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#flooding

berternste2@diasp.nl
Bert Ernste • NL | BR

An odd silence - at the end of humanity's hottest year...yet

The Crucial Years

The world—its politics, its economy, and its journalism—has trouble coping with the scale of the climate crisis. We can’t quite wrap our collective head around it, which has never been clearer to me than in these waning days of 2023.

Because the most important thing that happened this year was the heat. (...)

And yet you really wouldn’t know it from reading the wrap-ups of the year’s news now appearing on one website after another. (...)

Logo van The Crucial Years

Those stories in the Times and Post were a way to search for a new angle to a story that doesn’t change quite fast enough to count as news. (In geological terms, we’re warming at hellish pace; but that’s not how the 24/7 news cycle works.) (...) We’re programmed—by evolution, doubtless, and in the case of journalism by counting clicks—to look for novelty and for conflict. Climate change seems inexorable, which is the opposite of how we think about news.

The war in Gaza, by contrast, fits our defintions perfectly. (...) But in a sense, it is the very familiarity of the war that makes it easy for us to focus on it; “mideast conflict,” like “inflation” or “presidential elections,” is an easily-accessed template in our minds. (...) Next year seems likely to be another orgy of familiarity: Joe Biden and Donald Trump, yet again. (...)

[W]e’re literally in uncharted territory, dealing with temperatures no human society has ever dealt with before. And to head off the worst, we are going to require an industrial transition on a scale we’ve never seen before: there were signs this year that that transition has begun (by midsummer we were installing a gigawatt worth of solar panels a day) but it will have to go much much faster.

These changes—the physical ones, and the political and economic ones—are almost inconceivable to us. That’s my point; they don’t fit our easy templates. (...)

"The only really important question is, 'How many more years like this we have to have before the reality of how bad climate change is breaks into the public's consciousness?'" (...)

Complete article

Tags: #climate #climate_change #climate_crisis #heatwaves #extreme_weather #flooding #fossil_fuel #co2 #media #news #news_cycle #journalist #journalism

An odd silence

at the end of humanity's hottest year...yet

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aljazeera@squeet.me
Al Jazeera (unofficial)

India floods: Hundreds stranded after 'record rain' in Tamil Nadu

More than 20 people have been killed and hundreds of others displaced by floods in several districts in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The met depart...#India #Indialandslides #Indialatestnews #Indiamonsoonfloods #TamilNaduflooding #flooding #indiaflooddamages #monsoonrain #southeastasiafloods #southernindiafloods #tamilnadu
India floods: Hundreds stranded after 'record rain' in Tamil Nadu

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aljazeera@squeet.me
Al Jazeera (unofficial)

Israeli forces in Gaza drop leaflets quoting Quran

Israeli forces have dropped leaflets quoting the Quran in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled to and...#AlJazeera #AlJazeeraEnglish #Flood #Flooding #Gaza #Hamas #Israel #Palestine #Quran #War #alJazeera #aljazeeraEnglish #aljazeeralive #aljazeeravideo #aljazeeraEnglish #aljazeeralatest #aljazeeralive #aljazeeralivenews #latestnews #newsheadlines
Israeli forces in Gaza drop leaflets quoting Quran

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diane_a@diasp.org
𝕕𝕚𝕒𝕟𝕖𝕒

Seems like these "once in a century events" are happening daily now...

"Somalia is currently experiencing what the United Nations has termed a “once-in-a-century” #flooding event, following a historic drought. This natural #disaster has uprooted hundreds of thousands of people not only in Somalia but also in neighboring East African countries.

As of November 14, 2023, heavy rains and floods have impacted over 1.24 million people and displaced over 456 800 in Somalia. At least 32 fatalities have been reported, with the majority of those affected residing in the South West State."

