#2024 wildfire season

[thoughtlessarse]

The 2024 wildfire season and many other capitalist-induced climate change disasters that battered Canada last year highlight once again the serious dangers posed by the accelerating climate crisis and the criminal indifference of capitalist governments to the basic needs and protections of the population. Although the year saw average rates of fire ignitions, 2024 proved the worst year this century in terms of area burned, outside of the unprecedented 2023 wildfire season. Over 5.3 million hectares (13 million acres), an area the size of Nova Scotia, were incinerated. Swaths of Western Canada, suffering from extreme heat and prolonged drought conditions, were particularly hard hit. Roughly 70 per cent of fires—most caused by dry lightning—were located in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. British Columbia faced its fourth-largest wildfire season on record. The BC Wildfire Service documented more than 1,688 wildfires over 1.08 million hectares—comprising almost a fifth of the country’s total area burned. In total, 51 evacuation orders affecting more than 4,100 properties were issued. In the Northwest Territories, just under 1.7 million hectares burned, the third-highest amount in a season since 2005. Over 300 residents were evacuated out of a total population in the territory in Canada’s far north of just over 40,000. Alberta experienced its worst season on record in terms of fire ignitions, surpassing the historic 2023 season, despite less area burned. According to the Alberta Wildfire status dashboard, firefighters responded to more than 1,210 wildfires, which burned more than 705,000 hectares. Included in these figures is the Jasper wildfire, which swept through the northern tourist town in a matter of hours, forcing over 20,000 residents to flee on a moment’s notice in the dead of night. At least one-third of the town’s structures were destroyed, making it one of the most expensive natural disasters in Canadian history. In Manitoba, over 266,000 hectares of forest burned last year—over 60,000 hectares more than the previous year—and only slightly fewer ignitions, 291 as compared to 300. The first major fire of the year was in early May, when a massive 37,000-hectare blaze tore through the area near Cranberry Portage, forcing the evacuation of 675 residents. In the Atlantic province of Newfoundland and Labrador, a fire burned more than 24,000 acres and forced 7,000 residents to evacuate Labrador City, the largest-ever evacuation in Newfoundland and Labrador’s history. The unprecedented early start to the 2024 wildfire season in Canada was due to continuous drought in parts of Western Canada, which created conditions for overwintering fires from the previous season to reignite. By February, at least 100 holdover wildfires, known as “zombie fires,” were still smouldering underground, primed for re-ignition. By early May, large wildfires had broken out in Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba, followed by significant fires in Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Wildfires continued at high intensity throughout the rest of the summer and by the end of the typical fire season Canada had recorded the second-highest wildfire carbon emissions since measurements began in 2003—trailing behind only 2023. Smoke from fires reduced air quality through the United States and Canada, reaching as far as Mexico and Europe.

continue reading

[tomorrowusa]

The climate-denying governor of the state most susceptible to climate change is neglecting Florida for his ailing presidential bid as we enter the most active part of the Atlantic Basin hurricane season.

I haven't seen this many disturbances at the same time in the Atlantic since 2020 – the year they ran out of hurricane names and burned through half of the Greek alphabet.

Probably 1 of the 5 will fizzle out. 2 of them could follow in the footsteps of low energy Hurricane Don and harmlessly buzz around the mid Atlantic.

But the disturbance near the Windward Islands about to enter the Caribbean needs to be watched. And the one north of Cuba heading into the Gulf of Mexico has the potential to get nasty under the right conditions.

Warm seas act like jet fuel for tropical cyclones. The Gulf of Mexico is HOT.

Temps in parts of the Gulf are at the top of the scale shown on the right (32° C/89.6° F).

Some water temperatures along the southern Gulf coast of Florida have been over 100° F earlier this summer.

There should be no place for active climate deniers in public office.

[head-post]

EU to deploy hundreds of firefighters to Greece to tackle growing wildfires

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism will join Greek firefighters battling towering wildfires near Athens for the third day.

Fuelled by gale-force winds, Greece’s worst wildfire this year has swept across scorched land, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. At least one person has died, at least 66 people have been injured, with two firefighters hurt, according to the report.

European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič stated on Monday that the EU would send two planes from Italy, one helicopter from France, and hundreds of ground firefighting teams from Romania and the Czech Republic to help Greece.

Meanwhile Costas Tsigkas, head of the association of Greek firefighter officers, stated:

We are at a better level across the front. But conditions again will not be easy. There will be winds from midday onwards [and] every hour that passes will be more difficult.

Greece’s National Observatory said temperatures of up to 38 degrees Celsius and wind speeds of up to 39 kilometres per hour were expected in Athens on Tuesday.

About 700 firefighters, supported by 200 fire engines and nine aircraft, are battling a blaze that broke out Sunday afternoon in the town of Varnavas, about 35 kilometres northeast of Athens. The flames, fanned by intense winds, reached a 30-kilometre front line, exceeding 25 metres in height in some areas.

The fire destroyed at least 10,000 hectares of land, according to the National Observatory. The body of a woman was discovered in a burnt-out Athens factory on Tuesday morning. It was the first death caused by the wildfire.

Read more HERE

[propicsmedia]

2024 Wildfire Season - BE FIRE SMART! #wildfire #wildfires #publicsafety... 2024 Wildfire Season - BE FIRE SMART! DONATE TO HELP OTHERS. PPCM Fund https://square.link/u/hGYADCju #wildfires  #2024wildfires #fortnelson  #britishcolumbia  #alberta  #fortmcmurray  #fortmac  #abfires  #bcfires  #Ontrario #canada  #hawaii  #unitedstates  #parkscanada  #usforestservice  #wildfire  #emergency  #evacuation  #evacuate  #publicsafety  #firesafety  #fireprevention  #firesmart  #Emberthefox #fireservice  #calfire  #propicscanada  #karymovers  #psa  #fyp #donate #help #give #support #bcstorm

[reasonsforhope]

"In response to last year’s record-breaking heat due to El Niño and impacts from climate change, Indigenous Zenù farmers in Colombia are trying to revive the cultivation of traditional climate-resilient seeds and agroecology systems.

