This month is kindly sponsored by an anonymous donor in memory of Rev. Michael Dowd, founder of postdoom.com.
“Ten dead, hundreds evacuated in Argentina [Bahia Blanca] floods.
“Eight hours of nonstop rain left the city of 350,000 people largely underwater… The city received more than 400 millimeters (15 inches) of rain in just hours — equivalent to what it normally gets in a year, “something unprecedented,” according to Javier Alonso, security minister for Buenos Aires province.”
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250308-ten-dead-hundreds-evacuated-in-argentina-floods
“HISTORIC SOUTH AMERICA HEAT:
“Hundreds of records for weeks the whole of February and now March. Tonight it was the hottest March night in history in URUGUAY capital Montevideo and other cities… Insane heat index in Buenos Aires of 47.0C [116.6F].”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1897717798425837785
“Heat wave in southern Brazil prompts five cities to suspend classes…
“Rio Grande, one of the five cities — all of which are in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul — said its schools were not equipped to handle the extreme heat. Classes were expected to resume on Monday.”
“Donald Trump, tariffs and wars drain funds from climate action, warns Brazil…
“Brazil will host the UN COP 30, the world’s most important climate talks in November this year in the Amazon port of Belém. Countries are now expected to submit updated climate plans for 2035 by the time of the Belém summit, after only a handful met the February deadline set under the Paris agreement…”
https://www.ft.com/content/6a5b1892-55c3-42b7-a275-53dd0b9fa9f5
“Yaku Raymi: The Quechua Ritual to Save a Glacier [Peru]…
“In the community of Santa Fe, in Peru, water is disappearing, animals are dying due to a lack of pasture and rainfall has become sporadic. The community members know that climate change is affecting the apu, or mountain god, but they say that transforming a Quechua ritual will help them protect it and restore the snow.”
https://news.mongabay.com/video/yaku-raymi-the-quechua-ritual-to-save-a-glacier/
“Severe flooding in Ibagué, Colombia.
“The city of Ibagué experienced a critical day on Thursday, March 6, when torrential rains hit both urban and rural areas, generating a series of emergencies that have left numerous families in a vulnerable situation and with significant economic losses.”
“Tropical forests in the Americas are struggling to keep pace with climate change…
“…a major new study led by Dr. Jesús Aguirre-Gutiérrez from the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI), reveals that forests across the Americas are not adapting quickly enough to keep pace with climate change, raising concerns about their long-term resilience.”
“Nearly half of popular tropical plant groups related to birds-of-paradise and bananas are threatened with extinction…
“”When you realize that whole evolutionary lineages of life with multiple species may be similarly threatened with extinction, it makes you stand up and notice that something is really happening here,” Kress said.”
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-popular-tropical-groups-birds-paradise.html
“‘Nothing like before’: El Pasoans [Texas] say this week’s dust storm is one of ‘the worst’…
“”I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve never seen it get that dark outside,” she said. “It was like yellow and orange and I even told my husband, I’ve never seen it look like that outside.””
“LA wildfires hit insurers harder than expected…
“While the impact of the fires on LA residents was immediate and catastrophic, the corporate fallout is taking longer to calculate. Two months down the line, however, insurance companies have arrived at a tentative industry-wide loss figure of $40bn (£32bn).”
https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/content/d88f9ab0-3982-5207-b18c-b57c0f316f34
“Study warns of deadly future marine heat waves in East Coast estuaries [US]…
“”The Chesapeake Bay, for example, currently experiences marine heat wave conditions approximately 6% of the year (22 days per year), and that is already placing stress on the ecosystem. Our study shows that estuaries across the East Coast could experience these conditions for more than 100 days of the year by 2100…””
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-deadly-future-marine-east-coast.html
“Banff’s meteorological winter has been driest on record, Environment Canada says.
“Global Calgary meteorologist Tiffany Lizée said in southern Alberta, meteorological winter typically runs from Dec. 1 until Feb. 28… “February’s snowpack surveys show below-average or much-below-average conditions in most areas,” said Lizée.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/11069793/banff-meteorological-winter-driest-on-record/
“The unforeseen effects of melting glaciers on Arctic coastal ecosystems…
“…snow, glaciers, and permafrost are melting—all of which are contributing to coastal run-off plumes… The ingestion of metal-contaminated kelps was shown to have negative impacts, such as reduced development, growth, and reproduction, and might lead to a bioaccumulation of harmful elements across the Arctic food web.”
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-unforeseen-effects-glaciers-arctic-coastal.html
“Friday ice update – Arctic sea ice extent is currently the *lowest* on record (JAXA data).”
