#national centers for environmental information

[tomorrowusa]

More climate news that Republicans will tell you to ignore.

This is by Jeff Masters, a professional meteorologist and co-founder of Weather Underground – a pioneering weather site started in 1995.

September 2023 smashed the record for the most extreme month for heat in Earth’s history, recording the highest departure from average of any month in analyses dating back to 1850, said NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information on October 13. NOAA, NASA, Berkeley Earth, and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service all rated September 2023 as the warmest September on record, crushing the previous September record by a huge margin. And famed climate scientist James Hansen warned today that the world is on the verge of exceeding the 1.5 degree Celsius warming threshold seen as key to protecting the world’s people and ecosystems — a claim still hotly contested within climate science. According to NOAA, September global temperatures spiked to a remarkable 1.44 degrees Celsius (2.59°F) above the 20th-century average. The September 2023 global temperature anomaly of 0.46°C (0.83°F) surpassed the previous record-high monthly anomaly from March 2016 by 0.09°C (0.16°F). Using NASA data, September 2023 was 1.7 degrees Celsius above the temperature of the 1880-1899 period, which is commonly called “preindustrial” (the difference between the 1951-1980 baseline reported on the NASA website and the 1880-1899 period is 0.226°C). This is the first time that a monthly temperature has exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperature threshold in the NASA database.

Rightwingers make up bizarre excuses to keep us using fossil fuels. It's not unexpected that religion would make an appearance on the climate-denial stage. In the 2010s, hate monger Bryan Fisher told listeners and viewers that it was an insult to God not to use fossil fuels.

Back to reality...

The year-to-date period of January-September is the warmest on record globally. According to NOAA’s latest Global Annual Temperature Rankings Outlook and the statistical model it uses, there’s a greater than 99.5% chance of 2023 being the warmest year on record. At the start of this year, few experts foresaw 2023 as being a contender for Earth’s warmest year, as the bulk of El Niño’s warming comes during the second year of each El Niño rather than the first — so it’s possible that 2024 will be even warmer than this year.

There's a climate-denial industrial complex with deep pockets willing to spend big to buy politicians to keep fossil fuel corporations cranking out carbon.

We need to support viable candidates and politicians at every level of government who favor the transition to Earth-friendly energy.

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

"Second-warmest September on record for the U.S. and Globe; Hurricane Helene caused widespread power outages and catastrophic flash flooding across the Southeast U.S., causing at least 200 fatalities" NOAA NCEI

"Three new hurricanes (Debby, Helene, and Milton) and one tornado outbreak were added to the 2024 #BillionDollarDisaster total. The year-to-date total now stands at 24 events—the second-highest event total by this point in the year." NOAA NCEI

[sudden-stops-kill]

'Earth just had its hottest July in 174 years. 4th consecutive month of record-high global ocean surface temperature.' ... 'The global surface temp for July was 2.02°F (1.12°C) above avg., making it the warmest July in NOAA’s 174-year global climate record.'

https://twitter.com/NOAA

[metamatar]

all the "christmas is warm!!! global warming is so bad!" posters are using the same tactical strategy as conservatives who go "snow!!! global warming debunked!" in reverse. this will not bite us in the ass. please get climate and chartpilled. for eg something like this:

The November global surface temperature was 1.44°C (2.59°F) above the 20th-century average of 12.9°C (55.2°F), making it the warmest November on record. This was 0.38°C (0.68°F) above the previous record from November 2015. November 2023 marked the 47th-consecutive November and the 537th-consecutive month with temperatures at least nominally above the 20th-century average.

[foone]

Fun fact I learned back when I worked for the US government:

Back in the 50s the government wanted to build a repository for all the weather data, so they commissioned a study. They calculated all the cities in the US at the time, and ranked them based on a bunch of factors:

* earthquake risk

* hurricane risk

* tornado risk

* civil unrest risk

* strategic importance

And so on. The goal was to find the safest city to build their archive in, so that no matter what happened, it'd survive.

And after calculating all that info, they came up with Asheville, North Carolina. No earthquakes, these mountains are old. No hurricanes, it's too far inland. No tornados, too many mountains. No real civil unrest risk, unlike bigger cities in the south that may have civil rights protests. And there's nothing important there that the Soviets would want to bomb.

So that's where they built the National Weather Records Center, later NCDC (National Climatic Data Center) and then NCEI (National Centers for Environmental Information).

It's where I worked from 2007 to 2013.

But given how one of the reasons for picking it was that it was safe from destruction in case of a war, I like to think that the Soviets earmarked one ICBM for Asheville in case of WW3, just out of spite. It's what I'd do.

[born-in-hell]

Hi!

As some of you might know, southern Brazil, specifically the state of Rio Grande do Sul, has been struck by heavy rains and a consequential flood. The rains started on monday (29/abr) and only stopped today (5/mai), in Porto Alegre ─ the state capital, and the city i live in ─ and in the other cities nearby.

The lake that borders PoA (named Guaíba) has reached more than 5m up its normal level. This is higher than on the historic 1941 flood. The city's center ─ a big residential and commercial hub, beyond being the host of most of our public services (such as the city hall and the state government) ─ is completely taken by the water. Many other neighbourhoods were also affected.

Smaller cities that also border Guaíba were even more heavily affected, such as Eldorado do Sul, whose territory was almost 100% flooded.

The state is, for a lack of a better word, abandoned by the people that were supposed to aid.

