breadandcircuses

ariadne, 37 minutes ago to random en

for the past hour or so my home page and messages page on climatejustice.social are not loading @PaulaToThePeople Is it just me or is anyone else experiencing this? #ClimateJustice #climatejustice.social

breadandcircuses, 1 hour ago to nauka en

Our third and final glance today at tipping points from Planet Snapshots takes us north, to the boreal forests that ring the globe just below the Arctic Circle. We all know about this year's devastating forest fires in Canada (which are still going on), and perhaps also about huge wildfires in Siberia from previous years.

But there's more to the story. And it's what lies below the surface — permafrost, storing gigantic amounts of potential climate-wrecking carbon — that might be of even greater concern, if that's possible, than those burning forests.

All in all, it's a true horror story, a nightmare from which we may never awake...

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The 1.5 billion acres of boreal forest spread across the sub-Arctic region stores over 30% of terrestrial biomass, making it the largest carbon storage source on land. However, what’s stored can be released. And we’re in deep trouble if Earth’s boreal forests flip from a carbon sink to a source.

There are a few mechanisms at play here. The primary threat is a feedback loop that triggers massive consequences: as the climate warms, wildfires intensify, more carbon is released, and the climate gets warmer.

But there are also more direct drivers too: chainsaws and beetles. The logging industry continues to ax away. And warmer winters are killing less bark beetle larvae, strengthening their numbers and expanding their range into more northern areas. Together these forces threaten to transform these old-growth forests into shrubby grassland.

The wildfires raging through Canada’s boreal forests this year have burned an area larger than 104 of the world’s 195 countries and have released 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (more than 100 nations’ combined annual emissions). And new analysis suggests that Canada’s forests have already reached a tipping point, perhaps even as early as the turn of the century.

The problem is further complicated by the fact that the boreal forest tipping point is stacked atop another one: permafrost, the permanently frozen soils in Arctic regions that store twice as much carbon as is in the atmosphere now. And since the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else, thawing permafrost is releasing massive amounts of planet-warming gas. In this global game of stabilizing carbon budgets, the balancing act is quickly teetering towards free-fall collapse.

This is really the crux of the issue. Losing this biome is bad enough, but the carbon released from the forests’ death rattle is utterly terrifying.

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FULL ARTICLE -- https://medium.com/@planetsnapshots/issue-93-tipping-points-boreal-forests-b64f77c5dde4

#Canada #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #CO2 #Emissions

breadandcircuses, 1 hour ago to nauka en

Let's go from the very cold (Greenland) to the very warm (coral reefs) and learn more about climate tipping points from Planet Snapshots...

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There’s only one thing more frightening than an ocean filled with large predators, and it’s an ocean filled with nothing living at all. Unfortunately, warmer temperatures are bleaching Earth’s corals into white tombstones and turning reefs into biological graveyards at an alarming rate.

About 90% of all atmospheric warming has been absorbed by Earth’s oceans, creating a multitude of problems including the destruction of its beloved biodiversity hotspots: coral reefs.

A warmer ocean significantly disrupts coral food webs that 25% of the planet’s marine species and about one billion humans rely on. Scientists further fear that its collapse won’t be slow and gradual but rather sudden and catastrophic.

That coral reef tipping point is both unnervingly close and frustratingly uncertain. The reefs that color Earth’s oceans and support tremendous biodiversity are rapidly dying. But the die-off is also uneven.

Some corals are more resilient to changes in marine chemistry than others. So while the prevailing science places a likely major collapse of low-latitude coral reefs between 1.5 to 2°C of warming, we’re still unsure where the tip into the deep end is exactly.

Reports from the IPCC indicate that a global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels would likely result in a decline of 70 to 90% of coral reefs. At 2°C that percentage reaches 99%. And recent studies point to crossing that warming threshold by mid-century. Which means that for this tipping point, our metaphorical toes are gripping the edge.

To say a mass die-off of coral reefs would be catastrophic for biodiversity and food webs would be an understatement. And it’s going to take more than curbing emissions to prevent the worst of its effects.

