Huge thanks to this month’s anonymous sponsor, who wishes me to lead with this droll quote from Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rites: “(He) had a mind that ticked like a clock and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo.”
“Breaking News! Code UFB!!!
“The planet’s albedo (reflectivity) hit yet another new record low as of the latest data from CERES from April, 2025, now at 28.714%… The Earth energy imbalance is maintaing status quo, flat, with the 36-month running mean hovering at 11.26 Hiroshimas per second, or about 972,000 Hiroshimas worth of planetary heating per day.”
[Prof Eliot Jacobson]
https://x.com/EliotJacobson/status/1940949277574156605
” Friday ice update – Arctic sea ice extent is currently the *lowest* on record (JAXA data).
• about 370,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 1,170,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 1,910,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 2,580,000 km² below the 1980s mean [Zack Labe]
https://bsky.app/profile/zacklabe.com/post/3lt5g6oqq7c26
“Arctic region was permafrost-free when global temperatures were 4.5˚C higher than today, study reveals…
“The stark findings indicate that if average global temperatures were to rise by this amount in the future, permafrost found in the Northern Hemisphere today would thaw. Such a temperature increase would release up to 130 billion tons of carbon currently frozen in the ground over the coming decades [to say nothing of methane and nitrous oxide].”
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-arctic-region-permafrost-free-global.html
“A large part of the western North Slope of Alaska with official forecast high temps over 90F today and tomorrow. This is borderline unprecedented if it happens.
“There are no weather stations in those 90F+ [32.2C] forecast areas though. So verification will basically be impossible.”
https://bsky.app/profile/climatologist49.bsky.social/post/3lt3eeminec2u
“Canada races to build icebreakers amid melting ice and geopolitical tensions.
“A rapidly changing climate has reshaped the region, reducing perennial sea ice. As ocean currents spin what is left of the gyre, chunks of ice now clog many of the channels separating the northern islands. Canada’s coast guard has an expression for this confounding phenomenon: less ice means more ice.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/04/canada-icebreakers-arctic
“Here comes the bouquet-less bride! Wedding flower shortage warning as Britain hit by driest spring in more than a century.
“Wedding flower growers have warned of a shortage after struggling with one of the UK’s driest springs on record… Yorkshire and the northwest are officially in drought as the UK has had its driest spring in more than a century.”
“ECB Warns of Impact of Heat Waves on Inflation, Economic Growth…
“The link between heat and key economic indicators such as inflation and gross domestic product is too important to ignore, according to European Central Bank Executive Board member Frank Elderson.”
“Germany updates: 1,000 firefighters tackle wildfires in east.
“A total of 1,000 emergency personnel have been deployed to Gohrischheide in Saxony and the Saalfelder Höhe in Thuringia, both in eastern Germany. Firefighters on the scene estimated the extent of the affected area to reach 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres).”
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-updates-1000-firefighters-tackle-wildfires-in-east/live-73152068
“Water level falls to record low of 19cm in Warsaw’s Vistula river…
“Data from Poland’s state meteorological and hydrological institute (IMGW-PIB) shows that the level of the river has fallen to just 19cm at its Vistula boulevards measuring station in Warsaw. That was less than the previous low of 20cm recorded last year and is well below the minimum safe level of 150cm.”
“Shipping through Hungary disrupted as drought hits Europe’s major transport route.
“Unusually low water levels on the Danube river in Hungary are affecting shipping, agriculture, and local ecosystems along Europe’s second-longest river, which is a major transport route across the continent.”
“Meltdown: Swiss glaciers hit annual tipping point weeks early.
“Glaciers in the Swiss Alps began to retreat about 170 years ago. The retreat was initially modest but in recent decades, melting has accelerated significantly as the climate warms. The volume of Swiss glaciers shrank by 38% between 2000 and 2024.”
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-meltdown-swiss-glaciers-annual-weeks.html
“Records in Europe from West to East.
“Record heat in Spain persists: Tortosa in Catalonia had its hottest July night in history: minimum temperature on 3 July was 25.7C [78.3F].”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1941088904150650915
“The Mediterranean Sea is experiencing a record-smashing heat wave.
“The most extreme heat event on the planet right now is happening not on land but at sea… [What the f*ck! Northwestern Mediterranean is now +6.21°C above 1982-2015 – Leon Simons]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/07/04/record-marine-heat-wave-mediterranean-sea/
“Floating nuclear power plants to be evaluated for Mediterranean.