#climatechange

https://watchers.news/2023/11/15/once-in-a-century-flood-disaster-strikes-somalia-over-450-000-displaced-1-2-million-affected-and-32-fatalities-reported/

‘Once-in-a-century’ flood disaster strikes Somalia: Over 450 000 displaced, 1.2 million affected and 32 fatalities reported

In a dramatic shift from drought to deluge, Somalia is experiencing unprecedented flooding described as a 'once-in-a-century' event by the UN. This natural disaster, exacerbated by El Niño and the…

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brainwavelost@nerdpol.ch
brainwavelost

Below some comments to the #TIME article about the 'Führerbunker-Stage of Zelensky's Conflict'

What #Russia did was carry out an absolutely simple and pedantic textbook reorientation of forces with a clear logic. In fact, that moment should have been an extremely chilling maneuver for #Ukraine. It should have signaled: “Uh oh…this means Russia is taking its gloves off.” The initial thunder-run on Kiev was merely a brazen attempt to avoid bloodshed and see if the conflict could be ended fast and early. But not having worked, Russian military planners clearly knew that now the entire operation had to be shifted into actual war footing, rather than mere enhanced special operations raid.

Everything changed from that point on. #Pro-Ukrainians should have keyed in on this and realized the heavyweight is now removing his gloves. But instead, what they did was run with the #propaganda that Russia is a defeated, cowardly, inept, and completely helpless paper tiger. This propaganda “worked” incredibly well, too well—but the problem is, it worked on the wrong side.

Instead of convincing Russians of it, it convinced the Ukrainians and Western public that the war had already been won, that Russia could never recover from this brutal “loss” (which was not a loss in the slightest but a strategic maneuver and concentration of forces). Since then, no one in Ukrainian society thought to take the war seriously anymore and Ukraine’s own “rear” end had dropped out, while Russia’s rear in fact throttled up into overdrive, in terms of the galvanization of society to supporting the troops and military machine top to bottom.

Now, the most aware pro-Ukrainian pundits are desperately trying to steer their flock back to rational thinking—but it’s too late.

In fact, this will be studied for generations as an example of a massive propaganda fail—a propaganda #campaign which destroyed its own side by way of inadequate attenuation and nuanced micromanagement of perceptions. They instead did a brute force #method of #flooding every which way without concerning themselves with who the propaganda was actually negatively affecting.

TIME Magazine Profile Depicts Grim Führerbunker-Stage of Zelensky's Conflict

The talk of the blogosphere is the new devastating TIME magazine profile on Zelensky which paints the most grim, 1945 Führerbunker portrait of Zelensky yet. Bernhard covers it well on MoA, but I’m going to retread some of the same points to take...

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berternste2@diasp.nl
Bert Ernste • NL | BR

The media needs to cover the climate crisis as seriously as it covered Covid

The Guardian

With some exceptions, the news industry is still not responding to the true scale and danger of global heating. (...)

Despite our living through the hottest summer in history, as well as wildfires, tropical storms and crazy-hot oceans, the news media continues to be outdone by the rest of popular culture when it comes to covering the most urgent story of our time.

(text continues underneath the picture.)

Photo of climate protest
‘With the planet on fire, more and better news coverage is itself an essential climate solution.’ Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.

Inexplicably, climate crisis remains a niche concern for most mainstream news outlets. In the US, most TV coverage of this summer’s hellish weather did not even mention the words “climate change” or “climate crisis”, much less explain that the burning of oil, gas and coal is what’s driving that hellish weather. Too many newsrooms continue to see climate as a siloed beat of specialists. (...)

Dramatic changes in climate have made increased news coverage of extreme weather unavoidable. But explaining the climate connection to extreme weather is a different task. Linking changes in the weather to the decisions being made by industry and government, that have overheated the planet is where news coverage needs to end up. (...)

In every newsroom in every community, climate crisis needs to be thought of not as a beat, but as a through-line involving everything we do. No corner of the newsroom is exempt – not business or culture, not sports or city hall. (...)

Can politics reporters and editors scale back their fixation on horse-race coverage and instead provide the kind of coverage that voters need to make informed choices? Election coverage should help audiences understand what the candidates will do about the climate crisis if elected, not just what they say. It should hold candidates accountable by asking them not (as Fox did at the first US Republican debate last month) whether they believe in climate change but rather, “What is your plan to deal with the climate crisis?”

