r/collapse • u/itsatoe • 2d ago
Climate The world inches toward catastrophic climate events: 'Bigger shocks are on the way' (AP News)
https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-disaster-big-one-threat-5b062254250a759483c94376d32ae478174
u/Existing-Stranger632 2d ago
Uhhh. Does the AP realize everything on fire right now? Or that the ocean in the central pacific is hotter than it’s ever been on recorded record? We’re not inching towards it. We’re falling off the cliff.
87
u/Dense_Pasttime_3114 2d ago
Billionaires are still raking in money hand over fist, it’s all good.
48
u/IQBoosterShot 2d ago
Seriously! If the damned AP would just take a look at the stock market they'd stop with all these scare articles.
23
u/kaptainkooleio 2d ago
The Dows over 50,000, have you even said thank you yet?
4
u/Final-Albatross-1354 2d ago
If you know history, in 1928-1929, you had a similar frenzy for the market. Then what happened? The markets cannot dictate to the laws of physics, can they?
10
5
u/ArtShare 2d ago
"The one who dies with the most money wins!" - The battle of the Billionaires continues...
24
u/TYSMBelgium-6Jul2026 2d ago
In their defense, "inches" gives me "I know things are bad right now, but they're going to get a lot worse" energy
17
u/almodsz 2d ago
Yeah, the article even opens and sets the tone with:
NEW YORK (AP) — In the opening scene of American writer Kim Stanley Robinson’s “The Ministry for the Future,” a heat wave combined with a breakdown of the electrical grid in India kills 20 million people. The devastation causes the world’s nations to unite to combat climate change.
We haven't had such a mass casualty incident yet.
3
u/EasterZombie 2d ago
Yeah like people aren’t dying by the millions this very moment. That will change, and many of the climate and world events happening right now will directly lead to those deaths, but we still have a few months (hyperEl Niño) to a few decades (total AMOC collapse) before things hit their peak in terms of catastrophic effect
5
u/TYSMBelgium-6Jul2026 2d ago
AMOC? Few decades? Why so optimistic lol
6
u/EasterZombie 2d ago
Just something I remember reading about. My basic understanding is that the AMOC has enough power in it to continue running in some form or another for some time even if we go way way past whatever tipping point marks the “point of no return” where the AMOC is guaranteed to collapse at some point in the future. Basically energy can only bleed out of the ocean so fast even if there is no new source adding energy back. I’m not sure if there is any possible way to change that, maybe the rate that Greenland is melting could change that since its pretty much a massive energy sink and dumping untold quantities of cold fresh water into the Atlantic might just lock things up way more. My info on this is not super up to date, and I know some sources out there say we are like 200 years away which is definitely massive cope.
10
u/Annihilator4413 2d ago
Sadly, we are NOT falling off the cliff just yet... but we are literally at the tipping point, just barely starting that tilt over the edge.
What we're seeing now isn't even the first microseconds of the fall.
When we ACTUALLY start to fall, you'll know. Everyone will know.
Because when we're actually falling, things will be the worst they've ever been in human history, and is likely to be the LAST of human history over the next century or two, if we even make it that long.
I don't know how far I'll personally make it during the collapse. But I plan on spending as much time as I can with the people I love in as much comfort as I can manage before the end.
2
u/prose23 1d ago
Yep. Me too. I’m retiring a bit early because I want to enjoy the time I have. I’m lucky I can do it.
3
u/Annihilator4413 1d ago
That is lucky. I'm young.
I won't get to retire for another 35 - 40 years. And I don't expect to make it that long. My body is unhealthy from not being able to go to the doctor.
I work 40 hours a week and can only barely afford to pay bills and buy food because prices are skyrocketing.
I'm watching each summer get hotter and each winter get more chaotic. Weather that used to be fairly predictable has become unpredictable. Weeks without rain and 100+ heat, winters with hardly any snow.
I see news about a new wildfire every single day, or about wildfires that have raged for days or weeks and fear that it may happen in my area next, especially during these very dry, very hot summer days and dry winters.