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LEANR MORE -- https://medium.com/@planetsnapshots/issue-91-tipping-points-coral-reefs-744e82e91edd

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Biodiversity

breadandcircuses, 2 hours ago to nauka en

Could all the ice in Greenland melt again, raising global sea levels and drowning many of our huge coastal cities?

Yes, it could, and at the rate we're going it almost certainly will someday. The problem is we don't know how close we might be coming to a catastrophic tipping point.

Here's more from Planet Snapshots...

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Rewind about 400,000 years ago and Greenland was, in fact, green. Temperatures were warmer then, and global sea level was at least 5 feet (1.5 m) higher than today.

Greenland is one of Earth’s most pressing climate tipping points — thresholds in the planet’s fine-tuned, self-regulating system that, once breached, cause dramatic and damaging changes. Its life support systems work like a game of Jenga: removing a few blocks may compromise the structure’s stability without ending the game. But there’s a critical block that will bring it crashing to the ground. Hiding within Jenga-Earth are critical blocks that, when pulled, will tip the whole structure.

Global sea level would rise 23 feet (7 m) if Greenland’s ice sheet completely melted again. The goal is to keep that “if” from turning into a “when.”

Scientists don’t know exactly how much atmospheric warming would trigger that level of melt, but some estimate a figure as low as 1.6°C. We’re well on track to surpass that target, especially considering that the loss of Greenland’s ice is creating a positive feedback loop.

The same reflectivity that makes it difficult for satellites to image the ice sheet is also great at bouncing back sunlight. But more of the ice is melting and the surface is darkening, reducing its reflectivity, or albedo, and further accelerating ice loss.

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FULL ARTICLE -- https://medium.com/@planetsnapshots/issue-89-tipping-points-greenland-5bdda753bea8

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

breadandcircuses, 2 hours ago to nauka en

Gruesome discovery to tell you about…

I recently encountered a newsletter that I’d never read before called “Planet Snapshots,” and it’s quite a valuable resource of information on the state of our global climate and environment.

What’s gruesome about that? Well, pretty much everything. I mean, the more you and I learn about our present situation, the worse it seems. But I think it’s very important that we don’t look away, that we clearly understand where we are and what we face.

Along with that, of course, we must do what’s necessary to maintain our mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing so that we are in good shape to act on what we learn and to assist those around us who are in need of help.

Anyway, this morning (EDT) I’ll be filling you in on some of the things I’ve gleaned from this new info source. We’ll start with a few climate tipping points, and yes, basically it’s a litany of decay. We find ourselves deep down inside a filthy hole, and for some reason our so-called 'leaders' are still digging even deeper as fast as they can.

Stay tuned, if you dare…

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

https://medium.com/@planetsnapshots

breadandcircuses, 21 hours ago to random en

🤔 If egg salad was called dinosaur embryo salad... would that make it sound less appetizing, or more appetizing?

incurablehippie, 21 hours ago to random en

The absolute audacity

breadandcircuses, 23 hours ago to nauka en

I've heard some people suggest that instead of naming our modern era the Anthropocene, it should be called the Plasticocene.

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Microplastics are becoming an increasing concern, as the tiny non-biodegradable particles — less than a fifth of an inch in size — are infiltrating our water supplies and posing a threat to environmental health.

Now, a study led by the University of Oldenburg in Germany has found a worrying source of microplastics: the air.

The study, conducted in collaboration with German and Norwegian researchers, took air samples in areas stretching from the Norwegian coastline to the Arctic.

After analyzing the samples, the researchers identified the types of plastic particles in the atmosphere, including polyester, polyethylene terephthalate — likely from the fashion industry — polypropylene polycarbonate, and polystyrene.

Debris from tires was also a significant source of microplastics.

The researchers believe plastic particles on the sea surface are being released into the atmosphere during storms via the spray caused by waves. It was also suggested that air bubbles on the surface that burst are contributors.

One way plastic finds its way to our oceans is through river systems, either from littering or inappropriate disposal. Additionally, some cosmetic products contain microplastics, which are often washed away by domestic drainage.

It’s unfortunately easy for fibers to escape from clothing, meaning they are likely passed into waterways’ drainage from household washing machines.

