/\ Time Lines /\
Climate Breakdown
Ecocide: “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”
NOAA: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Now More Than 50% Higher Than Pre-Industrial Levels - Pre-industrial levels: about 280 ppm. Currently (6/3/22): about 420 and rapidly rising. Scientific concensus: The highest safe level is 350. And Here.
Climate.Gov: Climate Change: Global Temperature - In terms of average global surface temp
1880-1900 avg temp: 56.65 F/13.7 C
2022: 58.55 F/14.75 C
Goal is to stay below: 59 F/15.2 C (+1.5C above 1900 avg)
11/20/23
11/17/23
NPR: Gardeners Are Not Surprised as USDA Updates Key Map - The plant hardiness zone map is used by farmers and gardeners across the nation. Bottom line: The temps were you live now are like the temps about 100 miles south of you were in 2012.
11/15/23
Guardian: UN: Climate Heating Gases Reach Record Highs
USDA: The Fifth National Climate Assessment
Guardian: The Godfather of Microplastics on How to Get Rid Of Them
10/26/23
MSN: Hurricane Otis Strongest Storm Ever to Make Landfall on Mexico's Pacific Coast
10/23/23
Guardian: Rapid Ice Melt in Antarctica is Now Inevitable, Research Shows - "The ice sheet of west Antarctica would push up the oceans by 5 metres if lost completely."
10/20/23
Smithsonian: Why Ten Billion Snow Crabs Disappeared Off the Coast of Alaska
10/18/23
AJC: Largest Solar Panel Plant in the Western Hemisphere Finishes Expansion in Dalton, GA - Current Annual US Electricity Generation by Source
Bill McKibben: Energy From Heaven - A little bit of good news.
10/11/23
PV Mag: Prices of All Forms of Solar Power Generation Are Falling With No End In Sight
9/23/23
Bill McKibben: It Seems Like the Next Big Fight - Biden's next big decision for the planet. If approved the CP2 LNG plant would be associated with 20X the greenhouse emissions of the Willow oil complex, which Biden approved on 3/13. (Substack.com is a good way to read McKibben without going through a paywall.)
9/20/23
Guardian: Leaders of World's Biggest Polluting Countries - Including Joe Biden - Are Skipping UN Climate Summit - Throughout Biden's presidential campaign he repeated many times that under his adminstration there would be “no more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.”
But during his administration:
1. On the day after his return from COP 26 in Nov. 2021 he approved new offshore oil drilling, stating that he was legally bound to do so. Later his administration admitted that was untrue.
2. On 4/15/22, he re-opened drilling on public lands.
3. Immediately after returning from COP27 in Egypt in November 2022, he approved plans to build the world's largest oil export terminal off the coast of Texas.
4. On 3/13/23 he approved the Willow Project which will produce 576M barrels of oil over a 30 year period - a Carbon Bomb.
5. 4/14/23 he approves the Alaska LNG Project - to export 2.7 Billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the course of its lifetime.
6. And now he has announced that he isn't even going bother to attend the Climate Action Summit in NYC which will be attended by over 100 other governments.
Joe Biden is never going to limit fossil fuel corporations in any significant way.
Daily Kos: Report: Nearly 40 Million Properties Are Overvalued Because of Climate-Related Risks - "Without the ability to insure properties in high risk areas with relatively affordable policies, homeowners will not be able to afford the cost of ownership associated with homes in those areas and property values will deflate, leading to a realization of the current climate-driven overvaluation in the market."
9/14/23
In These Times: New York Socialists Won Big On Climate. How Did It Happen?
9/13/23
Guardian: Earth is 'Well Outside Safe Operating Space for Humanity'
9/12/23
Guardian: 10,000 Missing After Libyan Flooding
ABC Australia: Libya: Storm Daniel Why Was it So Deadly?
9/6/23
AP News: This Summer Broke the All-Time Record For Highest Temperature Officially Recorded - August 2023 was the second hottest month of all time, just behind July 2023. The world's oceans were the hottest ever on record.
9/5/23
Bill McKibben: Fossil Fuel Kills, Asians in Particular -
CNN: Greece Floods Kill At Least One as Country Grapples With 'Totally Extreme Weather Phenomenon' - Last week it was wildfire, this week massive flooding.
8/28/23
Guardian: Crazy 'Off-the-Charts' Records: Has Humanity Finally Broken the Climate?
8/24/23
8/22/23
Axios: Record-Setting US Heat Dome Places 126 Million Under Alerts - Heat indices in the 120s are becoming common - Lawrence, KS 134F last Sunday
8/18/23
ICIMOD: Water/Ice Society Ecosystems in Hindu Kush Himalaya - "Glaciers have disappeared 65% faster in the 2010's than in the previous decade."
8/15/23
Axios: Once Rare Scorching Heat Dome Forming Over the Pacific Northwest - 110F predicted for Oregon; "extreme heat is the top weather related killer in the U.S."
8/14/23
Guardian: 'Gamechanger': Judge Rules in Favor of Young Activists in US Climate Trial
Weather.com: It's Official: July 2023 Was the Hottest Month Ever
AP: Heavy Rains Trigger Floods and Landslides in India's Himalayan Region - From the article: "Scientists say floods are becoming more frequent as global warming contributes to the melting of glaciers there."