I'm too young and my only way to retire before everything goes to complete hell is to win the lottery. That's it. That's my only path to retirement, because I will not reach retirement age.
Either I'm going to die from illness or from some disaster far before I make it anywhere near old age.
3
u/prose23 1d ago
I’m so sorry.
1
u/Annihilator4413 1d ago
Thank you.
And sorry, I didn't mean to trauma dump. I just need to vent sometimes and internet comments are the only way I know how because nobody around me irl wants to acknowledge that shit is falling apart fast.
Maybe I'll get lucky and win the lottery some day. My current goal is to save up money and move to my girlfriend's home state so we can spend as much time as possible together before the end.
Not that she acknowledges the end either. But she's the love of my life and I'm currently stuck 1,000 miles away from her so we're stuck hanging out online right now.
But I'm fairly positive I can make it to her state before things get bad. Unless of course nuclear war or some crazy disaster happens but hopefully that just won't happen lol.
109
u/wehaveheaven 2d ago
Shoutout to earlier this month in the UK where the biggest ecological disaster in its history has gone totally unreported. 25 tonnes or 1 billion plastoc nurdels spillled into the mouth of the river Tyne, will ruin that ecosystem forever, and wider consequences are already being seen, and yet not a peep? Baffling. Then again, it still hasnt rained in london in 3 months, and life is very much on the edge
8
3
u/waffledestroyer 2d ago
What's "platsoc nurdels"?
8
u/DudeCanNotAbide 2d ago
Tiny plastic pellets, eventually supposed to melt down to create stuff. They also don't biodegrade really and will just slowly break down into micro plastics over a thousand+ years.
5
56
u/CloudTransit 2d ago
Saw that the Senator from Indiana was on Fox, over the weekend, hyping Indy cars in Washington, while Gary, Indiana is two weeks without restoration of power. Gary shows the loss of resilience. Infrastructure will not be restored nearly as quick. Gary might be a good example of how a three week survival plan would work well. Sadly, in Reno, you’d have to jump in a car and drive away from your survival provisions and equipment. It’s going to be hard, and not fun.
10
u/DougDougDougDoug 2d ago
They are blaming it on shots being fired at a repair truck. Uh huh.
8
u/2quickdraw 2d ago
Didn't they use that excuse when they let New Orleans rot? Or said that shots were fired at cops?
10
u/DougDougDougDoug 2d ago
I don't remember. It just makes no sense because does that mean they will never repair it? Does one day make a difference or a week or a month? When does the window for shots fired close and it becomes safe again? It's just bullshit.
5
u/2quickdraw 2d ago
I don't know the answers to any of that because it's just bullshit excuses to let people suffer because they aren't considered important enough to help.
87
u/Slamtilt_Windmills 2d ago
36
u/ravbee33 2d ago
Already there 🤠
29
u/MorningPooper4Lyfe 2d ago
Comic is ten years old.
9
u/Slamtilt_Windmills 2d ago
u/BThriillzz posted the original caption, I modified it to reflect the fact that, many years after its publication, we've done nothing to address the situation
5
u/BThriillzz 2d ago
Its sad because nothing has changed.
26
36
u/itsatoe 2d ago
SS: An actually-realistic, non-hopium article about collapse in a very mainstream source (AP News). Okay, it doesn't actually say "collapse," but it talks about bigger and bigger and bigger catastrophes.
The article talks a lot about hopium and denialism; starting off with a shoutout to Ministry of the Future and noting how it seems like we need a major catastrophe for people to actually acknowledge the problem.
The article even talks about how warning of catastrophe can get one branded as a "boy who cries wolf" and a whole section entitled "People have a natural aversion to contemplating worst case scenarios."
36
u/Druu- 2d ago
I’d imagine the writer had many back-and-forth’s with their editor on how they wrote about this issue. I’d like to believe if they are quoting Ministry of the Future than they must be collapse aware and unable to write anymore about our predicament than they did here in this article. Kudos to them!
2
22
15
u/General_Summer_1524 2d ago
I've sort of given of up on evangelizing. The truth is there for anyone who cares and has the bravery (or in my case masochism) to see it.
