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“March 2025 was the second warmest March on record in the ERA5 dataset, only behind the record set last year (2024). This is despite weak La Nina conditions in the tropical Pacific.
“It was 1.6C above preindustrial levels, up slightly from February.” [Zeke Hausfather]
https://x.com/hausfath/status/1907552757948543423
“3-year running Arctic and Antarctic sea ice.
“The change in trend could be an indication of AMOC slow down.”
[Leon Simons]
https://x.com/LeonSimons8/status/1907570276205813924
“‘The ice is not freezing as it should’: supply roads to Canada’s Indigenous communities under threat from climate crisis…
“Last year was the hottest year since record-keeping began, bringing deadly wildfires, heatwaves, floods and rising sea levels. In Canada’s north, rising temperatures are threatening a way of life, as the winter road season grows shorter every year.”
“Research reveals that Northern Ireland is feeling strain of climate change…
“Farmers reported they were already experiencing a wide range of adverse effects, such as flash flooding hampering operations and reducing crop yields, and increased periods of drought, requiring more water for vegetable crops during hotter drier summers, particularly in the east of the country.”
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-reveals-northern-ireland-strain-climate.html
“Scientists at Lancaster University’s Hazelrigg Weather Station have recorded the driest March since records began at the site nearly 60 years ago.
“Last month was also the second warmest and the second sunniest March since scientists began taking daily records at Hazelrigg in 1967.”
“A record-breaking March for sunshine [England; we had our wettest 18 months on record leading up to April last year]…
“Provisional Met Office statistics show that England enjoyed its sunniest March since records began in 1910, with many individual counties also topping their sunshine duration records.”
“How could Devon’s peatlands fall victim to climate change?
“…”Under even the least severe climate change scenario, most peatlands move outside of their preferred climate,” lead researcher, ecology professor Dan Bebber says. “Too hot, too dry, that’s the prediction for the future.””
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c897dg8xnd8o
“Italy-France rail link restored 19 months after landslide shutdown.
“After 19 months, trains are once again running through the Fréjus Rail Tunnel. The key rail link between France and Italy reopened on 31 March, restoring a vital cross-border corridor that had been blocked since a massive landslide in August 2023.”
“Storms batter Greek tourist islands for second day, with Crete hardest hit…
“The intense weather follows Monday’s storms which caused significant disruption on the tourist islands of Paros and Mykonos, leaving authorities scrambling to clear debris and overturned vehicles in the aftermath of hailstorms and torrential downpours.”
“This is no joke! One month from now, sulphur emissions over the Mediterranean will be reduced by another 80%.
“This will further accelerate regional warming and lead to more extreme droughts, heatwaves, and flash floods.”
https://x.com/LeonSimons8/status/1906992719529968081
“Drought, storms, and pests ravage Murcia’s forests [Spain]…
“Recent storms in Murcia have brought some much-needed relief to the region, but they haven’t been enough to fix the long-lasting damage caused by the ongoing drought. Over the past few years, the combination of drought and insect infestations has significantly impacted the local forests.”
https://euroweeklynews.com/2025/04/01/drought-storms-and-pests-ravage-murcias-forests/
“Record Heat in Portugal and Spain.
“30.8C en Lamas de Mouro yesterday,in Northern Portugal at more than 800m asl. According to CarloDesign1 a new record for March was also set in Galicia, Spain at Padron with 30.0C / 86F] (data since 1994).”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1907017975636668434
“Storm Nuria: Spain’s state weather agency activates red alert in the Canary Islands for hurricane-force winds.
“Storm Nuria, the fourteenth of great impact of the season, will bring very strong winds and bad sea conditions to the Spanish mainland and the Canary Islands from Thursday until Sunday…”
“MIDDLE EAST-NORTH AFRICA HEAT WAVE:
“Temperatures up to 41.6C [107F] in Saudi Arabia with many stations at record heat level for this time of the year. The heat in Sudan is adding concern to the already embattled country with max. temperatures up to 45C and night minimums up to 30C.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1907501135361122312
“In Kenya, girls are sold into marriage to stave off starvation from drought…
“Aid groups say climate change is not only making droughts more devastating and frequent but also deepening inequality in insidious ways… One of the most disturbing developments has been a surge in the rate of child marriage…”
“An Iraqi city has been declared a “disaster zone” due to severe water shortages, as officials move to confront deepening drought conditions ahead of the summer season.
