Last Week in Collapse: November 3-9, 2024
Debt bubbles grow, a new air quality index record is set, power outages, Trump wins, storms, and the intensification of the Ukraine War. We are living to see man-made horrors beyond our comprehension…
Last Week in Collapse: November 3-9, 2024
This is Last Week in Collapse, a weekly newsletter compiling some of the most important, timely, useful, soul-shattering, ironic, stunning, exhausting, or otherwise must-see/can’t-look-away moments in Collapse.
This is the 150th weekly newsletter! You can find the October 27-November 2 edition here on Reddit if you missed it last week. Thank you for subscribing to the Substack.
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A volcanic eruption in Indonesia killed at least 10, forcing several thousand more to evacuate. A hailstorm in South Africa killed four. 14 people were slain in a refugee camp in northern Uganda after lightning struck a metal church.
In Spain, rescue operations continue in the aftermath of flooding which killed at least 217 people and caused immense infrastructure damage. It was Spain’s wettest October on record. The lingering floodwater has begun to stink terribly, a result of decaying organic matter, including dead animals—and the stench is expected to get worse, and more dangerous, next week.
Flooding in Panama killed at least 4, with a couple others missing. According to scientists, “an accelerated water cycle is locked into the world’s climate system.” New York City is implementing water conservation measures after a long October Drought. One average, 132 gallons of water (500 liters) are used by each NYC resident every day. In the Himalayas, bodies of water have grown 11% in the last 14 years, and scientists say it’s all because climate change is melting their glaciers.
New November heat records in Iran, and heat in Pakistan, and in North Korea, and also in Japan....and in France, and a new nighttime November heat record in Kenya. New Orleans set a new record for the latest day to hit 90 °F (32.2 °C), while Boston set a new daily record on Wednesday with 82° (27.8 °C). More flooding in Spain, though this time killing none. A region in Saudi Arabia got snowfall for the first time in recorded history, and Colorado got blasted by a much-earlier-than-usual blizzard which dumped a meter of wet snow on much of the state within 48 hours. Scientists warn that 2024 will be the first year at least 1.5 °C warmer than the old baseline.
A two-year Drought in the Amazon has cut access to food, schools, medical facilties, and more, for riverside communities depending on waterways for transportation. “In the Colombian Amazon, river water levels have dropped by up to 80 percent.” A recent study in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology found, by studying tree rings, that the Wanli Megadrought (1585–1590) might have been “an early trigger for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty” which fell in 1644 to a peasant-soldier rebellion (although Ming resistance continued for another 40 years).
The Global Carbon Project published a complete “greenhouse gas budget” for the world’s northern permafrost. In summary, the study posits that over the next 20 years, the region will probably emit more carbon than it absorbs—although certain biomes (boreal) may still act as carbon sinks.
More depressing before and after glacier photos were published last week from Norway/Sweden.
Colombia’s Presidente is warning of water shortages in Bogotá (metro pop: 11.7M). Meanwhile, Iran set new heat records for November, as did the UAE, and parts of Morocco. Wildfires in western Greece burn, as they do outside Los Angeles.
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A study found that “biobased plastic” microfibers are actually more harmful to earthworms than the classic plastics these microfibers replace. A study in Atmospheric Pollution Research found that it’s raining PFAS chemicals in Miami-Dade County—according to 21 different chemicals across 42 samples taken from 2021-2022.
To celebrate a religious holiday in India, several thousand Hindu worshippers bathed in the toxic Yamuna River, which government authorities cautioned against. “I don't bother about the pollution,” said a local student. “The mother goddess will take care of all our troubles.” Another woman remarked, “I believe the waters of the river are pure and blessed by the sun god himself. Nothing will happen to me—god will take care of everything.” Yeeaaaahh……
Military and trade blockades in Myanmar have pushed food prices 10x higher in some places, and it’s pushing almost 2M people in Rakhine state to desperate hunger. “This is also much larger than a famine. It’s a political disaster and a collapse,” said one UN official.
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