Last Week in Collapse: December 10-16, 2023
Famines, homicides, exploitation, extremism, and drought. Society is being pushed to its breaking point—and then beyond.
Last Week in Collapse: December 10-16, 2023
This is Last Week in Collapse, a weekly newsletter compiling some of the most important, timely, useful, soul-crushing, ironic, astounding, or otherwise must-see/can’t-look-away moments in Collapse.
This is the 103rd newsletter. You can find the December 3-9 edition here on Reddit if you missed it last week. Thank you for subscribing to the Substack.
In Memoriam: The Java Stingray, an ultra-rare ray species not seen in over 100 years, has been declared extinct. After long and fruitless searching, experts concluded the species could not today survive the waters off Java anyway, which have become gravely industrialized.
In addition to all the other reasons to not swallow seafoam, the Dutch government is warning that seafoam contains PFAS chemicals. A study in Nature Communications determined that one reason wildfire smoke tends to be much more dangerous than ordinary pollution is because wildfires release toxic metals and chemicals once-trapped in the soil, and release them into the air. Another study published last month indicates that a hurricane carried microplastics into remote regions of Newfoundland, that big island off the eastern coast of Canada.
The gong show climate conference COP28 is over. No substantial agreement was made to phase down fossil fuels, only some bullshit plans about how to avoid 1.5 °C warming, a fait accompli that is due to happen before the end of this decade. Read the full legalese draft of the global carbon stocktake here if you’re interested; it’s 21 pages and never once mentions “oil.” There was some talk about carbon credits, another mostly bullshit scheme that may or may not actually deliver ecological results. The host of COP28, the CEO of Abu Dhabi’s National Oil Company (ADNOC), is planning a $150B investment in future oil & gas projects. Next year, COPout29 will take place in another authoritarian petro-state: Azerbaijan (pop: 10M), the world’s 23rd largest oil producer, and 17th biggest oil exporter.
Following the earthquake in Nepal in November, dozens of people are dying from exposure as temperatures drop. A sudden cold spell has shocked Beijing, shutting down many roads and trains temporarily. In Lahore, Pakistan, artificial rain was used to deal with smog for the first time. Coming to a city near you.
Humankind is destroying floodplains, expanding cities, draining wetlands, and replacing forests with farms, in our ambition to dominate nature and develop further. Unfortunately this causes not-so-delayed water crises in our future. A corporation is going to open a water-intensive lithium mine on the banks of the dwindling Colorado River.
By the year 1927, the European bison had become extinct in the wild. Today, roughly 60 such bison still live in captivity. A new study from The Royal Society suggests that the reasons for the large decline in bison population were a combination of environmental changes and human hunting, accelerating from the year ~1500 when hunting technologies improved.
Mexico’s President is building a 1,500+ km mega railroad around the Yucatán Peninsula that he calls "the greatest construction project in the world." However, environmentalists claim that the project will spoil pristine underground water sources and bring unwelcome interference to the jungle ecosystems that still survive in Mexico’s east. The common people seem to generally support the project because the development will likely increase their standard of living, and boost tourism through the jungled region.
Unsurprisingly, the Arctic had its warmest summer this year. In some optimistic news, a study in Geophysical Research Letters claims that unmapped Arctic wetlands and lakes don’t produce as much methane as previously imagined.
Morocco and Gibraltar set new December heat records last week. So did a Saudi city and several areas in East Asia. Louisiana, USA tied their December records with 84 °F (29 °C).
Dozens of people were thought to have died in landslides in Zambia. In the DRC, 15+ were killed by landslides last week.
The mastermind behind the UN’s “Trillion Trees” effort is backtracking on his pledge—hard. The scientist’s follow-up study, released last month, still confirms the basic hypothesis—more trees good—but the scheme of mass tree planting has become co-opted by the carbon credits market and governments looking for an easy out. Many felled forests have not recovered, because they were replaced by giant monocultures of one or two species and, occasionally, dieoff of the saplings. Some experts are proposing rewilding projects in New Zealand. Elsewhere, deforestation is increasing.
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The Panama Canal Authority has limited ship transits because of drought. This is hitting grain ships particularly hard, because they don’t know their transit dates as far in advance as other types of vessels. Grain also has a lower profit margin than most container ships and other vessels. Will these ships cut the line during global famines, or will profit-seeking continue to prevail?
Deep cuts in spending, and inflation, are coming to Argentina amid the new President’s drastic economic measures, intended to bring back private investment and monetary stability to a long-destabilized economy. About one third of government jobs are being considered to be eliminated.
The IMF says that the economy is on the edge of “Cold War Two.” International trade is slowing and “geoeconomic fragmentation” is becoming more common as some countries and corporations are moving (or being moved) into the U.S. team, or the China team.
In Canada, half the population is on the edge of financial ruin. In Egypt, people are trying to escape the shitty economy, even if it means seeking work in Libya. In Sri Lanka, investors are concerned that social unrest could break out again next year. And the IMF is seeking to regulate cryptocurrency more.
The U.S. is taking steps to ban PVC, the popular plastic used in water pipes and toys. PVC was deemed a carcinogen 49 years ago, and banned in certain cosmetics and drugs. A closer look at petrol-powered lawnmowers in the U.S. says that they create tiny particles that can be dangerous to inhale.
The Eurozone is sliding into recession. The cost of living in the United States has become crushingly depressing for some, who have called this “the silent depression”. A social and economic crisis is brewing again.
Extreme weather resulted in a temporary fuel crisis in Yaounde, Cameroon. The price of oil dropped below $70 for the first time in 5 months. The Nigerian electrical grid Collapsed for several hours; on average, it Collapses 5 times a year.
Mark Zuckerberg is building a doomsday compound in Hawai’i that doubles as a corporate getaway, a project estimated to cost over $270,000,000. Strict non-disclosure agreements are stifling information about some of the details, but a few stories and pictures are leaking out. One site worker has died. Zuckerberg’s presence—specifically his potential to spend or donate money on certain community projects—has also divided local society.
The U.S. approved a new kind of nuclear reactor, set to be built first in Tennessee. China is bringing online a new generation of nuclear reactor too, built in Shandong province. Meanwhile, coal has its best year ever, with a global demand of 8.5 billion metric tonnes in 2023.
Myanmar has become the opium capital of the world after a Taliban crackdown reduced opium production in Afghanistan.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis, a rare tropical disease, has come to Texas, and apparently become endemic already. It’s not fatal, but it can scar your skin. I will not freak you out by linking to Google Images. This illness is spread by sand flies, a super small pest that thrives on rodents.
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The 2023 Armed Conflict Survey is out—but it’s paywalled. A short introduction, a mediocre conflict map, and some news summaries is the best we’ll get. In Africa and the Middle East, fluctuating food prices, affected by extreme weather, destabilize fragile states. In Europe, Russia’s refusal to accept its role as a declining authority fuelled Putin’s ambition to wage War on Ukraine. In Sub-Saharan Africa, jihadist insurgencies are rising. In Asia, tensions grow relating to water and territorial borders.
“The accelerating climate crisis continues to act as a multiplier of both root causes of conflict and institutional weaknesses in fragile countries….At the global level, the intensity of conflict has also risen year on year….At the core of the grim outlook for conflict globally is the current complexity of contemporary wars, which often feature a large number of diverse non-state armed groups (NSAGs) as well as external interference….459 armed groups of humanitarian concern were active globally as of June 2023, with around 195 million people living under their full or fluid control….Armed conflict in the Americas remained mostly driven by criminal contestation over the control of lucrative illicit economies (notably drugs)....Sub-Saharan Africa continued to be the most conflict-affected region globally…”
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