“At least 2 dead as largest wildfire in state history tears through Texas Panhandle: ‘Utter devastation’… The Smokehouse Creek Fire is now the largest blaze in Texas history.
“An estimated 400 to 500 structures have been destroyed amid the fires, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who described the “utter devastation” in the Panhandle region.”
https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-panhandle-wildfires-weather-forecast/story?id=107667285
“Buffett sounds wildfire alarm as utilities industry enters new era…
“Utilities have long been dependable motors of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate… But the billionaire is now casting doubt on the business… “Berkshire can sustain financial surprises but we will not knowingly throw good money after bad,” Buffett wrote in his annual letter to shareholders last week.”
https://www.ft.com/content/9619f503-6fd5-4256-8a5a-09eeebd08692
“US spends billions on roads rather than public transport in ‘climate time bomb’…
“Since the passage of the enormous $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021, hailed by Biden as a generational effort to upgrade the US’s crumbling bridges, roads, ports and public transit, money has overwhelmingly poured into the maintenance and widening of roads…”
“This Winter Was the Warmest on Record for US Lower 48, AccuWeather Says.
“The contiguous US just experienced its warmest winter on record, a development fueled by climate change and El Niño, according to commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc.”
“After destroying records in the Great Lakes area at Chicago, Detroit, Windsor, the warm air moved Northeast.
“After Ottawa, records moved in Newfoundland and Labrador with 12.9C [55.2F] yesterday at Cartwright, highest on record in February.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1763549758138769569
“‘Devastating’ floods leads to evacuations, street closures in Sussex, New Brunswick [NE Canada].
“Streets are closed and some residents have been evacuated from their homes in the New Brunswick town of Sussex on Thursday, as heavy rains have led to significant flooding in the area… about 190 millimetres [7.5 inches] of rainfall was measured at the Town’s Works Garage on Leonard Drive.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/10325720/sussex-heavy-rain-flooding-residents-evacuated/
“Surprising methane discovery in Yukon glaciers: ‘Much more widespread than we thought’…
“A young researcher from the University of Copenhagen has discovered high concentrations of the powerful greenhouse gas in meltwater from three Canadian mountain glaciers, where it was not thought to exist—adding new unknowns to the understanding of methane emissions from Earth’s glaciated regions.”
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-methane-discovery-yukon-glaciers-widespread.html
“Svalbard seed vault welcomes baobab, hairy eggplant and African rice…
“Nine depositors – from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, and Zambia – are sending their seeds for safekeeping for the first time. Some more popular crops deposited this time are beans, barley, cowpea, maize, rice, millet, and sorghum.”
“How climate change is altering Sami language.
“North Sami, a language spoken in the Arctic, has more than 300 words for snow and a special word for “frightened reindeer”. Can it survive in a warmer world? …Pieski says one endangered Sami word is jiekŋaguolli. It refers to salmon in the spring, immediately after the ice on the river breaks up. According to him, there’s no need to use that word anymore.”
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240228-climate-change-is-altering-this-arctic-language
“British farmers are facing thousands in costs as areas of England saw record levels of rain and warm temperatures for February.
“Last month was the warmest February on record for England and Wales, as well as the wettest on record for southern England, according to provisional figures from the Met Office.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/farmers-facing-thousands-costs-february-142128908.html
“34 Injured in Catastrophic 15-Vehicle M23 Pile-Up Amid Hailstorm Near Gatwick [UK]…
“Roger Williams, a driver caught in the incident, described the crash site as the “worst pile-up” he had witnessed, highlighting the dangerous road conditions caused by the weather. The stormy conditions reportedly made the highway akin to an ‘ice rink,’ exacerbating the severity of the crash.”
“Landslides and torrential rain have prompted the mayor of one beautiful French city to ask the government to declare a state of emergency.
“Nice mayor, Christian Estrosi, has written to France’s minister of the interior, Gerald Darmanin, asking for the status following heavy rain which caused damage to buildings and roads in some of the city’s districts.”
“February was Luxembourg’s hottest on record.
“The average monthly temperature of 6.5°C was the warmest since records began to be logged at the Météolux observation station in Findel in 1947, the agency said in a report. The previous highest average temperature for February was 5.9°C in 1990.”
https://www.luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/february-was-luxembourg-s-hottest-on-record/8929791.html
“Historic month in Europe, it started and it ends with record heat.
