The all-purpose heavy duty Climate Chaos thread (sprinkled with hope).

Halifax2TheMax · September 2024

And about those windmills. Make your plans. Make your peace. Spend it if you got it.

Earth just sweltered through the hottest summer in recorded history

Amid an onslaught of lethal heat, surging disease and record-breaking storms, global temperatures this summer climbed to the highest levels on record, according to Europe’s top climate agency.

As floodwaters coursed through Texas and Taiwan, as mosquito-borne viruses spread across the Americas, as lethal heat struck down children on hikes and grandparents on pilgrimage, the world’s average temperature this summer soared to the highest level in record history, according to new data from Europe’s top climate agency.

Global temperatures between June and August were 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the preindustrial average, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said Friday — just edging out the previous record set last summer. The sweltering season reached its apex in late July, when Copernicus’s sophisticated temperature analysis program detected the four hottest days ever recorded.

Meanwhile, temperatures for the year to date have far exceeded anything seen in the agency’s more than 80 years of recordkeeping, making it all but certain that 2024 will be the hottest year known to science.

To Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo, the onslaught of broken records is sobering but not surprising. Humanity continues to burn fossil fuels at an ever-increasing pace, and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than the world has seen in roughly 3 million years, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“If you keep doing the same thing, you cannot expect to get any different result,” Buontempo said. “Unless we limit greenhouse gases we will only see an exacerbation of these temperatures.”

This summer came on the heels of an unprecedented year-long stretch in which Earth’s temperature repeatedly met or exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average — a threshold scientists say the world cannot surpass if it hopes to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. The scorching conditions were the product of a complex cocktail of human-caused climate change and a strong El Niño event — a natural phenomenon characterized by warm temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.

Though this El Niño was declared over in June, huge amounts of energy remained trapped in the Earth system, Buontempo said, fueling the summer’s extraordinary temperatures.

The consequences were felt by people on every continent, from world-class athletes competing in the Paris Olympics to refugeesfleeing from wars. Wildfires fueled by heat and drought raged through the Brazilian Pantanal, a vital wetland known to store vast amounts of carbon. A turbocharged monsoon triggered landslides that killed hundreds of people in India’s Kerala state. The Atlantic Ocean saw its earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, while deadly floods have wreaked havoc from Italy to Pakistan to Nigeria to China.

It was a summer of unrelenting humidity and heat too extreme for the human body to withstand. In June, at least 1,300 pilgrims visiting the Muslim holy city of Mecca diedamid temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Another 125 people were reported dead in Mexico during a July streak of exceedingly hot nights that researchers say was made 200 times as likely because of climate change. And in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas, August temperatures soaredmore than 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above the previous record.

Nearly 7,000 weather stations in the United States broke daily temperature records between June 1 and Aug. 31, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The heat has been blamed for dozens of fatalities, including those of a motorcyclist riding in Death Valley, an infant on a boat trip in Arizona and a California man who collapsed inside his un-air-conditioned home. In Maricopa County, Ariz. — one of the few jurisdictions to methodically track and report on the problem — officials have attributed at least 177 deaths this year to heat-related causes.

Some of the most unusual heat this summer occurred in Antarctica, where plumes of warm air disrupted the deep freeze of the six-month polar night. Temperatures on the continent spiked about 28 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) above usual levels, and the surrounding sea ice shrank to nearly unprecedented lows.

The changes in Antarctica are especially eye-opening, Buontempo said, because the region has historically been isolated from the rest of the warming planet by a strong polar vortex and the swirling Southern Ocean.

But since 2023, the extent of sea ice around Antarctica has been about 1 million to 2 million square kilometers less than in any year since satellite observations began.

“This is very different from what we have seen in the past,” Buontempo said. “Even people working on sea ice are puzzled by the extent and the rapidity of the decline.”

When Earth’s four hottest days were recorded in July, climate scientist Johan Rockström told The Post that the planet was probably the warmest it has been since the last ice age began more than 100,000 years ago. Climate clues contained in ice cores, lake sediments and tree rings show that global temperatures are shifting out of the range they’ve occupied for most of human history.

