Climate Stories 3rd May 2024
A weekly(ish) round-up of climate stories from around. The climate crisis isn’t going away, it is happening all around us.
The vast ravines swallowing whole neighbourhoods around the world
The climate changes all the time, say the deniers. That’s true. The earth changes too. But now, because more CO2 in the atmosphere is changing the climate, weather becomes more extreme and the effects it causes become more extreme. Having the ground you stand on, fall away beneath your feet is pretty extreme.
Bangladesh reels under longest-ever hot spell
“The ongoing heat condition continued for 27 days on Friday, the longest spell of heat Bangladesh has ever recorded since the country began keeping records in 1948”. It’s the consistency of these stories that catches my attention. Hotter and hotter, year on year.
Water extraction and weight of buildings see half of China’s cities sink
The climate and ecological crisis is not simply caused by burning coal and oil. Human beings have engaged in a massive attack on the Earth. Digging, clearing, extracting, burning, and building all wreck natural ecologies, change the climate, pollute and disrupt. This is what is being discovered in China as their rapid urbanisation begins to crack.
China fears climate change impacts after highway collapses due to torrential rains
Another story from China and a further reminder that the world we have invested so much effort and resources in building is no match for the new climate reality.
‘Blame the government’: Kenyans bemoan lack of support amid record flooding
Likewise, institutions and governments are woefully unprepared for a changed world. Politics is currently focused on gaining and retaining power. That kind of politics is useless in the face of an unfolding catastrophe. How long before the majority of the people realise that?
Rains, mudslides kill 29 in southern Brazil’s ‘worst disaster’
Asia, Africa and South America. The effects of the global climate and ecological crisis are, global. This is with temperatures around 1.3 degrees above the pre-industrial benchmark. The Paris Accord seeks to keep temperatures at more or less this level which is already causing chaos. But greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise …
