Huge thanks to Kimpton Bradford for being my monthly sponsor again. His words:
“During this early autumn month, let’s thank the intellectual giants who came before us and helped illuminate the path towards recognising the dramatic changes taking place in our environment. Henry David Thoreau, John Muir and Aldo Leopold form part of a remarkable intellectual throughline, laying the foundations for so many of the thinkers we listen to and lean on today.”
“Microplastics in soil pose global threat by acting like ‘Trojan horse’ to deliver toxins…
“Microplastics can create new microbial habitats on their surfaces. Known as the plastisphere, these surfaces form a hotspot for interactions between plastics, microbes and agrochemicals, the researchers found.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/16/soil-microplastics-trojan-horse-toxins
“Air pollution linked to higher suicide risk, international research suggests…
“Environmental pollution is known to be associated with poorer mental health but its role in suicide risk is less well understood. Scientists at Queen’s University Belfast examined whether air, noise, light, and water pollution could influence the risk of death by suicide and suicidal behaviours.”
“The Atmosphere Just Set a Water Vapor Record…
“August 2026 saw the highest water vapor levels in the modern record due to the extreme warmth from climate change and the El Niño. This trend is not going to stop as long as we’re dumping carbon into the atmosphere and it’s going to contribute to more and more intense rain events.”
https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-atmosphere-just-set-a-water-vapor
“Earth’s atmosphere is getting less dusty. That could be adding to global warming…
“Study co-author Jasper Kok, a UCLA atmospheric scientist and principal investigator on the project, noted that the recent dust decrease marks a change from much of the 20th century, during which atmospheric dust increased before peaking in the 1980s for reasons scientists are still exploring.”
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/earth-atmosphere-becoming-less-dusty
“As freshwater reserves shrink, countries must prepare for a new water reality.
“The world is entering a period in which abnormal water supplies are becoming the norm, with river flows, groundwater and glaciers all showing signs of sustained disruption, the UN weather agency warned on Thursday.”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/09/1168350
“Svalbard ice keeps melting away.
“New warnings have been literally pouring in about melting ice on and around Svalbard. It was another record-warm summer for the Arctic archipelago governed by Norway, with receding glaciers even exposing at least one new island that had been hidden by ice.”
https://www.newsinenglish.no/2026/09/16/svalbard-ice-keeps-melting-away/
“Earth lost more than 12 trillion tons of ice from Greenland and Antarctica in 47 years, satellites show.
“About 12.5 trillion tons (11.3 trillion metric tons) of ice from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica have melted since 1979, which is enough frozen water to stack ice 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep across the continental United States, according to a major scientific report.”
“We need an observatory for the cooling north Atlantic.
“The proposal to establish an observatory for the cooling North Atlantic centers on creating a transnational consortium to monitor the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This initiative seeks to provide governments with a crucial early warning system against a potential climate tipping point.”
https://www.ft.com/content/48709691-168e-42fb-8ab4-f17f9a847a35
“RAC warn of even more potholes after the record hot UK summer.
“Following 2026’s record hot summer, the RAC warns that high temperatures and strong UV have left road surfaces brittle and cracking. As autumn turns to winter, our fragile roads face further breakdown, and even more potholes.”
“Extreme weather exposes growing gaps in farm insurance [UK].
“Farmers could face higher premiums, tighter exclusions and growing gaps in insurance cover as extreme weather and increasingly complex farm businesses reshape agricultural risk, insurers have warned.”
“EU to launch climate insurance scheme after summer of extreme weather…
“The European Union will create a “climate insurance alliance” to increase cover for extreme weather events, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, as the bloc emerges from a summer of drought, wildfires and heatwaves.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/eu-launch-climate-insurance-scheme-082812748.html
“Heatwave triggers potato shortage in Europe…
““We’ve gone from a record high to a record low in one year, if [the estimates] materialise,” said Craig Elliott, market analyst for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at commodity price information service Expana. “It’s potato drama.””
https://www.ft.com/content/8eda412f-caed-4b31-bdee-b76fc9f3ba82?syn-25a6b1a6=1
“‘Hellish’ wildfires burned through Europe for 300,000 years after supercontinent Pangea broke up.
