility issues, cancer and other diseases. The EPA warned even low levels of exposure can be dangerous, setting strict near-zero limits for some PFAS in drinking water.
It’s so bad that even in the state of Maine hunters are warned NOT to eat meat from wild animals…
Maine Warns Hunters to Throw Out Deer and Turkey Meat After Tests Reveal High Levels of Forever Chemicals in Some Areas
As the heart of deer season approaches, Maine becomes the latest state to advise hunters against consuming venison and wild turkey contaminated by PFAS
By Alice Jones Webb
Posted on Oct 29, 2024 1:46 PM EDT
Yep, we certainly killing ourselves by a thousand cuts…yeah, technology will save use all…
The extremes in the articles today are mind boggling, but at least we have a choice between Trump and Harris in today’s Presidential election…. sarcasm alert
PS. The folks in Southern Spain are desperate , threw mud at the Royal family..
As bad as the pollutants industrial civilisation spills out into the biosphere are, you wonder if its collapse will, for a while, be even more toxic, as oil/gas drilling sites, chemical plants, sewage treatment plants, nuclear power stations, pathology labs and the like fall rapidly into neglect.
My sympathies re the election – the whole thing looks like way too much stress and drama.
So, if I’m understanding this right, looks as if we are doomed in either case, a slow poisoning, or a complete pa👺ckage of nasty
We’re in overshoot 100%
Like everyone else said, the round-up of headlines is wild.
Live Now!
That is very good advice. It is a struggle to follow it, though, given that we are saddled with thinking minds that seem to want to do anything but…
D Day, Well today’s the day when we get a glimpse of the worlds future. Will the deranged hordes elect the anti-christ. Lot of people holding their breath today I suspect
OK, Dale. Let’s dial down the partisan stuff.
C&E has readers on both sides of the political spectrum and I’d be happier if the comments section didn’t descend into tribal insanity whilst I’m out at the bonfire night fireworks.
I guess I’m election-addled, as I assumed that
‘Deranged hordes’ simply referred to the electorate as a whole.
If those who “Listen to the science” actually did, they would have noticed that the Build Back Bigger era has resulted in the fastest increase in the amount of CO2, methane and NO2 in history, as every single green, renewable technology hastens the rise of GHG’s in the atmosphere. Fuel from food, as it doubles the land under tillage (close to 50% of the US corn crop is used ro make biofuel) is one of the largest contributors to accelerated climate derangement (if climate change is indeed anthropomorphic, it would, considering its genesis, become deranged), as per the penultimate article above.
The solution? Like all green solutions: ignore the science and expand the program, this time to make SAF, the newest corporate boondoggle to wrest billions in free taxpayer money to the state of Texas to “increase global warming while decreasing system sustainability… “ yet calling it “Sustainable Aviation Fuel”.
With not a word of push back even from Jill Stein, the Green candidate running for President who nobody’s ever heard of. Oh that’s right, it’s a Green solution, so the fact that it actually hastens climate derangement can be safely ignored.
I fear there is no remedy for madness such as this.
Sadly Dale, even if they do not elect him today, someone in the future will take his place. As climate change disasters build leading to more economic woes (they only kind of issue humans seem to care about) the populous will be looking for someone to blame. Migrants will be a hot topic, as they will be trying to leave their own economic and climate troubles.
Which will bring the type of leaders with confident “answers”, who are usually extreme right wing.
To be fair, migrants are an issue to the people who get saddled with the brunt of climate migration, the desperate poor already feeling like they can’t hold on. It’s never the wealthy who are asked to share their neighborhoods and jobs. It’s something I feel the left likes to neglect, more people= more competition. It does have a negative impact on some communities. Ignoring this creates people like Donald Trump.
“To be fair, migrants are an issue to the people who get saddled with the brunt of climate migration, the desperate poor already feeling like they can’t hold on…”
Nat, your comment makes me wonder if you are thinking of the situation at home with Iran struggling to cope with millions of migrants from Afghanistan. I didn’t post the article at the time because I wasn’t sure whether it was just rumourmongering but the UN is claiming that there was a massacre of Afghans trying to cross the Iranian border a few weeks ago:
“Afghan media outlets including Tolo News, citing witnesses, said more than 200 Afghan migrants who entered Iran illegally were attacked on Iranian territory, and that dozens had been killed and injured.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/un-seeks-probe-into-reported-mass-killing-afghans-migrating-iran-2024-10-17/
Not just that one, but so many others. In most countries that have an influx of migrants there is push back by the local population. It’s not just a western issue.
There are many, many rational and humanistic explanations on how stupid people are getting the “immigration” issue wrong in Murica, such an excellent short review in the latest New York Review of Books (be forewarned – you need to pass a cognitive test to actually be permitted to purchase a subscription to the magazine).
I’m afraid I’ve been avoiding the news for about 5 decades now, so maybe somebody can enlighten me, though, if it’s not too political – who exactly is this ex-casino owner (a very low form of life, by the way) people keep talking about -didn’t he go to jail back in the 80s? What’s his name – I forgot – why are people paying attention to him? Isn’t there an election going on? Why would he, of all people, be involved somehow?
de·rang·ment: 1. To disturb the order, arrangement, or functioning of: an asteroid impact large enough to derange the climate….
Far more accurate than the anodyne “change”.
https://robertlowrey.blogspot.com/2017/12/climate-and-its-derangements-head-fake.html
Dis-astor: misalignment of the stars. Once upon a time there was a story about earth, visited by Canopus in Argos aliens. They did a little genetic engineering and created humans. They taught the humans various skills and encouraged them to be thoughtful of each other, developing their substance-of-we senses, so that they knew they were interconnected with earth and all living things. Humans lived for many years, 8 or 9 hundred, a long maturational period. Then there was a disaster and their lives were shortened to a fraction of what they were, and their substance-of-we sense became very thin. Canopus sent Teachers over 100’s of years to keep reminding them of who they really were, but they had frail memories and found it very hard. Finally the stars fell into place again and the memories returned and they began to mend themselves and the earth.
Canopus in Argos, Doris Lessing, just goes through my mind when it all seems so ****ed.
Strangely enough, Pan, your site provides some sanity, and a sense of not being alone. Thanks for all your work 🙂
Thank you, Mad Hatter, for the kinds words.
That is an intriguing spin on the “fall of man” narrative by Doris Lessing.
The biblical version suggests that it was the evolution of the false self/ego (when we ate the the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) that saw us stop trusting in the abundance of nature (Eden) and start putting our faith in our own problem-solving abilities. The result: “…the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you.”
Well put.
She read all the religious Books and could sense that human good that runs through them and the battle for a real sense of human beingness, I suppose I am just brainwashing myself but I hold onto the sense that there is more to life than what we can talk about in language, and one day we will communicate in that “sense” rather than devisive language and ideologies. … Oh dear, I really am a Mad Hatter