If you don’t talk about it, it’s not real
Courts, schools and government offices were closed in late May after the country broke its time high temperature record of 126° F (52.3C) registered in Delhi. More than 37 cities in the country reported temperatures over 113° F.
Initial heat related deaths were in the dozens but expected to climb. Meanwhile, forest fires are reported as the heat wave continues and foliage dries out.
The ongoing regional water crisis was worsened by the heat wave, exacerbated by wanton waste of water by the wealthy.
Town of Greenfield laid waste, 250 ft turbines toppled and Grandma Dixie was buried alive (but lived).
Several tornadoes ripped a swath of destruction across Iowa leaving several people dead before tearing into parts of Illinois and Wisconsin. Four deaths have been reported and much of the town was laid waste.
“There is basically nothing left,” said Clel Baudler, a former Iowa state representative who lives a half mile from Greenfield.
How hot is it? It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees.
Howler monkeys live in the steamy jungles of the Mexican Tabasco state and are uniquely adapted to their habitat. So when it stays so hot this long that they begin dying of dehydration, something is very wrong. Since early May, officials in Mexico have counted hundreds of monkeys lying dead on the ground beneath the trees.
“They were falling out of the trees like apples,” Pozo said. “They were in a state of severe dehydration, and they died within a matter of minutes.”
The monkey mortality event has multiple causes, including heat, drought, forest fires and logging that deprives the monkeys of water, shade and the fruit they eat.
Temperatures in the region have reached 113F.
As Miami and South Florida bake under record May heat, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that sea level rise is increasing at an accelerating rate.
Several records have been tied or broken across South Florida including Key West, which tied its highest heat index at a 115° F degrees and broke it’s “real” temperature record at 96° F,
“The oceans are running hot and they’re running high,” NOAA Oceanographer Dr. William Sweet said. “We’re melting more land-based ice out of Antarctica and Greenland and mountain glaciers, and the ocean is heating, especially in the Gulf of Mexico and the Southern Atlantic.
Sea level rise has increased about a foot in the last 80 years, with 8 in. of that coming in the last 30. The next ft. of inundation may take only 20 years. And NOAA reports that that rate is increasing quickly.
Record ocean temps:
For two weeks, the water temperature measured at Virginia Key has hit record highs, reaching temperatures that are more common during the peak summer months of July and August.
Water temperature in May was four degrees F. The 90F reading was a new record and bodes ill for the rest of the season.
This will be the warmest May on record by at least 1.5 degrees F.
During Canada’s warmest ever winter, Zombie fires continued to burn, the drought dragged on and the snow didn’t come.. Now the smoking disasters of last summer seem doomed to repeat themselves as evacuation orders were issued to thousands in Mid-May in British Columbia and Alberta amidst a resurgence of wildfires. The government ordered thousands to leave Fort Nelson, BC as a resurgent zombie blaze threatened the town. A zombie fire means it smoldered over the winter and was never extinguished.
Forty of the wildfires were listed as out of control on May 13h. In a repeat of last year’s apocalyptic smoke issues, Minnesota is reporting air quality issues 2,000 miles away.
The province of Alberta is now in Stage Four of its five-stage water shortage management response plan.
If you don’t believe in global warming, then you most likely won’t be aware that one of its least obvious effects is a very small slowdown in the earth’s rotation. And unlike the lethal droughts, heat waves and floods currently sweeping the planet, this one second lapse has no harmful effects at this point.
The cause of the phenomenon is the shifting of huge masses of water as ice melts rapidly at both ends of the planet. The ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica are several miles thick, enough mass to exert a strong gravitational pull on the oceans. The global redistribution of weight is actually slowing Earth’s rotation minutely, which may result in the elimination of a “leap second” later this decade.
None of this is shocking in the greater scheme of things: the planet’s rotation speed is also affected by natural phenomenon such as volcanos, earthquakes tidal forces, and changes in wind patterns.
Quoted in Scientific American, Geophysicist Duncan Agnew said: “This is another one of those ‘this has never happened before’ things that we’re seeing from global warming: the idea that this effect is large enough to change the rotation of the entire Earth.” Duncan is co-author of the research just reported by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
“This is another one of those ‘this has never happened before’ things that we’re seeing from global warming: the idea that this effect is large enough to change the rotation of the entire Earth.”
