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Students collapse, water shortages, misery, and a mass mortality event all plague Mexico. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-06-26  

Where the fuck is the media? Most of them are completely useless for today's challenges.

Northern Mexico will endure temperatures up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit as a relentless heat dome provides no relief from deadly temperatures that have baked the Mexican people for weeks, and they have no choice but to suffer.

Of course, the national media is asleep at the wheel as always and fail to discuss the issue of a rapidly heating planet and the death spiral of the climate system we have known for 11,000 years. What is happening to the earth should be an International priority daily. Kind of like Donald Trump is but more critical for human-kind survival.

When news on the heat dome does grab the media's attention, it stops at the Texas border as if suffering brought about by the climate crisis recognizes international borders.

Experts report that the heat dome will expand into Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana. Millions will join Texans and Mexicans in a brutal assault on the ability to survive without air conditioning. But it is not just North America that suffers. Central America and the Caribbean also are dealing with record-smashing temperatures.

Reporting does not include losing our fellow species to severe environmental conditions. Their pain and suffering and critical role in the web of life are rarely considered by most and totally ignored by corporate media. They are on their own, as are we.

Central America, Afghanistan, and Papua New Guinea are some regions identified where it will be impossible to survive for a significant part of the year. They do not have the resources to prepare themselves for the oncoming disaster. The world will be tested.

x Mexico has been suffering through one of its worst heatwaves in its history for the last 7+ days and it shows no sign of letting up over the next week as a relentless heat dome stays parked overhead.



Northern Mexico could soar as high as 50°C (122°F) over the next few days. pic.twitter.com/Q57DWGeaPX — Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) June 22, 2023

x Interesting to see how the "heat dome" is created, by the jet stream, in huge loops.

The heat dome has settled above Mexico and parts of the US south-west and is caused by hot ocean air that has become trapped in the atmosphere.

Temperatures over 45C https://t.co/1dlNncNjll — Biodiversityloss (@BiodiversitySoS) June 26, 2023

The Heat

At least 50 million people have been placed under extreme heat advisories as temperatures are forecast to soar at least 5-10C above the climatological average, with daily maximum temperatures reaching 40-45C (104-113F). San Angelo airport in Texas has already recorded two consecutive days where the temperature hit 45.6C (114F), which surpasses its highest ever temperature by three degrees. This heat will continue to put stress on power grids across the southern states and Mexico. Texas in particular is uniquely vulnerable to power failures as it is the only state in the contiguous US that is disconnected from the national grid. As a result, the power grid operator for Texas has asked residents to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand. In Mexico, demands on energy have already surpassed last year by 9% due to the heat. Blackouts have been reported in Cancún and Tulum, leaving many without air conditioning and fresh water. Several heat-related deaths have been reported by local media.

Mass mortality event of shore birds.

MEXICO CITY, June 15 (Reuters) - The deaths of hundreds of wild birds along Mexico's Pacific coast were likely caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon, local authorities said on Thursday, as the country and its surrounding oceans face an intense heat wave. Some 300 wild birds of various species were found dead over the weekend along the coasts of Mexico's western states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco, Sonora and Baja California Sur.

snip

Scientists say this year looks particularly worrying, as coupled with climate change, the current phase should see the world grapple with record-high temperatures. With warmer waters, fish tend to swim lower in search of colder waters, which prevents seabirds from successfully hunting for their food, the ministries said in a statement. Sea birds were also found dead on the coasts of Peru and Chile, Mexican authorities said.

The Economy.

Bloomberg) -- Hotels in Mexico’s Cancun and surrounding resorts are wading through a record-breaking heat wave with intermittent power that is at times leaving tourists and locals without air conditioning and fresh water. Towns in northern Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, have been experiencing daily outages that have also led to interruptions in fresh water supply that relies on high voltage electric power, a hotel association said in a statement Thursday. Mexico’s national grid operator on Thursday said power was guaranteed throughout the country and that an “alert” it had reported Tuesday had been temporary. Demand hit a peak on June 20 and was 9% above the peak registered in 2022, it said, adding the surge in demand had been primarily concentrated in Mexico City and Monterrey. The current wave baking Mexico has been too “aggressive and prolonged,” the head of Mexico’s meteorological service said Tuesday. “We’ve had losses for about 500 million pesos ($29 million) in the past few days from damages to air conditioners, home appliances, TVs and computers that can’t handle the constant change in power,” Sergio Leon, head of the business group Empresarios por Quintana Roo said in a phone interview.

Food

"The heat hits really hard, it really affects you. While waiting for work it even makes you sleepy," said De Jesus. He stands outside the cathedral up to nine hours a day hoping someone hires him for the day. The worst part is if the gig is outdoors. "We suffocate," he said. But it is not just work that becomes challenging in these conditions. Eating from food stalls in the street—a time-honored Mexican custom—becomes risky because the heat is spoiling the food. De Jesus got a taste of this recently and missed three days of work. "I got sick in the stomach from tacos I ate in the street," he said. —'It makes us dizzy'- And the taco stand vendors put up with another source of heat—the grills and stoves they have to man. "The heat is horrible," said Javier Ramos, 30, who prepares tacos on a major thoroughfare in downtown Mexico City, putting in 15 hour days.