“The American Bureau of Shipping, Core Power and Athlos Energy are to collaborate on the evaluation of the potential of deploying floating nuclear power plants to meet the energy demands of islands, ports and coastal communities in the Mediterranean Sea.”
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/fnpps-to-be-evaluated-for-use-in-the-mediterranean
“The warmest sea in the Mediterranean is in Sardinia: the island in thermal shock…
“The Mediterranean coral Cladocora caespitosa is showing serious levels of bleaching, the island of Asinara has been affected by 14 heat waves during the year, a national record…”
“Firefighters battle wildfires in Greece and Turkey, prompting evacuations and emergency response…
“A new wildfire in Greece prompted evacuations in coastal areas south of Athens on Friday, as firefighters in neighbouring Turkey remained locked in a battle to contain flames tearing through forested hillsides in the west of the country.”
“Wildfires Sweep Syria’s Coast as Drought Strains Fragile State.
“Firefighting efforts have been hampered by the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance left over from the civil war, as the country grapples with the worst drought in decades.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/world/middleeast/syria-wildfires-drought.html
“ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE WORLD RECORDS:
“MINIMUM 33.3 [91.9F]. Bunji, PAKISTAN 1470m asl is WORLD RECORD HOTTEST NIGHT 1500M broken by almost 4C [7.2F] margin! Mind blowing Min 34.8C Zarafshan lat 41N alt 420m is UZBEKISTAN HOTTEST NIGHT EVER. Insane temperatures in Iran and Pakistan up to 50C [122F] at 900m asl.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1941127356816478384
“Record-Breaking Night Temperatures, Heatwave Grip [Kashmir] Ahead of Heavy Monsoon Rains.
“Kashmir is in the grip of a relentless heatwave, with night temperatures hitting historic highs across the Valley, even as the daytime mercury surged past 35°C in multiple districts on Friday.”
“Torrential rains trigger red alert in Chengdu.
“As China’s annual heavy rain season sweeps across the country, CGTN’s reporter is on the ground in Chengdu, where torrential downpours have triggered urban flooding. With red alerts issued from Sichuan to Gansu and Liaoning, thousands of rescue workers have been mobilized to battle flash floods and landslides.”
“Eastern China swelters under early heatwave, threatening crops and industry.
“Sweltering heat enveloped China’s eastern seaboard on Friday, as a high-pressure system settled over the country’s most populous region, baking key agricultural and manufacturing hubs along the Yangtze River and raising fears of droughts and economic losses.”
“Record heat again in SOUTH KOREA! 37.8 [100F] today at Uljin ALL TIME RECORD TIED (=8 Aug 2013); Uljin had already broken its June record few days ago.
“Extreme humidity and record hot nights make the heat in Koreas and Japan deadly (much much worse than in Europe).”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1940770235956793563
“Unprecedented marine heat waves fuel fishery disaster in Korea.
“Korea’s coastal fisheries are on high alert as an early and intense heat wave has rapidly raised sea temperatures, triggering mass fish deaths and prompting government intervention.”
“AUSTRALIA WARMTH IN WINTER; not just South Africa, but also Australia is with unusual warmth.
“Today Kempsey, New South Wales had a summery MINIMUM of 15.2C [59.4F], the highest ever recorded in July (Port Elizabeth, South Africa, had its July Record High Minimum with 16.9C). In just 3 days July 2025 has broken more records than any whole July before 2024.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1940871766374785407
“Record cold grips Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.
“A polar air mass has brought record low temperatures to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, causing at least 15 deaths and forcing governments to restrict gas supplies and activate emergency shelters.”
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-cold-argentina-chile-uruguay.html
“Seismic noise from oil companies threatens Amazon River Mouth marine life.
“Petrobras has been conducting surveys since 2013 using seismic airgun blasts that can destabilize marine ecosystems… Blasts fired every 10 seconds, reaching more than 230 decibels, disorient and kill cetaceans and other marine life that rely on sound.”
“Ecuador’s state-owned oil company Petroecuador has declared force majeure after heavy rains affected operations at the country’s two main crude pipelines.
“Operations at the OCP and SOTE pipelines, which together have the capacity to transport 810,000 barrels per day of oil from the Amazon rainforest to ports in the Pacific Ocean, have been suspended…”
“Torrential rain completely covered the Querétaro metropolitan area [central Mexico].
“The downpour, accompanied by electrical activity, left significant flooding on major roads such as Prolongación Tecnológico, Bulevar Cerro del Sombrerete, Bernardo Quintana, Paseo 5 de Febrero, and Avenida Zaragoza, among others, in the downtown area.”
