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This year the world is on track to put 41.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air, a 0.8% increase from 2023. At this rate, it will be about 6 yrs before we exceed the 1.5 deg C threshold above preindustrial times.

“We clearly are not doing enough on a global scale to reduce emissions.”-O’Sullivan.
But, Trump’s got this…🥲

https://tinyurl.com/ywm2kk9a #Climate #press


Yes, each one of us should cut our carbon footprint as individuals. It’s the right thing to do. We can stop flying, stop eating meat, and ride a bike instead of driving. But the fact is, no matter what you and I do, it won’t make a big enough difference.

That’s because all of the truly significant decisions about the future of our planet are taken far above street level, far above voting level, far above legislatures or the UN.

The choices that matter most to us are made by the leaders of capitalist mega-corporations and their financiers.

So although you and I should take appropriate individual actions, we also must recognize that while those actions are important, they are not sufficient.

Because what we need is system change. The end of capitalism. Without that, there is no chance of civilization surviving.

➡️ https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/11/09/25-years-counting-carbon-footprints-experts-assess-the-term-beloved-by-oil-firms

#Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Greenwashing
Screenshot from top of linked article. Headline says: "25 years counting carbon footprints – experts assess the term beloved by oil firms." Below this are two photos side-by-side, one of a factory spewing emissions into the air, and the other of a grassy lawn with the shadow of a human footprint.


Mother Nature says: FAFO
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Trees and land absorbed almost no carbon dioxide (CO2) last year, and scientists are struggling to work out why.

Carbon sinks, such as forests, oceans and soils, are an essential part of regulating the Earth’s climate. Through natural processes, these land and ocean masses absorb almost half of all human carbon emissions from the atmosphere.

But preliminary findings for 2023 – the hottest year ever recorded on Earth – have found that the amount of carbon absorbed by forests, plants, and soil has temporarily collapsed.

This was completely unexpected, and therefore not something factored into most predictions and calculations about how quickly the Earth will heat up as a result of climate change. The breakdown of the land carbon sink could be temporary, but if it isn’t, this will drastically increase the rate of global heating.

It will be impossible for the world to reach net zero without carbon sinks, because there is simply no human technology that can absorb carbon on the same scale as the forests, grasslands, peat bogs, and oceans of the world.
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FULL STORY ➡️ https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/environment/trees-absorbed-almost-no-co2-last-year-and-scientists-are-struggling-to-explain-why-385673/

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
Screenshot from top of linked article. Headline says: "Trees absorbed almost to no CO2 last year and scientists are struggling to explain why." Below this is a photo of trees in a tropical forest.


No progress since Cop28 last year.

Also no progress since Cop27, or Cop20, or Cop15, or...
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There is no sign of the transition away from burning fossil fuels that was pledged by the world’s nations a year ago, with 2024 on track to set another new record for global carbon emissions.

The new data comes from the Global Carbon Budget project, a collaboration of more than 100 experts led by Prof Pierre Friedlingstein, at the University of Exeter, UK, who said: “The impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly dramatic, yet we still see no sign that burning of fossil fuels has peaked. Time is running out and world leaders meeting at Cop29 must bring about rapid and deep cuts to fossil fuel emissions.”
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I wish they'd just be honest and announce that they have absolutely no intention of meeting any of their goals. Ever.

🧵 1/2

FULL STORY ➡️ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/13/no-sign-of-promised-fossil-fuel-transition-as-emissions-hit-new-high

#Politics #History #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange
Screenshot from top of linked article. Headline says: "No sign of promised fossil fuel transition as emissions hit new high." Below this is a photo of steam billowing out of a power station in New Delhi, India, against the backdrop of an orange sunset.


Dealing with the pain from last week’s disastrous election and trying to understand it all, our Mastodon friend Geoffrey Deihl (@gdeihl) takes a look back at our nation’s sordid history…
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America has always been a violent, racist country. Little wonder, being built on slavery and genocide, spawn of the brutal British Empire.

Our war for independence was no romantic story about a fight for freedom and justice. It was a revolt against a king not playing nice with his colonists. Some were fleeing religious persecution, but many were here to get rich. They had no compunction about murdering the indigenous people who saved them from starving in their first winter on these shores.

Native Americans were slaughtered, the survivors driven across the land to reservations, their resources stolen. Texas was annexed in 1845 from the brown people of Mexico under the newly invented guise of “Manifest Destiny” which argued we have moral virtue, and a divine right to that destiny.