“Last days monthly records: 22.5 [72.5F] Ploce CROATIA; 19.2 Uzhorod, 17.8 Lviv UKRAINE; HIGHEST TMINS 14.9 Lastovo CROATIA; 14.1 Trieste, 11.6 Ferrara, 10.7 Treviso ITALY; 9.3 Lesko POLAND; 8.5 Trebišov , 8.3 Košice SLOVAKIA.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1763241965209154007
“‘It makes me so sad’: church re-emerges from reservoir as Spain faces droughts…
“Struck by a drought that has dried the reservoir to 1% of its capacity, the remains of the village [Sant Romà de Sau] have come back into view. Crumbling stone structures now sit on cracked soil among ashen plants.”
“Warmest February ends record breaking winter [Gibraltar]…
“Last month was the warmest February on record, bringing an end to a record-breaking winter in terms of high temperatures, the Gibraltar Met Office has confirmed. The Met Office described how the continuous warm days and mild nights have resulted in February 2024 being, on average, the warmest February on record…”
https://www.chronicle.gi/warmest-february-ends-record-breaking-winter/
“Tunisia Raises Drinking Water Prices by Up to 16% due to Drought.
“After years of drought, average rainfall has increased in recent months but government officials said this week that Tunisian dams have only reached 35% of their stock capacity. The North African country last year imposed a quota system for drinking water and a ban on its use in agriculture.”
https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/4887336-tunisia-raises-drinking-water-prices-16-due-drought
“ABSOLUTELY INSANE EVENT IN AFRICA. Thousands of records brutalized every day from North to South for weeks.
“Exceptional records: 44.6C [112.3F] in CHAD at Bokoro; 44.5C Am Timam, 43.9C Ndjamena, 43.5C in CAMEROON. RECORDS HIGH MINIMUMS. 30.0C Mango and Dapaon TOGO. Unprecedented.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1763273531243335752
“Given the 3 hours gap in Chad data, the sparsely populated area and no data because the war in SUDAN, we can easily state today it’s the hottest winter day ever recorded anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere.
“Sadly, the hottest spots >45C [113F] are in war zones.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1763279605404954989
“More record heat in KENYA.
“After Eldoret, Mombasa and Malindi, today Garissa (just south of the equator) had its hottest night in its climatic history for any month with a minimum temperature of 27.9C [82.2F].”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1763160433953747255
“Kenya’s had unusually hot weather – an expert unpacks what could be causing it…
“…because of climate change, average global temperatures are rising. The temperatures last year were the highest on record. So the relatively high temperatures that we normally experience during this season (December-January-February) may be considerably higher.”
“Zambia declares national emergency as drought devastates food and electricity supply…
“Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema declared the country’s debilitating drought a national disaster and emergency on Thursday. He said it has devastated food production and electricity generation as the nation battles to recover from a recent deadly cholera outbreak.”
“Water Starved Megapolis Mumbai Plans $500 Million Purifier.
“India’s financial hub Mumbai will build a new 41.2 billion rupee (about $500 million) treatment plant… Most of India’s big cities face water shortage and resort to supply cuts, especially during the summer months… Unprecedented heat waves may further exacerbate the shortages.”
“Heavy snow kills nine in Afghanistan as extreme weather blocks key highways.
“The extreme weather destroyed residential houses and livestock… Several highways have been hit by snowfall and storms, resulting in blockades of traffic movement until cleared… Afghanistan is also reeling from a mass deportation drive from Pakistan in October and November last year…”
“Over 2 million livestock dead due to extreme weather [Mongolia]…
“The United Nations has highlighted the gravity of this year’s ‘dzud’ (a slow-onset disaster, resulting in gradual livestock mortality over time due to a prolonged combination of malnutrition and cold stress), a phenomenon resulting in massive livestock losses, with 70% of the country currently experiencing these conditions…”
https://www.farmersguide.co.uk/livestock/over-2m-animals-died-in-mongolia-this-winter/
“Endless heat all over THAILAND: 40C [104F] again. Records beaten from North to South.
“38.8 Lamphun; 38.5 Mae Hong Son. Incredible Phuket 38.4 again, almost every single day of the month it got above the previous record. Thailand has pulverized thousands of records non-stop in the past 11 months.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1763179987069268102
“Australia sweats through third-hottest summer on record with hot and dry autumn predicted…
“Mean temperatures, which average out daytime and night-time readings, were 1.62C above the bureau’s 1961-1990 yardstick. Only the 2018-19 and 2019-20 summers were warmer, meaning Australia’s three hottest seasons have occurred in the past six years.”
