Dubai Hits 140°F Heat Index

 After having leveled 90% of the buildings on Carriacou, Grenada, Cat 5 Hurricane Beryl has already broken lots of records as it barrels toward Jamaica. The rapid intensification of this storm is unprecedented for this time of year (and for most any time of year), a condition made possible by Atlantic surface temperatures that are historically high. Rapid Intensification (RI) is defined as an increase of 35 MPH or more in a storm’s wind speed over 24 hours. Beryl’s wind speed more than doubled to 160 MPH from Monday to Tuesday.The year 2023 was the warmest globally on land, sea and air. According to Copernicus’ ERA5 data records from June, 2024 is already hotter, with global sea surface temperatures across most of the world’s seas at unprecedented levels even as the El Niño cycle slackens.The current temperatures are typical of September, not early July. On average, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season tends to form during early to mid-August. The first Category 3 generally doesn’t usually occur until Sept. 1, records show. Beryl hit Cat 5 in early July.Average daily sea surface temperature for the month of May hit a new all-time high of 69.67 F a monthly new record for the 14th month in a row. In a nutshell, the temperatures we are now seeing are decades ahead of what climate models predicted.

It’s fairly easy to grasp how extreme heat and water vapor levels can contribute to radical spikes in a storm’s intensity. But there is another factor contributing to Rapid Intensification that is less intuitive: the DEPTH of the upper layer of warm ocean water. In the past, when a storm passed over very warm water it fed off of the energy stored in the water, but also churned up that top layer to allow cooler water to rise from below. 

Up until a few years ago, the normal scenario was that mixing of the cooler layers lowered the over all temps at the surface, reducing the energy available to the storm and therefore the intensity. In a sense, there was some self-regulation built in to the systems. However, with warmer surface layers now extending deeper, the upper layers stay warmer, the system energy stays higher and storms continue to power up.The planet’s seas have been absorbing heat and CO2 for decades, and we are now beginning to pay the price. Storms like Maria, Otis, Beryl and those that will follow this season are a preview of what is coming. 

While some scientists waste time urging immediate, large scale adaptation to the planetary climate crisis, Florida lawmakers have simply made it go away via House Bill 1745, which combines enlightened legislation with magical thinking.

Having achieved major success banning library books about trans people and minority history, the emboldened GOP-dominated legislature has now outdone itself in the area of climate science. Ron’s army simply went ahead and banned the term “climate change” from official state documents and proceedings. References to energy efficient vehicles, contracting with “green lodgings” for meetings and cleaner fuels for conferences have been eliminated. In a separate move, local governments in Florida will not be permitted to mandate heat protection – water breaks etc. – for outdoor workers, the need for hydration being another woke liberal hoax. To be sure, some alarmists are concerned about Florida’s vulnerability to global warming, manifested by 100°F water temperatures last year, a massive coral bleaching emergency, accelerating temperatures, rapidly rising sea levels (about 8 in. since 1950), location in the path of intensifying hurricanes and soaring insurance rates. That’s why we needed Untermensch DeSantis to make it all go away with a flick of his little pen. 

The boys of the GOP did manage to rename A1A to Jimmy Buffet Highway, effective until the iconic coastal thoroughfare disappears under the waves of the insurgent Atlantic Ocean.

Summary of Spring 2024 climate shocks:

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, in surgent Atlantic Ocean.

LINK TO SUMMARY 

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..

Unless one follows the breakdown of the planetary climate system, most people aren’t aware that many of Alaska’s rivers are now flowing a rusty orange and turning seriously acidic, as chemicals once locked by the frozen permafrost begin to leach out into surrounding waterways.

This recent Arctic development is directly related to an earlier post that reported several other consequences of rapid permafrost thaw. In that Jan 19 post I summarized several climate phenomena triggered by the thawing of permafrost and the resulting release of methane gas from various places it has been stored for a long time. The developments include exploding methane craters, flammable bubbling lakes, marine seafloor frozen CH4 clathrates and creeping megaslumps. 

Now we see another alarming scenario brewing, as the iconic Salmon River, the Agashashok River and number of other Alaskan waterways - about 75 at this point - are flowing hazy orange, with acidity levels running 100 times higher than expected and low dissolved oxygen measurements. According Scientific American's January 1 article, analysis of the waterway shows it contains high levels of manganese and iron that are similar industrial wastewater. And yet this river was once described as having “water of exceptional clarity.”

