Italy: Lethal Flooding Kills Eight
Twenty-one rivers overtopped their banks in the Northern Italian of V=Emilia-Romagna as thousands of people were evacuated from their submerged villages. Eight are dead. Violent storms drove landslides in the same region as suffered as similar catastrophes in September 2022.
Drought | Flood | Drought
Italy is in the grip of an increasingly common weather pattern in which extended droughts are punctuated by catastrophic flooding.
Hundreds Dead In DR Congo
Floods and landslides have killed at least 400 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province last week, officials told CNN.
Heavy rainfall through last week caused rivers to overflow and created mudslides that devastated the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi in South Kivu’s Kalehe territory, provincial governor Theo Kasi told CNN Monday.
Videos from the area show buildings swept away in the water and mud, with debris strewn across the villages.
Gulf of Maine Heating Threatens Lobsters
Rapid heading in the Gulf of Maine is causing changes in the marine ecosystem which will prove to be both said and costly to the economy. The population of puffins was seriously impacted once again when water temperatures percolated to record highs. The seabirds struggled to find enough to eat as the percentage of surviving chicks fell to about a quarter, down from about two-thirds in a typical year. Their prey, like herring and hake, seek colder, deeper waters or move farther offshore beyond the reach of the seabirds.
State of Emergency for Tar Sands Fires
A 92°F temperature reading does not immediately leap off the page (compared to for example, the 104°F temperatures baking Western Europe) until you look at its location 550 miles north of the US border; then ponder the fact that it’s only mid-May. Record heat and tinderbox conditions are continuing this week in Alberta’s oil patch, otherwise known as the Tar Sands. 30,000 citizens have been evacuated in a weather pattern scenario similar to the lethal 2019 runaway fires in Australia. Dozens of heat records have been broken in the past week.
Spain hits 104°F as water supplies vanish
The summer climate disaster season has already begin in Western Europe, as temperatures set new records across the region n and extreme drought continues.
Catalonia’s 7.7 million residents in the northeast of Spain have already endured 32 months of drought, with reservoirs now running dry. Without serious rainfall, the area will enter a drought emergency in the Fall.
Temperatures also skyrocketed across parts of Portugal, Morocco and Algeria in the last week of April.
Spike in global ocean temps is scary
Global ocean temperatures have spiked dangerously in the past month and a half. Scientists are calling the ongoing increase in global ocean temperatures “unprecedented,” as a new unexplained anomaly produces graphs that are way out of the norm. (See graph)
Known as the OISST (Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature) the current report is comprised of data collated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites and buoys.
New Zealand Smashed by Historic Floods
Unprecedented: Auckland’s record storms kill at least four
A summer’s worth of rain.
Like many many places around the planet, Auckland, NZ is poorly prepared to face what is coming, some of which arrived spectacularly beginning Jan 27. Record rainfall brought a summer’s worth of rain in a three day onslaught, driving lethal flooding, major infrastructure damage, power and water outages and evacuations.
As is the case everywhere, New Zealand is experiencing more violent weather events due to the warming atmosphere’s ability to hold more moisture and generate more destructive energy.
The Climate Deception Papers
Among the many reasons the Scientists are Concerned is that the fossil fuel boys have spent billons of dollars lying to us for nearly fifty years. Exxon in particular has been caught dead to rights, but if there is any justice coming it’s still far in the future. For oil companies, as the global economy was wracked by inflation and insane gas prices, 2022 was the most profitable year in history.
The fossil fuel interests continue to gaslight us, promising to engage in renewables while doing the minimum.
Read the report, contact your representatives.
Download Union of Concerned Scientists report here
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Drought-Driven Somalia/Ethiopia Starvation
Millions of people in Somalia, Ethiopia and the greater Horn of Africa are on the verge of starvation. The country is bracing for its second famine since 2011 and many predict it will be worse than the last. A two-year drought has devastated crops leaving herders without food to feed their animals.
The U.N. now estimates that more than 1.7 million Somalis have been displaced from their homes. Many sought humanitarian assistance in urban camps while others crossed the border to Kenya or Ethiopia.
Colorado River Watershed Crisis Crosses Threshold
Runaway population growth, agricultural and mining demands across the Southwest have brought the region to a long postponed reckoning, which may or may not happen this year. This age old story pit city against rural interests, but the longer term story is this: there is less an less water available as a long term mega drought shows no sign of abating. Periodic rain and snow events help, but not enough.
Experts agree that the century-old agreement that governs management of the Colorado River basin needs to be overhauled to fairly apportion the shrinking water resources, but the definition of fair is elusive. So far, the states involved have shown little inclination to compromise.