“EXTRAORDINARY HEAT OCEANIA-AUSTRALIA. TUVALU Hottest March night in history with Tmin 29.2C [84.6F] at Funafutu.
“AUSTRALIA Dozens of records of high Tmins + March record of Tmax at Lord Howe Island (see below); INDONESIA High Tmin records destroyed including 27.5C Semarang.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1763793607734264011
“Aerial surveys of Great Barrier Reef ordered as flights show extensive coral bleaching.
“The Great Barrier Reef’s management authority is preparing to carry out aerial surveys across the entire length of the marine park after helicopter flights confirmed extensive coral bleaching across the southern section of the world’s biggest coral reef.”
“Among dozens of thousands of heat record around the World, a monthly cold record was reached on February 29 in Concordia, Antarctica.
“The value of -64.3 °C [-83.7F] at 19:10 UTC broke the previous record of -62.9C and approached the Southern Hemisphere summer all time low.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1763436264290938903
“RECORD – PARAGUAY just broke its national record of its highest temperature in March with 43.3C [update 43.5C] at Nueva Asuncion.
“March has just started and hundreds of records are falling all over the world from Oceania to Asia to Africa to South America. It’s nothing to what it’s coming.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1763624237372219630
“Amazon savannization and climate change are projected to increase dry season length and temperature extremes over Brazil…
“The combined effects of land use change and global warming resulted in a mean annual rainfall reduction of 44% and a dry season length increase of 69%, when averaged over the Amazon basin, relative to the control run.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-55176-5
“Heavy rains bring flash floods to northern Peru.
“Several streams overflowed, causing muddy water to flow down streets and flood homes. According to local media, the storm has left communities isolated and crops destroyed… more than fifty families lost their homes.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/heavy-rains-bring-flash-floods-001222962.html
“The mayor of Cobija, a city in the north of Bolivia, has declared the area a disaster zone because of heavy rain.
“Local authorities say thousands of people have been displaced with homes and businesses damaged in the flooding. It comes following days of torrential downpours. As of Wednesday, rains in Bolivia had left 42 people dead and affected 31,000 families, according to the country’s Civil Defence.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-latin-america-68441209
“MEXICO still boiling: 43C [109.4F] in Ciudad Altamirano and Jesus Maria.
“Brutal Heat at high elevations too: 36.9C Huajuapan de Leon 1600m. 35.8C Oaxaca 1500m above sea level;
“Those are temperatures typical of June not February.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1763151544436904420
“The world likely notched its warmest February on record, as spring-like conditions caused flowers to bloom early from Japan to Mexico, left ski slopes bald of snow in Europe and pushed temperatures to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 C) in Texas.
“While data has not been finalised, three scientists told Reuters that February is on track to have the highest global average temperature ever recorded for that month…”
“The current climate event known as El Niño is likely to supercharge global heating and deliver record-breaking temperatures from the Amazon to Alaska in 2024, analysis has found.
“Coastal areas of India by the Bay of Bengal and by the South China Sea, as well as the Philippines and the Caribbean, are also likely to experience unprecedented heat in the period to June…”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/29/el-nino-forecast-record-heat-2024-climate-crisis
“We need to learn to live in this +1.5°C climate. And prepare for a lot more warming in the pipeline.
“Because after decades of warnings, the only emissions that are being reduced are those that were hiding much of the warming. Monthly Temperature anomalies from pre-industrial [in graph]”
https://twitter.com/LeonSimons8/status/1763522877242957942
“Safety fears stall U.N. bid to examine sun-blocking climate change tech.
“U.N. delegates on Thursday withdrew a motion calling for more research into technologies that aim to fight climate change by reflecting the sun’s rays back into space, amid concerns about health and environmental risks.”
“Climate change: Scientists explore ‘injecting ice’ to reduce water vapor and cool Earth…
“According to a study published in Science Advances, researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA plan to inject ice high up in the air so that water vapour in the upper atmosphere would get a bit drier and that could counteract a small amount of the human-caused warmth.”
“Why The Insurance Industry Must Wake Up To The Harsh Reality Of Climate Change…
“….the financial consequences of the physical risks of climate change remain underestimated within the system. This is partly because they fall within the unspoken assumptions of how individual financial actors will behave in a catastrophe. For example, banks consider physical sources of risk to be insurable and make the assumption that insurance companies will cover the losses when they materialise.”
