Climate Crisis - Haggard Earth

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Climate Crisis; Hits: 11

United Nations Declares That the World Has Entered an Era of ‘Global Water Bankruptcy’.We’re living beyond our hydrological means and need to focus on long-term recovery, according to a new report,Smithsonian Sara HashemiJan 23,2026 Life around the world has been feeling the effects of climate change, land degradation, deforestation, pollution and the overuse of water. Ultimately, most regions are using too much of their renewable “income” of water from rivers and snowmelt and have emptied their “savings” in groundwater and other reservoirs, ushering in an era of “global water bankruptcy,” according to a United Nations report released on January 20.2026 his report tells an uncomfortable truth: Many regions are living beyond their hydrological means, and many critical water systems are already bankrupt,” says Kaveh Madani, the report’s lead author and director of the U.N. University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health, in a statement. He also proposes a formal scientific definition for water bankruptcy, which contrasts with the phrase “water crisis,” a term best suited for sudden, short-lived events, Madani argues.

“The bitter reality for many water systems worldwide is that they are facing both insolvency and irreversibility,” he writes in a paper published January 19 in the journal Water Resources Management. Water bankruptcy refers to “a state in which a human-water system has spent beyond its hydrological means for so long that it can no longer satisfy the claims upon it without inflicting unacceptable or irreversible damage to nature.” Four billion people face severe water scarcity for at least one month each year. The work highlights several hotspots. In the Middle East and North Africa, high water stress and climate vulnerability intersect with complex political economies. Tehran, the capital of Iran, recently came dangerously close to running out of water [and also is experiencing a drought] “Water plays a major role in economies … because it puts people [in] jobs,” Madani tells Alec Luhn at New Scientist. “If they lose their jobs, what happens is what you see in Iran today.”

South Asia faces chronic declines in water tables because of groundwater-dependent agriculture and urbanization. Those shortages then affect agriculture, and consequently, the global food supply. “Millions of farmers are trying to grow more food from shrinking, polluted or disappearing water sources,” Madani says to the Guardian’s Damian Carrington. “Water bankruptcy in India or Pakistan, for example, also means an impact on rice exports to a lot of places around the world.”The American Southwest is another region with significant water problems. Researchers behind a 2017 study estimated that the Colorado River’s flow has dropped by about 20 percent in the 21st century compared with the average flow in the previous century. That’s causing conflict between Western states over how to manage the river’s dwindling waterof the global population lives in water-insecure or critically water-insecure countries, according to the U.N. report.“

The global scope of the report is useful in showing repeat patterns,” Melissa Scanlan, director of the Center for Water Policy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, tells Sarah Kaplan at the Washington Post. “It’s not just the Southern Hemisphere; it’s not just the Middle East. There is something larger at play in terms of how we’re treating water across the world,” says Scanlan, who was not involved in the U.N. report.The report calls for global action to tackle the widespread water issue......read on https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/united-nations-declares-that-the-world-has-entered-an-era-of-global-water-bankruptcy-180988045/

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Ongoing European Heatwave, Most Severe Ever Recorded, ‘Virtually Impossible’ 50 Years Ago: Study Earth.Org EuropeJun 26th 2026A record-shattering, ongoing heatwave affecting much of Europe would have been virtually impossible just decades ago, proof that human-caused climate change is “unequivocally” to blame, a new analysis has concluded. Much of northern, western and central Europe is sweltering under a heatwave this week that is shattering temperature records. Red alerts are in place in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and France. The heatwave is the most severe ever recorded in the region, according to the World Weather Attribution research group, which is behing the attribution study. Attribution studies quantify the effect of human-caused warming on extreme weather events like heatwaves and hurricanes. Scientists analyze observation-based weather and forecast data, comparing how these types of events have changed from past cooler climates to today’s climate, which is approximately 1.4C warmer compared to pre-industrial times.

For this study, researchers compared the ongoing heatwave to 1976 and 2003, which were 1.1C and 0.6C cooler, respectively. In 1976, when some of the previous European records were set, such a heatwave would have been “virtually impossible,” they concluded. Compared to 2003, when the first European heatwave of this century took place, chances of such a heatwave occurring at this time of year were “tens to hundreds times” lower. A staggering 45% of 854 cities analyzed across 30 European countries have broken, or are expected to break, their all-time record for wet-bulb globe temperature – a measure of environmental heat stress on the human body that accounts for air temperature and humidity – this week. Excessively hot and humid conditions can be deadly because they disrupt human thermoregulation – the physiological process that maintains a steady internal body temperature (ideally between 36.5°C and 37.5°C) regardless of external conditions......read on https://earth.org/ongoing-european-heatwave-most-severe-ever-recorded-virtually-impossible-50-years-ago-study/ AND....... Paris court rules TotalEnergies must disclose climate risks linked to emissions from its products.