Through this time and well before, Africans were packed into the holds of dank, leaking ships for weeks-long voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. The fifty percent that survived disease outbreaks from these barbaric conditions were sold as if animals. Eventually, slavery ripped families apart in the Civil War. The emancipation of blacks led to the Jim Crow laws in the south not overturned until 1965.

To understand what happened on November 5, we must consider history.
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Geoff has written a long, angry, and well-informed essay about our shameful past and present — and near the end, he also offers several good suggestions on how to organize and take action to build a better future. I hope you’ll read the whole thing.

➡️ https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/descent-into-madness

#USA #Politics #History #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange


Whether you look at absolute levels or per-capita carbon emissions, its fair to say that China needs to up its game if its going to make good on its claim to be heading towards a green transition.... of course, you may already be discounting such claims.

Interestingly while the US emissions remain broadly stable, due to a growing population their per capita rate is declining.

Not that any of this matter much at the oil-soaked COP29

#COP29 #climate #emissions
Carbon emissions compared
1. Tons of CO2 equivalent (bn)/2. Tonnes of CO2 per capita

!. shows China's emissions climbing from around 3,000/year to around 12,000/year in 2020, while US remains around 6,000/year & India rising form 1,000/year to around 3,500/year

2. shows US per capita emissions dropping from around 20, to less than 15, while China has risen from around 2, to around 7 between 1990-2020


Big oil = Big tobacco.... both knew the danger heir products were doing & hid it while arguing the science was mistaken.

If you wanted a reason not to trust the corporate world (many Im sure are already well past this point), this would look like a good one.

#FossilFuels #Tobacco #climate #health

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/12/big-oil-fossil-fuel-warning


It’s obvious that a second Trump administration will be worse in almost every conceivable way from what a Harris administration might have been.

But let's not fool ourselves into believing that a Harris victory would have been *good* for our climate and environment. We've been going in the wrong direction for at least 20 years under Presidents from both parties — and there's no reason to think that Kamala Harris would have charted a different course.

SEE ➡️ https://archive.ph/VnlWF

When it comes to our climate and environment, we can't blame either the Democrats or the Republicans. We have to blame both. We have to blame capitalism.

🧵 1/3

#Politics #History #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
Screenshot from top of linked article. Headline says: "Why no president has slowed the U.S. oil boom." Below this is a photo of numerous oil wells in California.


You may not agree with everything in the essay linked below, but I expect it will make you think. Sarah Miller (@sarahmiller_22747) presents some “hard truths” about where we are now, how we got here, and what the future might bring…
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For liberal America, this election season has not been fun. It has not been honest. It did not turn out well. And now that it’s over, the time has arrived for a dose of brutal honesty. Forget about Donald Trump’s real and perceived lies. We have lied to ourselves for too long.

Our country and our world are in a dire state. That state has everything to do with the climate crisis, species extinction (possibly including our own), wars with no end in sight, dysfunctional geopolitics and domestic politics, and worst of all, irrational devotion to economic growth that is literally killing us.

The energy transition demanded by the climate crisis is an area where facing up to hard truths is particularly vital. It is also the area of our misguided American experience of the last half century that I know most about. A long career of writing about the energy industry tells me that recovery from our binge of self-deception must start with admitting:

1. Trump’s presidency will not bring the great change for the worse in US energy policy that establishment environmentalists claim it will. Not, tragically, because Trump is better than they say, but because the Biden/Harris administration was much, much worse than hoped.

2. The US is not a leader in positive climate action. It has not been under Biden, and it will not be for the foreseeable future. On the contrary, both political parties seem determined — in practice, if not in words — to lead a reactionary defense of fossil fuels.

3. Climate breakdown is much more advanced than widely admitted. There’s no time left for a carefully designed transition, or even a thought-out, gradually implemented shift away from the devastating paradigm of economic growth. An economic collapse is the only evident path to slower climate destabilization.
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There's a lot more in the full essay, including some suggestions of books to read, along with action steps for those of us who are ready to start off in a new direction.

➡️ https://medium.com/the-new-climate/post-us-election-the-contrarian-take-on-climate-2ba24101b2c9

#Politics #History #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
Graphic from the Washington Post, which shows that "America's crude oil output has increased under Democratic and Republican administrations." A bar graph charts the increase in US crude oil production in millions of barrels per day from 2005 through 2023. After staying roughly level through about 2012, oil production has since then steadily grown.


In the Netherlands, the oil giant Shell has won an appeal against a 2021 landmark ruling that ordered it to reduce its carbon emissions by 45 per cent.
The appeals court in The Hague, Netherlands, said Shell had a responsibility to cut emissions, but it dismissed applying a general reduction goal.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-12/shell-wins-appeal-against-court-order-to-slash-carbon-emissions/104592926 #climate #litigation #EUlaw


Why are you so upset? Stop worrying!