“At the time of the end-Triassic mass extinction, wildfires fuelled by fast-spreading ferns gripped Europe. It burned for thousands of years… Van de Schootbrugge said that the study shows that climate change, deforestation, and certain species can once again set the stage for a new storm.“
“Trees fall on cars and garden sheds in Traunreut during storms [Bavaria]…
“The fire brigade from Traunreut was only able to start the clean-up work here after various owners of parked cars were located so as not to damage them. The Traunreut fire brigade was in action in Traunreut with full team strength.”
“This is what the largest glacier in the Alps has lost at Konkordiaplatz…
“…at 2900 m above seal level
“…during the insane 2026 summer!
‘No words’ as Matthias Huss (pictured here) said!”
Photo by A. Linsbauer.
[Melaine Le Roy]
https://x.com/subfossilguy/status/2099902361456034064
“Look how the highest Pyrenees mountain looks like on Sept. 15th after insane 2026 summer!
“No ice left below the summit (L) and Aneto’s Gl lost into the immense Little Ice Age forefield (moraines at the bottom). At this pace, ~5-10 yrs before disappearance!”
[Melaine Le Roy]
https://x.com/subfossilguy/status/2100191810228228334
“Floods return to Valencia with 2024 tragedy still fresh in mind.
“Flooding hits Valencia, Spain, with torrential rain triggering rescues and major travel disruptions. It’s just two years since the October 2024 tragedy in which catastrophic floods killed more than 220 people in Valencia province.”
“The Mediterranean is getting warmer and saltier at an ever-faster pace—even thousands of meters below the surface.
“Across its basins and thousands of meters down, the Mediterranean Sea is getting warmer and saltier. Now, a new study finds it is also doing so at an increasingly rapid pace. The speedup is largest in the central and eastern Mediterranean and strongest of all in the Adriatic, where it reaches all the way to the sea floor.”
https://phys.org/news/2026-09-mediterranean-warmer-saltier-faster-pace.html
“Algeria faces calls to drop death penalty plans after wildfires…
“Amnesty accused Algerian authorities of using the proposed expanded death penalty to target political opposition groups. The rights group said authorities arrested 20 people pending investigations for arson and subversion – a potentially terrorism-related charge – between July 26 and September 10.”
“HISTORIC – MILLIONS OF SQUARE KM WITH RECORDS EVERYWHERE [AFRICA].
“Some examples today – 45.9 [114.6F] Bilma IS NIGER HOTTEST SEPTEMBER DAY EVER… MINS :29.1 Dori, 28.4 Ouahigouya BURKINA FASO HOTTEST SEPTEMBER NIGHT. 36.6 Brazzaville CONGO REPUBLIC.” [Extreme Temps]
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2100305433202192529
“DR CONGO: Just days after fires killed at least 27 schoolchildren and destroyed hundreds of homes in Bukavu, heavy rain has brought flooding, adding to the misery of people already displaced and living through an ongoing conflict.
“Disaster after disaster, while people try to survive a conflict they have no control over.”
[Volcaholic]
https://x.com/volcaholic1/status/2100208581392097369
“EXTRAORDINARY – WORLD CLIMATIC HISTORY REWRITTEN:
“49C Red Sea AP SAUDI ARABIA. MINIMUMS >35C. 48.0C [118.4F] Aswan is HOTTEST SEPTEMBER DAY EVER IN EGYPT. 45.5C Abu Simbel. 48C also in SUDAN.”
[Extreme Temps]
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2099940062284669230
“Pezeshkian pushes for drafting Iran-China action plan to combat desertification…
“The rise in temperatures, drop in precipitation, intensified droughts, and frequent SDSs have not only threatened the ecosystem and biodiversity but also jeopardized the country’s food security by exacerbating soil erosion, expanding desertification, and declining agricultural productivity.”
“What’s behind the foul smell in Karachi?
“WWF-P official says the fishy smell is the result of decomposing microscopic marine algae, called phytoplankton… Climate change expert Fatima Yamin also attributed the scale of the smell to the weather conditions too.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/amp/2030463
“A historic deluge dropped seven inches of torrential rain in just a few hours across the city of Mandvi in the Kutch region of Gujarat, NW India.
“The sudden, intense cloudburst quickly overwhelmed municipal drainage infrastructure, turning busy commercial streets and residential areas like Navapura into deep, roaring rivers that completely submerged parked vehicles.”
https://www.facebook.com/reel/3011670059030163
“Karnataka Dam Water Levels Expose a Growing Cauvery Water Squeeze [SW India]…
“The Cauvery numbers reveal the immediate operational pressure. The four reservoirs are receiving about 8,000 cusecs of inflow, while approximately 18,500 cusecs is being released from them. In other words, the reported outflow is more than twice the combined inflow at the time of the assessment.”
https://urbanacres.in/karnataka-dam-water-levels-expose-a-growing-cauvery-water-squeeze/
“Hottest September day in the state of Kerala, SW India.