– Geophysicist Duncan Agnew, Scripps.
including sudden Dubai inundation, western and southern Africa droughts, Venezuela ablaze, Florida cancels climate change. epic China floods, sparkling wine threatened by drought, Bangalore running out of water, Bogota running out of water, Madagascar extended drought and Dengue fever spreading.
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There are some interesting take aways to be derived from April’s torrential desert rain event, which dropped 5 to 10 inches of water in one day on Dubai, killing several people (including schoolchildren) and truly messing up one of the planet’s most modern cities.
The region was hit by four consecutive storms that inundated a large swath of the United Arab Emirates and moved on to Pakistan and Iran. This was well over a year’s worth of rain in a city that has little or no flood drainage infrastructure. The storms were unusual in the suddenness of the onslaught, and the force they brought to bear, unrooting palm trees and shattering windows.
This was well over a year’s worth of rain in a city that has little or no flood drainage infrastructure. While it is clear that this was a historic weather calamity, it is not clear whether it was unprecedented. Official government press releases reference the beginning of government data collection in 1949, but make no mention of a massive flood that may have triggered it.
UAE has been engaged in weather control attempts for decades, primarily cloud seeding.
Whether or not government cloud seeding (AKA Rainfall Enhancement Science) directly caused this particular record-shattering event, human caused global warming was the ultimate driver. Most experts are saying weather enhancement efforts may have triggered the storms, but can’t account for their unrelenting violence. Rising temperatures associated with global warming increase evaporation, fueling other extreme weather events, including droughts. Such a parade of alternating climate disasters is devastating for nations such as Bolivia and Australia.
The government of UAE is not known for transparency, but it does not deny engaging in climate control efforts. It seems relatively likely that cloud seeding by plane took place earlier in the week and perhaps had unintended consequences. This is not the first human effort at human weather geoengineering (fucking with things we don’t fully understand) and it is only the beginning.
Geoengineering has already been blamed for storms in California and Australia, although cause and effect is generally shaky. I can only assure you that weather control is going to be fertile ground for conspiracy theories.
And some might even be true.
The most alarming of climate alarmists are predicting one or more Black Swan events in the near future. The term refers to major catastrophes, collapses and cataclysms that have occurred infrequently throughout human and geologic history. “Black swan” carries the connotation that the event was foreseeable and perhaps preventable. The Covid pandemic, the 1929 stock crash and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown were black swans of the recent past; the impending breakdown of the AMOC is a probable future example.
Black swan climate events have occurred cyclically in the past, causing extremely rapid changes in global conditions, sometimes within a human lifetime. The Anthropocene climate upheaval of the present will most likely bring a series of black swan events, but with a twist: this is the first radical planetary change wrought almost entirely by human activity. Generally, a meteorite strike or mega volcano eruption has been involved.
Less radical long time climate prophets such as myself think (or hope) that the worst to come will be preceded by something less dramatic, at least for the near future. What I foresee is a series of Gray Swan events: non-cataclysmic scenarios that will cause serious but not lethal disruption of smug “first world” life styles. A slow decline consisting of a parade accelerating inconveniences. Less and less stuff. Even a shortage of Mylar party balloons. Even after Alaric’s unfortunate visit in 476 CE, it took a long time for Rome to fully collapse.
A grey swan occurrence could be a killer storm, a hide tide and high seas disaster that takes out the luxury condos of a coastal vacation infrastructure (such as those already taking place more and more frequently). Typically, the sparkling beach sand will be replaced at great cost and new resorts will be rise again. In spite of the huge property loss, these events fit comfortably in a gray swan scenario (depending on whose money is involved) until the losses become too great. But beware: gray swan morphs to black swan when the insurance companies pull out for good (a development that already happening).
For most participants in Western Civilization, crop failure-driven food shortages are the looming gray swans of today. In real time, for example, climate change is costing Vietnam’s rice bowl $3 billion a year in failed harvests; you are unlikely to be aware of these far away developments because you are not currently affected. It will be when multiple rice producing regions fail at the same time that global prices will go up. For now, only the Vietnamese farmers are screwed. Similarly, products grown in climate challenged places such as Pakistan, Sudan, Chad, Honduras and the Sahel etc. only affect the locals for now.
