The Deep Time Reality (Geological History) If you mean when was France naturally this hot as a baseline climate—where temperatures of 40°C+ and prolonged tropical nights were typical for the region—you have to travel back 5 to 15 million years ago to the Miocene epoch. During the mid-Miocene, global CO_2 levels were comparable to or slightly higher than today, and Europe had a radically different climate: The Landscape: What is now France was a lush, parched, subtropical-to-savanna environment. The Wildlife: Direct ancestors of hippopotamuses, rhinos, and ancestral elephants roamed across Western Europe. While individual, brief heat spikes likely occurred during the last interglacial warm period (the Eemian, about 125,000 years ago), a sustained regional climate where this level of heat blankets three-quarters of the country simultaneously hasn't been the "norm" for France since long before humans ever walked the European continent

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“As climate change drives up the chance of extreme wildfires, smoke pollution presents a real health risk for people in the West. But now scientists have documented how using prescribed burns — one of California’s leading strategies for mitigating wildfires — could actually reduce air pollution over time. In a study published in the journal Science on June 11, Stanford University researchers found that intentionally burning 500,000 acres of conifer forests in California every year could reduce wildfire smoke pollution overall by about 10% over a decade. “This study highlights that yes, prescribed fire is good, but sometimes the benefits take a while,” Marshall Burke, a professor in the Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford and the senior study author, told SFGATE. “As a species, we’re not that good at delayed gratification, but our numbers say in the end, it’s worth it.” … ” https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/stanford-study-prescribed-fire-22305935.php

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incredible india

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Just finished Militants écologistes sous haute surveillance. Clear, documented, and unsettling: – climate activism is increasingly criminalized – actions once tolerated are now repressed or prosecuted – surveillance and stigmatization are becoming systemic What it reveals: Power isn’t just reacting to “disruption” — it’s reacting to a threat. A growing movement that challenges the economic status quo. When activism is framed as danger, it says less about activists… and more about what those in power fear losing. Worth reading if you want to understand the real face of environmental struggle today. https://nid-de-pie.fr/livres/militants-ecologistes-sous-haute-surveillance/

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wow that early snow melt is just brutal

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“Recent meteorological data suggests that the Hadley Cell is expanding poleward. As the atmosphere warms, the point where the air sinks is shifting further away from the equator. This shift is a major concern for regions like the Mediterranean, the Southwestern U.S., and Southern Australia, as it may push dry, desert-like conditions into previously temperate agricultural areas.”

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I struggle to understand the appeal of pellet stoves. They are often bulky, make constant fan noise, and unlike traditional wood stoves they depend entirely on electricity for ignition and feeding. In a power outage, most models simply stop working.

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Will the solar revolution enable Edison to have his revenge? I.e. dc make a comeback. https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2026/01/30/direct-current-data-centers/

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"Some of the worst impacts include chronic groundwater depletion, overallocation of water, deforestation, pollution and degradation to land and soil, according to a report released Tuesday by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH). As a result, many regions around the world are experiencing a "post-crisis condition," which entails irreversible losses of natural water capital and an inability to bounce back to historic baselines, the researchers said." https://abcnews.go.com/International/planet-entered-era-water-bankruptcy-new-report/story?id=129422093

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“At this point, it’s simply not feasible for humans to return the ocean to its preindustrial chemical base line because the cost, effort and material resources required are too gargantuan. A global effort would, however, help prevent further acidification. As a marine antacid, alkalinity enhancement will probably be more effective in select regions of the coast that are home to especially vulnerable fisheries and ecosystems, like coral reefs. Such defenses have a long history. The Indigenous peoples of western North America farmed clams in walled gardens along the shore to which they routinely added crushed shells. Research has since confirmed that doing so raises the pH of the water, improving the growth and survival rates of juvenile shellfish and, in combination with other benefits of the gardens, yielding two to four times as many adults.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/magazine/ocean-acidification-carbon-geoengineering.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

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Normal life still works, which makes it easy to ignore how fragile it has become -- even though today is the anniversary of the horrific fires in LA last January. I wrote a piece about what we build together now, before disaster forces the lesson on us. https://pioneeringspirit.xyz/what-we-build-before-everything-breaks-apart

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I wrote a little riff on building bridges between the edge and the center. By that I mean the world of Edge cities and shiny tech stuff and the world of dirt and water and concrete in the water utilities that I work with. Might be of interest to folks here interested in creative approaches to accelerate climate action

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Ooof just absolutely awful: “”” Independent soil testing conducted by The Times provided the first evidence in May that Army Corps crews were leaving behind lead contamination. Subsequent tests by a UCLA research group also found that 49% of the cleaned properties were still contaminated with lead. “If those numbers hold, this will be the worst cleanup that I’m aware of in wildfire history,” said Andrew Whelton, a professor of civil environmental engineering at Purdue University. “The purpose of cleaning up is to remove the contamination from the site and restore it to safe use so that you don’t get sick and the economic value of the land is returned.” https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=7c16977f-cf6b-4a7d-a8c5-080f2a84d022

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I really want a weirdness index tracking how out of normal events like the Dallas flight delays this weekend due to thunderstorms or the many other recent events like the linked stuff in the NE are https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2025/01/21/flight-canceled-delayed-tuesday-passenger-rights/77826676007/

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Back in 2015, various meteorological modelling exercises for 2050 produced extreme heat scenarios like this. Except this isn’t a model, it’s today’s temperature chart for southern France & the Iberian Peninsula. We're so cooked 🔥

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