One traditional farming system combines farming with fishing: locals fish during the rainy season when water levels are high, and farm during the dry season on the fertile soils left by the receding water.

Locals and ecologists say conflicts over land with surrounding plantation owners, cattle ranchers and mines are also worsening the impacts of the climate crisis.

To protect their land, the Zenù reserve, which is today surrounded by monoculture plantations, was in 2005 declared the first Colombian territory free from GMOs.

...

In the Zenù reserve, issues with the weather, climate or soil are spread by word of mouth between farmers, or on La Positiva 103.0, a community agroecology radio station. And what’s been on every farmer’s mind is last year’s record-breaking heat and droughts. Both of these were charged by the twin impacts of climate change and a newly developing El Niño, a naturally occurring warmer period that last occurred here in 2016, say climate scientists.

Experts from Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies say the impacts of El Niño will be felt in Colombia until April 2024, adding to farmers’ concerns. Other scientists forecast June to August may be even hotter than 2023, and the next five years could be the hottest on record. On Jan. 24, President Gustavo Petro said he will declare wildfires a natural disaster, following an increase in forest fires that scientists attribute to the effects of El Niño.

In the face of these changes, Zenù farmers are trying to revive traditional agricultural practices like ancestral seed conservation and a unique agroecology system.

Pictured: Remberto Gil’s house is surrounded by an agroforestry system where turkeys and other animals graze under fruit trees such as maracuyá (Passiflora edulis), papaya (Carica papaya) and banana (Musa acuminata colla). Medicinal herbs like toronjil (Melissa officinalis) and tres bolas (Leonotis nepetifolia), and bushes like ají (Capsicum baccatum), yam and frijol diablito (beans) are part of the undergrowth. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

“Climate change is scary due to the possibility of food scarcity,” says Rodrigo Hernandez, a local authority with the Santa Isabel community. “Our ancestral seeds offer a solution as more resistant to climate change.”

Based on their experience, farmers say their ancestral seed varieties are more resistant to high temperatures compared to the imported varieties and cultivars they currently use. These ancestral varieties have adapted to the region’s ecosystem and require less water, they tell Mongabay. According to a report by local organization Grupo Semillas and development foundation SWISSAID, indigenous corn varieties like blaquito are more resistant to the heat, cariaco tolerates drought easily, and negrito is very resistant to high temperatures.

The Zenù diet still incorporates the traditional diversity of seeds, plant varieties and animals they consume, though they too are threatened by climate change: from fish recipes made from bocachico (Prochilodus magdalenae), and reptiles like the babilla or spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus), to different corn varieties to prepare arepas (cornmeal cakes), liquor, cheeses and soups.

“The most important challenge we have now is to save ancient species and involve new generations in ancestral practice,” says Sonia Rocha Marquez, a professor of social sciences at Sinù University in the city of Montería.

...[Despite] land scarcity, Negrete says communities are developing important projects to protect their traditional food systems. Farmers and seed custodians, like Gil, are working with the Association of Organic Agriculture and Livestock Producers (ASPROAL) and their Communitarian Seed House (Casa Comunitaria de Semillas Criollas y Nativas)...

Pictured: Remberto Gil is a seed guardian and farmer who works at the Communitarian Seed House, where the ASPROL association stores 32 seeds of rare or almost extinct species. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

Located near Gil’s house, the seed bank hosts a rainbow of 12 corn varieties, from glistening black to blue to light pink to purple and even white. There are also jars of seeds for local varieties of beans, eggplants, pumpkins and aromatic herbs, some stored in refrigerators. All are ancient varieties shared between local families.

Outside the seed bank is a terrace where chickens and turkeys graze under an agroforestry system for farmers to emulate: local varieties of passion fruit, papaya and banana trees grow above bushes of ají peppers and beans. Traditional medicinal herbs like toronjil or lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) form part of the undergrowth.

Today, 25 families are involved in sharing, storing and commercializing the seeds of 32 rare or almost-extinct varieties.

“When I was a kid, my father brought me to the farm to participate in recovering the land,” says Nilvadys Arrieta, 56, a farmer member of ASPROAL. “Now, I still act with the same collective thinking that moves what we are doing.”

“Working together helps us to save, share more seeds, and sell at fair price [while] avoiding intermediaries and increasing families’ incomes,” Gil says. “Last year, we sold 8 million seeds to organic restaurants in Bogotà and Medellín.”

So far, the 80% of the farmers families living in the Zenù reserve participate in both the agroecology and seed revival projects, he adds."

-via Mongabay, February 6, 2024

[fumiscripts]

✦ I'M NOT YOURS

✦ one shot ,, yoichi isagi x f!reader.

✦ content:: you— a corporate worker— suffer being head over heels for isagi yoichi— a pro soccer player.

for @shrii-kk, angst/hurt/no comfort, 603 words

additional: reader FUMBLES big time, author's first time writing angst w no happy ending, author does NOT have experience in romance, no beta we die like my motivation

You didn't know how. 

You just fell in love.

Isagi Yoichi is a very likeable person. So how could you not fall for him? He's kind, friendly, everything sweet. You witnessed it firsthand, knowing him since all the way back when both of you were children. You've been in each other's lives longer than you haven't, it's a type of friendship a lot of people want.

But that friendship is killing you. Being just friends is killing you.

