Used with permission of DW.
January 17, 2022 Update: Three days ago Jeff Masters at Yale Climate Connections reported "Australia ties Southern Hemisphere’s all-time heat record of 123°F; epic heat cooks Argentina." Thank you to the recent 352 visitors from Romania, 339 from United States, and 107 from France.
As a reminder, President Niinistö of Finland said in a Joint Press Conference with President Trump, August 28,2017 “If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe,” and we are rapidly heading there regarding overall trends. With notable exceptions, local, state, national, and global governments are failing us. Brad Plumer reported in The New York Times January 10, 2022, "America’s greenhouse gas emissions from energy and industry rose 6.2 percent in 2021 as the economy began recovering from pandemic lows and the nation’s coal plants roared back to life, according to a preliminary estimate published Monday by the Rhodium Group." This is unacceptable given our track record historically as the world's worst offender! If it continues, I will write a poem about it. I know this sounds like an empty threat, but I will do it. My wife says things like "Nobody cares about your blog" as her version of encouragement, but here I am again.
I recall Robert Bly described war as "sleepers joining hands" (title of his 1973 book), and the same could be said about human war (especially oil companies' war) against all life on Earth. Any nonviolent action you could take to help "sleepers" wake up would be appreciated.
In related news, Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone contributing editor, continued excellent reporting on the dangers of losing ice, which in addition to the sea rise problem taking out coastal cities, has been a sort of thermal regulator for Earth since, according to researchers, "700,000 to 4 million years in the Arctic," and "about 45.5 million years" in Antarctic.
In more related news, Bill McKibben has a new newsletter, "The Crucial Years," to which I gladly subscribed. It is free to $60 a year, depending on your choice. Funds the first year will be "used to support a nascent organizing effort that [he is] calling Third Act. This is an attempt to organize people over the age of 60—I think it’s as vital that the Boomers and the Silent Generation join this fight in force as it has been to watch the incredible work of youth organizers and of frontline communities." I chose McKibben as the top "Organizer" on my "Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis." Like 50-year activist Joanna Macy, he is a wise elder.
Thoughts and prayers go for people and nonhumans of Argentina where, according to Matthew Cappucci at washingtonpost.com, "Buenos Aires [was] 106 degrees [Dec. 28, 2021]" and "700,000 people there have lost power." Parts of Argentina were reported January 11, 2022 by voanews.com to be "around 45°C (113°F)." This reminds me of my July 23, 2021 post "Climate Reality Pushback" when I noted "'More than one billion marine intertidal animals [ . . . ] 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." I reminded readers of a heat wave that "killed or harmed three billion animals" in Australia according to a July 28, 2020 bbc.com news article. Similarly, I wrote in my October 26, 2021 post "Rethinking Weather Forecasts," "121.2 Fahrenheit (49.6°C) air temperature [was recorded] in Lytton, B. C. June 29, 2021," and "a professor of statistics at my college said the probability of 115 F (46 C) in Seattle before June 2021 was zero, but it happened. He added at the time there were better odds buying one lottery ticket, and winning."
Thank you to the recent 221 visitors from Japan, 92 from Russia, 37 from Germany, 18 from Canada, 12 from France, 9 from Sweden, and 7 from Italy.
