#drought uk

[eaglesnick]

“He is fiddling while Rome is burning, and, unlike the enormous majority of people who do this, fiddling with his face toward the flames.”― George Orwell

Two days ago many media outlets posted similar headlines to this in the Washington Post

“Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth, scientists say. The historic day comes on the heels of 13 straight months of unprecedented temperatures and the hottest year scientists have ever seen.”  (23/07/24)

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said:

“… it will not be the last record-breaker, as planet-warming fossil fuel pollution drives temperatures to shocking new highs.”

Paradoxically, record heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and flooding go together. For every 1 c rise in temperature the atmosphere holds 7% more moisture. This causes heavier raindrops, often falling over a shorter space of time, leading to localised flash flooding. At the same time, small differences in average temperatures leads to big differences in heat extremes. The change in weather patterns also leads to longer droughts, not least because as the soil dries out greater demands are put on existing water supplies, which are often themselves depleted, and the drier the conditions the more likelihood there is of wildfires.

In January this year “hundreds of (UK) homes were evacuated after heavy rain.” (BBC News: 05/01/24) In July 2024 the Government paper  “ Water situations: May 2024” informed us that England received 141% of the long-term average rainfall for the time of year. In other words we were close to having nearly 50% more rain as was historically usual. At the same time groundwater levels “had decreased at almost all the sites" used as measuring points.

We have more rainfall but less ground water because the increased intensity of the rainfall means much of it runs off the land into rivers and out to sea before it has time to soak into the soil.

Many scientists and naturalist believe climate change is the “biggest threat modern humans have ever faced". Yet what do we do about it? In this country we lock up those who try to bring the enormity of the situation to our attention.

Priti Patel and the last Conservative government wanted members of environmentally concerned groups to be put on a terrorist list and sent to jail if they dared raise awareness to the threat we face. The Tory government  under Sunak passed the  ‘The Police. Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, whereby anyone “conspiring to cause a public nuisance" can be jailed for up to 10 years.

Last week 5 peaceful environmentalist protestors were jailed for a total of 21 years.  Yesterday, one day after we were told that last Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth, six more environmental protesters were arrested by the police under the new “conspiring to cause a public disorder" offence”.

The world record for the hottest day on Sunday was broken the very next day.  April saw “significant flooding” in the UK, with 44 flood warnings  being issued together with 201 flood alerts. A new heatwave map shows a 224-mile heat dome about to hit Britain, and we decide to lock up environmental protestors who are trying to alert us to the dangers we face if we do not drastically decrease our reliance on fossil fuels

Some might expect Starmer - once described as "a green activist to his core"- to amend or even repeal the draconian anti-democratic ‘Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act’ but that is highly unlikely. Starmer’s emphasis on “growing the economy” means he cannot do without the oil and gas companies. The oil and gas sector is worth £20bn to the UK economy and supports 200,000 jobs across its supply chain.

So even though Starmer knows the existential threat climate change and fossil fuel consumption means for our planet, he isn’t going to do anything to upset the fossil fuel industry. Couple this to Starmer’s authoritarianism and his total abhorrence of dissent, and you can expect many more peaceful protesters to be sent to our already overflowing prisons. 

[janedances]

just to summarise, here is a list of everything that has happened within the 6 days of september we’ve had so far.

julia seymour debut

leesa west end e/c howard in band costume

darcy aragon debut

hailey parr debut

3 alt skate in canada

cassie the universal alt

marilyn supposedly leaving

harriet CD e/c parr west end

gabriella cleves debut

west end cast change announcement

leah and monique double swingo

[nellandvoid]

oxford i am inside you

[x-alightinthedark]

You don't understand how hard I am side eyeing the UK. Even if Eurovion is hosted there, in my opinion it should've had Ukrainian hosts, everything should've been about them. You know, like every other year a country has hosted and made it about them, cause they won.

[dividedindiversity]

The true purpose of these polls is, of course, to irrigate southern France with the tears of the Brits who are upsetti spaghetti about not being included

[hellenhighwater]

Aw heck I missed Eddie Fitz Day...