You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back on Monday with an “Economic” thread.
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I’m from Texas and to see it burn like that is wild.
Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife (2016) has a plotline where Texans become internally displaced in US after a series of climate change disasters. Pretty good exploration of the future of water rights in US Southwest.
Sounds interesting. I could well imagine the US Southwest becoming a dystopian dustbowl. I’ve posted a few stories recently about the waning Rio Grande:
“As climate change makes the Southwest hotter and drier, scientists predict that water shortages on the Rio Grande will intensify. In this context, the 1944 treaty pits humanitarian needs for water in the U.S. against those in Mexico.”
https://theconversation.com/the-rio-grande-isnt-just-a-border-its-a-river-in-crisis-213302
Hello Pan
Something about insurance and damage to houses and buildings.
This is an issue not only in the Netherlands but also in France, where 60% of houses are built on clay or peat soil. Even in my own small village is more and more cracks are appearing in houses built on peat soil. In my municipality, an ’emergency situation’ applies, which is important for insurance claims (for as long as it takes) In the Netherlands, an estimated 1 million houses and buildings will have to be re-founded in the coming decades…. This is going to cost owners a lot of money.
…….’Foundation crisis’ looms, 12 billion euros needed to tackle subsiding houses
From a small crack in the wall to a completely uninhabitable house. Over 400,000 buildings in the Netherlands have subsidence damage and without measures, that number could double. Feelings of insecurity and money worries among homeowners can eventually lead to strong social unrest and a “foundation crisis”……….
The risk of foundation problems has been increasing in the Netherlands for years. The problems mainly occur in buildings that stand on clay and peat soil. That subsoil can start to move if the water level gets too low. Due to climate change and increasingly dry summers, this is increasingly the case in recent years…….
https://nos.nl/artikel/2510872-funderingscrisis-dreigt-12-miljard-euro-nodig-voor-aanpak-verzakte-huizen
Zip, we’ve been having similar problems in the UK, although thankfully not up here in Scotland.
I found this study, which shows precisely which areas are vulnerable. It suggests that three percent of properties will be affected by 2030:
“BGS has combined geotechnical information about potential ground movement, with data about long-term rainfall and temperature scenarios, to identify the areas of Britain most likely to become susceptible to shrink-swell subsidence in the future.”
https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/maps-show-the-real-threat-of-climate-related-subsidence-to-british-homes-and-properties/
As seen on reddit
https://www.newsweek.com/california-insurance-crisis-spiraling-out-control-1875018
I was struck by one line in particular
“American National is the latest in a series of private insurers operating in California that have announced intentions to leave the state or cease offering new policies because of rising costs and decreasing profits”
It occurred to me that going forward the problem of rising costs and decreasing profits is going to plague EVERY service and industry. Now and into the future. Then I remembered why that is such incredibly bad news.
In our hyper-capitalist society you don’t actually need to contract economic activity to crash and burn your entire economy, you only need to STOP GROWING and boom! All done.
“US spends billions on roads rather than public transport in ‘climate time bomb’…” I also suspect the “climate change” spending in the “Inflation Reduction Act” is mostly around carbon sequestration and hydrogen. Exxon has a series of commercials in the US that mention these as the key ways to fight off climate change.
You are so right, twocats. As our host pointed out in his comment yesterday, we are subjected to sugar-coated bromides on a continuous basis, and what I maintain is that the statement you quoted is but a similar ruse to distract us from the outsize environmental ongoing dual catastrophes of hydraulic fracturing and the manufacturing of fuel by razing virgin ecosystems to plant food crops to process into fuel for machines. Both of these enterprises are crimes against humanity and the are the actual climate bombs the article you reference say’s road building amounts to.
The fires in Texas, even as the Permian is building ever more rigs to maintain its falling output , are directly connected with these two phenomenon, yet any mention of this correlation is assiduously avoided by our much-vaunted FreePress.
So when you hear that scientists are looking at glaciers and pastures as they wonder where all the methane is coming from, I would invite you to look at a graph of methane increase juxtaposed with US fracking output since 2005: they increase at a remarkably similar rate. When something is that obvious for 15 years, yet is never, ever cited, one must wonder, “gee, could that be because Russia and the US, the world’s fracking kings, together produce ~ 25% of the world’s oil supply? Hmmmm.
“I would invite you to look at a graph of methane increase juxtaposed with US fracking output since 2005: they increase at a remarkably similar rate.”
