Climate Emergency
Living and surviving in the climate emergency will become increasingly difficult and, frankly, miserable.
Have you tried to imagine what it will be like in 20 years?
The New York Times reports on soaring heat related emergencies and deaths in the US:
Extreme heat, intensified by climate change, has blanketed much of the United States this summer, killing more than a dozen people in Oregon in recent days. Large parts of California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah have been under excessive heat warnings, which local officials believe contributed to more than 90 deaths in the West this month.
How Science Fiction Can Inspire Environmentalism and Climate Action - ZNetwork
As the rhyme suggests, cli-fi is a sub-genre of sci-fi. It tends to be speculative, to focus on anthropogenic global warming, and to examine the effects of climate change on human communities. Frequently, as with Atwood’s trilogy, there is a dystopian slant.
In keeping with the complexity of climate change itself, cli-fi is multiform, encompassing science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, magical realism, fable, satire, and everything in between.
Our new reality is constant adaption to extreme heat and other effects of the ongoing climate emergency: The mayor of Athens, Greece on extreme heat in the capital city: “It’s about survival”. The plan includes more cooling centers, water stations and planting a lot more trees for shade.
The Guardian reports on the mayor of Athens’s top priority:
Ensuring that the people of Greece’s capital – mainland Europe’s hottest metropolis – survive the summer. After a June that was the hottest on record, the city has already witnessed record-breaking temperatures and wildfires.
Sadly this won’t register as a problem for most people.
When a recognized animal like the polar bear goes extinct, that will get some attention. And yes, the polar bears will go extinct. If you think otherwise you’re living in a delusion about where we are in timeline of this climate emergency. This is happening right now. Extinctions are happening now.
Sea level rise wipes out a U.S. species for the first known time
The loss of the only known stand of Key Largo tree cactus in the U.S. shows how rising seas can alter the coastal environment.
Tiny Life Journal - How I’m surviving summer without taking a flight in service of a vacation:
I understand that long distance vacations are a luxury and not a necessity of life. I choose to respect my fellow humans and the other species of the planet rather than shit on them.
Equally predictable: the 10% of the Global North will keep on flying to vacations, driving SUVs without concern and otherwise carry on as though there is no problem and nothing they can do.
Earth sees warmest June on record, boosts odds of warmest year
June was the warmest such month on record worldwide, according to figures released Monday, extending a heat streak even longer.
The monthly milestone increases the odds that 2024 will eclipse 2023 as the warmest year on record, and adds to the consecutive months that exceeded the crucial 1.5°C threshold in the Paris Agreement.
Pearls and Irritations have an excellent post about The Invisible Doctrine by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison. The new book, a critique of neoliberalism as the ideological source of the myriad crises we now face.
The book argues passionately for urgent system change, away from the control currently exercised by profit makers, and the need to strengthen governance and how the economy operates, though expanded participatory democracy. This is a well written, quite brief book that deserves a wide readership by those of us concerned about the many crises that now threaten our human future.
“The developed countries, the major emitters, are not taking this matter seriously.”
As the earliest Category 5 storm ever observed in the Atlantic carves a path of destruction through the Caribbean, we get an update on damage from Hurricane Beryl from the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves. He describes the disaster scenes he witnessed and discusses the rising challenge of extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis.
Tragic. The devastation is hard to comprehend. This is the long emergency.
Hurricane Beryl's Aftermath: Carriacou Residents' Survival Stories - YouTube
We survived Hurricane Beryl. Now what? It's heart wrenching and inspiring to hear from residents in Carriacou who have lost everything in this powerful hurricane. As the only journalists on the island, I need your help. This is a very raw video, I walk around and talk to the people so you can hear directly from them about this Hurricane, it's impacts and how they can still smile in the face of having no hope but to wait for help to arrive.
This seems like a problem the Republican Governor of Florida should be dealing with.
Miami Is Entering a State of Unreality - The Atlantic
“Rain bombs” such as Invest 90L are products of our hotter world; warmer air has more room between its molecules for moisture. That water is coming for greater Miami and the 6 million people who live here. This glittering city was built on a drained swamp and sits atop porous limestone; as the sea keeps rising, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts that South Florida could see almost 11 extra inches of ocean by 2040.
Tiny Life Journal - Waste Reduction
At least 427 people have died over four days in just one city in Pakistan due to the lethal heatwaves scorching south Asia this summer.
The non-profit Edhi Foundation said it received 427 bodies in four days until Tuesday in Karachi, the country’s biggest city and financial centre.
Comfortable, well-to-do middle class guy talking about fixing the climate problem: The solution is voting for Democrats, especially Biden. Your lifestyle changes are ridiculous.
