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Finally? The planet has issued a global warming announcement

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CONSIDER THIS SUMMER YOUR CLIMATE EMERGENCY ANNOUCEMENT

It’s really here and you are on your own

Summer 2023 was the hottest month planet wide in 120,000 years

This is the hottest summer endured by human civilization, but the context is even more alarming. In a nutshell, during the La Nina cycle that just ended, the planet recorded the eight hottest years on record. But La Nina is associated with a cooling cycle. With El Nino just beginning, there is really no telling what will transpire.

Salt water entering New Orleans water supply

Emergency declaration as extended drought pushes salt water into Mississippi River estuary

Both the state of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans have issued emergence declarations as the city that should not be there acknowledged the threat to its drinking water supply. Saltwater from the Gulf is entering the river due to drought-driven low water levels. 

For those who rely on the Mississippi River for drinking water, the saltwater intrusion is a potential health risk, as high concentrations of salt in drinking water may cause people to develop increased blood pressure and corrode drinking water infrastructure.

Halifax sees lethal flooding in “Biblical” event

10″ of rain in 24 hours  kills four in “under the radar” disaster

Halifax and Nova Scotia did not make the news in August when an extreme storm smacked into the city and surrounding area, but the resulting flooding 

“We need to understand that all of these things are pounding away at our infrastructure, at our roads and our culverts. So even though we get past one event, it might be a hurricane and then we have the fire and then we have the rain. They’re all taking an impact on infrastructure.”

Mike Savage, Halifax mayor. infrastructure, just like ourselves, is being pounded by cumulative weather events,’ Halifax mayor says.

September 2023 hottest ever

Following the warmest summer ever recorded, September continues the alarming trend
This month will be recorded as the hottest September ever recorded planet wide according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. It ties and most likely exceeds that record set in 2016.
“The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting. Climate breakdown has begun.

António Guterres, UN Secretary-General 

Scientists say the extreme heat  contributed to this summer’s epic ocean storms, wildfires, flooding, and droughts. In North America and Europe, such heat would have been “virtually impossible” had humans not warmed the planet with fossil fuel emissions.

12,000+ Dead In Libyan Storm Onslaught

“People are using shovels to get the bodies from underneath the ground, they are using their own hands. They all say it’s like doomsday.”

 

A Mediterranean cyclone brought 16 inches of rain in 24 hours to eastern Libya, driving a ten foot tsunami wall that destroyed dams, bridges and infrastructure in the process of setting a new rainfall record. This is more than a year’s rainfall in a place so dry that no permanent river runs through it. Storm Daniel is a Medicane,, a term coined to describe the increasingly violent weather impacting the regions as the globe heats

 

Around 10,000 more are missing and 30,000 displaced in Derna, a city of 100,000. Many are believed swept out to sea or buried in rubble..

Antarctic Ice Melting Even Faster Than predicted.

The size of ice volume lost this year in Antarctica is about the area of Argentina

Antarctica is likely warming at almost twice the rate of the rest of the world and faster than climate change models are predicting, with potentially far-reaching implications for global sea level rise, according to a scientific study.

In West Antarctica, a region considered particularly vulnerable to warming with an ice sheet that could push up global sea levels by several metres if it collapsed, the study found warming at twice the rate suggested by climate models.

Climate scientists have long expected that polar regions would warm faster than the rest of the planet – a phenomenon known as polar amplification – and this has been seen in the Arctic.

Hurricane Lee is the latest example of how heating waters drive rapid intensification.

Hurricane Lee Is A Record Breaking Monster 

In spite of the fact that it will not likely be newsworthy, this kind of rapid intensification is the new normal-ish 
In it’s early incarnation, Hurricane Lee went from 80MPH to 165 MPH (Cat 5) winds in 24 hours, the third fastest intensification on record. The storm has stayed mostly in the ocean and will therefore not get the kind of coverage it warrants. Sooner or later one of these will come ashore.
Hurricane Lee’s wind field expanded Thursday, with hurricane-force winds extending outward up to 105 miles from the center, with  tropical-storm-force winds extending outward up to 350 miles.

Irony of the Year: Fertile Crescent No Longer Fertile

“The Fresh Water is Finished”

The “cradle of civilization” is drying rapidly, driving inhabitants from their ancestral lands between the Tigris and Euphrates. Locals once lived self-sufficient lives in the  Iraq Marshlands, making traditional livings fishing and herding Water Buffalo. The epicenter of the slo-mo disaster is the city of Basra, once known as the Venice of the East. About 40% of Iraq has already been overtaken by sand.