“Texas flash floods kill at least 24 people, 23 girl campers missing.
“Torrential rains unleashed flash floods along the Guadalupe River in Texas, killing at least 24 people as rescue teams scrambled to save dozens of victims trapped by high water or reported missing in the disaster, local officials said.”
“Landmark US study reveals sewage sludge and wastewater plants tied to Pfas pollution…
““We have an indication of very widespread problems and significant exposures that people are going to be facing,” said Kelly Hunter Foster, an environmental attorney with the Waterkeeper Alliance, which conducted the study.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/04/pfas-pollution-sewage-wastewater
“Wildfires Cripple Alberta’s Oil Production…
“This year, Alberta faced one of its worst early-season wildfire crises in recent memory, with industry officials confirming in early June that over 50% of the province’s oil production has been forced offline as flames swept through critical infrastructure zones.”
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Wildfires-Cripple-Albertas-Oil-Production.html
“As of yesterday, global sea surface temperatures are running about 3.5 standard deviations above the 1982-2011 average (first 30 years of data), and rank 3rd hottest, behind 2023 and 2024.
[Prof Eliot Jacobson]
https://x.com/EliotJacobson/status/1940794903891722326
“For the record, the [NH mid latitudes ocean temp heat] anomaly of 6.818 standard deviations in a normal distribution would correspond to an event with frequency of about 1-in-216 billion.
“These are not normal times. Collapse incoming.” [Prof Eliot Jacobson]
https://x.com/EliotJacobson/status/1941156650326626441
“With half the year now behind us, I estimate that 2025 is likely to approximately tie 2023 as the second warmest year on record (with a ~65% chance of being the second rather than the third warmest).”
[Zeke Hausfather]
https://x.com/hausfath/status/194076788567822775
“Countries must protect human right to a stable climate, court rules…
“The court affirmed the right to a healthy environment, and said for the first time that this includes the right to a stable climate. This means states have legal obligations to regulate emissions from public and private organisations.”
“COP30 CEO Calls for ‘Realistic’ Expectations for UN Climate Talks.
“The CEO for this year’s COP30 climate talks in Brazil used an appearance at a Newsweek London Climate Action Week event to manage expectations… “We need to be realistic [about] where the geopolitics are at the moment, and the geopolitics are definitely not helping,” COP30 CEO Ana Toni said…”
https://www.newsweek.com/cop30-ceo-calls-realistic-expectations-un-climate-talks-2094462
“‘It’s too late’: David Suzuki says the fight against climate change is lost.
““We have failed to shift the narrative and we are still caught up in the same legal, economic and political systems,” said David Suzuki in an exclusive interview with iPolitics. “For me, what we’ve got to do now is hunker down.”“
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24 dead in Texas floods and more than 20 children missing from a girls summer camp
HANNAH FINGERHUT and JIM VERTUNO
Fri, JuKERRVILLEly 4, 2025 at 11:53 AM EDT
https://www.yahoo.com/news/least-3-dead-jersey-strong-155355293.html
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Months worth of heavy rain fell in a matter of hours on Texas Hill Country, leaving 24 people dead and many more unaccounted for Friday, including more than 20 girls attending a summer camp, as search teams conducted boat and helicopter rescues in fast-moving floodwaters.
…Authorities said 237 people had been recued so far, including 167 by helicopter.
…A river gauge at Hunt recorded a 22 foot rise (6.7 meters) in about two hours, according to Bob Fogarty, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office. The gauge failed after recording a level of 29 and a half feet (9 meters).
….No one knew this kind of flood was coming’
The forecast had called for rain, with a flood watch upgraded to a warning overnight for at least 30,000 people. But totals in some places exceeded expectations, Fogarty said.
…The area is known as “flash flood alley” because of the hills’ thin layer of soil, said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which was collecting donations to help nonprofits responding to the disaster.
“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” Dickson said. “It rushes down the hill.”
So, Pan reported the above Texas article in his piece today..
FEMA Is Quietly Being Dismantled: Florida Is Just the Beginning!
310 views · 9 hours agoFLORIDA Katrin’s Taking
There’s a growing push to scale down FEMA’s role in disaster recovery — and that could change everything for homeowners across the country.