Overall, we also need much more and better coverage of climate solutions. (...)

What else does “more and better” climate coverage mean? We expect some answers to emerge this week at Climate Changes Everything: Creating a Blueprint for Media Transformation, a conference at the Columbia Journalism School in New York. (...)

With the planet on fire, more and better news coverage is itself an essential climate solution. Only when the general public understands what is happening, why and what needs to be done, can large enough numbers of people compel governments and corporations to change course. (...)

But the news industry as a whole is still not matching the scale of the crisis with the kind of coverage that’s required. (...)

Complete article

> See also: Climate Collapse – The Grim Silence Of Our Leaders (Media Lens)

Tags: #climate #climate_change #climate_crisis #fossil_fuels #co2 #pollution #air_pollution #global_warming #extreme_weather #forest_fires #flooding #heat_waves #health #climate_deniers #propaganda #fake_news #disinformation #capitalism #industrial_capitalism #media #news #news_media #journalist #journalism #Covering_Climate_Now

aljazeera@squeet.me
Al Jazeera (unofficial)

Protests erupt in flood-stricken Libyan city of Derna

Hundreds of flood survivors in Libya are protesting in the city of Derna. They’re demanding accountability from authorities who they accuse of failing to mai...#AlJazeera #AlJazeeraEnglish #alJazeera #aljazeeraEnglish #aljazeeralive #aljazeeravideo #aljazeeraEnglish #aljazeeralatest #aljazeeralive #aljazeeralivenews #derna #flooding #floods #justice #latestnews #libya #newsheadlines #protest #revolution #tripoli
Protests erupt in flood-stricken Libyan city of Derna

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berternste2@diasp.nl
Bert Ernste • NL | BR

Climate Collapse – The Grim Silence Of Our Leaders

Media Lens

None of us has previously witnessed a barrage of extreme weather events of the kind that has been devastating lives across the globe this summer. (...)

Almost as astonishing has been the indifference of our leaders. The silence has been deafening. Where are they? Why is no-one joining the dots and demanding some kind of serious response? (...)

(Text conitinues underneath the picture.)

Aerial photo of burnt town
.

Broadcaster and author Stephen Fry said on the BBC:

‘Extraordinary that you can have a conversation with an economics minister in Labour who didn’t even mention the climate catastrophe coming, that there’s a tsunami coming towards us… yet everyone is talking about just doing the same thing only better. It’s catastrophic.’ (...)

Or compare with NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus, previously arrested for defending the Earth:

‘Dear journalists of the world: We are at risk of losing basically everything. This – what we’re experiencing now – is how that process unfolds. The more fossil fuels we burn, the further in that process we go.

‘You MUST begin to tell 5 critical truths. Civilization depends on it.’

Despite the overwhelming evidence that climate catastrophe is not just a looming threat, it is here; despite the desperate pleading for help from climate scientists; and despite the surreal silence and indifference of Western political leaders, a stubborn rump of opinion continues to insist that the climate crisis is a cynical scam promoted by vested interests. (...)

It is crucial to look deeper because the reality becomes clear when we ask even the simplest of rational questions:

How does the [media] coverage afforded to climate collapse compare to coverage afforded to other comparable threats?

How much of this coverage recognises the true severity of the threat, its true corporate causes and the business-unfriendly revolution in priorities required if it is to be addressed? (...)

As recently as April 2019, even after the start of the mass climate protests a year earlier, Columbia Journalism Review reported:

‘Yet at a time when civilization is accelerating toward disaster, climate silence continues to reign across the bulk of the US news media. Especially on television, where most Americans still get their news… Many newspapers, too, are failing the climate test. Last October, the scientists of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a landmark report, warning that humanity had a mere 12 years to radically slash greenhouse-gas emissions or face a calamitous future in which hundreds of millions of people worldwide would go hungry or homeless or worse. Only 22 of the 50 biggest newspapers in the United States covered that report.’ (...)

