“World food systems ‘pushed to the brink’ by extreme heat, UN warns…
“Modern industrialised food systems rely on a narrow range of staple crops, and highly specialised systems that are dependent on inputs such as fertiliser. That makes them highly vulnerable and less able to cope with shocks, such as extreme heat, according to Molly Anderson, professor of food studies at Middlebury College in Vermont…”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/22/world-food-systems-extreme-heat-farming-un-report
“Extreme weather a growing threat to democray, report says.
“Extreme climate events are increasingly threatening democracy, with at least 94 elections and referendums in 52 countries disrupted by natural hazards over the past two decades, a report published Wednesday said.”
“A catastrophic climate event is upon us. Here is why you’ve heard so little about it…
“Amoc’s shutdown is likely also to cause an acceleration of sea level rise on the east coast of the US, threatening cities. It could also raise Antarctic temperatures by roughly 6C (10.8F) and release a vast pulse of carbon currently stored in the Southern Ocean, accelerating climate catastrophe.”
“Northern Yukon island shows how thawing permafrost is transforming the Arctic…
“In early August 2023, long-time park ranger and Inuvialuit elder, Richard Gordon, heard a loud rumble during one of his visits to the island. It was the sound of hundreds of landslides that ripped tundra apart and sent it crumbling into nearby valleys and into the ocean.”
“Permafrost thaw threatens Svalbard’s cultural heritage and modern buildings…
“Svalbard’s landscape is underlain by permafrost—ground that remains frozen year-round. The overlying active layer thaws each summer, which can cause the surface to sink as ground ice melts. As the Arctic warms, permafrost degradation and active layer thickening intensify ground movement and related hazards, both on slopes and in flat terrain.”
“Extraordinary and long-lasting positive temperatures on Svalbard this April:
“10 days with daily mean temperatures >0°C. 4 days on which the temperature didn’t drop below 0°C at all.” [Daan van den Broek]
https://x.com/Daaanvdb/status/2046929550630621324
“Pollen season in UK and mainland Europe extended by climate breakdown.
““It’s one of those everyday indicators that show something is getting a little worse for a lot of people,” said Joacim Rocklöv, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Heidelberg and co-director of the report. “The suffering of people from these changes can be very large.””
“EU drought fuels decade-long trend, raising alarms over worsening land vitality.
“Drought affected 156,703 square kilometres of EU land in 2024. The measure tracks areas where soils have too little moisture during the growing season, which can reduce how well vegetation grows, Eurostat said in a release on Wednesday.”
“Central Europe demands methane regulation pause, citing gas supply fears.
“A coalition of five Central European countries—Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia—has formally requested a two-year “stop-the-clock” pause on the implementation of the EU Methane Regulation (EUMR).”
https://www.euractiv.com/news/central-europe-demands-methane-regulation-pause-amid-gas-supply-fears/
“G7 omits climate change from Paris talks to avoid US clash, France says.
“A meeting of the G7 nations on the environment begins in Paris on Thursday, but climate change has been left off the agenda to avoid a dispute with the United States, France’s ecology minister Monique Barbut said, citing efforts to preserve unity and focus on less contentious issues during the two-day talks.”
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260423-g7-climate-change-omits-paris-meeting-us-france
“Record off-season hail in Catalonia.
“The strong hailstorm that affected the Osona region on Monday afternoon was exceptional, becoming the earliest hailstorm with the largest amount of large stones – exceeding 2 centimeters – since records began in Catalonia.”
https://en.ara.cat/environment/record-hailstorm-out-of-season-in-catalonia_25_5714492.html
“MEDITERRANEAN HEAT WAVE:
“Fierce heat in ALGERIA with over 40C and Minimums up to 30C / 86F. In SPAIN up to 32.6C in the Valencian community with the summerlike heat expected to continue next few days… Casablanca Morocco, minimum tonight was 21.4C, th highest min. ever recorded in April. [Extreme Temps]
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2046988861277184503
“GULF OF GUINEA RECORD HEAT:
“Record heat are falling all over the world like never before and The Gulf of Guinea is not the exception. Extraordinary hot night at Natitingou, BENIN highlands with a Minimum of 28.6C [83.5F], by far the highest ever recorded in April.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2046572205228920953
“Environmental dimensions of conflict in the Lake Chad region…
“The Sahel is one of the regions on the planet most vulnerable to climate change, facing increased unpredictability and bigger extremes of high and low rainfall. Extended droughts in the late 20th century reduced water flows into Lake Chad so severely that its surface area shrank by more than 90%…”
https://reliefweb.int/report/chad/environmental-dimensions-conflict-lake-chad-region
“Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Nile: Why International Water Law Is Failing the GERD Dispute…
“Despite widespread recognition of foundational norms—such as equitable and reasonable utilization, the obligation not to cause significant harm, and duties of prior notification and consultation—these principles remain difficult to translate into binding operational rules in the Eastern Nile Basin.”