“We’re scratching 1.5 [degrees above preindustrial], and we’ve experienced how it hurts the economy, people and societies across the entire world,” said Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

“But within five to 10 years ... what we’re experiencing right now will be looked back upon as a mild year,” he added. “We are inevitably in for a rough ride.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/09/05/hottest-summer-record-heatwave-global-temperature/

Halifax2TheMax · September 2024

From the comments section of the above WaPo article ^^^^^^^^^

Anton Chekhov from his play, Uncle Vanya (1897):

"Astrov- You can burn peat in your stoves and build your barns of stone. Oh, I don't object, of course, to cutting wood when you have to, but why destroy the forests? The woods of Russia are trembling under the blows of the ax. Millions of trees have perished. The homes of the wild animals and the birds have been laid desolate; the rivers are shrinking, and many beautiful landscapes are gone forever. And why? Because men are too lazy and short-sighted to stoop and pick their fuel from the ground. Am I not right? Who but a senseless barbarian could burn so much beauty in his stove and destroy what he cannot create himself? Man has reason and creative energy so that he may increase his possessions. Until now, though, he has not created but destroyed. The forests are disappearing, the rivers are drying up, the game is being exterminated, the climate is spoiled and the earth becomes poorer and uglier every day. I read irony in your eye; you do not take seriously what I am saying; and -- and -- perhaps I am talking nonsense. But when I cross peasant-forests which I have saved from the ax, or hear the rustling of the young trees which I have set out with my own hands, I feel as if I had had some small share in improving the climate, and that if mankind is happy a thousand years from now I shall have been partly responsible in my small way for their happiness. When I plant a young birch tree and see it budding and swaying in the wind, my heart swells with pride and I -- however -- I must be off. Probably it is all nonsense, anyhow. Goodbye."

The great Russian writer Anton Chekhov saw climate change coming 127 years ago. He wrote this play only 11 years before the automobile first saw the light of day..

brianlux · September 2024

Halifax2TheMax said:

From the comments section of the above WaPo article ^^^^^^^^^

Anton Chekhov from his play, Uncle Vanya (1897):
"Astrov- You can burn peat in your stoves and build your barns of stone. Oh, I don't object, of course, to cutting wood when you have to, but why destroy the forests? The woods of Russia are trembling under the blows of the ax. Millions of trees have perished. The homes of the wild animals and the birds have been laid desolate; the rivers are shrinking, and many beautiful landscapes are gone forever. And why? Because men are too lazy and short-sighted to stoop and pick their fuel from the ground. Am I not right? Who but a senseless barbarian could burn so much beauty in his stove and destroy what he cannot create himself? Man has reason and creative energy so that he may increase his possessions. Until now, though, he has not created but destroyed. The forests are disappearing, the rivers are drying up, the game is being exterminated, the climate is spoiled and the earth becomes poorer and uglier every day. I read irony in your eye; you do not take seriously what I am saying; and -- and -- perhaps I am talking nonsense. But when I cross peasant-forests which I have saved from the ax, or hear the rustling of the young trees which I have set out with my own hands, I feel as if I had had some small share in improving the climate, and that if mankind is happy a thousand years from now I shall have been partly responsible in my small way for their happiness. When I plant a young birch tree and see it budding and swaying in the wind, my heart swells with pride and I -- however -- I must be off. Probably it is all nonsense, anyhow. Goodbye."

The great Russian writer Anton Chekhov saw climate change coming 127 years ago. He wrote this play only 11 years before the automobile first saw the light of day..

Thanks for posting that!

We have had so many warning from a host of well published thinkers since the advent of the industrial revolution some 200 years ago. But we didn't listen. We didn't respond. We didn't act- at least not enough to make a sizable enough difference.