So here’s a different fun fact for you: the steel-skinned Lakers, the great cargo ships that haul iron from the shores of Superior and beyond—many of them are old, as ships go. An ocean-going cargo ship has a working life of fifteen years; thirty if the salt does not bite too deeply. But the Great Lakes keep what they take, and what they take endures. Those who are not local to the area may not know that there is a massive industrial shipping route leading from the Great Lakes east to the Atlantic, and west to the Mississippi. Mostly these cargo ships--limited in size to only a little more than 1000 feet due to the length capacity of the Soo Locks on the St. Mary River, the gate from Lake Superior to Huron--carry raw materials. Iron, from the deep veins of the Mesabi Iron Range; taconite; powdered cement, limestone and salt and grain. The Lakers, hollow bellied, carry their burdens for decades. Many Lakers serve for eighty or more years; The SS Medusa Challenger, launched in 1906; converted into a barge in 2014 and renamed the St. Mary's Challenger, still carries cement a hundred and seventeen years after her first launch. The oldest of the Lakers in service today, the SS Alpena, was launched in the 1942, and still carries faithfully.

And if you like to watch the big boats go by, then here's the Sault Ste Marie webcams.

Whereabouts do you live, roughly speaking, and what drew you to that place in particular?

I'm in Michigan, and that's as specifically as I will answer that question! We have really lethal lakes.

[ur-mag]

Ghastly secret faces hidden for 2,000 years uncovered by Amazon drought | In Trend Today

Ghastly secret faces hidden for 2,000 years uncovered by Amazon drought Read Full Text or Full Article on MAG NEWS

[reasonsforhope]

"The sleeping giant of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stirred.

In the past month, an avalanche of anti-pollution rules, targeting everything from toxic drinking water to planet-heating gases in the atmosphere, have been issued by the agency. Belatedly, the sizable weight of the US federal government is being thrown at longstanding environmental crises, including the climate emergency.

On Thursday [May 18, 2023], the EPA’s month of frenzied activity was crowned by the toughest ever limits upon carbon pollution from America’s power sector, with large, existing coal and gas plants told they must slash their emissions by 90% or face being shut down.

The measure will, the EPA says, wipe out more than 600m tons of carbon emissions over the next two decades, about double what the entire UK emits each year. But even this wasn’t the biggest pollution reduction announced in recent weeks.

In April, new emissions standards for cars and trucks will eliminate an expected 9bn tons of CO2 by the mid-point of the century, while separate rules issued late last year aim to slash hydrofluorocarbons, planet-heating gases used widely in refrigeration and air conditioning, by 4.6bn tons in the same timeframe. Methane, another highly potent greenhouse gas, will be curtailed by 810m tons over the next decade in another EPA edict.

In just a few short months the EPA, diminished and demoralized under Donald Trump, has flexed its regulatory muscles to the extent that 15bn tons of greenhouse gases – equivalent to about three times the US’s carbon pollution, or nearly half of the entire world’s annual fossil fuel emissions – are set to be prevented, transforming the power basis of Americans’ cars and homes in the process...

If last year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), with its $370bn in clean energy subsidies and enticements for electric car buyers, was the carrot to reducing emissions, the EPA now appears to be bringing a hefty stick.

The IRA should help reduce US emissions by about 40% this decade but the cut needs to be deeper, up to half of 2005 levels, to give the world a chance of avoiding catastrophic heatwaves, wildfires, drought and other climate calamities. The new rules suddenly put America, after years of delay and political rancor, tantalizingly within reach of this...

“It’s clear we’ve reached a pivotal point in human history and it’s on all of us to act right now to protect our future,” said Michael Regan, the administrator of the EPA, in a speech last week at the University of Maryland. The venue was chosen in a nod to the young, climate-concerned voters Joe Biden hopes to court in next year’s presidential election, and who have been dismayed by Biden’s acquiescence to large-scale oil and gas drilling.

“Folks, this is our future we are talking about, and we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity for real climate action,” [Michael Regan, the administrator of the EPA], added. “Failure is not an option, indifference is not an option, inaction is not an option.” ...

It’s not just climate the EPA has acted upon in recent months. There are new standards for chemical plants, such as those that blight the so-called "Cancer Alley" the US, from emitting cancer-causing toxins such as benzene, ethylene oxide and vinyl chloride. New rules curbing mercury, arsenic and lead from industrial facilities have been released, as have tighter limits on emissions of soot and the first ever regulations targeting the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkylsubstances (or PFAS) in drinking water.” ...

For those inside the agency, the breakneck pace has been enervating. “It’s definitely a race against time,” said one senior EPA official, who asked not to be named. “The clock is ticking. It is a sprint through a marathon and it is exhausting.” ...

