Did you notice? All the newscast headlines are screaming about the massive fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and droughts but a single word about the cause- CLIMATE CHANGE & GLOBAL HEATING.......except for the Guardian of course. All of this is the most shameful by the developed countries and the unholy union of the corporate sector, (especially fossil fuel companies) and governments found within. But it seems that the general public has now been lulled into complacency.....so society is presently merrily skipping on towards a precipice of disaster....tra-la-la-la........and guess what? ....there's no guarantee that any of the proposed climate geoengineering interventions such as spreading aerosols will be effective enough to save us and all the other biomes on this planet from burning in a living hell.
Your Choice - Climate Movement or Trump's Far Right Bowel Movement......read the article
There's a noticeable trend in news coverage where the dramatic impacts of extreme weather events like fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and droughts are highlighted, but the connection to climate change is often understated or absent in headlines. This creates a situation where the public is confronted with the consequences of climate change without a clear understanding of its root cause. Here's why this is problematic:

Lack of Context:
Headlines that focus solely on the immediate impact of these events without mentioning climate change fail to provide the necessary context for understanding the long-term trend and the role humans play in exacerbating these events.
Delayed Action:
When the public isn't made aware of the link between extreme weather and climate change, there's a risk of delayed or inadequate action on mitigation and adaptation strategies. Without understanding the cause, it's harder to grasp the urgency of the situation.
Misinformation:
The absence of climate change in headlines can create an opening for misinformation and denial, potentially eroding public trust in scientific findings.

Why is the link often omitted? Simplification: Headlines are often designed to be short and attention-grabbing, which can lead to oversimplification and the omission of complex information like climate change. Political Sensitivities: Climate change can be a politically charged topic, and some news organizations might be hesitant to highlight the link due to potential backlash. Focus on Immediate Impact: News outlets often prioritize the immediate impact of a disaster to capture audience attention, potentially sacrificing longer-term context. Uncertainty: While the scientific consensus on climate change is strong, some aspects of its impact on specific events can be difficult to predict with certainty. This can lead to hesitancy in explicitly linking an event to climate change in headlines. The Importance of Transparency.......It's crucial for news organizations to accurately and transparently report on the connection between climate change and extreme weather events. This includes....... Explicitly mentioning climate change in headlines: Even if it's a brief mention, it helps to contextualize the event.

Providing scientific context:
Including information about the role of climate change in intensifying these events helps the public understand the underlying causes.
Highlighting local impacts:
Focusing on the specific ways climate change is affecting local communities can make the issue more relatable and urgent.
Avoiding sensationalism:
While extreme weather is dramatic, focusing on the scientific evidence and the long-term implications is more effective in fostering informed public discourse.

Climate breakdown is not something in the future, it's here now. Already we are seeing more extreme weather events which can have a deadly impact, particularly in the poorest countries which have done least to cause the crisis.

The number of climate disasters has increased five-fold over recent decades. In the 1970s, 711 were recorded, but this number increased to 3536 in the 2000s and 3165 in the 2010s, a clear sign of climate breakdown. Better early warning systems have meant deaths have actually fallen over this period. But in the 2000s 329,000 people died from storms, floods, landslides, extreme heat, drought and wildfire, and 185,000 in the 2010s.

While people may be evacuated, their homes, farms and the infrastructure of towns and cities cannot be moved out of danger. Physical destruction and its economic cost has risen dramatically as climate disasters have increased. There is also an impact on ecosystems. The devastating Australian bushfires of 2019-20 are also estimated to have affected almost 3 billion animals, either killed or displaced with 'not great' prospects of survival.

Not all of these events make the headlines, and some which do are quickly forgotten, despite the fact that there is no full 'recovery' from some disasters. This page will be regularly updated with news of the most recent events and reports from ongoing crises. Some of these have a very clear link to human-caused global warming. Other extreme weather events fall within the range of 'normal' variability. However it is important to raise awareness of these too. As time goes on, patterns of increased frequency and severity can often be detected. They also help us remember how vulnerable particular regions (especially in the Global South) are to an increasingly destabilised climate.

For more information on the causal links between global heating and deadly events like drought, flooding, hurricanes and landslides, read on...... A more dangerous climate: why extreme weather events are becoming more common..............
Latest headlines
Cyclone Chido devastates Mayotte

Cyclone Chido killed 45 people in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi, but its most devastating impact was on Mayotte, an archipelago between Madagascar and Mozambique, is a department of France with an official population of 320,000. But there are as many as 200,000 more undocumented migrants, most from the nearby island of Comoros, and around one-third of the population live in densely populated, tin-roofed informal settlements, many of which were literally flattened by winds of up to 140mph. A large proportion of these undocumented migrants did not leave the slums for storm shelters because of fears of being deported, and casualties were buried without being reported so the true death toll from this disaster is very unlikely to ever be known. There is also of course the longer-term impact on mortality of the damage to livelihoods and immediate health impacts from losing access to clean water and other vital infrastructure.
Repeated storms hit the Philippines.......read on- the number of disasters due to Climate Change is enormous