Climate Emergency
This summer, the United States roasted like never before. People got third-degree burns from simply falling onto hot pavement in Arizona, filling up all the beds in Maricopa County’s burn center. High humidity teamed up with the Midwest’s worst heat wave in years to send the heat index, or the “feels like” temperature, soaring above 130 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of Kansas…
Off the coast of Florida, the ocean warmed to hot tub temperatures, leading to mass death in the coral reefs.
Climate Fiction Is No Longer Dystopian. Just Reality. – Mother Jones
Scientists have said climate breakdown caused by the burning of fossil fuels is the cause of unusually hot summers and winters with very low snow volume, which have caused the accelerating melts. The volume lost during the hot summers of 2022 and 2023 is the same as that lost between 1960 and 1990. … Experts have stopped measuring the ice on some glaciers as there is essentially none left.
Swiss glaciers lose 10% of their volume in two years | The Guardian
March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City, activists decried President Joe Biden’s continued investment in fossil fuels and his refusal to declare a national emergency over the worsening effects of climate change. Louisiana climate justice activist Roishetta Ozane said Biden is “personally accountable” for climate change-fueled natural disasters, while 16-year-old Fridays for Future organizer Helen Mancini proclaimed, “There is not enough time to put this off another term.”
Frontline, Labor & Youth Voices Call on Biden to Immediately Act to Prevent Climate Catastrophe
Earth’s life support systems have been so damaged that the planet is “well outside the safe operating space for humanity”, scientists have warned.
Their assessment found that six out of nine “planetary boundaries” had been broken because of human-caused pollution and destruction of the natural world. The planetary boundaries are the limits of key global systems – such as climate, water and wildlife diversity – beyond which their ability to maintain a healthy planet is in danger of failing.
Earth ‘well outside safe operating space for humanity’ | Climate crisis | The Guardian
The devastation wreaked by floods in eastern Libya is nothing less than apocalyptic. In Derna, where two dams burst after torrential rains, a wall of water deluged the city and sliced out the land from beneath its inhabitants. Entire neighbourhoods were swept into the sea, which is now dumping bodies along the shore. More than 6,000 have died there, and 10,000 people are said to be missing, but because entire families were washed away, there may be no survivors to report some losses.
The Guardian view on Libya’s floods: humans, not just nature, caused this disaster | The Guardian
In the Atlanta suburb of Peachtree City, teens and older people alike rely on little electric vehicles to get around. Is this a potential model for a more sustainable suburbia?
With about 9,300 golf carts registered among its 13,000 households, this town 31 miles southwest of Atlanta might be the most golf-cart-friendly municipality in America. A hundred miles of car-free multi-use paths crisscross the town’s 25 square miles…"
E-Bikes and golf carts would seem to be perfect for slower, safer, more climate friendly local travel.
The Electric Vehicle That Suburbia Needs Could Be a Golf Cart
Climate rallies over the next few weeks to demand an end to fossil fuel usage ahead of the United Nations’ summit on 9/20.
“Clearly, saving the planet is the most important issue facing humanity,” the Democratic senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, said. “But here’s the ugly and brutal truth: right now, humanity is failing..”
The rally was one of some 200 global climate actions taking place this week in countries including Bolivia, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Austria.
Climate activists kick off rallies against fossil fuel in week of action in New York | The Guardian
International aid is slowly starting to reach the devastated port city of Derna as an inquest starts into how as many as 20,000 people might have perished when Storm Daniel hit the northern coast of Libya on Saturday night.
Corpses still litter the street, and drinkable water is in short supply. Whole families have been wiped out by the storm and with the remoteness of some villages and the rudimentary nature of municipal government, it will take time for the death toll to be confirmed.
Meanwhile:
‘Sea is constantly dumping bodies’: fears Libya flood death toll may hit 20,000 | The Guardian
Leaders failed to agree on a phase-out of fossil fuels despite a United Nations report a day earlier deeming the drawdown “indispensable” to achieving net-zero emissions.
G20 nations account for about 80 percent of global emissions and an inability to agree on the phase-out is a cloud over a key round of climate discussions to begin in November in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.
I want to be hopeful but there is no evidence that we will phase out fossil fuels. Progress is far too slow, far too little.
Five key takeaways from G20 summit: ‘We need bolder action’ | Al Jazeera
The task ahead is immense: According to the report, global emissions need to be slashed 43 percent by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, one of the main goalposts of the Paris agreement…
Among its recommendations, the report unapologetically calls for “phasing out all unabated fossil fuels” and for a “radical decarbonization of all sectors of the economy.”
Without a biosphere in a good shape, there is no life on the planet. It’s very simple. That’s all you need to know. The economists will tell you we can decouple growth from material consumption, but that is total nonsense. The options are quite clear from the historical evidence. If you don’t manage decline, then you succumb to it and you are gone. The best hope is that you find some way to manage it.
Vaclav Smil: ‘Growth must end. Our economist friends don’t seem to realise that’ | The Guardian
Canadians, Australians, and Americans are some of the most carbon privileged in the world. All our news reporting is about how magical hurricanes and fires are. Nothing about climate change or burning fossil fuels for the most part. Climate news revolves around incrementals like electric vehicles, banning straws, solar panels.
