Thursday 31st of July 2025
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stupidity, lies, bombs and bombast of "leaders"....

As the nations bicker, squabble and fight among themselves, their ultimate disintegration becomes more certain and more imminent with each passing day.

Enthralled by the spectacle of leaders of paralysing stupidity disgorging lies, bombs and bombast ad lib, many people seem to have forgotten or chosen to overlook the real monster that is creeping up behind them, sharpening its claws to bring down the entire civilisation.

 

Julian Cribb

A distracted world marches steadily towards catastrophe

 

In a new paper “Indicators of Global Climate Change 2024”, 50 of the world’s leading climate scientists warn that human climate emissions are achieving records, dumping 56 billion tonnes (+/-5bt) of greenhouse gases (CO2 equivalent) into the atmosphere in 2024.

Here are a few of their key points:

  • Fossil fuels and industry contributed 38bt of greenhouse emissions in 2024;
  • Land use changes (eg deforestation) caused 4bt in emissions (+/- 3bt) in 2024;
  • Methane release contributed 9bt (+/-3bt) in 2023, much of it attributed to forest fires, drying wetlands and melting tundra;
  • NO2 contributed 3bt;
  • Fluorinated gases contributed 2bt;
  • There are 52 different gases known to cause global heating which are now mixing into the atmosphere; and
  • Collectively these man-made sources now add 2.97 watts of heat energy to every square metre of the Earth’s surface. This creates an Earth Energy Imbalance of about 1 watt per square metre, which is what drives global heating and climate perturbation.

In 2023, the scientists say, average global temperatures hit a record 1.44 degrees above their pre-industrial (1850) level. Last year they set a record of 1.52 degrees. These high temperatures were a result of human-caused warming combined with natural events such as El Nino.

While warming overall continues to set records each year, the encouraging news is that the rate of warming appears to be easing, the researchers add.

However, the grim news is that the Earth’s remaining carbon budget, to keep average temperatures at or below +1.5 degrees Celsius — the Paris target — is only 130 billion tonnes. At our present rates of emissions, that could be gobbled up by 2028. Even allowing for natural fluctuations in the planet’s climate, the target will be dead and gone by 2030, the scientists warn. More seriously, land temperatures — always hotter than global temperatures — will be close to +2 degrees.

Since 2019, global sea levels have risen by 26mm — about an inch — due to land ice melting and thermal expansion. The rate is accelerating. It may not sound much, but, by the end of the century, the seas would have risen by between 0.5 and 1.9 metres, displacing anything from 200 million to half a billion people and inundating 136 major cities.

Searing heat, hurricanes, droughts and flooding coastlines will create havoc with a world food supply already on a knife-edge due to acute water scarcity, devastating loss of topsoil, ecosystem decline and the spread of toxic chemicals. In a climate-menaced world, simultaneous crop failures in several of the Earth’s main breadbaskets are now seen as unavoidable. Because the food chain is global, this means every person on Earth now faces food scarcity and/or soaring prices when the crisis hits. History shows that one of the first things people do en masse when starving is tear down their governments.

Underlying this ruin is the selfishness of nations, each focused on its own perceived wants and needs at the expense of all, led by psychopathically-damaged, male-dominated regimes. Leaders such as Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman, Khamenei are committed — whether they grasp it or not — to the ultimate destruction of their own people by ruining the Earth’s ability to support them.

Regardless of what people choose to believe, nations are only a temporary phase in human affairs, a temporary form of self-organisation that is past its use-by date. Emerging only since the Napoleonic wars nations are a form of ultra-tribalism that pits ever-larger groups of humans against another without regard to the universal consequences. Nationalism, patriotism and their tawdry symbols are the justification for slaughter on a global scale in wars that have, since the 1850s, claimed more than 200 million lives. Nations are entities that, as a rule, place their own immediate wishes above the good of humanity, to the detriment of all.

The pathological character of modern political leadership — its lust for conquest, self-aggrandisement and dominion at the expense of human life — has side-tracked the world’s attention from the issues which genuinely affect our common future and which require global solutions. It has diverted us from our own survival, as a civilisation – and maybe as a species. The media, the commentariat, the political machinery, the technology explosion and global corporate greed feed this lust for distraction daily, contributing to a humanity, as Darwin might have described it, “less fit to survive”.