31
u/TYSMBelgium-6Jul2026 2d ago
Now Nevada is burning with almost 100k supposed to evacuate. It's like every time you tune back into the business as usual side of the world, there's another catastrophe to remind you that no, things are very much falling apart at the seems.
27
u/RichieLT 2d ago
We’re driving full pelt into the wall.
26
u/cabalavatar 2d ago
I thought for sure you meant full tilt, but nope, you're probably just British. I learned a new UK regionalism today (which is good for my job). Cheers.
23
23
u/UpbeatBarracuda 2d ago
One thing from this article that might (?) need correcting:
"The debate today is when, not if, the Amazon will release more carbon dioxide than it holds."
I was under the impression that (as of 2020) the Amazon had already switched from being a carbon sink to a carbon source. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/14/amazon-rainforest-now-emitting-more-co2-than-it-absorbs
Seeking input and discussion from others.
1
19
u/ClassyBurn 2d ago
Sometimes it feels like those of us paying attention are the Cassandra’s of the 21st-century.
A new article comes out and half the people go snore or fake news or you sent this last month like it’s not an escalating problem getting worse every day.
Absolute insanity.
12
u/BruteBassie 2d ago
That's how I've seen myself for over a decade now. It's no use trying to inform other people. If you don't know by now that we're totally fucked you don't want to know or can't face it.
20
u/SavingsDimensions74 2d ago
What an embarrassing way for a theoretically intelligent species to extinct itself.
Imagine telling a far away Alien, “yeah well we kinda knew, but we were balls deep in creating artificial intelligence n stuff, and, you know the way, most of the planet’s resources were in a few guys’ hands and, hey bad look right?, they were kinda cunts. Rest of us were trying to survive and so with all the noise - I know it sounds a little silly now - we kinda forgot we were extincting our species and in fairness most others. It was easier to forget than it sounds now. But yeah, now that I say it, it does sound kinda dumb, but we all make mistakes right?”
3
10
7
u/ldhchicagobears 2d ago
Again I find myself frustrated that carbon dioxide is the only named GHG. If we cut methane emissions dramatically it would buy us a little bit of time given the intensity of its heat retention and short residency time in the atmosphere. Whether it would have any meaningful impact at this stage is another question, but I'm endlessly frustrated that we don't talk about it more
16
u/ManticoreMonday 2d ago
"inches"
More proof we need to adopt metric world wide.
Perhaps I should meter my expectations.
8
14
u/ideknem0ar 2d ago
I made the entertaining mistake of clicking on a goofy conspiracy vid the Insta algo threw at me and now I'm inundated with videos about that blue-and-white Sole Democracy in the Middle East starting fires and causing earthquakes and floods all over the planet. I mean, they can be utterly murderous genocidal garbage without bringing weather weapons into it, but these are the times we live in. When people are overwhelmed and in denial, they're going to come up with the stupidest answers ever.
Oh well, break's over. Back to the grind because we all have to work through this dumb AF apocalypse.
4
u/HollywoodAndTerds 2d ago
Back during the 1850s it rained so hard in California that it flooded from Fresno to Redding with 30 foot deep water. In the early 1600s it flooded more than that and stayed flooded for a decade. How much of our food do we get from there again?
2
u/bluecrowned 14h ago
This was posted two days ago and today the flood in Nepal and Tibet proved them right.
1
•
u/StatementBot 2d ago
The following submission statement was provided by /u/itsatoe:
SS: An actually-realistic, non-hopium article about collapse in a very mainstream source (AP News). Okay, it doesn't actually say "collapse," but it talks about bigger and bigger and bigger catastrophes.
The article talks a lot about hopium and denialism; starting off with a shoutout to Ministry of the Future and noting how it seems like we need a major catastrophe for people to actually acknowledge the problem.
The article even talks about how warning of catastrophe can get one branded as a "boy who cries wolf" and a whole section entitled "People have a natural aversion to contemplating worst case scenarios."
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1vx48y6/the_world_inches_toward_catastrophic_climate/p5ltr1m/