Our governor, Eduardo Leite, is more worried about his plitical campaign ─ making dramatic videos, changing his facebook pfp to one of him with a public defense vest, making streams with no useful information ─ than with the people's lives. This year, he destinated only R$50.000 (~ USD250.000) for the Civil Defense. For the entire year. He is now, delegating the responsibility of recuperating our state to the Federal Government, stating that "the rbuilding of the RS will demand a Marshall Project".

Porto Alegre's mayor, Sebastião Mello, has vanished. He sold our city out to big enterprises ─ Melnick, Zaffari and Panvel, mainly ─, and hasn't destined any public resources to maintaining the Mauá wall (a wall built after the 1941 flood with a system made to protect the city from other floods), which caused many points to fail and the water to invade the city.

This is the danger we all face with a neoliberal system.

Neoliberalism is an individualist ideology. All these people and companies I named did close to nothing to help us. Or even made it worse. The Civil Defense, for example, published a map of all the areas that would be affected, but had to take it back, since it didn't consider the topography.

Its the people for the people.

This situation is being aided by people using their own resources. Donations of various natures and volunteer work. It is very beautiful, in a way. It shows that colaboration and union can do great things. It shows, at least to me, that the world can reach, one day, a self sustaining way of living, contrary to the ultra-individualistic capitalism some preach. Humans can, and are, good.

But it also lays out how much the people that govern us failed us.

Human lives were lost because of their negligency.

This flood isn't normal. It is a product of the huge levels of degradation multi-billionaire companies are causing the world, supported by higher class and their representatives. Eduardo Leite changed almost 500 points of our state's Environmental Code, for the worst, when he was first elected in 2019. His actions, and the actions of all other neoliberal politicians, such as our ex-president Bolsonaro, are what created this situation. They are responsible for everything that is going on here.

This flood isnt the only environmental crisis this state has faced in the last 6 months. This isn't the last one that will happen.

This text is, beyond a personal vent, a warning. We need to keep fighting against a system that is actively trying to kill us. Please, do not support ideals and people ─ especially if said people will rule you ─ that go against the environment, that preach that the capital, the money, the posesions, are more important than lives. Of the people, of the animals, of the environment. Fight for a better world, i know there can be one.

Always be aware of the climate in your areas. Things like this won't happen only here. Please be safe.

Sorry for the long post.

If you're interested in donating, @decaf-lesbian made this post with some links for international and national donations.

-> If you're from Brasil, check this link, that has a copilation of maps of risk areas, shelters, places to donate to, etc, made by a UFRGS student.

[probablyasocialecologist]

According to documents obtained by Grist and Type Investigations through a Freedom of Information Act request, the FBI’s Minneapolis office opened a counterterrorism assessment in February 2012, focusing on actions in South Dakota, that continued for at least a year and may have led to the opening of additional investigations. These documents reveal that the FBI was monitoring activists involved in the Keystone XL campaign about a year earlier than previously known.  Their contents suggest that, long before the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines became national flashpoints, the federal government was already developing a sweeping law enforcement strategy to counter any acts of civil disobedience aimed at preventing fossil fuel extraction. And young, Native activists were among its first targets. “The threat emerging … is evolving into one based on opposition to energy exploration related to any extractions from the earth, rather than merely targeting one project and/or one company,” the FBI noted in its description of the Wanblee blockade. The 15-page file, which is heavily redacted, also describes Native American groups as a potentially dangerous threat and likens them to ��environmental extremists” whose actions, according to the FBI, could lead to violence. The FBI acknowledged that Native American groups were engaging in constitutionally protected activity, including attending public hearings, but emphasized that this sort of civic participation might spawn criminal activity.  To back up its claims, the FBI cited a 2011 State Department hearing on the pipeline in Pierre, South Dakota, attended by a small group of Native activists. The FBI said the individuals were dressed in camouflage and had covered their faces with red bandanas, “train robber style.” According to the report, they were also carrying walking sticks and shaking sage, claiming to be “Wounded Knee Security of/for Mother Earth.” “The Bureau is uncertain how the NA group(s) will act initially or subsequently if the project is approved,” the agency wrote.  The FBI also singled out the “Native Youth Movement,” which it described as a mix between a “radical militia and a survivalist group.” In doing so, it appeared to conflate a specific activist group originally founded in Canada in the 1990s with the broader array of young Native activists who opposed the pipeline decades later. Young activists would play an important role in the Keystone XL campaign and later on during protests against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock, but the movement had little in common with militias or survivalists, terms typically used to describe far-right groups or those seeking to disengage from society.  The FBI declined to respond to questions for this story. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the Minneapolis field office said the agency does not typically comment on FOIA releases and “lets the information contained in the files speak for itself.”

[...]

Environmental activists and attorneys who reviewed the new documents told Grist and Type Investigations that law enforcement’s approach to the Keystone XL campaign looked like a template for the increasingly militarized response to subsequent environmental and social justice campaigns — from efforts to block the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock to the ongoing protests against the police training center dubbed “Cop City” in Atlanta, Georgia, which would require razing at least 85 acres of urban forest.  The FBI’s working thesis, outlined in the new documents, that “most environmental extremist groups” have historically moved from peaceful protest to violence has served as the basis for subsequent investigations. “It’s astonishing to me how such a broad concept basically paints every activist and protester as a future terrorist,” said Mike German, a former FBI special agent who is now a fellow at the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Stellantis wants to make scabbing woke

I'm coming to Minneapolis! Oct 15: Presenting The Internet Con at Moon Palace Books. Oct 16: Keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing.

