Huge thanks to this month’s sponsor, Kimberley Hare, Facilitator of ‘The Edge’ Retreat, and Author of “At the Edge: What is Mine to Do, and Who Can I do it With?” She was kind enough to interview me for this book.
“Antarctica’s tipping points threaten global climate stability…
“…these tipping points are interconnected, creating a risk of cascading effects. Melting ice sheets, for example, not only contribute to sea-level rise but also disrupt ocean circulation, which is crucial for transporting heat, carbon, and nutrients around the globe. Such disruptions threaten marine ecosystems, global fisheries, and food security.”
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-antarctica-threaten-global-climate-stability.html
“Record-low Antarctic sea ice in 2023 increased ocean heat loss and storms…
“Our results reveal that the 2023 Antarctic sea-ice loss has substantially modified air–sea interaction in the Southern Ocean and motivate in-depth analysis of the wider climate-system impacts.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08368-y
“Likely absolute record of surface melt extent and melt production is currently ongoing over the Antarctica ice sheet according to the MAR model.”
https://x.com/xavierfettweis/status/1869007021770670404
“Day #8 of setting a record daily low for Arctic sea-ice extent.
“Dec. 17, 2024: 405,000 km² below the previous daily record.”
https://bsky.app/profile/climatecasino.net/post/3ldlfipi4ys2g
“Trouble in Arctic town [Churchill, Canada] as polar bears and people face warming world.
“The decline, external is tied to the amount of time the bay is now ice-free, a period that is getting longer as the climate warms. No sea ice means no frozen seal-hunting platform.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yg344zz1ro
“The difference between the lowest and highest temperature in Norway Wednesday was 51.5C [92.7F]!
“Cuovddatmohkki in northern Norway observed the lowest temperature so far in Norway this winter with -38.1C. Wednesday night the temperature in Tafjord climbed to +13.4C”
https://x.com/VaerTorsten/status/1869498942498721880
“Hallig Life in the Climate Crisis [Germany].
“Flat landscapes, endless views, screeching seabirds in the blue sky. Cows graze on the salt marshes, and all around: the sea. A snapshot of life on the northern German ‘hallig’ or island of Oland. But the idyllic scene isn’t immune to the impact of climate change.”
https://www.dw.com/en/hallig-life-in-the-climate-crisis/a-70948300
“Flood warnings and alerts in place across Wales as heavy rain batters country again.
“Wales has recently been battered by inclement weather brought about by Storm Bert and Storm Darragh. While the weather has been drier in recent days, heavy rain has fallen in several areas on Tuesday and Wednesday.”
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/flood-alerts-place-across-wales-30617684
“PERILS raises storm Storm Boris European flood industry loss estimate 10% to €2.08bn.
“Catastrophe data aggregator PERILS has now raised its insurance industry loss estimate for the severe flooding experienced across parts of Central Europe in September 2024 due to storm Boris, increasing the total by 10% to €2.08 billion.”
“Storm Triggers Flooding in Southern Russia’s Sochi.
“Heavy rain caused a river to overflow in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, causing widespread floods in residential areas, media reported Wednesday… Meteorologists said one month’s worth of precipitation fell in Sochi over the past day.”
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/12/18/storm-triggers-flooding-in-southern-russias-sochi-a87383
“EU watchdogs call for disaster-relief fund in wake of Valencia floods.
“The EU should create a taxpayer-funded disaster relief fund and a publicly-backed reinsurance scheme to fill the growing gap for insuring against natural catastrophes such as floods and wildfires, regulators have said.”
https://www.ft.com/content/8a817c1e-dca4-4784-aba3-8cb414e23977
“Alicante bakes through the hottest and driest year on record [Spain]…
“…unlike the other three regions that are on track to record 2024 as their hottest year – Valencia, Albacete and San Javier in Murcia – Alicante has not surpassed its all-time temperature record in any one month. Rather, it’s remained consistently hot throughout the year.”
“Air quality is “extremely unfavourable” in the Canary Islands due to a supercalima.
“The Canary Islands are experiencing a “supercalima,” or severe Saharan dust storm, as the region continues to feel the lingering effects of the recent storm Dorothea.”
“Update on MADEIRA – crazy max. 29.9 [85.8F] Porto Moniz yesterday; MADEIRA DECEMBER RECORD DESTROYED after destroying that of November.