And while many choose to make inflation a political problem, Europe’s 2023 heat wave affected soy, maize and sunflower harvests, ultimately triggering up to a full percentage point of US inflation. Closer to home, when the Ogallala aquifer taps out under the Great Plains, then you are going to see some serious ag issues.
As climate change accelerates, global disruptions will eclipse the Covid pandemic.
To a large degree, the leading edge of this inevitability will be shortages of luxury goods, followed eventually by their absence. Ironically, it has long been my belief that these inconveniences will be nearly as convincing to climate fence-sitters as watching someone else’s coastal home washing out to sea.
To these evolving shortages we can add sustained pressure on cocoa prices, driven by a combination of ongoing drought, extreme weather and evil corporate behavior in West Africa. Bad yields have tripled the price of chocolate to $10,000 a ton (although the monopolistic system assures that farmers lose out). If the hedge funds who have already bet billions are correct, the situation will continue to worsen over the foreseeable future (as reported by the Financial Times).
Last week, the cocoa crisis was manifested in the price of chocolate Easter products- from high-end Cadbury eggs to more pedestrian Hershey rabbits – following a 13% increase in the overall price of chocolate candy over the past year. Before that you may have noticed candy bars becoming incrementally smaller or thinner or offering less chocolate content in other ways (the candy equivalent of a short pour). (Shrinkflation is the proper economic term) The yearslong shrinkage of the Cadbury cream egg has become a minor scandal, not spoken of in polite society.
Fine wine is just one example: more frequent extended droughts, unpredictable water cycles and violent storms are already impacting traditional wine making regions as higher temperatures shift harvest schedules, while pests and diseases migrate to new domains. Over the past few years we have also seen major spikes in the prices of beef, citrus fruit and sugar. Extremely rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine is driving lobsters north toward cooler waters an ominous development for seafood lovers.
These increases are all caused to some degree by the impact of global heating.
You will see major pressures on coffee as rising temperatures reduce growing areas by up to 50% in the next decade. Similarly, 90% of marine and fresh water stocks are endangered in one way or another by a combination of changing ocean temperature and over-fishing. Ocean species continue to move north in search of cooler waters, but North only goes so far north until you run out of planet.
I could go on.
Although there are those who would love to blame Biden (because he loves raising prices in an election year, just for fun) these increases are caused to some degree by the impact of climate. You will see major pressures on coffee as rising temperatures reduce growing areas by up to 50% in the next decade. Similarly, 90% of marine and fresh water stocks are endangered in one way one way or another by a combination of changing ocean temperature and over-fishing. Ocean species continue to move north in search of cooler waters, but North only goes so far north until you run out of planet..
SIMULTANIOUS CLIMATE SHOCKS OF THE CHART DISCLAIMER THING:
Here I insert the standard disclaimer: None of these conditions and events in isolation would prove global warming, but the fact that they are taking place simultaneously at unprecedented speeds and scale is impossible to dismiss.
As you consider that 2023 set another global record for warmest year in roughly a hundred thousands of years, as ocean temperatures run off the charts, as the North Atlantic is bathtub-warm months before hurricane season, as the fires of Canada’s disastrous 2023 conflagration continue burning underground, as CO2 levels crash through 425 ppm, as methane increases 15+ ppm yearly, as part of Australia bakes and the other half drowns, as rivers in the Arctic turn orange from toxin newly released from permafrost, as Spain and Italy endure relentless drought and historic water crises, as global river shipping is in jeopardized, as Antarctic sea ice undergoes an “abrupt critical transition” to another summer low extent, as a million acres and thousands of cattle are torched in the Texas Panhandle, as Greenland actually turns green with new vegetation, as large swaths of South America see catastrophic wildfires, as the Amazon is on the brink of no return, as glaciers in every mountain range melt away, as species of every kind migrate toward the poles….it’s hard not to see an alarming pattern. The variations from both long term and short term cycles is statistically stunning.
* Ground speed means the planes exceeded 761 MPH in terms of distance traveled.