I know, I know, it's weird when the worst people you know are right, even when they're right for the wrong reasons: like, the "Intelligence Community" is genuinely terrible, pharma companies are murderous crooks, and Big Tech really does have a dangerous grip on public debate. The swivel-eyed loons have a point, is what I'm saying:

https://locusmag.com/2023/05/commentary-cory-doctorow-the-swivel-eyed-loons-have-a-point/

When conspiratorialists and reactionaries holler about how the FBI are dirty-tricking creeps who are framing Trump, it's tempting to say, "well, if Trumpists hate the FBI, then I will love the FBI. Who cares about COINTELPRO and what they did to Martin Luther King?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_suicide_letter

It's a process called "schizmogenesis": forming new group identity beliefs based on saying the opposite of what your enemies say, and as tempting as that is, it's extraordinarily foolish and dangerous:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/18/schizmogenesis/

It means that canny reactionaries like Steve Bannon can trick you into taking any position merely by taking the opposite one. Bannon's followers are even more easily led, so it's easy for him to convince them that we have always been at war with Oceania. The right has created an entire mirror world of "I know you are but what am I?" politics.

Anti-vax co-opts "bodily autonomy." Climate denial becomes environmentalism ("wind turbines kill birds"). Transphobia becomes feminism ("keep women-only spaces for real women"). Support for strongmen becomes anti-imperialism ("don't feed the war machine in Ukraine"). These are the doppelgangers Naomi Klein warns us against:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

The far right has even managed to co-opt anti-corporate rhetoric. Culture warriors rail against "woke capitalism," insisting that when big businesses take socially progressive positions, it's just empty "virtue signalling." And you know what? They've got a point. Partially.

As with all mirror-world politics, the anti-woke-capitalism shuck is designed to convince low-information right-wing pismires into buying "anti-woke pillows" and demanding the right to pay junk fees to "own the libs":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping

But woke capitalism is bullshit. Corporations – profit-maximizing immortal transhuman colony organisms that view workers and customers as inconvenient gut-flora – do not care about social justice. They don't care about anything, except for minimizing compensation for workers while maximizing the risk those workers bear; and locking in and gouging customers for products that are as low-quality as can be profitably sold.

Take DEI, a favored target of the right. It's undoubtably true that diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives have made some inroads on correcting bias in hiring decisions, with the result that companies get better employees who would have been excluded without this explicit corrective.

However, corporations don't value DEI because they abhor their history of hiring bias. Instead, DEI is how corporate management demonstrates to workers that their grievances are best addressed by trusting corporate leadership to correct their error of their ways – and not by forming a union.

Before the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, corporations would create fake "Company Unions" whose leadership were beholden to the company executives. These were decoy unions: they looked and sounded like unions, but when they negotiated with management, they were actually working for the bosses, not the workers.

This is more mirror-world tactics. They're the labor equivalent of the "crisis pregnancy centers" that masquerade as abortion clinics in order to fool pregnant people and trap them with endless delays until it's too late to terminate their pregnancies. Company unions get workers to trust in negotiators who are secretly working for the bosses, who emerge from the bargaining table with one-sided, abusive contracts and insist that this is the best deal workers can hope for.

Company unions were outlawed 90 years ago, and for decades, labor had a seat at the table, with wages tracking productivity gains and workers getting protection for discrimination, unsafe labor conditions, and wage-theft. Then came the neoliberal turn, and 40 years of wage stagnation, increased inequality, and corporate rule.

Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. Finally, finally, we have reached a turning point in labor, with public approval for unions at levels not seen since the Carter administration and thousands of strikes and protests breaking out across the country:

https://striketracker.ilr.cornell.edu/

It's not just the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA, either. For the first time in history, the UAW is striking against all the major automakers, and they are winning:

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/10/striking-uaw-workers-win-key-battery-plant-concession-from-general-motors/

The automakers are getting desperate. Stellantis – Chrysler's latest alias, reflecting the company's absorbtion into corporate-human-centipede of global carmakers – has mobilized its DEI programs, trying to get marginalized people to believe that scabbing is a liberatory activity:

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/10/uaw-auto-strike-stellantis/

Stellantis calls each of its DEI silos a "Business Resource Group" (BRG): there's a "Working Parents Network," an "African Ancestry Network," "Asians Connected Together," a "DiverseAbilities Network," a "Gay & Lesbian Alliance" and more:

https://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com/2021/07/20/business-resource-groups-drive-inclusion-and-diversity/

The corporate managers who lead these BRGs have established a scab rotation for each subgroup, calling on members to cross a UAW picket-line at a Michigan Parts Distribution Center run by Stellantis subsidiary Mopar:

Each BRG will pick a specific day of the week/weekend to volunteer as a team. Help continue to be the RESOURCE the BUSINESS can count on! Stellantis needs your help in running the Parts Distribution Centers (PDC) to ensure a steady supply of parts to our customers while negotiations continue. Working Parents Network has identified Friday, October 13 as WPN’s BRG Day at the PDCs!"