And even now and even here where people care, we spend more of our time and energy talking about social and political issues. Meanwhile, the planet burns and our future becomes more and more challenging.

mickeyrat · October 2024

mickeyrat · October 2024

one solution? or par of ?

https://www.threads.net/@cornoisseur/post/DA1pbjCuu1R?xmt=AQGztRHXjZKlRuKmtsSKdagpPhv4V5twdaLE3moj8FQ1vQ

brianlux · October 2024

mickeyrat said:

one solution? or par of ?
https://www.threads.net/@cornoisseur/post/DA1pbjCuu1R?xmt=AQGztRHXjZKlRuKmtsSKdagpPhv4V5twdaLE3moj8FQ1vQ

Good question though it does open a...

mickeyrat · October 2024

Milton from space

https://www.threads.net/@itsthemind/post/DA3ofHrOs8A?xmt=AQGzsl9oE3DFPqN5hCFXP01PCmWc6WkeqGZgkIltAvA1Sg

brianlux · October 2024

mickeyrat said:

Milton from space
https://www.threads.net/@itsthemind/post/DA3ofHrOs8A?xmt=AQGzsl9oE3DFPqN5hCFXP01PCmWc6WkeqGZgkIltAvA1Sg

Massive!

HughFreakingDillon · October 2024

well this isn't good: The System That Moves Water Around The Earth is Off Balance For First Time In Human History

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/16/climate/global-water-cycle-off-balance-food-production/index.html

brianlux · October 2024

HughFreakingDillon said:

well this isn't good: The System That Moves Water Around The Earth is Off Balance For First Time In Human History

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/16/climate/global-water-cycle-off-balance-food-production/index.html

It's a sad story really. Humans have trashed the planet to an incredible extent since the advent of the industrial revolution and that trashing has increased on an exponential scale. With a little luck and as much continued advocacy as we can muster, we might slow the decline some, but it's difficult to be optimistic about that. My guess is the worst case scenario is human extinction due to our own reckless greed, but I think a more likely outcome will be an increased loss of life, particularly in the poverty stricken regions of the planet. a lower standard of living for all but a small elite group of people, and a slow regeneration after a long period of social chaos.

The article states, "The consequences will be even more catastrophic without urgent action," but we hear and read those same words over and over. Almost every article I've read on environment and climate change over the last several years eventually gets around to mentioning the need for "urgent action". At some point it becomes, "Oops, too late."

HughFreakingDillon · October 2024

I'm legit scared for my kids.

Halifax2TheMax · October 2024

brianlux said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

well this isn't good: The System That Moves Water Around The Earth is Off Balance For First Time In Human History

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/16/climate/global-water-cycle-off-balance-food-production/index.html

It's a sad story really. Humans have trashed the planet to an incredible extent since the advent of the industrial revolution and that trashing has increased on an exponential scale. With a little luck and as much continued advocacy as we can muster, we might slow the decline some, but it's difficult to be optimistic about that. My guess is the worst case scenario is human extinction due to our own reckless greed, but I think a more likely outcome will be an increased loss of life, particularly in the poverty stricken regions of the planet. a lower standard of living for all but a small elite group of people, and a slow regeneration after a long period of social chaos.

The article states, "The consequences will be even more catastrophic without urgent action," but we hear and read those same words over and over. Almost every article I've read on environment and climate change over the last several years eventually gets around to mentioning the need for "urgent action". At some point it becomes, "Oops, too late."

Al Gore tried to tell us in 2000, 24 years ago. Crop and water scarcity will lead to massive population shifts resulting in conflict. Technology won’t bail us out in time.

brianlux · October 2024

HughFreakingDillon said:

I'm legit scared for my kids.

I know you've mentioned that before and I'm sorry. I feel the same concern for my grandnieces and grandnephew and grand godchildren.

Halifax2TheMax said:

brianlux said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

well this isn't good: The System That Moves Water Around The Earth is Off Balance For First Time In Human History

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/16/climate/global-water-cycle-off-balance-food-production/index.html

It's a sad story really. Humans have trashed the planet to an incredible extent since the advent of the industrial revolution and that trashing has increased on an exponential scale. With a little luck and as much continued advocacy as we can muster, we might slow the decline some, but it's difficult to be optimistic about that. My guess is the worst case scenario is human extinction due to our own reckless greed, but I think a more likely outcome will be an increased loss of life, particularly in the poverty stricken regions of the planet. a lower standard of living for all but a small elite group of people, and a slow regeneration after a long period of social chaos.