This is not the usual mining wastewater scenario, which is caused directly by human dumping of poison from extraction sites. Rather it is one step removed: as anthropomorphic global warming raises temperatures, it melts the tundra faster, releasing microbes that free yet more trapped greenhouse gases and so on...we’ve covered this particular feedback before.

There are other reports - not verified at this point - that the same thing is happening in northern Canada and Siberia. Given the cause and effect trail, it would be surprising if it were not. And the emerging situation may be worse than what can been seen: the ominous discoloration is determined by the chemical makeup of a specific watershed’s sediments, so not all contaminated rivers will look rusty. Sadly, the acidic pH levels (6.4) are far more dangerous to river life and surrounding ecosystems, and that data is not visible.

Scientists at this point are indicating that minerals are either leaching out of rock that has been newly exposed to water and suddenly active bacteria in defrosting wetlands are also releasing iron, manganese and other elements.

Although we expect this phenomenon to worsen rapidly, it has already negatively affected the indigenous way of life. The increased quantities of dissolved minerals and salts in the waters of the Wulik and Kobuk rivers to increase, threatening the drinking water supply for native communities. The affects are seen in fish and wildlife, with key staple fish species are reported deformed in increasing numbers.  

There is a certain amount of low grade irony in the fact that many the most powerful effects of global heating are taking place in the relative cold of the Arctic. Not only is this region warming three time faster than the rest of the planet, but visual evidence of ecosphere collapse in the far North tends to takes more exotic and dramatic form than in the lower latitudes: Exploding craters, flammable lakes, crashing glaciers. But comparatively few humans live in the Arctic and therefore miss all the powerful evidence of the broken climate on display.

It will only be when extreme weather events and the serious disruptions to the food supply affect their own lives that people will truly understand.

Last week’s death by heat of a young Brazilian Swiftie concertgoer was breathlessly covered by global media. The record heatwave involved was noted as a component of the story, but typically missed the much much larger story:  the accelerating eco-collapse of Amazonia as Brazil recorded its highest temp of all time (112.6°F) and the nation's hottest driest winter ever. One more broken record in the hottest planetary year in hundreds of thousands of years.

Now spring is beginning in the Southern hemisphere and the web of waterways that are the lifeblood of the region are drying up, leaving boats stranded in the muddy river bottoms. Water levels in the mighty Amazon and its tributaries are at never before seen lows as the ocean forces salt water deeper into the delta. If the pattern prevails, the hydroelectric  dams that are the main source of energy in the Amazon region will fail.
The global climate catastrophe is the driving force behind the emergency, but human activity – as always – has pushed the region to the brink. Healthy forests once generated regular rainfall and cooled the region naturally. Those days are gone. The pattern now in effect is a typical climate feedback loop, with higher temperatures triggering more fires which burn more trees which create a warmer climate. The local crisis is a climate disaster within a climate disaster.

STATES OF EMERGENCY
With forests already slashed by cattle ranching, mining and illegal logging, new blazes are filling the air with smoke so toxic that school is canceled in Manaus and other cities. Through the bleak landscape wander emaciated cattle, simultaneously cause and victims of the drought and toxic air in the shrinking tropical forest. Palm trees shrivel and the leaves wrinkle up. Mass dolphin die-offs are photographed and cataloged in 102°F waters as the rains decline to make an appearance. Food and drinking water are already scarce.

Seventy-five percent of the states in the Amazonas region have declared a state of emergency, this only two years after the worst flooding catastrophes of all time. The flood drought flood model that characterizes the dawning Anthropocene epoch becomes more extreme with each cycle.

 “The forest is succumbing," Climate Observatory executive secretary Marcio Astrini told the Financial Times in November. “It doesn’t happen as a whole or all at once, but in some regions you’re already experiencing these inflection points.” 

Like Moses’s wives, the name of this deceased Brazilian music fan is not easy to find in the reporting. Ana Clara Benevides Machado’s death is only important to the media in the context of megastar Taylor Swift. Similarly, the fact that her death was a small component in the collapse of the world’s largest rain forest was barely noted…and then they move on to the next shiny thing.

Until we grow up as a species, our prospects for surviving the climate crash will continue to dim.

It’s not that sand storms in semi-arid Tajikistan are new, it’s that there are now 10 times as many events as a few decades ago, they are more violent, the season lasts much longer and the fine particles are more deadly to humans. They were rare in the nineties, but now afflict the capital of Dushanbe30 to 40 times a year.

