Overcast with an occasional splash of faded-yellow sunshine this late afternoon Sunday here in California’s Central Valley — scary-boo night coming, so all is not well.
And in a split-screen effect today, just as the meeting of the G20 in Rome ended, the UN’s 26th Climate Change Conference opened in Glasgow, Scotland, and the weight of climate change action now rests on COP26 due to the uselessness of the leaders of the world’s biggest economies. They wimped big-time — they are down with ending coal-fueled power plants, but not on coal itself. The shitheels couldn’t develop a spine as the key sticking point was any kind of deadline for “net-zero” emissions, only ‘“blah, blah, blah”‘ once again.
Nothing heavy, nothing definite and with no bite: ‘The final communique appeared even weaker, “acknowledging the key relevance of achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions or carbon neutrality by or around mid-century.”‘
No specifics, ‘by or around,’ WTF, just a toss into future winds — gale-force winds, mind you, exacerbated by climate change.
Meanwhile, Prince Charles called the G20 gathering, “quite literally the last-chance saloon,” in the fight against climate change. However, Charles spoke before the weak-ass, milksop-like final declaration. No news on what he said/felt afterward.
So the emphasis for action will rest with COP26. Yet the pressure of reality is formidable — U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa noted: ‘“The transition we need is beyond the scope, scale and speed of anything humanity has accomplished in the past. It is a daunting task. But humanity is a species defined by its ingenuity.”‘
Also today another red-flash science warning just to add to the anxiety mix:
#StateofClimate in 2021
The past 7 years are set to be the warmest on record.
Sea level rise is at a new high, accompanied by continued ocean warming and acidification.
Many extreme events with major socio economic impacts.https://t.co/jCzbXv7I5I#COP26 #ClimateAction pic.twitter.com/uwuPkHQLm3— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) October 31, 2021
Details via France24 this afternoon:
The years from 2015 to 2021 are on track to be the seven hottest on record, the World Meteorological Organization said on Sunday, warning that the planet was heading into “uncharted territory.”
The preliminary WMO state of the climate report, launched as the UN COP26 climate conference opens, said that global warming from greenhouse gas emissions threatens “far-reaching repercussions for current and future generations”.
Based on data for the first nine months of the year, the WMO said 2021 was likely to be between the fifth and seventh warmest year on record — despite the cooling effect of the La Nina phenomenon that lowered temperatures at the beginning of the year.
“From the ocean depths to mountain tops, from melting glaciers to relentless extreme weather events, ecosystems and communities around the globe are being devastated,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement on the report.
He added that the two-week COP26 climate conference “must be a turning point for people and planet.”The WMO found that the average temperature for 2021 was around 1.09 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels.
And the average temperature over the last 20 years (2002-2021) for the first time exceeded the symbolic threshold of 1C above the mid-19th century, when humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale.
…
The report is “shocking and deeply disturbing and yet another wake-up call to world leaders that time has run out for talk”, said Jonathan Bamber, Director of the Bristol Glaciology Centre, in comments to the Science Media Centre.
He said on the current trajectory, sea level rise could exceed two metres (more than six feet) by 2100, which could displace some 630 million people worldwide.“The consequences of that are unimaginable,” said Bamber.
“What is required now is profound and comprehensive action by every nation and state actor to limit further and deeper climate breakdown.”
There’s a lot of bad shit going on right now, from the pandemic to everything Republicans do, but climate change is our biggest, and by-far our greatest threat, and it’s kind of terrifying.
Soon the real deal and not CGI (hopefully not as abrupt either):
And once again, here we are…
(Illustration out front: Salvador Dalí’s ‘Galatea of the Spheres,’ found here).