AP: Record Rains Have Killed Over 100 People in Northern India - "Scientists say monsoons are becoming more erratic because of climate change and global warming, leading to frequent landslides and flash floods in India’s Himalayan north."
Bill McKibben: Teachable Moments Require...Teaching - "Florida buries its head in the water instead."
8/12/23
Guardian: Global Heating Likely to Hit World Food Supply Before 1.5C is Reached
7/27/23
Guardian: 'Era of Global Boiling Has Arrived' Says UN Chief
NYTimes: This Looks Like Earth's Hottest Month. Hotter Ones Comin Soon.
7/25/23
NYTimes: Warming Could Push the Atlantic Past 'A Tipping Point' This Century - See Here, Here, Here. Also "The Day After Tomorrow"
Weather.com: Heat Wave Expands From Southwest to Midwest, Northeast This Week
7/24/23
Bill McKibben: Forget Conspiracy Theories - From the article: Blackrock with $8.6 T under management, just named the CEO of Saudi Aramco to its board of directors. Saudi Aramco has produced more carbon emissions than any other firm on earth. Despite previous promises, Blackrock is not considering global warming when it makes business decisions.
7/19/23
NBC: Heat Has Killed At Least 18 People in Maricopa County This Year
7/16/23
Bill McKibben: I Told You So - "it is already or soon will be hotter than it’s been for a million years, which is to say before the evolution of homo sapiens...less than halfway to the temperature our current trajectory will produce"
7/12/23
Weather.com: Sustained SouthWest Heat Dome Threatens All Time Records
7/10/23
NYTimes: Summer Heat Killed 61,000 in Europe Last Year
7/7/23
ABC: Earth Reaches Hottest Day Ever Recorded 4 days in a Row
7/5/23
Guardian: 'Double Agents': Fossil-Fuel Lobbyists Work for US Groups Fighting Climate Change
7/3/23
Reuters: World Hits Record Land, Sea Temperatures As Climate Change Fuels 2023 Extremes
Guardian: Monday Was Hottest Day for Global Average Temperature on Record
6/29/23
Human Rights Watch: US Ends Critical Investigation in Louisiana's Cancer Alley - In the early days of the Biden Adminstration, he appointed Cedric Richmond as head of Office of Public Engagement. Richmond, whose primary donors were the oil and gas industry, had previously represented Louisiana's Cancer Alley and had made sure that petrochemical industries were able to avoid any responsibility for the sickness and death that they reeked on its poor black residents. How much more can Biden possibly do for Big Oil?
6/27/23
Guardian: Current US Heatwave Made 5 Times More Likely by Climate Crisis
CBS: How Did the Canadian Wildfires Start? - In 2021 at this time of year the town of Lytton, BC reached a temperature of 121.5 F and then was destroyed by fire.
From the same article: It is "possible...that the climate system has crossed a non-linear threshold where a small amount of overall global warming is now causing a faster rise in extreme temperatures than has been observed so far."
6/22/23
Weather.com: Texas Heat Wave Smashes Records - Del Rio 115 degrees, Big Bend Natl. Park 118
6/20/23
AP: N. Indian Hospitals Overwhelmed as Heatwave Continues
6/18/23
Guardian: India Record Heatwave: Nearly 100 Dead Amid Warnings to Stay Indoors
6/16/23
Weather.com: Record Tornadoes in Texas, Parts of Pensecola Evacuated Because of Flooding
6/15/23
Guardian: Fears of Hottest Year on Record as Global Temperatures Spike
Bill McKibben: The Mercury is Off the Charts
6/14/23
Time: The Climate Story Behind the Philadelphia I-95 Bridge Collapse
6/4/23
Guardian: Rich Nations Undermining Work to Protect Poor Countries
6/2/23
Common Dreams: Pipeline Opponents Galvanized as Congress Clears Way for Dirty Project
Common Dreams: Biden Urged to Act As Wildfire Smoke Chokes Eastern US
Axios: Wildfire Smoke Causes Record Air Pollution in Eastern US
6/1/23
US News: Arizona Restricts Phoenix Home Construction Amid Water Shortage
5/31/23
Guardian: 'Stop the Dirty Deal': Activists Decry Schumer and Manchin Over Pipeline - "...any deal that holds the economy and climate hostage for the profit of dirty energy donors is a betrayal.”
"NextEra Energy, one company behind the Mountain Valley pipeline, is a major contributor to Manchin and Schumer. In the 2022 cycle, the company’s employees and political action committees gave $60,000 to Manchin and a stunning $302,000 to Schumer, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics."
5/25/23
Common Dreams: Right-Wing US Supreme Court Delivers Catastrophic Loss for Water Protection - Great for developers and the mining industry, devastating for thos who depend on clean water. Supreme Court: no validity, no legitimacy, no credability. It is all about politics and is a rubber stamp for big corporations that want to ruin our democracy and our planet.
5/18/23
AP: Record Flooding in Italy Kills 8, Forces Cancellation of Formula One Grand Prix - "...officials warn that Italy needs a national plan to combat climate change-induced flooding."
