Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] June 23

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dmo1066@reddit

Location: Austin, TX, USA

This article by a local news source points out that there are fewer live music venues in Austin today than there were in the 80s. It neglects to point out that the population has at least doubled.

https://www.kvue.com/article/entertainment/music/is-austin-still-the-live-music-capital-of-the-world/269-556797289

I am a musician. I used to play in local clubs. Before the internet, you could go out on a weeknight and there would be dozens of clubs packed with people there to hear local bands play their own music. It still exists, but on a much smaller scale, especially relative to the population.

Most of my musical work now is done online. I write songs for people who find me on the internet. I record tracks in my home studio and send them over the internet to people so they can put them on streaming services and not make any money. I put my own music on Bandcamp, where I make a couple hundred bucks a year, which is more than anyone I know.

I think this is one more aspect of how the internet is destroying the arts and our culture in general. Everything has become a crappy little digital gig that pays a pittance. Everyone is just scrolling endlessly through short form "digital content" for which one out of a thousand people gets paid any useful amount of money. Are there exceptions? Sure. There are people doing great work and making a living out of it. But they are unicorns. I know a lot of talented people who are nowhere near making a living. Now that people expect music to be free, you can't sell recordings. You can sell merch at your shows, if you can get anyone to your shows, but as I say, that's a shadow of what it once was.

There are a lot of worse things happening, this is just one that I happen to know from the inside.

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sciencewitchbrarian@reddit

I’m a huge live music fan and have always loved festivals most of all. It’s so sad to see all the festivals closing up shop, we had 2 long-running local/state festivals here in Michigan that put on their last event last year. We went to Bonnaroo for several years in the past and after their weather fiasco this year who knows if it will keep going. I feel like I see news articles on a weekly basis about other smaller festivals around the country shutting down. It may not be the biggest indicator of collapse but really speaks to our decreased enthusiasm for communal experiences, the strain that climate and weather changes are putting on outdoor events, and the costs that are becoming prohibitive to host these type of events. I’ll keep seeing live music until the last venue shuts down, to me it’s truly one of those things that makes life worth living…but it sure sucks to see it declining 😢

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maddomesticscientist@reddit

Last I saw in local news about Bonnaroo is that they're thinking of changing when it is, due to the amount of issues they've had over the past few years with the flooding. No mention of doing away with it altogether.

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sciencewitchbrarian@reddit

Yeah I think they sent out a poll asking folks what time of year they’d prefer to go. I’m just paranoid that it won’t start back up again, this happened to another festival we really loved (Forecastle), and Im just feeling really bummed about so many of our smaller local ones shutting down, I’m probably thinking too negatively. Bonnaroo has invested so much in the infrastructure at the site, hopefully it will just be a change of dates and doing more to protect against weather happenings than discontinuing it.

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maddomesticscientist@reddit

Honestly they should move stuff to late fall. Nowadays it's pretty warm past the end of October. Things like Bonnaroo and the Renaissance Festival. Thirty-odd years ago when I was in high school it used to be cool for the Ren Fest and the State Fair. Now it's a sweltering, breathtakingly humid, rancid mess. Or a raining, flooding mess.

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SweatyPut2875@reddit

As a music fanatic, I can't thank musicians enough -- music is perhaps one of the last great things about humans. So thank you! I personally go out frequently for music. I can't afford the pricier shows, but I go to local pubs and clubs often. My smaller city, Guelph (Ontario, Canada) is rich in amazing musicians and artists. We also host one of the best music festivals in the country, Hillside Festival (maybe you've heard of it??), with performers from all over the world. Some of the local musicians make a living at it (local shows or touring as part of other bands), others do a combination of things (play locally or beyond/teach/own schools) to survive. I don't use Spotify, but I do use YouTube and don't really know if they're that different. I purchase on Bandcamp or straight from the bands themselves when I can. I can honestly say that if I had lots of disposable income, most of it would go to musicians. I am so sad about how much you have to struggle.

