Category: Global Change

On Helloween (!) 2008 (!!), I published a lonesome post on my then wordpress-hosted blog. With that, I created #FLOGW and #FLGW. The world looks different today – or not.

Feilner’s Law of Global Warning states:

“I believe that the climatic change driven by the green house effect will become faster and faster as we watch. Analog to Moore’s Law in processor technology, the measured climatic change will always happen faster than the most skeptical experts of the previous years had suspected. That’s my rule of climatic change, Feilner’s Law of Global Warming (FLGW).”

Here’s my collection.

Greenland again… Remember, there’s a climate catastrophe at the gates, too.

Now We Have to Worry About Sunny Skies Melting Greenland’s Ice Sheet

All told, the new findings show that Greenland surface mass balance—a metric that factors in snowfall coming in and melting ice going out—dropped a record 320 billion metric tons in 2019 compared to the 1981-to-2010 average. That’s even worse news when you consider the island prior to was already losing six times more ice than it was in 1980. All told, 96 percent of the ice sheet’s surface saw melt in 2019. And while heat certainly played a role, the fresh research shows that freaky clear skies amplified the impacts.

NZ’s Ardem is so right: Corona is a political crisis like never before

New Zealand’s fight against Covid-19 looks successful, but democracy is under threat | Bryce Edwards | Opinion | The Guardian

“The political system worked. But one of the ironies of putting the country into lockdown is we now have a system in which democracy is being debased. Civil liberties have been significantly curtailed, parliament adjourned, and the normal operations of the media are greatly restricted, meaning less public access to information.

That means the combination of civil society, media and the parliamentary system that normally keeps a check on government and authorities is now seriously weakened. This may be necessary given the dire threat posed by Covid-19, but it’s also dangerous for democracy and decision-making while the crisis is unresolved. “

Czernobyl on fire? Pripyat is….

Ukraine: wildfires draw dangerously close to Chernobyl site | Environment | The Guardian

The tour operator, Yaroslav Yemelianenko, wrote that the fire had reached the abandoned city of Pripyat and was just 2km (1.24 miles) away from the nuclear power plant and the Pidlisny radioactive waste disposal site. “The situation is critical. The zone is burning,” he wrote in a Facebook post accompanied by a video of the blaze. Yemelianenko, a member of a public advisory board to Ukraine’s emergency service, also accused the government of covering up the severity of the fires.

We should call it American Racism #Corona Virus – ARC

That’s so bad, these numbers. I sincerely hope this is a wake up call to this great country. 

Translating from the German article: “In Chicago more than half of the infected and 72% of the dead are African Americans. ‘Breathtaking’ is what Major Lori Lightfoot calls this, and a ‘call to action’.”

Coronavirus in den USA: Afroamerikaner sind härter betroffen – DER SPIEGEL

In Chicago sind sogar mehr als die Hälfte der Kranken und 72 Prozent der Toten schwarz. “Diese Zahlen verschlagen einem den Atem”, sagte Bürgermeisterin Lori Lightfoot am Montag. “Dies ist ein Aufruf zum Handeln.”

Here’s a good read from Politico on the problem’s nature:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/06/coronavirus-demographics-170353

Oh oh … Nucular plants need watering, even during Corona…

How to refuel a nuclear power plant during a pandemic | Ars Technica

Refueling usually takes around a month and involves hosting hundreds of electricians, welders, and other industrial workers who rove around the country refueling nuclear power plants. But not all of these contractors are needed just to top up a reactor. Many are involved with opportunistic repairs, upgrades, and inspections that can only occur while the reactor is offline. To cope with the pandemic, Arizona Public Service made the decision to only conduct repairs that are essential for keeping the reactor running until its next refueling outage in the fall of 2021.

Oceans can be restored – if we want that…

Oceans can be restored to former glory within 30 years, say scientists | Environment | The Guardian

The scientists say there is now the knowledge to create an ocean renaissance for wildlife by 2050 and with it bolster the services that the world’s people rely on, from food to coastal protection to climate stability. The measures needed, including protecting large swathes of ocean, sustainable fishing and pollution controls, would cost billions of dollars a year, the scientists say, but would bring benefits 10 times as high.

Polarization of climate change news is no hoax

“To capture politicization, the researchers looked at how often those articles mentioned Republicans, Democrats and scientists. This allowed for a comparison over time between different environmental issues. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were more mentions of scientists thanpoliticians in climate change , but this trend changed in the 2000s as politicians were cited more often.”