“We know the work to confront the climate crisis doesn’t stop at strong carbon pollution standards,” said Ben Jealous, the executive director of the Sierra Club.

“The continued use or expansion of fossil power plants is incompatible with a livable future. Simply put, we must not merely limit the use of fossil fuel electricity – we must end it entirely.”"

-via The Guardian (US), 5/16/23

[cafephan]

people at this point surely have to appreciate dan and phil’s longevity as successful online entrepreneurs

yes there were the golden years of the early 2010s with the whole ‘brit crew’ craze where a load of uk creators absolutely sky rocketed to fame but few have had the same trajectory

like not many fanbases will remain as steadfast and dedicated in such long droughts of content

and even to this day, their names are clickbaited - but for every ‘dan and phil are irrelevant now’ video, the facts just say different

oop the gaming channel is back and the internet exploded like the day it was first announced

oop they announced a third joint tour that sold out within minutes

it’s just impressive - you can say dnp are irrelevant now but phannies are so stubborn that they’ll never let you be factually or statistically correct

[mindblowingscience]

Europe's forests have already been severely affected by climate change. Thousands of hectares of trees have already died due to drought and bark beetles. Scientists from the University of Vienna and the Technical University of Munich TUM have now investigated which trees can be used for reforestation. Their findings indicate only a few tree species are fit for the future, such as English oak in the UK. However, mixed forests are important for the survival of forests, otherwise the forest ecosystem as a whole could be weakened. The results of the study were published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Continue Reading.

[gothhabiba]

[bypass paywall]

[Northern Africa] has been experiencing some of the most intense heat waves in recent years, but in many cases they’ve been under-reported due to misconceptions about Africans’ ability to withstand them.

“Africa is seen as a sunny and hot continent,” said Amadou Thierno Gaye, a research scientist and professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. “People think we are used to heat, but we are having high temperatures for a longer duration. Nobody is used to this.”

North Africa, the Sahara desert and the Sahel, a semi-arid belt north of the Sudanian savanna, are some of the most vulnerable areas because they have larger land masses relative to the rest of the continent, meaning they tend to heat up faster. Scientists have attributed the unprecedented temperatures to a combination of human-induced climate change and the return of El Niño, a natural phenomenon that alters weather patterns. 

The Sahel, for instance, has been heating at a faster pace than the global average despite being hot already. Burkina Faso and Mali, both in West Africa’s Sahel, are among countries that are set to become almost uninhabitable by 2080, if the world continues on its current trajectory, a UK university study found. Its people are especially vulnerable due to shrinking resources, such as water, and poor amenities, and a dearth of trees and parks means there are few options for places to cool off.

[...] Elsewhere on the continent, the crisis is also being felt. In the Horn of Africa, at least 43,000 people died in Somalia alone last year as a result of the worst drought in four decades. A study found that global warming is changing rain patterns and bringing more heat to Somalia and some of its neighbors, for longer stretches of time. Further south, unusually destructive cyclones in 2019 claimed more than a thousand lives in Mozambique and Zimbabwe alone. 

[eaglesnick]

“Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself. William Shakespeare

The Guardian newspaper carried this serious but unsurprising headline in reaction to the Tory by-election win In Uxbridge.

“An inconvenient truth: you can’t sell the green revolution to people who cant afford it.” (Guardian: 20/07/23)

The other “inconvenient truth" is that the VERY rich already have plans to avoid the personal ramifications of climate change and have no interest in the green revolution.

The super-rich ‘preppers' planning to save themselves from the apocalypse."  (Guardian: Douglas Rushkoff.04/09/22)

Selfishly, the rich believe they can use their wealth to somehow insulate themselves from the catastrophic consequences of climate change and therefore they have no incentive to implement the green policies needed to save the world. In fact, they need very quickly to make even more money so they can purchase the necessary real estate, technologies and security staff they will need to ensure their personal survival. But even then the super-rich still feel vulnerable. Having spent millions on their steel-lined bunkers - some complete with pool and bowling lanes - they have no way of ensuring their own security guards will not turn against them.

“The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed “in time”. ."  (Guardian: Douglas Rushkoff.04/09/22)

Meanwhile, here in Britain, measures to improve air quality and lower emissions from air polluting vehicles have been weaponised as an election issue. While half of Europe and a great swathe of North America are in the grips of a life-threatening heat wave, our government is veering away from green policies and many within the Labour Party including Keir Starmer, are doing the same. 