“Kenya’s drought-stricken elephants are desperate for help.
“Prolonged drought cycles, rising temperatures and intensifying weather patterns have left vast stretches of Tsavo West dry and overgrazed. Even after light, scattered showers, the land has struggled to regenerate. The result? Desperate animals getting weaker, hungrier and skinnier every day.”
https://animalsurvival.org/appeal/mwalua-wildlife-trust-drought/
“Massive Heatwave Grips Odisha [India]: Life Disrupted As Temperatures Skyrocket To New Highs!
“…The intense heatwave has paralyzed normal life across the state, leaving streets deserted and people struggling to cope. As the mercury continues to soar, health experts and the government have issued an emergency guide to surviving this blistering heat.”
“Why is Assam flooding while the rest of India bakes?
“This extreme weather shift, ranging from blazing heat in one part and sudden floods in another, underlines yet again the worsening consequences of a warming planet… Guwahati received a shocking 117.4 mm of rain in just 24 hours on April 20, the highest single-day April total in 75 years, beating the old record from 2004.”
“Heatwave, high humidity worsen people’s sufferings. [Bangladesh]
“Despite temperatures remaining within what is officially considered a ‘mild to moderate’ heatwave range, high humidity levels, ranging between 60 and 100 per cent, have significantly increased the ‘feels like’ temperature, intensifying public discomfort.”
“Relentless heatwave scorches Tarai, brings life to a near standstill [Nepal].
“People are struggling to cope as temperatures climb close to or above 40 degrees Celsius [104F] in several places. In Rupandehi, the mercury has been rising steadily over the past few days. Homes, roads and everyday objects have heated up under the relentless sun, making it difficult for people to step outside.”
“Nepal’s Wildfire Crisis: Can Biomass Help?
“…These fires not only devastate ecosystems but also pose substantial risks to human life and infrastructure. The escalating severity of wildfires is driven by a combination of factors, including climate change, land-use changes, and human activities.”
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/nepals-wildfire-crisis-can-biomass-help/
“Southern China has been hit by the strongest rainstorm of the year, with a maximum 24-hour rainfall of over 320mm [12.6 inches].
“Thirteen weather stations broke their April single-day rainfall records, and many rivers have experienced flooding.” [Jim Yang].
https://x.com/yangyubin1998/status/2046225249369526320
“Over 1,000 people urged to evacuate as wildfires rage in northeastern Japan.
“The first fire broke out in the Kozuchi district of Otsuchi at around 1:50 p.m., spreading to multiple buildings and nearby woodland. About 10 kilometers away, another fire ignited in the afternoon in a mountainous area of the Kirikiri district, according to police and other sources.”
“Erawan National Park in Kanchanaburi [Thailand] has temporarily closed all tourism activities and overnight stays after worsening forest fires and hazardous PM2.5 pollution levels exceeded safety standards, officials said on 21 April 2026.
“Park chief Phiphat Chimpli said the closure follows ongoing forest fire and haze conditions in the area…”
“Underground pollution is threatening the Philippines’ corals…
“In many coastal areas of the Philippines, harmful algal blooms – commonly known as “red tides” – have become increasingly frequent, with over 44 distinct coastal locations across the archipelago experiencing outbreaks since the first major bloom was recorded in 1983.”
https://dialogue.earth/en/pollution/underground-pollution-is-threatening-the-philippines-corals/
“Indonesia orangutan forest cleared for ‘carbon-neutral’ packaging firm…
“Experts and locals blame the plantations that supplied Asia Symbol for destroying their livelihoods and causing flooding, wildlife loss and land disputes. “My eyes well up remembering how it was,” local village leader Agau told AFP, describing the devastation in Central Kalimantan.”