In this video, I break down what’s really happening, why it matters, and how it could impact your ability to insure, finance, or rebuild your home after a flood, fire, or hurricane.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kKF1yUfhE2o
Yes, indeed, perfect term..this changes everything
Thanks, Vince. That is very interesting re FEMA. I’m not totally clear whether this would ultimately mean less funding for people affected by disasters or if Trump is just planning to simplify the system and outsource responsibility to individual states.
Of course, a cynic might wonder if the new system will be tilted in favour pro-Trump regions. This article says that Kristi Noem is using FEMA funds (but not disaster relief funds) to build her Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp in Florida:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/27/is-alligator-alcatraz-detention-centre-funded-by-florida-hurricane-money
This river also had a flood back in 1987 after heavy rain. I saw people on the news that had lived there that long recall the disaster.
1987 Guadalupe River Flood
Actually, after watching that video on that page I remember that now. Those helicopter rescues were on the national news. That’s back when you watched the news on TV. It’s easy to find similar videos all over the internet now but back in 1987 that was big news and people were awed by the television footage.
å herregud!
You went for Norwegian in the end, Cassandra. 😎
Lots of our places names here on Islay have Viking origins. In fact, even the name “Islay” itself may be Norse.
“Islay: The Scottish Island the Vikings Never Left… the most compelling evidence comes from the genetic heritage of Islay’s descendants. Recent DNA tests have revealed a significant Norse ancestry.”
https://www.lifeinnorway.net/islay-viking-heritage/
I sold my company and got back into fighting wildfire in 2023 season. The contemporary fire behavior is amazing, like nothing I would have ever imagined seeing in the 90’s.
It’s all gonna burn.
I believe so. Horrific.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
– Robert Frost
I disagree with him. I’d rather go from cold than fire.
Cassandra, between the slowing AMOC and accelerating global warming, it is hard to know what fate awaits us here.
Jeez, Survivalist, what a year you picked! Only China, the US and India produced more carbon emissions than those Canadian fires did in 2023.
“‘It’s too late’: David Suzuki says the fight against climate change is lost.”
I’m glad he came out and said this. It’s really faaaaaar beyond taking the gloves off at this point, but I’m glad Suzuki did/said it.
Also:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2024/may/08/hopeless-and-broken-why-the-worlds-top-climate-scientists-are-in-despair
I think you’ve posted this before, Pan. But I reckon it’s a good re-post in this context.
It is refreshing to hear such sense being spoken by David Suzuki, although I don’t doubt that he’ll face accusations of doomism and defeatism:
“…we’re way past the time when we should have been thinking about adaptation… For me, what we’ve got to do now is hunker down. The units of survival are going to be local communities, so I’m urging local communities to get together.”
https://www.ipolitics.ca/2025/07/02/its-too-late-david-suzuki-says-the-fight-against-climate-change-is-lost/
The thing I particularly like about David Suzuki coming out swinging, is *not* the we all doomers apparently already know
(as in, it’s very probably too late re: climate change) is true, but the fact that an actual scientist abandoned “hedging language” whereupon words like “could” and “suggests” and “this may lead to” were abandoned.
Suzuki went full ‘mask off’ and dropped few F-bombs. Go bulldog aggressive.
The majority of scientists (including climate ones) inherently use ‘hedging language’ and that is what I was taught to use at university back in the day.
Suzuki coming out aggressively with “Street” language hostility, and swinging at ‘em all, is rather significant IMO.
The gloves are off for Suzuki. And hopefully many other might scientists follow.
Not that I think it will make much difference or change anything. Just good to have scientists go from “hedging language” to almost full-on aggression because no-one with apparent power to possibly change things seriously is even listening to what the fuck these “Suzukis” have to say. And there have been so many of them.
Soz, so many grammatical errors and typos in my previous comment. I typed this while drunk. I hope my previous reply makes sense.
Don’t worry, James. Easily done. 😂
Anna Graham suggests a name change: Catalonia Toroast all summer.
If Suzuki actually believes that there was/is a “fight against climate change”, he should see the article Pan posted prior to his own.
There has never been anything even remotely resembling a fight; it’s been appeasement, accommodation and “acting” on climate change from the start.
CEO for COP? Con Environmental Optimists: heading up yet another one of Capitalism’s Evil Organizations to garner a CEO salary with none of that nasty accountability to actually produce results to worry about: “highlighting the connections between climate change and nature conservation” … Excuse me? Don’t you mean “highlighting the connections between climate change and nature’s decimation? Between Corporate Capitalism and deliberate habitat destruction“?