The most obvious cause is the heat-driven extended drought that is drying out Central Asia. The effects are most dramatically seen in the collapse of the once magnificent Aral Sea to the northwest. The other part of the climate component is that winds are becoming more powerful, lifting more soil into the air and carrying it farther, and making the air borne particles more destructive.

Worse, the airborne particles are also composed of salt and toxins that damage lungs over time. For Tajikistani citizens, the health toll is becoming alarming, as these fine particles infiltrate and destroy lung tissues. In Dushanbe, air quality and visibility has reached the level of an ongoing emergency  

Yet another contributing factor is less obvious: not only do these toxic storms impact agriculture,  they speed alpine glacier melt, which historically provides what little fresh water is available to farmers.   

Spring is just beginning in South America, Australia and Antarctica, but unusual heat blasts are already baking large swaths of the planetary south. With the southern hemisphere in the October “mirror month” of April, temperatures are already approaching record levels for summer. But it’s not yet summer.

Puerto Esperanza, Peru reported 106°F – disturbingly high for this time of year and also only a couple of  °F°  degrees short of its all time high, period.

Similar scenarios unfolded in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru. 

In São Romão Brazil, the temperature hit 110°F
(Typical highs for this time of year are in the 70’s and 80’s)
Filadelfia, western Paraguay 112°F
Trinidad, Bolivia, 103°F
Las Lomitas, Argentina 110°F 

“Biblical Punishment” Drought In Uruguay
Uruguay emerges from winter after an apocalyptic drought that reduced the Paso Severino reservoir to a dusty ruin, with the capital city at one point having to tap into the nasty River Plate. $1 billion in agricultural products turned to dust as experts are predict a major social upheaval in the countryside.

Australia On the Verge
Meanwhile, the land down under is emerging from its warmest winter ever, entering a spring that looks like more of the same. The Sidney area hit 100 degrees F the first week in October (mirror month April) as dozens of runners were hospitalized due to heat stroke. Ski resorts have closed early. Eighty-five bushfires have already broken out in New South Wales, where a large percentage of the population lives.

A record El Niño has arrived as predicted, teaming up with the rolling climate emergency that has gripped the country for at least a decade. It is amplified by a positive Indian Ocean Dipole, a natural climate pattern similar to El Niño that has significant influence on Australian weather.

This triple whammy is a confluence of these two natural weather patterns whipped up by accelerating global heating. The La Niña pattern that has dominated the past few years is gone. La Niña is typically associated with a planetary cooling effect, and yet, these years have been among the hottest recorded.

Speaking to CNN, David Bowman, of the University of Tasmania, Australia noted: “The climate change monster has woken up and El Niño means it is angry.”

Way Way Down Under: Antarctica No Longer “Stable”
The news from Antarctica is potentially even worse, as the sea ice around the continent recorded an all-time low area for maximum ice coverage. That means when the ice floe coverage hit its greatest extent for the year, it was missing a chunk about the size of Argentina. 

New Zealand officials convened an emergency summit on October 3 to discuss the situation.

As is the case at the North Pole, global weather patterns are significantly impacted by the southern ice pack. The southern ocean is heating up rapidly, with significant concerns that the coastal ice shelves are melting from below.

https://rapidclimatechange.org/.../did-you-think-there.../

The Swiss Academy of Sciences has documented a more rapid collapse of Alpine glaciers over the past two years, an acceleration equal to the entire volume lost from 1960 to 1990. That stat is based on a decline of 4% this past summer and 6% in 2022, the worst year ever. The cause of course is record high temps and record low snowfall.
 

Europe’s glaciers had already lost about half of their volume in the past century.
 

Swiss scientists have stopped measuring many glaciers, simply because they are essentially gone. Matthias Huss of the Glacier Monitoring Switzerland organization (GLAMOS) predicts that only about one third of the mountain nation’s glaciers will make the long haul even if the imaginary international 1.5C target.
 

This is more than just bad news for the Alpine tourist industry. Yes, glacier retreat does threaten local economies based on ski resorts, climbers and hikers (the death toll for hikers is climbing as glaciers collapsed). But water from melting glaciers is also essential to the fresh water supply of Europe and the ability of major waterways to provide transportation. Shipping on the essential Rhine River has been restricted in 2022 and 2023 because of low water levels.
 

Alpine glacial runoff also irrigates crops and cools nuclear plants. The emerging pattern is insidious: First there is more water, then there is no water. Glaciers produce more meltwater in the early stages of rapid melt, then it is gone.
 