“Tropical nights tonight with Tmins up to 21.0C. Pure summer at the doors of Europe in mid December.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1868922644118249693
“AFRICA RECORD HEAT:
“Another December record in the Gulf of Guinea area was set yesterday in GUINEA ‘s largest city (by area): Kankan with 37.4C [99/1F],which beat the record of 37.3C which was set just last December 2023.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1869041930006646871
“Cyclone Chido deaths rise in south-east Africa as Mayotte toll remains unclear…
“Southern Africa was already reeling from a drought this year that had left millions of people battling hunger… The French president is due to travel to Mayotte on Thursday, with plans to visit a hospital and a destroyed neighbourhood.”
“Cyclone Chido leaves Mayotte reeling. Warmer oceans fueled it…
“With rising global temperatures, sea surface temperatures have reached all-time recorded highs. Chido was fed by ocean temperatures near 29 Celsius [84.2F].”
“INSANE RECORD HEAT IN THE INDIAN OCEAN – unbelievable 36.6 [97.9F] Juan de Nova Island is ALL TIME RECORD HEAT FOR ALL FRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES.
“Record heat in MOZAMBIQUE: Max. 41.9 Mocuba; Tmin 29.0! Dindiza.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1869448463848722938
“More than 1,300 Hajj pilgrims died this year when humidity and heat pushed past survivable limits. It’s just the start.
“Our new research shows the upper limits of human heat tolerance were breached for a total of 43 hours over the six days of Hajj. During these periods, heat and humidity passed beyond the point at which our bodies are able to cool down.”
“Hindu Kush Himalaya faces increased risks amid record glacier melting.
“Due to rising temperatures, record glacier melting has occurred in 2023 globally, including in Asia, according to the State of the Cryosphere 2024 report. How does cryosphere loss in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region exacerbate catastrophic hazards?”
“Climate change sees Nepalese farmers return to indigenous crops…
“Farmers like Adhikari are shifting to millet farming and preserving indigenous crop varieties in a local seed bank. It is because the production of high-yielding crops like rice and wheat is frequently disrupted by bad weather…”
https://www.ucanews.com/news/climate-change-sees-nepalese-farmers-return-to-indigenous-crops/107316
“Can China Shield the Biggest Uninsured Economy From Floods?
“Authorities are taking out citywide insurance policies to protect tens of millions of people from increasingly violent weather, but the program risks leaving many with inadequate coverage.”
“Vietnam likely to face potential for extreme heat in 2025…
“In 2024, Vietnam endured increasingly intense and prolonged heatwaves due to the combined effects of climate change and rising global temperatures. First heatwaves in early April caused temperatures rise sharply to a record high of 42.2°C in the northern mountainous province of Son La.”
“EXCEPTIONAL RECORD HEAT IN SE ASIA/OCEANIA – tropics are with unprecedented heat smashing record after record.
“Another brutally hot night with High TMINS: 28.6 [83.5F] Kolaka INDONESIA Hottest night in history. 27.7 San Jose PHILIPPINES and 29.0 Barrow Island AUSTRALIA hottest December nights.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1869638804182630476
“A critically endangered elephant living at a zoo on the Indonesian resort island of Bali was found dead in a river Tuesday after being swept away by strong currents following days of torrential rain, officials said.
“Molly, a 45-year-old female elephant, was found lifeless in a rocky river on Tuesday morning…”
https://www.barrons.com/news/critically-endangered-elephant-found-dead-in-bali-river-9c444f4b
“Perth to extend record for most 40C [104F] days in one year…
“Prior to this bout of heat, Perth had already registered 10 days over 40°C so far this year. This is the highest number of 40°C on record for a single year, beating nine days from 2007. This record could be extended to 11 or 12 days after next Monday.”
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/perth-to-extend-record-for-most-40c-days-in-one-year/1890219
“One of the world’s largest frogs lived with dinosaurs – it now faces extinction from humans…
“A giant frog species that hopped alongside dinosaurs and is considered a “living fossil” is now losing ground in its native Chile as climate change and human intervention damage its habitat.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/helmeted-water-toad-chile-dinosaurs-b2666453.html
“The proliferation of illegal fires in Trinidad in Tobago is affecting the country’s food security, with over 3,000 bushfires reported… during the 2024 dry season…
“Combined with global warming and human activity and the chance of dry spells, Adams said this suggests a worsening trend in bushfire occurrences throughout the country.”
https://tt.loopnews.com/content/over-3000-bushfires-2024-888000-crops-destroyed
“Wild temperature swings are coming the rest of the year [US]. Here’s what to expect.