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Can methane cuts pull us back from the brink of climate breakdown. Guardian Fiona Harvey in Belém 16 N0v 2025 With temperatures breaching the Paris limit, experts say tackling the powerful gas could buy crucial time as the clean-energy shift stalls. For two years, global temperatures have exceeded the 1.5C heating limit laid out in the Paris climate agreement. This overshooting will have “devastating consequences”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has warned.

The biggest worry for scientists is that further heating could trigger irreversible tipping points, such as the widespread drying out and dying off of the Amazon, or the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, beyond which climate breakdown could spiral out of control. For the UN, and the world, minimising and, if possible, reversing that “overshoot” must now be the priority. But shifting the world’s energy systems to burn less fossil fuel is taking decades, time we no longer have to spare. Some scientists believe the answer lies elsewhere: with the powerful greenhouse gas, methane.

“Cutting methane is the single most important strategy to slow near-term warming,” says Durwood Zaelke, the president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, and a longtime advocate of action on methane. “In fact, it’s the only strategy that has a chance of working. Cutting carbon dioxide is a marathon, but methane is a sprint.”Methane, the main component of the natural gas that is burned around the world for fuel, is produced by natural and human-made processes, including leaky oil and gas infrastructure, livestock, and the rotting of organic material. Once in the atmosphere, it is about 80 times more powerful in trapping heat than carbon dioxide, but has a shorter life, breaking down in about 20 years.

Scientists estimate that methane alone has driven at least a third of the warming in recent years. New satellites and detection systems have revealed an unexpected truth: many countries have been massively underreporting their methane emissions, and the quantities of the gas being poured into the atmosphere have been climbing strongly, even while carbon dioxide output has been slowing.

Cutting methane would give the planet essential breathing space, staving off the worst consequences of climate breakdown while the transition to a clean energy future gathers pace. Global temperature rises could be held down by about 0.3C in the next decade with a 40% cut in methane, or by as much as 0.5C by 2050 with further cuts. If the world is to minimise the overshoot of the threshold of 1.5C above preindustrial levels, action on methane is indispensable. “It’s the rocket in the pocket,” says Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate adviser. “It’s effective and it’s cheap to reduce methane – two-thirds of the reductions needed from the energy sector could be done at zero net cost.”

A paper published in October in the peer-review journal Science found that substantial cuts to methane could delay key tipping points: it could reduce the likelihood of the Amazon rainforest dying back by about 8%, and of disruption to the Indian monsoon by about 13%.The study also found that reducing methane paid for itself three times over – or six times over if health benefits were included. Cutting methane by a third by 2030 would be worth about $1tn a year for the global economy. Simon Dietz, a professor at the London School of Economics who cowrote the study, says: “The benefits of global methane action look so much larger than the costs that the economic case for action is clear. [It is] not only feasible but also economically compelling.”.....read on https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/16/methane-cuts-climate-breakdown-cop30

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A Powerful El Niño Is Forming. If History Is a Guide, It Could Hit Hard.NY Times Chico Harlan May 21 2026The biggest episodes of the past have altered the course of human events, according to researchers. An emerging one is drawing historic comparisons. Well before it was understood, the El Niño phenomenon was leaving its marks on humanity.El Niño is the name given to powerful shifts in Pacific Ocean winds and water temperatures that can drastically transform global weather patterns. Over the centuries these natural patterns have sparked epic droughts and heat waves, and have intensified epidemics. Some academics even claim to see the fingerprints of El Niño on political and economic crises in ancient Egypt, or on the downfall of the Moche civilization in present-day Peru, more than 1,000 years ago. And in 1877 and 1878, a famine fueled by El Niño killed millions of people across the tropics, hardening inequities that, as one research paper put it, “would later be characterized as the ‘first world’ and ‘third world.’”

Right now, the world is entering a new El Niño phase. Researchers are warning it could be one of the strongest on record and are invoking this history as an admonition that natural forces, when they reach their highest magnitude, and water temperatures that can drastically transform global weather patterns.Over the centuries these natural patterns have sparked epic droughts and heat waves, and have intensified epidemics. Some academics even claim to see the fingerprints of El Niño on political and economic crises in ancient Egypt, or on the downfall of the Moche civilization in present-day Peru, more than 1,000 years ago. And in 1877 and 1878, a famine fueled by El Niño killed millions of people across the tropics, hardening inequities that, as one research paper put it, “would later be characterized as the ‘first world’ and ‘third world.’” Right now, the world is entering a new El Niño phase. Researchers are warning it could be one of the strongest on record and are invoking this history as an admonition that natural forces, when they reach their highest magnitude, can lead to profound volatility and hardship.