The article states, "The consequences will be even more catastrophic without urgent action," but we hear and read those same words over and over. Almost every article I've read on environment and climate change over the last several years eventually gets around to mentioning the need for "urgent action". At some point it becomes, "Oops, too late."

Al Gore tried to tell us in 2000, 24 years ago. Crop and water scarcity will lead to massive population shifts resulting in conflict. Technology won’t bail us out in time.

And how tragic that not enough had been done since.

Going back even further, in 1975 Wallace Broecker published a paper titled, "Climate Change: Are we on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?"
And in 1988, NASA scientist James Henson testified before congress regarding his research showing that global warming was being caused by the greenhouse effect.

Halifax2TheMax · October 2024

brianlux said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

I'm legit scared for my kids.

I know you've mentioned that before and I'm sorry. I feel the same concern for my grandnieces and grandnephew and grand godchildren.

Halifax2TheMax said:

brianlux said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

well this isn't good: The System That Moves Water Around The Earth is Off Balance For First Time In Human History

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/16/climate/global-water-cycle-off-balance-food-production/index.html

It's a sad story really. Humans have trashed the planet to an incredible extent since the advent of the industrial revolution and that trashing has increased on an exponential scale. With a little luck and as much continued advocacy as we can muster, we might slow the decline some, but it's difficult to be optimistic about that. My guess is the worst case scenario is human extinction due to our own reckless greed, but I think a more likely outcome will be an increased loss of life, particularly in the poverty stricken regions of the planet. a lower standard of living for all but a small elite group of people, and a slow regeneration after a long period of social chaos.

The article states, "The consequences will be even more catastrophic without urgent action," but we hear and read those same words over and over. Almost every article I've read on environment and climate change over the last several years eventually gets around to mentioning the need for "urgent action". At some point it becomes, "Oops, too late."

Al Gore tried to tell us in 2000, 24 years ago. Crop and water scarcity will lead to massive population shifts resulting in conflict. Technology won’t bail us out in time.

And how tragic that not enough had been done since.
Going back even further, in 1975 Wallace Broecker published a paper titled, "Climate Change: Are we on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?"
And in 1988, NASA scientist James Henson testified before congress regarding his research showing that global warming was being caused by the greenhouse effect.

And Jimmy Carter was ridiculed for putting solar panels on the White House and one of Ronny Rayguns first acts was to have them removed.

brianlux · October 2024

Halifax2TheMax said:

brianlux said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

I'm legit scared for my kids.

I know you've mentioned that before and I'm sorry. I feel the same concern for my grandnieces and grandnephew and grand godchildren.

Halifax2TheMax said:

brianlux said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

well this isn't good: The System That Moves Water Around The Earth is Off Balance For First Time In Human History

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/16/climate/global-water-cycle-off-balance-food-production/index.html

It's a sad story really. Humans have trashed the planet to an incredible extent since the advent of the industrial revolution and that trashing has increased on an exponential scale. With a little luck and as much continued advocacy as we can muster, we might slow the decline some, but it's difficult to be optimistic about that. My guess is the worst case scenario is human extinction due to our own reckless greed, but I think a more likely outcome will be an increased loss of life, particularly in the poverty stricken regions of the planet. a lower standard of living for all but a small elite group of people, and a slow regeneration after a long period of social chaos.

The article states, "The consequences will be even more catastrophic without urgent action," but we hear and read those same words over and over. Almost every article I've read on environment and climate change over the last several years eventually gets around to mentioning the need for "urgent action". At some point it becomes, "Oops, too late."

Al Gore tried to tell us in 2000, 24 years ago. Crop and water scarcity will lead to massive population shifts resulting in conflict. Technology won’t bail us out in time.

And how tragic that not enough had been done since.
Going back even further, in 1975 Wallace Broecker published a paper titled, "Climate Change: Are we on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?"
And in 1988, NASA scientist James Henson testified before congress regarding his research showing that global warming was being caused by the greenhouse effect.

And Jimmy Carter was ridiculed for putting solar panels on the White House and one of Ronny Rayguns first acts was to have them removed.

Ugh! I forgot about that. Yeah, really bad movie on Ronnie's part.