“Periodic blasts of bitterly cold Arctic air have plunged into the northern and eastern US this December in stark contrast to the warmest fall on record it followed. But this seasonally appropriate air has been interrupted by periods of fall-like warmth…”
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/12/18/weather/temperature-forecast-cold-climate
“Weather whiplash in the Sierra-Cascade and the need to accelerate resilience…
“Winter began in earnest when an atmospheric river drenched Northern California with record breaking rainfall totals and dropped a thick blanket of snow on the Sierra-Cascade at the end of November 2024. This historic storm followed another record-breaking weather event in 2024—California’s hottest summer ever recorded.”
“Ranchers face long recovery after record-breaking Oregon wildfires.
“Many of the wildfires that blackened a record 1.9 million acres in Oregon this year raced across the high desert east of the Cascades, leaving ranchers wondering how they’ll recover after the grasses their cows graze on went up in smoke.”
https://www.axios.com/local/portland/2024/12/18/oregon-wildfires-cattle-economy-ranching
“Climate takes its toll on the ‘cherry capital of the world’.
“The erratic weather adding to the troubles of Michigan’s cherry growers is impacting farmers everywhere… By the time the season came to a close over the summer, as much as 75 percent of the state’s sweet cherry crop was lost.”
https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/climate-takes-its-toll-on-the-cherry-capital-of-the-world/
“Coffee prices are higher than ever. Here’s what it means for your cup…
“”My friend Sergio texted me and was like, ‘Hey, when you’ve got time for a call, we have to talk about next year,'” said Phillips, who sources beans for Anthem Coffee Imports in Kansas City, Mo. “There’s definite concerns.””
https://www.npr.org/2024/12/17/nx-s1-5228008/coffee-prices-brazil-drought-weather
“Cocoa prices climb to new record high, prompting fresh warnings about extreme volatility…
“The benchmark contract, which hit an all-time intraday high of $11,925 in the previous session, is up over 180% year-to-date. It comes amid renewed concerns about adverse weather conditions and supply tightness in West Africa…”
“As climate change threatens Christmas trees, the farming industry tries to evolve…
“”The Earth’s climate is changing to a warmer one. And like most of society and the environment, Christmas trees are not adapting fast enough to these changes,” according to the National Centers for Environmental Information website.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-christmas-trees-farming-industry-adapt/
“Weather Derivatives Are Booming in an Unpredictable Climate…
“As the world’s climate becomes increasingly volatile, businesses that depend on predictable weather are turning to financial products that compensate them when there’s a heat wave, a drought or an unusually persistent bout of rain.”
“When it occurred, 2016 was striking as the hottest directly measured year up until that point.
“Eight years later, 2024 will set a new record for the hottest year. 2024 will be ~0.25 °C (~0.45 °F) hotter than 2016.”
https://x.com/RARohde/status/1869385982241636741
“In case anyone asks you at the water-cooler today, the answer is: “Yes, the 2-year running mean for the global surface temperature anomaly is now 1.53°C above the 1850-1900 IPCC pre-industrial baseline, according to Copernicus data.””
https://bsky.app/profile/climatecasino.net/post/3ldlknryrrs2f
“Aerosols could be weakening summertime circulation in the Northern Hemisphere…
“They found that aerosols play just as big a role as greenhouse gases in the slowdown of wind patterns and atmospheric flow during the summer months. Changes in aerosol emissions can influence the strength of the weather systems by altering the flow of energy between land and ocean.”
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-aerosols-weakening-summertime-circulation-northern.html
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You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an “Economic” thread.
Helmeted Water Toads, I’m sorry we threaten you all with extinction. We suck.
If anyone asks you at the water cooler lmaooo
I do enjoy Prof Eliot’s idiosyncrasies. The on-line world of climate science and related disciplines can be a little dry.
Noticed the generous Kimberley Hare and a big thank you to her in helping keeping this site up as a sponsor this month.
Went to Amazon to check out her book and it from the description something to read for us all here.
…”
Our planet is in an entangled meta-crisis – including potential ecological and climate breakdown.
Our very way of life could be unravelling, and even collapsing, as a result. There are many books out there which outline all the evidence and science. This is not one of them – instead this book focuses on helping you to stand tall and face reality from a place of resilience, courage and clarity.
Today the dominant question many people are asking is ‘Yes, but what can I do?’. This book will guide you through exploring the SEVEN DOORWAYS people can go through to make a positive difference. It will help you to decide ‘What is mine to do?’, ‘How can I tell a story with my life that I’m proud to tell – no matter what happens?’ and ‘How can I balance the needs of the planet with my needs and those of our society?’