5/17/23
AP: Heat Wave in India Made 30 Times More Likely Because of Climate Change
5/15/23
BBC: Cyclone Mocha (Exxon): Deadly Storm Hits Burma and Bangladesh
5/14/23
Independent: Cyclone Mocha Hits Burma With Winds Equivalent to Cat 5 Hurricane - Bill McKibben: Call it Cyclone Exxon.
5/13/23
Time: The Heatwave Sweeping Across the Pacific NorthWest
5/12/23
Guardian: Canada Extreme 'Heat Dome' Temperatures Set to Worsen Wildfires
5/8/23
BBC: Congo Flooding - Yale Climate: Five of Africa's 30 Deadliest Weather Disasters Have Happened Since 2022
5/7/23
BBC: Alberta, Canada Declares Wildfire Emergency
5/3/23
Guardian: Inside Beef's Climate Messaging Machine
5/2/23
Weather.com: Blowing Dust Leads to Deadly Multi-Car Crash - Reminds me of the movie 'Kiss the Ground'.
5/1/23
Guardian: Private Jet Sales Likely to Reach Highest Ever Level This Year - From the article: "The FAO estimates that weather and climate extremes, which have been made worse by the climate crisis globally, were the primary driver of acute food insecurity in 12 countries, covering 57 million people."
4/27/23
Gen-Z: Why is Biden Approving Fossil Fuel Projects?
4/26/23
Guardian: Record Ocean Temperatures Put Earth in Uncharted Territory - "It is difficult to see how anyone can deny climate change is happening and having devastating effects around the world.” 50% excess flooding in Pakistan, drought in the Horn of Africa
4/25/23
Bill McKibben: A Seismic Win Went Almost Unnoticed Amidst the Tuckerstorm
4/23/23
Phys.org: Glacier Melt and Sea Levels Break Records - Glaciers are a 'lost cause.'
4/18/23
4/14/23
Common Dreams: On Back of Willow Project, Biden DOE Approves Another 'Carbon Bomb' in Alaska - From the article: "According to the DOE's own environmental impact statement, the project could unleash up to 2.7 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the course of its lifetime.
That's ten times as much cumulative planet-heating pollution as the Willow oil project rubber-stamped one month ago by the U.S. Interior Department..."
See entry of 3/13/23.
Renew Economy: Gas Can't Compete with Wind, Solar, and Storage On All Levels - From the article: "The Lazard assessment shows that on pretty much any assessment – cost of energy, cost of energy and firming, marginal cost of energy, and cost of capital – wind and solar win easily...The central findings show, among other things, that even in the face of inflation and supply chain challenges the LCOE (levellised cost of energy) of best-in-class renewables continues to decline"
4/13/23
Weather.com: Did Climate Change Play a Role in Ft. Lauderdale Flooding - possibly the most rainfall within a 24 hour period ever in Florida and the third largest ever in the USA
4/4/23
Guardian: The Perfect Storm: The US City Where Rising Seal Levels and Racism Collide
3/29/23
Nature: Abyssal Ocean Overturning Slowdown and Warming Driven by Antarctic Meltwater - Bill McKibben's translation: “South Pole to Planet Earth: Drop Dead."
Guardian: Melting Antarctic Ice Predicted to Cause Rapid Slowdown of Deep Ocean Current by 2050
3/20/23
Guardian: Scientists Deliver 'Final Warning'
/\ New Phase Starts Here /\
3/18/23
CNN: A Seaweed Blob Twice the Width of the USA is Heading for Florida - It's totally Sargassmic.
3/16/23
Grist: The Dubious Economic Calculus Behind the Willow Project - Per this article: The project won't come on line until 2028 at the earliest and estimates are that by 2030 the majority of US car sales will be electric. BLM analysis is that when fully operational, Willow will bring down the cost of a barrel of oil by $0.20, or 0.3%. Claims by politicians that this will create thousands of new jobs and generate $billions in revenue are very dubious according to details in this article.
The Willow project is all about pure greed on the part of fossil fuel companies and R & D politicians. It is not about helping citizens.
3/15/23
Time: How 10 Years of Pope Francis Has Changed Climate Action
3/14/23
PBS: Persistent Drought and Overdevelopment Cause Record Low Water Levels for Tens of Millions
Resillience: The Next Decade Will Be the Most Pivotal in History: This is a Global Phase-Shift
3/13/23
Guardian: Biden Approves Willow Project - This is a true disaster for our planet. During the 2020 campaign he stated that under his administration there would be “no more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.”
Since then this is Biden's actual climate track record:
The day that Biden returned to the oval office after attending COP26 in Glasgow in November, 2021, he approved new offshore drilling. He claimed that he was legally bound to do so, but that turned out to be a lie.
On 4/15/22, he re-opened drilling on public lands.
Immediately after returning from COP27 in Egypt in November 2022, he approved plans to build the world's largest oil export terminal off the coast of Texas.
And now he approves the Willow Project "potentially producing more than twice as many emissions than all renewable energy projects on public lands by 2030 would cut combined."
Never listen to what they say, watch only what they do.
As 350.org stated, "We need a complete overhaul of the politics and systems that allow such destruction to take place."
