I recently saw a joke that Germans were down to one shower a week and tourism had fallen off. Now I can't find it again, and I'm not sure anymore that it was a joke.
Did Germany foresee the Rhine River drying up when they gave in to U.S. pressure not to certify the NordStream 2 gas pipeline from Russia? The U.S. told them: no problem we will sell you fracked gas which we'll deliver via shipping. "German energy nightmare," indeed.
Drought in the western part of the continental U.S. is also reaching epic proportions,
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So, what does the U.S. government do? Pass a "climate" bill with provisions to expand fossil fuel extraction! Congress at this point in history can only pass legislation if it benefits their wealthy donors. (The bill also extended the Unaffordable Care Act for three years. Because that will definitely bring down the global temperature.)
Of course, it's not just Germany. England is also in a drought exacerbated by record high temperatures.
Drought in the western part of the continental U.S. is also reaching epic proportions,
and fire season is a thing of the past because now it's pretty much year round.
The “everything is fine” gif in real life. https://t.co/qWaSb9PKx6
— Anne with an "e" (@mrsmaris) August 11, 2022
Drought in eastern Africa is also at life-threatening levels.
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Source: Flickr "1.5 million livestock heads have been lost in southern Ethiopia already. The migration of people and livestock from drought-affected areas is straining already scarce resources in host communities. 285,000 people are displaced."
© European Union, 2022 (photographer: Silvya Bolliger)
It's a major reason that Democrats and Republicans are rapidly losing the consent of the governed, and we are running out of time to take action designed to protect life on Earth.
The other anti-climate bill is, of course, massive military spending authorized for FY23.
To name just one small part of the problem, what's the climate impact of all those weapons the U.S. is sending to Ukraine for use in a war they can't win? Reporting from your state-affiliated corporate media doesn't dare ask that question.
Also increasingly evident is massive expansion of (militarized*) space exploration. From "Increased Spaceflight Will Warm Earth's Stratosphere 4 Degrees, Study Finds" by Caroline Delbert in Popular Mechanics:
In new research published earlier this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) simulates the effect of greatly increased spaceflight on the stratosphere. The results show that planned spaceflight over the next few decades could raise Earth’s temperature, change global air currents, and dampen the ozone layer. The study appears in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmosphere.
* All U.S. space exploration and development is military in nature, no matter what NASA says.
But not to worry, everything is fine.
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