For most people, to find answers to these major questions will require profound psychological, emotional and spiritual inner work – see this book as your guide to accessing your wisdom through these momentous times.”
Writing it must have been very reflective and an expression of compassion and love…
Vince, Kim is a sweetie and, it probably goes without saying, I recommend this book highly.
She also runs very well-received four-day retreats down in Hertfordshire. I was looking rather wistfully at the photo on the website and thinking it was the sort of the thing I would probably benefit from attending, but time and geography make that a tricky proposition.
https://heartcommunitygroup.org/the-edge-a-4-day-retreat/
I know this has been on here before, but this is the NEW YORK TIMES..
Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen
Without insurance, it’s impossible to get a mortgage; without a mortgage, most Americans can’t buy a home.
From the article.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/18/climate/insurance-non-renewal-climate-crisis.html
The insurance crisis spreading across the United States arrived at Richard D. Zimmel’s door last week in the form of a letter.
Mr. Zimmel, who lives in the increasingly fire-prone hills outside Silver City, N.M., had done everything right. He trimmed the trees away from his house, and covered his yard in gravel to stop flames rushing in from the forest near his property. In case that buffer zone failed, he sheathed his house in fire-resistant stucco, and topped it with a noncombustible steel roof.
None of it mattered. His insurance company, Homesite Insurance, dumped him. “Property is located in a brushfire or wildfire area that no longer meets Homesite’s minimum standard for wildfire risk,” the letter read. (Homesite did not respond to a request for comment.)
Mr. Zimmel has company. Since 2018, more than 1.9 million home insurance contracts nationwide have been dropped — “nonrenewed,” in the parlance of the industry. In more than 200 counties, the nonrenewal rate has tripled or more, according to the findings of a congressional investigation released Wednesday.
Seems to me, the number one “investment” regular folks make is no longer a viable or valuable asset in our changing world…along with property taxes and escalating maintenance upkeep and replacement expenses, will see a deteriorating condition.
Right now some folks are skipping on their meals (maybe not going out to eat) to afford the mortgage payments.
I read a long forgotten title written from a journal diary of an accountant during the Great Depression and the same from his entries, real estate was a bad holding for the same reasons…
Yes, we all need a place to call home, troubling thought..
Buying a house in the first place is also becoming a struggle:
“ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property data, and real estate analytics, today released its fourth-quarter 2024 U.S. Home Affordability Report showing that median-priced single-family homes and condos remain less affordable in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to historical averages in 98 percent of counties around the nation with enough data to analyze.”
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/home-affordability-worsens-again-across-us-in-fourth-quarter-as-home-prices-keep-climbing-302335433.html
I saw this comment yesterday in which Luigi Mangione was refered to as the ultimate claims adjuster. That was pretty funny in my opinium.
Personally I do not care if the Health Insurance CEO Agent had a wife and kids, almost all evil people have a wife and kids.
Personally I do not care if US big shots are saying that what my friend Luigi did should be condemned- These are people that pay Israelis to burn Palestinian babies alive, or crush them under tons of rubble.
The US (and UK as well for that matter) big shots want to live in a world in which they can cull the rest of us and we are just supposed to shut up an accept it and are sip post to believe that is a bad thing to personally target them.
Hahahahaha they are completly warped if they expect everyone else to accept their grevious mistreatment of the rest of the non rich population of the planet.
It seems a lot of people feel as you do, Curt. Brian Thompson’s murder is the surface expression of a deep well of resentment and anger.
The Unabomber had, according to the testimony of dedicated anti-civ thinkers like John Zerzan, a detailed and informed critique of industrial society.
Yet his assassinations of selected targets he deemed completely guilty did nothing to stem whatever he thought he was combatting -industrial society, etc.
Luigi Mangioni was a typical Ivy League engineering student – incredibly smart in his technical knowledge, but basically illiterate on matters of sociology or politics. A Tucker Carlson fanboy despite the anti-corporatism of his manifesto – how’s that for incoherency?
His chosen expression of one CEO murder, like the Unabomber’s, will be a nice Flavor-of-the-Month Internet meme, and then be the basis of further repression to pad the overtime of police and security details.
Is the weight of corporate social power diminished in any way by the video-game murder of one particular CEO? Yes, it expresses “Anger,” but so what? Anger has no outlet in the doings of the corporate supersystem. No one’s angry about the holocaust in Gaza?
A few little PR stunts by the health insurance “Mafia” in response, but now they get to feel like victims, they get official political support, and the US healthcare debacle awaits its nitwit new owners poised to really, really start killing poor people.
