Special thanks to this month’s donor, who wishes to remain anonymous. We agreed in concert that this splendid clip of a remarkably self-aware Golden Retriever was a good way to start these threads: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fZBVUJE4CuY
“Breaking News! Code UFB!!!
“The three-year running mean for the global surface temperature anomaly now exceeds 1.50°C over the pre-industrial baseline, as of November 8, 2025.
“Are you there, COP 30? It’s me, the Paris Agreement.”
[Prof Eliot Jacobson]
https://x.com/EliotJacobson/status/1987928834092708120
“For those enjoying the race to the bottom, Arctic sea-ice extent is second lowest on record for the date, as of Nov. 8, 2025, just over 100k square kilometers above the record low, set in 2016.
“<personal pronoun> <verb> f&%king <past participle>.”
[Prof Eliot Jacobson]
https://x.com/EliotJacobson/status/1987534023980392784
“Impossible to ignore what’s happening to Arctic temperatures in the month of November…
“Data from Cpernicus ERA5 reanalysis.” [Zack Labe]
https://bsky.app/profile/zacklabe.com/post/3m5ctx3grok2g
“Powerful blocking with record warm in GREENLAND Min 5.5 [41F] Nuuk, 5.0 Maniitsoq NOVEMBER RECORD HIGHEST MINIMUMS.
“An energic arctic blast will send freezing temperatures till North Florida…”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1987499397652074631
“It’s being an extraordinary warm November in Europe where hundreds of records have fallen from West to East from South to North.
“The exception is Italy, which is also the only country worldwide which hasn’t broken a single heat record in the whole current season. Map by Dr. Maue.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1988131345412084042
“NOVEMBER SUMMER IN EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN: UNPRECEDENTED heat continues with 32C again in TURKEY and 31C in Cyprus.
“10 days of November ALL >30C / 86F] in Turkey and 10 nights of November ALL with tropical nights.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1987855108596703503
“Severe Storms Flood Western Greece and Cause Damage.
“Greece is facing another day of intense storms and flooding, after torrential rain swept through parts of the country on Sunday, turning streets into rivers and damaging homes and vehicles in several regions.”
https://www.tovima.com/society/severe-storms-flood-western-greece-and-cause-damage/
“Three dead and 15 hurt after rough seas pull people into the ocean in Tenerife.
“Emergency services said on social media that several people fell into the water after a sudden tidal surge. An unexpectedly high wave crashed into a pier, dragging people into the ocean. Three people were seriously injured and treated in hospital.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/09/rough-seas-pull-people-into-the-ocean-in-tenerife
“Abnormal freak heat continues in SENEGAL. Probably the most abnormal weather worldwide.
“Coastal Senegal these months weather is unrecognizable:24/7 hot and humid like never before in 140+ years. Minimum was 27.9C [82.2F] a Dakar tonight. Only Colombia had warmer nights in the Hemisphere.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1987901837392118122
“SOUTH AFRICA RECORD HEAT – overheated berg winds on the coast of Western Cape with temperatures up to 42C [107.6F] and records of hot nights as well:
“NOVEMBER RECORDS: Molteno min 22.5 max 36.3, Min 20.6 Langebaanweg – First tropical night in spring, Min 19.2 Lamberts Bay.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1987104986208366984
“Amnesty accuses Somalia of neglecting drought victims.
“Somali authorities and the international community have repeatedly failed to protect thousands of people from drought-affected communities in southern Somalia, exposing them to violations of their rights to food, water, family, health and life, Amnesty International said in a new report.”
“Troubled waters: Why is a Nile dam causing such tension?
“…“There have been multiple agreements on the Nile, and Ethiopia keeps breaking them,” professor of geology and water resources at Cairo University and a prominent critic of the GERD Abbas Sharaky told Euronews.”
https://www.euronews.com/2025/11/11/troubled-waters-why-is-a-nile-dam-causing-such-tension
“UAE turns to cloud seeding as water scarcity challenges grow…
“The UAE’s programme currently employs 10 pilots and four Beechcraft King Air C90 aircraft, ready to launch whenever suitable clouds form. “Whenever we have the opportunity… we don’t usually miss any opportunity,” Mazrouei told the Financial Times.”
https://borna.news/en/news/2311/uae-turns-to-cloud-seeding-as-water-scarcity-challenges-grow
“Forest fire nearing homes in Yarka; dozens of firefighting squads battling blazes [Israel].