Canada Wildfires Move North As 20,000 Evacuated

With hundreds of wildfires already sweeping through BC and Quebec, Canada’s worst wildfire season just got worse as the disaster moves into the Northwest Territories.  In Yellowknife, a mandatory evacuation order went into effect creating a chaotic scene as long lines of cars queued for miles to flee along the only road out of town.

Killer Sandstorm + All Time Record High For Morocco 

Panic and death as skies turns orange in capital city
A popular tourist destination, the Mediterranean nation registered a new record high of 122°F in mid-August as a lethal sand storm swept through Marakesh, driven by 70 MPH winds. At least one person was killed. 

Firestorms in Maui kill hundreds 

Hawaii’s Worst Disaster In History:
Hundreds are dead or missing as hurricane force winds ignited drought stricken fields, forests and neighborhoods. The historic seaside town of Lahaina has been reduced to ash and thousands were evacuated. Desperate tourists ran into the ocean to escape the flames.

Thwaites “Doomsday” Ice Shelf Melts From Below

Dubbed the Doomsday Glacier because of it’s potential to raise sea levels around the world very rapidly, the Thwaite’s ice shelf in West Antarctic is melting from below. Ice shelves are hybrid formations that float on land and help slow the flow of trillions of tons of land ice to the ocean.

Sri Lanka all time heat record August

Endless record heat in Sri Lanka with a new August record pulverized at Ratnapura today with 37.2C Record heat is also in the Philippines (Tmins >29C),Vietnam and Thailand In just 10 days of August about 1/3 of world countries broke heat records, while only Italy had low records.

Scary South America Winter Temps Setting Records

102°F is plenty hot any day most places, but it’s winter in South America and the town of Vicuna, Chile is roasting. And Vicuna is in the Andes Mountains.  For perspective, think of August in South America as the equivalent of February in North America. 

“South America is living one of the extreme events the world has ever seen,” weather historian Maximiliano Herrera tweeted, adding, “This event is rewriting all climatic books.”

Global emissions continue to climb

The most recent widely ignored warning from climate scientists would be worrisome if anyone was listening. Greenhouse gas emissions have reached an all-time high, threatening to push the world into “unprecedented” levels of global heating, scientists have warned. Levels of the big three greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane ( CH4)  and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere, continued  unprecedented rates of growth during 2022. CO2  alone increased by nearly 1%, driven in part by switchovers to goal as Russia squeezed the global supply of methane.

Under the radar killer dirt storm in Illinois

The storm came suddenly on a clear cool day and hit the travelers on interstate 55 near Springfield, IL by surprise. The 200 ft high wall of soil blinded drivers, turning the day into utter darkness and sending 84 speeding vehicles crashing into each other. Some caught fire and burned on the highway. The death toll was seven, with vehicles and bodies burned beyond recognition. This is a global warming event, driven by drought and unenlightened industrial ag practices.

Italy smashed by record heat, fires, floods & glacier collapse

The collapse of a glacier in the Dolomites and a landslide on the island of Ischia. Devastating floods, wildfires and record-breaking heatwaves. The worst drought of the Po, Italy’s longest river, in 200 years. Luca Mercalli, an Italian climatologist, has seen his fair share of extreme weather events in Italy within the past two years. But nothing prepared him for the scene in Mortegliano, a small town in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the northern region bordering Slovenia.

Salt water incursion threatens açaí crop, Amazon

The climate emergency combined with industrial agriculture in coastal Amazonia are threatening açaí harvests in Brazil’s Macapa region. Soil erosion and the creep of seawater into the freshwater river are changing the berries’ flavor and tainting drinking water.  

Seawater began pushing back the river around the delta island  archipelago in late 2021, leaving thousands of residents without fresh water.

Record low ice levels in Antarctic winter ice melt

A sharp winter slowdown in Antarctic sea ice growth has added another slo mo catastrophe to the list of climate driven threats. Current levels show a shortfall that is radically rewriting the record books.

Speaking to the New York Times in early August, Ted Scambos (a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder) said: “This year is really different. It’s a very sudden change.”