Many great thinkers have recognised that, unless we agree to work together globally, humans will not last. Innumerable organisations have been founded to try to achieve a common human purpose. All have so far failed – in the face of the overwhelming urge for diversion to the petty spites and ambitions of the nations.

Only when humans decide to act together, as a single species on one planet, will our chances of survival begin to improve. The Earth System Treaty offers one pathway to this. The Earth Charter is another and the Sustainable Development Goals a third. The Planetary Boundaries explain just how close to self-destruction we truly are – and how rapidly we are approaching it.

There are solutions aplenty to our plight. But they are not on the agenda of the ruling elites of most nations or corporations, who care only for themselves and the short term. These are the true foes of humanity. The ones who will sacrifice all our children, theirs included, to gratify their own immediate lust for power.

The Earth’s surface area is about 510 trillion square metres. That indicates how much surplus heat the planet is now trapping.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/06/a-distracted-world-marches-steadily-towards-catastrophe/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

AS EXPOSED ON THIS SITE SOMEWHERE, 1996 WAS THE YEAR TO ACHIEVE "NET ZERO" TO LIMIT THE DAMAGE DONE TO THE BIOSPHERE BY 2100... DUE TO THE ELASTICITY BETWEEN CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL GLOBAL WARMING, WE'VE RELEASED ENOUGH WARMING GASES TO LIFT THE TEMPERATURE  BY 6 DEGREES CELSIUS MINIMUM BY 2150.... CONSIDERING WE STILL READ AND PERFORM SHAKESPEARE (DEAD FOR SOMETHING LIKE 400 YEARS), 2150 WILL COME IN A JIFFY.... TRYING TO ACHIEVE NET ZERO BY 2050 WILL LIMIT THE DAMAGE DONE, NOTED IN 2200....

 

SEE ALSO: 

requiem for a potato.....

hot.....

Spain and England have recorded their hottest June ever, as scorching temperatures continue to grip Europe.

Spain's weather service Aemet said the "extremely hot" June - with an average temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) - "has pulverised records", surpassing the normal average for July and August.

In England, the Met Office said June's mean temperature of 16.9C set a new record for that month, while the UK as a whole saw its second warmest June since records began in 1884.

Mainland Portugal experienced a record daily temperature for June of 46.6C. The monthly average data is yet to be released.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70rrlexnwzo

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

anthrpogenesis.....

People the world over are struggling with sweltering hot temperatures fueled by climate change. The summer's first heat wave has a firm grip on southern Europe, parts of the US and the UK. 

Temperatures in southern Spain reached 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday, which is a new record for June, the national weather agency said. Barcelona has also set a new record for its hottest month of June ever recorded. 

Authorities along the Mediterranean have urged people to seek shelter from the heat. France and Italy, among others, have dispatched ambulances near tourist hotspots to treat people suffering from heatstroke.

Fires fed by the heat and strong winds broke out on Sunday in France and Turkey, while Greece and Italy have also been fighting fires connected to unusually hot and dry conditions.

Last week, Chinese authorities issued their second-highest heat warning for the capital Beijing and other regions on one of its hottest days of the year so far. The World Meteorological Organziation (WMO) says Asia is heating up more than twice as fast as the rest of the world due to its large landmass.

What's the impact of heat on people and societies?

Heat waves are the deadliest type of extreme weather globally, with hundreds of thousands of people dying from heat-related causes annually. Among the particularly vulnerable are people over 65, pregnant women, children and those with chronic or underlying health conditions. 

The first early-season heat waves are particularly deadly, since people are often less prepared and their bodies haven't yet grown accustomed to higher temperatures. 

There are three main physical risks associated with heat waves: dehydration, overheating, as well as heat exhaustion and heatstroke. 

Severe heat does not only impact the body, but also disrupts society as we know it. The UN's children's fund UNICEF says one in 5 minors — that's close to half a billion in total — live in areas that experience at least twice as many extremely hot days per year as they did six decades ago. Many don't have the infrastructure — such as air-conditioning — to help them cope. 

