Current Events > Climate crisis 'wreaking havoc' on Earth's water cycle, report finds

(+) Yeah! (+)

The climate crisis is wreaking havoc on the planets water cycle, with ferocious floods and crippling droughts affecting billions of people, a report has found.

Water is peoples most vital natural resource but global heating is changing the way water moves around the Earth. The analysis of water disasters in 2024, which was the hottest year on record, found they had killed at least 8,700 people, driven 40 million from their homes and caused economic damage of more than $550bn (445bn).

Rising temperatures, caused by continued burning of fossil fuels, disrupt the water cycle in multiple ways. Warmer air can hold more water vapour, leading to more intense downpours. Warmer seas provide more energy to hurricanes and typhoons, supercharging their destructive power. Global heating can also increase drought by causing more evaporation from soil, as well as shifting rainfall patterns.

It tickles me in a schadenfreude sort of way that the people who are most concerned about immigration are also the ones least worried about climate change. Just the complete lack of critical and long term thinking from these dumb dumbs.

It tickles me in a schadenfreude sort of way that the people who are most concerned about immigration are also the ones least worried about climate change. Just the complete lack of critical and long term thinking from these dumb dumbs.

Hey, look on the bright side, guys.

Musk is only 53, Bezos is 60, and Zuckerberg is a sprightly 40 years old. My greatest fear with the inexorable climate collapse was that all the rich fucks who got us there wouldn't live to see it :)

Human extinction is but a small price to pay for marginal growth in profits!

That's easy to say, but the truth is we've all enjoyed the increase in quality of life brought on by fossil fuels

That's easy to say, but the truth is we've all enjoyed the increase in quality of life brought on by fossil fuels

The problem is the rich don't want to look for other alternatives.

There are only two ways to avert the climate apocalypse (which is very likely to begin within fifteen years and conclude with our extinction within twenty years): either all of humanity goes back to agrarian living and gives up absolutely all modernity right this instance, or humanity has a die-off leaving less than 10% of the total population alive.

Some might attempt a " option three" and wipe out a chunk of humanity so they can't pollute anymore and say its the lesser evil.

Human extinction is but a small price to pay for marginal growth in profits!

Oh no, at this point it's in no small part because there is no longer a viable solution to climate change.

There are so many issues that I suspect unless a person has gone down the rabbit-holes I went down over Christmas they have no idea how bad things actually are.

The world doesn't have the ability to electrify international shipping. Nor industrial emissions for a great many building blocks of society. The world possibly doesn't even have enough resources to actually electrify everything either.

Then there's the issue that the climate is at the point where the emissions from electrifying everything alone will push us over "GG get fucking rekt human civilization" levels (we're past 1.5C of warming and headed towards cementing 1.6 this year. If we're lucky that's all that'll happen, if we're unlucky we're hitting 1.7C+ by the end of the year). Even if the willpower was there.

Oh but I'm not even done with the doom we're facing as a species! Meat. I'm not a saint nor helping, I still eat meat for my nutritional benefit (if cutting it out entirely would make a difference it'd be gone already, as that's not the case I'm choosing to emulate the diets we humans had before we created all out synthetic bullshit to maximise my health instead), but I'm not blind to the greater issues.

The AG industry for meat production is another area that will push us over the edge. That needs to literally be eliminated entirely and right now. But good luck getting anyone to agree to that, especially when those of us who actually agree with that are aware that that one change on its own won't prevent what's coming in the next two decades (it might buy us another decade or two if we simply ceased meat production globally tomorrow and returned all the land used for it to nature with robust plantation schemes but that's all it'd do on its own).

There's one final dark reality. We might have already tipped every single "doomsday" feedback loop making absolutely nothing we do from this point on matter beyond buying a few extra years.

There's a lot of very noisy oligarchs running around (your Musks, Zuchs, ect) who live in delusional reality thinking they can weather what's coming (and that what's coming is still 40+ years away meaning they only have to "weather" a decade or two in their lavish bunkers at most).

But there's a lot of incredibly smart billionaires around as well. The reason they aren't pushing the necessary levers to start moving Earth away from collapse is simple. Collapse is now locked in regardless and they know it. There are only two ways to avert the climate apocalypse (which is very likely to begin within fifteen years and conclude with our extinction within twenty years): either all of humanity goes back to agrarian living and gives up absolutely all modernity right this instance, or humanity has a die-off leaving less than 10% of the total population alive.

Those are now the only two viable solutions, needless to say for a myriad of reasons including greed and delusion nobody is going to explore them.

This is the truth. For all the negative posters...do you guys have electric cars or stoves? Probably not.

The excuse for cars i see is: charging infrastructure and range anxiety. It will always be uncomfortable to change the way we have been living and most people will avoid discomfort even if the entire world burns around them.

Human extinction is but a small price to pay for marginal growth in profits!

Human extinction results in growth trending negative which is bad for stock prices.

The Economy!

This is the truth. For all the negative posters...do you guys have electric cars or stoves? Probably not.

Oh no, at this point it's in no small part because there is no longer a viable solution to climate change.

There are so many issues that I suspect unless a person has gone down the rabbit-holes I went down over Christmas they have no idea how bad things actually are.

The world doesn't have the ability to electrify international shipping. Nor industrial emissions for a great many building blocks of society. The world possibly doesn't even have enough resources to actually electrify everything either.

Then there's the issue that the climate is at the point where the emissions from electrifying everything alone will push us over "GG get fucking rekt human civilization" levels (we're past 1.5C of warming and headed towards cementing 1.6 this year. If we're lucky that's all that'll happen, if we're unlucky we're hitting 1.7C+ by the end of the year). Even if the willpower was there.

Oh but I'm not even done with the doom we're facing as a species! Meat. I'm not a saint nor helping, I still eat meat for my nutritional benefit (if cutting it out entirely would make a difference it'd be gone already, as that's not the case I'm choosing to emulate the diets we humans had before we created all out synthetic bullshit to maximise my health instead), but I'm not blind to the greater issues.

The AG industry for meat production is another area that will push us over the edge. That needs to literally be eliminated entirely and right now. But good luck getting anyone to agree to that, especially when those of us who actually agree with that are aware that that one change on its own won't prevent what's coming in the next two decades (it might buy us another decade or two if we simply ceased meat production globally tomorrow and returned all the land used for it to nature with robust plantation schemes but that's all it'd do on its own).

There's one final dark reality. We might have already tipped every single "doomsday" feedback loop making absolutely nothing we do from this point on matter beyond buying a few extra years.

There's a lot of very noisy oligarchs running around (your Musks, Zuchs, ect) who live in delusional reality thinking they can weather what's coming (and that what's coming is still 40+ years away meaning they only have to "weather" a decade or two in their lavish bunkers at most).

But there's a lot of incredibly smart billionaires around as well. The reason they aren't pushing the necessary levers to start moving Earth away from collapse is simple. Collapse is now locked in regardless and they know it. There are only two ways to avert the climate apocalypse (which is very likely to begin within fifteen years and conclude with our extinction within twenty years): either all of humanity goes back to agrarian living and gives up absolutely all modernity right this instance, or humanity has a die-off leaving less than 10% of the total population alive.

Those are now the only two viable solutions, needless to say for a myriad of reasons including greed and delusion nobody is going to explore them.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder

Cool concept, but how do you get enough oxygen in there? Even filling it up with water and dirt (for plant life) would be a massive ordeal.

Plus, haven't recent studies shown living in space is severely harmful to our bodies?

electric stove, no car. on the contrary, do people actually still have non-electric stoves anymore? that's like bad ancient technology lol

that said depending on where you live a lot of your electricity might come from fossil fuels anyway