Tidbits

Forget atmospheric rivers and heat domes. Here come “heat storms”. Never heard of one? Well, more dunce you because you’re currently being cooked by them. And get ready for the herd of independent minds to gallop flaming in unison. See “In less than a lifetime, about six and a half decades, heat waves have evolved from sporadic, isolated episodes to massive, cascading weather events that can blanket vast swaths of the planet for months or even years at a time.” And yes, we are all going to die: “To continue calling such sprawling phenomena “heat waves” would be like calling a monsoon a rain shower.” Reuters is doing a whole series on how “Giant ‘heat storms’ are scorching the earth” and turning it red or even purple and so forth. Including fishing for clickbait with “Share your personal experience during heat storms with our journalists. Most of the world has experienced fast-changing and extreme weather phenomena like the heat storms this year. Some have lost a home, a loved one, or have seen their environment drastically changed. Tell us your story.” Um it’s currently 12C and cooling fast.
With the admittedly clever subject line “Nine-inch snails” the Atlantic “Weekly Planet” informs us of a modern Attack of the Giant Leeches involving giant African land snails. It seems they have “worried Florida authorities since 1969” and are big and disgusting and slimy. And there was a huge issue with them in 2011. So obviously (drum roll please) it’s climate change. “GALS are prevalent across a thick belt of the globe, centered on the equator, and their slime trail is widening: After expanding their range from East Africa through Madagascar, India, and the Pacific Islands, they have lately been spotted in Argentina, Beijing, and, somehow, the Italian Alps. And as climate change makes more of the world warmer and wetter, they could conquer even more territory.” Unless they don’t. But having already spread to the Alps and to Florida more than 50 years ago, they’re clearly on the march because of recent warming. To people who think everything is climate.
If you’re one, and want apocalypse and want it now and have the attention span of a fruit fly, Formerly Scientific American promises “Earth’s life-support systems are being pushed beyond stable limits – and changes are speeding up, a new report says. | 2 min read”. Cuz like who wants to waste 5 minutes on spiraling into fiery doom? Seven trumpets? How long’s that gonna take? Mind you the actual piece, again promising to get it all over with in two minutes in case you have a bus to catch or something, does say seven of 16 “key markers of Earth’s climate” have reached “record extremes”. But it doesn’t list all seven, just four, lest you get bored. We did.
So close, and yet… a writer on climate in the New York Times says “Rapid warming in the Himalayas is increasing the threat of catastrophic floods like the ones that killed thousands in Nepal and Tibet this summer. Yet in recent years, people have continued to build in flood-prone areas, putting more lives and property at risk, according to a new analysis of satellite data.” But what he misses is that with more and more people building in flood-prone areas, you don’t need an increase in floods (and none has been documented) to get more devastation and more awareness of it.
Supposedly sea level rise will wash away Canada’s Arctic along with everything else, just as fast and sooner. But an alert reader shares with us an X post noting that due to “isostatic rebound”, that thing where the land is rising because natural melting (gad, is there such a thing?) removed the weight of the glaciers more recently. “Hudson Bay is actually shrinking rapidly. Along some of its very flat shores, the coastline can advance by as much as four metres (14 feet) a year as the land rises out of the water.” Seems sea levels are, of all things, complicated due to natural processes.
Canadian politics is riddled with silly Days, Weeks and Months in which politicians claim we all celebrate something we don’t using words we don’t know. But we were struck that this year’s “National Fire Prevention Week” (and no, we don’t remember when it was any more than you do, perhaps due to our strange preoccupation with preventing fires 365 days a year not just seven) “has put the spotlight on preventing and containing lithium-ion battery fires.” Maybe it comes just after National EV week. Just kidding. There’s no such thing. There used to be, but now it’s an entire “National Drive Electric Month”, though it’s from Sept. 11 through Oct. 12 so they do not know how long a month is or when one starts. Also Sept. 9 is “World EV Day”. And it actually does overlap with Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 4 through 10, with the theme “Safe Charging Is a Superpower”. And it better be, because it seems the more of these things the government forces us to put up with in ever-larger concentrations, the more likely they are to ignite and burn in ways “traditional fire protection systems” can’t cope with meaning “Fires in battery plants can quickly grow out of control like the fire in a plant in South Korea where as many as 23 lives were lost.” O Brave Green Energy Transition, that hath such hazards in it.

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