Now, these BRGs weren't invented by marginalized workers facing discrimination in the workplace. They come from literal union-busting playbooks produced by giant "union avoidance" firms that charge bosses millions for advice on skirting – or breaking – the law to keep workplace democracy at bay. All the biggest anti-union consultancies love BRGs, from Littler Mendelson to Jackson Lewis. IRI Strategies touts BRGs as a way to "union-proof" a business by absorbing workers' grievances in a decoy committee that will let them feel listened to.

BRGs, in other words, are the Crisis Pregnancy Centers of workplace discrimination. They're a Big Store Con, a company union dressed up as corporate social responsibility.

Now, let's not pretend that unions have a sterling record on race and gender issues. Giant labor organizations like the AFL had to be dragged into racial integration, and trade unions have sometimes been on the wrong side of anti-immigration panics:

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/summer/american-labor-movement.html

But unions have also been the most reliable way for people of color and women to win better workplace treatment. The struggle for racial and gender justice was fought through labor organizing. Remember that MLK's "I've Been To the Mountaintop" speech was given in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis:

https://www.afscme.org/about/history/mlk/mountaintop

Black organizers have always been militant labor organizers. Labor Day commemorates the victory of the long, hard-fought Pullman strike, where Black workers brought one of the most powerful companies in America to its knees:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike

And women have always fought for gender justice through the labor movement: the New York shirtwaist strike is the Ur-example, when women-led unions fought thugs and scabs on icy New York streets:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_shirtwaist_strike_of_1909

It's no surprise that labor activism, anti-racism and feminism go together. Since the earliest days, the labor justice struggle was also a social justice struggle. To learn more check out Kim Kelly's Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fight-Like-Hell/Kim-Kelly/9781982171063

The most exploited, underpaid, and abused workers in America are also the most marginalized (duh).

From nurses:

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/kaiser-healthcare-union-says-week-long-strike-possible-early-next-month-2023-10-09/

To teachers:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-04-18/l-a-teachers-win-21-wage-increase-in-new-lausd-contract

To Amazon warehouse workers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Labor_Union

To publishing assistants:

https://apnews.com/article/harpercollins-union-strike-ends-0a94238718879066d9b21af6266be526

To baristas:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/business/starbucks-union-wages/index.html

To fast-food workers:

https://www.ufcw.org/about/

The vanguard of today's labor surge is Black, brown, female and queer. Without a union, workers who face discrimination are on their own, hoping that their bosses will voluntarily do something about it. Black workers in Tesla's rabidly anti-union shops face vicious racism, from slurs to threats to violence. Without a union, they have to rely on the shifting whims of an Apartheid emerald mine space-Karen for relief, or hope for help from the NLRB or a class-action lawyer:

https://apnews.com/article/tesla-racism-black-lawsuit-class-action-21c88bddf60eca702560be58429495de

The far right isn't wrong when they holler that woke capitalism is bullshit. As with so many of their mirror-world causes, they've got a point, but only a limited one. The problem with woke capitalism is that it's no substitute for a union. The problem with relying on Business Resource Groups to fight racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia is that these struggles are all class struggles, and a BRG is never going to fight against the company that created it.

To understand how bankrupt woke capitalism is, conside this: Stellantis is calling on its "Working Parents Network" to scab this Friday. Stellantis is also being sanctioned by the Department Of Labor for discriminating against nursing mothers – the same "working parents" that the BRG is meant to protect:

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2023/02/08/investigation-finds-stellantis-violated-rights-of-nursing-mothers-at-sterling-heights-plant/

Woke capitalism is just another kind of "predatory inclusion," like Intuit's campaign defending its "Free File" tax-prep scam, where they're claiming that ending this ripoff is racist because it denies Black families the right to be tricked into paying for something they are entitled to get for free:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/27/predatory-inclusion/#equal-opportunity-scammers

When I learned about Intuit's wokewashing, I thought I'd found woke capitalism's rock bottom, but I was wrong. Stellantis's call for woke scabbing is a new low.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/11/equal-opportunity-class-war/#inclusive-scabbing

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[fandomtrumpshate]

FTH 2024: Supported Nonprofit Organizations

Here are the nonprofit organizations that will be supported by this year's FTH auction. Many of these orgs will be familiar from last year's list, but we've cycled in some new groups as well. In particular, because it's a major election year in the US, we've brought in (or brought back) organations focusing on voter enfranchisement.

If you are a FTH creator and you want to ask your bidders to support an organization that’s not on the list, please read our policy on outside organizations here.

Bellingcat *

Bellingcat is an independent investigative collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists brought together by a passion for open source research in the public interest.

Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center *

The Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC) is a nonprofit legal organization that fights for liberation and equity through the lens of intersectional disability justice.

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda *

A national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals, NBWRJA delivers proactive advocacy and policy solutions to address issues at the intersections of race, gender, class, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Life After Hate

LAH provides support to people leaving hate groups, and providing pluralism education and training to vulnerable young people.

Middle East Children's Alliance *

MECA is a nonprofit organization working for the rights and the well-being of children in the Middle East. They collect funds in order to provide direct aid, financial support for community projects, water purification systems, and university scholarships, and also create educational and cultural programs in the US and internationally to increase cultural understanding.

National Network to End Domestic Violence *

NNEDV offers a range of programs and initiatives to address the complex causes and far-reaching consequences of domestic violence.

Never Again Action *

A Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States, NAA takes on campaigns against detention centers and ICE training programs, and organizes mutual aid and deportation defense.

