Gaia on Fire

[Crackpot]

Things are quite hazy round here. We’re under an Air quality alert ranging from poor where I work to unhealthy where I live

[BoSoxGal]

It is such a shame to have to keep the doors and windows closed on what have otherwise been glorious days.

This is the part that breaks my heart. We had been having a lovely spring, too. By the time the wildfire smoke abates we will probably roll right into oppressive heat cycles.

[Big RR]

Sadly, that's likely what we will see.

[TPFKA@W]

Last week we had godawful hot weather. This week is glorious except for continuing draught. Our lawn and my trees I planted are suffering. I miss heavy, glorious thunderstorms. ( The dog disagrees. )

[Sue U]

Air quality here has just been getting worse and worse through the day; there's now a brown haze enveloping everything like a thin fog, it's gross. I'd love a good thunderstorm to wash it away, but the forecast says there's only a chance of rain on Friday and then continued dry weather into next week. Ugh.

[BoSoxGal]

Canada’s wildfires are part of our new climate reality, experts and officials say
Canada is on track to experience its most severe wildfire season on record, and it’s part of a trend experts say will intensify

When I moved out to Montana in 2007 I took the transCanada highway from Quebec through Ontario, entering at Vermont and leaving via the UP of Michigan. My overwhelming impression of Canada was wow, billions of trees.

[BoSoxGal]

Eh!pocalypse Now!


That’s pretty funny, but also not so much. The news today is saying we could have episodes of this smoke all summer long because the hundreds of fires in Canada will likely continue burning all summer long so depending on weather patterns it will keep coming back.

I wonder if this experience will finally motivate the people with the power to demand real action on climate change? (I don’t really wonder, but it’s nice to think about just the same.)

[Bicycle Bill]

-"BB"-

[Sue U]

I wonder if this experience will finally motivate the people with the power to demand real action on climate change?

Well, they had to cancel the ball game last night, so maybe? How much pull does MLB have with Congress? Then again, those dipshit Republicans just tried to pass a bill banning any environmental regulations on gas stoves.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I've read some of the research on gas stoves and indoor air pollution, and while it is real enough (the cognitive effects on young children of elevated nitrogen dioxide levels is alarming) it's probably somewhere well down my list of environmental threats. Having said that, I doubt I would have had Canadian forest fires on that list before last week.

I really think N95 masks are a very good idea; and I suspect supplies will be very limited in the days to come. Get a good filter for your HVAC system - not the base $5 filter but maybe 1800 or better rating. It's tempting to go to the highest rated but if it is so efficient that air struggles to make it through in the winter, gas burners might generate carbon monoxide which is not good for you. I recall how PPE was next to impossible to find when Covid hit. Still plentiful here - we are outside the affected areas - and I stocked up yesterday. If anyone needs some and cannot find them PM me.

[Big RR]

Andy--I agree re the environmental effects of modifying or banning gas stoves (moving to electric) as ost electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels (in NJ 46% is generated by burning gas), but no one is forcing the utilities to change that (FWIW, most of the rest is nuclear, but I don't recall the last time a nuclear power plant was built in NJ, so as they wear out, it is likely more electricity will be generated by burning fossil fuels). Not to mention that the power grid is already strained without more electric appliances (not to mention electric cars); if people can't use their electric stoves,I'll bet they move to propane barbecues and stoves--not really a solution.

[Jarlaxle]

The last new nuclear power plant built broke ground almost 50 years ago.

[Econoline]

Now it's Chicago's turn to be the City With the Worst Air Quality in the World. (WOO-HOO!!! WE'RE #1!!! WE'RE #1!!! )

[BoSoxGal]

This year is set to be the hottest in history. Congress must act now

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'm afraid it's all rather beyond Congress. The best efforts of the dinosaurs didn't change their fate either

[BoSoxGal]

Farmers quits Florida:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ate-crisis

The south is sweltering and Vermont holds its breath as Montpelier hangs in the balance.

Loving this global warming!

[BoSoxGal]

This author was on Morning Joe today discussing climate change denial and his new book, which sounds good: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393866704

[BoSoxGal]

[BoSoxGal]

Oh by the way, the earth is still burning . . .

World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target

Numerous experts said they had been left feeling hopeless, infuriated and scared by the failure of governments to act despite the clear scientific evidence provided.

“I think we are headed for major societal disruption within the next five years,” said Gretta Pecl, at the University of Tasmania. “[Authorities] will be overwhelmed by extreme event after extreme event, food production will be disrupted. I could not feel greater despair over the future.”

[ex-khobar Andy]

I oscillate between extreme pessimism and hope. Part of me thinks that the earth is fucked and climate migration in a decade or so will make today's border crisis look puny; and the great wars of the 20th century will be surpassed by those of the 21st.

But most years for the past 15 or so, I have been one of the judges for the environmental categories at the Louisville Science and Engineering Fair - high and middle school kids submit their projects and always a few go on to the national finals. This is life-affirming. These kids do not have their noses buried in their phones and they get science and how much trouble we are in. And they have ideas how to address the problems they will face. I don't know that all will work - many of them won't - but if they are representative of the talent of the future, maybe it's not so bleak.