Last Week in Collapse: October 15-21, 2023

The Collapse of Truth—and the slide into another World War?

Last Week in Collapse: October 15-21, 2023

This is Last Week in Collapse, a weekly newsletter bringing together some of the most important, timely, useful, depressing, ironic, astonishing, or otherwise must-see moments in Collapse.

This is the 95th newsletter. You can find the October 8-14 edition here if you missed it last week. Thank you for subscribing to the Substack.

Last September was the hottest on record, say climate scientists who also claim that 2023 may be the hottest year yet. The impact of El Niño is expected to continue through the end of 2023 well into next year. Warming is accelerating.

Ireland’s meteorological service recognized people’s weather “warning fatigue” at the high number of weather “yellow warnings.” These alerts are issued for hot days, strong storms, and other extreme weather. But now the government is changing the thresholds so that fewer warnings will be issued. Move the benchmarks, redefine the hazards. Nothing to see here.

An old coal plant in eastern Germany went back online last week. A renowned doctor said that children at at existential risk due to the climate crisis. Air pollution, mental health, obesity, PTSD, and diseases.

Scientists are 99% certain: the Gulf Stream is slowing. Record temperatures across most of Indonesia. And seed farmers are facing a harder future because the seasons are growing more unpredictable. But at least some people in NYC are exploring dating for doomers to connect climate-conscious singles.

A savage heat wave struck western Australia. Bolivia almost broke all-time records with 46.5 °C (116 °F) temperature. A heat wave is moving through northern Canada. Wildfires are transforming our ecosystems, crushing fragile species, human development, and the health of our soil.

A new study on snow crabs in the Bering Sea investigated a dieoff of more than 10 billion snow crabs since 2018. They concluded that devastating marine heat waves did not kill the crabs directly, but the underlying food chain was thrown into chaos. This resulted in a mass starvation event for the snow crabs, which hugely depleted their numbers over a couple years. When will a similar fate befall humankind?

COPout28 is less than six weeks away, and migrant workers are still working through the Dubai heat waves to prepare the facilities for the two-week climate summit, which will continue to kick the can down the road.

Roger Hallam, one of Extinction Rebellion’s co-founders, and the mind behind Just Stop Oil, was arrested for “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.” I wonder if the authorities will call the Water Wars a public nuisance too.

Flooding in Ghana displaced 26,000+. Extreme weather is becoming more common and more devastating in Yemen. Scientists have recalculated the CO2 emissions from some Brazil wildfires, and determined that the actual CO2 was more than originally estimated.

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The former boss of the Bank of China—the world’s 4th largest by total assets—was arrested for corruption and ideological failings. A tropical illness you’ve never heard of—leishmaniasis—may be endemic to the U.S. already.

Almost nobody is still masking up for the coronavirus anymore. If you’ve been hearing that “masks don’t work” because some study concluded that masks are useless—this person has been misled, or simply doesn’t care. A review of that infamous study affirmed that the data was inconclusive, based on the metric used to analyze the data. Other studies done in 2020 at the peak of the infections confirm that mask mandates prevented countless infections. Many people are treating COVID like a cold.

Dust pollution in Mumbai brought air quality levels lower than in Delhi. Air pollution was also linked to postpartum depression. An organization released results from a study on global air quality…I found it a little difficult to decipher. Most of the cleanest air nations were middle/low-income. Colombia and Mali scored the highest, and North Korea the worst. All the G20 governments scored low.

Over 45,000+ chickens were killed in Mozambique for bird flu fears; South Africa has emerged as a new hotspot for H5N1, also known as HPAI, avian flu, or bird flu. We’re really going to have to pick one name and go with it. A study in Nature on this “avian influenza H5 virus” suggests that repeated infections from wild birds brought mutating strains to Africa and Europe, where they continued to evolve and plague communities of animals—that includes humans.

Drinking water was already scarce in Chad; the strain of 200,000+ Sudanese refugees (projected to swell by hundreds of thousands more) has pushed clean water supplies down dangerously, increasing the risk of water-borne illnesses. Malaria & diarrhea is common; aid workers fear the damage that could be caused by a future contagious illness in the camps.

The economy is growing more volatile. Jamie Dimon is saying that now “may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.” Investors are pulling out of British corporations and hamstringing their dreams of growth.

Papua New Guinea is rationing fuel. Pakistan’s state oil company is going private after mismanagement has grown debts and brought the company to the edge of default; fuel shortages resulted. Some energy analysts believe that LNG shortages will persist for decades, because there simply isn’t enough LNG being extracted to meet rising global demands.

The future is solar, based on the growth of the industry. Yet despite the growth of solar power, oil & gas continue to see rising demand, and coal has still seen strong use. A 30-page report examined the consequences of China’s pledge to not construct coal plants overseas.

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The War in Gaza continues. This video from r/CombatFootage captures several of the IDF’s large “bunker buster” bombs leveling buildings in Gaza. Or watch precision-guided missiles level a 10-story building in Gaza, or these airstrikes to see what War looks like there. But the War is not limited to just Gaza; some Israeli settlers, recently armed by a far-right minister, have attacked Palestinians in the West Bank. Lebanese people have clashed at the border with Israel, sparking fears of “uncontainable escalation” that could bring Iran-backed Hezbollah, and even Iran, into this War. Western embassies were targeted by protestors in several countries. The U.S. has stationed two aircraft carrier groups in the eastern Mediterranean. Each aircraft carrier is accompanied by a handful of other military vessels; about 12,000 American servicemen are positioned close to the conflict.

Perhaps the most noteworthy incident was an allegation that Israel bombed a Gaza hospital, killing 500+ people—a piece of Hamas-driven fake news that much of the media quickly passed on as the truth. It was later discredited, but the damage to the information ecosystem had already been done, with all the social, political & cognitive fallout imaginable—much like the still-unverified claim that Hamas beheaded 40 babies during their initial invasion. It is now believed that the “hospital” blaze was sparked by a falling piece of a Hamas missile. This burning missile fragment reportedly fell onto a parking lot outside a hospital, leading to a conflagration that claimed dozens of lives.

In total, over 3,700 Palestinians have been killed in the War, with 12,000+ more injured. Israeli casualties are unclear, but there are probably about 1,400 dead since the October 7 attack. Saudi Arabia told its citizens to leave Lebanon, anticipating Lebanon’s involvement soon. The U.S. Navy intercepted Houthi missiles and drones that they suspect may have been en route to Israel from Yemen. Iran-backed militias in Iraq targeted a U.S. base with drones, injuring several. There are global energy implications from the expansion of this War that go far beyond drone attacks in Syrian gas fields.

Negotiations with Egypt regarding bringing humanitarian aid into Gaza have allowed 20 aid trucks in so far—and thousands of foreigners out. Egypt doesn’t want to accept Palestinians, fearing that Israel may intend for them to never return to Gaza, but settle in Sinai instead. Israel supposedly intends to sever all ties with Gaza after their special military operation is complete. Neighboring Jordan believes the worst is yet to come.

Apparently it gets worse than this.