You try and fail to get rid of these consuming feelings, knowing you can't have him. It'd be selfish of you, weighing him down when he's set on achieving his dreams. Would he, a professional soccer player, spare his time for a relationship with a forgettable nobody like you? He could do so much better.

How selfish of you, wishing he'd be yours.

You distanced yourself— to not fall harder than you already have— you know you can't have him. First, you stopped contacting him as often, and then you tried not to cling to him, tried not to hang onto his every word like it was your lifeline. It was difficult to let go, especially when he was your reason to keep going, your reason to live. But you had to do it. You can't keep being a burden. The weight of a relationship could hold him back.

Hours turned to days of no contact, to the point that you found your last conversation to be weeks ago. You could tell he was concerned. Each digital letter spelled it out. Alas, you brushed it off, saying you were busy. With his hectic schedule and you purposefully avoiding him, that connection that was tightly bound started to drift apart.

You ignored the heavy mix of feelings consuming you like wildfire. You needed to let him go.

The quest to distance yourself was successful.

It's been months, and you've convinced yourself that you got over him. You haven't interacted in a long while, so you shouldn't feel anything towards him, right?

So then why did your chest tighten at seeing those dark locks once again?

Isagi looked as surprised as you. After seasons of no contact, he was finally able to see you again— in an airport, walking across each other— the both of you were about to board on your flights to somewhere, a different location from the other. He called your name, it left nostalgic taste on his tongue.

You stared in silence. All the things you wanted to say, and all the things you shouldn't were stuck in your throat. So you settled for a simple nod of acknowledgement, forcing out a casual reply, one that held no trace of all the brewing emotions threatening to overflow within you. “How are you?” you asked, attempting to prompt a conversation for who knows what. Maybe you were desperate for some semblance of interaction, you hated that you missed him. You weren't supposed to.

He looks away, eyes flickering to somewhere else. “Haha, I'm doing fine. I got tournaments to win, games to play, planes to catch…” Isagi trails off, awkwardly fiddling with his hand. There, you spotted a glimpse of it— a golden jewelry adorning his ring finger— it caught the artificial lights of the bulbs above, and your gaze lingered onto it for a second longer than you'd like, the image burning into your mind.

It appears that the articles of him dating some big-shot star weren't just rumors. Hell, they were even engaged.

He's slipped through your fingers, and you let him go.

You weren't his. He wasn't yours.

(a/n):: mb for this writing slop ruejwhiw

taglist (ask to be added):: @tired-xyra-urstruly @fishii-writes @rini-rushed @rinitoshiplzdateme

@luzmilun @motchilyn

© fumiscripts 2024. don't steal, repost, translate or modify my works without my permission.

[mindblowingscience]

It feels like we are getting used to the Earth being on fire. Recently, more than 70 wildfires burned simultaneously in Greece. In early 2024, Chile suffered its worst wildfire season in history, with more than 130 people killed. Last year, Canada's record-breaking wildfires burned from March to November and, in August, flames devastated the island of Maui, in Hawaii. And the list goes on and on. Watching the news, it certainly feels like catastrophic extreme wildfires are happening more often, and unfortunately this feeling has now been confirmed as correct. A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution shows that the number and intensity of the most extreme wildfires on Earth have doubled over the past two decades.

Continue Reading.

[do-androids-dream-ao3acc]

2024 creativity recap

I've seen a couple of people do things like this, and I'd love to join in and also tag all of my mutuals (of which I'll only name some because you know me, I love you but I forget your names): tell us of your fics, gifsets and whatnots in 2024! So, here's my recap:

I published 147,786 words in 26 works on AO3; 2,680 words on Tumblr only, and I think I deleted one or two works. 21 of the 26 are BuckTommy – the s7 kiss broke my writer's block :)

In chronological order:

3 Times Buck's Date With Tommy Went Awry – And The One Time It Didn't  // Fluff, Crack Desert Dreams // Hurt/Comfort (Tommy) Set It Off Tonight, Baby, Just Like Fire And Gasoline // Fluff, Smut And How My Heart Sang True That Day // Character Study (Buck) I'll Be Your Hero  // Fluff, Shovel Talk Watch Me Burn // Fluff, Smut In The Dark // Angst, Hurt/Comfort Lass uns n Wunder sein (Let's Be a Miracle) // First Time, Ficlet Whisper Your Desires, And I'll Teach You How To Feel // Smut Has Anybody Noticed That The Sky Is Falling? // Hurt/Comfort (Buck has Anosmia in this one) Am Tag als Conny Kramer starb (The Day Conny Kramer Died) // Crack, Murder Mystery Come and Let the Storm Bring Us to Life // Smut, Helicopter Sex I Am The Broken, I Am The Wound // Emotional Hurt/Comfort (Tommy) Wann? (When?) // Fluff All the Pain // Angst, Hurt/Comfort Simply the Best, Reprise (Simply the Beast) // Smut "We're doomed." // Season opening disaster Remember Everything // Hurt/Comfort (Tommy) It Hurts to Feel, to Think, to Know I May Be Nothing // Fix-it Starts With a Spark, Then It's a Wildfire // Angst, Hurt/Comfort Love Can Only Heal [BuckTommy Tumblr Prompts] // 15 individual fics and ficlets I also did 2 fics for 911 Lone Star: My Melancholy Angel // Addiction, Sex (TK/Buck) Scars That I'm Hiding // Carlos's Murder Mystery AU Also, I did 3 Witcher fics: Lass es Liebe sein (Let It Be Love) // Fluff, Humor (Emhyr/Geralt) At Night // Smut (Emhyr/Impera) Center of the Universe // Smut (Emhyr/Impera)

From the Tumblr-only-fics, 4 are also BuckTommy: Before The Ashes Hit The Ground // Episode speculations BuckTommy Drabbles // 100 word mini fics Blue Hoodie Lightsabers And I filled 2 whump meme prompts:

"Stop crying and listen to me" with Omega (The Bad Batch) "That's not supposed to bend like that" with Gale/Astarion (Baldur's Gate 3)

I also did this very stupid video edit:

What a year, huh? It definitely was the BuckTommy year!

