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

Tim Simmons · October 2025

shadowcast said:

brianlux said:

Remember when climate deniers were a regular thing here. Changed their minds? Ahhhhhh, too late. Adaptation is going to be a challenge for millions.

I would it call it being a denier. I would call it not falling for the culture of fear that Co2 is a bad thing. The earth has never been greener. Recycling is a lie. Wind mills are garbage especially the ocean ones that kill wild life especially whales. Hurricanes are not that more frequent. Coral reefs are getting better and remind us of nature’s tenacity. There's a lot of exaggerated fears about climate. Follow the money everyone....follow the money.

its the playing loose and free with genuine facts that is the issue here. And you are falling prey to what this Admin wants you to (or people with vested interests in gas, mining, etc).

-Of course CO2 isn't a bad thing. its part of the cycle of life. But increased levels in the atmosphere (greenhouse gasses) disturb the ecology of the planet. Creating warmer environments, melting icecaps, and creating unbalance the naturally occurring environmental cycles and life on the earth.

-Some recycling is a lie. Plastic is largely unreusable. But Glass and aluminum are certainly reusable. We should be advocating for more composting, less plastic usage and lean in on glass and aluminum.

the windmill thing is fucking insane. its a fast growing green energy (almost 10% of the earth power generation!) that is quite successful with minimal impact. Trumps insane for thinking this is bad. Granted it probably has more to do with eye-soreness.

Correct Hurricanes are not more frequent, but tropical storms ARE (of which Hurricanes are considered). But, hurricanes have been trending increasingly stronger (more Cat 3,4, and 5s).

There are exaggerated fears about climate change no doubt. There has been a lot of successful gains in pursuit of a cleaner planet and clean energy. But claiming its all a scam is just lazy thinking based on half truths and mis information.

Poncier · October 2025

shadowcast said:

brianlux said:

Remember when climate deniers were a regular thing here. Changed their minds? Ahhhhhh, too late. Adaptation is going to be a challenge for millions.

Wind mills are garbage especially the ocean ones that kill wild life especially whales.

Fact-checking Donald Trump's claim that wind turbines kill whales

There is no evidence to back Mr Trump's suggestion that offshore wind turbines are killing whales.
NOAA officials carried out post-mortem examinations on about 90 humpback whales found dead since 2016.
Forty per cent of those deaths were linked to human interaction - whales becoming entangled in fishing nets, or being struck by vessels travelling through their feeding grounds.
In the remaining cases investigated by NOAA, other factors were listed as possible causes of death, including parasite-caused organ damage or starvation.
In some cases, the advanced stage of decomposition of the carcasses meant it was impossible to conclusively determine the cause of death.
"We know what the main threats are to humpback whales: it's very much the impact from things like fishing and ship strikes," says Rob Deaville from the Zoological Society of London's Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme.
"To talk about wind farms being a problem takes away discussion around the very real threats that are a problem for those species."

mickeyrat · January 30

Typhoon Halong’s destruction in Kipnuk, Alaska, adds an exclamation point to long-simmering fears about the future of coastal villages facing climate change.

Which town will be wiped away next? Should their former homes be rebuilt?

Read more (with Anchorage Daily News): https://propub.li/4kgE8hB

Halifax2TheMax · February 11

*The following opinion is mine and mine alone and does not represent the views of my family, friends, government and/or my past, present or future employer. US Department of State: 1-888-407-4747.

Maybe “they” know something the vast majority of humanity doesn’t? Too late. Good luck.

Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say

Continued global heating could set irreversible course by triggering climate tipping points, but most people unaware

The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said.

Continued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops, they said. This would lock the world into a new and hellish “hothouse Earth” climate far worse than the 2-3C temperature rise the world is on track to reach. The climate would also be very different to the benign conditions of the past 11,000 years, during which the whole of human civilisation developed.

At just 1.3C of global heating in recent years, extreme weather is already taking lives and destroying livelihoods across the globe. At 3-4C, “the economy and society will cease to function as we know it”, scientists said last week, but a hothouse Earth would be even more fiery.