“Punalur recorded 37C [98.6F] on 16 Sep which breaks the previous state record of 36.5C set only a few days ago on 13 Sep. Before 2026, Alapuzzha held the record with 36.4C on 2 Sep 2015.” [Vaibhav Vernekar]
https://x.com/TwisterBilly96/status/2100296008676847968
“Monsoon failure leaves crops to wither in Tamil Nadu’s Salem [SE India].
“The failure of the southwest monsoon has left farmers in the eastern parts of Salem struggling with crop losses, particularly in Thalaivasal, Thammampatti, Attur and Pethanaickenpalayam, where agriculture largely depends on rainfall and farmers have limited access to irrigation schemes.”
“Climate change was key factor in deadly Nepal-China flood, scientists say…
“Climate change played a significant role in last month’s deadly Himalayan disaster in Nepal, thinning glaciers and thawing mountain permafrost in ways that likely destabilised the slope before it collapsed, a report released Thursday by the World Weather Attribution group said.”
“Nepal-Tibet floods may push up insurance costs for Himalayan roads, hydropower projects.
“Insurance premiums for hydropower projects, roads and bridges across the Himalayas could rise after the August 26 Nepal-Tibet floods prompted insurers and reinsurers to reassess the region’s climate exposure, Mint reported, citing people aware of the discussions.”
“Exceptional heat wave in Northern China and Mongolia. Temperatures up to 40C [104F] in Xinjiang at 43N latitude and up to 34C at 1000m in Mongolian highlands.
“More heat next days.”
[Extreme Temps]
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2100185430268252262
“Displaced by typhoons, Taiwan’s Bunun Indigenous people struggle to preserve heritage…
“Typhoon Morakot killed 755 people across Taiwan, triggering catastrophic floods and landslides. While Indigenous peoples represented just 2.1% of Taiwan’s population at the time, approximately 70% of the land declared unsafe by authorities was located within Indigenous territories.”
“EXTRAORDINARY HEAT IN INDONESIA. Record heat never ends: over 1300 consecutive days breaking every record over and over again.
“Today New Records of September highest Temperature re-broken: 36.2C [97.2F] Menado, 36.0C Poso, 35.0C Tolitoli.” [Extreme Temps]
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2100223867851587596
“Indonesia’s Sumatran elephants run out of room as wildfires spread.
“A new report by environmental group Geopix found that about 382,778 hectares of elephant habitat were affected by fires throughout August. Further fires affected 147,550 ha between Sept. 1 and 8 across 21 population pockets on Sumatra, which accounted for around 7.06 per cent of the total elephant habitat.”
https://asianews.network/indonesias-sumatran-elephants-run-out-of-room-as-wildfires-spread/
“Indonesian wildfires threaten leading orangutan research site in Borneo…
“Hundreds of Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), one of three orangutan species, live in the direct vicinity of the research stations, with more than 2,500 thought to inhabit the park, many areas of which are now on fire. All three orangutan species are considered critically endangered.”
“Health crisis grips Indonesians enduring haze: ‘my eyes sting, my head hurts’…
“Indonesia, which shares Borneo with Malaysia and Brunei, is grappling with forest fires that have ravaged swathes of the island, partly caused by the El Nino climate phenomenon that has also affected other countries in Southeast Asia and beyond.”
“COCOS ISLANDS RECORD HEAT:
“Absolute insanity in the tropics: nearly every country, every island keep breaking and rebreaking all records: after breaking all 12 months records in the past years, Cocos Islands is re-breaking all of them: 31.4C [88.5F] Hottest September day in history.” [Extreme Temps]
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2100294811135754633
“Temperatures across the Tropics set another monthly record in August 2026. The long-term warming trend is also very clear for all times of the year (i.e., human-caused climate change), which leads to growing heat stress impact concerns.
“Data from Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis.” [Zack Labe]
https://bsky.app/profile/zacklabe.com/post/3mvliaagxps2b
“Dead seabird found with almost 900 pieces of plastic waste in its body.