Tagging everybody to show off their creations, naming only a few, meaning everybody who wants to! @nine-one-wanton, @sunnywithachanceofbi, @cull3nblaze, @judymarch15, @typicalopposite, @cappuccinoandglitter

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from RMI:

1. Batteries Become Everybody’s Best Friend

Battery prices continue to drop and their capacity continues to rise. The cost of electric vehicle (EV) batteries are now about 60 percent what they were just five years ago. And around the world, batteries have become key components in solar-plus-storage microgrids, giving people access to reliable power and saving the day for communities this past hurricane season.

2. Americans Get Cheaper (and Cleaner) Energy

State public utility commissions and rural electric co-operatives around the country are taking steps to deliver better service for their customers that also lowers their rates. At the same time, real momentum is building to prevent vertically integrated utilities from preferencing their coal assets when there are cleaner and cheaper alternatives available.

3. A Sustainable Shipping Future Gets Closer

More than 50 leaders across the marine shipping value chain — from e-fuel producers to vessel and cargo owners, to ports and equipment manufacturers — signed a Call to Action at the UN climate change conference (COP29) to accelerate the adoption of zero-emission fuels. The joint statement calls for faster and bolder action to increase the use of zero and near-zero emissions fuel, investment in zero-emissions vessels, and global development of green hydrogen infrastructure, leaving no country behind.

4. Corporations Fly Cleaner

In April, 20 corporations, including Netflix, JPMorgan Chase, Autodesk, and more, committed to purchase about 50 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), avoiding 500,000 tons of CO2 emissions — equivalent to the emissions of 3,000 fully loaded passenger flights from New York City to London. SAF is made with renewable or waste feedstocks and can be used in today’s aircraft without investments to upgrade existing fleets and infrastructure.

5. More and More Places Go From Coal to Clean

Around the world, coal-fired power plants are closing down as communities switch to clean energy. From Chile to the Philippines to Minnesota coal-to-clean projects are creating new jobs, improving local economic development, and generating clean electricity. In September, Britain became the first G7 nation to stop generating electricity from coal — it’s turning its last coal-fired power plant into a low-carbon energy hub. And in Indonesia, the president vowed to retire all coal plants within 15 years and install 75 gigawatts of renewable energy.

6. Methane Becomes More Visible, and Easier to Mitigate

Methane — a super-potent greenhouse gas — got much easier to track thanks to the launch of new methane tracking satellites over the past year. In March, the Environmental Defense Fund launched MethaneSAT, the first for a non-governmental organization, and the Carbon Mapper Coalition soon followed with the launch of Tanager-1. By scanning the planet many times each day and identifying major methane leaks from orbit, these new satellites will put pressure on big emitters to clean up.

7. EVs Speed By Historic Milestones

This past year was the first time any country had more fully electric cars than gas-powered cars on the roads. It’s no surprise that this happened in Norway where electric cars now make up more than 90 percent of new vehicle sales. And in October, the United States hit a milestone, with over 200,000 electric vehicle charging ports installed nationwide.

8. Consumers Continue to Shift to Energy-Efficient Heat Pumps for Heating and Cooling

Heat pumps have outsold gas furnaces consistently since 2021. And while shipments of heating and cooling equipment fell worldwide in 2023, likely due to broad economic headwinds, heat pumps held on to their market share through. And over the past 12 months, heat pumps outsold conventional furnaces by 27 percent. Shipments are expected to continue increasing as states roll out home efficiency and appliance rebate programs already funded by the Inflation Reduction Act – worth up to $10,000 per household in new incentives for heat pump installations. Link: Tracking the Heat Pump & Water Heater Market in the United States – RMI

9. China Reaches Its Renewable Energy Goal, Six Years Early

China added so much renewable energy capacity this year, that by July it had surpassed its goal of having 1,200 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy installed by 2030. Through September 2024, China installed some 161 GW of new solar capacity and 39 GW of new wind power, according to China’s National Energy Administration (NEA). China is deploying more solar, wind, and EVs than any other country, including the United States, which is — by comparison — projected to deploy a record 50 GW of solar modules by the end of 2024.

10. De-carbonizing Heavy Industry

For steel, cement, chemicals and other heavy industries, low-carbon technologies and climate-friendly solutions are not only increasingly available but growing more affordable. To speed this process, Third Derivative, RMI’s climate tech accelerator, launched the Industrial Innovation Cohorts to accelerate the decarbonization of steel, cement, and chemicals. Also on the rise: clean hydrogen hubs — powered by renewable energy — designed to supply green hydrogen to chemical, steel, and other heavy industries to help them shift to low-carbon production processes.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

L.A.fires Mary Elaine LeBey

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 8, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 09, 2025

At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.

President Joe Biden is supporting state and local responses to the fire with federal resources. Today, he approved a major disaster declaration, which enables people and towns to access funds immediately in order to jump-start their recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse California for some of the costs of fighting the fires. Five U.S. Forest Service large air tankers and ten federal firefighting helicopters have been deployed to support the local firefighters; ten Navy helicopters with water delivery buckets are joining them. California governor Gavin Newsom has deployed the California National Guard, and the Nevada National Guard is standing by.

Canada, too, has sent water-dropping helicopters and a pair of planes, which are part of a firefighting contract with California that’s been in place for 14 years.