Almost a side show (albeit potentially deadly), newly formed lakes are growing to bursting behind moraine dams, creating Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF), which endanger mountain villages downstream when the dam collapses. 

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Speaking of GLOFs…

UPDATE:  DEADLY GLOF EVENT IN INDIA 

Oct 3, 2023 - A lethal flash flood in the Sikkim region of India was triggered by a Glacial Outburst Lake Flood. The event completely submerged the village of Singtam, killing at least 15, with hundreds missing. The outbreak flood had been predicted by government agencies, but the warnings were ignored. Glacial lake eruptions are becoming a fact of life as the climate emergency accelerates.

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Finally, as previously reported, as ice melts in the very rocks that form the mountain structure, the frozen “glue” that keeps it all together is thawing permanently (similar to crumpling permafrost in the Arctic). The imminent danger of entire mountains disintegrating into rock slides is driving evacuations of places such as Brienz, Switzerland, which was abandoned just prior to a mammoth rock avalanche that nearly destroyed the canton in June.
 

Story at RapidClimateChange.org:

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...

Canada wildfires in the far north prompt evacuation of 20,000 in Yellowknife

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.

Firestorms: Maui / 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.

The Mediterranean nation known for it's temperate climate registered 102°F in mid-August as a lethal sand storm swept through Marakesh.

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. 

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..

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. 

Louisiana: New Climate Refugees As Waters Close In

Only 15 miles south of New Orleans, the waters around Grand Island, Barataria,  Crown Pointe, and Jean Lafitte are continuing to rise, threatening long time residents of the bayou area.  About a football field worth of wetland disappears every two hours.

Horrendous rains have brought lethal flooding and landslides that have displaced thousands the Durban, South Africa region. The humanitarian disaster, as always, is magnified by malfeasance on the part of the powers what is. More than a decade ago, poor families were relocated away from a new soccer stadium and dumped in a flood prone area, where they remain. Damages are currently estimated at $684 million and rising. The death toll will climb. 

Add Alaskan snow crab to the growing list of marine animals  threatened by rapidly changing conditions on the ground, or, in this case, in the Bering Sea. Extreme ocean warming in the area around the Pribilof Islands  (between Siberia and Alaska) has crashed the population down nearly 90% from 2021 levels. Read the Article.

There is a lot of CH4 trapped beneath the surface of the planet, particularly under the permafrost in Siberia, Alaska and other Arctic regions. As the permafrost thaws, the gases trapped below it spew into the atmosphere, creating a climate feedback cycle with results that are observable in something close to real time. Visit the Page.

Late winter in the Arctic temperatures were about 70°F above the normal average at some measurement stations. Some near North Pole stations reported the beginning of melt. New heat records were also established in Antarctica with temperatures of over 50°F above the normal average in March. Visit the Page.

Another widespread die-off at the World Heritage site off the northern coast of Australia marks the sixth such catastrophe since 1998. This ongoing environmental disaster is driven by warming oceans and pollution. The most recent aerial survey shows almost no reefs across a 1,200km stretch unaffected by the elevated water temperatures.  See Australia’s New Normal video.

The inland sea that forms the iconic core of Utah’s Latter Day culture is in danger of disappearing as it reaches its lowest level. About half of the original lakebed area is now dry land  In the process, thousands of square miles of dry lake bed is exposed, laying open vast expanses of toxic dust.

Life-threatening heat waves are shattering temperature records, with highs reaching over 100°F. High temperatures are expected to climb to 10°F to 15°F above normal. 

East Antarctica’s Conger ice shelf – a floating platform the size of Rome – broke off the continent on March 15, 2022.

Lake Mead has dropped to an unprecedented low and other regional reservoirs have reached emergency levels as the western drought continues. Hydropower is likely to be curtailed and blackouts are expected. Read the Article.

Five million children near are starvation in Afghanistan amid the worst drought since records began. “When there is no rain the land is dry and we can’t grow anything … The drought has completely devastated our land.”

*Flagstaff, AZ resident watching her neighborhood go up in smoke, quoted April 21, 2022 in the New York Times.

Violent weather events—frost, hail, storms, rain at harvest, dry summers—have become more frequent. Slow to acknowledge the creeping disaster, French wine authorities have authorized planting of new varieties. 

Coastal water levels are dropping even as melting land glaciers dump tons of fresh water into the North Atlantic. As the immense weight of Iceland’s glacial ice mass disappears into the North Atlantic, the land beneath it is “bouncing back”, more or less springing up as the burden is removed. So seas seem to be dropping lower on the coasts of Iceland even though water level is relative to the land mass. Read the Article.