Razom *

Razom initiates short and long-term projects, or collaborates on existing projects with partner organizations, which help Ukraine stay on the path of fostering democracy and prosperity

Sherlock’s Homes Foundation *

SHF provides housing, employment opportunities, and a loving support system for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults so that they can live fearlessly as their authentic selves. Within these homes, young adults learn about responsibility, accountability, financial independence, life skills, and how to love themselves

Spread the Vote

STV helps eligible voters make their voices heard through voter education, supporting voters through the process of getting necessary ID, and advocating against voter suppression laws.

Violence Policy Center *

VPC works to stop gun death and injury through research, education, advocacy, and collaboration; exposes the profit-driven marketing and lobbying activities of the firearms industry and gun lobby, and offers unique technical expertise to policymakers, organizations, and advocates.

VoteRiders

VR works to help all citizens exercise their right to vote. It informs and helps citizens to secure their voter ID as well as inspires and supports organizations, local volunteers, and communities to sustain voter ID education and assistance efforts.

Umbrella: Environmental orgs

For the past four years, FTH has supported one “umbrella” cause: we invite participants to donate to their own local grassroots organization, while also suggesting a handful of exemplary organizations working in communities where the need is especially acute. This year our umbrella category is environmental organizations.

Pollinator Partnership *

Deploy/Us *

Together Bay Area

Wildlands Restoration Volunteers

Coral Restoration Foundation *

++

Organizations marked with an asterisk (*) allow for international donations directly through their websites. The orgs without asterisks may take international donations through a paypal or venmo account. If you are a non-US-based bidder/donor and you are having trouble finding an organization to which you can donate, please email us directly at fandomtrumpshate @ gmail . com.

[sotomato06]

Leaving the US?

Following the events of last night, its likely a lot of you want to leave the United States. I don't blame you and can't say I haven't entertained the same thoughts. So I complied this list of the easiest countries to move to from the United States, and the pros and cons of each nation

Mexico

Mexico is close to the United States, not requiring a flight to get there (though it is recommended if within your price range) The nation allows residency of US citizens for up to 180 days without a visa or permit, allowing plenty of time to apply for the temporary residency visa which is normally valid for 4-5 years. After 5 years of residency, you can apply for permanent citizenship. https://consulmex.sre.gob.mx/leamington/index.php/non-mexicans/visas/115-temporary-resident-visa

Mexico has a much lower cost of living than the USA, with the average Mexican spending around $1000 usd or MEX$20151.55 mxn. Jobs do pay lower, but the cost of living still works out lower than in the United States and the work environment in Mexico is known to be more healthy. Along with the great weather (and food) Mexico is a good choice for Americans trying to escape the country.

 Claudia Sheinbaum, the current president of Mexico was recently sworn in and is a strong advocate for women's rights. She has fought for Abortion rights in Mexico, along with other reproductive rights. She is also a Champion of LGBTQ+ rights and has been fighting to help queer people in Mexico for the majority of her career. She is expanding Mexican welfare and is an environmental advocate. Same-Sex Marriage has been fully legal in Mexico since 2021 and Abortion is not criminalized and preformed in almost all Mexican states. For more information, I suggest the Wikipedia article on Abortion in Mexico, as it is a complicated subject. Although currently, it is ranked around the same as the USA on access across the whole country, Mexican Abortion legislation is moving in the opposite direction to the United State's, as according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, once all of the Mexican states properly reform their laws to comply with the 2023 court ruling, Mexico will be a rank one on Abortion laws, or Abortion available everywhere on request which is expected to be soon. Changing one's legal name and gender is protected under Mexican laws, and the majority of states have anti discrimination laws in place. One state even allows one to change their gender to something other than male or female, recognizing non-binary identities legally.

Portugal

Portugal is a good option for those who have funds to put into leaving. Portugal offers a program for a Golden Visa which can be obtained through owning a certain amount of real estate although there are other ways. This Visa offers the chance at citizenship after holding for only 5 years. https://getgoldenvisa.com/portugal-golden-visa-program

Portugal offers a lot of benefits for retirees as well, so if your grandma also wants to flee the country, Portugal may be the country for her. The weather is good and it is known to be incredibly peaceful and pretty.

Portugal is also in the European Union, meaning citizenship here also means EU citizenship and access to the whole Schengen Zone, allowing a lot of opportunity for education and location, as you don't have to obtain another citizenship to move to another EU nation. Abortion is legal in Portugal as is Same-Sex Marriage and both are protected under the laws of the EU. Trans rights are also protected and a trans person is allowed to change their legal gender without a medical diagnosis.

Ecuador

Ecuador is another option that is good if you aren't looking to leave the Americas. Ecuador allows visa free residency for up to 90 days and grant Permanent resident visas after only 21 months of living with a temporary visa. There are many temporary visa options including an investment one similar to Portugal's and a retiree option. Another option would be the Professional Visa, although that one is more likely to be granted if you have a job lined up and a university degree, it is the only one that does not require a lot of money. Get in touch with an Ecuador embassy here https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/consularnotification/ConsularNotificationandAccess/Ecuador.html

Ecuador also has a lower cost of living compared to the United States and the English language and dollar are often used in the country. The weather in Ecuador is an incredibly good feature of the nation as well.

Ecuador does not allow abortion upon request, but they do allow it to save the life of the mother or for other extreme cases involving rape. There are multiple organizations working to change this however and extend these rights to be more like those of Mexico or Argentina. Same-Sex marriage is protected in Ecuador as of 2019 and transgender people are able to change their legal gender without needing to go through gender affirming surgery.