At a fire station in Santa Monica, Biden stood beside Newsom and said: “We’re prepared to do anything and everything for as long as it takes to contain these fires.”

In contrast to federal support for California under Biden, in the midst of the ongoing crisis President-elect Donald Trump blamed California governor Gavin “Newscum and his Los Angeles crew” for the fires, suggesting he had put the needs of fish over the people of California. He posted: “Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.” "Let this stand as a symbol of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newsom duo,” Trump posted. “January 20th cannot come fast enough!"

Newsom’s office responded: “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration—that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”

Trump is apparently claiming that water that could be used to fight the fires has been diverted to protect the endangered Delta smelt. But the water systems in California are complicated, and importing water from northern California would make no difference for the wildfires.

Los Angeles water doesn’t come from northern California. It comes from an aqueduct east of the Sierra Nevada, from groundwater, and from the Colorado River. Right now, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has more water stored than it has ever had before, according to Mark Gold, a board member. “It’s not a matter of having enough water coming from Northern California to put out a fire,” he told Alastair Bland of CalMatters. “It’s about the continued devastating impacts of a changing climate.”

Hydroclimatologist Peter Gleick told Taryn Luna, Liam Dillon, and Alex Wigglesworth of the Los Angeles Times that Trump’s linking of water policy to the raging fires was “blatantly false, irresponsible and politically self-serving.”

The two different responses of the current president and the incoming one reveal dramatically different approaches to the presidency.

Yesterday the Biden administration announced the finalization of a new rule that will remove medical debt from all credit reports. Until now, medical debt has meant that consumers could be denied mortgages, car loans, or small business loans. In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that funds from the American Rescue Plan, passed by Democrats shortly after Biden took office in 2021, have enabled the elimination of more than $1 billion in medical debt for 700,000 Americans. Jurisdictions are on track to eliminate about $15 billion in medical debt for nearly 6 million Americans, the White House said.

“No one should be denied economic opportunity because they got sick or experienced a medical emergency,” Harris said.

While Biden and Harris are working to solve problems for regular Americans, Trump has simply gone on the offensive, attacking Democrats for what he claims is their mismanagement without offering any ideas of his own. “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA,” he posted. “THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”

By now, we know that Trump goes on offense to hide his own shortcomings. As Judd Legum of Public Notice pointed out, “The largest wildfire in California history—the August Complex Fire, which burned more than 1 million acres—occurred during the Trump administration.”

That pattern of going on offense to hide his own behavior was also on display today when CNN’s Hadas Gold reported that someone inside the Fox News Channel (FNC) gave the Trump team the questions that Trump would be asked at an Iowa town hall last January just before the Iowa caucus. A forthcoming book by Alex Isenstadt of Politico details the close relationship between Trump and people within FNC. It says that after Trump refused to prepare for that town hall, someone inside Fox texted the questions to a senior Trump aide, enabling them to prep him with answers.

After Trump fell apart during his debate with Vice President Harris, he accused her of knowing the questions ahead of time and said the debate was “rigged.”

Trump apparently went on the offensive yesterday when he called Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito just hours before Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency request with the court asking it to stop Manhattan judge Juan Merchan from sentencing Trump Friday in the election interference case in which a jury found him guilty of 34 felonies. Alito told reporters that they talked only about a job opportunity for one of Alito’s law clerks and did not discuss the case, but it is highly unusual for a president or president-elect to talk with a Supreme Court justice when that official has business before the court. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said such a thing was “almost unheard of.”

As legal analyst Quinta Jurecic observed, though, someone leaked news of this inappropriate contact astonishingly quickly. Such news usually “has taken a while to dribble out,” Jurecic noted, but “this happened THIS MORNING. [S]omebody was smug or pissed off enough to go to the press right away.”

Trump’s accusations that Biden committed a crime more likely to be chalked up to Trump himself—taking bribes from a foreign company—was also in the news today. Alexander Smirnov, the key witness for the House Republicans’ investigation into Biden, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about the alleged bribery and to tax evasion.

Julia Ainsley and Carol E. Lee of NBC News today reported another way in which Trump is threatening to go on offense: by conducting a very visible raid targeting undocumented immigrants in the Washington, D.C., area as soon as he takes office. While Presidents Barack Obama and Biden have targeted employers who violate labor laws, Trump wants to demonstrate “shock and awe” by raiding workplaces and sweeping up migrants who are in the U.S. without documentation, regardless of their criminal status. His transition team has been talking with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials about the logistics of such raids.

And then, of course, there are Trump’s frequent references to taking over other countries. Don Jr. traveled to Greenland this week with right-wing activist and media personality Charlie Kirk, ostensibly to record a podcast, but Trump Sr. followed the trip with posts saying “MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!” That idea is getting traction among MAGA leaders, even though—or perhaps because—it is a direct affront to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to which both the U.S. and Denmark belong.

Over the New York Post’s map of the “Donroe Doctrine” in which Canada is labeled “51st state,” Greenland is labeled “our land,” the Gulf of Mexico is labeled “Gulf of America,” and the Panama Canal is labeled “Pana-Maga Canal,” the Republican majority on the House Foreign Affairs Committee posted today: “Our country was built by warriors and explorers. We tamed the West, won two World Wars, and were the first to plant our flag on the moon. President Trump has the biggest dreams for America and it’s un-American to be afraid of big dreams.” Journalist Jamie Dupree screenshotted the tweet before the committee deleted it.

Behind all the offense, though, things that matter deeply to the American people are going largely unnoticed.

