Another article on looming mass extinctions.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/04/28/climate-change-could-cause-mass-extinction-oceans-study-says/9570360002/
There was an excellent article in Nature about this recently. Their data points to 2100 as the time of the mass extinction but it’s a wide band and we’re already seeing unprecedented loss of wildlife diversity. Ecosystems are moving closer to collapse.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25019-2
The climate folks have been warning about rising temperatures and now here come the consequences. Apparently India’s wheat harvest is in trouble with high temperatures now killing their harvest in the field. This is especially bad with Ukraine out of action for the world’s wheat supply.
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20220429-extreme-heatwave-scorches-india-s-wheat-harvest-snags-export-plans
I’ve been watching the climate research for a few decades now and unfortunately the estimates of when things get bad have all been too conservative. The oil company attacks did exactly what they were designed to do - keep people skeptical and thinking the scientists didn’t know what they were talking about.
Surprise! They knew what they were talking about and things are worse than anyone suspected thanks to the scientists pulling punches to not be attacked and threatened.
I’ll go ahead and vent here since it’s somewhat of a safe space, but we’re likely done here on this planet. The fires and drought in the west are bad. Tornadoes and floods in the east are bad. And the rates of change are accelerating. On that backdrop it’s important to remember that the planet is far from equilibrium. What we are seeing now are the consequences of burning fossil fuels 20 or so years ago. Likewise, if we stopped burning all fossil fuels today, we wouldn’t see the big benefits for 20 years. The plan is to reduce our use over the next 30 years (2050 is a red letter target) but that pushes the benefits of no longer increasing CO2 concentrations out 50 years. Meanwhile, all the CO2 released so far remains in the environment to continue raising temperatures and killing species.
We may not hit the 1.5C max temperature target for some number of years, but the danger to the world’s food supply is more than here. This aspect of global warming seems to be hitting way faster than anticipated. Crops have to sit in the fields for months at the mercy of heat, drought, storms, flooding, hail, fire, etc. We’re getting to the point where a crops‘ odds of being destroyed during that time are significant. It will be important to watch India’s wheat harvest for a read on future outlooks.
We’re stuck here for it too. We can push the worst out to some extent and buy some time, though. Maybe not as much as we hoped before, but everything people do to conserve or switch to renewables does slow the process and make the calamities less calamitous. But we have to do it now as opposed to waiting.
It’s also the same people to blame - the fossil fuel industry and republicans and others who have pushed the anti-global warming mantra and attacked scientists. Rex Tillerson as head of Exxon knew about these issues decades ago. Exxon’s scientists were the first to consider the effects of carbon loading by burning fossil fuels. They knew and Tillerson set up a shadow email account and separate communications and buried the research after it became conclusive that fossil fuels could wreck the climate. Tillerson and the API, the coal industry, etc, all began their attacks on open science to keep everything quiet and the world was all too eager to pretend there was no danger or consequence to fossil fuels.
This was a con by the fossil fuel industry and now we are stuck with the house of cards about to fall. Might want to start preparing because the shit is going to be hitting the fan over the next decade.
What's most galling is that the super-rich people (and you cannot conceive how much wealth they claim) who have promoted the heedless burning of fossil fuel are also busily planning to profit from solutions to an increasingly uninhabitable earth.
Well, shit. Those of us who have paid attention since the 70’s knew this was coming. Discussed this once with a libertarian colleague who said not to worry because someone like Elon Musk would figure out how to sequester CO2 and make it profitable. I just had to walk away. And now Elon is tweeting (as he buys twitter) about all those radical leftists ruing the world. What a fucking crock.
As a species we will not do anything to reverse course, especially if the results aren't going to be evident for some years. Remember when people were panicking about the idea that the "Dems" were going to take away their hamburgers? They weren't going to take away their goddamn hamburgers anyway. My Christian conservative in-laws (they are vaxxed and boosted though) think it's all in Gawwwd's hands so no need to worry about that! I'm sure that reflects a lot of America's opinion, maybe not even a majority but enough through gerrymandering and voter suppression I just don't know if we can overcome it. Too many of us are worried about having to eat less of what should be a luxury food eaten rarely to see that we might be fighting over staples like beans and grains in the near future because crops have failed, either because of climate or because of war.
I think even these articles undersell it. We have already been in the 6th mass extinction event for decades now. There are estimates every year for the number of species lost, and of course they don't include all those species that were never identified at all.