In May, Pakistan experienced a nationwide heat wave that saw temperatures hit 45 degrees Celsius in the country's most populous province of Punjab. Several others cut school hours or started summer holidays early. Heat waves have also disrupted schooling in South Sudan and the Philippines this year. 

Equally, extreme heat impacts when people can work. Some countries in hotter parts of the world traditionally take a midday "siesta" break. Now, others in ordinarily cooler places are also talking about how to manage working hours when temperatures soar.

Infrastructure such as roads, railways and bridges are impacted by runaway heat. Standard asphalt road surfaces not made for hot weather tend to rut and can literally melt, while railway tracks can buckle, and bridges can expand and deform. 

 How are hotter temperatures connected to climate change?

Continuing a trend, 2024 saw the hottest 12 months on record. Based on six international datasets, the WMO recently reported that every year in the past decade features among the top ten for record-breaking temperatures. 

"We've had not just one or two record-breaking years, but a full ten-year series. This has been accompanied by devastating and extreme weather, rising sea levels and melting ice, all powered by record-breaking greenhouse gas levels due to human activities," said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

Human-caused climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of heat waves since the 1950s. Every fraction of a degree of warming matters, and will lead to them becoming even stronger and occurring more frequently.

Coal, oil and gas are by far the largest contributors to climate change. When these fossil fuels are burned to power combustion engines, generate electricity, make plastics and heat homes, they release greenhouse gas emissions. These act like a blanket, covering Earth's atmosphere, trapping the sun's heat and contributing to increasing heat waves.

Extreme heat can also lead to a greater risk of other types of disasters, such as drought and wildfires.

How can we live with rising heat?

Healthcare experts advise people to stay out of the heat whenever possible, to avoid strenuous activity and to drink plenty of fluids — but not alcohol or caffeine.

Homes can be protected to some degree by drawing blinds or curtains and keeping windows closed during the day and opening them at night when the air is cooler. Dressing in light-colored clothing that reflects heat and sunlight can help, as can electric fans, if the ambient temperature is below 35 degrees Celsius.

Long-term strategies to make the heat more bearable include climate-proofing cities by greening spaces and planting trees along streets. This not only provides shade but reduces the heat trapped in concrete. 

Overall, experts say boosting the green energy transition by using renewable souces of energy that do not release heat-trapping emissions is key to keeping global temperatures down.

In 2024, 40% of the world's electricity was generated using renewable energy. Solar was the main driver of this trend, according to a report by global energy think tank Ember.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker

https://www.dw.com/en/heatstroke-danger-climate-change-wildfires-warning-shelter-solutions/a-73102745

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

lost in space....

An $88 million (€77.4 million) satellite backed by Jeff Bezos has disappeared in space while conducting a climate change mission, New Zealand officials said on Wednesday.

MethaneSAT, which was designed to evaluate greenhouse gas emissions with "unprecedented resolution," was also funded by Wellington and the US-based Environmental Defense Fund. 

However, the satellite was plagued with technical problems and recently stopped responding to its Earth-bound controllers.

"Clearly, this is a disappointing development," said Andrew Johnson, a senior official at the New Zealand Space Agency.

"As those who work in the space sector know, space is inherently challenging, and every attempt, successful or not, pushes the boundaries of what we know and what we're capable of."

An $88 million (€77.4 million) satellite backed by Jeff Bezos has disappeared in space while conducting a climate change mission, New Zealand officials said on Wednesday.

MethaneSAT, which was designed to evaluate greenhouse gas emissions with "unprecedented resolution," was also funded by Wellington and the US-based Environmental Defense Fund. 

However, the satellite was plagued with technical problems and recently stopped responding to its Earth-bound controllers.

"Clearly, this is a disappointing development," said Andrew Johnson, a senior official at the New Zealand Space Agency.

"As those who work in the space sector know, space is inherently challenging, and every attempt, successful or not, pushes the boundaries of what we know and what we're capable of."

https://www.dw.com/en/methane-tracking-satellite-backed-by-jeff-bezos-lost-in-space/a-73113795

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.