“Body of New Zealand man swept away by floods found, as Wellington recovers after widespread damage…
“Wellington was placed under a rare state of emergency on Monday after the city experienced rainfall totals that nearly tripled monthly averages. More than 70mm of rain fell in one hour in parts of southern Wellington – the highest on record for the city, Metservice said.”
“The development of El Niño has progressed rapidly.
“Waters in the subsurface Pacific Ocean have now reached a gaudy 6˚C (11˚F) above average. This warmth is rising toward the ocean’s surface and aligns with projections of a super El Niño later this year.”
https://x.com/BenNollWeather/status/2046967274175918548
“Geoengineering could protect Amazon rainforest from climate change…
“Co-author Professor Peter Cox, Director of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute, said, “Surprisingly, in these three scenarios, we find that the Amazon rainforest is most productive in the scenario with Stratospheric aerosol injection geoengineering.”
https://phys.org/news/2026-04-geoengineering-amazon-rainforest-climate.html
“Record heat again in GUYANA:
“Lethem, near the Brazilian border, had minimum temperatures up to 25.8C [78.4F] these days, the record April hottest night. Lethem has broken records each month of 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2046948947542122502
“Wildfires burning across Georgia and Florida destroy homes and force evacuations.
“The Georgia forestry commission issued its first mandatory burn ban in the state’s history, effective across 91 counties in the lower half of the state, due to worsening drought conditions and rising wildfire activity.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/22/georgia-florida-wildfires
“Northeast flower and fruit farmers grapple with whiplash weather.
“An abrupt swing from hot weather to cold across the Northeast is frustrating some flower and fruit farmers who have had to either harvest blooms extra early or fear they could lose some crops altogether.”
“Tariffs, war, and now a historic drought have converged into a ‘perfect storm’ for U.S. farmers and food prices.
“American farmers entered the spring planting season knowing fertilizer would be more expensive, fuel would be costly, and labor would be short. With the growing season now in full swing, they can add a record-setting drought and scarce water supplies to that list of headaches.”
https://fortune.com/2026/04/21/farmers-perfect-storm-drought-fertilizer-fuel-prices-tariffs/
“Utah, other states rush to approve plan to send Flaming Gorge water to Lake Powell as crisis looms.
“Utah and other Upper Basin states gave their reluctant support for the federal government to release an unprecedented amount of water from Flaming Gorge to bolster Lake Powell, which could fall below hydropower-generating levels as soon as August, forecasts show.”
https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2026/04/22/colorado-river-states-approve/
“Hottest March on record brings on “fast and short” California cherry season…
“The source of concern is California’s increasingly volatile weather. According to the U.S. National Weather Service, March 2026 was the hottest on record across the San Joaquin Valley, where the majority of the state’s cherries are grown.”
“An intense marine heat wave has California in its crosshairs, with impacts set for land and sea.
“Something unusual and with far-reaching consequences is lurking in the sea off the California coast, stretching all the way down the Baja Peninsula and more than 500 miles to the southwest.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/22/weather/california-marine-heat-wave-climate
“Oregon gray whale strandings raise alarm of die-off.
“Many of the whales appeared upon necropsy to be emaciated, meaning they did not get enough food during last summer’s feeding session, Michael Milstein, a spokesperson with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told OPB.”
https://www.axios.com/local/portland/2026/04/22/gray-whales-wash-ashore-west-coast-die-off-risk
“New Record: Wettest April on Record Says National Weather Service Boise, Idaho.
“Following a mild and warm winter across most of Idaho, April has brought a significant amount of moisture. Monthly rainfall totals 3.83 inches of rain so far, according to NWS Boise. The previous record was set in 1912.”
“Scientists forecast wildfire risk for species survival under climate change…
“Regions such as South America and Oceania are expected to face especially elevated risks of burning, Yang said. Fires in high-latitude areas of the Northern Hemisphere are also projected to increase rapidly in the future, although they’ve historically been rare in these regions…”
“Sustainable Wood Schemes Failing to Slow Deforestation.
“Between 2013 and 2023, the world lost at least 50 million acres of forest each year, an area roughly the size of Nebraska… Some forests were lost to fire, others deliberately cleared by loggers, farmers, or developers. What is striking, the study showed, is that countries with more certified acres saw no less clearing of forest overall.”