‘Despite strong global growth in renewable energy, EVs and other clean technologies, global emissions have reached a record high” …
I’m sorry, but emissions aren’t simply @ “a record high”, they are growing at an accelerated pace. & it’s precisely because of Clean technologies… which exist only in the land of unicorn-riding leprechauns … as they are all Plus Ones. Nowhere have they replaced fossil fuel incineration, contrarily, in all purportedly “clean” energy installations, the combustion of fossil fuels is accelerated in order to create the non-existent “clean” energy.
The poster boy for such linguistic legerdemain is biofuels: fossil fuels, as per the definition, “fuels derived from living matter”, are biofuels.
By simply calling them green, and using the same process that was used to replace coal with “clean” natural gas:
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/94a17f7e-6f77-4a10-bf32-f9c402a08faa_1170x1105.png
… the spigots of taxpayer dollars open wide to unleash a gusher of “investment” cash. Investment dollars provided by the public, the resultant dividend dollars flowing solely to stockholders of fossil fuel companies… or EV magnates who receive torrents of cash for making “green” machines built with tons of non-recyclable plastic that use an energy source so volatile it can’t make the voyage to market w/out burning up & sinking the mega-vessels in which they are transported.
If you were to concoct a plan in which humankind would burn its way through the remaining stock of coal, natgas and oil in record time, the build-up of an entire new energy infrastructure on top of the existing one would be the way to go.
Rob, the notion that there is an eco-friendly, reduced-emissions way of rapaciously converting the planet’s crust into ever greater quantities of goods and services is certainly one of humanity’s madder delusions.
As cynical as I am about the IPCC, the COPs etc, James’s article posted above reminds me that within those entities are individuals who care and are suffering:
““The big difference [with the most recent IPCC report] was that all of the scientists I worked with were incredibly frustrated. Everyone was at the end of their rope, asking: what the fuck do we have to do to get through to people how bad this really is?”
“…Camille Parmesan, at the CNRS ecology centre in France, was on the point of giving up 15 years ago. “I had devoted my research life to [climate science] and it had not made a damn bit of difference,” she said. “I started feeling [like], well, I love singing, maybe I’ll become a nightclub singer.””
Good comments, and good reporting. I’ll chime in with a little of my own.
And I’ll start with a riddle, since I said that is all we humans will have left.
What is “workforce housing”?
Answer at the end.
We live on the border of the little green US state, home to F-35 Bernie and the remnants of the back-to-the-land 60s movement, whose good works do include a long-existing Act 250, which has made corporate industrial corporations steaming mad in legislating concern for little things like land, water, air, community, wildlife.
Vermont, the Green Mountain state, has continuously elected a construction company owner/developer Phil Scott as. Republican governor, and now it’s open season on poor old Act 250, and all the little matters of life that go along with it.
So how in this age of climate change and and IPCCs do these corporate developers overcome Act 250? They get the legislators, the courts, and the town officials to permit massive new market-rate housing that needs no Act 250 in the name of the also very real “workforce housing crisis.”
So right next to a duplex we bought 10 years ago to house our two sets of grandchildren with very low-income parents, one of them staying long enough to get educated in a non inner-city school system, there are massive plans for twin massive housing “developments,,” promising incredible destruction for every form of living and life, including the mostly lower-income homeowners and residents in that lower-lying area, but sparing the multi-million dollar estates on the upper side of the mountain town.
And how does this bombing destruction of the entirety of that section of green Vermont get accomplished with official approval?
By having the state, no doubt at the command of the private housing developers, come up with a lying answer to the riddle.
It’s “workforce housing” if 20% of the units are reserved for the worker-slaves. Forget the 80% that is corporate market-rate rental – whoever sets the language owns the truth.
Sorry, David Suzuki, there are no ways for local communities to overcome the totalitarian power of fossil fuel corporate power.
Sorry Martin to read of this plight that fell upon your community. It reminds me when the ski industry took over Helen and Scott Nearing area
They eventually left Vermont in 1952 due to the encroachment of the ski industry and the increasing value of their land.
Yes, I agree with the concept you put forth in the last paragraph about fossil fuels corporate power.
Seems dollar bills have more votes than citizens
Martin, thank you for your report and sorry to hear of this creeping corporatization in your neck of the woods. “If you let money into the political process, it will buy it,” as Nicole Foss once memorably said.
Here on Islay we have a different housing problem – a chronic lack of affordable housing for workers, exacerbated by an excess of holiday homes, rentals etc. many of which stand vacant for months at a time.