“These pollutants are ubiquitous,” said Isabel Goßmann, lead author of the study. “We find them even in remote polar regions.”

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FULL ARTICLE -- https://news.yahoo.com/scientists-uncover-concerning-surprise-lurking-113000909.html

SEE ALSO -- https://scitechdaily.com/ubiquitous-scientists-discover-that-the-oceans-release-microplastics-into-the-atmosphere/

#Science #Environment #Pollution

breadandcircuses, 23 hours ago to random en

It can be argued that electric vehicles are an improvement when replacing ICE vehicles.

But that misses a much bigger point — which is that the very best car is not an electric car. The very best car is no car at all!

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"EVs are a climate solution with a pollution problem: Tire particles."

Tires shed tiny particles with every rotation. Tire wear happens most dramatically during rapid acceleration, braking, and sharp turns, but even with the most conservative driving, particulate pollution is an unavoidable consequence of car use. And it’s a problem that’s poised to get worse as drivers transition to EVs.

The amount of tire pollution emitted per vehicle is increasing as more electric cars hit the road around the world — some 14 million of them this year, according to the International Energy Agency. EVs tend to be significantly heavier than gas-powered or hybrid cars due to their larger, heftier batteries.

Tire particulate is a toxic slurry of microplastics, volatile organic compounds, and other chemical additives that enter the air, soil, and water around trafficked areas. The rubber, metals, and other compounds coming off tires settle along roads where rain washes them into waterways. Smaller bits of tire particulate linger in the air, where they can be inhaled, and the smallest of this particulate matter can directly enter the bloodstream.

The tiny fragments that tires release into the environment are yet another reason to reduce car use.

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FULL ARTICLE -- https://grist.org/transportation/evs-are-a-climate-solution-with-a-pollution-problem-tire-particles/

#Environment #Pollution #WarOnCars #BanCars

breadandcircuses, 1 day ago to random en

Our Mastodon friend Steve Genco (@sjgenco) has posted a long and highly informative article about fossil fuels, politics, and climate change. I'll provide just a few excerpts here, and I really hope you'll read the whole thing...

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"The Oil Age May Not End the Way You Imagine It Will"

The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere when we exit the Age of Oil will be the defining factor that determines how much heat our descendants will have to endure for the next several thousand years.

Here we enter the realm of human choice. On the one hand, we could stop burning fossil fuels tomorrow. Climate scientists tell us in no uncertain terms that each tenth of a degree of global warming we inflict on the planet will bring with it potentially catastrophic effects, including the likely triggering of irreversible tipping points that could render the planet not just hotter, but essentially uninhabitable by humans (not to mention millions of other species).

On the other hand, economists and politicians tell us if we stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, we would destroy the world economy, bring industrial civilization to its knees, and probably put the lives of a large fraction of the human population in jeopardy. And they’re probably right. So we could do it, but we won’t do it.

There is of course a deep irony in the fact that while we continue burning fossil fuels to prop up our global economy, those fossil fuels continue to heat up the planet and produce climate damage that is equally threatening to our global economy, if not more so.

🔴 Exxon has announced plans to double its shale oil production in the US over the next five years.

🔴 Shell announced earlier this year that cutting the world’s oil and gas production would be “dangerous and irresponsible.”

🔴 Both Shell and BP have reneged on prior plans to cut oil and gas production, now claiming that such moves would dampen profits.

🔴 As reported in the New York Times in April 2023, hundreds of new oil and gas extraction projects have been approved in the last year, and dozens more are expected to be approved.

🔴 The industry has co-opted the UN COP process so successfully that Saudi Arabia was able to remove any mention of phasing out fossil fuels from the 2022 IPCC report.

🔴 Based on projections by Rystad Energy, the 20 largest oil and gas companies are expected to invest $932 billion in developing new oil and gas fields over the next 9 years. By the end of 2040 the figure grows to a staggering $1.5 trillion.

🔴 Fossil fuel subsidies remain astronomical and governments are showing little enthusiasm for eliminating or even reducing them.

