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UPDATE: We have mistakenly written that Alaska's sea ice entirely melted for the first time ever in 2019. 2019 was not the first time that Alaska's sea ice entirely melted. According to hoax-alert.leadstories.com, Alaska's sea ice completely melted previously in the summer of 2017. We apologize to our readers, as we're always striving to keep you updated.
Iceland has recently held a funeral for its first glacier lost to the climate crisis. The once-massive Okjökull glacier, now entirely gone, has been commemorated with a plaque which reads: “A letter to the future. Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.”
That nightmarish reality is reverberating around the world, far beyond Iceland. Even in cases when no literal funeral is being held, humans are, in a sense, witnessing an ongoing funeral for the world they once knew.
July 2019 was the warmest month ever recorded on Earth since record-keeping began in 1880. Nine out of the ten hottest Julys ever recorded have occurred since 2005, and July 2019 was the 43rd consecutive July with temperatures above the 20th-century average.
In Greenland, scientists were shocked by how rapidly the ice sheet is melting, since it was revealed that the ice there wasn't expected to melt like that until 2070. The melt rate was called “unprecedented,” as the all-time single-day melt record was broken in August 2019 as the ice sheet lost a mind-bending 12.5 billion tons of water in one day. It's worth remembering that the Greenland ice sheet contains enough ice to increase global sea levels by 20 feet, and it's now predicted that it will lose more ice in 2019 than ever before.
Furthermore, for the second time in recorded history, Alaska’s sea ice has melted away entirely. That means that there was no sea ice whatsoever within 150 miles of its shores, as the National Weather Service reports. (UPDATE: Alaska’s sea ice has melted away entirely for the second time after 2017)
A recent UN report estimates two billion people are already facing moderate to severe food insecurity, mainly due to the warming planet. Other contributing factors are conflict as well as economic stagnation, though extreme weather events and shifting weather patterns are a significant and growing contributor to this crisis, which will inevitably escalate over time.
Another study, titled “Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient,” demonstrated that many animals are can no longer adjust quickly enough to the climate crisis. According to TruthOut, although birds are laying their eggs earlier as temperatures and conditions change, and are now doing all they can to coax their chicks to hatch sooner, it's still not enough to keep apace with the dramatically shifting climate. And many more extinctions are on the horizon, sadly.
Speaking of that, Beluga whales in the Arctic are clearly in a downward spiral toward their demise, due mainly to climate crisis impacts, according to another study. Warming waters, pollution, and lack of food are taking their toll on the embattled whales. During the past 20 years, their growth rates have been declining, which means their ability to forage for food is now also compromised.
In Greenland, residents are traumatized by climate impacts, as they're coping with the reality that their traditional ways of life are apparently on the way out. Courtney Howard, the board president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, believes that the climate crisis causes worsening states of mental and physical health across the globe, and says that those issues will become some of the most critical of our time.
In the financial realms, a leading economic historian has recently warned that the climate crisis could easily become the trigger for the next global financial crisis by causing instability and massive disruptions in markets.
Another recently published study warned that a new superbug that erupted at the same time on three continents might well have been brought about from warming temperatures. The study noted how a drug-resistant fungal disease has now been made more prevalent by existing on a warming Earth.
A report from Canada warned that British Columbia might see “catastrophic” consequences from events related to climate disruption in the next 30 years. Those include more severe wildfire seasons, increasingly intense and longer heatwaves, water shortages, and storm surges across the province.
Speaking of Canada, that the country’s Pediatric Society recently warned that kids' health is expected to be increasingly negatively affected by climate-disruption impacts, such as air pollution and heat stress.
Drought-induced blackouts are currently besetting the people of Zimbabwe, where several places are even seeing 18 hours per day without electricity.
In Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, the taps have run dry, affecting over two million people, who've been trying to deal with not having access to municipal drinking water.
Shockingly, one million people were displaced and at least 270 killed by severe flooding from heavier than usual monsoon rains in India.
Back in the United States, New York City’s summer has served as a preview of things to come, as an extreme heatwave coupled with flash flooding beset the city.
Another report warned that by 2050 “snow droughts” will become far more common across the western US That's critical, as it compounds the impending drought crisis since mountain snowpack is vital to providing water in the dry seasons.
A recent study showed that one-quarter of the global population across 17 countries is already affected by extreme water stress. Qatar, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine top a list of areas with the worst water shortages since the growing climate crisis threatens even more “day zeroes” — the days where major cities will run out of water.
In the meantime, sea levels continue their inevitable and accelerating rise. In the US, a recent report demonstrated how 21 beach towns, such as Galveston, Miami Beach, Key West, and Atlantic City will soon be underwater.
Shockingly, a recently published study demonstrated that unexpected marine heatwaves are now becoming the norm.
Greenland also experienced a record heatwave in the middle of summer 2019, that accelerated the melting of the ice sheet, which means its contributions to sea level rise are in the process of also accelerating.
Iceland is currently preparing for how it will cope without any more ice.
Another report demonstrated that, due to climate disruption, wildfires in California have already become 500% larger than they were since the '70s.
According to Canadian media, forests that have been scorched in the Pacific Northwest are not growing back as expected. That brings into question numerous species of trees’ ability to regenerate as the fires get increasingly hot, burn longer, and scorch more extended areas.
At the same time, another report reaffirmed that even the rainy Northwest is now facing the inevitable increased risk of wildfires because of higher temperatures, increasing drought, and lower humidity.
By 2050, Florida will have more days which feel like 100°F than any other US state, according to a recent study. Washington DC currently averages one week per year of 100-degree days, while by 2050 this could rise to two months.
Meanwhile, Europe sizzled under a record-breaking heatwave in summer 2019, as heat from the Sahara baked the continent and temperature records toppled en masse. And there are far too many records to name from this heatwave; notably, Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands recorded their highest temperatures ever during the second major summer heatwave in Europe.
Ever busy denying the crisis, in August 2019, the Trump administration buried a large climate disruption response plan, as revealed by Politico. The outlet showed how the Agriculture Department prevented the release of a completed and sweeping plan regarding how the government should respond to the climate crisis.
It isn't only the Trump administration that is fueling denial. It was also revealed that DNC Chair Tom Perez introduced a resolution in an effort to kill a climate discussion among the Democratic presidential candidates.
However, reality has a way of not going away, in spite of human efforts at denial.
To keep all of that in perspective, as a final reality check, the burning of fossil fuels reached a record in 2018, according to oil giant BP.
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