Business As Usual is turning out just fine. 🙄
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The Copernicus Climate Change Service, a European Union organization that monitors global heating, announced on Thursday that the year 2024 will be 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels. That means humanity has passed a critical threshold established in 2015 in the Paris climate accord.

“After 10 months of 2024, it is now virtually certain that 2024 will be the warmest year on record and the first year of more than 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels," Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement. "This marks a new milestone in global temperature records and should serve as a catalyst to raise ambition for the upcoming Climate Change Conference, COP29.”

The EU agency announced this moment as nations all over the world gather in the Azerbaijani city of Baku for the 29th Conference of the Parties. The ERA5 dataset found that global temperatures in 2024 were on average 1.55 degrees Celsius higher than the 1.48 degrees threshold measured in 2023. The report also noted climate change-fueled major weather events in 2024 such as torrential floods in Spain and rapidly melting Antarctic sea ice.
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.salon.com/2024/11/09/earth-on-track-for-hottest-year-in-recorded-history-passing-critical-15-warming-threshold/

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
Headline from linked article says: "Earth on track for hottest year in recorded history, passing critical 1.5° warming threshold." Below this is a photo of a large city with tall buildings, and a searing, hot sun rising amid an orange sky tainted with smoke from out of control wildfires.


Anyone who expects the UN COP29 meeting in Baku to produce anything worthwhile is, I'm afraid, suffering from a triumph of hope over experience;

The petro-state hosted meeting, dubbed by the the 'finance COP' has seen major global investors shun the meeting... the organiser has been caught negotiating new fossil fuels contracts in its margins (see post last week) & as usual the oil corporations are out in force to disrupt any 'progressive' moves;

a monumental waste of time!

#COP29 #climate


"Climate change is contributing to drought in the American West even without rainfall deficits, scientists find"

#US #USA #America #Climate #ClimateChange

https://phys.org/news/2024-11-climate-contributing-drought-american-west.html


Now is the time of Monsters

The world watches a Genocide in real time. and does nothing.

Our world is on fire and Govts bankroll the planet burners

The Trump election empowered the monsters

Evil feeds on stupidity

#Truth #Cdnpoli #Uspoli #Uspol #Gaza #Palestine #Israel #Apartheid #Occupation #Invasion #Genocide #WarCrime #Starvation #BDS #Murder #Media #Climate #Election

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ebvr0a3q8


The United Nations — founded by and controlled by the world’s most powerful capitalist countries — will NOT save us from climate and environmental collapse.

All we’ll ever get from them and our so-called leaders is a lot more “blah, blah, blah.” Words, not actions.

What our biosphere will get is more chemicals poisoning the land and sea, more plastic waste, more cars, more roads, more forests chopped down, and more droughts...
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The Amazon Basin is responsible for around 15% of all fresh water discharged into the oceans and 13% of the planet’s biodiversity. But the rivers in the world’s largest tropical rainforest are drying up. Their waters have dropped to record lows this year.

This is all happening, scientists warn, at a point when the biome has lost 18% of its forest cover, reducing its capacity to absorb and store carbon. The Amazon is now approaching the point of no return, while global temperatures are set to break the annual heat record for the second consecutive year.
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FULL STORY -- https://sumauma.com/en/infografico-o-terrivel-ressecamento-da-amazonia/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
Screenshot from linked article. Headline says: "The horrifying desiccation of the Amazon." Below this is a photo of empty boats floating in ponds on a dried-up river bed.


What do you think happens when a UN climate conference is hosted by a petrostate — a country like Azerbaijan whose economy relies heavily on oil and gas?

Turning over a new leaf? Acknowledging it’s time for capitalism to end? Mea culpa?

Ha-ha, no.
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A senior official at the COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan appears to have used his role to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals.

A secret recording shows the chief executive of Azerbaijan's COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing "investment opportunities" in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.

"We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed," says Soltanov.

As well as being chief executive of COP29, Soltanov is also the deputy energy minister of Azerbaijan and is on the board of Socar, Azerbaijan's state energy firm.
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FULL STORY -- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmzvdn9e18o
SEE ALSO -- https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-gas/cop-is-for-oil-deals/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #COP29
Headline from linked article says: "COP29 chief exec filmed promoting fossil fuel deals." Below this is a photo of Elnur Soltanov, the CEO of COP29.