Put a fork in us we are done! My neighborhood celebrated their own collective collapse last night. My news feed on every thing has turned into the green goo from ghostbusters! Its all green slime of insanity of humanity. As the censorship gets worse the news feeds look worse and crappy feeds of nonsense. YouTube and twitter have turned into the sewers of collective collapse like the real ones outside.
Heather, that is some vivid imagery. 😂
Perhaps we could also compare the proliferation of gunk-news and culture to the mutagenic ooze from the less well loved “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II”.
Love the ghost busters analogy. Anything ghost busters is great. Slimmer is a classic, and looks remarkably like a sweaty Peter Thiel answering interviewers questions about the slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Slimer somehow easier to warm to than Mr Thiel.
We don’t need no steenkin’ Natl. Weather Service, FEMA or any of that there Deep State guberment.
Today I’ve been enjoying the death & destruction of the flood in Red state Texas. But Texas blaming Trump’s NWS for failure to warn of the extreme flooding & Noem trying to pass blame to Texas has been the most entertaining. Republicans who had losses of property, won’t be receiving any financial help from FEMA?
I can’t wait to see what damage Chantal will do to S.C, N.C. & Virginia.
One of the seven voices in TR’s head has been saying it’s too late since 1964, if this species didn’t control pop. growth.
TR, it may well have been too late since the mid-16th century when depleting wood resources got us English really keen on digging up coal.
Perhaps it has even been too late since we “ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge,” and the restless human conceptual mind began to trust in its own problem-solving brilliance rather than in nature’s providence.
From Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:
“This planet [Earth] has, or had, a problem, which was this. Most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small, green pieces of paper, which is odd, because on the whole, it wasn’t the small, green pieces of paper which were unhappy.
“And so the problem remained, and lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake coming down from the trees in the first place, and some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no-one should ever have left the oceans.”
“ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge,”
We squandered that.
“Are we experiencing peak stupidity yet, or is there more to come?” –
William_Tree7
TR ..more is to come..
Landmark US study reveals sewage sludge and wastewater plants tied to Pfas pollution
New study finds troubling levels of Pfas near wastewater plants and sludge sites in 19 states
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/04/pfas-pollution-sewage-wastewater
The largest increase around a field on which sewage sludge was spread was found in the Dragoon Creek near Spokane, Washington, where total Pfas levels jumped from about 0.63 ppt to about 33ppt, an increase of over 5,100%.
The EPA has long resisted calls to ban the spreading of sewage sludge on agricultural fields, though a 2024 lawsuit that alleges Clean Water Act violations could force some regulatory action. The Trump administration has scrapped the rulemaking process for industrial discharges of Pfas that Joe Biden’s EPA began. That would have forced treatment plants to rein in their pollution.
Pfas are a class of about 15,000 compounds that are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, and accumulate in the human body and environment. The chemicals are linked to a range of serious health problems like cancer, liver disease, kidney issues, high cholesterol, birth defects and decreased immunity.
Sludge is a mix of human and industrial waste that is a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process
If we are ingesting a lot of anti-stick chemicals, no one should have constipation. This could also be the reason things slip my mind.
That’s funny, TR. I’m old enuf to remember Olestra, which, thnx to rules for labeling, had to warn consumers, “May cause anal leakage”.
Folks still bought ‘em.
Peak stupidity: When you know you shouldn’t look, but do anyway.
One thing i will be glad to see collapse is the cruise industry. After going on my first and last cruise this summer, i can say its totally insane industry. Its totally escapism at its worse. People who go on these all the time and even traveling to ports are nuts. I want to say traveling has sucks big time now. After college i went to england with a friend for 2.5 weeks and had a Brit rail pass. Now this has turned into drinking, zip lines and totally human insanity. Unlimited buffets with extremely overrated food and extremely overweight people. Then the cruise line nickels a d dimes you more for more crap.
https://www.msn.com/en-in/autos/news/uae-rolls-out-new-golden-visa-lifetime-residency-at-rs-23-lakh-india-among-first-to-benefit/ar-AA1I44RH?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=7a9a481cc9994264b8e5a0c5ceba8588&ei=18
Only a fool would pay a lot of money to have residency in the UAE. It will be as disfunctional as the UK is in 5 years. Yes that might be an improvement for an Indian or Pakistani farmer with a small plot of land. But they would not be able to afford the entry price.
Doing more with less?
https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/06/china-strikes-hard-chinese-satellite-pulverizes-starlink-with-a-2-watt-laser-36000-km-from-earth/