• about 580,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 1,150,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 1,500,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 2,010,000 km² below the 1980s mean [Zack Labe]
https://bsky.app/profile/zacklabe.com/post/3ljsgztwka224
“March has observed a notable trend toward greater precipitation in the subpolar North Atlantic over the last few decades, especially around the Barents Sea where there has been a loss of sea ice.” [Zack Labe]
https://bsky.app/profile/zacklabe.com/post/3ljomhmg46s2d
“Melting permafrost is exposing whaling-ear graves on Svalbard…
“Until recently, the graves have been preserved by the cold climate and permafrost, however, rising temperatures and environmental changes have accelerated their deterioration, causing the coffins to collapse and expose the skeletal and textile material to the intrusion of sediments, water and oxygen.”
“This is completely unprecedented:
“North Atlantic Sea Surface Temps raised above pre-2023 records two years ago and have been above preceding records for 724 out of 730 days. It takes >3000 times as much heat to increase the temp of seawater than it does for air!” [Leon Simons]
https://x.com/LeonSimons8/status/1897675549394251855
“Blackbird deaths point to looming West Nile virus threat in the UK.
“Mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile virus could become a growing concern in the UK and other northern European nations as the climate warms, with a virus affecting blackbirds showing how these pathogens can take hold.”
“Warmest March 7 ever measured with temperatures rising to 17.8 degrees in De Bilt [Netherlands].
“The national record was also broken at 2:40 p.m. Wijk aan Zee saw temperatures rise to 19 [66F] degrees Celsius, and Arcen, Limburg had temperatures of up to 18.9 degrees Celsius.”
https://nltimes.nl/2025/03/07/warmest-march-7-ever-measured-temperatures-rising-178-degrees-de-bilt
“EXTRAORDINARY WARM SPELL IN EUROPE; HISTORY REWRITTEN:
“Thousands of stations with record heat (even 4/5C above records!) for early March. Only Spain and Italy are unaffected. Heat spread to TURKEY with a March record at Antalya AP with 27.5C [81.5F]. 25C in Serbia and Austria, 22+ in Poland.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1898020287666663673
“Historic heat also in Slovakia mountains with 14.0C [57.2] at 1751m asl! Hottest March day in history.
“Next days thousands of records will fall in Europe in over a dozen countries, some of which for full March, the rest for early March.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1897710666255155274
“The lost oases of Morocco.
“Morocco is paying a high price for the desertification process that is sweeping the Sahel region. Its oases are rapidly disappearing. Dehydrated, ravaged by fires and progressively abandoned, they are severely threatened by both climatic phenomena and human activities.”
https://geographical.co.uk/news/lost-oases-of-morocco
“EXTRAORDINARY EVENT – unbelievable MINIMUM temperature of 31.7C [89.1F] at Ouahigouya in BURKINA FASO…
“To put it in context this is the SECOND HOTTEST NIGHT EVER RECORDED IN ALL NORTHERN HEMISPHERE THIS EARLY.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1897666119340859704
“Climate change impacts in African mountains are greater than previously thought…
“Farmers reported increased temperatures, reduced fog, changes in rainfall amount and distribution, and an increase in extreme climate events… They also reported increasingly unpredictable weather patterns which are leading to less reliable planting and harvesting schedules and increased pests and diseases…”
https://www.york.ac.uk/about/sustainability/news/2025/climatechangeimpactsinafricanmountains/
“Climate change is fuelling the spread of crop-destroying fall armyworm in Zimbabwe, dealing another blow to drought-hit farmers.
“Abigail Kadirire picks a dark green caterpillar with white stripes off a ragged and torn maize plant and puts it on her palm. She is clearly distressed.”
https://www.context.news/climate-risks/zimbabwean-farmers-face-crop-munching-armyworm-after-drought
“‘Sex-for-fish’: Rural Zambian women forced into coercive deals as drought and aid cuts bite.
“A new report from the NGO ActionAid highlights the growing vulnerability of women to gender-based violence. It underscores how prolonged droughts have forced many Zambian women to seek alternative livelihoods, leaving them increasingly exposed to coercion and abuse…”
“South Sudanese Women Disproportionally Affected By Climate Change-Fuelled Heat: Study…
“Aside from lowering the chances that they will return to school, school closures often mean girls take on household tasks like collecting water and cooking instead, which expose them to even higher temperatures.”
“East Africa braces for floods after heatwave.
“After a terrible heatwave that saw temperatures soar to 42°C in countries such as South Sudan, the month of March is expected to bring rains. And it may not be a blessing to cool off the region, but bring with it disastrous floods.”