In general, El Niño makes for wetter conditions in some parts of the Americas while suppressing the Atlantic hurricane season. The phenomenon raises the risk of dryness in South and Southeast Asia, Australia, and southern Africa. Of course, the current El Niño is in the early stages of formation and might not live up to the hype. But if the forecasts prove accurate, it would be a whopper and its consequences would play out across a world that has grown far more resilient but also has new vulnerabilities.
Compared with those early times, countries today track El Niño events with oceanic gauges and early warning systems. Agriculture is far more sophisticated, and many countries vulnerable to food shocks hold strategic grain reserves. Nobody is predicting large-scale famine.

But experts say an El Niño would add pressure to an already precarious global system. Fertilizer shortages caused by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz are straining farmers. Rising energy prices resulting from war in Ukraine and Iran are eating into countries’ budgets. And a longstanding safety net has been weakened by cuts in foreign aid to poorer countries by the United States and other nations.Well before it was understood, the El Niño phenomenon was leaving its marks on humanity. El Niño is the name given to powerful shifts in Pacific Ocean winds and water temperatures that can drastically transform global weather patterns. Over the centuries these natural patterns have sparked epic droughts and heat waves, and have intensified epidemics.Some academics even claim to see the fingerprints of El Niño on political and economic crises in ancient Egypt, or on the downfall of the Moche civilization in present-day Peru, more than 1,000 years ago. And in 1877 and 1878, a famine fueled by El Niño killed millions of people across the tropics, hardening inequities that, as one research paper put it, “would later be characterized as the ‘first world’ and ‘third world.’”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/climate/el-nino-history-famine.html?algo=combo_lda_unique_triton_clicks_decay_96_50_ranks&campaign_id=346&emc=edit_wor_20260523&fellback=false&imp_id=2153876527432726&instance_id=176042&nl=the-world&pool=programmingnode/b11024ba-b334-50f7-8466-48e826f3ddb8&regi_id=100847317&req_id=2172927252887425&segment_id=220350&surface=the-world-nl&user_id=284acdf0ea1b080a3966b6c47b8c38c0&variant=0_only_variant

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Climate Crisis; Hits: 53

A global movement opposing climate policies is on the rise Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Jan22, 2025 Corey Binns Stanford researchers find resistance to climate action has become a global movement that strengthens after governments implement climate-related policies. Stanford-led research in PLOS One reveals a growing constellation of think tanks, research institutes, trade associations, foundations, and other groups actively working to oppose climate science and policy. The number of countries with at least one such “counter climate change organization” has more than doubled over the past 35 years. According to the Jan. 22 study, the two factors most closely linked to the formation of at least one counter climate change organization are the strength of a country’s commitment to protecting the natural environment and the level of formal organization in its social sector. “We found that counter climate change organizations tend to emerge after pro-environmental policies are institutionalized in government,” said senior study author Patricia Bromley, associate professor of environmental social sciences in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and of education at Stanford Graduate School of Education.

Reacting to government policies......Bromley set out in 2021 to understand why counter climate change organizations form in some countries and not others. Working with lead study author Jared Furuta, a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, she assembled and analyzed data going back to 1990 from previous studies spanning 164 countries. Prior to 1990, just two years after the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “there was little to mobilize against,” the authors write. Although more than 60% of the 548 organizations identified in the study are based in the United States, the groups are now present in 51 countries – up from 25 in 1990. The economic interests of the energy and agricultural sectors – which together contribute more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions – are certainly involved in shaping the counter climate change movement, said Furuta. Countries with oil revenues as a higher percentage of GDP are less likely to have a counter climate change organization, according to the analysis. “Our study finds that one thing that ties these organizations together is their reaction to government policies aimed at combating climate change,” Furuta said. The authors found no links between the presence of counter climate change organizations and nations’ greenhouse gas emissions per capita or industrial activity. They excluded for-profit companies and government agencies from their list but did not examine counter climate change organizations’ sources of funding........read on https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/global-movement-opposing-climate-policies-rise

World Has Entered an Era of ‘Global Water Bankruptcy’

Ongoing European Heatwave, Most Severe Ever Recorded, ‘Virtually Impossible’ 50 Years Ago

Can Methane Cuts pull us back from the Brink of Climate Breakdown.

A Powerful El Niño Is Forming. If History Is a Guide, It Could Hit Hard.

A Global Movement Opposing Climate Policies is on the Rise

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