Antonio Guterres (UN SG);

'we are coming close to dramatic gamechangers in relation to the impacts of climate change in the life of the planet... The world is still underestimating climate risks.. we are risking reach[ing] a number of tipping points that will dramatically accelerate the impacts of climate change. It is absolutely essential to act now. It’s absolutely essential to reduce emissions drastically now'!

But still we fiddle while Rome burns!!

#Climate

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/08/antonio-guterres-cop29-climate-breakdown-tipping-points-fossil-fuels-finance-aoe


Despite Climate Concerns, Young Voter Turnout Slumped and Its Support Split Between the Parties

The youth vote was not a monolith in Tuesday’s election, despite its broad concern for the environment and disillusionment with politics and government

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08112024/young-voter-turnout-slumped-support-split-between-parties/

#USA #US #ClimateChange #GlobalBurning #ClimateDestruction #ClimateSuicide #MassExtinction #pollution #ecology #environment #climate


Assessing the real climate costs of manufacturing

The team calculated that 370 million tons of these nine materials were manufactured in the United States in 2018, resulting in 427 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. This resulted in $79 billion of climate costs that are not included in the market prices of these materials

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/assessing-real-climate-costs-manufacturing

#USA #US #ClimateChange #GlobalBurning #ClimateDestruction #ClimateSuicide #MassExtinction #pollution #ecology #environment #climate


Not that any of us really want to read MORE bad news this week. But — this is the world we live in.

Turning away from it and closing our eyes does not change things. I believe it's important to know just where we stand and what we face so we can make the best choices in how we should live.

Also, note that this essay was published before this week's disastrous US election, which means that you can expect conditions warned about here to get even worse, sooner rather than later.
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In recent years, environmental warnings have become impossible to ignore. Humanity has pushed Earth far beyond its natural limits, launching it into a cascade of intertwined disasters that scientists now call the “polycrisis.” No longer a distant threat, this crisis is unfolding before us, destabilizing the foundations of ecosystems, economies, and communities worldwide.

While some hold out hope for a turnaround, the brutal truth is that we are too far gone. The trajectory is set, the damage done, and there is no miracle solution on the horizon. Our only option is to live through this polycrisis as best we can, facing an uncertain and increasingly harsh reality.

As temperatures climb, ecosystems crumble, and resource conflicts rise, it’s clear that our world will never be the same. For those of us with young families, our hopes are tempered by a haunting reality: the future we once dreamed of has shifted beyond reach. What remains is an obligation to understand the forces shaping this collapse, accept the inevitability of hardship, and try to adapt as the familiar falls away.
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The essay includes sections on climate change, biodiversity loss, economic and social erosion, and finally, "living through the polycrisis." I hope you'll find it helpful.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://archive.ph/MwljK
ALTERNATE LINK -- https://medium.com/edge-of-collapse/no-turning-back-accepting-the-irreversible-global-collapse-21a97632b6d6

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
Screenshot from top of linked article. Headline says -- "No turning back: Accepting the irreversible global collapse. The entire world will change and no one will be spared." Below this is a fictional but evocative image of a planet exploding.


every now and then, I look at this graph, and think about how, for decades, from 1979 until the boreal fall, or austral spring, of 2016, antarctic sea ice just seemed to ignore global warming, showing no trend. Then, suddenly, as the end of 2016 and the southern hemisphere summer approached, *clunk* antarctic sea ice fell down, and did not get up.

graph by @ZLabe , from https://zacklabe.com/antarctic-sea-ice-extentconcentration/

#ice
#globalWarming
#seaIce
#Antarctic
#AntarcticSeaIce
#climate
Graph of antarctic sea ice anomalies, from 1979 to 2024. It varies in a jagged and highly irregular fashion, with vertical excursions as high as positive 2.5 million square kilometres, and as low as negative 2.5 million square kilometres, but from 1979 to late 2016, there is little to no trend. Then, in late 2016, there is a sharp step-change, a near-vertical drop of around 2.5 million square kilometres. Then the line resumes its prior highly jagged, seemingly trendless behavior, but about 1.5 million square kilometres lower than before.


"As Earth’s temperature rises, agricultural practices will need to adapt. Droughts will likely become more frequent, and some land may no longer be arable."

"On top of that is the challenge of feeding an ever-growing population without expanding the production of fertilizer and other agrochemicals, which have a large carbon footprint that is contributing to the overall warming of the planet.

