Last Week in Collapse: March 31-April 6, 2024
The world is gearing up for War—and they might get one.
Last Week in Collapse: March 31-April 6, 2024
This is Last Week in Collapse, a weekly newsletter compiling some of the most important, timely, useful, soul-crushing, ironic, stunning, exhausting, or otherwise must-see/can’t-look-away moments in Collapse.
This is the 119th newsletter. You can find the March 24-30 edition here if you missed it last week. Thank you for subscribing to the Substack.
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A 7.2 earthquake struck Taiwan on Wednesday, killing 9, injuring hundreds, and displacing thousands. A hailstorm in Pakistan killed at least 10 people. A tornado in India killed 5 and injured hundreds. Thousands of Russians evacuated after a dam burst due to snowmelt.
Australia is reportedly heading for multi-decade Megadroughts, or so a study in European Geosciences Union claims. The study claims that these Megadroughts may happen even without manmade climate change, as the region is trending to become drier.
A blistering heat wave is sweeping across Southeast Asia and the Philippines, where thousands of schools canceled classes because of the heat. In central Myanmar, temperatures reached 44 °C (111 °F). In part of the Philippines, where temporary pools were set up, it got to 42 °C (108 °F). Far away, in Burkina Faso, temperatures got higher, as much as 45 °C (113 °F), setting a record for a heat wave. In Togo and Benin, and other parts of West Africa, new records were set, monthly and/or all-time. A heat wave also scorched Morocco, with temperatures as high as 39 °C.
Austria experienced its earliest 28 °C day ever, beating the old record by 20 days. Germany finished its warmest March on record, as did Poland. Moscow set a new daily record for heat as well. The three top most “heat-trapping gasses” (CO2, CH4, and N2O) achieved record concentrations last year; so says a NOAA report on greenhouse gasses.
A group of scientists tested “marine cloud brightening,” a fairly controversial attempt at solar geoengineering, on Tuesday. The process involves spraying a salty solution into the air, in the hope that the particles will reflect solar radiation, and thereby cool the planet—or at least offset some of our record CO2 emissions. Analyzing the impact will likely take years, and the pioneers of this method estimate that 1,000+ such machines might be necessary to do much.
Experts claim that 10 football/soccer fields worth of forest are lost every minute—an area that is annually comparable to the size of Switzerland. A study on earth’s “energy imbalance” concluded that surface warming will continue to accelerate as this century drags on.
Malaga olive oil production is way down due to Drought, sending prices higher. Zimbabwe has declared a state of emergency because of Drought plaguing southern Africa and reducing harvest sizes. Mexico is allegedly in breach of a water treaty with the U.S., reducing irrigation to southern Texas farms. Micronesia is aproaching a water crisis within a few months, too. Drought in Suriname.
Lima, Peru, the world’s “second-largest desert city,” (pop: 11.5M) is experiencing a worsening water crisis. 1.5M residents in the capital megacity lack access to fresh water, and the city’s total water reserves will only last a few months in a worst-case scenario. Its river, the Rimac, is terribly polluted as well, leaching toxins into their dying soil.
The 8-page “2023 Disasters in Numbers” Report was released last week, and it claims natural disaster-related deaths (~86,500) were up about 33% when compared to the 20-year average—yet the total number of disaster-affected people is far lower than the 20-year average. The report says that 2023 had more earthquakes than average, as well as “mass movement (wet),” storms, and wildfires, yes experienced fewer Droughts, extreme temperatures, and floods. The dollar cost of all disasters was slightly up in 2023, accounting for about $203B (half related to storms, and a quarter related to earthquakes).
The iceberg codenamed A23a is being tracked as it drifts northward into the Atlantic Ocean. A couple week ago, the Arctic hit peak sea ice for the year—and it’s “below average.” Some industry experts are excited for the potential to lay new data cables after more Arctic ice melts. Rising polar temperatures are prompting scientists to label the temperature phenomenon, here to stay, a “regime shift,” better defined as “an abrupt change in the state of a system, which may or may not be associated with an irreversible change (i.e., tipping point).”
Extinction Rebellion’s co-founded Roger Hallam was sentenced to 18 months in prison for leading a drone protest which temporarily disrupted Heathrow Airport; the sentence was suspended because of the protest’s non-violent nature.
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The American conglomerate 3M will begin paying out $12.5B as part of a court settlement over contaminating drinking water sources with PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals.” A wide-ranging study of bandages also found PFAS in 65% of tested brands.
The Collapse of a complex system isn’t necessarily a simplification. The Lancet published a 14-page report00021-4/fulltext) on the intersections of global health threats, climate change, and biodiversity loss. For example, malaria spreads more in areas prone to flooding. Permafrost melting increases the risk of reactivated anthrax. Drought leads to greater foraging distances for bee species, putting them at risk of certain parasites. Storms and warmer weather endanger sea urchins. Fungal infections kill some trees, resulting in less carbon sequestered, topsoil depletion, and the destruction of animal habitats. Climate change worsens bird flu. And so on.
Tensions grow in Canada over a modest carbon tax—adding $0.033 cents (CAD) per liter on petrol. A 13-cent petrol-tax was imposed on Alberta as well. This tax is, among other things, threatening to sink the Liberal Party next election.
Cocoa and coffee continue surging in price. Sperm counts are dropping as temperatures rise; high temperatures are also affecting women’s egg viability. Although energy prices in Europe have dropped, analysts claim the cost of living crisis is far from over.
A study on PFAS and their subgroup chemical, PFAAs, determined that “there's a boomerang effect, and some of the toxic PFAS are re-emitted to air, transported long distances and then deposited back onto land” on shorelines across the world. Waves end up depositing PFAS chemicals onto coastlines after time spent polluting the oceans.
Zambia’s worst cholera outbreak continues—over 20,000 infected in the last 6 months. Russian authorities are reportedly trying to conceal the extent of a cholera outbreak in occupied Mariupol. The megacity Bengaluru (pop: 14M), in India, is also experiencing a cholera surge.
Dengue-stricken Argentina is finding itself lacking a must-have item: mosquito repellent. Add it to the prepper list. A Texas dairy worker contracted H5N1, and scientists are sounding the alarm yet again that a Human-to-Human transmissible variant of bird flu would be unimaginably dangerous…do you think countries would be able to contain such a pandemic if when unleashed?
For 30 years, the top causes of death in the United States were unchanged: heart disease, cancer, accidents, stroke, and respiratory illnesses (in no particular order). And then came COVID, taking the silver medal for deaths in 2021.
Antarctic krill are being poisoned by microplastics. The unintentional introduction of microplastics to archaeological sites is threatening to alter the soil composition and spur breakdown of ancient remains.
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Puntland, a state within Somalia, has withdrawn its recognition of the Somalia government following constitutional changes allegedly made without their approval. Puntland, rich in oil, is distinct from Somaliland, a breakaway state which made a deal with Ethiopia and recently inflamed tensions in the Horn of Africa. Somalia is expelling Ethiopia’s ambassador. Ethiopia’s armed forces are also being accused of war crimes over a January massacre in Amhara.
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