In essence, governments are paying fossil fuel companies to continue ratcheting up global warming to a level that could plausibly result in human extinction. But that’s not how governments see it. In their view, they are keeping the global economic engine running because, just like the internal combustion engine in your 2010 Ford pickup, if that engine isn’t provided with fuel, it will stop running.

Both outcomes are happening simultaneously, because currently political leaders fear the end of capitalist accumulation (aka economic growth) more than they fear global warming. This is the major obstacle to any well-meaning plan for voluntary degrowth as a viable response to climate change and resource depletion.

---

FULL ARTICLE -- https://archive.ph/4eJJB

ALTERNATE LINK -- https://sjgenco.medium.com/the-oil-age-may-not-end-the-way-you-imagine-it-will-68143a68e775

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

breadandcircuses, 1 day ago to random en

Here's another opinion piece supporting the concept of degrowth and describing a renewed enthusiasm for system change...

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There has been an upsurge of interest in degrowth — a long-discussed strategic alternative to climate chaos — and not just from the radical left. It is experiencing a renaissance at the moment, driven by the relentless rise in global temperatures and the resulting climate chaos.

It was the theme of a three-day conference in May entitled ‘Beyond Growth 2023', which filled the main hall of the European Parliament with mostly young and enthusiastic people. According to the Economist report, the young audience ‘whooped and cheered’ when it was proposed that some form of de-growth would be necessary to avoid societal collapse.

In July, Bill McKibben, the veteran environmental campaigner, founder of 350.org, and prolific author, had a major article in the New Yorker strongly advocating degrowth from a historical perspective.

Growth is the driving force behind the environmental crisis. Over the past 60 years, the global economy has grown at an average rate of 3% a year, which is completely unsustainable. Over the same period, the global human population has risen from 3.6 billion in 1970 to 8 billion in 2022. John Bellamy Foster has pointed out that a 3% annual growth rate would grow the world economy by a factor of 250 over the course of this century and the next.

Such growth rates are incompatible with the natural limits of the planet and will ultimately defeat any attempts to resolve the environmental crisis that fail to deal with it.

What degrowth offers is a planned reduction of economic activity within a different economic paradigm, first and foremost in the rich countries of the Global North. Giorgos Kallis puts it this way in The Case for Degrowth: "The goal of degrowth is to purposefully slow things down in order to minimise harm to human beings and earth systems."

Jason Hickel in Less in More tells us that degrowth is “a planned reduction of excess energy and resource use in order to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a safe and equitable way”.

Such an approach must be the cornerstone of ecosocialism and an ecosocialist strategy designed to save the planet from ecological destruction and create a post-capitalist, ecologically sustainable society for the future.

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FULL ESSAY -- https://mronline.org/2023/09/23/degrowth/

#Capitalism #Inequality #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice #Degrowth

jwcph, 1 day ago to tech da

The anti-humanity of "efficiency" systems is honestly a little breathtaking.

Case in point, just had to perform the simple task of sending a package via UPS, but:

• Self-service was uninformative; had to call customer service

• The voice interface call screening robot was useless; had to hang up & re-call four times

• Customer support is on the clock & fob me off on tech support

• Tech support's call screener rattled off a spiel & hung up on me...

#ux #service #business #tech

breadandcircuses, 1 day ago to random en

Degrowth is the answer, the ONLY answer for preventing catastrophic climate breakdown and the collapse of society. And degrowth is possible if we can find the political will.

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According to a new study, the level of gross domestic product (GDP) has no impact on the ability of states to fund investments in radical decarbonization measures and ambitious social policies such as universal public services and a job guarantee.

"Halting global climate collapse requires massive increases in public spending. Only through public investment can we achieve a timely transition away from fossil fuels," says Christopher Olk, a doctoral researcher at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science in Berlin and lead author of the study.

It is widely believed that governments can only increase spending if they first grow GDP to increase tax revenue. This presents a problem, because GDP growth works against ecological objectives. Indeed, a majority of climate scientists now call for "degrowth" — a democratically planned, equitable reduction of less necessary forms of production — in high-income countries in order to enable faster decarbonization. Key degrowth measures include the expansion of universal public services and a job guarantee in sustainable sectors.