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-03-polarization-climate-news-hoax.html

#Scientists for Future #SFF – meldet Euch bei @Sonneborn – #DIEPARTEI sucht EUCH!

Reality update: “Ich mag straff führerzentrierte Organisationen ohne Flügel und Werteunionen” | Telepolis … :

“Außerdem wollen wir zu Bundestagswahl 20 Wissenschaftler aufstellen und in den Bundestag schicken. Und da beginnen wir gerade erst zu suchen …”

“AKK hat zuerst ihren Auftritt beim Saarbrücker Karneval und dann als Kanzlerkandidatin abgesagt. Da die CDU derzeit niemanden von Format aufbieten kann – stünden Sie als routinierter Politprofi zur Verfügung? Martin Sonneborn: Nein, die CDU ist ein zerstrittenes Auslaufmodell. Die gesellschaftliche Aufgabe, die die Christdemokraten einmal erfüllten, war es ja, die Idee einer sozialen Marktwirtschaft zu vertreten. Aber diese Position haben sie inzwischen bedenkenlos geräumt, um sie Sahra Wagenknecht zu überlassen. Außerdem: Ich mag straff führerzentrierte Organisationen ohne Flügel und Werteunionen.”

“Sie werden demnächst als Beobachter des EU-Parlaments zum Prozess gegen Julian Assange nach London fahren. Werden Sie den Tommys mit Ausschluss aus der EU drohen?

Martin Sonneborn: Der Prozessbeginn wird kürzer ausfallen als gedacht, ich werde also wahrscheinlich erst im Mai zur Wiederaufnahme fahren. Aber mein Büro begleitet die Vorgänge in London. Seitdem die Schweizer Seite republik.ch ein ausführliches Interview mit dem UN-Sonderbeauftragten für Folter Nils Melzer publiziert hat, geht es rund. Die Menschen verstehen allmählich, dass hier elementare Bürger- und Menschenrechte auf dem Spiel stehen, dass es eine komplette Stabsstelle der CIA gibt, die sich nur damit beschäftigt, den Namen und das öffentliche Bild von Assange negativ zu gestalten. Ich war noch nie so enttäuscht von SZ, FAZ, Spiegel, Zeit, ARD und ZDF, die ihrem gesellschaftlichen Auftrag und propagierten Selbstverständnis zuwider diesen Skandal offensiv verschwiegen haben.“

#boycottuber

Reality update: Imran Khan auf Twitter: “I tend to be cynical about the idea of Late Capitalism, but an Uber driver last night told me a story which made my jaw hit the floor. He picked me up, and apologised for the congestion. “You see all these cars, though? They’re owned by the same person”. (1/9)” / Twitter … :

“The set-up means that when these drivers complete a ride, the payment goes direct to the guy who owns the car. The driver sees precisely zero cents until they hit a monthly quota. The money’s in the owner’s account; he then transfers it once the quota’s hit.” (4/9)”

Sign up to stop #torture on #Assange, say the British Medics

Reality update: End torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange – The Lancet … :

“Should Assange die in a UK prison, as the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has warned, he will effectively have been tortured to death. Much of that torture will have taken place in a prison medical ward, on doctors’ watch. The medical profession cannot afford to stand silently by, on the wrong side of torture and the wrong side of history, while such a travesty unfolds. In the interests of defending medical ethics, medical authority, and the human right to health, and taking a stand against torture, together we can challenge and raise awareness of the abuses detailed in our letters. Our appeals are simple: we are calling upon governments to end the torture of Assange and ensure his access to the best available health care before it is too late. Our request to others is this: please join us.“

#Pyrocene The Age of the #Megafires

This is the age of the megafire – and it’s being fuelled by our leaders | Tim Flannery | Opinion | The Guardian

There’s a British saying that fire is a good servant but a bad master. But in Australia, with its unique vegetation and climate, fire can also be a terrifying predator. Like all good predators, it remains hidden until it’s ready to strike, so even in this fire-plagued year, most Australians have not seen the flames that lurk in the forest, taking life seemingly at random. But many have smelt its stench. Sometimes we wake at night to thickening smoke, and lie there wondering where the beast is prowling. Some mornings we peer out the window and decide that it is not a safe day to be outside.