MAGA representatives have been introducing a slew of measures to the new Congress, many of which incorporate the plans of Project 2025 into legislation. They call for turning over immigration to the states, privatizing veterans’ healthcare, and repealing the 1993 National Voting Rights Act, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Bills call for withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization; increasing oil and gas production on federal lands; abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); allowing states to spend federal education money on private school vouchers; and removing the protection of transgender rights from schools.

Other measures would revoke security clearances for “certain former members of the intelligence community,” introduce a constitutional amendment to cap the Supreme Court at nine justices, and cut off federal funding to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (the office that successfully charged Trump with election interference) and the Fulton County (GA) District Attorney’s Office (the office that has charged Trump with criminal conspiracy).

And MAGA Republicans have proposed a bill to impose a national abortion ban, along with a bill urging Congress to support a consortium of antiabortion doctors for women because, the bill says, “health care should emphasize the whole woman, including her physical, mental, and spiritual wellness,” and “health care for women should also address the needs of men, families, and communities.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[bekolxeram]

honestly idk about you but I loooved the first episode. it was amazing. but I realised I got my hopes up so much in regards to how heavily Tommy is going to be involved in the plane disaster and now I'm pretty sure he's going to be barely in it and icl I'm so disappointed. not with the show and the writers, but with myself 🥲 I guess I wanted to see Tommy in danger a little, perhaps not to the same extent as Athena but in danger nonetheless, ahh 😅 but I'm sure 8x02 and 8x03 are gonna eat either way! I really can't wait to see what they came up with

I absolutely loved it! It hits a nice balance of everything: humor, thrill, frustration, horror, warmth. It's nicely paced and generally a very fun watch. I mentioned last season that the BuckTommy dinner scene in 7x10 felt a bit awkward because they writers seemed to be cramping a lot of information as a setup for S8 in less than a minute. 8x01 managed to catch up with the personal lives of all the mains, foreshadow the obstacles they're going to face, and set up the opening disaster in a few short scenes.

The whole perfume launch call sequence? Chef's kiss. Buck's eureka moment? Buck chasing after Eddie with a few more squirts of perfume? Eddie running in laps around the pool to distract the bees with Flight of the Bumblebee in the background? Monty the beekeeper? Comedy gold.

Don't be so hard on yourself! Isn't part of the fun speculating and imagining what's going to happen on the show? You have your theory, I have mine, the show is most likely going to do a completely different third thing. Think about it, when has the show let us down ever since Tommy's reintroduction? We keep making wrong predictions, but the writers keep giving us something unexpected yet somehow better. Remember we all thought Tommy would rescue Chimney and fly him to the wedding in 7x06? Well, he didn't make his hero entrance, he was just busy fighting a wildfire, but he rushed to the hospital especially for Buck, no one else.

Airport 1975 is very... 70s, I don't think the exact plot would work in 2024 without some major tweaking. The flight attendant managing to keep the plane flying doesn't get nearly enough credit for that, instead the script frames her ex-boyfriend, the flight instructor who repels into the cockpit and lands the plane as the hero. (And everyone from her ex to ATC keeps calling her honey every 3 minutes and talking to her like she's dumb. I'm so glad 8x01 takes a jab at that in its first scene.) Needless to say I'm not a huge fan of the film, other than that big sexy 747 in the classic American Airlines bare metal livery. I hope the 911 remake of that will involve more team work and female pilots.

Such a beauty. Unfortunately I was born too late to see it with my own eyes.

Tommy can still very much be in danger.🙈Whether you believe Tommy can fly a giant airliner or not, he's definitely trained in fighting aircraft fire. It's dangerous, a lot of stuff can suddenly explode. Firefighters have been injured and killed in post crash landing explosions. (Expert in fighting fire with an aircraft AND fighting fire on an aircraft, geez Tommy, leave some expertise for the rest of us.) He might not be the hero who singlehandedly saves everyone in 8x02 and 8x03, but I believe he will be involved in the rescue in some capacity. I mean, it's an airport and the 217 truck is right there.

Feel free to ignore everything I said, anon. Ultimately, we still have fanfiction, so keep playing around with ideas, keep writing, keep reading and have fun!

[girlactionfigure]

🟦 After Shabbat - Saturday night - events from Israel  

Yet More after-Shabbat UPDATES

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( VIDEO - a Lebanese screams in shock at the massive airstrike in Beiruit that took out Hezbollah leader Nasrallah. )

SELICHOT start tonight (for Ashkenazim).. Selichot services are communal prayers for Divine forgiveness, said during the High Holiday season and on Jewish fast days. The first night of Selichot is the biggie, held after midnight on a Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah.  We ask G‑d to forgive us on a personal and communal level. An oft-repeated phrase is the “13 Attributes of Mercy,” which G‑d revealed to Moses at Sinai as the key to forgiveness. (Chabad.org)

❗️AIR TRAVEL.. The European Commission and EASA have decided to issue CZIBs recommending not to operate within the airspaces of Lebanon and Israel at all flight levels. The recommendation is valid until October 31, 2024, and can be reviewed earlier and adapted or withdrawn subject to the revised assessment.

A number of Wizzair flights TURNED AROUND on the way to Israel, as well as halting further service for 48 hours. 

Many Israeli travelers trapped overseas.

⚠️SCHOOL SUSPENSIONS.. Tiberias - Sept. 29-30, Golan - Sept. 29-30, remote learning only.

♦️IDF AIR FORCE COMMANDING GENERAL.. flew personally in the bombing mission against Hezbollah’s Nasrallah.  

♦️IDF WARNS.. IDF spokesman: Anyone who helps Hezbollah in Lebanon is putting himself at risk.  Residents of the Beka’a and the Dahiya in Beirut should evacuation.