The public and politicians were largely unaware of the risk of passing the point of no return, the researchers said. The group said they were issuing their warning because while rapid and immediate cuts to fossil fuel burning were challenging, reversing course was likely to be impossible once on the path to a hothouse Earth, even if emissions were eventually slashed.

It was difficult to predict when climate tipping points would be triggered, making precaution vital, said Dr Christopher Wolf, a scientist at Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates in the US. Wolf is a member of a study team that includes Prof Johan Rockström at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and Prof Hans Joachim Schellnhuber at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria.

“Crossing even some of the thresholds could commit the planet to a hothouse trajectory,” said Wolf. “Policymakers and the public remain largely unaware of the risks posed by what would effectively be a point-of-no-return transition.

“It’s likely that global temperatures are [already] as warm as, or warmer than, at any point in the last 125,000 years and that climate change is advancing faster than many scientists predicted.”

It is also likely that carbon dioxide levels are the highest they have been in at least 2m years.

Prof Tim Lenton, an expert on tipping points at the University of Exeter in the UK, said: “We know we are running profound risks on the current climate trajectory, which we can’t rule out could turn into a trajectory towards a much less habitable state of the climate for us. However, we don’t need to be heading towards a hothouse Earth for there to be profound risks to humanity and our societies – these will already be upon us if we continue to 3C global warming.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/11/point-of-no-return-hothouse-earth-global-heating-climate-tipping-points

Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

A small group of conservative activists has worked for 16 years to stop all government efforts to fight climate change. Their efforts seem poised to pay off.

In the summer of 2022, Democrats in Congress were racing to pass the biggest climate law in the country’s history and President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declaring that global warming posed a “clear and present danger” to the United States.

But behind the scenes, four Trump administration veterans were plotting to obliterate federal climate efforts once Republicans regained control in Washington, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the matter.

Two of them, Russell T. Vought and Jeffrey B. Clark, were high-profile allies of Donald Trump. Mr. Vought, who has railed against “climate alarmism,” and Mr. Clark, who has called climate rules a “Leninistic” plot to seize control of the economy, drafted executive orders for the next Republican president to dismantle climate initiatives.

The other two, Mandy Gunasekara and Jonathan Brightbill, were lesser-known conservative attorneys with long histories of fighting climate initiatives. Ms. Gunasekara, a onetime aide to the most vocal global warming denialist in the Senate, and Mr. Brightbill, who had argued in court against Obama-era climate regulations, collected an “arsenal of information” to chip away at the scientific consensus that the planet is warming, documents show.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/climate/endangerment-finding.html

brianlux · February 11

Halifax2TheMax said:

*The following opinion is mine and mine alone and does not represent the views of my family, friends, government and/or my past, present or future employer. US Department of State: 1-888-407-4747.
Maybe “they” know something the vast majority of humanity doesn’t? Too late. Good luck.
Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say
Continued global heating could set irreversible course by triggering climate tipping points, but most people unaware
The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said.
Continued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops, they said. This would lock the world into a new and hellish “hothouse Earth” climate far worse than the 2-3C temperature rise the world is on track to reach. The climate would also be very different to the benign conditions of the past 11,000 years, during which the whole of human civilisation developed.
At just 1.3C of global heating in recent years, extreme weather is already taking lives and destroying livelihoods across the globe. At 3-4C, “the economy and society will cease to function as we know it”, scientists said last week, but a hothouse Earth would be even more fiery.
The public and politicians were largely unaware of the risk of passing the point of no return, the researchers said. The group said they were issuing their warning because while rapid and immediate cuts to fossil fuel burning were challenging, reversing course was likely to be impossible once on the path to a hothouse Earth, even if emissions were eventually slashed.
It was difficult to predict when climate tipping points would be triggered, making precaution vital, said Dr Christopher Wolf, a scientist at Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates in the US. Wolf is a member of a study team that includes Prof Johan Rockström at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and Prof Hans Joachim Schellnhuber at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria.
“Crossing even some of the thresholds could commit the planet to a hothouse trajectory,” said Wolf. “Policymakers and the public remain largely unaware of the risks posed by what would effectively be a point-of-no-return transition.
“It’s likely that global temperatures are [already] as warm as, or warmer than, at any point in the last 125,000 years and that climate change is advancing faster than many scientists predicted.”
It is also likely that carbon dioxide levels are the highest they have been in at least 2m years.
Prof Tim Lenton, an expert on tipping points at the University of Exeter in the UK, said: “We know we are running profound risks on the current climate trajectory, which we can’t rule out could turn into a trajectory towards a much less habitable state of the climate for us. However, we don’t need to be heading towards a hothouse Earth for there to be profound risks to humanity and our societies – these will already be upon us if we continue to 3C global warming.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/11/point-of-no-return-hothouse-earth-global-heating-climate-tipping-points
Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation
A small group of conservative activists has worked for 16 years to stop all government efforts to fight climate change. Their efforts seem poised to pay off.
In the summer of 2022, Democrats in Congress were racing to pass the biggest climate law in the country’s history and President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declaring that global warming posed a “clear and present danger” to the United States.
But behind the scenes, four Trump administration veterans were plotting to obliterate federal climate efforts once Republicans regained control in Washington, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the matter.
Two of them, Russell T. Vought and Jeffrey B. Clark, were high-profile allies of Donald Trump. Mr. Vought, who has railed against “climate alarmism,” and Mr. Clark, who has called climate rules a “Leninistic” plot to seize control of the economy, drafted executive orders for the next Republican president to dismantle climate initiatives.
The other two, Mandy Gunasekara and Jonathan Brightbill, were lesser-known conservative attorneys with long histories of fighting climate initiatives. Ms. Gunasekara, a onetime aide to the most vocal global warming denialist in the Senate, and Mr. Brightbill, who had argued in court against Obama-era climate regulations, collected an “arsenal of information” to chip away at the scientific consensus that the planet is warming, documents show.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/climate/endangerment-finding.html

We've know much of this for decades and nothing has changed. I'm not very optimistic that even the most dire of warnings will be enough. The signs are everywhere. Look at that massive forest fires happening in the southern hemisphere right now. Look at how much of Canada and the American west burns each year. Look at the highly increase extreme weather and the loss off glaciers.

This is why I am sad every time I hear about people I know having having babies. Those kids are going to have a very difficult life.

As for people like Trump, Vought, and Clark... oh, don't get me started.

Zod · February 12

It's crazy I'm almost 50, so I'm like maybe I'm just old enough to tap out before it gets really bad. Then I have clients who are in their 70s and 80s and once and a while they look at me like they feel sorry for me because they think the same thing but they're 20+ years older, and they're thinking I'm young enough I will have to deal with it.. ugh.

There's doesn't see to be any getting off this train.

brianlux · February 12

Zod said:

It's crazy I'm almost 50, so I'm like maybe I'm just old enough to tap out before it gets really bad. Then I have clients who are in their 70s and 80s and once and a while they look at me like they feel sorry for me because they think the same thing but they're 20+ years older, and they're thinking I'm young enough I will have to deal with it.. ugh.

There's doesn't see to be any getting off this train.

I'm sorry to hear that, Zod. A lot of what's happening was set into motion before your time. Some of us advocated for the various efforts at slowing global warming, had fewer kids (my wife had one) or had none (me), tithed to organizations that do good work in trying to mitigate climate change. But the fact is, all of us in developed countries are culpable to varying degrees for this most challenging issue.

The poor and impoverished in less developed/ undeveloped countries are going to be hit hardest by climate change/ global warming. Any place that is more subject to extreme weather will have a tough time (coastal communities, flood plains, gulf states.) The western states and other places will have to live with ever greater massive wildfires (big concern where we are).

So anyway, I would never say it's to late to try to slow global warning, and I would never say it's too early to plan and develop strategies for coping with the coming extremes. I think most of us are fortunate enough to be able to do that.

PJ_Soul · February 12

Zod said:

It's crazy I'm almost 50, so I'm like maybe I'm just old enough to tap out before it gets really bad. Then I have clients who are in their 70s and 80s and once and a while they look at me like they feel sorry for me because they think the same thing but they're 20+ years older, and they're thinking I'm young enough I will have to deal with it.. ugh.

There's doesn't see to be any getting off this train.

I'm just really glad I chose not to have children.