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/forest-certification-schemes-failing
“98 per cent of meat and dairy sustainability pledges are greenwashing.
“The food industry has made big promises to reduce emissions and become more sustainable, but a review concludes that many of the pledges are not backed up by evidence… “The authors convincingly illustrate how many of the industry’s claims amount to not much more than window dressing,” says Marco Springmann at the University of Oxford.”
“Why nature risk for companies is far bigger than deforestation.
“Although often overlooked, grasslands, savannas and wetlands are also being cleared at an alarming rate, according to new research. These ecosystems are just as essential as forests to businesses’ supply chains.”
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You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an “Economic” thread.
Great comments yesterday and lately, insightful and funny. Rain, George, VPK, Truth Wizard, Rob, Survivalist, jupiviv, Heather, Zip, TR, Ravi, Cassandra and others, thanks to all.
I’m wondering if any of you are following this Anthropic Mythos AI story? Mythos has triggered emergency responses from central banks and intelligence agencies globally, as Anthropic decides who has access to the powerful model:
https://tinyurl.com/59u7ny72
Like most announcements of new AI commodities, the selling points are advertised as a potential danger to something or other due to the enormous potential of the technology.
One Russian pro-Kremlin outlet called the model “worse than a nuclear bomb.”
That is a very stupid statement, which indicates this outlet might be a pro-Russia ‘geopolitical analysis’ youtube or blog. I don’t doubt this AI has legit applications but worse than a nuclear bomb?! C’mon Maine!
I’m sorry, what does it stand for again? … anthropogenic Idiocy?
Rob, nice. 😂
To me the acronym was always a veterinary term – Artificial Insemination – until the tech bros co-opted it.
Re Anthropic, I don’t use AI much but work has been boiling my brain today, so I thought I’d give Claude a go. It demanded my date of birth and a contact number for a verification code – and then was utterly useless, suggesting strategies that would not work, misunderstanding job descriptions etc.
Perhaps it has a secret, evil agenda to drive us all mad with frustration.
Obligatory final paragraph hopium in mainstream climate articles is dead. Long live final paragraph “adaption plans”, which are equally as vapid and arm wavy as the hopium.
Those nice G7 folks are going to come through this time, I just know it! We just might miss 10 deg C if we all work together!
Right. And surely 31st time’s the charm for this COP. Only a hopelessly jaded cynic would imagine otherwise.
“Turkey says COP31 will push for more global action under its presidency. This year’s UN climate summit will seek to turn past decisions into action.”
https://www.thedailystar.net/news/world/news/turkey-says-cop31-will-push-more-global-action-under-its-presidency-4156566
Svalbard, lol !!!! Didn´t the seed vault start melting after completion right away? And they had to upgrade it?
Funny how they decided to store the worlds seed library amid melting permafrost, just to make sure it doesn´t last.
Antarctica may have worked, for a bit longer only, though.
Me-need-more-brain, I know they’ve had problems with meltwater getting into the entrance tunnel.
In a different kind of irony, their only coal mine has also been flooded out. It’s being closed, apparently, although that’s more about to do with its lack of profitability:
““Of course, the environmental aspect of it was important,” Brede Edvardsen, vice chairman of the Norwegian Union of General Workers, told me. “But basically that was the right-wing government that made the decision. They didn’t make any money on the mine. That’s the real reason why.””
https://atmos.earth/political-landscapes/the-worlds-northernmost-coal-mine-closing-is-good-news-right/
“98 per cent of meat and dairy sustainability pledges are greenwashing.”
And the 2% that are not got lucky because meeting the commitments did not curtail profits. Unsurprising the cross section of circumstances and buyers that make this possible are inaccessible to the other 98%. So as far as I’m concerned, this is an indictment of the premise of climate mitigation itself, which is then greenwashed away as bad actors greenwashing their non-compliance with its flawed ethics.
Jupiviv, modern industrial civilisation is inherently unsustainable, so it probably makes sense to take any pledges of sustainability made within it, with a large pinch of salt.
The paradox of agricultural efficiency… increasingly depleted and fragile
The paradox lies in efficiency. By standardising agriculture, intensifying it, and feeding it with external inputs (fertilisers, energy, irrigation), you achieve maximum yield per hectare. That is rational within the current economic framework. But that same optimisation reduces diversity, exhausts soils, and makes the system dependent on stable supply chains and predictable conditions.