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Red_Stripe1229@reddit

My wife and i started what is now an 8 piece motown band in omaha. There is no one else playing this music. 90% of the bands are playing shitty new country punk or metal. The other ones are doing journey covers. Motown is not easy to play for sure. Anyway, when we do play out it is the only time i see people dancing. I love live music and have been a musician for 4+ decades. I love listening to indie bands and just like to hear different things. I did play country for 15 years and then that genre went to singing about trucks, beer and trash in my opinion. I dunno it just seems that so many cover bands gravitate towards what is easy nowadays. Those studio musicians in motown were amazing and when i perform i hope i can honor them. We have had many musicians back out from joining our band because the music is too hard. Anyway, it i wonder who will be left playing live music in 20 years or playing motown or it will it be an afterthought by then.

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JagBak73@reddit

That's really sad. Last time I was in Austin was 2011 and the music scene was pretty vibrant then.

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dmo1066@reddit

It's still pretty good relative to most places, but that's not saying much. I've been to medium-sized American cities that have virtually no music scene. But if you compare Austin to its heyday in the late '70s through early 90s, you'd see a pretty massive die off relative to population density. It's because the city has gotten so much more expensive. And then in the last 20 years because the internet is killing live entertainment generally. The pandemic didn't help. The trend is down. I think the live rock and roll club for local bands will probably go the way of the big band dancehall before too long.

Like I say, in the big picture, this is pretty minor. It just happens to be something that affects me.

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JagBak73@reddit

Here in St. Louis, several awesome music bars closed over the past 10 years, especially during COVID, and the scene isn't what it used to be. Pretty much every place I used to gig at in the 2000s is gone.

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antikythera_mekanism@reddit

This reminds me of the cafe culture of the late 90s… every night of the week you could find live music in a cafe. It was a gathering place and I vibe, such a good vibe. Really in the moment, sharing music and connecting.

The internet really destroyed that.

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

I believe you and agree 100% with your post.

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WernerHerzogWasRight@reddit

Location: Ohio, the pit of it all

This is definitely a first world problem and open to interpretation and also criticism…

I haven’t had Starbucks for 3-4 years. We used to get it on special occasions and it would wake us up like nothing else.

Have been having a lot of fatigue lately, I ordered Starbucks via DoorDash for delivery this AM because my fatigue is so bad I am literally in a coma way past when I want to be in bed.

I even took my blood pressure and my diastolic is very very low during rest. Might wanna get that checked out 🥴

Anyway, the coffee today, neither mine or my partners did anything to wake us up at all. My partner has never had a fatigue problem, so I’m wondering if Starbucks has just thrown in the towel, and gone with cheap alternatives?

Also….a stupid complaint…. $1.00 per pump of flavor for syrup? I thought surely this was a mistake and they’d flavor the whole drink, as they advertised $0.80 for flavoring regardless of amount (or so I thought).

Nah, I raw dogged a quad latte with a single pump of peppermint. My drink tasted like cigarettes. Yay Saturday morning lol.

(Is this a whine, this feels like a whine. I’m sorry).

Werner

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pleasekillmerightnow@reddit

I'm not sure how that corporation is still alive.

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Ghostwoods@reddit

If Starbucks has started shorting coffee content in their, uh, coffees -- which seems eminently possible -- that would definitely be interesting from a supply chain/tariff/pricing perspective.

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TuneGlum7903@reddit

Starbucks is undoubtedly under pressure due to the rising costs of coffee. It's one of those things that's about to vanish for normal people.

Major coffee-producing countries like Brazil and Vietnam have experienced severe droughts and other adverse weather conditions, impacting harvests and reducing global supply. Raw arabica prices have spiked due to four successive seasons of deficit as adverse weather makes it harder to grow enough of the delicate beans to meet consumer demand.

Plus a 10% tariff on products imported to the U.S. went into effect in April, adding to the cost of coffee beans.

Retail prices for ground coffee have already reached record highs, and experts predict further increases. Some analysts are warning of double-digit price increases for coffee in the coming months.

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Ghostwoods@reddit

That makes a lot of sense, unfortunately.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

Coffee also depends on bees for pollination, guess what’s starting to get in short supply

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Ghostwoods@reddit

"Yay".