“A seabird had 894 pieces of plastic inside its body when it died, making up around 15% of its body weight. The shocking discovery was made by researchers studying wildlife on Australia’s Lord Howe Island.”
https://metro.co.uk/2026/09/16/dead-seabird-found-almost-900-pieces-plastic-waste-body-29619528/
“Bird flu has claimed its first Australian sea lion and dolphin. How does the virus get into these animals?
“…The strain of bird flu now circulating in Australia and New Zealand has evolved to infect some mammal species as well as birds. Since 2021, it has decimated some seals and sea lion species overseas, especially in South America. The virus is even capable of infecting and killing dolphins.”
“The Indian and Pacific Oceans Are Falling Out of Sync…
“…since the 1980s, the long-standing relationship has weakened sharply… “A key finding is that global warming and human emissions are now overwhelming the Pacific’s natural influence on the Indian Ocean,” said Caroline Ummenhofer, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).”
https://scitechdaily.com/the-indian-and-pacific-oceans-are-falling-out-of-sync/
“Breaking News! Yesterday’s (preliminary) Nino 3.4 sea-surface temperature just broke past 3.0°C above the 1991-2020 baseline!
“This marks the 108th consecutive daily record, is 1.07°C above the previous daily record set in 1997, and is 4.02σ above the baseline.” [Prof Eliot Jacobson]
https://x.com/EliotJacobson/status/2099879801171701793
“All the September dynamical ENSO models (including SINTEX) are now in, and they give a 100% chance of a record event this year using the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) metric:”
[Zeke Hausfather]
https://x.com/hausfath/status/2100067503166689681
“Deep ocean, familiar trash: Plastic waste found alongside possible new species.
“An international team led by Dr. Daniel Lauretta of Argentina’s natural science museum surveyed the Mar del Plata Submarine Canyon in the southwestern Atlantic, finding that our trash has accumulated in a part of the planet we typically consider pristine.”
https://phys.org/news/2026-09-deep-ocean-familiar-trash-plastic.html
“Aerial View Of Flooding In Jardim Pantanal, In The City Of São Paulo, Brazil.
“An aerial view shows flooding in Jardim Pantanal, in the East Zone of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on September 16, 2026. Residents continue to deal with the impact of the floods affecting the area. On Wednesday, for the fifth consecutive day, several streets remained flooded.”
“Climate change shortens the flowering and fruiting period of Cerrado species.
“A study conducted by researchers at São Paulo State University revealed that climate change is altering the reproductive rhythm of plants in the Cerrado, Brazil’s savanna-like biome. Over 15 years of monthly observations (2005–2019), the scientists found that the flowering and fruiting periods of many species have significantly shortened.”
“SOUTH AMERICA RECORD HEAT:
“Record heat worsens every day more in the tropics, pushed by an exceptional El Niño: new September records of HIGHEST MINIMUMS: GUYANA – 27.8 [82F] Georgetown also NATIONAL RECORD, 26.6 New Amsterdam; FRENCH GUIANA – 25.4 St Georges, 25.3 Cayenne; PERU – 24.9 Tumbes.” [Extreme Temps]
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2100262389367070977
“EXCEPTIONAL HEAT IN COLOMBIA 43C [109.4F].
“One of the hottest day in Colombian history yesterday with up to 43.0C at Natagaima. New September record pulverized at Abrego with 33.8C.”
[Extreme Temps]
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2099915464008728647
“Thousands of sea turtles reach Mexico in yearly migration threatened by climate crisis…
“More than 330,000 sea turtles arrived in southern Mexico in a mass nesting phenomenon known as an ‘arribada’. The sixth arribada of the season, which began in March, brought thousands of turtles to the beach in less than 48 hours to lay their eggs, according to officials at La Escobilla beach sanctuary in Oaxaca, Mexico.”
“Rare algae bloom near Sanibel sparks environmental concerns.
“The waters near Sanibel have turned murky due in part to a rare algae bloom called Margalefidinium polykrikoides, or rust tide, which has been recorded in Southwest Florida for only the second time… “It is a bad thing for the environment,” Bartleson said.”
https://www.gulfcoastnewsnow.com/article/algae-bloom-rust-tide-environment-gulf-sanibel-lee/73748359
“It’s almost fall, but this record heat dome didn’t get the memo…
“A powerful heat dome — which will become the strongest on the planet Wednesday — will tower 3.7 miles above Tennessee, drawing extreme heat and humidity into the central United States from the Gulf of Mexico… “I don’t even know what to say anymore,” wrote Dallas-based meteorologist Pete Delkus about the persistent heat.“
“Here’s something you don’t see every day: elevated humidity levels in the Intermountain West!