And that is precisely where the erosion begins.
The soil loses organic matter → less water retention → greater sensitivity to drought.
Drought → lower yields → more artificial inputs required.
More inputs → higher costs and dependency → greater vulnerability to disruptions.
This is not a flaw in the system. It is the system.
You could call it a form of “organised fragility”: a structure that remains stable only as long as all boundary conditions hold. The moment one variable shifts—heat, water availability, energy prices, geopolitics—the optimisation turns against you.
What makes it even more interesting is that the proposed solutions often follow the same logic as the problem: more technology, more precision, more control. While the underlying dynamics actually call for less rigidity and a broader distribution of risk.
In that sense, this is not a classic crisis to be solved, but a system reaching its own limits. Degradation is no longer a side effect, but a symptom of a model that has been pushed too far.
You can restore it, but only by giving something up: control, scale, or efficiency. And that is exactly where the tension lies.
Good analysis … (but I would say that, as it buttresses my assertion that industrial agriculture is mining disguised as farming). Ag is an extractive industry, and the world is quickly learning, albeit too late, that without the exogenous inputs, its yields collapse. The green revolution in reverse means that all the farmland that’s been destroyed in the process of enabling geometric increases in productivity means all that’s left now are desiccated plains, their remaining soil to soon become swirling walls of dust burying entire communities.
The US has blindly chosen to destroy its economy for the sugar rush of fossil fuel hegemony, even as the very foundation upon which said hegemony is built came into being as a direct result of the depletion of its conventional oil reserves.
The TrumPutiNetanyahu trilogy of terror has set the globe ablaze, while the rest of the world tries to put out the fire by throwing gasoline on it (hint: the “C” in “ICE” stands for “Combustion”).
It’s the wiled fires in more than a billion machines
that ignite the wildfires of the Anthropocene.
Thank you, Zip and Rob, for those interesting comments. Nate Hagens’ Substack post today had this alarming titbit of related info:
“What’s truly staggering is that roughly half the nitrogen in your body today carries a chemical signature from the Haber-Bosch industrial process, which makes synthetic fertilizer from natural gas.”
https://natehagens.substack.com/p/essay-oil-201-what-happens-when-the
Re degradation now being symptomatic of a model pushed too far, David Korowicz had this to say:
“The green revolution of the 1950’s-70’s staved off the risk of major famine by a deep integration of food production into the innovating platform of the globalizing economy. That macro-system turned fossil fuels into increased production through fertilizers, pesticides and machinery. It drove efficiencies through interconnection and economies of scale, and de-localization through packaging, additives and transport.
“It also enabled the more than doubling of the human population, each individual on average consuming more year-on-year, and habituating to that. The cost of the revolution, in greenhouse gas emissions and degraded fertility could be displaced onto a future generation. The green revolution could be said to have displaced and magnified risk into the future. That future is likely soon upon us.”
https://energyskeptic.com/2018/david-korowicz-a-study-of-global-system-collapse/
Brilliant, Rob! Anthropogenic idiocy = AI.
Bob Shaw Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Back to lurking…
Bob, I hope your move (Alternative Inhabitation?) has been a success.
PANO, Yep, now north and getting newborn sprouts in the veggie cold frame.
As I have noted much earlier: China moving bigtime into silver.
‐‐————-
“Chinese silver imports rose +78% MoM, to a record ~836 tonnes in March,” they wrote in an X post. “This is +173% above the 10-year seasonal average for March. Year-to-date, silver imports are up to ~1,626 tonnes, the highest on record.”
https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2026-04-23/chinas-silver-imports-surge-78-march-investors-and-manufacturers-scramble
———
Me: gold for big transactions, silver for the retail market & common man when fiat currencies are worthless.
Bob Shaw Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/04/22/oh-no-the-president-donald-j-trump-advanced-energy-and-intelligence-campus-is-in-trouble/
Thats not all liv golf is going bankrupt in saudi along with the line being scaled back and recently more forumla 1 races being cancelled in gcc due to the war. Trump losing more money. Uae needs bailing out now too. The iran war will collapse the entire fragile system now. Good luck tuis summer as travel gets worse.
The Climate Briefing: Oil and gas producers in the Gulf: a deep dive (part 1 of 2)
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/04/climate-briefing-oil-and-gas-producers-gulf-deep-dive-part-1-2