Why didn’t Luigi target his own multiple country-club owning family? Why choose one CEO out of the tens of thousands of criminal CEOs?
No I do not expect any copy cat avengers any time soon either.
In the early 1990s there was a very dramatic political assassintion here in Germany. No one was ever caught for the assassination. It assassintation was directed against the person who was responsible for the organization that was selling former state owned East German Firms to western companies. There was a lot of anger in east Germany about how this was being done as well. But there were no copy cat killers. Most likely it was a former member of the East German Security Serivices that fired the shot. I say that because the Red Army Faction never claimed to be responsible as I recall.
But I have heard it said by others that the real reason that the US got out of Vietnam was not because of the protests in US streets by hippies but because enlisted men murdering their officers was becoming to common an occurance. If there was a trend of copy cat killers I bet then it would change things at least a little. But though people might have as much motive now to frag the leadership a peacetime environment does not provide the easy opportunity that a guerrillia war does which allows one to point the finger at other obvious suspects and as a secondary defence claim that the death of the officer was an accident.
School shootings became a trend in the USA. I will delude myself, because I want to, and hope that people who have a death wish a decide that as long as they are going to commit suicide anyways they may as well take a CEO out with them when they go. I mean I would not expect them to take a 3 hour flight or anything like that but I do not think that a one hour drive is to much to ask.
At this point there really is not much need to worry about a free trial for the person that they are going to assassinate because the chances that they are guilty of great crimes increases with their level of wealth and position of power. At this point since there are no doubt 10 million legitimate targets in North America alone a suicidal assassin can hardly go wrong. Not only that the assassin would be saving the turd that they shot from needing to expirience the horrors of hear term collapse of industrial civilization.
In a socially and morally functional society I would never support vigilante justice. But I think that western society has slipped out of that catagory at least 20 years ago. Well it was no doubt long before that but it should have been obvious to anyone with half of a brain that western society no longer was a socially or morally functional society starting 20 years ago. I say that because prior to the fall of the USSR there was a grand ideological conflict that was being waged. People could justify commiting crimes because those crimes served a greater purpose, preventing the victory of the hated enemy. What is going on today in the western world is pure class warfare and only the rich are fighting it. While at the same time the western leaders try to prevent those in nations outside of the western orbit from creating better lives for themselves. Some of those potential victims are trying to fight back at least.
“Personally I do not care if US big shots are saying that what my friend Luigi did should be condemned- These are people that pay Israelis to burn Palestinian babies alive, or crush them under tons of rubble.”
Yup. They don’t give two fcks about their customers, or Palestinians, Ukrainians….anyone except themselves.
https://guillotine.dk/images/gibbetold.jpg
Hello Pan
I’ve been following all your posts this week like this…. Well what to say
As you know, I have a page with millions of views a year that is about BAU. And sometimes there is a grain of truth and relief in that, in the inanity of the mundane
…..
Some time ago there was talk here about weeds among the pebbles….
Two years back, I spread 10 Big Bags of ‘cailloux’ over our car parks and access road. Unfortunately, nature got the upper hand again….
I understood that road salt would be a good solution. My questions 1) how much do you need for 100 m2? 2) how often do you need to spread this to be effective? 3) do it again annually?
It does not affect our flower garden, which is further away
I would love to hear your experiences…..
Ah yes maybe you Pan have a solution for this ‘wandering soul’
Zip, I am probably the last person to go to for landscaping and gardening advice but I wish you luck.
I can certainly commiserate, as Storm Darragh’s torrential rains sounded the death knell for my ageing driveway, which I must now get resurfaced with whindust; an expense I could do without!
Hello pan
I don’t answer all those questions 🙂 that’s what members are for. Frankly, I don’t interfere very much with the day-to-day concerns. I confine myself to a to a more or less accurate representation of the “news facts” Something like what you also do 🙂 But don’t hesitate join…. they surely have a solution to your problems.
Let’s put it this way the ‘dialectics’ of the messenger is not yet the solution to your everyday problems. The same goes for all your/our readers. That in itself is an interesting tension between the ‘everyday experiences’ and ‘the bigger picture’
Zip,
Can you provide a link to your blog?
Had to start somewhere?
You’re right, I think, but whilst many Americans view the word “socialist” on a par with c words then there appears to be little hope of them thinking it through.
In my opinion capitalism is damn good, but corporations that dominate markets and owners who treat workers like skivies are pretty awful and therefore we need checks and balances and strong unions (though according to Jon dos Passos they were a mixed bunch back in 30’s)
Sociology was a very useful subject, has it died out now?