The threats to humanity from climate change continue to happen earlier and with worse effect than previously predicted.
Those who prevented action in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s have ALL of humanity’s blood on their hands.
Mother Jones has a good piece on the lies fed to the public regarding gas stoves.
It turns out that using a single burner on high can make benzene levels in the home higher than through second hand smoke. And, the oil companies knew this in the 1970’s. The proof that they knew? They hired the same disinformation experts that the cigarette manufacturers used.
I am beginning to think that we should not trust oil and gas companies. . .
The FBI released data showing that violent crime was down in 2022, but hate crimes increased. This is directly at odds with the right-wing narrative that “democrat-run” cities are post-apocalyptic hellscapes that have “no-go zones”.
This report from Foxnews is hilarious. It describes a heritage foundation report saying that the analysis showing that violent crime is more prevalent per capita in Republican run states than in Democratic run states is flawed because “crime occurs on a local level”. I find this funny because, on the one hand, they argue that policies in blue states lead to higher crime, but then state that crime cannot be analyzed on a state level, because crime is hyper local.
It is also amusing that they then proceed to point out that most crime happens where most people live. Shocking! And, cities are run by democrats!
Amazing.
But the truth is simple – there is no spike in violent crime. The narrative is simply not true. And yet, so much of their base believes the opposite. . .
As Italy struggles with the mass migration of Libyans and Tunisians following the Earthquakes, flooding and political instability in Northern Africa over the last two weeks, and as the United States continues to see record numbers of migrants at the Southern border from Central America, we have to wake up.
By we, I mean the privileged residents of developed countries which will be the destinations for the coming waves of migrants from the under-developed countries. And by wake up, I mean we must come to terms with the fact that the scale of the coming migrations will likely be a log function greater than what we have sen before.
Should we allow the right wingers to fence our countries off, condemning the migrants to suffering and/or death? Or should we attempt to make plans to accommodate some or all of these migrants?
Sadly, I fear that most of Europe and most of the United States would rather wall ourselves off to protect our own and to vilify the other. Such is our tradition, and our shame.
Maybe when they are forces to migrate themselves, they will change their minds.
I find it painful to watch the environmental catastrophes unfolding around the world, as I know that this is NOT the new normal. We are merely one or two steps down a path that gets exponentially worse – more stochastic, more extreme, and less conducive to agriculture and existing ecosystems.
Canada is evacuating Yellowknife entirely for wildfire, and Kelowna is increasing its evacuations. Meanwhile, Los Angeles has its first EVER tropical storm warning. And in Antarctica, there is “something weird” going on with record low sea ice.
It is unlikely that Nero actually fiddled while Rome burned. But it is certain that major corporations knew the consequences of putting carbon into the atmosphere and chose to accelerate their pollution. The graph below is from Proprietary Exxon Mobile projections in 1982.
Their knew. And they did nothing. They privatized the money and externalized the costs.
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.
Let there be love and laughter today of all days. Peace be with us.
I am playing with the data of temperature and precipitation at Climate.gov. I was trying to find a way to track days where nighttime temps didn’t fall below 70, and days above 85 – both levels where I get uncomfortable. I was able to retrieve data from 2012 to present for a nearby, equivalent zipcode – because, for whatever reason, my zipcode was unavailable.
The results are astounding to me. There are truly only a handful of days each year where it is too hot for me according to this data. I will follow up on this once I decide how I can best graphically display the data.
Montevideo is close to running out of water during their WINTER. They are allowing salinity to creep up to where is is unsafe for some people.
London is facing water rationing. There is a drought in Europe. There are warnings of “tropical nights” in Germany.
Drought in the mid-west US.
Vermont is underwater. There is flooding in India, Japan, China, Turkey and the United States.
Water is the thing that will define the next 50 years. Access to fresh water will be harder to come by in many places. Extreme precipitation will become more common. Where is the safest place to be?
What the fuck have we done?