If the super-rich are taking climate catastrophe so seriously they are holding seminars on how to survive Armageddon, then so should our politicians. Sunak and Starmer seem to be basing their climate strategies on that of Emperor Nero:  fiddling while the world around them burns. The really sad thing is that most of the British public seem happy to sing along with them.

[lowkeyrobin]

hi hi!! 🦕 anon back at it again with the requests!! can i get somethin with our beloved handsome bros and a reader with a strong southern accent, like reader can hide their accent well but sometimes they slip up and have a very strong southern accent

mines been strong all day and i think its the funniest thing

oooo okay okay !! ; and thank you so much to you and all of everyone requesting for using handsome bros, yall r awesome lmao ; kinda delved into just southern reader on accident so whoops fjenndmsms

HANDSOME BROS ; southern accent

includes ; tommyinnit, ranboo & badlinu

warnings ; language, talk about guns

masterlist

TOMMYINNIT

"what the fuhck"

it'll just randomly pop out from no where and surprise the shit out of him

"welcome home, darlin" He jokes, putting on a fake accent to try and match yours. "Yeehaw partner, let's go kill some bitches!"

he's very playful about it, he honestly likes when you don't hide your accent because it's what makes you yourself

he bought you a cowboy hat for your birthday and you wear it around pretty frequently LMAO

he loves having a relationship with you and learning about the southern parts of America and how it differs from the UK because obviously culture differences and shit

talking to him about tornadoes and shit like it's nothing and he's just like "!?!?!?" LMAO

RANBOO

he grew up in the more northern areas of the east coast so he at least has America pretty understood

the cultural shock still kinda hit them tho

the tornadoes? the droughts? the heat?

they thought the heat was bad for them? oh good god

when you let your accent slip out he just takes a second to make sure he heard you correctly and then jokes about it

"ready to hit the cabellas and get some guns?" He asks in a shit accent

"hell yeah, man, let's go" you reply, grabbing a nerf gun off their desk

they love your accent though, and loves how you both pronounce things and talk completely differently

sometimes he'll catch himself talking a bit like you and pause like "did I just say that like that...?"

FREDDIE BADLINU

when you slip out your accent or are just too tired to cover it up, he can't stop thinking about you like remaking the young sheldon intro if that makes sense

I know it doesn't but bare w me...

"ready to go wind up some cows partner?"

"fuck yeah, america!! rah!!!"

loves learning about the cultural differences between you two and shit

has a whole cowboy hat collection to cosplay as you and apparently each hat has their own personality/era of yourself

asks you what tornadoes are like and shit

"do you actually say yeehaw?"

"I hope not"

[eretzyisrael]

Good News From Israel

In the 24th Nov 24 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:

Ex-Gaza hostage Emily Hand had a surprise visit on her 10th birthday.

An Israeli nasal spray protects against all Covid-19 variants.

Two superb results for Israel’s multi-ethnic soccer team.

Israel’s Innovation: Africa has saved its 1000th village from drought.

Israeli innovations are literally “out of this world”.

Major Israeli technology purchases by the US, UK, Europe and the Far East.

Israel’s oldest citizen celebrates her 110th birthday.

Read More: Good News From Israel

As the ICC equates democratic Israel with Hamas terrorists, Israel's positive news includes vast numbers of articles to highlight Israel's indispensability in combating the world's greatest problems. It is quite incredible to see the contrast.

The photo (TY Sharon) is of the contrasting autumn (fall) colors in Jerusalem's botanical gardens.

[nasa]

5 Ways Studying Water Will Help Us Better Understand Earth

Studying our home planet is just as powerful as exploring what’s beyond it.

Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) is a joint mission developed by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency and the UK Space Agency. It will track water on more than 90% of Earth’s surface and help communities, scientists, and researchers better understand this finite and vital resource. And it’s launching this month!

So how will SWOT help us better understand Earth? Here are 5 ways.

SWOT will address some of the most pressing climate change questions of our time.

An important part of predicting our future climate is determining at what point Earth’s ocean water slows down its absorption of the excess heat in the atmosphere and starts releasing that heat back into the air, where it could accelerate global warming. SWOT will provide crucial information about this global heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, enabling researchers to test and improve future climate forecasts.