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rmannyconda78@reddit

I thought coffee and cigarettes came separately lol, anyways sorry about the coffee, that sounds gross, I can’t even quite remember the last time I had Starbucks. I DoorDash drive myself as a bit of a side hustle, and I’ve noticed it has increased a lot lately, I suspect it’s the heat that is keeping people in, and perhaps causing some of the fatigue, long COVID is a still a very likely possibility too, I struggled with fatigue from it too, and the heat gets me. Heats gonna get worse as the corn grows due to humidity from corn sweat. Stay safe out there, -mannyconda78, from the neighboring state of Indiana

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WernerHerzogWasRight@reddit

I did suspect long covid but am afraid to name it. My sleep is so messed up, and now that I know there’s a vascular component (blood pressure way low overnight), the pieces are starting to fit. Now that I think about it, maybe the taste of cigarettes was L Covid too :-/

Hope you’re keeping cool my friend 💙

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rmannyconda78@reddit

Been trying too(have one room in the house with a window ac) Covid is very well known to fuck with taste, probably was its no.1 calling card at one point, Covid is no joke, it’s one of the illnesses I developed a strong fear of due to the damage it did to me. It’s no fun when your house has no central air, my house was built during a time when things were cooler, and winters were more consistently cold. Get well soon, stay cool yourself it’s nasty out, and will continue to get worse.

-mannyconda78

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Objective_Ant_9083@reddit

I was thinking it might be covid, too, from all the things you mentioned: taste, fatigue, blood pressure, sleep problems. These are well documented. -- Stay safe, mask up around people, try to get as much rest as possible.

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Plane-Breakfast-8817@reddit

Location: At Sea

I've been at sea , pretty much full-time, since the late 90s. I've been all over—from the Atlantic to the South Pacific, down to Australia, and back again, over and over. You see a lot out here, but what I'm seeing (or not seeing) lately, combined with what's suddenly everywhere, has me genuinely shook. We talk a lot about environmental issues on land—deforestation, wildfires, melting ice caps—and that's crucial. But hardly anyone spends serious time out on the open ocean. So, the massive shifts happening out here just aren't part of the conversation. And they should be. I'm talking about the disappearing wildlife. I used to wake up some mornings to find twenty, even thirty, flying fish on deck. Now? It's a rare day if I see even one. The sky, which used to be dotted with seabirds, is often just… empty. Where did they all go? And the big stuff, like dolphins. Years ago, we'd regularly see literally dozens of them, entire pods stretching for what felt like miles. Today, if we spot twenty, that's a huge day. We once sailed through a boil of tuna for 24hrs. It feels like the ocean I've spent my life on is just fading away. And Then There's the Garbage... Especially the Polystyrene Honestly, the sheer amount of trash out here leaves me speechless. We're talking bottles, every kind of plastic imaginable, lost fishing gear, just… unidentifiable garbage everywhere. And I mean everywhere, even thousands of miles from the nearest landmass. It's truly shocking. Clumps of seaweed infested with plastic. A really specific thing I've noticed, especially since a recent Atlantic crossing, is polystyrene. At first, I'd just notice these little balls of it stuck to the boat. Then I started paying more attention. You see it in marinas, little bits of it collecting along the waterline of almost every boat. But then, out in the open ocean, far from any coast, we'd start getting those same little balls sticking to the hull again. It's truly pervasive. This isn't some localized problem or a bad run of luck with sightings. This is a consistent, decades-long collapse in marine life and a terrifying surge in pollution that I've witnessed firsthand, across immense stretches of the world's oceans. Has anyone else who works offshore or lives on the coast noticed these kinds of dramatic changes? I'd really like to hear your experiences and thoughts on what's happening to our oceans.