“Following an emergency session, the Dhi Qar Provincial Council expressed concern about the city of Sayyid Dakhil…”
https://shafaq.com/en/Iraq/Water-Drought-Iraqi-city-declared-disaster-zone
“Left Behind: Why Afghanistan Cannot Tackle Climate Change Alone…
“Afghanistan is among the ten countries that have historically received inadequate climate funding, alongside Chad, South Sudan, Somalia, Niger, Mali, Yemen, Ethiopia, Uganda and Iraq.”
“India braces for extended heatwaves again as summer heat expected to strain power systems…
“The warning follows what has already been an unusually warm start to the year. February was among the hottest on record worldwide, as well as in India, putting wheat crops at risk…”
https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/india-heatwaves-summer-forecast-imd-b2725881.html
“In March 2025, average temperature in China was 5.2℃ (+0.6C), and 712 weather stations broke the warmest record in March.
“The average precipitation was 27.1mm (-4.3%), and 104 stations broke the single-day precipitation record in March.”
https://x.com/yangyubin1998/status/1907402655913439696
“‘Same shit, different year’: Australia records hottest 12 months and warmest March on record.
“Australia has experienced its hottest 12-month period on record, ending with its hottest March on record, with last month seeing temperatures 2.41C above average, the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed.”
“Endless record heat in Australia, due to persistent marine heat waves. New records of April Highest Minimums today:
“29.6 [85.3F] Varanus Island, 28.3 Willis Island, 27.9 Low Isle, 27.2 Groote Eylandt, 25.5 Scherger, 24.1 Samuel Hill, 23.6 Rolleston, 23.3 Mareeba AP, 22.6 Woolshed.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1907334687028105433
“Queensland’s recovery to ‘take months and years’ after floods sweep across vast interior…
“The agricultural industry will also have to patch or rebuild about 4,700km of private roads that have been affected and about 3,500km of fencing, with Crisafulli highlighting the need to rebuild exclusion fencing rolled out over recent decades to protect the sheep industry from canine depredation.”
“Alert in Ecuador! Flooding and downed trees after heavy rain early Wednesday morning, April 2.
“Heavy rains wreak havoc in Ecuador . Flooded streets , fallen trees, power lines in danger of falling, and power outages are some of the damage caused by the heavy rainfall in provinces such as Guayas, Manabí, and Azuay in the early hours of Wednesday, April 2, 2025.”
https://www.teleamazonas.com/alerta-inundaciones-ecuador-lluvias-2-abril/
“A large landslide near to Chanazana in Nabón, Ecuador.
“On 30 March 2025 heavy rainfall triggered a 150,000 cubic metre landslide that has caused the loss of a key road. I highlighted yesterday that Ecuador is being very significantly affected by landslides triggered by high levels of rainfall at the moment. A good example occurred on 30 March…”
https://eos.org/thelandslideblog/chanazana
“Longer periods of drought threaten Brazilian amphibians…
“According to a study, global warming will increase droughts in up to 33% of the habitats of frogs, toads and treefrogs; in Brazil, the strongest impacts will be felt on the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest — precisely those with the greatest diversity of amphibians.”
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/longer-periods-of-drought-threaten-brazilian-amphibians/
“Brazil announces auto industry executive as COP30 climate champion.
“Brazil on Wednesday announced the nomination of auto industry executive Dan Ioschpe, who represented Brazil in business meetings at the G20 summit last year, as its “climate champion” for the 2025 United Nations climate summit…”
“Illegal luxury timber from Brazil’s COP state makes its way to US and Europe, investigation finds…
“”The findings suggest a pervasive culture where corrupt deals and the manipulation of legal frameworks are widespread,” the EIA, founded in 1984, said in the report. Wrongdoing or negligence was detected at nearly every step of the supply chain, from permitting to harvesting to exporting, it said.”
“The Amazon rainforest emerges as the new global oil frontier.
“Half a century of oil drilling has left the world’s largest rainforest scarred by deforestation and pollution. Now it is bracing for a new wave of fossil fuel extraction.”