When sea ice collapses, the trillions of tons of land ice behind it accelerates its flow into the Southern Ocean, raising seas planetwide. The sea ice also plays a role in regulating ocean and air temperatures, potentially affecting marine life from microscopic plankton to the continent’s iconic penguins.0

Unlikely climate refugees as Brienz, Switzerland is evacuated

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Massive rockslide threatening village as alpine “ice glue” melts

TWO MILLION CUBIC YARDS OF ROCK AND DIRT are about to crash down on the village of Brienz in Switzerland’s eastern Alps. The town’s remaining inhabitants have been evacuated in anticipation of the imminent collapse, which is predicted for the next week or so. Authorities had considered construction of a retaining wall to protect the village, but the project was rejected based on calculations that the structure would have to be over 225 feet* high.

Although this is a relatively minor, localized event (unless you live in Brienz) it is a sample of a larger physical destabilization of mountain regions around the world. Just as rapid permafrost thaw is compromising the very foundation of Arctic infrastructure, the heating of the planet’s alpine regions is dissolving crevasse ice that is the very “glue” that holds the mountaintops together. Geologists have measured stunning temperature increases as deep as 20 ft into the rock, with an uptick of around 1°F over the past decade.

With mountain structure weakened, the increase in extreme storms magnifies and accelerates the process of breaking down the slopes, further threatening lives and property.

This impending disaster will be another example of a troubling trend gaining traction in the upper altitudes of the planet, driven by the effects of global warming.

In particular, the spectacular phenomenon known as Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) has emerged as a dramatic threat to alpine populations and infrastructure. New lakes form as glaciers melt more quickly behind natural moraine dams, eventually breaching the earthen barrier, or in many cases, destroying it in a violent outburst. When this happens, huge quantities of water rush downhill, sweeping away everything in their path. According to a study in Nature magazine, GLOF events threaten upwards of 15 million people globally. Since 1990, the number of glacial lakes has increased by over 50%.  

This pattern in turn is a component of the longer term predictions for South Asia’s “Third Pole” which will have a long term adverse effect on fresh water supplies over a vast area in Asia. Also known as High Mountains Asia, the extensive mountain ranges in this region provide fresh water for over a billion people. This crisis is currently masked by the fact that meltwater is actually creating more and larger glacier lakes, which provide a temporary benefit of the more water available for humans and agriculture.

The growth of these lakes brings an ever increasing risk of floods, both in the form of GLOF and also less dramatic events.

However, when this phase of the cycle is over (10 years?), the glaciers will be gone, and the billions downstream will be in dire straits. This process will manifest itself unevenly, with regions in the south experiencing large scale water shortages in the near future. This region is warming about twice the global rates, with increases estimated at .8°F per decade.

 

 

Wildfires burn 1 million acres near Alberta’s Tar Sands

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 State of Emergency as record heat waves and fires sweep Tar Sands area.

 

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.

Ironically, in 2016 Fort McMurray was ravaged by a firestorm known as the Beast, a now forgotten mega disaster from which the city has not fully recovered. That evacuation involved 80,000 people.

The role this horror-show extraction site plays in creating these conditions is almost literary in its irony. The local environmental devastation wreaked by the Tar Sands is well documented, including poisoning of fresh water supplies, destruction of wetlands and irresponsible disposal of mining waste. The Athabasca River Basin and its inhabitants will never recover.

On a larger scale, this massive strip mining operation is the source of the dirty crude bitumen that has caused permanent damage in large scale pipeline spills, including 1 million gallons spewed into the Kalamazoo River in 2010 from the Enbridge pipeline.

Remember that? Didn’t think so.

The current fire and heat disaster around Ft. McMurray has cut as much as 5% of Canada’s oil production, which is a dirty shame.

Literally, a dirty shame.

 

Spain hits 104°F as water supplies evaporate

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.

Turkmenistan methane emissions described as mind boggling 

Satellite images show stunning methane leaks from Turkmenistan’s two main fossil fuel fields.  The data produced by Kayrros for the Guardian leaked 2.6m tonnes of methane in 2022, with the eastern field emitting 1.8m tonnes. The CH4 leaks are estimated to be equivalent to 366m tonnes of CO2, more than the UK’s annual emissions. Methane is anywhere from 25 to 30 times  more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2.

Sudden ocean warming seems to accelerate glacier collapse in Greenland

Northwest Greenland’s Peterman glacier is melting far more rapidly than previously thought, which will increase the rate of sea level rise, which will increase the rate of glacier melt. The new study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers at NASA and the University of California Irvine. As ocean tides become rapidly warmer, the ice shelves that hold back land ice melt faster.

Spike In Global Ocean Temps Point To Tough Years Ahead

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Global ocean temperatures have spiked dangerously in the past month and a half

Enter El Niño

Sorry to distract from the $250,000,000 Royal Coronation but it is worth noting 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. The report charts record breaking temperatures skating far higher than any previous year. This is truly a much more serious problem than seems obvious at first, for several reasons.