EarthJustice: Biden Admin Says Yes to the Willow Project. We Say See You in Court.
3/9/23
Guardian: This US Town Swallowed by Big Oil's Chemical Soup
3/8/23
Guardian: The Ten Most Air-Polluted Places to Live in America
2/28/23
Yale Environment 360: As Millions of Solar Panels Age Out, Recyclers Hope to Cash In - SolarCycle in Odessa, Texas is currently recycling 95% of the materials at scale.
2/24/23
Guardian: Parts of US See Earliest Spring Conditions on Record
Bill McKibben: Notes on Democracy from Kyiv to East Palestine
2/23/23
Guardian: NFU Chief: England Needs New Reservoirs Now Or Food Supplies Will Be At Risk
2/22/23
The Grist: As Louisiana's Coast Disappears, Historic Communities Are Disappearing Too
2/21/23
2/16/23
Grist: Why Are BP, Shell and Exxon Backing Off Their Climate Promises?
2/13/23
Guardian: Naomi Klein on the Future of Climate Justice “It’s the inequality that kills us.” - Current emergencies: health, housing, inequality, racism, climate, police violence, gender violence. Solution? 'Build a power base that includes all of the people concerned with all of these issues. And the way to do that is to show how all of these problems and the people who are affected by them are interconnected.'
Show how climate action can create better jobs and redress all of these inequalities.
Shock Doctrine: After every emergency, the establishment politicians bring in vulture capitalists who see a way to buy up all of the cheap remains of the emergency and create a neo-liberal hell for all of the less-fortunate who were caught up in the disaster - creating a never-ending cycle that reinforces the suffering of the poor and obscene bounty for a small group of profiteers.
Instead, what should happen is the influence of the rich over our lawmakers needs to stop. Indigenous lands that were stolen for purposes of extraction should be returned in the condition that it was when it was taken. The insane overconsumption of resources by the rich needs to be replaced by a sane and equal consumption of the necessaries of life by all. Climate change keeps showing us that it is this inequality and injustice that is killing us and destroying all species on the planet.
" we’re not going to win climate justice if we’re not free to fight for it, if we’re not free to research, if we’re not free to speak, if we’re not free to protest, if we’re not free to strike."
"What’s needed are structures that bypass authoritarian governments"
"Whatever you want to do, find a way to connect it with the climate crisis. Maybe it’s art, maybe it’s engineering, maybe it’s planning – it’s all needed. I don’t think people need to give up what they’re passionate about to tackle climate change. I think they need to figure out how to connect what they’re passionate about with the climate crisis."
2/6/23
Common Dreams: UN Chief Unleashes on Fossil Fuel Giants: "Your core product is our core problem." - Pope Frances thinks that "unbridled capitalism is the dung of the devil."
Bill McKibben: The UN Secretary-General's Searing Message for the Fossil-Fuel Industry
2/2/23
Guardian: Atlanta Shooting Part of an Alarming US Crackdown on Environmental Defenders - see Corporate Domination entry of 2/3.
1/31/23
Common Dreams: A New Stage for the Global Climate Movement - "The dominant system of capital and state...wants collapse and will violently confront anyone who opposes it."
NYTimes: Administration Expected to Endorse Limited Drilling in Alaska Project - Biden during campaign: “no more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.”
1/25/23
1/24/23
Bill McKibben: Protest Isn't Terrorism
1/18/23
Climate.Gov: Climate Change: Global Temperature -
20th C avg global surface temperature: 57 F/13.9 C
1880-1900 avg temp: 56.65 F/13.7 C
2022: 58.55 F/14.75 C
Goal is to stay below: 59 F/15.2 C (+1.5C above 1900 avg)
1/13/23
Guardian: Environmental Group Sues New York for Approving Crypto Mining Facility
1/12/23
NPR: The Plastic Problem - Also Microplastics found in humans, and Here
MSN: Exxon Accurately Predicted Global Warming in 1970, But Continued to Cast Doubts on Climate Science and NYTimes and Science
1/11/23
Bureau of Investigative Journalism: HSBC's Secretive Loan to a Coal Company - HSBC has stated twice over the last ??? years that they are no longer funding fossil fuel companies.
1/10/23
Reuters: CA Floods, Mudslides, Evacuations
NYTimes: Last 8 Years Were the Hottest on Record and MSNBC
1/6/23
1/5/23
Weather.com: CA Hit by Another Atmospheric River and More Storms On the Way
1/4/23
Pulitzer Center: Has the Amazon Reached Its Tipping Point
12/28/22
Wired: The Quest to Defuse Guyana's Carbon Bomb
12/27/22
Guardian: BP Criticised Over Plan to Spend Billions More on Fossil Fuels Than Green Energy - This is the company that in 2010 turned the Gulf of Mexico into its own personal toilet. About 6.5 million barrels were spilled, and Here, the largest man-made environmental disaster of all time, and Here and Here.
Then Obama let them skate with a fine of $18.7 Billion, about 10% of their annual revenue. They were given 15 years to pay it, which meant they could pay it out of their annual tax refund from US taxpayers. It's also the company whose chief executive, Tony Hayward, referred to all of the coastal residents who died or lost their jobs and had their health permanently ruined as "the little people".