“Dozens of firefighting squads are trying to extinguish a forest fire that broke out in the north near the town of Yarka and is quickly approaching residents’ homes. The 24 squads are being assisted by JNF-KKL firefighters and four firefighting planes, the agency adds.”
“Syria battles uncontrolled forest fires in coastal mountains.
“…years of conflict have left many areas with limited emergency infrastructure, making containment efforts more difficult. Forested and agricultural areas in Latakia are especially vulnerable during the summer months, and the growing frequency of wildfires has raised concerns about environmental and economic losses in rural communities.”
“‘I would give all my life for my brother to come back for one second’.” [fires, Iraq]
“Unfortunately, every year we have one fire after another. If we continue like this, in a few years, we will lose all the trees and forests here. We have these beautiful forests and mountains, but if you go south, like towards Kirkuk, you can tell that the climate is changing.”
“The Middle East is running dry as water scarcity threatens millions…
“An estimated 150,000 people in Iraq have already been displaced by drought and water shortages, mainly in the central and southern regions, and the numbers are expected to rise. Across the Middle East, extreme heat, prolonged drought, and shrinking water supplies are making life increasingly difficult.”
“Tehran’s water could be cut off at night amid ongoing drought.
“Iran is experiencing severe nationwide water shortages, endangering over 16 million people as record-low rainfall has left reservoirs critically empty… Energy Minister Abbas Ali Abadi indicated that water supplies could be cut off at night and excessive consumption penalised, attributing the crisis partly to old infrastructure leakage.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/tehran-drought-iran-water-supply-b2862177.html
“Severe water shortage leaves Zabul [Afghanistan] residents facing dire conditions.
“Residents of Khak Afghan district in Afghanistan’s southern Zabul Province say they are facing an acute shortage of clean drinking water, forcing them to walk for hours each day just to collect a few liters… climate change and years of drought have depleted both underground water reserves and agricultural irrigation sources.”
“Kashmir’s glaciers are melting – and water is running out.
“Glaciers in Kashmir are shrinking fast – and it is wreaking havoc on ecosystems. Record heat, cracked rice fields, drying streams and stressed ecosystems are putting communities under pressure. Scientists warn that if this continues, it could mean devastating water shortages for millions.”
“Today, 16 stations across China broke records (2 for Tmax and 14 for Tmin), with Zhenkang 30.6C [87.1F] and Shidian 27C, both breaking November records.
“Temperatures will continue to rise along China’s southeast coast tomorrow, with some areas potentially breaking records!” [JIm Yang]
https://x.com/yangyubin1998/status/1987158511814619539
“EAST ASIA EXCEPTIONAL HEAT. Record heat continues all over the area: 34.2 [93.6F] in Taiwan, 33.1 in China, 30.2 in Japan.
“Earlier this month incredible November record hot night: Minimum 27.9 Minamitorishima JAPAN! Record (again) in INDONESIA: 35.7 Manokwari ALL TIME RECORD for any month.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1987553288951353606
“Taiwan evacuates thousands as Typhoon Fung-wong nears after killing 18 in Philippines,
“The storm, which weakened after making landfall in northern Luzon as a super typhoon on Sunday, is expected to reach Taiwan’s southwest coast near Kaohsiung on Wednesday before moving eastward across the island, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/typhoon-fung-wong-taiwan-philippines-b2862636.html
“Philippines is prone to floods – but even experienced people were shocked by Super Typhoon Fung-wong.
“First came Typhoon Kalmaegi, killing at least 224 people. Then six days later, Super Typhoon Fung-wong. The storm chasers who make it their life mission to track Mother Nature’s extremes were all in the province of Aurora in the northeast when it hit.”
“Where cold never exists – CUYO, Philippines has never dropped below 24.8C/76.6F in 2025.if it doesn’t drop before year-end, it will be a new WORLD RECORD of highest year all time minimum in any station in the world.
“It hasn’t dropped below 24C/75.2F in 4 YEARS!”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1987775100620542448
“Following the rain, hail, and tornado, a yellow alert has been issued for Neuquén due to wind [Argentina].