  • The first is that the ocean may well have reached its limit for absorbing excess atmospheric heat.
  • The second is that El Nino seem to be returning.
  • The third is that warmer oceans mean expanding ocean volume, which also contributes to sea level rise.

Ocean heat saturation

The ocean has been absorbing excess heat from global warming for decades, but all evidence now points to this process being at an end. And that means air and ground temperatures are poised for bad things to happen to humans.  Let’s be clear, the global climate catastrophe is much much further along than most people understand. This includes joe citizen who understands that this is a “real” problem, but things someone will take care of it before it’ s too late. Maybe Elon Musk or George Soros.

The big El Niño thing

This is simple and scary: the Pacific has been in an extended  La Niña cycle, which is a natural cyclical phenomenon that tends to cool the planet. In spite of that, the last eight years have been the warmest on record. So in a sense, La Niña has been disguising the meta effects of global warming. But that’s about to be over.

It bears rephrasing: Even with a cooling cycle in place for the past eight years, the planet has continued to set global records for average atmospheric temperatures.

Expanding ocean volume: sea levels

News reports tend to focus on polar ice melting as a contributor because it is an obvious cause and effect scenario.

But thermal expansion of trillions and trillions of gallons of sea water in the planet’s oceans actually contributes more to sea level rise as the waters heat up. It’s basic physics: every substance swells (increases it’s volume) when heated. There is nothing that is going to turn this around anytime soon.

 

Australia Mass Fish Kill Follows Deadly Heat and Flooding Cycle

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Millions of Fish Deprived of Oxygen In NSW Disaster

Millions of fish washed up dead and stinking in the  southeastern the New South Wales outback about 400 miles from Sydney. The mass die-off was caused by a combination of oxygen deprived flood waters and an extended heat wave.  

The contaminated water is adjacent to the pumping station in the town of Menindee. 

This mass die-off is the latest in a pattern of events reported on the Darling-Baaka River in recent weeks, including one in late February. An extended drought, punctuated by catastrophic flooding also caused mass kills in 2018 and 2019. 

 

 

 

 

 

Megadrought fires in Chile driven by record temps and wind

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CHILE: DEVASTATION SECOND ONLY TO “THE FIRESTORM YEAR”

Extreme heat and an ongoing megadrought are spawning lethal fires in the middle and south of Chile. The fires have torched more than 1,000 sq. miles ((667,000 acres) and killed dozens of people. Satellites show vast plumes of smoke drifting out over the Pacific. As of Feb 5 there were 275 fires.

Temperatures in the Central Valley have been sustained at record levels of 104°F, driven by strong winds, exacerbating an extended drought that made the past decade the warmest and driest in the region’s history.  The megadrought is responsible for an ongoing water crisis as well.

The region is home to Chile’s forest plantations, which contribute to the available fuel for the fires. So far, this fire season is second only to 2017 in terms of acres burned: the 2017 season is known as the fire storm year. As of early February, scientists are estimating 4 million tons of CO2 have been spewed into the atmosphere.

 

MUDSLIDES KILL 36 IN PERU

Torrential rains have caused lethal mudslides in Peru, with damage made worse by mining practices in the region.

NEW ZEALAND SMASHED BY FLASH FLOODS

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

 

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.

 

Auckland, NZ Smashed by unprecedented three day weather event

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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.

 

French Water Wars Reflect Global Trends:

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Police guarding water infrastructure assets as civilians rebel

The American West and Middle East are not the only places water wars are becoming increasingly urgent and violent. In France (not a country one thinks of as water challenged) gendarmes are guarding water supplies as water use stakeholders face off in the face of fast changing conditions. As the country reels in the aftermath of a record summer heat wave – a season of wild fires and shrinking rivers – authorities are attempting to construct massive reservoirs to retain water specifically for the commercial agriculture industry. This is not sitting well with taxpayers who are funding the projects, who claim the reservoirs are tantamount to illegal privatization and benefit a select few of wasteful industrial farms.

In Nouvelle-Aquitaine, thousands of activists protesting a new “mega basin” reservoir confronted military police armed with tear gas. The protesters ripped out pipelines used to feed the system.

Environmentalists are also displeased, citing the consequences of diverting this quantity of water from ecosystems.