Weather.com: Arizona Community to Run Dry
12/24/22
NYTimes: Western NY Buried Under Worst Storm in Decades, Travel Disrupted Across the US - Mother Nature is boss and she is pissed.
12/22/22
Common Dreams: 'Huge Win': Court Finds EPA Approval of Bee Killing Sulfoxaflor Unlawful
12/21/22
Guardian: Biden and Schumer Condemn Right Whale to Extinction - ...in return for contributions from the lobster industry. Don't eat lobster.
Guardian: Keystone Pipeline Raises Concerns After 3rd Major Spill in 5 Years - From the article: Spoiled farmland can never be brought back to its original condition. Keystone said this was going to be the safest pipeline ever built.
12/20/22
New Yorker: The Climate Changed Fast This Year, And Institutions Responded - An interesting recap of climate milestones in 2022.
12/19/22
UPI: 192 Nations Reach Historic Deal to Protect Biodiversity at COP 15
Forbes: 20,000 Died Amid Punishing Heat Waves and Record Temperatures Across W. Europe This Summer - The 2003 death toll was 70,000.
12/16/22
Intercept: The Scorched-Earth Legal Strategy Corporations are Using to Silence Their Critics
12/15/22
Candela: Ship Emissions Can Be Cut by 97.5% by Switching to Hydro-Foiling Electric Vessels
12/14/22
Bill McKibben: A Big Bank Actually Does Something Good
12/11/22
Guardian: Save Whales or Eat Lobsters?
12/9/22
Guardian: Keystone Pipeline Leaks 14,000 Barrels Into Creek and Surrounding Ground Water - This is the 23rd spill on this section since 2010.
12/7/22
Guardian: Cumbria Coalmine Approval Shows Sunak Does Not Care Whether He is Seen as Green
12/5/22
Open Secrets: Biden Administration Approved Offshore Oil Refinery Following Company’s Lobbying Push ($$$$) - The day after COP27, just as it approved new offshore drilling the day after COP26, and last April it re-opened drilling to public lands. All these things Biden did after saying during the 2020 campaign that under his administration there would be “no more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.”
Atlantic: Why is Marjorie Taylor Greene Like This? - The woman Mitch McConnell called a "cancer on the Republican Party."
11/21/22
NYTimes: Inside the Saudi Strategy to Keep the World Hooked on Oil
11/17/22
Weather.com: Heaviest Snowfall Records in US History
Yale 360: As Evidence Mounts, New Concerns About Fracking and Health
11/11/22
Bill McKibben: Ed Markey: I'll Organize Senate Dems to Demand World Bank Chief be Fired!
11/8/22
NYTimes: Draft Report Offers Starkest View Yet of US Climate Threats
11/7/22
Guardian: World is on Highway to Climate Hell, UN Chief Warns at COP27
Forbes: Biden Promises 'No More Drilling' Just Days After Demanding New Drilling
11/4/22
Guardian: The Climate Crisis Explained in 10 Charts
11/2/22
Bill McKibben: Magical Hope vs Actual Hope
10/25/22
Bill McKibben: Big Oil is Addicted, But It's Killing the Rest of Us
10/12/22
Wunderground.com: Mississippi River Looks More Like a Creek - lowest levels since the 1930's
10/10/22
Guardian: How Fossil Fuel Firms Use Black Leaders to Deceive Their Communities - Best example: Cedric Richmond, Biden senior advisor who called "AOC and the Squad are f'ing idiots." Before taking the Biden job, Richmond represented the 2nd district of Louisiana, one of the poorest districts in the nation, and one the most impacted by Oil & Gas industry pollution of the air and groundwater, the same industry from which he got the majority of his campaign funds. In 2019, the 1,209 oil and gas facilities in his district racked up over 2,000 violations of the CWA. This causes major health issues for the citizens of Richmond's district. That district includes seven of the 10 most polluted geographic regions. It has the 5th highest incidence of cancer in the nation. Meanwhile, Richmond turned a blind eye to Oil & Gas industry violations, while he was getting the majority of his campaign funds from that industry.
This is your typical democratic politician, the type that is running the party, and making boneheaded decisions like nominating Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. In Nov. 2024 they will have given us Trump twice.
10/6/22
Natl. Academy of Science: Climate Change and the Threat to Civilization
10/3/22
Wunderground: Inland Florida Under Water - Record flooding of Arcadia River after Ian.
9/28/22
New Yorker: Bill McKibben: Hurricane Ian is a Storm That We Knew Would Occur - Written just befor it made landfall in Florida and extremely prescient. Trivia fact: Because of fossil fuel burning we add the heat equivalent of 500 Hiroshima bombs to the atmosphere and ocean every day.
Time: How Climate Change Makes Storms Like Ian Even Worse
9/24/22
9/23/22
MoJo: How Joe Biden Made the War in Ukraine a Gift to the Gas Industry
9/22/22
Wired: Europe's Heat Waves Offer A Grim Vision of the Future
Guardian: Schumer and Manchin's Dirty Side Deal to Fast Track Pipelines Faces Backlash - Never listen to what they say...