Second well-to-do middle class guy: Ha, yeah, so true. Way better than adopting a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle.
Me: It's not a problem, it's an emergency. Taking all possible action on all levels is critical.
First middle class guy: Yeah, no kidding. It's just performative virtue signaling.
Second middle class guy: Yep, we can't be purists about this. The real game in town is voting and policy. Sure, they're not perfect but better than the other guy. Your actions don't matter and may do more harm than good. Hold your nose and vote, that's really the only way to go.
Me: It's not a problem, it's an existential crisis. I vote. But I also look at the track record of a governmental system that clearly has not, to this day, acted with speed and conviction. I vote but I also acknowledge the reality, the facts of the record of a broken political and legislative process that has been bought and paid for. But yes, yes, I vote.
But unlike some, I don't stop there. I'm not willing to put my personal maximum comfort, my convenience, my hyper-levels of consumption, my assumed right to air-travel - above the future survival of my fellow humans. So, unlike some that will vote and call it a day, I'll vote and do more. Unlike those that have what THEY need to be comfortable (for now) I'll also consider those that do not and I'll act in every other way that is possible including silly, quaint and trivial lifestyle changes.
I'll live as though my ethical, daily choices matter because my conception of "We the people" includes me. My understanding of democracy means that I can act in more ways than one. As a citizen I refuse to offload my responsibility to the future to a limited electoral process. I choose to act as though We the people should be more than occasionally stepping into a voting booth.
Of course I'll vote. I also protest when possible. I'll also make phone calls, write letters to the editor (mostly a thing of the past) and send emails. I'll act alone and with others to initiate local actions for local change.
And I will do everything else that I possibly can because decades of evidence shows me that voting alone is likely putting all our eggs in one basket, a basket that's being held by a fox.
We're not even trying to slow down. We're accelerating to our doom.
U.S. Oil And Gas Production Are Ahead Of Last Year’s Record Pace
Last year marked a record for U.S. oil production with an average daily production of 12.93 million barrels per day (BPD). That record was 5% greater than the previous record of 12.31 million bpd set in 2019.
However, current data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that average daily production thus far in 2024 is 13.12 million bpd — 7.1% ahead of the production level of a year ago and 1.4% higher than last year’s record pace.
This is what happens when people are not paying attention to the details. This is the future of trying to feed billions of humans during a climate emergency.
How World Leaders are Scrambling to Secure Food in the Shadows | Amanpour and Company
In a world full of unrest, fears are mounting about access to our most vital resources — food and water. "The Grab" is a documentary that chronicles the way certain governments are attempting to control these global resources.
Wealthy white people are happy to destroy the planet. No shits given.
The white supremacy of the 10% is a disgrace.
Holidaymakers in Greece warned of heatwave risks | euronews - YouTube
Greek officials are warning foreigners visiting the Mediterranean country over summer of the dangers associated with the extreme weather.
Lots of Republican Governors making disaster declarations recently. Our daily headlines are now a steady stream of one climate disaster after another.
And yet, we'll insist on our meat. Our air travel. Our purchase of whatever pleases us. We throw the future away every day with our choices.
Record flooding inundates northwest Iowa, prompts evacuations, isolates one city
"I can tell you that the devastation is severe and it's widespread," Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said at a news conference Sunday afternoon in Des Moines.
In front of our eyes, and yet the vast majority in the US will pretend there's nothing they can do.
Climate crisis driving exponential rise in most extreme wildfires | The Guardian
Scientists say this is climate change “playing out in front of our eyes”.
The analysis of satellite data showed the number of extreme fires had risen by more than 10 times in the past 20 years in temperate conifer forests, such as in the western US and Mediterranean. It has increased by seven times in the vast boreal forests in northern Europe and Canada. Australia was also a hotspot for these devastating fires.
Just one more effect of the climate emergency we are now in: Depletion of major groundwater source threatens Great Plains farming - YouTube
In the heart of the country, Great Plains farmers and ranchers produce a quarter of all U.S. crops and 40 percent of its beef. But they rely on a resource that has been slowly drying up, water. Stephanie Sy reports from Kansas for our series on the impact of climate change, Tipping Point.
Anyone can make this kind of easy lifestyle change voluntarily today and be a part of the solution. Or don't and know that every day you're making it worse. Your choice.
We need to talk about your starving grandchildren. - YouTube
You might not want to think about this one, but our scientists tell us if we carry on the way we are now, the global food system will have completely broken down by the time a child born today hits retirement age. The good news is, it can be solved. The question is, can we be bothered?