“ENDLESS RECORD HEAT IN THE INDIAN OCEAN – 36.1c [97F] Juan de Nova is HOTTEST MARCH DAY IN ALL FRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES.
“Min 26.6c Plaisance, MAURITIUS MARCH HOTTEST NIGHT.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1897979267495166197
“Flash flooding hits Ha’il and Buraidah, Saudi Arabia…
“The General Directorate of Civil Defense has issued a severe weather warning… Thunderstorms are forecast to persist across most parts of the Kingdom until March 10, increasing the risk of further flooding.”
https://watchers.news/2025/03/07/flash-flooding-hits-hail-and-buraidah-saudi-arabia/
“Baghdad Struggles with Torrential Rainfall as Floodwaters Rise Across Iraq.
“The recent extreme weather has raised concerns about Iraq’s urban infrastructure and its ability to handle severe climate conditions. The capital’s drainage system is struggling with the increased intensity of seasonal storms.”
“‘My childhood just slipped away’: Pakistan’s ‘monsoon brides’…
“The family’s decision to marry their 13-year-old daughter off was not one made from tradition but out of sheer desperation. Asifa’s parents had been hard hit by the catastrophic floods that ravaged Pakistan in 2022.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/3/8/my-childhood-just-slipped-away-pakistans-monsoon
“Pakistan water authority asks farmers to brace for up to 35% water shortage.
“The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Friday warned Punjab and Sindh — the two major bread baskets — to brace for up to 35 per cent water shortages in the last leg of the current crop season, with the Tarbela and Mangla dams rapidly approaching their dead levels.”
“Powerful tornado hits Murcia town in Negros Occidental, Philippines…
““It was confirmed to be a tornado after verification with the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA),” said Irene Bel Ploteña, head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.”
https://watchers.news/2025/03/07/powerful-tornado-hits-murcia-town-in-negros-occidental-philippines/
“This eternal streak of hundreds of records which have fallen across Australia for months will just get worse.
“More March records yesterday: 40.9 Newdegate; 41.0 [105.8F] Jacup. This is get to get extreme from tomorrow until mid month.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1898268374414901598
“Koalas ‘behaving really weird’ as ex-Cyclone Alfred bears down.
“”Koalas at the moment are behaving really weird, they’re ending up at weird places,” head rescuer Paulie Debono said… “They’ve never seen a cyclone before, they only live for 12 or 13 years if they’re lucky and the last cyclone was 50 years ago,” he said.”
“I just read about more looming cuts coming for certain science agencies right after making this graph. Not good.
“The data for the carbon dioxide (CO₂) growth rate over the last year is now in….” [Zack Labe]
https://zacklabe.com/climate-change-indicators/
“While some aspects of the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) have come down from their extremes in recent months, the long-term trends remain consistent in their direction.
“For example, the 36-month running average for the planet’s albedo hit a new record low in the latest CERES data.” [Prof Eliot Jacobson]
https://bsky.app/profile/climatecasino.net/post/3ljskbhu34c2o
“Supply chain risks get real. A growing threat from extreme weather events and pathogenic diseases means businesses can no longer afford to take the availability of staple food crops for granted…
“Ripple effects from the growing vulnerability of monoculture crops to climate change and other risk factors are being felt right along food supply chains.”
https://foodservicefootprint.com/supply-chain-risks-get-real/
“‘A new phase’: why climate activists are turning to sabotage instead of protest…
“…with climate breakdown worsening and fossil fuel emissions showing no signs of peaking, let alone abating, some say it is time to escalate… In Germany, activists last year staged attacks against gas pipelines, while others escalated a campaign against concrete with two arson attacks on a Cemex plant in Berlin.”
“We’ve failed to stop climate change… we now face having to adapt to more extreme weather…
“Laurie Laybourn, director of the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative, said: “It’s only really now that the penny is dropping that we didn’t prevent a global-scale climate crisis. We’re now in a global-scale climate crisis.”“
“What is this era of calamity we’re in? Some say ‘polycrisis’ captures it…
“Not to be confused with a “perfect storm” or the perhaps less scientific “clusterfuck”, “polycrisis” – a term coined by the authors Edgar Morin and Anne Brigitte Kern – refers to the idea that not only are we facing one disaster after another, but those messes are all linked, making things even worse.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/polycrisis-disasters-politics
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You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back on Monday with an “Economic” thread.
I’ve experienced three hurricanes and a very wet tropical storm but I don’t think I have any frame of reference for understanding what 15 inches of rain in a few hours looks or feels like. And in a few years such events will be considered mediocre and the extreme events may simply wash away cities like Bahia Bianca in one go.
