Category: Flotsam-and-Jetsam

Greenland’s ice shelves hold back sea level rise. There are just 5 left.

The vast floating ice platforms of northern Greenland, unrivaled features of the northern hemisphere that keep our seas lower by holding back many trillion tons of ice, are in stark decline, according to new scientific research published Tuesday.

These northern Greenland ice shelves, as they are called, have lost 35 percent of their overall volume since 1978, the research published in “Nature Communications” found. That’s equivalent to a loss of roughly 400 billion tons of floating ice that acted like the stopper of a decanter, preventing glaciers from flowing into the sea and accelerating sea level rise.

And now there are only five large shelves left, stretching out from their fjords toward the Greenland Sea and the Arctic Ocean. That includes three major ones — Petermann, Ryder and Nioghalvfjerdsbrae (often referred to as 79 North for its location in degrees Latitude) — whose respective glaciers could ultimately account for 3.6 feet of sea level rise if they were to melt entirely — a process that would take centuries to play out.

LINK: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/07/northern-greenland-ice-shelves-decline/

This year ‘virtually certain’ to be warmest in 125,000 years, EU scientists say

This year is "virtually certain" to be the warmest in 125,000 years, European Union scientists said on Wednesday

This year is “virtually certain” to be the warmest in 125,000 years, European Union scientists said on Wednesday, after data showed last month was the world’s hottest October in that period.

Last month smashed through the previous October temperature record, from 2019, by a massive margin, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said.

“The record was broken by 0.4 degrees Celsius, which is a huge margin,” said C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess, who described the October temperature anomaly as “very extreme”.

The heat is a result of continued greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, combined with the emergence this year of the El Nino weather pattern, which warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Globally, the average surface air temperature in October was 1.7 degrees Celsius warmer than the same month in 1850-1900, which Copernicus defines as the pre-industrial period.

The record-breaking October means 2023 is now “virtually certain” to be the warmest year recorded, C3S said in a statement. The previous record was 2016 – another El Nino year.

Copernicus’ dataset goes back to 1940. “When we combine our data with the IPCC, then we can say that this is the warmest year for the last 125,000 years,” Burgess said.

LINK: https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/this-year-virtually-certain-be-warmest-125000-years-eu-scientists-say-2023-11-08/

Leaked Nashville shooter manifesto shows motivation behind attack: ‘Kill all you little f******’

https://twitter.com/scrowder/status/1721545965402726734

https://twitter.com/scrowder/status/1721545965402726734

Portions of the manifesto belonging to Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale are circulating social media after months of debate regarding its release.

Steven Crowder, the host of the Louder with Crowder talk show, shared leaked images from the manifesto Monday morning. The pages released by Crowder allegedly reveal the intentions behind Hale’s deadly attack.

Wanna kill all you little c*******,” one page from the manifesto reads. “Bunch of little f****** w/ your white privlages f*** you f******.”

The National Desk has verified the authenticity of the leaked images through its Nashville affiliate, FOX 17 News.

 

https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/leaked-nashville-shooter-manifesto-shows-motivation-behind-attack-kill-all-you-little-f-audrey-hale-aiden-covenant-school-march-schooting-louder-with-crowder

a massive collection of prehistoric rock art spanning over 8 miles within the Serra da Capivara mountains

Haunting Sounds Made by World’s Largest Living Thing Recorded

We can now hear one of the largest and most ancient living organisms on Earth whisper with the tremble of a million leaves echoing through its roots. The forest made of a single tree known as Pando ("I spread" in Latin) has 47,000 stems (all with the same DNA) sprouting from a shared root system over 100 acres (40 hectares) of Utah. Here, this lone male quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) gradually grew into a massive 6,000 metric tons of life. After possibly 12,000 years of life on Earth, this massive plant, whose tree-like stems tower up to 24 meters (80 feet), surely has plenty to say. And recordings released this year let us 'hear' it like never before. "The findings are tantalizing," Lance Oditt, founder of Friends of Pando, said when the project was unveiled in May.

We can now hear one of the largest and most ancient living organisms on Earth whisper with the tremble of a million leaves echoing through its roots.

The forest made of a single tree known as Pando (“I spread” in Latin) has 47,000 stems (all with the same DNA) sprouting from a shared root system over 100 acres (40 hectares) of Utah. Here, this lone male quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) gradually grew into a massive 6,000 metric tons of life.

After possibly 12,000 years of life on Earth, this massive plant, whose tree-like stems tower up to 24 meters (80 feet), surely has plenty to say. And recordings released this year let us ‘hear’ it like never before.

“The findings are tantalizing,” Lance Oditt, founder of Friends of Pando, said when the project was unveiled in May.

