WTF Climate Change News

[Katheryne Helendale]

Bingo.

This is why I don't put much faith in polls that show high numbers of people worried about climate change. Of course they're worried, and of course they want government to Do Something About It, but it's easy to say that in a general sort of way. Put a specific action in front of them -- like hey, eat less meat -- and they lose their shit.

A lot of people want something done about it, but nobody is willing to sacrifice anything to make it happen.

 

[Beebo Brink]

The ‘Great Dying’ wiped out 90% of life, then came 5 million years of lethal heat. New fossils explain why | CNN

 

[Beebo Brink]

Europe’s heatwave moves east as row erupts in France over air conditioning | Extreme weather | The Guardian

Spain records highs of 46C and France under alert as Europe swelters in heatwave | Europe weather | The Guardian

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Europe’s heatwave moves east as row erupts in France over air conditioning | Extreme weather | The Guardian

Spain records highs of 46C and France under alert as Europe swelters in heatwave | Europe weather | The Guardian

We've been talking about the heat wave in SL. It's been hotter in Europe than here in Illinois! Two days ago it was hotter in London at 6pm than here near noon. A former Duchess regular of our acquaintance was glad she was back Oop North after having to spend time in Southern England this week.

 

[Beebo Brink]

‘It’s too late’: David Suzuki says the fight against climate change is lost - iPolitics

“We have failed to shift the narrative and we are still caught up in the same legal, economic and political systems,” said David Suzuki in an exclusive interview with iPolitics. “For me, what we’ve got to do now is hunker down.”

At the end of [the 1988 first international conference on the atmosphere], they said global warming represented a threat to humanity, second only to global nuclear war. If the world had followed the conclusions from that conference, we would not have the problem we face today and we would have saved trillions of dollars and millions of lives.

Now, it is too late.

I’ve never said this before to the media, but it’s too late. I say that because I go by science and Johan Rockström, the Swedish scientist who heads the Potsdam Institute, has defined nine planetary boundaries... If we pass one boundary, we should be shitting our pants. We’ve passed seven!

 

[Beebo Brink]

While we're on that "it's too late" theme...

bne IntelliNews - Southern Ocean current reverses for first time, signalling risk of climate system collapse

A major ocean current in the Southern Hemisphere has reversed direction for the first time in recorded history, in what climatologists are calling a “catastrophic” tipping point in the global climate system.

The development, which was confirmed by Spanish marine scientists at El Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona, has triggered widespread alarm among climate scientists due to its potential to accelerate global warming and destabilise weather patterns worldwide.

“The stunning reversal of ocean circulation in the Southern Hemisphere confirms the global climate system has entered a catastrophic phase,” said climate activist Ben See in a post on social media.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Trump administration says it won't publish major climate change reports on NASA website as promised

The Trump administration has made it harder for people, local and state governments to find critical climate change reports.

apnews.com

Because of course they won't.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The ICJ Rules That Failing to Combat Climate Change Could Violate International Law

In a landmark ruling, the International Court of Justice declared that failure to act on climate change can be an “internationally wrongful act”—meaning countries could face legal consequences for harming the planet.

www.wired.com

Evernote Link

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Extreme Weather — Center for Countering Digital Hate | CCDH

CCDH’s new research shows that X, Meta, and YouTube let false claims about extreme weather events spread unchecked, putting lives at risk.

counterhate.com

 

[Free]

So Climate Change might be real, but it won't cause any real problems in the near future. Right?

The First Planned Migration of an Entire Country Is Underway (archive.today)

Tuvalu is preparing to carry out the first planned migration of an entire country in response to the effects of climate change. Recent studies project that much of its territory could be submerged in the next 25 years due to rising sea levels, forcing its inhabitants to consider migration as an urgent survival measure.

This island nation in Oceania is made up of nine coral islands and atolls inhabited by just over 11,000 people. The country’s average altitude is just 2 meters above sea level, making it extremely vulnerable to rising oceans, flooding, and storm surges, all exacerbated by the climate crisis.

Tuvalu is well known online for the popularity of their top-level domain (.tv). Now they'll also be known as the country that had to move to avoid drowning.

 

[Beebo Brink]

"It's too late. We've lost."
—Dr. Peter Carter, expert IPCC reviewer and Director of Climate Emergency Institute, calls it – joins David Suzuki in official recognition of unavoidable endgame on planet, climate, Homo sapiens

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Donald Trump’s war on climate science has staggering implications

Even a policy of “drill, baby, drill” would imply more climate research, not its evisceration, says Ralph Keeling

www.economist.com

Evernote Link

 

[Beebo Brink]

The world is getting hotter – this is what it is doing to our brains

Although extreme heat alters how everyone's brains work – it can, for example, adversely affect decision making and lead to people taking greater risks – those with neurological conditions are often the most severely affected.

"The era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced, when July 2023 was confirmed to be the hottest month on record. Climate change is here and it is intensifying. The era of the hot brain is just beginning.

This matter of who is most affected by the heat could have some very interesting evolutionary effects, assuming our species lasts long enough to adapt.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Crossing this town off my vacation spots list.

‘We are on the frontline’: the ambitious plan to save an Alpine village from a climate catastrophe | France | The Guardian

The villagers of Pralognan-la-Vanoise in the French Alps know well the perils posed by the mountains that encircle them.

Avalanches, rockfalls, mudslides, sudden crevices and torrents of water are within the living memory of most villagers, and every day the climate emergency throws up new dangers.

Less than a year ago, an enormous lake formed by a melting glacier was discovered high above Pralognan that experts feared could inundate the village with more than 60,000 cubic metres of icy water.

 

[Beebo Brink]

More than 400 people suspected to have died from extreme heat in Arizona county | Arizona | The Guardian

More than 400 people are suspected to have died from extreme heat in Maricopa county, Arizona, so far this summer, according to official figures, as the brutal current heatwave enters its 12th day.

August is on track to be the hottest on record, with temperatures hitting at least 110F (43C) every day apart from one so far. As of 11 August, at least three daily records had been broken including an all-time monthly high of 118F (48C), as well as several night-time record temperatures, according to Isaac Smith, meteorologist at the National Weather Service (NWS) in Phoenix.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The Guardian: Counting down to zero: the final warning from a climate diplomat

Before Peter Betts died in 2023, he wanted to pass on what he had learned over many years of negotiating at Cops – including how Paris 2015 was saved at the last bell

The longer I have worked on the climate crisis, the more worried I have become. As I approach my own death, I realise how insignificant I am as one individual, and how devastating climate breakdown will be for millions if not billions of people, many of whom are not even born yet. To state the bleeding obvious, this puts the slightly earlier than expected death of one individual in some perspective.

 

[Beebo Brink]

No one has ever accused me of being an optimist, especially when it comes to climate change. So enjoy this moment while it lasts.

Bill McKibben covers the progress of solar energy adoption outside the U.S. (spoiler: it's going gangbusters):

 

[Beebo Brink]

Oh well, that good news didn't last long.

Russia Uncovers 511 Billion Barrels of Oil Beneath Antarctica: A Find That Could End the Continent’s Era of Peaceful Use | PeakD

 

[Free]

I swear to Thor, if any of you blame this on dinosaurs dying off in Antarctica, I'm taking us all out.