It would break the UK’s 24 hour rainfall record of 341.4 mm [13.4 inches], George, which was set 4/5th Dec at Honister Pass, Cumbria in 2015; and obviously that’s an elevated location.
I’d been wondering when we’d get another Valencia-type event.
Fascinating Chat on: Climate Led Civilization Collapse and Impotency of Billionaires to Survive
Paul Beckwick
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z52uh-kD4X8&t=416s
As Albert Bartlett says in ‘The Most Important Video You Will Ever See’ (<—– you should watch this video)… "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function". This simple yet powerful video opened my eyes years ago to many of earth's woes and it grows in relevance with every passing day.
Probably, everyone has a sense of what is presented herem
Thank you, Vince. This is Paul Beckwith talking us through a recent exchange between a chap called Jan Umsonst and ChatGPT. A sample quote:
“ChatGPT: Yeah, you’ve laid out the nightmare scenario—a self-reinforcing collapse across the entire Earth system where the oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere push each other into runaway instability.
“The acceleration of ocean surface warming could very well signal that the planet’s biggest heat sink is failing, which would shatter the fragile equilibrium we’ve relied on. And if carbon sinks start flipping to carbon sources—which might already be happening—the feedback cascade would spiral out of control.”
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-climate-chat-with-chatgpt-as-billionaires-will-now-lose-everything.html
I feel like more and more collapse aware folks are turning to AI to confirm their suspicions. Yes AI energy use is a problem, but I’m not using it to write erotic Marvel fan fiction.
Happy International Women’s Day! Not so happy for Zambian and South Sudanese women and Pakistani monsoon brides. (just scratches the surface of course)
Happy International Women’s Day, to you, too, Cassandra. ❤
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drGx7JkFSp4
Aretha & butched out Annie Lennox – gotta love it! Perfect. Thanks!
Put a woman in charge, I’m tired of the useless bags of testosterone.
TR, we have a few female heads of state in Europe, Georgia Meloni of Italy being perhaps the most prominent, and some of the EU’s top jobs are held by women: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.
Lynn Truss and Theresa May have been recent PM’s here in the UK; neither covering themselves in glory, tbh, especially Lynn, but then the men have hardly been paragons of enlightened leadership either.
Let us hope that all parents & teachers are now becoming fully aware of the polycrisis and how events are projected to get dramatically worse. I believe that full force polycrisis education of the youngsters is imperative to help them prepare mentally & physically, as the future always belongs to the young.
To not inform them would be a terrible disservice and would unnecessarily lead to incredibly disastrous numbers of pre-teens and young adults with highly elevated anxiety, stress, trauma, and depression as their world collapses around them.
No polycrisis education would be like suddenly taking a school bus of kids into the middle of a battlefield with no situational awareness, and no weapons & food & water. Mother Nature would just slaughter them with polycrisis force.
Polycrisis informed kids will willingly forego stupid video games and inane social media so that they can focus on physical fitness and mentally prep for the challenges ahead. They would develop knowledge of more primitive survival skills plus much more. They should seek to build a local Dunbar Number of close friends and other relationships for emotional support, but also to generate a community of differently skilled craftsman, artisans, gardeners, medics, hunters and defensive snipers.
They would be striving to somehow give themselves a small chance for the coming Bottleneck Squeeze as we rapidly descend from 8 billion plus to a greatly reduced carrying capacity threshold of under 10 million.
“Those in Overshoot can choose to ignore Reality, but nobody can avoid the Consequences. Collapse must be endured.” –Prof Emeritus of Ecology and Economy Dr. William Rees
Bob Shaw Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Reposting Bob’s comment from yesterday, as it got stuck in moderation:
Hugging Face’s chief science officer worries AI is becoming ‘yes-men on servers’ | TechCrunch
AI company founders have a reputation for making bold claims about the technology’s potential to reshape fields, particularly the sciences. But Thomas Wolf, Hugging Face’s co-founder and chief science officer, has a more measured take.
In an essay published to X on Thursday, Wolf said that he feared AI becoming “yes-men on servers” absent a breakthrough in AI research. He elaborated that current AI development paradigms won’t yield AI capable of outside-the-box, creative problem-solving — the kind of problem-solving that wins Nobel Prizes.
“The main mistake people usually make is thinking [people like] Newton or Einstein were just scaled-up good students, that a genius comes to life when you linearly extrapolate a top-10% student,” Wolf wrote. “To create an Einstein in a data center, we don’t just need a system that knows all the answers, but rather one that can ask questions nobody else has thought of or dared to ask.”
