WTF Climate Change News

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

QUIT THREATENING NEXT QUARTER PROFITS.

and bump to top of page

 

[Beebo Brink]

Climate change is killing off soil organisms critical for some of Earth’s ecosystems | Science | AAAS

 

[WolfEyes]

Flooding continues in South Africa's Durban area; 259 dead (msn.com)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Flooding in South Africa's Durban area has taken at least 259 lives and is a “catastrophe of enormous proportions,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said Wednesday.
“This disaster is part of climate change. It is telling us that climate change is serious, it is here," said Ramaphosa, visiting flooded areas of Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area.
"We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change,” he said.
The death toll is expected to continue rising as search and rescue operations continue in KwaZulu-Natal province, officials said. The province is about to be declared a disaster area by the national government, said Ramaphosa.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I'm not all gloom-and-doom, ya'll.

Clean energy is buried at the bottom of abandoned oil wells

The US is spending millions to explore a surprising source of untapped power.

www.vox.com

 

[WolfEyes]

Blistering June heat, unprecedented April snow: Climate change makes extreme weather more likely in Oregon (msn.com)

 

[Beebo Brink]

MSN

www.msn.com

The megadrought that has plagued the West for several decades is not only expected to persist, but drought conditions will also likely intensify and expand east, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And more...

Southwest experiencing driest conditions in at least 1,200 years due to climate change, new study finds

The megadrought that as been plaguing the Southwestern U.S. for at least two decades has caused the region to experience its driest conditions in 1,200 years.

abcnews.go.com

While researchers discovered that megadroughts occurred repeatedly in the region from AD 800 to 1600, existing climate models have shown that the current drought would have been dry even without climate change -- but not to the same extent.

 

[WolfEyes]

People didn't believe me when I have said I have been watching this happen for decades and it really hit home when I started seeing the rapid increase of brown and decrease of green on Google Maps just for the Tualatin Valley population growth within the past 16 years. Maybe, just maybe, I might know what I am talking about when I say things like that.

/end mini rant

The Barrier Reef? 3 MONTHS! THREE GOD DAMNED MONTHS!

Something I have wanted to say for a long time but have bitten my tongue. Not today. Our planet is dying and we killed it.

Google’s Earth Day Doodle Is Absolutely Brutal (msn.com)

 

[Beebo Brink]

People didn't believe me when I have said I have been watching this happen for decades...

Not sure what people you're hanging out with that deny the obvious, but yeah, a lot of people are emotionally invested in ignoring reality.

After watching right-wingers deny Covid, even as it was literally killing them, I gave up expecting any of them to worry about climate change, much less do something about it.

 

[WolfEyes]

Not sure what people you're hanging out with that deny the obvious, but yeah, a lot of people are emotionally invested in ignoring reality.

After watching right-wingers deny Covid, even as it was literally killing them, I gave up expecting any of them to worry about climate change, much less do something about it.

Here, there, everywhere.

Problem is, it isn't just the right wingers in denial. No one wants to acknowledge it, much less do anything about it. They just want to keep right on doing what they have been doing without a thought or care. Pretty much everyone I've ever talked to.

 

[WolfEyes]

Fires burn in Siberia, but Russian firefighting assets are in Ukraine (msn.com)

This month, wildfires have already appeared on the peatlands of Russia’s Far East, activating firefighting services. The Russian Federal Forestry Agency reported that it extinguished more than 600 fires over 37,000 hectares (about 91,000 acres) nationwide last week.
One of the regions with the largest number of extinguished forest fires was in Omsk oblast. Videos from the Siberian Times showed wildfires raging across the Omsk and Tyumen oblasts in Western Siberia, while satellite data showed several fires across the landscape. Some of the fires have been burning for more than a week, even as lakes still appear frozen.
Smoke from the fires has traveled thousands of miles, reaching the western United States. People have noted hazier skies, smokier sunsets and reddish hues over the moon — features typically seen during the height of the summer fire season.

 

[WolfEyes]

Restoring damaged land key to climate, biodiversity goals (msn.com)

Unsustainable farming is on track to increase the amount of severely degraded land by an area the size of South America by mid-century, a UN report warned Wednesday, as experts said restoration was a matter of "survival".

Global food systems are responsible for 80 percent of deforestation and 70 percent of freshwater use, said the report.