Degrowth presents governments with the question of how to finance the necessary ecological and social measures during this process of transformation — a question that Olk and his fellow research team members want to answer. They argue that public investment can be increased without GDP growth and that the process of degrowth simultaneously dismantles destructive, less necessary industries and prevents inflation.

According to the authors of the study, degrowth requires above all a politically well-organized social base. Concerns about financial feasibility, inflation, and living standards often lead to widespread skepticism about the possibility of a radical social and ecological transformation.

In this study, the authors address these concerns, demonstrating how such a transition is macroeconomically feasible, and propose a practical economic policy program that allows for ecological and social goals to be achieved at the same time.

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FULL ARTICLE -- https://phys.org/news/2023-09-fund-radical-ecological-social-policies.html

#Capitalism #Inequality #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice #Degrowth

breadandcircuses, 1 day ago to random en

A few excerpts from a stirring opinion piece by Nikayla Jefferson, a political science graduate student at UC Santa Barbara...

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There is no clear relationship between income equality and GDP growth. When a country is faced with the inevitable choice of growing its GDP or social and environmental well-being, the rules of our economy demand that GDP gets priority. We’re ensnared by our own silly rules, entangled in our precarious imaginations, so why not adopt another measure?

Nearly every country in the world desperately needs to phase out fossil fuels and build out their clean energy, climate adaptation and mitigation systems, structures, and technology. Deep decarbonization requires resources, and these resources must be shared equitably between countries.

The effort goes beyond just switching a system from fossil fuels to clean energy: 2 billion people around the world are in urgent need of clean water, and 3.6 billion are without access to essential services like sanitation. The Global South needs to grow in the realm of public goods, essential services, and other sectors that are crucial to a good, quality livelihood. If resources are finite and we aim to stay within bounds, resource use must be discerned between essential, meaningful, and superfluous.

Say our collective imagination was a little loosened, we liberated ourselves from the story of economic growth, and people democratically decided to take collective action. The economy without a mandate for growth might actually be a freer one.

Growth requires us to go fast and then faster. I imagine slower days, shorter work weeks. Less input into the growth monster means less output. There is less to demand of us, less to do. Sure, we may not receive boxes of colorful and neat-o new things two hours after we click buy, but what might we receive instead? More time with family and friends, more energy to devote to what and who we love most, more freedom to exist as a human being.

The mandate of every generation is to give old logic, imaginations, and orders a formidable challenge — to push society onward through the hard and necessary work for the sake of becoming better people. Every generation ages into its right to retell the story about us as we are and act on the dream of who we could be.

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FULL ESSAY -- https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/09/opinion-lets-free-ourselves-from-the-story-of-economic-growth/

#Capitalism #Inequality #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice #Degrowth

cian, 1 day ago to random en

"John Fish, chairman and CEO of construction contractor Suffolk, said an aging workforce and fewer young people entering the industry are a combustible combination. “A carpenter now is making 20% to 25% more than they did 24 months ago, and that is not sustainable.”

The word 'sustainable' doing a lot of work there I see (from a good WSJ article on declining worker participation in the US economy).

breadandcircuses, 1 day ago to random en

An economist named Blair Fix (@blair_fix) has written a piece illustrating the scope of our society's vastly growing inequality. Of course, you probably already knew about that, but he shows how bad it really is — and how it continues getting worse.

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The rich get richer.

It’s a phrase that packs a lot of punch. It’s potent rhetoric, yet surprisingly accurate at describing how rising inequality plays out.

Of course, there’s nothing inevitable about the rich getting richer. We just happen to live in an age of growing corporate despotism.

The Forbes 400 got a lot richer over the last forty years. But so what? It could be that over the same period, all Americans got richer. In that case, it’s not particularly meaningful to say that the rich got richer. Everyone got richer.

Except they didn’t.

It turns out that unlike the Forbes 400, the average American saw little change in their net worth over the last four decades. Do you see what happened to the black line [below] which plots the net worth of the median American? That’s right … not much. For forty years, Americans’ median net worth hardly budged.