♦️ATTACKING DEPOTS.. Lebanese reports that the IDF is attacking ammunition depots and rockets throughout southern Lebanon.  The reports also indicate that the IDF attacks weapons warehouses located in residential neighborhoods.

♦️BALLISTIC MISSILE INTERCEPTION.. arrow interceptor fired from Eilat, some missile parts fell into Jordan starting wildfires, previously noted a large piece fell by Tzur Hadassah, Judean hills, another large piece fell near Tulkarm - not far from Route 6.

🔹IRAN’S LEADER.. Reuters: Iran's supreme leader Khamenei was transferred to a "safe space”.

🔹SHEBA.. Enemy reports: An Israeli officer called a citizen at the Sheba farm and told him in Arabic to evacuate the entire place. (This is a tiny border area that Hezbollah has been claiming after the UN drew most of the border line placing it in Israel.  Also would be a good entry point for ground troops.)

🔹NASRALLAH REPLACEMENT.. Number 2 in Hezbollah, the chairman of the executive council, Hashem Safi al-Din, Hassan Nasrallah's cousin and Qassem Soleimani's son-in-law, was not killed in the attack in Beirut and he will be Hassan Nasrallah's successor.

🔹VARIOUS EMBASSIES in Lebanon evacuating non-essential staff.

🔹IRANIAN PROPAGANDA OR PARANOIA? Secretary of the Iranian Council General Mohsen Razai: "After Lebanon, Israel will attack Damascus and then Baghdad and maybe even Iran, for this reason the governments of Iran, Iraq and Syria must make their decision on this matter as soon as possible."

🔹RUSSIA SAYS.. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia: strongly condemns the elimination of Nasrallah, calls on Israel to stop all acts of aggression.

🔹US SEC STATE SAYS.. Blinken: We call for a ceasefire along the border between Israel and Lebanon.

🎯Did Israel just try to assassinate the head of Hezbollah's executive council, Hashem Safi al-Din?  Reports from Beirut about a powerful attack by the Air Force on a residential building that is suspected to have housed Safi al-Din.  We will wait for the IDF's verification.  Follow up, looks like some other Hezbollah commanders.

▪️ECONOMY.. Following the possibility of a severe war in the north: Moody's lowers the credit rating by two notches and adds a negative forecast, which will severely affect the cost of Israel’s borrowing.

[tomorrowusa]

Climate-denying Republicans can't be confused with the facts.

To make progress on climate issues we need to keep Republicans out of office at every level of state and national government.

The imbeciles who claim that both parties are the same are as delusional as MAGA zombies.

Biden Calls Climate Change 'Existential Threat To Humanity'

DeSantis dismisses climate change, calling it ‘politicisation of weather’

Republicans refuse to admit that we even have a problem.

This summer, from one end of the US to the other, we are experiencing in different ways the effects of climate related wildfires.

And fires are not the only problem. Predictions for the 2023 Atlantic Basin hurricane season were just revised upward. We're currently moving into the most active part of the season (mid August to mid October).

Warm seas act like jet fuel for tropical cyclones. And the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Ron DeSantis's Florida is off the scale with temperatures.

Florida ocean records ‘unprecedented’ temperatures similar to a hot tub

We're still trying to get out of the hole dug by the Trump administration. Put Republicans back in power and we may never get out of that hole. With every passing day they grow more bizarre and unhinged with their resistance to climate action.

An insidious form of climate denial is festering in the Republican Party

[4getfulimaginator2022]

Jorleesi Fic + Author Rec

In honor of Fanfic Writer's Appreciation Day 2024, I wanted to do a fic rec list for my new fandom, Jorleesi (Jorah x Daenerys from Game of Thrones). Here are some of my top fic recs, and I am also including an author rec list for the amazing individuals who have contributed so much to this fandom! Happy reading and please show all of these great authors some love ❤️ here on Tumblr and AO3!

Fic Recs🔥(with my cover art)

Author recs ❣️

@fandomsbyladymelodrama on AO3

@rileypotter17 on AO3

@salzrand on AO3

charliebrown90

@houseofthebear on AO3

@ser-jorah-the-andal on AO3

@wildfire-1980 on AO3

@gettingovergreta on AO3

@clarasimone on AO3

@terisrog on AO3

@thank-god-and-you on AO3

@thethingswelove on AO3

@bridgr6 on AO3

@toas-tea on AO3

@khaleesa on AO3

@fanoftheknight on AO3

@squilf on AO3

@youcancallme-ray on AO3

@myspecialhell on AO3

@profiler-in-courage on AO3

@4getfulimaginator2022 on AO3

I'm so sorry if I forgot to mention anyone! Thank you again for all you have given this fandom and best wishes from one of your readers! 💗���💝 And to everyone looking for great Jorleesi fics to read - please go read and review their work!

[makairodonx]

Spectember 2024 Day 21: Parachiropterus ibis

Parachiropterus ibis, also known as the Ibis-Headed Parachiropteran, is the largest member of the Parachiropteridae, a family of strange, pterosaur-like mammals that are distantly related to camels, and with a wingspan of 13-14 meters and a standing height of 7-9 meters, it is also one of the largest flying vertebrates ever to inhabit Mars ll or Potworia. The species inhabits Jariloia’s sprawling oak-savannas and its surrounding desert lands, and it has a highly touch-sensitive, 3.5-meter-long rostrum that is used to probe around tall blades of grass or through the chunks of flesh of a carcass, very powerful olfactory lobes, and hollow air sac-filled bones to keep it lightweight like most other members of its family. The Ibis-Headed Parachiropteran usually stalks the open plains in search of cow or horse-sized prey hiding in the grass, much like a ground hornbill or stork feeding on insects, and it will also occasionally soar over vast patches of land to sniff out the scent of fresh carcasses to eat from hundreds of kilometers away and subsequently use its huge size to displace any smaller scavengers from its supper, or prey upon any small ungulates or other animals that try to escape the flames of the wildfires that ravage the grasslands at the peak of the dry season.