"Researchers across MIT are taking on these agricultural challenges from a variety of angles."

https://news.mit.edu/2024/making-agriculture-more-resilient-climate-change-1101

#Agriculture #Farming #Science #Nature #Climate #Environment #ClimateChange #ClimateDiary #MIT


Climate activism is no longer a young person's game

https://phys.org/news/2024-11-climate-longer-young-person-game.html

#ClimateChange #GlobalBurning #ClimateDestruction #ClimateSuicide #MassExtinction #pollution #ecology #environment #climate


Below is an excerpt from an absurdly hopeful article about plans for developing “green concrete” to keep up with the AI-driven data center building boom.
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The United States is home to more than 5,000 data centers today, and the Department of Commerce forecasts that number to grow by around 450 a year through 2030.

Concrete is a major ingredient in data center construction — and is also a major contributor to climate change, accounting for around 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Data centers use so much concrete that the AI building boom is wrecking tech giants’ commitments to eliminate their carbon emissions.

Last year, Microsoft’s carbon emissions jumped by over 30%, primarily due to the materials in its new data centers. Google’s greenhouse emissions are up by nearly 50% over the past five years. As data centers proliferate worldwide, Morgan Stanley projects that data centers will release about 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 each year by 2030 — or about 40% of what the United States currently emits from all sources.
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In a masterpiece of greenwashing, the article tries to put a happy face on everything, with section headings like these:

😃 “1,000 Companies Working on Green Concrete”

😃 “Better Cement Through Chemistry”

😃 “Software Takes on the Hard Problem of Concrete”

😃 “Cement Plants That Capture Carbon”

😃 “A Sustainable Foundation for the Information Age”

And somehow, oblivious to the crazy irony, this article actually touts AI itself as part of the solution!! 🤦‍♂️

➡️ https://spectrum.ieee.org/green-concrete

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Greenwashing
Screenshot from top of linked article. Headline says: "The AI boom rests on billions of tonnes of concrete." Below this is a photo of a Microsoft data center being constructed in Wisconsin, using giant slabs of concrete.


"Drax will keep raising carbon emission levels until 2050s, study says"

More news from the Ministry of the Fucking Obvious.

"Analysis finds demand for wood pellets from US for North Yorkshire power plant reduces forest carbon stocks"

Really?! [ShockedPikachuFace.jpg]

TL;DR the study says that carbon capture technology, if it existed and they used it, still wouldn't outweigh the damage Drax will do by operating until 2050.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/nov/04/drax-will-keep-raising-carbon-emission-levels-until-2050s-study-says

#Climate #CimateCrisis #ClimateCollapse #Drax #AxeDrax


Jonathan Watts is not mincing his words when he (rightly) concludes that:

'The unnatural disaster in Spain – Europe’s deadliest flash floods in at least half a century – is evidence of two undeniable truths: the human-caused climate crisis is just starting to pick up ferocity & we need to quickly kill the fossil fuel industry before it kills us'!

We have been warned, yet still we do too little; this is can that can no longer be kicked down the road!

#climate #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/02/spain-apocalyptic-floods-climate-crisis-worse-big-oil-cop29


Addressing climate change is too expensive, they said. “Spain’s apocalyptic floods show two undeniable truths: the climate crisis is getting worse and Big Oil is killing us”

Agreed. What shall we do stop this happening?

#ActOnClimate #ClimateChange #geography #deforestation #RenewableEnergy #ClimateCrisis #Science #warming #Nature #climate #development #gasemissions #ClimateEmergency #climatecrisis #ClimateAction #photo #photography #GlobalWarming #pollution #news
Picture: woman tries to clean up the mud and what remains of the flood in Spain.


Over the past 65 years, the rate at which atmospheric CO₂ grew, increased from less than 1 ppm/year in the 1960s to 2.5 ppm in the 2010s.
Last year saw a record increase of 3.36 ppm.
So far this year, we're 3.54 ppm higher than last year...

#emissions #co2 #climate #ClimateChange
Annual increase of CO2 at Mauna Loa, 1959-2023. Big variations but trend still up.


The Gaza war is an environmental catastrophe

Toxic waste, water-borne diseases, vast carbon emissions: Dr. Mariam Abd El Hay describes the myriad harms of Israel’s assault to the region’s ecosystems.

https://www.972mag.com/gaza-war-environmental-catastrophe/ @palestine @israel

#Israel #Palästina #Gaza #climate #climatechange #war


Capitalist civilization is inherently unstable, out of balance with its environment and will inevitably collapse. People who danced around in forest glades by moonlight thousands of years ago knew the truth of this and yet we do not.

We are not the inevitable progress of the human race but we might be the final examples of it. And we shall deserve to be for our ignorance and arrogance.

#environment #climate #capitalism #politics #anarchy