Climate Change News: US Under Pressure to Force World Bank President Out - Malpass was previously Chief Economist at Bear Stearns for 6 years - then it collapsed...just saying.
9/20/22
NBC: UN Secretary General Says 'Polluters Must Pay', Calls for Extra Tax on Fossil Fuel Profits
9/16/22
Asia Times: Anti-Invasion Campaigner: Time to Step on the Gas
9/15/22
Guardian: Pakistan Floods 'Made Up to 50% Worse by Global Heating'
9/14/22
9/9/22
NYTimes: What My Family and I Saw When We Were Trapped in China's Heat Wave - "What happened in China this summer has made it abundantly clear: Even with concerted and aggressive global action to curb carbon emissions, it’s going to be a rough ride."
9/8/22
Guardian: World on Brink of Five 'Disastrous' Tipping Points
Evergreen Action: Four Reasons We Must Stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline
9/7/22
CNN: Western US Heat Wave Shatters All-Time Records, 1/4 of CA Homes Have No AC and it Could Stay That Way - Next: Hurricane Kay, not to mention the ongoing drought
9/6/22
Guardian: California Heat Wave Enters Intense Phase Bringing Blackouts and Wildfires
Weather.com: California Heat Wave Could Push Highest Power Demand Ever
9/4/22
CNN: Extended Record-Setting Heat Wave is Scorching the West
Guardian: FEMA Director: US Flood Maps are Out of Date Thanks to Climate Change
9/1/22
NYTimes: A Solar Firm Plans to Build Off-Grid Neighborhoods in California
Time: Pakistan Flooding's Financial Costs Raises Tough Questions
8/29/22
Guardian: Major Sea-Level Rise Caused by Melting of Greenland Ice Cap Now Inevitable
NYTimes: Deadly Floods Devastate An Already Fragile Pakistan - This is a very small country with a population of almost one quarter of a billion people. People are starving while food prices are skyrocketing and the internal political system is extremely unstable.
8/28/22
Guardian: Pakistan Declares Floods a Climate Catastrophe as Death Toll Tops 1,000
8/25/22
Time: Colorado River Drought is a Cautionary Climate Tale - Lake Mead which supplies water to all of the SW states is at its lowest level ever.
8/23/22
Guardian: Epaulette Sharks Able to Walk on Land Evolving to Better Survive Climate Change
8/22/22
NPR: Record Flooding in Texas - "The risk is highest in places where the water is rising and the land is also falling. That's happening very quickly in Louisiana and Texas, as humans pump out oil, gas and drinking water, and the land collapses because of that extraction."
8/15/22
Guardian: Weeks of Heat Above 100F Will Be the Norm by 2053, Study Shows
8/11/22
NYTimes: Arctic Warming is Happening 4 X Faster Than the Rest of the Planet
Guardian: America's Summer of Floods
8/9/22
Guardian: Landmark US Climate Bill Will Do More Harm Than Good, Frontline Community Groups Say
Guardian: Congress is About to Pass a Historic Climate Bill. So Why Are Oil Companies So Pleased?
8/3/22
NPR: Floods Are Getting More Common. Do You Know Your Risks?
7/30/22
Guardian: 'Soon It Will Be Unrecognisable': Expert: Climate Meltdown Cannot Be Stopped
7/29/22
7/28/22
NYTimes: Seven Key Provisions in the Democrats' Climate Deal - "a far cry from the ambitious multi-trillion-dollar domestic policy and tax proposal that President Biden" campaigned on in 2020.
7/26/22
ABC Chicago: Record Rain Causes Heavy Flooding in St. Louis Area - 12" of rain in St. Charles County; previous record: 6.85" on 8/20/1915.
USA Today: Oak Fire Threatening Yosemite is California's Largest Fire of the Year
7/25/22
New Yorker: Living Through India's Next-Level Heat Wave - "One day in May, the temperature hit 121, and over-heated birds fell from the sky."
7/22/22
BBC: The Audacious PR Plot That Seeded Doubt About Climate Change
7/20/22
Guardian: Alarm as Fastest Growing US Cities Risk Becoming Unlivable From Climate Crisis
7/19/22
NYTimes: UK Heat Wave: Britain Records Highest Temperature Ever
NYTimes: Scenes of Devastation Emerge From Fire-Ravaged SW France
7/18/22
NYTimes: Why Europe is Becoming a Heat Wave Hot Spot
7/17/22
BBC: Heatwave: More Evacuations as Mediterranean Wildfires Spread
7/16/22
New Yorker: For the Third Time in Three Decades, Congress Punts on Serious Climate Legislation - Manchin made complete suckers out of Biden and the Democrats. Never forget.
7/15/22
CNN: European Cities Set All-Time Temperature Records Amid Unrelenting Heat Wave
7/14/22
7/13/22
Time: How Heat Waves Could Have Long Term Impacts on Your Health - "Hotter days bring an elevated risk of dehydration, says Johnson, which in turn can cause cognitive dysfunction, high blood pressure, and acute kidney injuries. Over time, the chronically dehydrated are less able to excrete toxins, leaving a higher concentration of salts and glucose in the kidneys and blood serum. Those substances are linked with an increased risk for diabetes and metabolic syndrome, a medical term that describes some combination of high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and abdominal obesity that is estimated to afflict nearly a quarter of U.S. adults. As temperatures rise, he says, it is likely that incidences of metabolic disease will too, along with the concurrent risk of heart attack and stroke."