What’s fascinating about rich lists like the Forbes 400 is that their authors seem oblivious to what they’re measuring. While ostensibly celebrating ‘wealth’, these lists are actually a barometer for social inequality.

As it turns out, inequality is written everywhere in the Forbes data. When the rich get richer, it’s not just the Forbes 400 who pull away from everyone else. Within the Forbes 400, the stupendously rich pull away from the ultra rich, who pull away from the mega rich, who pull away from the considerably rich, and so on. At a certain point, we run out of adjectives to describe the hand of inequality.

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FULL ARTICLE -- https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/09/24/how-the-rich-get-richer/

#Capitalism #Inequality

breadandcircuses, 1 day ago to nauka en

Scientists are now reporting on the "greening" of Antarctica. And that's NOT a good thing...

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As Antarctica is mostly covered in ice and snow, there previously hasn't been much space left for plants to grow. There are no trees or shrubs, and the plants that do exist are limited to a few islands and along the western Antarctic Peninsula.

However, as global temperatures continue to rise and ice in Antarctica continues to melt, researchers have found that plants on the continent are growing more quickly.

Comparing the results with surveys from the previous 50 years, they found that the sites had not only become more densely populated by the plants, but that they had also grown faster each year as the climate got warmer.

The results were staggering, with the Antarctic hair grass growing as much in 2009-2019 as it had in the entire 50 years from 1960 from 2009.

The Antarctic pearlwort moved even faster, growing five times more in the same periods.

Peter Convey, at the British Antarctic Survey, touched on the impact of accelerated growth as he told New Scientist: “The most novel feature of this is not the idea that something is growing faster. It’s that we think we’re starting to see what is almost like a step change or a tipping point.”

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You and I no longer live in the natural world into which we were born. It's already very different, and the pace of change is accelerating.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.unilad.com/news/world-news/antarctica-flowers-spread-climate-change-828134-20230922

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Antarctica

breadandcircuses, 2 days ago to random en

Émile P. Torres (@xriskology) is a philosopher and historian whose work focuses on existential threats to civilization and humanity. In their latest piece published at Salon, we hear an ominous warning:

"Think this summer was bad? It might be the best one you and I will ever see"...

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The climate catastrophe is already here. We've been watching it unfold in real time on the news and over social media. Some have witnessed it first-hand, losing their homes, being forced to evacuate under emergency conditions, and even losing their lives or the lives of friends and family.

For those sensitive to human suffering and the grave injustices driving the climate crisis, this summer has been difficult to deal with. It's been one extreme weather event, one shattered record, one shocking tragedy after another — and though the summer is now officially over, there's more to come.

Much more to come.

The disturbing fact that puts everything in perspective is that this summer will likely be among the mildest summers that you and I will experience for the rest of our lives. The extreme meteorological events of 2023 will be among the least disruptive that humanity encounters from here on out.

Imagine what our children will face. Scientists warn of potential "tipping points" in Earth systems, causing dramatic and irreversible shifts in the conditions of our planet. One paper warns of a sudden, catastrophic collapse of the global ecosystem, while a consensus is emerging that human actions have initiated the sixth major mass extinction event in the 3.8 billion-year history of life on Earth. Another paper published just this year estimates that one billion — with a "b" — people will likely die because of climate change within the next century.

Some people I speak with tell me that "humanity" deserves what's coming because of its profoundly irresponsible, destructive actions. We've razed forests, poisoned the oceans, and polluted the atmosphere with heat-trapping greenhouse gasses. We've decimated ecosystems, annihilated habitats, and pushed many species to the brink of extinction — or beyond. We've trashed this little oasis in space as if there's some Planet B waiting for us when Earth is no longer habitable.

But who is this "we"? Children don't deserve to suffer for the foolish behavior of their forebears. Justice isn't served if one generation gets punished for the actions of another.

Furthermore, studies show that the socioeconomic elite are disproportionately responsible for the climate crisis. In the U.S., the richest 10% produce 40% of the country's global warming pollution. Another study concluded that "a billionaire emits a million times more greenhouse gasses than the average person."

