The Most We Can Do

The crisis is not imminent. The crisis is here. The recent infernos in Australia, the storms and floods in Brazil, Madagascar, Spain and the US, the economic collapse in Somalia, caused in part by a devastating cycle of droughts and floods, are not, or not only, a vision of the future. They are signs of a current and escalating catastrophe.

George Monbiot.

This is why several governments and parliaments, the UK Parliament among them, have declared a climate emergency. But no one in government acts as if it is real. They operate within the old world of incremental planning for a disaster that has yet to arrive. 

Nowhere is this clearer than in the reports of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the official body that began with such hope and promise of holding the government to account, but that has now abandoned scientific realities in favour of political priorities.

From George Monbiot - “The Most We Can Do.”

Multi-day European heatwave takes Germany to all time heat high

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et another significant temperature record has fallen amid Europe’s intense, multi-day heatwave.

The scorching temperatures shifted to eastern Europe over the weekend after beginning in Spain, France and the U.K. early last week.

On Sunday, the German weather service Deutscher Wetterdienst announced that a new all-time hot temperature record was confirmed for the country. At 3:40 p.m. local time, Kitzingen, Germany reached a scorching high temperature of 104.5 degrees (40.3 degrees Celsius), breaking the old national temperature record of 104.4 degrees (40.2 degrees Celsius) which was previously set in 1983 and twice in 2003.

Read The Washington Post story - “Germany reaches new all-time hottest temperature during Europe heatwave”.

Australia's politicians procrastinate as Europe swelters

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ustralia’s politicians continue to procrastinate about whether or not global warming is human induced as Europe swelters in a record breaking heatwave that scientists are “nearly certain” is worsened by climate change.

Those who see growth and profit through business as usual have latched onto that infinitesimally small segment of doubt that sits between “nearly certain” and “certain” to call for a “do-nothing” approach, or “let’s wait until the real evidence is in” before we act.

Meanwhile Germany and Spain sweated and London sweltered through its hottest July day on record this week, scientists said it is "virtually certain" that climate change is increasing the likelihood of such heat waves in Europe.

In real-time data analysis released on Friday, a team of international climate scientists from universities, meteorological services and research organisations said the kind of heat waves hitting Europe this week - defined as three-day periods of excessive heat - are becoming much more frequent in the region.

In De Bilt in the Netherlands, for example, a heat wave like the one forecast for the next few days would have been a roughly 1-in-30-years event in the 1900s, according to the scientists.  It is now likely to happen every three and a half years, they said.

Read the Sydney Morning Herald story - “Scientists convinced European heat waves made more likely by climate change”.

Hottest May breaks all record temperatures on the continent

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n extreme May heat wave unprecedented in European recorded history has invaded Spain and Portugal, bringing the hottest May temperatures ever recorded on the continent.

Weather Underground reports: “According to the Spanish meteorological agency, AEMET, at least four stations in the Valencian Community of eastern Spain hit temperatures today in excess of the previous European May heat record set just eight days ago--a 41.9°C (107.4°F) reading at Catenanuova, Sicily (Italy) on May 6.”

Read the story - “All-Time May Heat Record for Europe Falls For the 2nd Time This Month”.