Spain

Spain has an education based program where citizens of Canada and the United States are granted temporary visa's to come and teach English in the nation. You are compensated and only expected to work for 12-16 hours a week. Under this visa, you can find other work and apply for a more permanent professional Visa, which only have to be renewed every few years and leads you on the path to permanent residency. https://www.educacionfpydeportes.gob.es/eeuu/convocatorias-programas/convocatorias-eeuu/nalcap.html

Spain is also a member of the EU and residency here allows access to the Schengen zone of Europe as well. Spain has abortion on request up to 14 weeks and allows emergency abortions when the mother's life could be at risk even after that. Spain also allows same-sex marriage and has trans protection laws in place, with somebody over 16 allowed to change their legal gender, no parent, judge or doctor involved. Spain also has a very relaxed work culture with the maximum allowed work hours a week being 40 and the average worked being 36.

South Korea

South Korea has a very similar program to Spain, where you can live there for up to a year and teach English, although the South Korean program often requires a bachelors degree. Following the stay with the temporary teaching visa, you could apply for a more permanent option. A "resident visa" in South Korea is typically referred to as an "F-5 visa", which signifies a permanent residency permit, allowing foreigners to live and work in the country indefinitely; to qualify, you must meet certain criteria like significant investment in a Korean business, marriage to a Korean citizen, or a long-term stay with exceptional skills in a specific field.  https://www.internations.org/south-korea-expats/guide/visas-work-permits

As of 2021, Abortion is fully legal in the nation and is available upon request, although due to the nature in which it was legalized it is a bit iffy. I would recommend reading further into it. However, although Homosexuality is not criminalized in the country, South Korea has no official recognition of any sort of Marriage or civil unions between same-sex couples and they often face discrimination. So if you are in a same sex relationship, South Korea may not be the place for you.

Australia

Australia is one of the easiest nations for Americans to live in under a temporary Visa, as they have a program called the working holiday program and you can live there up to 3 years under it. However, this program does not lead to permanent residency and you would have to apply for another visa, either a work or family, to move there permanently. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/permanent-resident

Australia allows abortion up to 23 weeks upon request, although specifics do vary between states. Queer rights in Australia rank among the highest in the world, as marriage has been fully legalized since 2017 and they are also a world leader in trans rights. All Australian states allow the changing of one's gender legally and support gender affirming care. Non-discriminations laws are also present in all the states.

Canada

Canada allows American citizens to stay in their country for up to 6 months visa free, although they are not allowed to work without any sort of visa. The easiest way to gain Canadian residency is though the express visa system. This immigration program targets skilled workers than can contribute to three economic fields in Canada. Canadian citizenship is available after five years of residency. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/works.html

Cost of living in Canada is slightly higher than in the US, but the benefits are greater with more affordable education and universal healthcare.

Canada is known as one of the best nations for LGBTQ+ people. It was the third nation in the world to legalize same sex marriage. Since June 2017, all places within Canada explicitly within the Canadian Human Rights Act, equal opportunity and/or anti-discrimination legislation prohibit discrimination against gender identity or gender identity or expression. This includes trans rights, who are protected under Canadian law. Abortion is publicly funded and available throughout the entire nation in Canada.

If you live in a red state and aren't interested in leaving the country, but don't want to stay where you are, here's some stats that may help make your decision on where to move to;

States with no abolition ban:

Washington DC, New Jersey, Maryland, Oregon, Vermont, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, Alaska

Best states for LGBTQ+ individuals:

New York, Oregon, Minnesota, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Washington DC

Hope this helps whoever may need it.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Yale Climate Connections:

September 2024 was Earth’s second-warmest September on record behind September 0f 2023, said the  European Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Data for September from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and from NASA are not yet available, since NCEI’s headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina, was severely impacted by Hurricane Helene on Sep. 27. Helene is being blamed for 247 deaths, making it the fourth-deadliest U.S. hurricane since at least 1963. Human-caused climate change increased the hurricane’s rainfall in the Asheville region by around 10%, making what used to be a 1-in-115-year event now a 1-in-70-year event, said the World Weather Attribution group.

Satellite-measured temperatures of the planet’s lower atmosphere (the lowest few miles) were the warmest on record globally for any September.

According to climatologist Brian Brettschneider, September 2024 was the second-warmest September on record for the contiguous U.S., behind September 1998. September was also a month of precipitation extremes, with catastrophic flooding in parts of the Southeast from Hurricane Helene, and exceptional dryness in the northern Plains and Great Lakes. The nationwide extent of severe drought is not yet especially large, but just over 75% of the contiguous U.S. reported at least some level of abnormal dryness (D0–D4 on the U.S. Drought Monitor). This is the highest percentage in nearly two years, since December 2022, and it is not far off the record high of 76.16% in data going back to 2000.

[gardenvarietygay]

What to do now

Or how I stopped weeping and learned to love my community

I hate to remind everyone but the Trump administration will soon be in power. Don't bank on his platform only being campaign promises or rhetoric. Here's what you can do now to prepare for January and the years ahead.

This list is very incomplete, please add more information and organizations if you know of other issues that could use increased attention.

Healthcare:

Medicaid may soon be reduced or eliminated for many people. If you may soon become uninsured please visit a healthcare provider as soon as possible. If you are unsure of whether you are up-to-date on your vaccines, screenings, etc. call or visit your healthcare provider.