“Wow. Hit 94 [34.4C] in Tampa, Florida. Earliest, by 27 days, that we have hit 94! (26 days earlier than our earliest 93).”
[Jeff Berardelli]
https://x.com/WeatherProf/status/1907557102786093564
“HISTORIC HEAT WAVE: 107F… Temperatures keep rising in this insane start of April with 107F/41.7C today at La Puerta in Texas.
“Hundreds of stations are at record level for early April and some broke their full April record of highest minimums like Del Rio.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1907599043934695888
“Biblical flooding and deadly tornadoes forecast in over 15 US states today…
“More than a foot of rain will accumulate in some areas between Wednesday and Saturday. There could be well over 18 inches of rainfall in parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky, AccuWeather warned.”
“California wildfire threatening forest home of world’s oldest tree.
“Silver fire leading to fears about Methuselah, a nearly 5,000-year-old bristlecone pine in eastern part of state… the fire continues to threaten structures, critical infrastructure and endangered species…”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/01/california-wildfire-oldest-tree
“Flooding has put an Oregon city’s sewer system at the point of collapse.
“Locals say the flooding that hit rural southeastern Oregon this week is the worst they’ve seen in decades. To the swift water rescue teams that pulled people and animals from their homes in Burns, it’s also been unusually noxious work.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/04/02/eastern-oregon-flooding-burns-silvies-river/
“‘A generational storm’: Northern Michigan ice storm was worst in over 100 years…
“Seasoned northern Michiganders struggle to comprehend the magnitude of the storm’s destruction… For many, the return of power remains at least a week away as utility crews work tirelessly to clear downed trees and restore electrical lines.”
“Once-Rare Fungal Diseases Are Killing Millions in an Unprepared World…
“Once considered obscure or opportunistic, invasive fungal infections are now surfacing with alarming frequency — and in patients and places doctors never used to worry about. Climate change is expanding the geographic reach of fungi.”
“Ground-level ozone pollution poses growing threat to planetary health…
“Ozone impacts on biodiversity are significant and growing — harming pollinators, reducing crop yields and limiting forest growth, with global implications for food security and humanity’s reliance on forests as carbon sinks.”
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You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an “Economic” thread.
I’ve counted at least four “once in a generation” climate events so far this year in the US: LA fires, early March tornadoes, Michigan ice storm, and current flooding. At a bit above two degrees these will be almost annual events, at three degrees they will be monthly.
From GFS forecasts there is going to be a big warm up to above 1.7 degrees globally by this times next week.
http://www.karstenhaustein.com/climate.php
Epic.
We can look in everyone’s eyes and whisper, told you so.
… hey let’s put a auto manufacturer ceo in Brazil as head of the next COP.
Enjoy our last decade.
Doom Wizard, he can’t be any worse than the last one. Surely? 😂
“Cop29 CEO filmed agreeing to facilitate fossil fuel deals at climate summit. Elnur Soltanov recorded speaking with fake oil and gas group that asked for deals in exchange for sponsoring talks.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/08/cop29-ceo-filmed-agreeing-to-facilitate-fossil-fuel-deals-at-climate-summit
George, we are going to need to expand our terminology, I fear.
I was “surfing” through substack because I can usually find someone writing about climate change; however, one thing I noticed is there are still quite a few people who think we still have time to prevent the worst effects. For example, “The Climate Optimist” and another (I can’t recall the substack page name) with multiple articles titled, “Your Daily Dose of Climate Optimism”.
I guess it’s good to be optimistic but sometimes reality has to override this kind of optimism. I suppose there are possible solutions but no real effort is being pursued.
Personally, I’m not optimistic. Since I’m getting up there in years, I may not see the worst but there is no guarantee there either and changes are accelerating. I think Hansen is one person who has the best understanding of what is happening.
You’ll still be around in the 2030s long enough to see the chaos unfold everywhere.
Hopium is a drug.
Denial is an unconscious process.
BRUH!
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/DkFHap7E-dw
A national emergency….BRUH!
“Personally, I’m not optimistic.”
Nor indeed am I, Edward.
As I’ve said before, it is my preference to validate the sanity of those who have reached the same, difficult conclusions I have about our catastrophic future, and perhaps help empower them to live/plan accordingly.