Whatever the merits of these respective positions, they reflect similar events and conditions around the planet, from the American West, Egypt, the Middle East and Africa. Elsewhere, smaller scale vandalism and civil disobedience episodes are multiplying as citizens resist water restrictions regulations. Water is being stolen from resort Jacuzzis, fire departments and cemeteries.

Activists or saboteurs, concerned citizens or criminals, these scenarios are now a daily occurrence around the world.

“In the morning you go gunning for the man who stole your water”

Saudi Arabia Tapping In Arizona Aquifer

Lobbyists aided mass transfer of water overseas

 Some wells are beginning to run dry as massive, foreign-owned mega farms are “legally” sucking up water in Arizona’s La Paz County and using it to grow alfalfa and other cattle feed crops. The feed is then shipped overseas as fodder for livestock in the Middle East. The farms are paying rock bottom prices as local wells and aquifers show the effects of over pumping. While it is illegal to divert water out of state, it is not against the obsolete water regulations to ship the crops grown with the water.

Zimbabwe Hydro Levels At Record Lows

Main power planet shuts down as larger crisis looms

Power generation has been shut down at Kariba Dam, the largest hydro project in souther Africa. The Zimbabwe Power Company has used up it’s 2022 water allocation as water levels at the station drop to record lows. The dam generates 70% of the power for Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Saltwater Moving Into R. Euphrates

Drought & dams changing fertile crescent

Saltwater from the Persian Gulf is invading the delta of the Euphrates River as the river continues to dry up . The calamity is the result of extended drought and political battles both within Iraq and with Turkey. In addition to poisoning livestock, the brackish water is making farming in the “fertile crescent” impossible. Farmers in the once thriving region are selling their herds and moving into cities, another group of under the radar climate refugees.

 

A Treat To Beat Your Feet in the Mississippi Dust

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Midwestern Drought Drives Record River Levels

The ongoing Midwestern drought has reduced the mighty Mississippi to a trickle of its usual self, causing serious disruption to one of the country’s primary shipping routes. The key Memphis river gauge showed a record low of -10.81 ft, with other meters across the region confirming the trend.

Barge traffic has dwindled significantly as cargo levels have been reduced, allowing the boats to ride higher in the water. Critical commodities such as corn, soybeans, wheat, coal and oil move through this essential corridor. The iconic waterway drains about 41% of the country.

The remnants of Hurricane Roslyn provided some temporary relief, but the dry pattern is expected to continue throughout the winter.

 

Methane levels continue to rise

Atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases warming our planet – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide- all reached new record highs in 2021, according to a new report from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

 

Famine grows

It isn’t just the climate change driven drought, the price of artificial fertilizer is making agriculture more challenging than ever in poorer nations.

 

Most coal burning utilities are contaminating groundwater

A new study, released on Thursday by Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project, looked at 292 sites around the country, from the desert outside Las Vegas to the coast of Massachusetts. The source is coal ash, a toxic byproduct of burning coal. And according to this article in Grist, about half of them have no plans to do anything about it. Because they are coal burning utilities. 

 

Wells run dry in the southwest due to drought and abuse

Big international agriculture firms are stealing water from local aquifers in Arizona and other southwestern states to grow crops for export.

 

 

A Tresa

Climate Whiplash Drives Epic British Columbia Drought

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“We’ve come to a point of no return in this province, because of the sheer amount of clear-cut logging they’ve been doing over the last 20 years. The damage is already done.”

– Younes Alila, Prof. Forest Hydrology, University of British Columbia

Drought Flood Drought

The new normal has already been here for a while

Global warming is driving an epic drought in Canada’s so called “wet coast” as rivers and streams dry up and salmon die. The drought is rated at level 5, which means the conditions are driving measurable economic adversity. At least one community has declared a state of emergency. In Victoria, the provincial capital, 2mm of rain have fallen over the past six months, a drop in the bucket compared to the 220 mm normally expected.

The area is also experiencing mass salmon die-offs and hundreds of forest fires as heat records continue to fall. Hydroelectric operations are also being affected.  

This event follows last year’s catastrophic flooding, which triggered mudslides and destroyed infrastructure, houses and highways. Interestingly, those highly unusual events from a year ago are an indirect cause of the current drought emergency: the massive quantities of rain at high elevations washed away a foot and a half of snowpack, depleting the expected annual ground water recharge.

Other human activities combine to worsen the effects of the drought, especially industrial scale clear cutting of forests. The replacement forests – which are essentially crops – take up considerably more water than the ancient trees did. Overall transpiration is decreased, putting less moisture into the atmosphere.