If you are uninsured, you can still receive healthcare at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). FQHCs can vary from area to area but always offer a sliding fee scale, meaning that what you pay for healthcare will be determined by your ability to pay. You can find a FQHC near your using this tool. Find a clinic or healthcare provider that will work for you now, before the administration changes. Heads up that if you live in a small town or a rural area, your FQHC will likely be in the nearest big town, all the more reason to figure out your plans now including transportation. (If you don't have a hospital in your town, your FQHC is likely in the nearest town with a hospital)

If you have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, the Ryan White Program is a federal program that provides HIV treatment to low-income patients. Find a program near you using this tool. Find the state hotline to call for help here. You can also visit your local AIDS project by searching "[name of state] AIDS project." Planned Parenthood and other sexual health centers can provide care, find clinics near you using this tool.

If you are capable of becoming pregnant, find an abortion fund here. I hesitate to give more specific advice on this post, the link will provide additional information. I know it's scary right now but please use legal, science-backed methods of abortion. We are not yet to the point where it is necessary to induce abortion using herbal remedies or other methods, many herbal abortifacients are dangerous to the life of the pregnant person.

Become involved with any and all of the above organizations. Donate, volunteer, spread the word. Most of these programs rely on a combination of federal funding and public support. It is likely that federal funding will be reduced or disappear under the incoming administration.

If you or a loved one are or will soon be eligible for medicare please be aware that traditional medicare and medicare advantage are two very different services. Traditional Medicare is the program which most Americans expect to receive when they turn 65. It is administered through the federal government. Medicare Advantage is a health insurance program provided through private insurance companies. For most patients, the care they receive will be better through Traditional Medicare. It is likely that the information on this issue will become less reliable from the government.

The Center for Disease Control is the main federal agency which provides guidance for public health, including vaccines for children. It will likely be weakened or otherwise prevented from making public health recommendations. Your primary care provider will still be aware of vaccine schedules and able to vaccinate but the burden may fall on you to ask for vaccines. Get in the habit of asking for information on the latest vaccines at every visit.

Environment:

We will need environmental orgs to fight new policies, sue the government, and stall at every turn. Donate to your favorite environmental nonprofit. None of them are perfect, many of them are effective. Find out more here.

Become involved at the local level. Join a local chapter of a national group or a local organization. Visit parks and conservation areas around you, pay attention to any signage that has the names of local organizations that help to maintain that area and join them. If you see "adopt a stream" or "adopt a highway" signs, call to see what the responsibilities for that program are and if you are able to help. In my area, you organize a group of people and call a phone number to register. The requirements are that you adopt the stream for one year and clean it at least twice for about two hours, then they put a sign up that says you've adopted it. They provide trash bags, reflective vests, gloves, hand sanitizer, and trash grabbers.

Obviously, cleaning up litter from a creek or helping maintain a public park doesn't fight climate change or prevent strip mining. Those are problems that require big solutions from well-funded organizations. Those problems are the reasons you donate to organizations like the Sierra Club. You protest and disrupt big projects with organizations like the Indigenous Environmental Network who helped to organize the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016-17.

However, cleaning up litter from one creek does mean that there's one less creek that's clogged with litter. That's one more area that can better support wildlife, help prevent flooding, and connect vital habitat areas that are otherwise fragmented. The organizations that lobby, sue, and stall cannot spend their resources on local environmental projects just like you cannot individually prevent the government from leaving the Paris Agreement.

If you have access to any outdoor area where you can grow plants, you should be planting native species. A balcony, a window box, a patio, even a single flowerpot will make a difference to pollinators and wild birds. Use this tool from the National Wildlife Federation to find native plants which support the greatest number of insects in your area. Insects are a vital link in the food chain, particularly for wild birds whose numbers are in shocking decline. Learn more about planting with natives here. A directory of native plant nurseries can be found here. Native plants can also be purchased from the NWF through its Garden for Wildlife shop.

Humanitarian Issues:

The National Alliance to End Homelessness works with providers and lawmakers to end homelessness with a housing-first approach. They have resources to educate yourself on becoming a better advocate for people experiencing homelessness including things as simple as contacting your representatives.

Get involved with local LGBTQ+ centers. Local LGBTQ+ centers are not always members of national organizations so it can be difficult to find them through a central database. However, you can find an on-campus LGBTQ+ center through a university which may be able to help you directly or point you toward organizations which can help. LGBTQ+ centers frequently have resources for finding queer-friendly healthcare, business to work for, advocacy organizations, and more.

Please keep the people of Gaza and all of Palestine in your thoughts as we fight for change at home. The Middle East Children's Alliance is providing food, clean water, medical and psychological care to families in Gaza. Please donate to them if you can.

Likewise remember the struggle in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Goma Actif provide medical care, food, and water for displaced Congolese. Please donate here. (Text of the fundraiser is written in French first, scroll down to find the English translation further down the page.)

This is just what I've been able to come up with so far. Please add any ideas for actions that support yourself or your community.