They are also the single largest driver of species extinction, which is occurring 100 to 1,000 times more rapidly today than when human activity began to radically change the climate and degrade nature.

"The risk of widespread, abrupt or irreversible environmental change will grow," the Global Land Outlook 2 report warns.

The 40 percent of Earth's non-frozen land denatured by chemical-intensive exploitation threatens roughly half of global GDP, some $4 trillion, according to the 250-page peer-reviewed assessment, which called for action "on a crisis footing".

At least 70 percent of ice-free land on Earth has been converted to human use, and most of that has been degraded
"How we manage and use land resources is threatening the health and continued survival of many species on Earth, including the human species," Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UN convention charged with reversing land degradation told AFP.

"Business as usual is not a viable pathway for our continued survival and prosperity."

 

[Beebo Brink]

Climate Change Is Forcing American Women From Their Homes

Financial instability, housing insecurity and greater caregiving responsibilities make U.S. women more vulnerable to climate disasters.

msmagazine.com

 

[Beebo Brink]

 

[Beebo Brink]

Global heating risks most cataclysmic extinction of marine life in 250m years

New research warns pressures of rising heat and loss of oxygen are reminiscent of ‘great dying’ that occurred about 250m years ago

www.theguardian.com

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Archer]

This was covered, but really didn't the attention it deserved.

Climate Activist Sets Himself on Fire

"The press spoke then of suicide, but in the essence, it is not. It is not even a protest," Thich Nhat Hanh wrote. "To burn oneself by fire is to prove that what one is saying is of the utmost importance. There is nothing more painful than burning oneself. To say something while experiencing this kind of pain is to say it with utmost courage, frankness, determination, and sincerity."

 

[Beebo Brink]

This was covered, but really didn't the attention it deserved.

I'm not sure what purpose any attention to this event would have served. Despite my being largely in agreement with this man about the seriousness of climate change and our role in creating it, I don't consider his action useful in furthering any government policies or inspiring a groundswell of public opinion. Quite the opposite sadly; it's just more "proof" that climate activists are deranged lunatics.

I can see why his friends would prefer to cast his self-immolation as a noble gesture of deep integrity, rather than the suicide of a disturbed individual, but their opinion doesn't really sway my own. Regardless of motivation, however, I consider it a meaningless death, soon forgotten as the news cycles relentlessly through so many other deaths across the world stage: deaths from covid, deaths from Russian bombs, deaths from summer heat. Someone choosing to die when so many thousands of other people are killed without their consent... that's just sad, really really sad.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Free]

Surface temperature tops 60°C in parts of north India, satellite images show

The European Space Agency’s website also showed land surface temperatures to be nearing 55 degrees Celsius over many parts of northwest India and crossing 60 degrees Celsius over several pockets. | India News

www.hindustantimes.com

Surface land temperatures exceeded 60 degrees Celsius over some parts of northwest India, according to imagery captured by satellites on Saturday. Images of land surface captured by INSAT 3D, Copernicus Sentinel 3 and a NASA satellite indicated that land surface temperature over pockets of northwest India raised concerns among several scientists about the severe impacts of the ongoing heatwave.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

‘We are living in hell’: Pakistan and India suffer extreme spring heatwaves

April temperatures at unprecedented levels have led to critical water and electricity shortages

www.theguardian.com

Evernote link

For the past few weeks, Nazeer Ahmed has been living in one of the hottest places on Earth. As a brutal heatwave has swept across India and Pakistan, his home in Turbat, in Pakistan’s Balochistan region, has been suffering through weeks of temperatures that have repeatedly hit almost 50C (122F), unprecedented for this time of year. Locals have been driven into their homes, unable to work except during the cooler night hours, and are facing critical shortages of water and power.

Ahmed fears that things are only about to get worse. It was here, in 2021, that the world’s highest temperature for May was recorded, a staggering 54C. This year, he said, feels even hotter. “Last week was insanely hot in Turbat. It did not feel like April,” he said.

As the heatwave has exacerbated massive energy shortages across India and Pakistan, Turbat, a city of about 200,000 residents, now barely receives any electricity, with up to nine hours of load shedding every day, meaning that air conditioners and refrigerators cannot function. “We are living in hell,” said Ahmed.