Mní wičhóni

The wet season, October through December of 2022, was extremely dry. In a time period when the area was supposed to receive 27.9 inches of rain, Roys estimated the area only received 11.61 inches — less than half of the normal amount. "When the rain was supposed to fill up the reservoir, it just never did," Roys said. "January and February were okay for rainfall, then it went south." March is supposed to be the area's driest month of the year with an average of 1.06 inches of rain, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tyler Roys. This year the area saw no recorded rainfall throughout the month. As of June 18, the reservoir's water levels had diminished to 29% of capacity, according to Vallarta Daily. "With the drought that we have, the dam level is very low. The water is very hot, the temperature is very hot, so what it does is kill the fish," Aguilera said. "So that's why we're having a lot of losses."

Quebec, Ontario, Greenland, and Europe

x #Copernicus for #AirQuality monitoring

⁰ In recent weeks, #Canada🇨🇦 has been plagued by fires which are affecting air quality in multiple cities

⁰ #CopernicusAtmosphere #CAMS forecast for the next few days shows aerosols moving from #Quebec to Europe🇪🇺 across the North Atlantic pic.twitter.com/RFXwSFg1CI — Copernicus EU (@CopernicusEU) June 26, 2023

x Just because the media stops being interested in something doesn't mean it's not still happening.⁰Ottawa's air quality is incredibly bad today

Why?

Quebec wildfires. pic.twitter.com/sUvbWxyaVG — AnonOpsUnited (@AnonOpsUnited2) June 25, 2023

Siberia

x high temperatures north of the Arctic Circle in Siberia today and in the coming days pic.twitter.com/KryG3Tcm5B — Prof. Jason Box (@climate_ice) June 24, 2023

Greenland has been cold and gained extensive ice mass, the one bright spot in the deterioration of the Arctic, But that will change this week.

x 🚨 BREAKING - #GREENLAND HEATWAVE FORECASTS EXTENSIVE SURFACE MELT. Expecting uncommon melt conditions 27 June 2023. Alert identified through our Pan Arctic Alert System refined by @climate_ice, Arctic Basecamp Science Advisor. MORE TO FOLLOW… Updates - https://t.co/1uGN7uDakh pic.twitter.com/5JqVa816tP — Arctic Basecamp (@ArcticBasecamp) June 26, 2023

x More relevant than ever…Bill McGuire's Hot House Earth - Reflections on our current traje... https://t.co/ul9CypssPL via @NickGBreeze — Prof. Jason Box (@climate_ice) June 18, 2023

Antarctica

x What happens in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica.



Earth's changing frozen regions will affect us all. We're working to understand why, and what we can do about it.



Welcome to our new science strategy - polar science for a sustainable planet 🌍 ⬇️https://t.co/6DWedtQsB0 pic.twitter.com/oCf1m14qZk — British Antarctic Survey 🐧 (@BAS_News) June 20, 2023

Asia

Hong Kong CNN — Every day, countless mopeds criss-cross the congested city of Hanoi, in Vietnam, with commuters traveling to work or motorbike taxis dropping off everything from parcels to cooked food and clients. One of them is Phong, 42, who starts his shift at 5 a.m. to beat the rush hour, navigating the dense swarm of mopeds and drives for over 12 hours a day with little rest. But an unprecedented heat wave that engulfed his country in the past two months has made Phong’s job even more arduous. To get through the heat of the day, he equipped himself with a hat, wet handkerchiefs and several bottles of water – precautions that provided little relief as recorded daytime temperatures soared to more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The average May temperature in Hanoi is 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit). “If I get a heatstroke, I would be forced to suspend driving to recover,” he told CNN. “But I cannot afford it.” Phong, who declined to give his surname, said he carries a tiny umbrella to protect his phone, the main tool he uses for work as a driver for the ride-hailing platform Grab, along with his bike. If the phone breaks, he misses out on much-needed income. “I was worried that the battery would overheat once exposed to the sun,” he said.

India

In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, 119 people have died from heat-related illnesses over the last several days. The neighbouring Bihar state reported 47 fatalities, according to local news reports and health officials. They are two of the poorest states in the country according to the Multidimensional Poverty Index report. “So many people are dying from the heat that we are not getting a minute’s time to rest,” says Jitendra Kumar Yadav, a hearse driver in Deoria town, 110 kilometres from Ballia in the state of Uttar Pradesh. “On Sunday, I carried 26 dead bodies.” Other residents say they fear going outside after midmorning. The largest hospital in the Ballia district is unable to accommodate more patients. Officials said the morgue was full after 54 people - all of whom were elderly and suffering from various health issues - died during the heatwave. Some families were asked to take the bodies of their relatives home.

Doomerism versus Hopium

You can't be smeared as a Doomer if the science is full of doom. We have a lot of work to do to save anything that remains. IMO, we have to protect biodiversity, so let's not mine the deep ocean seafloor; can we at least do that? They may be the few species that can survive the apocalypse. Preventing every tenth of a degree matters in an extinction crisis.

And don’t forget the US Supreme Court; they have fucked the planet by gutting the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts. I’m unsure where PBS in the video gets the 1.1 C temperature rise number. What I have seen is 1.28 degrees. We have already broken 1.5 in June. And El Nino is coming; all hell could break loose. I do not smoke from the hopium pipe as the future is increasingly grim. Realism vs. doomerism, there is a difference.

Save something; keep the oil companies out of the Congo. Can’t the world offer the region a better option for economic growth by paying them to save it?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/26/2176866/-Students-collapse-water-shortages-misery-and-a-mass-mortality-event-plague-Mexico

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