There is no sense, then, in which "humanity" deserves to suffer — indeed, the study mentioned above notes that many of the one billion deaths expected to occur because of climate change this century will happen in the Global South, which has contributed to the climate catastrophe far less than the major industrial nations of the Northern Hemisphere.

The injustice of this situation is spectacular. It's a crime against humanity — a crime against the future of humanity.

---

FULL ESSAY -- https://www.salon.com/2023/09/23/think-this-summer-was-bad-it-might-be-the-best-one-you-and-i-will-ever-see/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #ClimateJustice

breadandcircuses, 2 days ago to nauka en

Some of us who are very old will recall that Johnny Carson used to do a recurring bit on the Tonight Show where he would complain about how hot it had been that day. Then he'd wait for the audience to ask, in unison, "How hot was it?"

And he would give them a joke answer, like, "It was so hot that when I fell down on the pavement today I was badly burned and had to be taken to the hospital."

Well, no, not like that, because that's not funny. And in 2023, it's not even a joke. It's reality.

See -- https://www.azfamily.com/2023/07/24/phoenix-area-doctors-are-treating-spike-patients-burned-by-falling-ground/

Anyway, for more on the extreme heat levels we experienced this summer, let's turn to climate scientist Zeke Hausfather (@hausfath)...

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Global surface temperatures have dramatically spiked since the start of June, with the past four months (June-September) breaking prior monthly records by a large margin.

This extreme global heat has made it virtually certain that 2023 will rank as the warmest year on record, and means that there is a chance it will emerge as the first year exceeding 1.5C above preindustrial levels.

In this figure [below], we show how the monthly temperature anomalies in 2023 to-date compare with those from prior years. The years are color coded from blue to red depending on what decade they occurred in, with 2023 highlighted in black.

This figure, perhaps more than any so far, emphasizes just how extreme global temperatures have been since June, with September being the most anomalous month so far out of an already extremely anomalous summer.

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FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/visualizing-a-summer-of-extremes

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

pvonhellermannn, 2 days ago to random en

#ClimateDiary read yesterday’s “How do we raise trillions of dollars to fight the climate crisis? The answer is staring us in the face” by #GordonBrown just now ( ❤️ paper version = catch up) and really would like to spread his message: we need a global #WindfallTax on #PetrolProfits. This needs to be the tangible outcome of #COP28 we should all campaign for. Put so well here by Gordon Brown. #aclimateEmergency

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/25/we-need-trillions-of-dollars-to-fight-the-climate-crisis-this-is-my-plan-to-raise-it?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

ExtinctionR, 2 days ago to random en

dangillmor, 2 days ago to random en

My regular reminder that there is almost zero chance that I'll listen to a podcast, unless I'm addicted to the topic. I just don't have the time.

But there's a strong likelihood that I'll read at least the first few paragraphs of a blog post if the topic interests me at all.

It's basic time management. I can read/skim much, much faster than I can listen.

breadandcircuses, 2 days ago to random en

Headline from Grist:

"Winter just ended in South America. It’s 110 degrees."

Wait -- that can't be right, can it?

https://grist.org/agriculture/winter-just-ended-south-america-110-degrees/

#Brazil #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

breadandcircuses, 2 days ago to random en

In case you were wondering…

Yes, Canada is still on fire. Even though summer has gone by and the traditional wildfire season is over, hundreds of forest fires continue burning, most of them out of control.

This is intensely sad to me, not to mention frightening, and it’s a blatantly ominous sign that we are in the midst of a climate emergency.

#Canada #Wildfire #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

breadandcircuses, 3 days ago to random en

Last year the major oil companies pocketed four trillion dollars in profits. That’s not total sales, that’s profit!

💵 💵 💵 💵 Four TRILLION dollars in a single year. 💵 💵 💵 💵

Now just imagine how much could be done to clean up the environment, to fight climate change, to save vulnerable species from extinction, and to right the wrongs of global economic injustice if only we had four trillion dollars to spend.

THIS is why we urgently need system change. We must take that money away from those climate-wrecking fossil fuel companies and use it for good.