“The weather conditions have not been the best in recent days in the province of Neuquén , with tornadoes in northern Neuquén, flooding on access roads to Rincón de los Sauces, and a rain and hail storm for the capital city of Neuquén.during this Monday.”
“Rain causes flooding in the outdoor area of COP 30 in Belém, surprising visitors…
“With the rain, the already heavy traffic became even more complicated in the area. The COP circular bus, for example, which runs from the Blue Zone towards the Green Zone, passing through streets around the Pedreira neighborhood, took almost an hour for a route that usually takes a few minutes.”
“Data centers meet resistance over environmental concerns as AI boom spreads in Latin America.
“Chile and Brazil are the two top countries working on data centers today in Latin America, and Chile is one of the countries in Latin America that has a lot of resistance against data centers… In the case of Chile, what they’re doing is actually trying to deregulate the environmental assessments that data centers are going through.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/nov/10/data-centers-latin-america
“‘The glacier is slowly melting, it’s clearly visible’ [Peru]…
“It makes you feel sorry for the mountains. You feel sad about what’s happening, and it creates a feeling of helplessness, of not being able to do anything about it. If someone has an illness, you treat it, but unfortunately, the mountain can’t be treated. You can’t do anything.”
“HISTORIC HEAT – Minimum Temperature 28.3C [82.9F] Arriaga is HOTTEST NOVEMBER NIGHT IN MEXICAN HISTORY… 32.8C at Charlotte Amalie US VIRGIN ISLANDS November hottest day in history again!”
“Minimum 27.6C Santa Marta – COLOMBIA also Record November Hottest night.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1987953064515457178
“Remarkable. Decades long [daily] records falling tonight [Florida].
“Tampa’s is 133 years old. Lakeland could beat their daily record by 10 degrees!! and have their earliest coldest day on record! Sub-freezing Nature Coast with freeze expected!” [Jeff Berardelli]
https://x.com/WeatherProf/status/1987987284067840242
“Record high ocean temperatures continued across the North Pacific in October 2025, with recent warming really amplifying since the early 2000s.
“This graph shows the average for a band across the midlatitudes for every October from 1854-2025 using NOAA ERSSTv5 data.”
[Zack Labe]
https://bsky.app/profile/zacklabe.com/post/3m57nucf5as2s
“Refugee camps set to be uninhabitable by 2050 as extreme weather worsens…
“Around the world, basic survival systems for refugees are already under strain, UNHCR warned. In parts of flood-affected Chad, for instance, newly arrived refugees fleeing the war in neighbouring Sudan receive fewer than 10 litres of water a day, which is far below emergency standards.”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/11/1166318
“The world is struggling to halt climate change. But can it adapt?
“…“Even amid tight budgets and competing priorities, the reality is simple: if we do not invest in adaptation now, we will face escalating costs every year,” says Inger Andersen, executive director of the UNEP.”
https://www.ft.com/content/caf9895d-63b7-4410-969a-2cee05910213
“The slender-billed curlew, a migratory waterbird, is officially extinct: IUCN…
“The latest IUCN assessment now confirms the species’ extinction. “This is the first-ever recorded global bird extinction from mainland Europe, North Africa, and West Asia,” Esther Kettel, an ecologist at Nottingham Trent University, U.K., writes in The Conversation.”
“Mantas on the brink: Global fisheries driving rays toward extinction…
“Despite nearly a decade of international protection under CITES Appendix II, CMS Appendices I and II, and national measures in more than 40 countries, enforcement remains patchy. The result: continued overexploitation pushing these iconic species closer to extinction.”
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You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an “Economic” thread.
“Are you there, COP 30? It’s me, the Paris Agreement.”
Uhhh what’s that? I can’t hear you the old lady’s usin the hair dryer.
What’s that? You can’t hear anything on your end? Well it’s one of those expensive ones with a noise dampening feature? Yeah, so anyway give me a sec.
Hey HONEY!!! Can you turn that off I’m on a call! Sorry man she can’t hear me.
I should move somewhere else in the house? Yeah I could do that but ummm, oh shit I just got an email from my sister telling me my dad just died! What the hell?!
Yeah thanks man but listen, I gotta go. We gotta leave this off for a few months at least okay? I’ll call you back sometime during the next two-three decades.
