To keep us distracted from what’s really going on in the world, our rulers constantly provide more and more circuses — a new Marvel superhero movie, the latest celebrity scandal of the week, a huge sale at Amazon — because if everyone was paying attention to *genuine* reality, the whole capitalist charade might just collapse.

But guess what: Earth's climate and environment pay no heed to such circuses. Instead, they respond directly to real physical inputs, the continual burning of fossil fuels, the ever-increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, the enormous heat being trapped and absorbed...
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March 2024 was the hottest on record and the tenth straight month of historic heat, with sea surface temperatures also hitting a "shocking" new high.

It is the latest red flag in a year already marked by climate extremes and rising greenhouse gas emissions, spurring fresh calls for more rapid action to limit global warming.

Every month since June 2023 has beaten its own "hottest ever" tag – and March 2024 was no exception.

The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said that March globally was 1.68ºC hotter than an average March between the years 1850-1900, the reference period for the pre-industrial era.

Huge swathes of the planet endured above-average temperatures, from parts of Africa to Greenland, South America, and Antarctica.

March was not only the tenth consecutive month to break its own heat record, but capped the hottest 12-month period on the books – 1.58ºC above pre-industrial averages.
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FULL STORY -- https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2024/04/09/global-temperatures-hit-record-highs-for-tenth-consecutive-month-in-march_6667824_114.html

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

I focus mostly here on climate breakdown and ecological devastation, connected problems that both stem from capitalism's senseless drive for economic growth at all costs.

But just as threatening to human life everywhere, not to mention the health of our biosphere, is WAR. The article excerpted below goes into depth on the tragic results of a dominant geopolitical system that demands total obedience, or else.
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This is not just about Gaza. The slaughter there may be the worst thing in the world, but similar atrocities are happening all over, and for similar reasons. The corporate colonial Empire centered on the USA and spearheaded by Israel insists on consuming and dominating everything, and they are destroying the world to keep control over it.

They are wreaking extreme violence everywhere, including within the imperial nations themselves. If you want to see what the future holds, look at Gaza. Or Haiti, or Congo, or Libya, or any of a dozen other places.

Don’t think it’s only poor, Black, or Brown people who become Gazified. Look at what happens to the colonizing countries. In Israel, Germany, the UK, and America, people are being locked up or losing their jobs for opposing genocide and war. Demonstrations and free speech are stopped or curtailed if they oppose war.

It is very difficult to avoid war when military corporations control your foreign policy. Corporate capitalism prepares for nuclear war — which would instantly turn the world into Gaza — because the alternative of a more peaceful, just order is unprofitable and thus unthinkable.
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The message delivered in this piece may not be easy to accept, but it's vitally important. I hope you'll read the whole thing.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://archive.ph/Oac22

#USA #Israel #Gaza #Politics #Environment #Climate

A few excerpts below from an excellent article that explains what is happening to sea ice around Antarctica, and what it means for the global climate and for our future...
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Until recently, Antarctic sea ice fluctuated between relatively stable summer minimums and winter maximums. But after a record minimum in 2016, things began to shift. Two record lows soon followed, including the smallest minimum ever in February 2023.

As winter began in March of that year, scientists hoped the ice cover would rebound. But what happened instead astonished them: Antarctic ice experienced six months of record lows. At winter's peak in July, the continent was missing a chunk of ice bigger than Western Europe.

"We all thought that the minimum was as bad as it was going to get; it was 2023, not 2070," said Ariaan Purich, an Antarctic climate researcher at Monash University in Australia. "So when winter came, we were in disbelief."

Now, in 2024, the sea ice extent has reached another near-record low. A profound "regime shift" has taken place in the Antarctic, and climate scientists are racing to understand what will come next.

"When you push any part of the climate system, it has ripple effects that are felt all over the world — not necessarily immediately, but many years down the line," said Ella Gilbert, a polar climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey. "So by pushing the system more and more and more, we're making those ripples bigger and bigger. And eventually, we're all going to feel them."

In the meantime, the obvious prescription for our ailing planetary systems still applies: urgent and deep cuts to global CO2 emissions, according to Martin Siegert, a glaciologist who led an investigation of the Antarctic's dwindling sea ice.

“The only way forward is to decarbonize, and decarbonizing as soon as possible means we’ll not see the worst possible outcomes.” Siegert said.
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/antarctica/we-were-in-disbelief-antarctica-is-behaving-in-a-way-weve-never-seen-before-can-it-recover

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

At some point in the next several years, as climate and environmental crises continue to worsen, it’s nearly certain that our capitalist rulers will look at all the problems caused by technology and industry — and then attempt to fix them with even *more* technology and industry, specifically with geoengineering.🤦‍♂️
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As nearly every climate indicator grows increasingly dire, calls for extreme technological fixes get louder. However, study after study finds that taking a gamble on forced geoengineering comes with its own dangerous risks.

New research warns that if we inject sulfate particles into the atmosphere to attempt to reflect sunlight and mimic the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions and they don't end up in the right position, they could cause further warming and even worse climate anomalies than burning greenhouse gases as usual.

"We found that some detrimental effects of this injection are of a similar magnitude to those from climate change itself in some regions," ETH Zürich atmospheric scientist Elia Wunderlin and colleagues write in their paper.

Their findings add to a growing list of research highlighting the risks of forced geoengineering, which include losing more of the ozone layer, changing global rain patterns, and further disruptions to ecological systems.

Alternatively, one type of geoengineering poses far less risk and guarantees benefits. Restoring native ecosystems has massive potential to help stabilize our climate without introducing such extreme risks and unknowns.

However, despite being a much surer and safer bet, this option doesn't appear to attract nearly as much attention, fanfare, or funding.

Regardless of future strategies, transitioning away from fossil fuels is essential to addressing our climate situation. Meanwhile, usage continues to rise, and corporations receiving public funding are making record profits.
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FULL STORY -- https://www.sciencealert.com/injecting-sulfur-into-the-atmosphere-could-pose-dangerous-risks

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

HEADLINE: Corporate climate plans are improving, but still ‘critically insufficient’

A little bit better is not good enough. Not when we’re racing so fast toward a cliff.
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Despite minor improvements, major companies’ climate commitments remain “critically insufficient” to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a new analysis.

“We’re seeing improvements from a very low baseline,” said Gilles Dufrasne of Carbon Market Watch, a co-author of the report. “There’s still quite a big gap between what they’re pledging to deliver and what they’re actually delivering.”
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FULL STORY -- https://grist.org/accountability/corporate-climate-plans-are-improving-but-still-critically-insufficient/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Greenwashing