As with all other Parachiropteran species, the slightly-smaller females of the Ibis-Headed Parachiropteran produce only one or three fully-developed calves which are able to start hopping, running and flying soon after birth as a precaution against any potential predators. For the first four years of their lives they will initially feed upon their mother’s milk, which is produced from two pairs of small teats that have migrated up to the mother’s chest during the Parachiropterans’ evolutionary history. The calves will soon start consuming their first morsels of meat once they start moving on their own at the age of five, and it will take them another twelve to fifteen full years for them to reach adult size.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Zoë Schlanger at The Atlantic:

In the United States, as in most other countries, weather forecasts are a freely accessible government amenity. The National Weather Service issues alerts and predictions, warning of hurricanes and excessive heat and rainfall, all at the total cost to American taxpayers of roughly $4 per person per year. Anyone with a TV, smartphone, radio, or newspaper can know what tomorrow’s weather will look like, whether a hurricane is heading toward their town, or if a drought has been forecast for the next season. Even if they get that news from a privately owned app or TV station, much of the underlying weather data are courtesy of meteorologists working for the federal government.

Charging for popular services that were previously free isn’t generally a winning political strategy. But hard-right policy makers appear poised to try to do just that should Republicans gain power in the next term. Project 2025—a nearly 900-page book of policy proposals published by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation—states that an incoming administration should all but dissolve the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under which the National Weather Service operates. Donald Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, but given that it was largely written by veterans of his first administration, the document is widely seen as a blueprint for a second Trump term.

NOAA “should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories,” Project 2025 reads. The proposals roughly amount to two main avenues of attack. First, it suggests that the NWS should eliminate its public-facing forecasts, focus on data gathering, and otherwise “fully commercialize its forecasting operations,” which the authors of the plan imply will improve, not limit, forecasts for all Americans. Then, NOAA’s scientific-research arm, which studies things such as Arctic-ice dynamics and how greenhouse gases behave (and which the document calls “the source of much of NOAA’s climate alarmism”), should be aggressively shrunk. “The preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded,” the document says. It further notes that scientific agencies such as NOAA are “vulnerable to obstructionism of an Administration’s aims,” so appointees should be screened to ensure that their views are “wholly in sync” with the president’s. The U.S. is, without question, experiencing a summer of brutal weather. In just the past week, a record-breaking hurricane brought major flooding and power outages to Texas amid an extreme-heat advisory. More than a dozen tornadoes ripped through multiple states. Catastrophic flash flooding barreled through wildfire burn scars in New Mexico. Large parts of the West roasted in life-threatening temperatures. Facing any of this without the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would be mayhem. And future years are likely to be worse.

The NWS serves as a crucial point of contact in a weather crisis, alerting the public when forecasts turn dangerous and advising emergency managers on the best plan of action. So far in 2024, the NWS has issued some 13,000 severe-thunderstorm warnings, 2,000 tornado warnings, and 1,800 flash-flood warnings, plus almost 3,000 river-flood warnings, according to JoAnn Becker, a meteorologist and the president of the union that represents NWS employees. NOAA is also home to the National Hurricane Center, which tracks storms, and the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, whose pilots fly “hurricane hunter” planes directly into cyclones to measure their wind speed and hone the agency’s predictions. NOAA even predicts space weather. Just this past May, it forecast a severe geomagnetic storm with the potential to threaten power grids and satellites. (The most consequential outages never came to pass, but the solar storm did throw off farmers’ GPS-guided tractors for a while.) Privatizing the weather is not a new conservative aim. Nearly two decades ago, when the National Weather Service updated its website to be more user-friendly, Barry Myers, then executive vice president of AccuWeather, complained to the press that “we work very hard every day competing with other companies, and we also have to compete with the government.” In 2005, after meeting with a representative from AccuWeather, then-Senator Rick Santorum introduced a bill calling for the NWS to cease competition with the private sector, and reserve its forecasts for commercial providers. The bill never made it out of committee. But in 2017, Trump picked Myers to lead NOAA. (Myers withdrew his nomination after waiting two years for Senate confirmation.)

Funding for many of NOAA’s programs could plummet in 2025, and the agency already suffers from occasional telecommunications breakdowns, including a recent alert-system outage amid flooding in the Midwest. It is also subject to political pressures: In 2019, the agency backed then-President Trump’s false claim (accompanied by a seemingly Sharpie-altered map) that Hurricane Dorian was headed for Alabama. Private companies might be better funded and, theoretically, less subject to political whims. They can also use supercomputing power to hone NOAA’s data into hyperlocal predictions, perhaps for an area as small as a football stadium. Some, including AccuWeather, use their own proprietary algorithms to interpret NWS data and produce forecasts that they claim have superior accuracy. (Remember, though: Without NWS data, none of this would happen.)

[...] The NWS also has perks that a private system would be hard-pressed to replicate, including a partnership with the World Meteorological Organization, which allows the U.S. access to a suite of other countries’ weather models. International collaboration proved crucial in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy was still churning in the Atlantic Ocean. Initially, the American model predicted, incorrectly, that the storm would turn away from the East Coast. But the European model accurately forecast a collision course, which bought emergency managers in the U.S. crucial time to prepare before Sandy made ferocious landfall in New Jersey.

Project 2025 could have an impact on how accurate and precise weather forecasts are delivered, since NOAA and NWS could be significantly altered.

This is one of many reasons why we must vote Blue up and down the line.

See Also:

Daily Kos: Project 2025 will affect every part of life. Even weather updates