The news media is slowly noticing that some of the world’s elite 1% types are building doomsday get-aways, including one said to sport a flaming moat (presumably as a deterrent to hoi polloi hordes trying to escape the climate apocalypse).
Of course, these so-called doomsday bunkers are not well documented: it is doubtful that escape castle portcullis’s will be opened to the public once the first Cat 7 cyclone destroys Savannah, or a long dormant virus escapes the thawing Arctic permafrost or New Orleans disappears for good beneath the Gulf or New South Wales goes up in a final flame. In other words, no media attention is not sought at this time.
Although current not-that-well-informed estimates of the numbers hover as high as fifteen of these installations globally (Peter Theil, Bill Gates, Marc Zuckerberg), my guess is that the total is considerably more than that (Elon is apparently committed to Mars). The global hierarchy will not likely be publicizing these high-end escape modules. There will be no road signs to help the proletariat find them. They have read “The Masque of the Red Death” and know how the townspeople feel about this stuff.
THE ULTIMATE GET AWAY
Nevertheless, word has filtered out from various contractors specializing in this commercial space. Demand began to escalate during the pandemic and continues to climb. The perilous political situation and impending eco-collapse of the planet is also good for business.
Why are the best and the richest building upscale bunkers when they could be buying more super yachts?
Because they know things we don’t.
Maybe you only skim the typically tepid corporate news coverage of the unfolding climate catastrophe, but the terrifying documentation is there for anyone to see. Consider that 2023 set another record for warmest year globally in roughly a hundred thousands of years, for both atmosphere and ocean. We have just experienced the eighth consecutive month of record global heat. Temperature of the seas is off the charts.
The North Atlantic is bathtub-warm months before normal as the fires of Canada’s disastrous 2023 conflagration continue burning underground as part of Australia bakes and the other half drowns as rivers in the Arctic turn orange from newly released toxins as Spain and Italy endure relentless drought as global river shipping is in jeopardized as Antarctic sea ice undergoes an “abrupt critical transition” to another summer low extent as the Texas Panhandle burns as Greenland turns green with new vegetation as large swaths of South America see catastrophic wildfires as the Amazon is on the brink of no return as glaciers in every mountain range melt away and the effects of escaping methane are just beginning to kick in.*
If you don’t believe climate scientists’ warnings, maybe you’ll believe one of the world’s largest insurance companies.
According to the world’s second largest insurance broker Aon PLC , the number of billion dollar climate disasters in 2023 was the highest ever.
Driving all this is a dozen climate feedback cycles that have passed the point of no return. SEE PAGE.
This is what I already know. Imagine what people with limitless resources know.
Another way to look at it: If I were a billionaire (increasingly unlikely), I personally would be building a nice, secure compound deep inside a mountain, on the water or beneath the Antarctic snow pack. The challenge is mostly money and time. Have you seen what these guys want for even a modest luxury bunker
In summary, there is good reason to believe the 1% knows far more about what is coming than Joe Citizen. No one knew the certainty of the global climate shock better than Exxon many decades ago, so it seems reasonable to conclude that tech billionaires have access to data and other resources that predict a very rough ride for much of the planet. But with a nice bunker escape estate, there’s no reason the End Times have to cut into one’s lifestyle.
FROM DOCTOR STRANGLOVE TO TRIDENT LAKES
The elite survival bunker is not a new idea, although generally the survival modules of the last century were focused on surviving a nuclear holocaust. Dr. Strangelove with Peter Sellers was a great film of the Sixties, but like many parodies, some of the concepts were real, already in place under the West Virginia mountains. Project Greek Island was a huge fallout shelter facility intended for use by the United States Congress and special companions.
And then there is (was) Trident Lakes, one of the twenty-first centuries most embarrassing developments, which went Chapter 7 bankrupt (MORE bankrupt than regular bankruptcy) in 2018, leaving only a dried up fountain on the site. Envisioned in the above ground section was an18-hole golf course, high-end spa, gun ranges, zip lines, shops and restaurants, all protected by a wall and watchtowers designed to kill zombies, poor people and journalists. Most of the post-apocalyptic living space was supposed to be below ground.
And membership was to be by invitation only!
*None of these conditions and events in isolation would prove global warming, but the fact that they are taking place simultaneously at unprecedented speeds and scales is impossible to dismiss.