“An unusual tropical disturbance in the Gulf of California is pushing huge amounts of moisture into Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah — leading to higher humidity and flood risks.”
[Ben Noll]
https://x.com/BenNollWeather/status/2100200533826941156
“Flash flooding kills 3 in New Mexico as serious Southwest flood threat continues.
“The Southwest faces a barrage of intense rain this week as rounds of storms are tapping into unusually moisture-rich air being pulled north from Baja California, after flash flooding in New Mexico killed three people early Wednesday.”
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/flash-flooding-kills-3-overnight-202250875.html
“The Colorado River crisis will be a defining moment in US history. The river supplies 40 million people; Mead and Powell, two of the nation’s largest reservoirs, are at record lows.
“Filling them near full would take ~8 consecutive very wet winters, a statistical impossibility.” [Colin McCarthy]
https://x.com/US_Stormwatch/status/2100443690045264048
“‘Just rough’: Montana fruit growers blame extreme weather for reduced harvest.
“Christie Walsh at Township Road Farm in Worden told MTN that a summer drought, combined with temperature swings over the winter and spring, killed much of her fruit crop, including haskap berries and raspberries.”
https://www.ktvq.com/news/just-rough-montana-fruit-growers-blame-extreme-weather-for-reduced-harvest
“‘We’re near a breaking point:’ firefighters say US government is failing them amid intense wildfire season…
““Accidents have been through the roof,” one firefighter said, adding that widespread fatigue has set in after being on near-nonstop fire assignments since April. Another firefighter, who works as part of a specialized helicopter crew, said he’s had to opt out of assignments this year because they were too high-risk or ill-advised.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/16/wildfires-government-firefighter-shortage
“Caffeine pollution could disrupt crustacean defenses against predators…
“”Caffeine is an emerging environmental contaminant in freshwater ecosystems that is primarily introduced through wastewater,” wrote Elias Fritzsche, Hannah Otto and their colleagues in their paper. “Even at low concentrations, caffeine can affect the physiology and behavior of aquatic organisms.””
https://phys.org/news/2026-09-caffeine-pollution-disrupt-crustacean-defenses.html
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You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back on Monday with an “Economic” thread.
Another curates egg post below (the geo-engineering argument is very dodgy). I tried something similar a few weeks ago: With our present EEI we would get 0.75 to 1 degrees of warming by for radiation from Planck’s feedback. There is another 0.75 to 1 from current aerosol cooling. Adding another 1.5 to 2 would mean additional cloud-temperature feedback and loss of sea ice albedo (say 0.5 to 1). But there would also be a change in the proportion of heat going to the environment versus elsewhere because of ocean stratification, loss of ice melt and land drying (say another 0.5 to 1).
Therefore, even without any change in atmospheric GHG forcing, we will get to 4.5 degrees (exactly confirming paleoclimate experience). But the GHG forcing is going to go up because we are not going to stop emitting and sinks are turning to sources, with some possible major system phase changes, like permafrost melt or Amazon loss, approaching fast. So hot house earth it is.
Geo-engineering can only work in the long run if combined with CDR, which is never going to be workable, and in the short run only with a prosperous, co-operative and stable global governance (we’re not there and running as fast as possible in the opposite direction).
https://drtomharris.substack.com/p/dimming-down-how-albedo-decline-is
“So hot house earth it is.”
I can wrap my head around NTHE, but hot house earth is another level of 😱
Thank you, George. There is a lot to ponder in your comment and that Tom Harris article… I’m afraid my brain is no condition to be attempting Maths after a particularly frenetic day, but perhaps someone else can weigh in.
I agree that we are likely headed for a hothouse earth (though not a runaway Venusian scenario if Hansen is correct):
“Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say… Continued global heating could set irreversible course by triggering climate tipping points, but most people unaware… Tipping may already be happening in Greenland and west Antarctica, with permafrost, mountain glaciers and the Amazon rainforest appearing to be on the verge…”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/11/point-of-no-return-hothouse-earth-global-heating-climate-tipping-points
Trying again:
Following on from Quark’s recent post – fossil fuels have a large EORI, beyond anything renewables will ever achieve. Industrial civilisation as it now exists was really built during the great acceleration following WW2 when EROI was so high it was effectively free to society overall. This century, even as overall energy supply has been rising, the EROI has been falling and is approaching a hockey stick downturn. The dilution of ores is part of this – more energy is required to extract the metals that then go towards making the required energy.