Shocked by the thinning crowns and other impacts on trees she observed, amateur researcher Gail Zawacki was writing about the grave impacts of tropospheric ozone pollution on trees many years ago. She corresponded with a number of scientists who basically gave her the brush off.
YOU WERE RIGHT, GAIL. R.I.P.
Cassandra, she was! Such a smart cookie and, my goodness, she did have to bang her head repeatedly against the wall of entrenched academia.
RIP, Gail. She was very much at the forefront of my mind when I posted that article.
Data centers, like the ones currently hosting Climate & Economy posts and the comments sections, and substack, and r/collapse, and wordpress, etc., are a huge contributor to CO2 emissions, running on fossil fuels like methane gas, coal, and oil.
Up to 12% of global electricity use is forecast to be dedicated to these tech beasts by 2028.
Hypocrisy, denial, hopium, psychopathic morons in positions of power, endless corporate externalizing, resource curses – fun stuff, the world we inherit but can do nothing about, and even trying to publicly face up to the truth gets you nonsense in return.
The good news? We are only going to have to die once.
And since none of us are dead yet, we might as well face the facts with some good times, as Chic sang.
“Data centers, like the ones currently hosting Climate & Economy posts… are a huge contributor to CO2 emissions.”
Oh, the bitter irony, Martin. I guess I would feel worse about it if I were proselytising a green transition or some such.
I was reading that data centres are, in the UK at least, now considered “critical national infrastructure”, alongside energy and water systems. Unnerving how we keep giddily ascending the ladder of technology becoming reliant on each new complexity, as the older rungs crumble away.
This blog gives me such respite from the bombardment of gaslighting disinfo coming from all spectrums and dimensions of communication.
Su, that is very kind of you to say.
Attila József, ‘No Shriek of Mine’:
No shriek of mine, it is the earth that thunders.
Beware, beware, Satan has gone insane;
cling to the clean dim floors of the translucent springs,
melt yourself to the plate glass,
hide behind the diamond’s glittering,
beneath the stones, the beetle’s twittering,
O sink yourself within the smell of fresh-baked bread,
poor wretched one, poor wretch.
Ooze with the fresh showers into the rills of earth–
in vain you bathe your own face in your self,
it can be cleansed only in that of others.
Be the tiny blade upon the grass:
greater than the spindle of the whole world’s mass.
O you machines, birds, tree-branches, constellations!
Our barren mother cries out for a child.
My friend, you dear, you most beloved friend,
whether it comes in horror or in grandeur,
it is no shriek of mine, but the earth’s thunder.
You had me doing some Googling there, Jupiviv. Embarrassingly, I had never heard of Attila József – apparently, he was one of the most famous Hungarian poets of the 20th century; and I did not know what “rills” were: a shallow channel cut in the surface of soil or rocks by running water.
The poem’s central theme, if AI is to be believed, is “…the speaker’s experience of hardship and the importance of enduring suffering, suggesting that true growth comes from facing and overcoming challenges.”
No cause for embarrassment at all Pan. That AI generated precis I’d say demonstrates exactly why AI is not to be believed when it comes to most topics. Anyway to me it’s the tragedy of doomerism – we don’t want a medal for understanding the reality of collapse, we just want to communicate it to others. It’s no shriek of ours but the earth’s thunder.
Just saw this:
“Like much of the southeastern portion of the United States, Augusta, Georgia was severely impacted by Hurricane Helene last September. And for Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, Mother Nature impacted some of the course’s most iconic holes.
The damage done by Helene, however, won’t be a major part of the CBS broadcast. Speaking on a press call in preparation of next week’s Masters Tournament, CBS’s lead golf producer Sellers Shy said that the network will not show any before-and-after images of the golf course pre and post-Helene. “We’re covering the tournament the way it is presented to us and the way the club would like to present it. So [before-and-after images are] not in the cards,” Shy stated.”
CBS won’t highlight hurricane damage to Augusta National during Masters
We don’t want to take any focus away from golf now, do we? Sheesh!
LOL. Golf must go on!!
That’s an interesting tidbit, Edward.