The reality of calamitous sea level rise smashes into Sidney as tidal onslaught tears boats their moorings. Bondi and Clovelly beach clubs and hotels took a pounding from huge wind driven swells. The second major cleanup follows a major flooding event only three weeks ago.  It’s all part of Australia’s New Normal (see our video). 

The root cause of the so war in Syria was an unrelenting drought that brought farmers to their knees. It moves into its third decade as the worst in the Middle East for at least 1,000 years. Conditions have worsened in the past two years: Herds have been culled and crops are generally devastated. The iconic Khabur river is at record lows.. 

After a scorching heatwave, Argentina is suffering another round  of raging wildfires that torched forests and farms across its northern region. Authorities estimate early losses at a quarter billion dollars with 2 million acres torched. The region has been experiencing record heat this year, baking in unprecedented temperatures up to 113°F.

Kenya and the Horn of Africa are in the third year of failed rainy seasons as the desert takes back the land. 5.5 million children in the region are threatened by acute malnutrition. Millions of head of livestock have died of malnutrition and in Kenya, Forecasts indicate that below average rainfall will continue into the foreseeable future.

The far right Brazilian administration has accelerated the plundering of indigenous lands; what environmental regulations remain are essentially gone. Many scientists now believe the critical forest carbon sink has crossed the final tipping point in terms of climate effects. When forests are cleared, another climate feedback cycle is triggered. 

Life-threatening heat waves are shattering temperature records, with highs reaching over 100°F. High temperatures are expected to climb to 10°F to 15°F above normal. 

Little remains of the ironically named Eternity Glacier in Papua’s Jayawijaya mountains. The once might ice formation is expected to be gone by 2025.

The Gulf Stream carries warmer waters north, where they serve to moderate the climate of northern Europe. Look at the latitude of Western Europe and you will see how far north the nations that invaded North America are located compared to the US east coast. The global ocean current is driven by salinity changes in the northern sea, which causes surface waters to change density and sink (that’s basically how it works). When this mechanical process is disrupted, weather becomes unpredictable and extreme, extended events mo

Humans are funny. 

As a certain segment of the population obsesses over how expensive it is to fill up the ole (completely necessary) Escalade, the climate emergency worsens.  

Yet most of the stories below barely make the news and if they do, hardly register.  Meanwhile, the most recent climate report from the UN agency incorporated such epithets as 'Delay means death'. There was nothing good in this report, yet it dropped on the world stage with a thunk. 

Below is a summary of a few current disasters. Perhaps seeing the some snapshots from a global perspective may move a few people.   

This is what’s going on in early 2022. 

March: Drought in the West and Great Plains continues to worsen, and there is no reason not to conclude we are in for a long bumpy ride as the megadrought expands.

Bomb Cyclone In the Arctic brings temperatures 50F higher than normal.

Freakishly High Temperatures At Both Poles Simultaneously

Arctic + 70°F over normal temperatures | Antarctic 50°F over normal temperatures      

It is late winter in the Arctic but temperatures are nearly at the freezing mark, about 70°F above the normal average at some measurement stations. Some near North Pole stations reported the beginning of melt, far earlier in the season than normal.  On the other end of the planet, temperature records are being set on these last days of Summer. On Friday March 18, the Concordia weather (at two miles altitude) reported 10F and the Vostok station hit 0, a new all-time record by 27 degrees. Terra Nova base was at a balmy 44.6°F. As opposed to the West Antarctic Peninsula, these temps are happening on the vast frozen Eastern Antarctica land mass, the coldest place on Earth.  At the same time, Antarctic sea ice extent is at an all time record low since measurement began in 1979.   Full story here.

Catastrophic flooding in Australia following successive years of drought and more epic floods. 

Syrians Suffer Ongoing Famine As Drought Enters Its Third Decade. Remember the drought that started the Syrian Civil War? It never went away. 

Wildfires and heat waves in Argentina have torched 2 million acres so far. 

Kenya: Water Shortages, Dead Livestock and Ruined Harvests as Desertification Moves In 

Winter Rains Were Not Enough As Record Heat Returns to California 

Polar Ice At Both Poles Is Now Melting From Below: new research (this one is really scary). Separate report here: https://rapidclimatechange.org/the-ice-goeth/ 

Full report and videos at RAPID CLIMATE CHANGE.ORG