Corporate media are not making this the World War Three-style crisis it clearly is. Indeed, the deepest causes and solutions of the crisis are rarely even mentioned. The irony is that climate deniers are convinced the ‘mainstream’ is giving climate collapse heavy coverage precisely because the ‘mainstream’ has obscured the true scale of a crisis that actually merits vastly more coverage. (...)

Thus, while it is, of course, true that our world is currently awash with corporate propaganda downplaying the reality of climate collapse, the disturbing truth is that these deceptions often find a receptive audience. Why? Because many people don’t want to consume less or less cheaply; they don’t want to drive or fly less or less cheaply; they don’t want to be denied ever-expanding consumption. (...)

When industrial capitalism tries to impose infinite economic growth on a finite planet, loss of freedom is the inevitable ultimate result. At this point, we have a painful choice between losing some personal freedoms and losing literally everything.

Complete article

Tags: #climate #climate_change #climate_crisis #fossil_fuels #co2 #pollution #air_pollution #global_warming #extreme_weather #forest_fires #flooding #heat_waves #health #climate_deniers #propaganda #fake_news #disinformation #capitalism #industrial_capitalism

mlansbury@despora.de
Mark Lansbury

Russia blocks UN aid for Kakhovka dam collapse victims

Moscow has rejected United Nations’ offers to help people in Russian-occupied areas affected by flooding from the collapsed Nova Kakhovka Dam.

The floods destroyed homes and farmland, forced the evacuation of thousands, contaminated supplies of drinking water and sparked fears of environmental disaster.

The UN urged Russia to act in accordance with its obligations under international humanitarian law.

“The UN will continue to do all it can to reach all people – including those suffering as a result of the recent dam destruction – who urgently need life-saving assistance, no matter where they are,” Denise Brown, UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said in a statement on Sunday.

“Aid cannot be denied to people who need it.”

The death toll from the disaster has risen to 52, with Russian officials saying 35 people had died in areas under its control and Ukraine’s interior ministry saying 17 had died and 31 were missing. More than 11,000 people have been evacuated on both sides.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/19/russia-blocks-un-aid-for-kakhovka-dam-collapse-victims

#RussiaInvadedUkraine #WarCrimes #KakhovkaDam #flooding #InternationalLaw #HumanitarianAid #PutinWarCriminal #CrimesAgainstHumanity #Ukraine #StandWithUkraine

Russia blocks UN aid for Kakhovka dam collapse victims

Massive flooding caused by dam breach has contaminated drinking water and led to bans on swimming and eating seafood.

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mlansbury@despora.de
Mark Lansbury

Greenpeace names conditions for Kakhovka disaster lawsuit against Russia

A trial against Russia due to the Kakhovka Dam destruction may be launched at the International Criminal Court (ICC) if evidence emerges on concrete individuals involved, #Greenpeace legal advisor Daniel Simons said on June 13.

"There is an active campaign to recognize 'ecocide' as an international crime, but the international community has not yet reached an agreement on this issue," Simons commented.

"However, Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute of the ICC qualifies as a crime the intentional attack that causes extensive, lasting, and serious damage to the surrounding natural environment, which will be clearly excessive in comparison with concrete and immediately expected general military advantage," he explained.

Simons said a war crimes trial may therefore be opened against specific individuals who ordered the dam's destruction, intentionally inflicting damage to the environment.

https://kyivindependent.com/media-greenpeace-names-conditions-for-kakhovka-disaster-lawsuit-against-russia/

#RussiaInvadedUkraine #ecocide #KakhovkaDam #ecology #flooding #pollution #WarCrimes #RussianWarCrimes #CrimesAgainstHumanity #ICC #InternationalLaw #PutinWarCriminal

Media: Greenpeace names conditions for Kakhovka disaster lawsuit against Russia

A trial against Russia due to the Kakhovka Dam destruction may be launched at the International Criminal Court (ICC) if evidence emerges on concrete individuals involved, Greenpeace legal advisor Daniel Simons said on June 13.

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