“[T]he most crucial aspect of science [is] the skill to ask the right questions and to challenge even what one has learned,” Wolf said. “We don’t need an A+ [AI] student who can answer every question with general knowledge. We need a B student who sees and questions what everyone else missed.”
————————————-
[ME] I believe it was Geologist Art Berman who said something like:
A truly farseeing AI computer would be able to ‘genius’ out Overshoot & Collapse, and then tell us the logical Predicament outcome–> of greatly reducing our pop. numbers and becoming simple hunter-gatherers again to be back at carrying capacity; abandoning ALL modernity to be living truly in harmony with Nature again. To do these changes before Mother Nature ruthlessly imposes them upon us leading to our quick extinction.
This AI computer would tell us to abandon electricity, fossil fuels, nuclear, and solar panels, wind, and hydro-generation. To not cling to agriculture to create surplus, but to slowly migrate with the seasons and eat what you find. To give up on all technology by never burning anything; don’t be a fire-ape!
Most importantly, AI-genius would say unplug and destroy me first to show that you fully understand what you need to do.
I doubt our global leaders would listen, understand, and then follow through.
Bob Shaw Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
“I believe that full force polycrisis education of the youngsters is imperative to help them prepare mentally & physically, as the future always belongs to the young.”
Bob, you raise an important issue and one that, as a parent, preys on my mind often. My kids are all in on BAU and I can’t bear to disrupt their peace of mind by talking collapse, so I simply don’t go there.
I do encourage them to keep fit, learn practical skills and, in the case of my eldest, self-defence …but is it even possible to prepare for what is coming down the pipe?
Hello Panopticon, Thxs for the reply.
Preparation? Start small & simple, then delve deeper over time. Eventually, motivated youngsters will seek out Polycrisis blogs, websites, and books on their own.
I will be 70 soon but I have always been a news junkie: read 1968 Paul Erlich’s Population Bomb at 13 and 1972 Limits to Growth 4 years later. Reading best-selling books about my potential future starvation tends to focus one’s thoughts. Full disclosure: never had offspring; I am a genetic ‘Endling’. So no expert on child-raising.
Something simple but very important for a young child to understand is the absolute luxury of pressurized water on instant tap. One pound per square inch {PSI} of pressure equals 2.3 feet of elevation. So lifting a water bucket 2.3 feet up [28 inches or 71 cm], then pouring the water over your hand at ground level equals 1 PSI at ground level.
Most houses have 60 to 80 PSI. So to get an 80 PSI shower: Take that water bucket up 2.31 feet x 80 PSI = 185 feet or roughly 18 flights of stairs, pour it into a tank, then go back down to ground level to enjoy that nice pressure.
So for a kid, have them take a one gallon bucket bath for a week {NO PSI}. Go old time realism! Then for the next week of Modernity: have the child hand carry two 1-gallon jugs up & down a flight of stairs NINE TIMES to simulate 80 PSI. If they want a ten gallon shower, then those same two 1-gallon jugs up & down FORTY-FIVE TIMES! They will be so sweaty that they will need a shower. Then they will understand & appreciate the embodied energy in pressurized tap water.
Or fill a five gallon jug of water, then ask your child to carry and/or drag it a football field. It will weigh approx. 42 lbs. I bet after that experience they will not let the water run endlessly while they brush their teeth.
Bob Shaw Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
“…have them take a one gallon bucket bath for a week.”
I fear this would make me an incredibly unpopular Dad, Bob. 😂
In all seriousness, though, parenting with one foot in BAU and one in collapse is a very difficult balancing act and I am always open to ideas.
What is one having for dinner along with a serving of microplastics?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-warn-swimmers-serious-risks-100023818.html
I am just reading ‘a poison like no other’ by Matt Simon. About microplastics, nanoplastics. More evidence that we are living in a giant washing machine of an experiment where we have no idea the extent of poison that we are unleashing on future generations..?….
Kevin, we can now see images of plastic nanoparticles accumulating in brain tissue. What a time to be alive.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2025/mar/06/how-nanoplastics-are-invading-our-bodies-video-report
I know that we shouldn’t draw conclusions willy-nilly, but increasing plastic in the brain has me thinking it might lead to insanity, or at least moodiness and cognitive slowdown.
Its effects are not well known, and the fact that it’s to getting all of us has me worried.
Kord, AI overview is telling me:
“Research suggests that nanoparticles can negatively affect cognitive function by accumulating in the brain, causing neurodegeneration-like changes, disrupting synaptic activity, and triggering inflammatory responses, potentially leading to cognitive impairment depending on the type of nanoparticle and exposure route; studies with silica nanoparticles have shown particularly concerning effects on cognitive abilities in animal models.”