Climate Change Acceleration Breaking the Scales - Part II

[Clare]

I am sure the lobbyists would still jet in, stay at the five star hotel down the road, get taxis and charge it all to expenses. The conference organisers would say good security is needed, and multiple conferencing facilities and meeting rooms, with large space for display stands, and this plays a part in choosing the venue.

Excellent read by a journalist covering several COP events over a series of years.

COPOUT: How governments have failed the people on climate: An insider’s view of Climate Change Conferences, from Paris to Dubai by Nick Breeze

[Clare]

https://phys.org/news/2025-11-africa-...

"Using advanced satellite data and machine learning, the researchers tracked more than a decade of changes in aboveground forest biomass, the amount of carbon stored in trees and woody vegetation. They found that while Africa gained carbon between 2007 and 2010, widespread forest loss in tropical rainforests has since tipped the balance.

Between 2010 and 2017, the continent lost approximately 106 billion kilograms of forest biomass per year. That is equivalent to the weight of about 106 million cars. The losses are concentrated in tropical moist broadleaf forests in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and parts of West Africa, driven by deforestation and forest degradation. Gains in savanna regions due to shrub growth have not been enough to offset the losses."

More information: Loss of tropical moist broadleaf forest has turned Africa's forests from a carbon sink into a source, Scientific Reports (2025).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159...
Journal information: Scientific Reports

Provided by University of Leicester

[Clare]

Ireland is literally having yellow and orange warnings every week. Recently it's been for rain, but yesterday the whole country was under an Orange warning for Storm Bram.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/1209/154...

"25,000 premises without power, down from 54,000"

"Storm Bram caused flooding, travel disruption and left thousands of people without power as high winds and rain lashed Ireland.

Some 25,000 homes and businesses were still without power last night, predominantly in counties Cork, Tipperary, Wexford, Limerick and Kildare.

Winds reached 113km/h at Roches Point in Cork, and status Yellow wind warnings were in place for Donegal, Leitrim, Mayo, and Sligo until midnight.

Throughout the day, there were some incidents of flooding and fallen trees, particularly in the south of the country, where the storm first made landfall."

[Clare]

Asian weather is expected to become more variable over short periods of three to six months, during future years.

https://phys.org/news/2025-12-climate...

"Prof. Lu, a co-author of the study, further explained the threats posed by the subseasonal whiplash to food production, water resource management, and other areas, "The type of sudden shift from drought to flood is particularly damaging––there is evidence suggesting the risk of global rice yield loss is 43% higher from such an event than from a wet-to-dry swing. We thus foresee that, due to the changing BSISO, the projected increase in these dry-to-wet events across arable regions in Asia and Africa will directly threaten future global food production.""

More information: Tat Fan Cheng et al, Increased global subseasonal whiplash by future BSISO behavior, Science Advances (2025).
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
Journal information: Science Advances

Provided by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

[Robert]

We seem to have blown right through the what can we do to head this off scenario to the better know how to properly respond to whatever comes next situation.

[Clare]

Yes, Robert, and I don't know how the world could respond to a third of the world going hungry for a year or three. People would be on the move.