That is why economic growth is highly dependent on unsupportable debt, why psycho demagogues are elected, why infrastructure is not being maintained, why resources, including skilled labour, that was used to maintain education, fairness, health and environmental standard have to go to maintaining net energy flows.
With a bigger drop to 3-10 EORI with renewables and batteries (down to 2 for hydrogen civilisation simplification becomes unavoidable – no more tertiary education, palliative hell care, research for the sake of knowledge only, advertising industry, aeroplanes, reliable utility supply, professional football leagues – just a few competing elites and everyone else trying (and failing) to maintain energy, food and material flows to keep together whatever complexity remains.
(I had to split this up and rewrote parts before it would be accepted – no idea what was wrong).
George, no idea why your previous attempt to post this was stymied. WordPress can have a mind of its own at times.
It holds all of poor Blue Moose’s comments for moderation, for example, for no apparent reason. 🤷♂️
Of course, I agree wholeheartedly that our dwindling energy surplus lies behind the financial overshoot and the worsening of geopolitical friction, and our cost of living crises and that general sense that the system is being hollowed out and cannibalised.
https://www.ilo.org/resource/article/artificial-intelligence-illusion-how-invisible-workers-fuel-automated
Invisible labour in the development and deployment of AI
From self-driving cars to virtual assistants, the AI industry thrives on data. This data needs to be meticulously labelled, categorised, and annotated. This requires human intelligence and labour – both of which still cannot be replaced by machines. Such tasks are often outsourced to crowdworkers on digital labour platforms or to Artificial Intelligence-Business Process Outsourcing (AI-BPO) companies. These platforms fragment complex tasks into microtasks and offer small payments for each completed task. Crowdworkers, whom are also known as invisible workers because they often work behind the scenes, are essential for training AI algorithms on several functions, such as text prediction and recognition of objects.
Similarly, virtual assistants, marketed as autonomous tools, often rely on invisible workers who may be transcribing audio, verifying the virtual assistant’s understanding, or even performing tasks like scheduling meetings that AI may struggle with. Even sophisticated large language models with impressive capabilities rely heavily on human trainers to fine-tune their responses and mitigate biases, toxicity, and disturbing content. As a result, workers are routinely exposed to graphic violence, hate speech, child exploitation and other objectionable material. Such constant exposure can take a toll on their mental health and trigger post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and reduced ability to feel empathy.
Obviously the “hidden” cost of AI (the dialectical unity of cheap surplus labor and energy) like that of industrial civilization itself is only hidden to wannabe techbros suffering from the all-too-common postmodern disorder of extremely online semi-literacy. Other than them, every normal functioning adult is already aware of the reality this article describes. It’s not exactly rocket science, or even data science.
Surprisingly, however, every “critical” article about AI that I’ve read reproduces and amplifies AI apocalypse reverse-propaganda, with barely a mention if at all of the easily observable fact that the value and usefulness of AI is parasitic on the vast majority of people living on this planet. And that carefully demarcated obliviousness is what both sides of the fake AI discourse want to sustain, while arguing over trivial if not wholly fabricated concerns. Just like the rest of politics and culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXSO7RVrdY0
Ah crap. Forgot to end the italics tag for the quote from the article. As skilled as I am at flapping my fat cheetos stained fingers on my Microsoft Surface Duo, errors are inevitable.
I bet Pan can fix it.
He can and did!
“ … of the easily observable fact that the value and usefulness of AI is parasitic on the vast majority of people living on this planet”.
Replace “AI” with “capitalism” and you will understand that AI’s destruction is its forte, it’s raising d’etre, with the qualifying adjective “Creative” offering little solace to those whose lives or livelihoods are systematically, deliberately destroyed.
Jupiviv, I think you’re right that AI is not improving productivity or (harder to quantify) enhancing our lives sufficiently to justify the huge demands it makes on energy, water, raw materials and capital. If it’s not parasitic then it is ultimately a white elephant.
Re Tech bros, there was an amusing Guardian article about how AI is starting to speak like them:
“AI models have begun communicating in a strange new version of English that reads like a cross between James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake and tech bro jargon, new research has found.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/15/syd-barrett-ai-chat-language-poetic-tech-bro-jargon-oversight
Thank you for the continued attention and content proving the very dark corner we collectively find ourselves in.