Halifax2TheMax · February 14

*The following opinion is mine and mine alone and does not represent the views of my family, friends, government and/or my past, present or future employer. US Department of State: 1-888-407-4747.

Sure, they need tax breaks and credits, eh? But fuck the law, right? Laws and regulations, they apply to the “others”. And double fuck the poors, too.

A different set of rules’: thermal drone footage shows Musk’s AI power plant flouting clean air regulations

Images confirm xAI is continuing to defy EPA regulations in Mississippi to power its flagship datacenters

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is continuing to fuel its datacenters with unpermitted gas turbines, an investigation by the Floodlight newsroom shows. Thermal footage captured by Floodlight via drone shows xAI is still burning gas at a facility in Southaven, Mississippi, despite a recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling reiterating that doing so requires a state permit in advance.

State regulators in Mississippimaintain that since the turbines are parked on tractor trailers, they don’t require permits. However, the EPA has long maintained that such pollution sources require permits under the Clean Air Act.

Any exemption for these machines “could leave these engines subject to no emission standards at all”, the agency wrote in a January final ruling.

However, thermal images captured by Floodlight – and analyzed by multiple experts – show more than a dozen unpermitted turbines still spewing pollutants at the plant nearly two weeks after the EPA’s recent ruling.

“That is a violation of the law,” said Bruce Buckheit, a former EPA air enforcement chief, after reviewing Floodlight’s images and EPA regulations. “You’re supposed to get permission first.”

xAI, which is seeking permits for dozens more turbines in Southaven, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The EPA, which under Trump has initiated a record-low number of enforcement actions, declined to answer questions about the turbines at Musk’s AI facilities and referred to local authorities on permits.

The first and only public hearing on the matter is scheduled for Tuesday 17 February, and the public comment period is still open.

The Trump administration has made AI a priority, but as datacenters proliferate across the country, regulators are struggling to keep pace with the industry’s increasing reliance on custom-built or ad hoc power sources and their public health impacts on surrounding communities. And Southaven, where state regulators are at odds with federal guidance, is a prime example.

The turbines there help power Grok, the company’s controversial chatbot, and emit harmful pollutants linked to health problems such as asthma, lung cancer and heart attacks.

The risk of living next to this type of power plant is well documented,” said Shaolei Ren, a UC Riverside associate professor who specializes in the health impacts of datacenters. “From the health perspective, we know that this is not good.”

Southaven residents have voiced concerns for months about the noise and pollution emanating from the 114-acre site that is largely hidden from public view – a site xAI is looking to expand.

“For them to be releasing so much pollution in such a populated area, not to mention that there are at least 10 schools within a two-mile radius of the facility, is really concerning,” said longtime resident Shannon Samsa. “It’s horrifying to me that we’re allowing this in our community.”

From Memphis to Mississippi

The Southaven turbine cluster is part of xAi’s rapidly growing footprint along the Tennessee-Mississippi border. That expansion began in the spring of 2024 in South Memphis, next to historically Black neighborhoods, which often disproportionately bear the brunt of pollution from nearby plants, with the construction of Colossus 1, which the company touted as the world’s largest AI supercomputer.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) released thermal images in April revealing that xAi had been operating more than 30 unpermitted gas-powered turbines at that site.

“We were hopeful that the health department would step in,” said Patrick Anderson, a senior attorney at the SELC. “That never happened.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/13/elon-musk-xai-datacenters-air-pollution-mississippi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southaven,_Mississippi

josevolution · February 15

https://apnews.com/article/un-resolution-climate-international-court-justice-trump-31f4164aebd2b7bf8b9b4d1c89af9f50

Climate change pufff not on his watch there is no such thing as climate change

brianlux · February 16

josevolution said:

https://apnews.com/article/un-resolution-climate-international-court-justice-trump-31f4164aebd2b7bf8b9b4d1c89af9f50
Climate change pufff not on his watch there is no such thing as climate change

Utter foolishness. But of course billionaires don't care about anything besides their own greed... at any cost... even to the whole wide world.

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

Comments

Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say

Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say

Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

A different set of rules’: thermal drone footage shows Musk’s AI power plant flouting clean air regulations

From Memphis to Mississippi

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