Yeah, you too, bye.
😂
Pretty much.
Yep.
From the Paris COP closing address in 2015 by Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change:
“…just last week, when more than 150 Heads of State and Government stood together in one place, under one roof for one cause – for the first time ever in history – it was then that we knew we had the political will to come to an agreement…
“We end this COP celebrating a new chapter of hope for the world. I have been saying for a long time we must, we can… and I used to say we will. Today we can say we did.”
https://unfccc.int/news/cop-21-closing-address
Imagine a city of ten million people, spread across hills and valleys with hundreds of meters of elevation difference — and then the government decides to “turn off the water at night” to save supplies.
That is the nightmare every water engineer knows: once you take the pressure off a city’s network, you never get it back in sync again.
In a city like Tehran, with 10 million inhabitants, that means:
– Air in the system. As soon as the pressure drops, air enters the pipes. It causes cavitation in pumps, airlocks in higher districts, and backflow of contaminated water in the lower ones.
– Clogging and contamination. In stagnant water, biofilms and bacterial colonies begin to grow. When the pumps restart, that mixture is flushed through the city.
– Hydraulic shocks. When pressure is restored, “water-hammer” effects occur—shock waves that rupture valves, meters, and joints.
– Topographic imbalance. Tehran lies against the Alborz Mountains, with elevation differences of several hundred meters. Restarting the pumps requires carefully sequenced pressure regulation. If that timing fails, pipes burst in the low areas long before the upper neighborhoods receive a drop.
It may sound like a technical detail, but it is in fact the fault line between civilization and chaos: water distribution must be continuous, or the entire urban system collapses.
Iran has now reached the point where the government is taking emergency measures that destroy the system itself. An energetic and hydraulic point of no return—you can no longer save water without losing it.
And then comes the human consequence: hospitals without rinse water, apartment towers without sanitation, fire trucks refilling from lakes that no longer exist. Once the pressure is gone, the country is literally dried out—not only physically, but administratively.
Zip, those are very good and interesting points.
It reminds me of the pipes carrying bitumen from Canadian tar sands, where a certain minimum flow-rate has to be maintained or they get blocked up.
“Brazil also faced criticism for its decision last month to approve exploratory oil drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River, only a few hundred miles from Belém. Environmental advocates accused the COP30 host of hypocrisy.
Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made tackling deforestation a core aim and used the COP30 summit opening on Monday to speak strongly in favor of tackling the climate crisis. But he also supports oil extraction and has rejected claims of hypocrisy. “I don’t want to be an environmental leader. I never claimed to be,” he said at a pre-summit meeting last week, adding it would be “irresponsible” for Brazil to quit oil.”
What is COP30 and why does it matter? By Laura Paddison CNN
We are on a roll..
How five countries are adapting to the climate crisis
https://theconversation.com/how-five-countries-are-adapting-to-the-climate-crisis-266707
Published: November 10, 2025 8:41am EST The Conversation
Bangladesh: building early warning systems
Tuvalu: reclaiming land and opportunities
UK: independent monitoring but slow progress
Kenya: putting people at the centre
Australia: high costs and military support
Countries are making important progress on adaptation by installing early warning systems and setting up the institutions needed to channel money to local people and to monitor national progress. Bangladesh, Tuvalu and Kenya are leading the way. But even in these places, most adaptation action does not go far enough to manage the escalating impacts coming our way.
The world needs to stop burning fossil fuels….but that would be “irresponsible”, billions would die…sounds like “Catch 22” situation to me..should I stay or should I go now? The CLASH
Thanks for the roundup today and rather cool here in South Florida…got down to 49F..the distractors will say, “What Global Warming?” As Highway 1-95 grinds to gridlock with gridlock of traffic…yeah “net zero”…the epitaph on the tombstone
“Brazil also faced criticism for its decision last month to approve exploratory oil drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River…”
Vince, there were some articles pointing this out today and I was tempted to post one, but I’ve covered it before and didn’t want to labour the point.
Hope you are keeping warm in chilly Florida, which has been the most anomalously cold place in the world this week. I imagine the lizards have been dropping out of trees!