"How do we raise trillions of dollars to fight the climate crisis? The answer is staring us in the face."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/25/we-need-trillions-of-dollars-to-fight-the-climate-crisis-this-is-my-plan-to-raise-it

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice #Capitalism

breadandcircuses, 3 days ago to random en

Rich people like Bill Gates, and the politicians they own like John Kerry, have a reassuring message for us all. 😃

Gates — https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/109772828308275076
Kerry — https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/110729854915172708

It's not necessary, they tell us, for everyone to change their lifestyles in order to fight climate change or promote climate justice. We don't have to stop eating meat, or buying fast fashion, or driving our huge SUVs to work every day. No one needs to stop flying around the world using their private jets, or taking luxury cruises on their million-dollar yachts.

Why? Because capitalism can solve the climate crisis! 👏

Really? Yes!!

(Well, no, not really. That's a fantasy being sold to us by billionaires who have no interest in real change.)

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

breadandcircuses, 3 days ago to nauka en

It couldn't be more clear, in the midst of an ongoing climate and environmental catastrophe, that we need to urgently make huge systemic changes.

But instead we get this…

---

It’s time for another week of BUSINESS AS USUAL, sponsored this time by General Motors, ExxonMobil, and the US military-industrial complex.

🎶 "Keep driving, keep flying, keep shopping, keep buying!
We've got this, everything's fine." 🎶 😃

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

Miriamm, 3 days ago to random en

“'Bed rotting' is the new trend Gen Z is obsessed with”

It’s called depression and us millennials have been doing it for years 💅🏽

jackofalltrades, 3 days ago to random en

"""
It’s Time to Engineer the Sky

Global warming is so rampant that some scientists say we should begin altering the stratosphere to block incoming sunlight, even if it jeopardizes rain and crops
"""

https://archive.ph/NE8vy

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #geoengineering

breadandcircuses, 4 days ago to random en

Say this…

“Pleasingly plump playwrights probably pray playfully.”

🤪 Tongue-twister!

breadandcircuses, 4 days ago to random en

I’ve been having trouble with my connection to climatejustice.social for a few days now. 😕

Starting Friday afternoon all I got was error messages — the home page would not appear. On Saturday I was able to connect intermittently but still with frequent delays and more error messages. Today (Sunday), I can’t connect at all using Firefox, my preferred browser, but if I go back to Chrome I am able to see my home page and make posts, like this one.

I do not want to use Chrome if I don’t have to. Does anyone know the cause of these problems? Am I doing something wrong, or is it perhaps because my instance might be trying to do an upgrade? Any help or advice would be appreciated!

#MastodonHelp #Help
@PaulaToThePeople

breadandcircuses, 4 days ago to random en

#SilentSunday

TRZPhotography, 4 days ago to art en

It's foggy out with just a tad bit of sunshine, allowing for a unique capture. In the the background is the Historic Bayfront in Newport, Oregon. #BuyIntoArt #Art #ThomZehrfeldPhotography #PhotographyIsArt #Photography #Fotografie
#ArtForSale #ArtMatters #MastoArt #Mastodon #ArtforInteriorDesign #HospitalityInteriors
#InteriorDesign #Wallart #InteriorDecorating #WallArtForSale #Nautical #NewportOregon #PNW
Check out print options at:
https://1-thom-zehrfeld.pixels.com/featured/irish-miss-thom-zehrfeld.html

breadandcircuses, 5 days ago to random en

Twenty years ago, when people were in need of information, I remember saying, “Google is your friend.”

But not anymore. 😡

CelloMomOnCars, 3 months ago to random en

About that graph on #ocean heat:

"The shocking visual is prompting many to ask whether this recent surge [in #ocean heat] is evidence that human-caused heating has propelled the #climate past a #TippingPoint.

Climate scientists say the answer is likely no. Instead, it is much more probable to be ... a coincidence of natural factors piled on top of the steady trend of human-caused global heating. "

Jeff Berardelli explains those factors:

https://www.wfla.com/weather/climate-classroom/spike-in-ocean-heat-stuns-scientists-have-we-breached-a-climate-tipping-point/

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