This is why I've been a voluntary human extinctionist since childhood. Witnessing this loss of wildlife honestly makes it hard for me to keep living. I respect the climate activist who set himself on fire outside of the supreme court (and the other people who have done the same over past decades), and I understand more and more that it may have been an act of self-mercy
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
We've been aware of this man-made destruction and the possible consequences for several generations. Wikipedia goes all the way back to 630 in euro history. Link
"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria." Ben Franklin
In the middle ages, waters, particularly in urban areas, were tainted and wine was the safe alternative. Water can be tainted by a number of factors including man. Old days "drunken sailors" utilized wine/ale/alcoholic drinks to avoid the possibility of tainted water.
Water comprises 55-60% of the human body so having a potable water supply is essential for human survival. No surprise info in that lol. In my culture water is referred to as "The first medicine". All sorts of religious practices refer to or involve water e.g. baptism.
In rural areas such as my location, communities are known to regularly have "accidents" that involve the dumping of sewage into rivers.
Then there's deforestation
"The meat industry routinely destroys forests to make way for cattle grazing and livestock feed. Since 1970, cattle ranching drove the vast majority of the deforestation in the Amazon. In other words, animal-centric diets are one of the main reasons we are losing our rainforests. “The biggest transformational change is needed in the way in which we produce and consume food,” warns the FAO, which calls agricultural expansion “the main driver of deforestation.” Link
Heating with wood is as old as man. HERE is a timeline of that particular cause of deforestation. During the mini ice age, competitions to develop efficient, low wood consumption took place.
I believe masonry stoves are the most efficient wood burners but require a professional to build...or someone very patient with a good set of plans and suitable budget.
Masonary Heater designs/descriptions HERE.
I haven't owned a vehicle for some time but may have to get one. Health issues and mobility are a factor. My neighbor has a powered wheel chair that gets him to most destinations in the small town.
As for children, been there, done that...my surviving son still lives with me off and on. Some consider man an entity that has become cancerous to the planet...not serving much of a purpose in the survival and existence of all on this planet. The planet will continue on for eons without us.
What the future holds for us is pretty much out of our hands at this point IMO. We're past the point of no return on many situations that exist globally. I'm not saying we should give up but the big wheels affecting and destroying our environment and largely put into motion by industrialization, have too much momentum and inertia.
Elon Musk wants to colonize other planets which is purty much a fantasy given the multiple generations and tech it would take to reach a suitable environment. The Mars colony he proposes is a non-starter. Mars, if I recall correctly, only has about a 2 week temp/weather window where humans could survive in structures. As well I recall the soil is toxic to humans. Only robots and transhumans could endure in space with the tech we have now or on the horizon. IF we were to make it to another habitable planet, what are the chances we would not, in time, destroy that environment too?
7th May '22
Hiya, ShouldaVaxxed,
Yes, the shit's starting to hit the fan.
I was reading about the UN's expanded food programme plans recently. I'm not sure where the surplus food will come from, and it will be expensive.
I think we might soon, again, be seeing famine and death in certain places, while others turn away their faces. But Karma always has the last laugh.
Sometimes I read a hopeful piece of environmental news, like the fact that some farmers are moving to "regenerative agriculture".
(Actually that makes me laugh, because they've spent years throwing abuse at "lefty organics".)
Then that good news is buried under an avalanche of bad.
Before he died, I think Prof. Stephen Hawkins decided to simply state what he believed, whatever the blowback.
He thought that we could turn this planet into another Venus.
Surface temperature map of India on April 30.
The highest temperatures are in the centre of the country. 62°C equates to 143°F.
Nick Breeze, climate journalist.
https://twitter.com/NickGBreeze/status/1520492351726174208
We had a good run, even though most of our history was just about us killing each other, fitting that it should end with us screwing ourselves. I know that's not what you want to hear at all but I can't give you that "everything will be alright" spiel, it doesn't work anymore.
We've had massive fires and then snow in March
I took an Ecology class in the 1980s in San Francisco. I didn't own a car for the eight years I lived there and rode public transit. I chose not to have children for many reasons, but one was that there are too many people on the planet. The children I didn't have aren't using resources. They don't drive cars, buy polyester clothing, eat hamburgers or water their lush green lawns. Once I realized how cool thrift stores were, I stopped buying new consumer goods. I also became a vegan. No land is being bulldozed anywhere to make room for cows to graze for my selfish pleasure. I don't eat chickens or turkeys raise in filthy conditions and pumped full of antibiotics. Farm animals are breeding grounds for disease. I read an article about 20 million chickens being killed because they got the latest strain of avian flu. What I do doesn't probably make a dent in the Earth's decline, but I am at peace knowing that I am doing as little harm as possible. Go Vegan! Reduce, recycle, repurpose. Ride public transit. Peace!
Lake Mead plummets to unprecedented low, exposing original 1971 water intake valve https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/us/water-intake-exposed-lake-mead-drought-climate/index.html
It's already beyond alarm bells.
Stupid fuckin idiots.