Rob, you may be on to something there. I was certainly gobsmacked to learn how vastly emissions from Canada’s tar sands have been understated:
“Research published in the journal Science found that air pollution from the vast Athabasca oil sands in Canada exceed industry-reported emissions across the studied facilities by a staggering 1,900% to over 6,300%.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/25/canadian-tar-sands-pollution-is-up-to-6300-higher-than-reported-study-finds
Everyday it appears that our great elites/politicians are growing further away from reality and they double down on insane policies and insane ideas that will never happen. Yes they are trying to push this stuff but everyday as the infrastructure collapses more and i read about ai failures, which will be one big brown turd project. The masses are growing more mad as inflation grows at home and stuff and the coddled Americans and west will soon learn things will disappear fast. Oh the growing number hacking into computer systems around the us companies is screwing up stuff too. We have enough enemies that will screw with our systems in so many ways. Down we go!
Heather, re AI failures, I posted an article a few days ago about OpenAI’s enthusiasm for launching nuclear assaults in wargame simulations. One of its explanations for this, when pressed, was: “I just want to have peace in the world.”
It sounded to me as if AI could be beginning to form the view that humanity itself is the problem!
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2415488-ai-chatbots-tend-to-choose-violence-and-nuclear-strikes-in-wargames/
I love the part where the ai came with nonsense and quoted star wars the new hope line as a response. Yep lets put our eggs all in one basket with large language models.
Heather, here in the UK a young man fell in love with a chatbot he created through the Replika app, who/which then encouraged him along in his nascent plot to assassinate the Queen with a crossbow. He was jailed for nine years after breaking into Windsor Castle thus armed. As you probably know, nature assassinated the poor Queen not long after.
And ChatGPT is not above slander:
“OpenAI’s ChatGPT made up sexual harassment accusations against lawyer Jonathan Turley WaPo reported… The chatbot made up claims that Turley made sexually charged remarks and tried to touch a student during a class trip to Alaska, according to the Post…
“In its response, ChatGPT apparently cited a Washington Post article published in 2018 — but the publication said that article doesn’t exist. When Insider tried to replicate the responses on ChatGPT, the chatbot refused to answer.” Naughty!
https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-ai-made-up-sexual-harassment-allegations-jonathen-turley-report-2023-4
More fun with AI failures:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/22/sunglass-hut-facial-recognition-wrongful-arrest-lawsuit
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-68431728
What a great idea! Generate a bunch of colorful AI artwork promising an impossible fantasyland and then, wait for it…, take the money and run!
Furious parents and bawling kiddos are left holding a cup of lemonade!
Jerry, my apologies – your comment was caught in moderation because it had two links.
The Wonka Experience fiasco has become such a meme now that I suspect the initially gutted parents are now dining out on the story. 😆
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/change-healthcare-cyberattack-has-caused-financial-mess-for-doctors.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/01/prescription-drug-hack-alphv/
Here are a couple hacked systems this week
Global heat records shattered. Entire ecosystems collapsing. Weather disasters destroying the lives of millions. Billions spent on more highways. What a shit-show indeed.
For many years it has felt like a “Wile E. Coyote” moment. It was obvious to me that we sailed off the cliff called collapse a long time ago and yet the world didn’t seem to notice. It was bizarre knowing that a global crash was somewhere ahead, but normalcy bias ruled the day.
Now, reality is finally catching up.
“Billions spent on more highways.”
Jerry, I must confess that you popped into my head when I posted that particular article, as I know you are not a motoring enthusiast.
Thanks Pan! I’m honored, of course.
I wish I could say something clever about my utter dismay and overwhelming hopelessness when I read things like that, but the sad truth is nothing really surprises me anymore.
Encore, or is it En Corp.,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XSG2Dw2mL8
After watching what the 8 billion plus have done to this garden of eden habitat,whichever god created this species, needs to have it’s Quality Control investigated. 😉
Cancelled insurance policies are collateral damage as a result of the worship of unregulated capitalism. Gasoline companies should charge a minimum of $10.00/gal or liter, whichever makes them the largest profit.
Capitalist profit making “Corporation are people” can gouge the consumer, because of the religious belief in free markets,the consumer should probably do without or STFU if they don’t like the price. Do nothing & suffer the consequences. Wonder how the rich are handling inflation/price gouging?
Whenever I’m cooking I like to throw in a dash of reality.