7/12/22
Guardian: Nearly $2Tn of Damage Inflicted on Other Countries by US Emissions
7/7/22
The Limited News: June 2022, the 3rd Hottest on Record - After June 2019, and June 2021
and on the same day...
Common Dreams: Biden Lights the Fuse of the Biggest Carbon Bomb Ever - Unita Basin railway...These numbers are truly mind boggling. Biden and the democrats have nailed the coffin shut for life on earth. Republicans are the obvious evil, but Democrats are the more efficient evil.
7/6/22
Intercept: Biden Administration Pushes More Ocean Drilling Amid Record Oil and Gas Profits
7/2/22
NPR: Biden Offshore Drilling Proposal Would Allow 11 Oil and Gas Leases
7/1/22
Common Dreams: Biden's Five-Year Drilling Plan Will Exacerbate Climate Disaster
6/30/22
New Yorker: Bill McKibben: Whore Court Tries to Overrule the Climate - McKibben: "The decision in Citizens United v. F.E.C., in 2010, empowered corporations to game our political system at will."
6/23/22
Pew Research: Two-Thirds of Americans Think Government Should Do More on Climate
6/18/22
Guardian: Burning Planet: Why Are the World's Heatwaves Getting More Intense?
6/17/22
Guardian: Fossil Fuel Firms 'Have Humanity by the Throat', Says UN Head in Blistering Attack - That's the best summarization that I have heard of where we are right now. Just as Biden prepares to leave for Saudi Arabia, breaking 2 major campaign promises in one trip.
6/15/22
Time: To Survive Severe Drought This Summer, CA Should Learn From Capetown's Water Crisis - Americans use about 82 gallons of water per day. In 2017, Capetown residents were limited to 13.
UN: Around the Globe, As the Climate Crisis Worsens, Drought Set In - "Drought is a part of a much broader challenge of land degradation. Up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is currently degraded. Forests have been cleared, wetlands and peatlands drained, mountains eroded, and farmlands and grasslands over-exploited. Land degradation directly affects half of humanity, with the potential to threaten half of the global gross domestic product (US$44 trillion)."
6/13/22
NYTimes: California Wildfire Scorches Nearly 1,000 Acres and Prompts Evacuations - 'One of more than 30 fires that have burned nearly one million acres across 5 states.'
6/9/22
NYTimes: As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah Faces An 'Environmental Nuclear Bomb'
6/3/22
NOAA: Carbon Dioxide Now More Than 50% Higher Than Pre-Industrial Levels -
2022: 421 ppm
Pre-Industrial: 280
6/1/22
NYTimes: 'A Perfect Recipe for Extreme Wildfire': New Mexico's Record Breaking, Early Fire Season
Guardian: We Cannot Adapt Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis, Warns Leading Scientist
5/22/22
Accuweather: Intense Heat Scorches Much of the East Coast, With More Still to Come
5/21/22
Guardian: Dozens Dead, Millions Stranded as Floods Ravage Bangladesh and India
5/20/22
New Yorker: Bill McKibben: Could Google's Carbon Emissions Have Effectively Doubled Overnight?
5/17/22
Guardian: Cumbria Coalmine Redundant Before It Even Opens
5/11/22
Guardian: US Fracking Boom Could Tip the World to Edge of Climate Disaster
5/9/22
NYTimes: Strong Winds Fuel Wildfires in New Mexico and ABC News: Crews in New Mexico, Arizona Scramble to Corral Wildfires and Guardian: Strong Winds Fuel More Than 21,000 Acre Arizona Wildfire
5/2/22
Guardian: 'We Are Living in Hell': Pakistan and India Suffer Extreme Heat Waves - At close to 130F, some of the highest April temperatures ever recorded on earth.
NYTimes: Biden Admin. Begins $3B Plan For Electric Car Batteries - "...currently, lithium, cobalt and other minerals needed for electric car batteries and energy storage are processed primarily in Asia. China alone controls nearly 80 percent of the world’s processing and refining of those critical minerals."
4/25/22
Guardian: US Gas Prices Are Over $4/Gallon. These Oil CEO's Took Home Over $20 Million
4/22/22
New Yorker: McKibben: This Earth Day We Could Be Helping the Environment - And Ukraine
4/18/22
US to Resume Oil, Gas Drilling on Public Land Despite Biden Campaign Pledge
4/15/22
Common Dreams: Activists Decry Biden's 'Reckless' Resumption of Fossil Fuel Leases on Public Land - The Democrats have completely betrayed the climate movement. The 'lesser of two evils' argument is a fraud.
"Randi Spivak, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity, argued that "the Biden administration's claim that it must hold these lease sales is pure fiction and a reckless failure of climate leadership."
Biden has killed any hope of Democratic gains this fall and has probably turned the White House over to Trump in '24.
"The decision to go ahead with the sale has damaged Biden’s climate credentials right after the Cop26 talks in Glasgow where he said the US would “lead by example” in slashing greenhouse gas emissions. The president, who has called the climate crisis an “existential threat” to the US, said in a Democratic primary debate last year that under his administration there would be “no more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.”