That there is still support for COP meetings, and that people believe that they’re evidence that someone somewhere is doing something – unbelievable – the stratospheric levels of denial required to think our planet-eating systems and the puppets installed to preside over them will do an about face and allow anything that even remotely resembles “saving the planet” to occur.
Leaf, it’s kind of fitting that the hosting-rights for COP31 have descended into such a childish bunfight:
“For some time now, there’s been a deadlock between Australia and Turkey over who will host next year’s meeting – and it all needs to be ironed out by the end of next week when the talks come to a close. If no agreement between the two is reached, hosting will default to the German city of Bonn…”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly4pnpl0g7o
Meanwhile in the united states some water systems are over 50 years old plus and current water systems are not designed for extreme weather events. Our bridges and roads are destroyed faster than being repaired. You can’t upgrade the system because it’s impossible to with the new weather reality. We have already stripped and drained and over pumped our ground water resources to the point of collapse. No ai or digital anything will be able to exist the systems and servers will collapse to the heat and cooling systems not working properly. No amount of money will fix it now. This is reality.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/newly-constructed-hongqi-bridge-in-china-partially-collapses-dramatic-video-goes-viral-101762880858015.html
Infrastructure collapse in china due to landslides probably due to extreme weather events
Heather, our water infrastructure is also in a dismal state:
“England’s water company ratings have fallen to the lowest level on record after sewage pollution last year hit a new peak, with eight of nine water companies rated as poor and needing improvement by the Environment Agency.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/23/english-water-ratings-record-low-sewage-pollution
In my neighborhood Florida Power and Light is going underground
FPL is installing underground power lines to improve grid resilience against climate change, primarily by reducing outages caused by storms, high winds, and vegetation. This is done through their Storm Secure Underground Program and by making about 90% of new lines underground, which helps lower restoration costs after severe weather. While the goal is to save customers money long-term, customers may see a small, storm-related charge on their bills to help fund the initial investment.
Perplexed because on main roads FPL spend money on solid concert poles for the same reason….if Hurricane Melissa that struck Jamaica was a direct hit 🎯 here in South Florida, it would we …”That’s All Folks”, no matter what..
We are truly living in a surreal make believe world
“These are people who have already endured immense loss, and now they face the same hardships and devastation again. They are among the hardest hit by severe droughts, deadly floods and record-breaking heatwaves, yet they have the fewest resources to recover.”
Beyond brutal – the epitaph for the great dying underway all ‘cross the C&E globe. Send these fellow humans some “thoughts ‘n prayers,” maybe a free Amazon gift card in these refugee camps to go with a new burner phone, because we are the world, we are the people. let’s start giving.
You’ve got that song stuck in my head now, Martin. 😂
Hey … did you read the news?: “The world is struggling to halt climate change.”
Feels more like we are the whirled, despite the world being the one doing all the spinning 😵💫. And speaking of spinning, where is all this “struggling” the FT claims is taking place? In the Conversation’s 5 nations? Au contraire. Adaptation to is the opposite of halting Climate Derangement, it is acceptance of it.
Only the Financial Times could spin such claptrap.
Datapoint on that “Save the Planet” meme: in Brusatte’s “ The Rise & Fall of the Dinosaurs”, he goes way back in time to when the CO2 concentration was ~ 2500ppm, give or take a molecule, illustrating the nonsensical nature of the claim that the planet is in peril.
We, however, are.
Makes you wonder, though; what exactly is evolution all about? If we, as in mankind, are its apex predator, and the ultimate threat to our survival is ourselves, is that how killer species level the playing field? Is Self-immolation the endpoint that sets the stage for the next species to strut across?
Somehow I don’t find that nearly as disturbing as the collateral damage we’re inflicting in our mad, mad mad mad rush to domination and destruction. But since Collateral Damage always includes intent as part of its focus, the fact that we didn’t plan to take everything else down with us matters not a whit.
In such an environment, in which reason is usurped by madness and compassion derided as weakness, AI writes the epitaph of humankind: “The tank, not man, shall prevail”.
“Is Self-immolation the endpoint that sets the stage for the next species to strut across?”
I fear this is indeed the case, Rob. We are our own “asteroid”.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-10/data-centers-in-nvidia-s-hometown-stand-empty-awaiting-power
My case in point data centers are built but wait for it they have no power but what about water?
Cool links because these will drive this species to a cold grave.