The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track global extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Why World Peace Is Necessary to Fight the Climate Crisis…A Potential Ukranian Problem
Dear Diary. Ever since negotiations began during the 2010s that culminated in the Paris Accords there has been “semi-world peace.” I put this phrase in quotes because during the last decade there was conflict across the globe, such as the U.S. war in Afghanistan, but nothing that boiled over into a truly major world war. In global history since the beginning of the modern age around the year 1500 periods of peace have been few and far between. I posit that the last decade was one of those periods that those of us fighting climate change benefited from.
Now there is a new threat that has been percolating for longer than the Paris Accords have been with us, starting in 2014 when Putin initially invaded Ukraine and annexed the Crimea. The Cold War between west and east across Asia and Europe, which we have experienced off and on since the end of WWII, could become a hot war if Putin does not back down from using 100,000 troops to invade the rest of Ukraine.
Today let’s look at what a hot war over Ukraine would do to the climate crisis. To start, let’s suppose that nukes would not be involved. If they were, it would be game over for humanity, making the climate crisis moot. A prolonged hot war, besides causing a catastrophic great loss of life, would take focus away from the climate crisis, which hasn’t garnered enough attention anyway. Imagine a war devolving into pseudo-WWI fashion with both sides getting bogged down in trenches for a few months or even years. All media would be obsessed with covering the war relegating items, such as the climate crisis, to back pages for as long as the conflict lasted.
A Ukrainian war could hurt the world economy such that there would be less resources to move towards renewables. Also, if family pocketbooks are hurt, people would go into survival mode, not thinking about what they can do for their children’s future involving the climate crisis.
Another wildcard would be Covid-19. How would a hot war affect the pandemic? I shudder to think of disease spreading in Kiev, which might resemble Stalingrad from WWII if things get too out of hand.
Lastly, we already are seeing more carbon pollution from the Ukranian conflict. After all, what do you think fuels a 100,000-man army with all of its diesel-powered tanks, military vehicles, and associated backup air force and navy? Western European forces are no greener. A prolonged conflict would continue to spew much more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere than what we saw during the relative peace of the 2010s.
So, my friends, this plea is simple. If you are climate conscious, working for climate and social justice, you must work with our State Department and politicians for peace, as well.
Here are some “ET’s” from Thursday:
Here is more 2021 climatology:
Here is more climate and weather news from Thursday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid COVID-19 pandemic:
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Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”