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

"The paper also indicates that these record-breaking SSTs were extremely strong marine heatwaves (MHWs). The MHWs were so powerful that the authors came up with a new term for them: #SuperMarineHeatwaves." @NOAA

[clementine-kesh]

HEY GAMERS!! do you enjoy top down strategy games that integrate real world physics? working collaboratively to solve complex optimization problems? tile-based gameplay? well then do i have the videogame for you!!

let me introduce you to the COMMUNITY EARTH SYSTEM MODEL

created by the united states national center for atmospheric research, the community earth system model (or cesm as it’s known to fans) uses a combination of physical equations and statistical parameterizations to simulate water, energy, and biogeochemical fluxes within and between different components of the earth system. the goal is to get the model to align as closely as possible to the real world earth system state. check out these cool concept diagrams to get an idea of how it works!

wow, this sounds awesome! what’s gameplay like?

glad you asked! in cesm there are unlimited ways to play. one popular gameplay mode is called a “parameter perturbed experiment”. try adjusting model parameters such as the consumption rate of convective available potential energy and relative humidity threshold for low cloud formation to determine which parameter values get you outputs closest to real world observations! atmospheric physics not your thing? not to worry! cesm has something for everyone: from ecology to oceanography to physical geography, you’ll be sure to find something you like!

how do i get into cesm?

typically at least bachelors degree in the natural sciences is required. if you don’t have yours yet you can reach out to your local university and enroll today!

sign me up! what are some other cool things about cesm?

the cesm community takes part in something called a “model intercomparison project”, which is basically like one big smash tournament except with earth system models. compete against other models from across the globe to see whose performs the best!

cesm is a crucial tool for understanding our planet and its outputs provide incredibly important information for enabling us to anticipate and respond to environmental challenges. so next time you’re bored and don’t know what to play, how about giving the ol’ community earth system model a try?

[tomorrowusa]

13 months in a row of record high temperatures for Planet Earth.

June 2024 was Earth’s warmest June since global record-keeping began in 1850 and was the planet’s 13th consecutive warmest month on record, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, or NCEI, reported July 12. As opposed to being focused in one region or another, the record heat was unusually widespread, with 14.5% of the world’s surface experiencing record heat �� beating the previous June record set in 2023 by 7.4%. NASA placed June at 1.44 degrees Celsius (2.59 °F) above the 1880-1899 period, its best estimate for when preindustrial temperatures last occurred. This beat the previous June record (from 2023) by an impressive 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 °F). The European Copernicus Climate Change Service also rated June 2024 as the warmest June on record and said that the global average temperature for the past 12 months (July 2023-June 2024) was the highest on record for any 12-month period, 1.64 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 preindustrial average.  Land areas had their warmest June on record in 2024, according to NOAA, and for the 15th consecutive month, global ocean temperatures were the warmest on record. The recent record heat in the oceans has brought on a global coral bleaching event, the fourth one in recorded history (1998, 2010, 2014-17, and now 2024). It was the warmest June on record for Africa, Asia, and South America, second-warmest for Europe, fourth-warmest for North America, and 25th-warmest for Oceania.

We should worry about those record high temperatures in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Warm seas act as accelerants for the formation and fueling of hurricanes.

Egypt set a new all time record temperature for heat in June.

Assuan (Egypt) max. 50.9°C, June 7: New national record high for Egypt

50.9° C = 123.62° F. Assuan (أسوان) is also transliterated as Aswan.

The situation will never improve if we do nothing to keep climate deniers from getting elected.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Allison Fisher at MMFA:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency that predicts changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coastlines and provides data that informs lifesaving forecasts such as tracking hurricanes, is in the crosshairs of Project 2025, the conservative battle plan for a potential second Trump presidency which describes NOAA as a “colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.” But researchers have pushed back on these charges and defended NOAA’s climate data and meteorological work — while forecasters are predicting an “extremely active” Atlantic hurricane season and experts say this summer could rival last year’s record heat. Project 2025’s call to dismantle NOAA by eliminating or privatizing key functions of the agency is the endgame of years of attempts by conservatives and right-wing media to attack the credibility of the agency and the veracity of the data it produces. It also illustrates that the conservative plan is not just to dismantle U.S. climate policy, but also to scrub the climate data that underpins it.

Project 2025’s chapter attacking NOAA was penned by Thomas Gilman, a former Trump Commerce Department official who recommends that the agency “should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories.” Among other recommendations for how NOAA “should be broken up and downsized,” Gilman’s chapter for Project 2025 calls for the National Weather Service to “fully commercialize its forecasting operations”; demands that research from the National Hurricane Center and the National Environmental Satellite Service be reviewed to ensure it is “presented neutrally, without adjustments intended to support any one side in the climate debate”; and suggests the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research “should be disbanded” as “the source of much of NOAA’s climate alarmism.” [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023]

Experts say Project 2025’s cuts to NOAA could have devastating impacts on climate research and weather forecasting. E&E News notes: “The National Hurricane Center’s mission is centered on informing and warning the public about potentially deadly storms, and as part of that work, it has connected the effects of climate change to hurricane intensity. The brushback it gets in the Project 2025 playbook speaks to past insinuations from Republicans that government agencies are manipulating data to make climate change appear worse.” Speaking to The Guardian, former NOAA official Andrew Rosenberg said the agency “basically reports the science as the scientific evidence accumulates and has been quite cautious about reporting climate effects,” adding, “It’s not pushing some agenda.” And meteorologist Chris Gloninger said Project 2025’s recommendations are “a sign that the far right has ‘no interest in climate truth.’” [E&E News, 4/10/24; The Guardian, 4/26/24]

Project 2025 has plans that would adversely affect weather gathering operations if Convicted Felon Donald Trump gets back in again.