See entry below of 1/28 & 12/13.
4/14/22
Guardian: Our Food System Isn't Ready for the Climate Crisis
4/8/22
NOAA: Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters - Ignoring climate change is starting to get really expensive.
4/6/22
Guardian: Microplastics Found in Human Lungs For the First Time - They were found in 10 of the 12 subjects tested. They have also been found in blood samples. We are all eating them and breathing them all the time.
4/4/22
NYTimes: IPCC: Stopping Climate Change is Possible, But Time is Short
4/3/22
Guardian: Scientists Urge End to Fossil Fuel Use as Landmark IPCC Report Readied
3/18/22
New Yorker: Bill McKibben: In a World on Fire, Stop Burning Things - "...we have the technnology necessary to rapidly ditch fossil fuels. Renewable energy is now cheaper than fossil fuel, and becoming more so...it could cost less to replace every coal plant in the country with renewables than to simply maintain the existing coal plants. You could call it a “green discount.”"
3/16/22
Time: Heat Pumps Are a Weapon in the EU's Energy Faceoff Against Russia
3/11/22
Guardian: 'Defining Moment': How Can the US End Its Dependency on Fossil Fuels? - Here's how: : New Yorker: Renewable Energy is Suddenly Startlingly Cheap and Carbon Tracker: The Sky's the Limit: Solar and wind energy potential is 100 times as much as global energy demand.
3/8/22
NYTimes: Suddenly Oil Companies Are Upbeat Again
3/3/22
NYTimes: Where Biodiversity is Most At Risk in America
3/2/22
Business Insider: UN Report Warns of Climate-Related Mass Extinctions
3/1/22
NYTimes: Time is Running Out to Avert a Harrowing Future IPCC Warns and BBC: IPCC Report Warns of 'Irreversable' Impacts of Global Warming
2/28/22
NYTimes: Climate Change is Harming the Planet Faster Than We Can Adapt
2/27/22
Bill McKibben: Heat Pumps for Peace and Freedom - "Joe Biden could damage Putin badly - and he doesn't have to ask Joe Manchin." Also see: New Yorker: Renewable Energy is Suddenly Startlingly Cheap and Carbon Tracker: The Sky's the Limit: Solar and wind energy potential is 100 times as much as global energy demand.
These three articles together show the path to a relatively quick elimination of the use of fossil fuels on this planet. The only thing stopping it is the money going into politicians' pockets from the industries that needlessly prolong its use.
2/15/22
Guardian: US West Megadrought is Worst in 1,200 Years
NYTimes: Coastal Sea Levels in US to Rise a Foot by 2020
2/14/22
AP: Megadrought in US West Hits Worst-Case Scenario
Nature Climate Change: Rapid Intensification of the Emerging Southwestern North American Mega-Drought in 2020-2021 - "Here, we show that after exceptional drought severity in 2021, ~19% of which is attributable to anthropogenic climate trends, 2000–2021 was the driest 22-yr period since at least 800."
2/11/22
Guardian: "More Cash Than We Know What to Do With"
2/9/22
BBC: Major Breakthrough on Nuclear Fusion Energy - Making fossil fuels completely unnecessary.
New Yorker: Why Texas's Power Grid Still Hasn't Been Fixed - Winter storm Uri February 2021, overwhelmed the TX power grid and left 5 million Texans without power for days. 248 died. Many natural gas facilities, the main source of power for most Texans, failed. In the immediate aftermath, Gov. Abbott blamed renewable energy, but the problem was with the natural gas facilities which seized up in the cold. In the attempt to avoid regulation, the TX system elected to fend for itself and remove itself from the multi-state grid. That plan failed. Subsequently the TX legislature has focused on tightening the state's voting laws, allowing unregistered handgun carry in public, and banning abortion to the exclusion of natural gas regulation. State rules regarding natural gas facility ownership by regulators is non-existant. There are no weatherization requirements, much less enforcement. Meanwhile TX has encouraged crypto-currency mining which drains electricity from the TX infrastructure.
2/1/22
NYTimes: How American Agriculture is Killing Our Planet - During the last 20 years, Big Ag spent $2.5 Billion on lobbying. As a percentage of expenditures Tyson foods spends more on political lobbying than Exxon/Mobile does.
Guardian: North Sea Abigail Oil Field Plan Approved Despite Climate Goals
1/28/22
NYTimes: Court Revokes Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Leases Citing Climate Change - Finally some good news.
Biden stated during a Democratic primary debate in 2020 that under his administration there would be “no more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.” One of the first actions that Biden took immediately upon returning from COP26 was to authorize the auction of 308 tracts, 3.7 million acres of new drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico.
This court action reverses the permits that were auctioned off at that time plus more.
See entry of 12/13/21.
1/27/22
1/18/22
Guardian: Exxon Uses Unusual Law to Intimidate Critics
1/11/22
Guardian: Hottest Ocean Temperatures In History Recorded in 2021
1/10/22
CBS News: The Past 7 Years Have Been the Hottest on Record "by a Clear Margin" Scientists Say