Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know we’ve got a whopper of an El Niño on the way. I’ve shared this article before – Last Time an El Niño Was This Bad, It Killed 50 Million People – however, what most people miss when they discuss this event (which happened in the late 1880’s) is the mass deaths, especially in India, happened due to colonialism. The British shipped food from India back to the UK, leaving the Indians to starve.
The Indian government will not do that this time. It will keep the food in the country to take care of its people, as it did in the last El Niño event, when it didn’t allow certain rice to be shipped abroad. So that means shortages in other places – maybe where you live?
I recommend listening to this historian taking us back to major El Niño events of the past, which provides an opportunity to reflect on what could be in our short-term future, as well as what we need to do to prepare. It’s a fascinating insight, because did you know the French Revolution happened during a Super El Niño?
However, while fascinating, what this interview doesn’t include is the multiple crisis merging with a Super or Godzilla El Niño. It is landing in a much hotter world, marine heatwaves are already alarming scientists, AND the shocks from the war in Iran are still not being fully felt. While economic impacts are expected to be huge, it is the impact on fertilizer that is a real concern, because we’ll have extreme heat AND farmers not planting food because they don’t have or can’t afford fertilizer.
Some articles worth reading
- World Map Shows Where El Niño Will Hit Hard – Newsweek
- El Niño could be a systemic shock that we must prepare for | World Economic Forum
- “Shocking temperatures”: scientists stunned as the sea heats up way too soon – Futura-Sciences
- How a monster ocean heatwave could fuel a super El Niño – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
And to give you a view of the economic impact happening right now, here’s a piece on Asia (hint, the news isn’t good).
Extreme heat news
We’ve seen a lot of news about extreme heat across the world, and it is only going to get worse as this El Niño builds, but one very important point to remember is rice starts to fail once temperatures pass 40°C. We are well past those temperatures in Asia, and between 50% and 75% of the world relies on rice as a staple.
- Temperatures exceed 45°C as brutal summer heatwave hits India | The World | ABC News
- The Pilgrimage to Mecca Is Becoming More Dangerous as Mideast Warms – Yale E360
- India’s Climate Emergency Grows, PM Modi Issues Urgent Public Warning | Planet Pulse | N18G
- Cooling poverty is making extreme heat more dangerous for millions
- India’s Heatwave Crisis: Summer Pollution, Hotter Nights And Power Cuts Worsen Misery| Sneha Mordani – YouTube
- Pakistan Heatwave: Dadu Bakes Under Record 51.5°C | WION Climate Tracker
- The sustained heatwave in India and Pakistan is quite dangerous – Asia Times
- World almost certain to endure record hot year by 2030, UN warns | Climate crisis | The Guardian
- One Day Of Extreme Heat Causes 3,400 Excess Deaths Across India, Study Estimates
- Explainer: Why is climate change causing ‘record-shattering’ extreme heat? – Carbon Brief
- Too hot, too humid: why the sustained heatwave in India and Pakistan is so dangerous
Heat isn’t just about humans
All life on earth, on land and in the oceans, is impacted by heat. All life on our planet sustains us – The planet under heat stress: impacts beyond people and assets | PreventionWeb.
Other environment news
- Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System – The New York Times – ‘cos ignorance is bliss
- Arctic ocean passes ‘irreversible’ chemical tipping point – Oceanographic – sigh
- Warming unlocks ancient carbon in Tibetan permafrost, triggering climate tipping point – double sigh
And then there’s this…
Other news discussed on The Sh*t Show
We try to cover a lot of the show and never get through it all, but here are the main stories worth paying attention to.
- Timothy Snyder: We are watching the US attempt a superpower suicide – the Nerve
- New Cancer Pill Given Standing Ovation at Oncology Conference – Newsweek
- EU launches major tech push to break US and China dependence | Euronews
- ‘Godzilla’ El Niño could be one of the strongest ever recorded | BBC News
- About the 60 section 301 investigations –USTR issues Section 301 determinations on forced-labor investigations across 60 economies; additional duties proposed and comment period open
- Somalia needs a political settlement before it is too late | Opinions | Al Jazeera
- Somalia: Drought, fuel prices, and conflicts heighten famine risk · Global Voices
- Putin remains uncompromising on Ukraine, but is public discourse on war changing in Russia? – BBC
- 7 Things That Pauline Hanson Will Be Awesome At When She Becomes Prime Minister – Betoota Advocate
- Jeff Bezos Is Funding a Wild Hunt for the Brain’s ‘Core Algorithm’ | WIRED
- Trump administration signals to GOP congressional leaders it will back off $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ fund | CNN Politics
- Elon Musk’s SpaceX eyes $1.77tn valuation ahead of blockbuster IPO | Technology News | Al Jazeera
- No One Can Reopen the Strait of Hormuz – and That Is the New Regional Order – Byline Times
- Keir Starmer calls out Farage’s “pure, cold rage” comments during PMQs
And when it comes to the Manosphere, worth a watch
Friends content and my own
Cindy Tien joined us on The Sh*t Show, and she recently published her first book, Inside, Break Through Your BS to Influence Yourself. A great discussion on how we can manage ourselves, and with all the crisis’ coming our way, this is a superpower.
We had Nicola Upham on The Sh*t Show last week and she shared how cuts to global aid don’t just impact those in need, but also those who serve their communities.
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This news curation tool covers news and thought leadership across all issues relevant to the polycrisis, as well as some light stuff, because we can’t be serious all the time. To get to the news, click through on the image below, and a reminder, this goes back weeks, so have a scan and read/watch/listen to whatever jumps out at you. The categories are right on top as well, so you can dig into whatever issue you care about.
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