Never do we actually talk about taking away the privilege of intense energy use. We don’t talk about building denser, smaller homes. We don’t talk about NOT taking that vacation. We don’t talk about NOT buying things. At most we sub in one form of consumption for another.
Like white privilege or male privilege, those who have carbon privilege are loathe to give it up. We are all entitled, right?
Why should we live on less?
We, the largest energy users in the world can’t just talk about alternative energy. We need real energy reduction and yes, that means the “economy” will hurt, that means fewer vacations, that means smaller homes.
We will never get anywhere until we accept using less. For starters, no homes in the greenbelt where we need cars to drive between McMansions."
The climate crisis has hit home this year for many Americans — its effects have been nearly inescapable in most parts of the country. With that, writes Bill McKibben, has come a sense of unease about the future, particularly about the places we live and will be able to live.
We’ve come through 75 years where having neighbors was essentially optional: if you had a credit card, you could get everything you needed to survive dropped off at your front door. But the next 75 years aren’t going to be like that…
Electricity generated from coal collapsed by 23% and gas fell by 13%, compared with the same period a year earlier.
At the same time, solar generation increased by 13% and wind power output by 5%.
This allowed 17 EU countries to generate record shares of power from renewables. Greece and Romania both passed 50% renewables for the first time, while Denmark and Portugal both surpassed 75% renewables.
Reduction in sea ice in Antarctica has resulted in the deaths of an estimated 10,000 emperor penguin chicks. In 2022, satellites recorded a colony of emperor penguins disappearing into the Bellingshausen Sea as the ice they were living on melted away. The chicks had not fully developed waterproof feathers and they most likely froze to death. Emperors rely on sea-ice to breed and as the world warms due to climate change…
Given our current trajectory and lack of progress extinction seems a near certainty.
Thousands of emperor penguins killed in the Antarctic - BBC News
Extinction Rebellion’s co-founder Clare Farrell and conservation scientist Dr Charlie Gardner team up once more to discuss issues and stories they feel are not getting enough airtime.
EPISODE 2: Aerosol masking, geoengineering, and the pension problem
In this episode they discuss the evolving discourse on aerosol masking, particulates and solar radiation management approaches, plus the pensions report from carbon tracker that shows the flawed economics of climate overlooks science and leaves the pension sector in grave risk.
A common theme in the discussion on addressing climate change is that what’s most needed is systemic action. As I understand it, what people mean by that is government legislation to fund new infrastructure for transport and energy and, likely, regulate/cut fossil fuel based infrastructure currently in place.
And often in the conversation those advocating such systemic change as primary often, to some degree, speak against individual action in terms of altering consumption to lower carbon footprint.
Okay, but here’s the thing: For decades citizens of the US have been way too passive in their participation in the “democratic” process. Passive, apathetic, not interested, this is what has defined the citizens in the US. In fact, that word really isn’t used much. Rather the word consumer is used to define people because that’s what we allowed ourselves to be defined as.
Global corporate capitalism has slowly, steadily and completely redefined people’s identity and understanding of place as that of consumer. “A government by the people, for the people” is a fucking farce and has been for a very long time.
So, for those of you demanding systemic change to address the climate crisis, tell me, do you expect the government bodies that have been so completely bought and paid for to suddenly act against the entrenched corporate lobbies?
The vast majority of citizens gave up their power and responsibility decades ago. A broadly participating citizenry taking responsibility for government just walked away. It was replaced by a much, much smaller group of people that we now call “activists”. These are folks that, for whatever reason, maintained or developed an interest in “issues”. A very tiny minority trying to do the work of the full population that prioritizes working and having the “American Dream”.
It’s somewhere between willful negligence and naïveté to again pass the responsibility to “government” that we all admit is somewhere between corrupted and broken. If we expect that “our” government is going to fix the climate crisis then we damn well better be willing to step up in a big fucking way to reassert our control of said government. Voting is not enough, not even close. That’s the passive, do as little as possible bullshit that has gotten us into this mess.
If we’re going to deal with this it has to become central to our lives. All our lives. Anyone suggesting we can just sit back and let it be fixed by political parties under the influence is fucking delusional. However you slice it your attention and effort are now required. If you’re not interested in participating then I hope you’ll own your passive, apathetic non-contribution to the solution and your full participation in being the problem. 🌍
The amount of public money flowing into coal, oil and gas in 20 of the world’s biggest economies reached a record $1.4tn(£1.1tn) in 2022… even though world leaders agreed to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow two years ago.
The report comes ahead of a meeting of G20 countries in Delhi next month that could set the tone for the next big climate conference, which takes place in the United Arab Emirates in November.
G20 poured more than $1tn into fossil fuel subsidies despite Cop26 pledges – report | The Guardian
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With unprecedented heat waves and record-breaking global temperatures, it’s hard to believe that there might be a place on earth that has actually COOLED since the industrial revolution. But, it turns out, there is such a spot. The COLD BLOB off of Greenland mystified scientists for years, but new studies have uncovered a scary reality - this cool patch might be a warning of the impending collapse of a vital earth circulation system. And the consequences would be dire.
Is Earth’s Largest Heat Transfer Really Shutting Down? - YouTube
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