WTF Climate Change News

[Innula Zenovka]

“You can’t admit, as a capitalist subject, that there’s little you as an individual can do,” DeLay writes, “and neither can you imagine the end of capitalism.” Your options, then, are “intensely boring” (attending meetings to “advocate for a ban on new gas hook ups”) or “terrific” (“ecoterrorism”), and “denial is going to come out in surprising other ways”. DeLay himself is not immune. “My second child was born while this book was being written,” he says. “Sometimes people will ask me: is that a type of denial? Perhaps. Is … writing this book, me trying to be able to at least in part show them that I did what I could? Perhaps.”

Though an enthusiastic supporter of the youth climate movement, he has little time for clutching at the promise of young people saving us. “I am all too familiar with this impulse; when I’m especially despondent about the state of the world I look to them: they are the hope, they know what’s what. But it’s a “comforting fantasy”, he writes, which rests on believing that “education and passion will get the job done without mucking up free markets with regulation or central planning”. It also provides an easy out: “If generational politics works, then we needn’t concern ourselves with class politics.” There is the denial again – and one I hadn’t really recognised in myself.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

It's 106F/41C out right now, and I'm sitting here watching The Day After Tomorrow on AMC.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Heat-related deaths in Phoenix, Arizona, have nearly doubled this year | Phoenix | The Guardian

 

[Isabeau]

Heat-related deaths in Phoenix, Arizona, have nearly doubled this year | Phoenix | The Guardian

With difficulty finding affordable housing more and more an issue, I can only assume it will get worse, and not just in Arizona.

In May, advocates condemned Phoenix for effectively criminalizing homelessness after the Democrat-run city council voted unanimously to ban people from sleeping, cooking or camping at city buildings, parks and parking lots, and also within 500ft of schools, daycare centers, shelters and parks.

The tent ban can now be enforced after the US supreme court last week ruled that it was not unconstitutional for cities to arrest and fine people for sleeping in public spaces, even when no shelter space exists. Phoenix “will continue to offer shelter and services when possible, and will ask for compliance before resorting to an arrest”, according to the city attorney Julie Kriegh.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Far right using climate crisis as bogeyman to frighten voters and build higher walls | Jonathan Watts | The Guardian

In every country for most of the last century, left and right happily colluded on the need to materially “develop” the nation and expand gross domestic product with infrastructure projects, increased trade and greater consumption. The argument between them was only about how much of the economic pie the government should distribute between rich and poor.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Hurricane Beryl supercharged by ‘crazy’ ocean temperatures, experts say | Hurricanes | The Guardian

 

[Archer]

How Miami Addresses Heat Emergencies

Despite a record 46-day streak of triple digit feels-like temperatures, Miami’s unprecedented brutal summer last year wasn’t that deadly, contrasting with the rest of the nation where federal records show heat fatalities nationally spiked to a 45-year high.
One of the reasons is that Miami takes heat seriously, not just reacting when temperatures soar, but planning months in advance. Officials talk to vulnerable people, install air conditioning units early and essentially figure out what to do when things get nasty and practice at it. The Miami-Dade government and the local National Weather Service office team up to treat heat like something more scary, but often less deadly.

 

[Beebo Brink]

The homeowner mutiny leaving Florida vulnerable to hurricanes | Grist

The government is refusing to restore eroded beaches in coastal Florida counties unless homeowners agree to one condition: public access.

 

[Soen Eber]

The homeowner mutiny leaving Florida vulnerable to hurricanes | Grist

Why should the government pay for private beaches? If these property owners are sticking to their guns despite having been taught about the tragedy of the commons in school early on, then they bought it on themselves. Maybe the people who have granted easements can sue them after the next bad storm, or the government can force through eminent domain, or else raise taxes.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Socialism!

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

China is installing the solar and wind equivalent of 5 nuclear power plants per week at the moment. At the same time China is scaling down its plans for nuclear power.

According to a report China might be able to reach its end of 2030 climate targets by the end of this month.

'Winning the race': How China plans to meet its 2030 renewables target by the end of this month

While Australia debates the merits of going nuclear and frustration grows over the slower-than-needed switch to solar and wind power, China's renewables rollout is breaking all the records.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Last Sunday was Earth's hottest day in all recorded history, European climate agency says

The European climate service Copernicus says Earth sizzled to the hottest day ever measured last Sunday.

apnews.com

 

[Archer]

and then Monday said hold my beer...

 

[Casey Pelous]

Why should the government pay for private beaches? If these property owners are sticking to their guns despite having been taught about the tragedy of the commons in school early on, then they bought it on themselves. Maybe the people who have granted easements can sue them after the next bad storm, or the government can force through eminent domain, or else raise taxes.

Public or not, why would we spend $42,000,000 saving beaches -- and homes -- that are pretty clearly doomed in the rather short term by forces far larger than the Army Corps of Engineers? Wouldn't that money be better spent helping relocate those folks?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Soen Eber]

Yet that increase in natural gas production and the rise of liquified natural gas (along with a warmer than normal winter) as an export market negated Russia's threat of plunging Europe into a cold winter with no gas to heat itself to thwart help for Ukraine.

Not that I'm a fossil fuels cheerleader, but there are twists and turns.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

How Soon Might the Atlantic Ocean Break? Two Sibling Scientists Found an Answer—and Shook the World

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is like a huge heat pump, taking water from the tropics to the north, warming areas in Europe. But as climate change accelerates, AMOC is becoming less stable. It might even be headed to a shutdown.

www.wired.com

Evernote Link

 

[Beebo Brink]

How Soon Might the Atlantic Ocean Break? Two Sibling Scientists Found an Answer—and Shook the World

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is like a huge heat pump, taking water from the tropics to the north, warming areas in Europe. But as climate change accelerates, AMOC is becoming less stable. It might even be headed to a shutdown.

www.wired.com

I subscribed to Wired ($5/year, not a huge sacrifice) just to read that article and it was worth every penny. Really good read about the scientists who issued this prediction, and gives me a much better understanding of the uncertainties they are grappling with.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I subscribed to Wired ($5/year, not a huge sacrifice) just to read that article and it was worth every penny. Really good read about the scientists who issued this prediction, and gives me a much better understanding of the uncertainties they are grappling with.

Sorry. I read it for free as part of the three free reads a month. I'll update the post with a link

Evernote Link

 

[Beebo Brink]

Sorry. I read it for free as part of the three free reads a month. I'll update the post with a link

Not to worry. I read Wired often enough that I owe them at least that much.