I can understand golf enthusiasts not wanting to be confronted with, or perhaps distracted by, the evidence of a huge, “natural” disaster as they immerse themselves in the Masters… and yet our ability to simply airbrush out unpleasant realities does feel like part of the reason we are in this mess in the first place.
I wonder how the families of the victims feel about it, too.
The situation reminded me of this epic photo:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/27/kristi-mccluers-best-photograph-playing-golf-while-america-burns-oregon-fire-interview
While we all wonder how people could put the $trumpet back in office again, it’s hard for me not to notice that nary a word gets printed regarding the total absence of any ideas about how to ameliorate the climate derangement we’ve provoked.
The most pressing need is to smash the corporate shield provided by the insane assertion that “Corporations are people, too”, and that their money = “free speech”.
Such a Legal framework is what has provided the mad, febrile acceptance of the EV industry’s assertions that their products are “green”. Contrarily, EV robofactories churn out products with a larger carbon footprint than their ICE counterparts: everyone knows this, the argument being that over their lifetime they will offset that via their lesser emissions. However everyone also knows that that assertion is dependent upon the source of their electricity. As the US reopens shuttered coal-fired power plants, while every year its growth in overall energy use exceeds its growth in what they absurdly refer to as “renewables”, all the while increasing the weight of the vehicles being propelled, makes said assertion utterly ridiculous.
Lawsuits against Exxon are idiotic, as the federal government that was subsidizing them knew far earlier than Exxon the climate-deranging impacts burning fossil fuels engendered.
Likewise fElon Skum knew, as did I (not a scientist and not even particularly bright, but I can do basic math) that EV’s were not, nor ever would be, eco-friendly; yet the head of DOGE has received billions in taxpayer funding to perpetuate the fraud of EVs as clean machines: if one is bringing lawsuits it is against this ongoing fraud they should be launched.
Similarly, the ethanol program that is using industrial ag to produce fuel from food crops is the next largest ongoing eco-disaster the media has cast a pall of silence over, even as ground level ozone is “harming pollinators, reducing crop yields and limiting forest growth, with global implications for food security and humanity’s reliance on forests as carbon sinks” … burning ethanol INcreases ground level ozone, yet close to half of the US corn crop, grown by using the most ecologically destructive practices science can devise, is dedicated to producing this deleterious additive.
April Fools Day posting: “Big Banks Quietly Prepare for Catastrophic Warming:
“Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and an international banking group have quietly concluded that climate change will likely exceed the Paris Agreement’s 2 degree goal and are examining how to maintain profits.”‘
Banks are Corporations, which have no legal mandate to reduce their carbon emissions but do have one to maximize profits so as to pay both their investors and their taxes. To look to such entities for a solution to the climate conundrum is, as we are seeing, suicidal for the very basic reason that they are legally mandated against pursuing goals that reduce profits … should the carbon emissions they produce in pursuit of their legal objectives destroy every vestige of beauty, consume the last molecule of oxygen, or make an unlivable hellscape of the entire globe, it matters not a whit. Only their quarterly results matter.
That is the law as currently written… and not single voice is risen, even as Bernie Sanders rails against the oligarchs they create, suggesting that this state of affairs should perhaps be altered.
Rob, apparently the banks think they’re going to make a mint out of the air-conditioning industry before we all tumble into the abyss.
As for solutions, there does seem to be a subtle shift in the dialogue (at least amongst those not peddling denial) away from solutions and towards mitigation and adaptation.
Geoengineering has taken a bit of a hit recently with the Florida Senate banning it and more evidence of how complex and challenging it would be to “get it right” emerging (see article below); but I suspect we will still see some attempted when things get really bad, perhaps unilaterally by a nation or nations facing an immediate existential threat from heat.
“Hunga volcano eruption’s unexpected Southern Hemisphere cooling effect challenges geoengineering assumptions… the study suggests that efforts to reverse climate change by loading the atmosphere with substances that react with solar radiation to send heat back out into space, an effort known as geoengineering, are potentially even riskier than previously thought and must take new complications into account.”
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-hunga-volcano-eruption-unexpected-southern.html
Consequences for destroying the habitat.
Karma.
FAFO.
Hope everyone is happy with their choices. Look into a mirror & repeat three times- It’s not my fault. You’ll feel better. 😉
No one is exempt from global warming or Trump’s tax.