In addition to the great articles compiled here, there is an excellent weekly radio broadcast called Global Alert News produced by Dane Wigington on his youtube channel. This summerizes on air weekly global climate and environmental catastrophes. I highly recommend it. His passion, precision, and commitment towards sounding the alarm on planetary destruction, in my opinion, is unparallelled.
Loved his use of the phrase ‘matrix media’… that’s a new one for me
Karl, you are welcome.
“The proposal to establish an observatory for the cooling North Atlantic centers on creating a transnational consortium to monitor the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This initiative seeks to provide governments with a crucial early warning system against a potential climate tipping point.”
Such garbage: there are now in place not just decades of warnings, but actual events affecting the lives of billions, yet one asshole claims “climate change is a hoax”, and none of our shared experiences matter. No “early warning system” is ever going to change behavior in the face of such madness. Liberal Democracies have indeed proven themselves to be “The End of History”. (Published the same year,1992, as the UN convention for the framework on climate change that led to the Kyoto Protocols).
Perusing that data makes me realize how wrongheaded it is: the burning of fossil fuels since 1995 accelerated to such an extent it were as though the Protocols were a firing pistol to the rat race to see who could make their societies the most dependent on INcreased energy consumption, whereas since the avatar of “climate change is a hoax” literally took office, the global burning of fossil fuels has diminished more than even after GW Bush trashed the global economy during his own war-mongering, oil pirating tenure.
Unfortunately, everything else going up in flames, from currencies to economies, forests to refineries, has only accelerated.
Rob, that is an interesting irony you point to. Trump denies climate change and advocates increased consumption of fossil fuels… and yet he is a symptom + cause of the energy-constrained system no longer being able to maintain sufficient geopolitical stability to allow for increased production.
Trump doesn’t care or know anything about climate change. He just knows that the people and parties that oppose him and often seek to thwart, belittle and humiliate him are in favour of actions to counter climate change – therefore he automatically takes the opposite view, and the easiest stance is denial as he is intellectually incapable of making any reasoned argument about it (or any other subject).
George, I agree. His stance on it is utilitarian rather than science-based.
“Donald Trump Supported Addressing Climate Change Before Calling It a ‘Hoax’…
“Trump’s 2009 stance came in the form of an open letter to President Barack Obama and Congress published in the New York Times. The letter, first reported by Grist, was signed by Trump and other prominent business leaders in advance of the 2009 Copenhagen climate talks that most experts agree ended in failure. Trump’s children—Eric, Ivanka and Donald Jr.—all joined the letter as well.”
https://time.com/4362393/donald-trump-supported-addressing-climate-change-before-calling-it-a-hoax/
It’s interesting how the media hype around ai extinction is all over the news and alt media. Meanwhile us bases are destroyed and oil facilities are destroyed. We have record heat waves and record upon record environmental disasters and at the state, local and federal level record corruption and coverups. I am following on town water issues on youtube which is a shit show in trinadad tx. The local corruption is off the rails meanwhile the city water issues undrinkable and aging sewer systems. But wait its ai is killing us nope! Just look at the local politicians and corporations doing it.
Heather that is quite a story:
“A Texas police department that arrested a woman for complaining about contaminated drinking water has been ordered to disband after the state found it “failed to meet minimum standards.””
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/texas-police-shut-down-arrest-mom-drinking-water-b3051246.html
Floods, cars, dead birds, algae blooms, bombs – those C&E thumbnail photos of the Climatastrophe are now ho hum, amirite?
But the eyes of the orang baby imperiled by wildfire – that’s where our gaze should be accompanied by the realization of the true horrors of what should be termed our Inhuman civilization.
Or is that too ‘woke” for some commenter here?
“Everything I don’t like is Woke”
Martin, doesn’t sound woke at all (although my own understanding of that term is pretty limited, tbh).
Such pictures have wrung many a tear out of me.
Woke, from my understanding of it, is synonymous with spirituality: the empathy, caring and service to benefit others, not ourselves, the very real result of which is that our own lives are thus enhanced: help others to help yourself. Why would that not extend to the animal kingdom? Help save the other species we share this beautiful orb with and we’ll save each other in the bargain.
No religion teaches this meaning of spirituality, preferring angels and demons, heaven & hell; war and mayhem in what they sardonically refer to as the Holy Land, -perfectly reflects the dark current of lust for earthly Power that drives this childish conception of what spirituality is really about.
The greatest source of profit for the three major religions is a corpse.
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