Get_Right · October 2024

Buy land now with a spring fed lake in Northern Canada. Thank me in 30 years. Water will be worth more than oil.

brianlux · October 2024

Besides the understandable doom and gloom of climate change et al, I think it's important to maintain some hope and in particular, do something, anything, that is helpful.

So it's almost embarrassing to admit that it took so long for my wife and I to do something we did yesterday to cut down on plastic, but it's a great idea, so here it is:

A couple of weeks ago, we had lunch out and instead of sharing something like we often do, we had two different items. Which meant, of course, too much food for one meal, so we doggy bagged what we didn't eat. And of course, doggy bagging means more plastic or Styrofoam. Bit then the ridiculously obvious hit us-- why don't we just bring our own containers? So when we got home, we re-washed some reusable plastic containers (that we already had), and put them in clean bag which we twist-tired shut, and placed them in the back of the car.

Now when we go out, we take the bagged containers into the restaurant with us and reuse them to take home left-overs. Wash, rinse, repeat. No more extra plastic or Styrofoam take-home containers.

Yes, face palm for taking so long to think of this, but ya know, it feels great to be doing this!

OnWis97 · October 2024

brianlux said:

Besides the understandable doom and gloom of climate change et al, I think it's important to maintain some hope and in particular, do something, anything, that is helpful.
So it's almost embarrassing to admit that it took so long for my wife and I to do something we did yesterday to cut down on plastic, but it's a great idea, so here it is:

A couple of weeks ago, we had lunch out and instead of sharing something like we often do, we had two different items. Which meant, of course, too much food for one meal, so we doggy bagged what we didn't eat. And of course, doggy bagging means more plastic or Styrofoam. Bit then the ridiculously obvious hit us-- why don't we just bring our own containers? So when we got home, we re-washed some reusable plastic containers (that we already had), and put them in clean bag which we twist-tired shut, and placed them in the back of the car.

Now when we go out, we take the bagged containers into the restaurant with us and reuse them to take home left-overs. Wash, rinse, repeat. No more extra plastic or Styrofoam take-home containers.

Yes, face palm for taking so long to think of this, but ya know, it feels great to be doing this!

I thought of this years ago...and have never once done it. :(

I never think of it when its time to go...

brianlux · October 2024

OnWis97 said:

brianlux said:

Besides the understandable doom and gloom of climate change et al, I think it's important to maintain some hope and in particular, do something, anything, that is helpful.
So it's almost embarrassing to admit that it took so long for my wife and I to do something we did yesterday to cut down on plastic, but it's a great idea, so here it is:

A couple of weeks ago, we had lunch out and instead of sharing something like we often do, we had two different items. Which meant, of course, too much food for one meal, so we doggy bagged what we didn't eat. And of course, doggy bagging means more plastic or Styrofoam. Bit then the ridiculously obvious hit us-- why don't we just bring our own containers? So when we got home, we re-washed some reusable plastic containers (that we already had), and put them in clean bag which we twist-tired shut, and placed them in the back of the car.

Now when we go out, we take the bagged containers into the restaurant with us and reuse them to take home left-overs. Wash, rinse, repeat. No more extra plastic or Styrofoam take-home containers.

Yes, face palm for taking so long to think of this, but ya know, it feels great to be doing this!

I thought of this years ago...and have never once done it. :(

I never think of it when its time to go...

My wife admitted she had thought of it as well but then never got around to it. Once we talked about it, I remembered we had some plastic to-go containers that hadn't been recycled yet, so I washed the pair of them, put them in a plastic bag (yeah, more plastic, lol), twist tied the bag shut, and keep it in the car. We went out to lunch a couple of days ago and brought left-overs home in those containers and it was such a good feeling not to be adding more plastic to the environment. The containers and clean and back in the car for another go. It's a small thing, but just think how much plastic would be save if enough people did this. That little act could become a huge savings in plastic!

mickeyrat · October 2024

https://www.threads.net/@renewable_energy_club/post/DBo3jy4gO0K?xmt=AQGz7GpjMpAdt36COvBVYVzDwxvp6Z4ZDgvsz3TMJbOrWQ

The all-purpose heavy duty Climate Chaos thread (sprinkled with hope).

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Earth just sweltered through the hottest summer in recorded history

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