The satellite will also offer insights to improve computer models for sea level rise projections and coastal flood forecasting.

Data from SWOT will additionally help scientists, engineers, water managers, and others better monitor drought conditions in lakes and reservoirs and improve flood forecasts for rivers.

SWOT is the first satellite mission that will observe nearly all water on the planet’s surface.

SWOT will measure the height of water in Earth’s lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and the ocean, giving scientists the ability to track the movement of water around the world.

SWOT’s eye in the sky will provide a truly global view of the water on more than 90% of Earth’s surface, enriching humankind’s understanding of how the ocean reacts to and influences climate change along with what potential hazards – including floods – lie ahead in different regions of the world.

SWOT will see Earth’s water in higher definition than ever before.

Because everything is better in HD 😉, SWOT will view Earth’s ocean and freshwater bodies with unprecedented clarity compared to other satellites, much like a high-definition television delivers a picture far more detailed than older models. This means that SWOT will be able to “see” ocean features – like fronts and eddies – that are too small for current space-based instruments to detect. Those measurements will help improve researchers’ understanding of the ocean’s role in climate change.

Not only will the satellite show where – and how fast – sea level is rising, it will also reveal how coastlines around the world are changing. It will provide similar high-definition clarity for Earth’s lakes, rivers, and reservoirs, many of which remain a mystery to researchers, who aren’t able to outfit every water body with monitoring instruments.

SWOT data will be used to help make decisions about our daily lives and livelihoods.

As climate change accelerates the water cycle, more communities around the world will be inundated with water while others won’t have enough. SWOT data will be used to monitor drought conditions and improve flood forecasts, providing essential information to water management agencies, disaster preparedness agencies, universities, civil engineers, and others who need to track water in their local areas. SWOT data also will help industries, like shipping, by providing measurements of water levels along rivers, as well as ocean conditions, including tides, currents, and storm surges.

Finally … SWOT will pave the way for future Earth missions.

With its innovative technology and commitment to engaging a diverse community of people who plan to use data from the mission, SWOT is blazing a trail for future Earth-observing missions. SWOT’s data and the tools to support researchers in analyzing the information will be free and accessible. This will help to foster research and applications activities by a wide range of users, including scientists, resource managers, and others who in the past may not have had the opportunity to access this kind of information. Lessons learned from SWOT will lead to new questions and improvements for future missions, including our upcoming Earth System Observatory, a constellation of missions focused on studying key aspects of our home planet.

Keep track of the mission here. And make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[copperbadge]

Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways to Give:

Anon linked to a fundraiser for ridne, who needs to raise $2K for emergency dental treatment; ridne has EDS and needs crowns to protect brittle teeth. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

like-the-midnight-sun linked to a fundraiser for a close friend, Sydney, who is queer, trans, disabled, and currently homeless after leaving an abusive situation; they have a job but are living in their car and need help to keep Felix safe during the day while they're at work. They're raising funds to board Felix during the day so that they can keep their job and get back on their feet; you can read more and support the fundraiser here.

Anon linked to a fundraiser by the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a nonprofit supporting homeschooled children with a focus on laws protecting their rights, which is pulling together support for a young trans man who recently escaped a (very common) abusive home/homeschooling situation and needs resources to get a start in life. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

gwydion is raising funds to replace a broken fridge; they've solved a semi-recent plumbing issue but still need to replace the fridge and that's never cheap. You can give via paypal here.

Anon linked to a fundraiser for a nephew, Martin, who is raising funds to get a service dog to help him as he lives with a disability; you can read more and support the fundraiser here.

greaseonmymouth linked to small Scottish independent queer horror publisher Haunt Publishing, which is raising funds for a new frontlist title and to reprint two of their anthologies; the kickstarter has ebook, audio, and print options for rewards, including their entire backlist. This is the kind of indy publisher which launches careers in the UK publishing world, so helping them also helps queer authors. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

Recurring Needs:

rilee16 is raising funds to get out of an abusive home situation, where their roommate has been harassing them and vandalizing their belongings. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

chingaderita's partner recently lost their job due to a house fire that also destroyed the house; they're raising funds to keep food on the table for a family of nine, to try and get a supply of water to keep clean which is increasingly difficult during a drought, and for medications and bills until they can find new work; they also had an emergency this past weekend which ate into their funds. You can read more, reblog, and support the fundraiser here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you're new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.