Climate Reality Pushback

Used with permission of marine biologist Chris Harley.

Kabir wrote, "people won't wake up -- Not until they feel death's club inside their skulls." It's a good quote for many facing climate reality that "killed or harmed three billion animals" in Australia according to a July 28, 2020 bbc.com news article, and "More than one billion marine intertidal animals [that] may have perished along the shores of the Salish Sea during the record temperatures at the end of June, [2021] said University of British Columbia researcher Chris Harley" according to Canada's nationalobserver.com journalist Rochelle Baker. 

In related matters, Shafiq Najib reported today at krcrtv.com on a press release of California State Senator Mike McGuire's upcoming July 27 hearing: "River conditions wherever salmon are found are so bad here in California that baby fish are being cooked alive or wiped out by heat-driven disease. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that 100% of the endangered winter-run Chinook salmon could die off this year." Covering nearby southern Oregon, Molly Hennessy-Fiske reported in today's Los Angeles Times "Bootleg fire [. . . .] consumed more than 400,000 acres of forest." and other sources noted it could grow from 500,000 to a million acres depending on conditions. The current 400,000 acres equals 625 square miles or about 1619 square kilometers. 

Amy Graff at sfgate.com reported today "California's Dixie Fire straddling Plumas and Butte counties was 18% contained and 142,940 acres as of Friday morning, making it the largest wildfire in the state so far in 2021, Cal Fire said."

My favorite climate article this week, "Top US scientist on melting glaciers: ‘I’ve gone from being an ecologist to a coroner’," appeared in The Guardian in a revised form July 22, 2021. 

I was glad to see in thecrimson.com, "Mass. State Reps. Introduce Bill Seeking To Compel Harvard To Divest From Fossil Fuels" which may be a useful model for other students, professors, and alumni seeking fossil fuel divestment. 

The heat is seriously affecting the Global North. Jason Samenow wrote at The Washington Post July 20, 2021, "In recent days, all-time record highs have been set in Turkey, northern Japan and Northern Ireland, while the mercury reached 110 in Montana." 

One of the main reasons for this blog has been to create awareness of, and help for, people in developing nations most affected, and least responsible. I have written about how, according to Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, "Rising Seas Could Affect 1.4 Billion People by 2060" and necessary "Climate Grief." Similarly, I wrote "in addition to making fossil fuel companies pay for mitigation and adaptation, and colleges/universities and pension funds divest, we must also find ways to increase capacity for caring in developed nations before many more human and nonhuman inhabitants globally will be forced to migrate and/or die early and awfully." Regarding "people in developing nations," I am grateful to Will Kautz for permission to repost his essay above.