#Today, I am celebrating my 4 years without flying ✈️.
The #Earth’s #climate is perturbed by #human activites. One of the easiest things to do towards #sustainability is to cut air travels. Thus, 4 years ago, I cut my frequent flyer cards and decided to #StayGrounded, using only low-#carbon travel means such as #train.
Online event for #PhD students offered by #Roskilde University: "Doing a PhD Whilst the House is on Fire. How to navigate academic development at a time of unprecedented crisis"
Date: 7th of November 2023 from 13.00 - 16.00 (CET)
In my latest article for Unsustainable Magazine, I unapologetically brought my #academic research on #affect to bear on our current #ClimateEmergency. I hope it contributes to the discussion of how we react to the #climate#apocalypse in a good way.
NWS continues to flout ADA and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act...after the breaches have been repeatedly brought to their attention
Don't tell me ableism in STEM is no big deal. What the hell use is your #SciComm if you refuse to communicate important data (weather alerts, warnings, disasters) accessibly? Eugenics, is what it ends up being. #DisabledAndSTEM
You may think "eugenics" is an exaggeration here, but if you're a public agency disseminating information people need to make decisions about their safety and the safety of their homes in a form that can only be fully read by abled people, in the midst of #ClimateEmergency, then you're not just ableist but eugenicist. #DisabledAndSTEM#SciComm
Although we've mentioned this before, it's grim news that bears repeating. Global heating caused by human industry is melting glaciers and sea ice all around the world — but nowhere more dramatically than on and near Antarctica.
Sea ice that covers the ocean around Antarctica hit a record low surface area in the winter, a preliminary analysis of US satellite data shows, and scientists fear the impact of climate change is increasing at the southern pole.
“This is the lowest sea ice maximum in the 1979 to 2023 sea ice record by a wide margin,” said the NSIDC, a government-supported programme at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
At one point this year, sea ice had dropped to 1.03 million sq km, far smaller than the previous record low and an area of loss roughly the size of Texas and California combined.
“It’s a record-smashing sea ice low in the Antarctic,” NSIDC scientist Walt Meier said in comments published by NASA.
The excerpt above is from a news story published at Al Jazeera.
Over at Medium, an article by Ricky Lanusse goes into more depth on the subject, and concludes with this heartfelt lament...
It’s been 33 years since the first IPCC report on climate change. Three-plus decades of climate negotiations and disappointment: emissions soaring, climate denial, on-paper optimism, and ‘net zero, but not in my term’ speeches.
Now, the northern summer of 2023 is officially the hottest on record, pushing global sea temperatures to record highs and disrupting ocean ecosystems. Over 3.8 billion people — almost half the world — felt the wrath of human-induced extreme heat between June and August.
You don’t grab buckets or towels when your bathtub overflows, ignoring or denying the problem. You turn off the tap. Climate change isn’t a future problem; it’s here. And you might think it won’t affect you, but as temperatures climb, more will face such dire choices. The question is not if but when.
Antarctica’s struggle isn’t a far-off concern; it’s a glaring reminder that climate change is here and spares no place on Earth.
It feels like Doomism is more philosophy than science, rooted in a view of humanity as driven only by greed and baser impulses. We can't and won't stop #ClimateChange because humanity is so warped, corporations so powerful, and societies so weak. It implies that human nature is inherently incapable saving itself.
What is “Earth's Energy Imbalance” and why does it matter?
Earth's climate is determined by a delicate balance between how much of the Sun's radiative energy is absorbed in our atmosphere and at the surface, and how much thermal infrared radiation Earth emits back into space. A positive energy imbalance means the Earth system is gaining energy, causing the planet to heat up, while a negative energy imbalance will cause the planet to cool down.
Two years ago, in June 2021, NASA issued a report warning that “Earth's Energy Imbalance Has Doubled” over the period from 2005 to 2019. The report was noticed by practically no one except diligent climate scientists and a few so-called doomers.
A few weeks ago, Leon Simons, a climate researcher in the Netherlands, stated at Xitter that the 2021 NASA report estimated that Earth's energy imbalance would soon decrease due to La Niña and with a negative PDO (that’s Pacific Decadal Oscillation, an ocean circulation pattern).
But the opposite happened. Even with La Niña (which ended very recently) and with a negative PDO, there was an overall continued increase in global heat uptake. Earth's Energy Imbalance (EEI) remained positive, meaning heat was accumulating.
That was NOT supposed to happen.
One possible explanation, according to Simons…
In January 2020 new shipping regulations came into effect, decreasing the maximum amount of sulfur in shipping fuels from 3.5% to 0.5%. Then in 2020 we saw a rapid increase in the amount of solar radiation being absorbed by the ocean in major shipping lanes.
If this trend continues, that could mean that the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes (where many of us live) will warm much more rapidly. It could also impact global and regional weather systems, like the monsoons. More extreme weather is likely.
He wrote the above in March of this year. Since then, we certainly have been experiencing extreme weather.
All indications are that the EEI — Earth's Energy Imbalance — is on the upswing, increasing at a dangerously fast pace.
On Friday, Simons posted an image that he calls “the most important graph in the world.” You can see it below.
He also said this…
♦️ July surface air temperatures are the highest for any month on record!
♦️ Global sea surface temperatures running record high for 5 months now and might continue for 10 more!
♦️ Global sea ice has been shattering record lows for two months now!
♦️ All at the same time!
We are rapidly entering a climate state not seen for millions of years.
The only sensible action is to STOP burning fossil fuels. No more half measures, no more Business As Usual.
Amazingly, there are people — many, I'm afraid, in positions of power and influence — who continue to assert that technology will surely save us and that capitalism can find the answers.
Uh-huh. And how's that going so far?
Although most climate scientists, when asked privately or off the record, admit they now expect a global temperature rise of 3°C to 4°C or even higher before the end of this century (see https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/109642315870697356) a few happy optimists are always ready to assure us that while a “temporary overshoot” beyond 1.5°C might occur, it won’t last because, um, because magic will happen!
That's not quite what they say, but it's almost as bad since they’re asking us to depend on carbon dioxide removal (CDR), a hopeful fantasy that we can someday cheaply and effectively remove gigantic amounts of carbon from the air and put it back in the ground.
Instead of, you know, just doing what we should have done in the first place — leave it in the ground!
Here is the truth: To avoid catastrophe, to prevent the collapse of civilization, to avert the possible extinction of the human race — we MUST stop emitting carbon into the atmosphere. This requires urgent, immediate emissions cuts, phasing down to full ZERO (not phony greenwashed "Net Zero") within a matter of years.
The science is unequivocal. The messages we are receiving from Gaia could not be more clear. If we don't change our ways, and quickly, it's game over for civilization.
I’ll be blunt. We have no hope of averting climate chaos or preventing the catastrophic collapse of our modern society without SYSTEM CHANGE.
Keeping capitalism in charge means a death sentence for billions of humans — most of them poor and in the Global South — along with complete extinction for uncounted plant and animal species.
The fake “democracy” we have in the Global North is nothing but a game show owned and produced by oligarchs. As long as they remain in control of the system, nothing meaningful will change. How you vote doesn’t matter, because every important candidate is approved in advance, vetted and managed by those men behind the curtain.
Either capitalism dies or we die. It’s that simple.
Texas continues to bake, as blistering heat wave shows no sign of letting up
The suffocating heat is expected to last through the weekend, with places like Corpus Christi forecast to endure record high temperatures that feel as hot as 119 degrees.
Tornadoes in Texas while they bake from the heat!
Baseball to softball sized hail today in Colorado.