LINK: https://www.sciencealert.com/haunting-sounds-made-by-worlds-largest-living-thing-recorded

Austin Osman Spare – occultist, avant-gardist and ‘Britain’s first pop artist’

The London painter’s works have become spookily popular of late

Austin Osman Spare – occultist, avant-gardist and ‘Britain’s first pop artist’
Austin Osman Spare at work in his Brixton studio in November 1947 © Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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https://www.ft.com/content/f8ecb986-f1b5-4df0-9c59-0f2aa2b5fd9e

Collectors of the work of early 20th-century English artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare have, up until now, been of a type. Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin has a notable number of paintings, as did the late Genesis P-Orridge – founder of industrial sound provocateurs Throbbing Gristle. In his memoir, Orridge describes an acquaintance shaking and shouting: “Those paintings, cover them, they’re alive!” One particular work, The Ides, depicting two aggressive-looking self-portraits of Spare flanked by Romanian prostitutes, was turned to face the wall. Months later, after touring overseas, Orridge returned to discover house-sitters had turned the painting around and vanished, leaving rooms splattered with red paint. Spooked, Orridge sold the painting to Chris Stein of Blondie.

LINK: https://www.ft.com/content/f8ecb986-f1b5-4df0-9c59-0f2aa2b5fd9e

Living in the Time of Dying – Watch Full Documentary

Living in The Time of Dying is an unflinching look at what it means to be living in the midst of climate catastrophe and finding purpose and meaning within it. Recognising the magnitude of the climate crisis we are facing, independent filmmaker Michael Shaw, sells his house to travel around the world looking for answers. Pretty soon we begin to see how deep the predicament goes along with the systems and ways of thinking that brought us here.

Think this summer was bad? It might be the best one you and I will ever see

The calamitous summer of 2023 was an oasis of tranquility, compared to what’s coming

A Greek flag flutters in the wind during a wildfire in Chasia in the outskirts of Athens on August 22, 2023. (ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP via Getty Images)
A Greek flag flutters in the wind during a wildfire in Chasia in the outskirts of Athens on August 22, 2023. (ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP via Getty Images)

This year we saw the hottest July ever recorded, and the same was true again in August. In fact, 2023 is on track to be the hottest year so far recorded, breaking the record set by 2020 and 2016. Over the past few months, more than 6,500 daily heat records have been broken in the U.S. alone, and in some places the roads became so hot that people suffered serious burns from falling on them. Terrible floods have ripped through China, Spain, Greece and elsewhere. Wildfires raged in Canada, the Canary Islands, Maui and parts of Europe. A tropical storm hit Los Angeles, the first in living memory. Wind speeds of Hurricane Lee, in the Atlantic Ocean, increased from 80 mph to 165 mph in roughly 24 hours.

The climate catastrophe is already here. We’ve been watching it unfold in real time on the news and over social media. Some have witnessed it first-hand, losing their homes, being forced to evacuate under emergency conditions and even losing their lives or the lives of friends and family. For those sensitive to human suffering and the grave injustices driving the climate crisis, this summer has been difficult to deal with. It’s been one extreme weather event, one shattered record, one shocking tragedy after another — and though the summer is now officially over, there’s more to come.

LINK: https://www.salon.com/2023/09/23/think-this-summer-was-bad-it-might-be-the-best-one-you-and-i-will-ever-see/

“Biological Annihilation” – Stanford Scientists Discover Human-Driven Mass Extinction Is “Mutilating” the Tree of Life

Human actions have precipitated a significant acceleration in the extinction of vertebrate animal species, causing not only species but entire genera to vanish, dramatically affecting the planet’s biodiversity. This rapid loss, dubbed “biological annihilation” by scientists, has severe repercussions for human life, ecosystems, and potential medical insights, urging an urgent and large-scale response.
Human actions have precipitated a significant acceleration in the extinction of vertebrate animal species, causing not only species but entire genera to vanish, dramatically affecting the planet’s biodiversity. This rapid loss, dubbed “biological annihilation” by scientists, has severe repercussions for human life, ecosystems, and potential medical insights, urging an urgent and large-scale response.

The passenger pigeon, the Tasmanian tiger, and the Baiji (Yangtze river dolphin) are among the most recognized casualties of what many experts refer to as the sixth mass extinction. This is a consequence of human activities leading to the vanishing of vertebrate animal species at rates hundreds of times faster than their natural pace of extinction.

However, a new study conducted by Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that the crisis may run even deeper. Each of the three species above was also the last member of its genus, the higher category into which taxonomists sort species. And they aren’t alone.

LINK: https://scitechdaily.com/biological-annihilation-stanford-scientists-discover-human-driven-mass-extinction-is-mutilating-the-tree-of-life/

Addicted to Cool

How the dream of air conditioning turned into the dark future of climate change

Addicted to Cool

In 2023, Jeep rolled out a new edition of its popular four-wheel-drive SUV. For the first time since the company introduced the car in 1986, air conditioning wasn’t an option, it was a must. This appears to be the end of an era: “The last car in the U.S. without standard air conditioning,” read the headline of an article in the automotive press, “finally gives up the fight against refrigerant.”

LINK: https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/of-interest/interactive/2023/air-conditioning-climate-change/