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Successful-Try-8506@reddit

I volunteer to clean the beaches on an island off the west coast of Sweden. I've done this for a couple of decades. Can confirm that the problems with plastics get worse by the year.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

I’ve always wanted to get me a little boat and sail around the coast on, it’s sad to see the lack of life, and all the trash in the seas, we really did mess this place up

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Ok_Main3273@reddit

I've experienced exactly the same, down in a Pacific nation, over the last twenty five years. No more fish = no more sea birds, dolphins, seals, penguins, orcas, etc. Going snorkeling feels like... swimming in a graveyard! I just want to cry now each time I look at the ocean 😭

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mange-ta-pomme@reddit

Location: France, close to Suisse border We’re in the French part of Jura mountains, on almost 700m altitude. Today: + 34 C. it was between 29 and 35 last week, coming week will be even worse. Last Sunday we‘ve travelled in Alpes, climbed on ca 2500 m to find + 30, but ad down was + 37, it was a “french air”. Today we found + 28 in the forest on almost 1500m altitude. At home, we can only open the windows between the 9 pm and 9 am and the nights start to be unbreathable. I should go tomorrow in Lyon (were we have used to live before to move in the mountains in the search of cooling) and am under the stress: it will be at least + 40 there. Just imagine that French school children are still in school the coming week… We climb higher and higher and there is still no shelter from the heat. The landscapes are as they should be at the end of August: yellow-brown fields with ripe cereal and dried grass. Poor cows hiding all together under the shadow of rare large trees… Wednesday we’re heading in Berlin to see our daughter: +35 there that day. We’re on the brink to decide to sell everything here, on mainland, to buy anything in west Ireland (were we resided for some years), just to escape this oven. Europe is a closed oven…

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Canyoubackupjustabit@reddit

Are there places in Europe where you're safe from the oven?

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Successful-Try-8506@reddit

Sweden. Stockholm currently 19°C.

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mange-ta-pomme@reddit

Ireland, Iceland, Norway. So far.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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collapse-ModTeam@reddit

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Mugalli@reddit

Never in my life it was that hot for so many days in switzerland. And there is no ending in sight. It feels like an italien summer and not like a swiss summer.

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faap8@reddit

Location: Portugal

Yesterday was the hottest day ever recorded in Portugal during the month of June (45.4 Celsius ~= 114F)

The record lasted one day, today was even hotter. (46.6 Celsius ~= 116F)

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Goatmannequin@reddit

As a US expat from the desert Southwest living in DE, I can say from personal observation that the people here are not ready for deadly heat, not only physically but also in their mentailty. For example, inside of the street trains it is generally 10C hotter than outside, with significantly increased humidity levels from perspiration and respiration. So there you see grandma with her walker, barely able to make it out of the seat, swealtering in an intolerable sauna, as the AC is not functioning and the conductor apparently just forgot to open the windows. We're just getting started with these heat waves, with electricity shortages, with broken supply chains. I can't help but feel that this working class generation, the one in power now, has never experienced a true problem, something that requires mental intervention to avoid serious tragedy. Instead everyday thoughts seem to center on the next vacation or whatever mundane superficiality scrolls past them. Like, homie, granny's going to fucking fall out here right in the doorway, but knowbody "knows". I've already seen ambulances at the train station, how many people are going to stroke or have a heart attack from the heat with only blame as a repsonse, "there was a heat warning, so it's your fault". A community problem is being individualized, and in doing so rendered unsolvable. It's going to take everyone to stand up to the coming crises to even have a hope of enduring any length of something real.

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faap8@reddit

You're absolutely right but the vast majority will see these events as "it's summer, it's hot, what's the drama?". I don't think it's possible to achieve anything globally until it's too late. It would have to be so bad for the masses to realize that by the point they do it's useless...

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bipolarearthovershot@reddit

Location: Chicago suburbs

We hit a peak of 42C heat index or 108F feels like temps. In general it’s been too hot to do more than a couple hours of work outside before noon for weeks. I’m terrified for July/august temps.

I’ve seen only one swallowtail. Minimal bees, less birds than usual, way less insects. It feels silent and sterile outside.

I’m going to describe the total collapse of functional plant ecology in my region. I thought I could garden with nature like Fukuoka but what I learned is nature is completely broken from herbicide use, lawn culture and invasive species. Because a majority of people are spraying lawns, the only things that can survive are the most tenacious weeds. All my beds have been fucked by invasive species. I’ve become totally overrun with creeping thistle Cirsium arvense. It occupies about 100 foot long rhizome on one side of my fence and 50 feet long on the other. Now that it resides in the earth I share with my neighbors it is impossible to get out since my neighbors only mow and spray. It’s spread rapidly into both of their lawns since one plant can go 15 feet sideways underground and they love compacted destroyed lawn soil. I’ve been weeding it mechanically about 5-7 times already this season and it just comes back stronger. I’ve found this weed in about 50 locations now around my home and it’s flowering now everywhere with 1000 seeds per plant that the wind and birds spread. It seems the only way to get rid of the weed is to use an herbicide called thistledown but I don’t want to poison the earth and my raised beds. It’s technically illegal to harbor and is on a noxious weed list for our state but nobody fucking cares and there’s zero enforcement.

I just found bindweed, spiny sowthistle, I have loads of creeping Charlie/ground ivy and mock strawberry. Nature doesn’t fucking work anymore, I’ve had only 2 gifts of raspberries and the rest is invasive weeds. A lot of my plants are struggling in the heat.

My passion for gardening has almost completely died and it’s been replaced by pure sadness. I wanted to start a micro nursery and permaculture business but it’s hard to stay motivated when your gardening life becomes 90% weeding and you can’t even keep your own property in a good state how could I help others? It’s FUCKED and I’m so sad.

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Cronewithneedles@reddit

In my yard it’s bittersweet. I know exactly what you mean. You can’t get rid of it. I thought I had it somewhat under control in May. Nope.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

I am too, it’s been hotter than hell this week, I hate seeing people put excessive pesticides on there lawns, like where’s the clover,the dandelions, and wild strawberries, not only that it kills off pollenators, like seriously your killing off all those flowers and driving away pollinators because you want a better lawn than the Johnson family next door. Never got that too much. Though I will admit when it comes to Christmas decorating I’m a bit of a Clark Griswold, but not even because I’m trying to outdo someone, but because Christmas lights are calming for me to look at.

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_netflixandshill@reddit

One thing I love about Portland, OR is the amount of native plant gardens, there is a very active backyard habitat certification program here. Of course the suburbs just outside of town are still dominated by monoculture lawns.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

Suburbs are like that, that reason and HOAs (though those often go hand in hand) are why I avoid em’ I like planting trees, if I can get a place of my own I got a eastern red cedar (j. Virgiana) that I want to plant in the ground eastern red cedar is my favorite tree species

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MojoPalpatine@reddit

Location: Tasmania.

Signs of collapse: None.

Tassie's climate is famously cooler and drier than the Australian mainland. With a frozen continent to its south and a burning one to its north, Tasmania might be the last stable climate zone on Earth. Low population pressure, plentiful domestic food production, green energy self-sufficiency and the cleanest air and water on the planet make it the ultimate lifeboat. 3C of warming will make its climate more hospitable to humans, overall, not less, and the bottleneck on transport to and from the mainland - just two ferries and airports too small to support jumbo landings - make it the last, best hope for the lucky few enjoying the citizenship and the savings necessary to relocate here.

That's not to say Tasmania is some kind of climate utopia. Atlantic salmon farms are depleting native fisheries at an ever accelerating rate here. The state government is deep in debt, denial and delusion, logging old growth to make toilet paper just as fast as possible. And Tasmanians themselves are as clueless about the plight of the rest of the world and their role in it as Tolkien's Hobbits were about Sauron.

It's just that this little island - and when I say little I mean it's about the size of Florida or Ireland - is almost certainly going to be the last place on Earth where humans can survive comfortably this century.

Of course, if you're not already Australian but thinking of emigrating here, you're pretty much SOL. The Aussies have buckled up their immigration policy tight as a drum. There is really only one way to get in I can think of. Get yourself an NZ citizenship. That will take a few years, but once you've got it in hand you'll be eligible by treaty to live, work, and own property in Australia, including in Tasmania.

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scaredthrownaway11@reddit

There's something tone deaf and "lucky me, suckers" about this post. I say this as someone slowly dying and homeless in North America.

First of all it's impossible for most of us to get New Zealand citizenship even if what you say is true. It takes a lot of money.

Also the lifeboat model is BS. Yeah you may have better chance, or an earthquake might take you down, or any number of unknown factors due to a destabilized jetstream. Any trees you have are going to burn, and all your agricultural lands will be for nothing if there's no rainwater to irrigate them. To say nothing of medicine, if the rest of the world is down, where are you going to get antibiotics or any necessary medications to not succumb to any number of common diseases?

Basically once a blue ocean event hits, the planet heats from top down. The entire pressure of the heated north is put on the southern hemisphere and that last remaining chunk of ice in the world (except for perhaps Greenland). This could spawn megastorms of a size never seen before on earth.

So enjoy for now the obliviousness of the Tasmanians that you seem to share on some level. Collapse is coming for all of us, and I think a little empathy is in order rather than "it's fine here, too bad you can't come."

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MojoPalpatine@reddit

Oh, emphatically guilty as charged. The Hobbits weren't immune from Sauron. They were just fortunate to live in the last place his Orcs could reach. The Orcs were always going to show up in the end. I popped this up because I want you less fortunate buggers to challenge it.

I expect the majority of the world is about to dieback, leaving behind only a sparse technological network controlled by a tiny cadre of billionaire bitcoin bros from their bunkers in Tassie and NZ. We're fortunate down here because we have access to the one thing the rest of the world doesn't: the Antarctic circumpolar current.

That's why we won't see our trees burn or suffer the megastorms and so on. Plus the owners of the tech networks will inevitably set up base here, enslaving the blithe Tasmanians who won't have any more chance to resist than the (almost) extinct Tassie aboriginals had of resisting the Europeans.

This is to say that Elon isn't building tech to terraform Mars; he's building tech to terraform the Earth that will result when most of the ecosphere has collapsed down to the level of algae.

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Elliequence@reddit

"less fortunate buggers"?

You are vile. You are a vile human being.

No one gets out of this alive. Your gloating is so hollow, so short-sighted and embarrassing. I may not have access to *gestures vaguely toward Tasmania" whatever secret stash of resources you've deluded yourself into thinking will give you more than perhaps afew years' more safety.

But at least I have enough strength of character and kindness to trumpet my own advantages to those lacking them.

Gross.

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collapse-ModTeam@reddit

Hi, Elliequence. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/collapse for:

Rule 1: Be respectful to others.

In addition to enforcing Reddit's content policy, we will also remove comments and content that is abusive or predatory in nature. You may attack each other's ideas, not each other.

Please refer to our subreddit rules for more information.

You can message the mods if you feel this was in error, please include a link to the comment or post in question.

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Collapse_is_underway@reddit

Yeah it almost feels like the dude is marketing Tasmania for rich pple. Perhaps he's a real estate agent trying to make money :]

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MojoPalpatine@reddit

That sounds like a pretty slow way to make money in a world about to experience Hyperbitcoinization. ;-)

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Collapse_is_underway@reddit

Ah yes, the coin that requires always more energy. And we'll power up all AI data centers too, lmao.

And no, real estate sounds like a way to make shitloads of money, especially if you can convince dome rich people that you found a special place that'll be safer than any other place.

It's also interesting that you post this on the sub being given more exposure after the guardian article :]]

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MojoPalpatine@reddit

Yep, heard about this subreddit via the Guardian article. So? "Death of Usenet Predicted!"

Bitcoin is indeed wonderfully energy hungry, so you might conclude that, in addition to devising an startlingly effective real estate marketing strategy, I'm also a nefarious energy magnate. After all, I don't expect you to talk, Mr Bond ... I expect you to die ...

But you make a good point here because, on reflection, there is a way you can make it straight into the Tassie lifeboat, do not pass Go, do not collect a bitcoin. Just hop on the first plane down here you can book with any ordinary tourist visa. Bring a tent and all the money you've got. And romance the first nubile Tasmanian you lay eyes on.

Wine them, dine them, and marry them. You're home and hosed, bridging visa automatically granted, nothing to fear but the sky falling on your head.

You're welcome ;-)

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AutomaticContext3427@reddit

Did Taswegia have the long, dry summer that we had in Vic. this year? We sort of skipped Autumn, and went straight to the cold stuff. I was swimming in Port Phillip at end of April and it was warm. I believe large parts of South East Oz are/were in drought. I thought Tas might have been too.

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MojoPalpatine@reddit

Spring was good and wet. Summer and autumn were pretty dry here, but not unusually so - Tassie is generally a dry climate then. But we've had good rain this winter and the countryside is back to green loveliness here.

As for drought on the mainland, no, not for most of it - hundred-year record floods throughout Queensland and NSW with many central Australian aquifers filling up for the first time in modern history.

At least going by trends of the past decade, Australia is going to be a much wetter place in coming decades.

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Apprehensive-Stop748@reddit

I had a woman in New Zealand saved to me that global warming was good for her because she lived on a mountain. I had a person from England, tell me that I should enjoy 110 Fahrenheit temperatures because people in England have to pay for it, but I get it for free.

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scaredthrownaway11@reddit

peepul r dum.

I used to think more highly of others when I thought we were a cooperative species capable of seeing reality. It's like those who see snow and say "Look, global warming doesn't exist."

I don't know why it's so hard to understand the fact that this is/ is going to affect all of us.

Did you answer either of these specimens?

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646_64664_466@reddit

3 C of warming will have some unpredicted effects everywhere since it's all very complex.

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MojoPalpatine@reddit

Heck yes. Tassie isn't immune. It's just, on the odds, the least awful place to experience what's coming.

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849@reddit

You're acting like the rest of the world will quietly die from global warming while Tasmania remains a nice place to live 🤔 Expect geoengineering and nuclear war long before that. The countries first to experience rocketing temperatures are going to spray and bomb a bunch of crap over the whole world to reduce solar inputs. By then Tasmania might be a bit chilly and ill-equipped to produce much in the way of foods...

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MojoPalpatine@reddit

Best geoengineering prospect, afaik, remains marine-cloud brightening via micronized sea-water spraying. Seems like a pretty benign technology, and difficult for it to get out of control - no?

As for the Northern Hemisphere atom-bombing itself, people have been worrying about that for about 80 years now and MAD has held tight. But, if the world does go full Strangelove, there's actually remarkably little mixing of the atmosphere between the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere. We might all die together singing Waltzing Matilda like in On The Beach, but we all have to die some time anyway ...

More likely, given the Russians managed to lose all their skilled engineers in the exodus at the start of the Ukraine war, most of their nukes are no longer operational anyway. And its not something the technocrats in the Chinese or American spheres are planning on any more. So a nuclear apocalypse seems to me the least of our concerns today.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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collapse-ModTeam@reddit

Hi, Moo_But_Not_Cow_IRL. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/collapse for:

R2: No Spam

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See_You_Space_Coyote@reddit

Location: USA, Lower 48 States, East of the Mississippi River

Covid cases continue to rise, and though the numbers aren't the absolute worst they've been so far, they're still pretty bad, and despite less people dying of covid now than they did before vaccines were made available to the general public, covid can still make you very sick and covid can still cause a wide range of long term health conditions, even after mild infections.

https://pmc19.com/data/

https://x.com/CyFi10/status/1937187206508216336

For reasons that I still don't fully understand, showing any concern about covid or taking any precautions against covid tends to net me a nice, heaping helping of social ostracization. Some might chalk this up to my personality, which, to be fair, is not exactly top shelf quality, but I've observed plenty of other people-including people who act nothing like me and barely have anything in common with me-get treated the same way for trying to avoid getting or spreading covid, so the reasoning behind it has to be bigger than "Good Lord, that See-You-Space-Coyote is a raging cunt." (I'm not claiming to not be a raging cunt, by the way, but I approach life life one big science experiment and when certain observations bear out certain information, I change my conclusions accordingly to the best of my ability.)

To that end, I make it a point to share some basic resources/info about covid in all my weekly comments because despite what the haters have to say about it, covid is a big fucking problem and it's not going to get better unless society gets its collective ass into gear and stops encouraging people to raw-dog a virus that can permanently fuck up your health in ways that modern medicine isn't yet capable of treating or curing. Note that what I share isn't a complete, comprehensive list of all the ways covid can fuck you up, I just pick a few different sources/news stories/etc. to share each week, as keeping up with all of it is quite a time-consuming task.

An interactive map that shows you how long covid can affect you: https://longcovidsux.com/

Neurological impacts of long covid: https://www.neurologylive.com/view/neurologic-impacts-long-covid-autoimmune-syndrome-igor-koralnik

How covid can damage your esophagus lining: https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-virus-found-to-damage-esophagus-lining-and-cause-ongoing-acid-reflux-and-heartburn-issues

How covid can increase your risk of developing certain mental disorders: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/18/covid-infection-increases-risk-mental-health-disorder-study

Evidence that covid is airborne: https://cleanaircrew.org/covid-is-airborne/

The importance of clean air in preventing the spread of covid: https://cleanaircrew.org/ventilation/

Basic info about KN95 masks: https://www.projectn95.org/kn95-mask-guide/

Basic info about N95 masks: https://www.projectn95.org/n95-mask-guide/

Basic info about KF94 masks: https://www.projectn95.org/kf94-mask-guide/

Basic guide to mask sizing and fit: https://www.projectn95.org/mask-size-guide/

Basic guide on how to use air filters to reduce the spread of covid: https://cleanaircrew.org/air-cleaners/

A FAQ guide about covid caution in general: https://sites.google.com/view/why-we-are-covid-cautious/home

Latest research updates about covid (current as of June 2025): https://thesicktimes.org/2025/06/17/research-updates-june-17/

On the bird flu front, scientists are learning more about the virus, including signs of a new strain or strains of the virus developing: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/how-h5n1-went-from-an-illness-in-wild-birds-to-a-global-pandemic-threat/

Everyone likely knows about the massive heat wave pummeling most of the country like Donkey Kong right now, the air feels like soup outside and all the flowers that I planted in the spring have since withered into mere shells of their former selves or else ventured on to the next realm despite my efforts to water them as much as possible and provide them with enough shade.

I ordered some stuff online a few days ago and while it was delivered on time and nothing happened to the items themselves, when I went to pick up the package and bring it inside, it was covered in tiny little bugs that I had to brush off before opening it. I had no idea what kind of bugs they were, but they were so tiny you could only see them under bright light. Since then, I haven't seen the bugs again.

Trump is, well, himself, and I doubt anyone who's not a MAGA person wakes up in the morning bright eyed and full of pep and enthusiasm eagerly awaiting news about what kind of miserably stupid gaffe he's blurted out or what kind of painfully evil laws he's given his odious stamp of approval to. Hell, I even know some people who voted for him who aren't even happy with some of the shit he's done.

The internet is as the internet does, with people from all walks of life slinging all kinds of blisteringly insane discourse at each other. Lately, I've been enjoying using adverbs, which may not bode well for me since I also write fanfiction, and anyone who writes knows what people say about writing and adverbs. Nevertheless, the roiling clusterfuck of whatever going on inside the wrinkles and folds of my gray matter continues on, doing its thing without regard as to how useful or not useful it may be. Social media is filled with a steadily increasing avalanche of AI garbage, sprinkled in with people defending hate crimes against Jewish people, people defending shit like eugenics and genocide, and people moral posturing about the most inane, unimportant bullshit ever.

My brain feels like a computer with a puzzling amount of browser tabs open, which, as coincidence would have it, is how my computer also happens to be. Given the way my brain is wired, I tend to go on Wikipedia binges now and then, as well as all sorts of random researching rabbit holes like a squirrel searching for nuts.

Every time I turn on the news, the stories seem to get weirder and weirder, and lately, it feels like reality is turning into something that no longer makes sense. People seem to be growing more disconnected and detached from each other, and socializing with other people gets more and more difficult as social norms seem to become stricter and more judgmental with the passing of time, which, for someone like me, only makes things harder than they were before.

The heat and humidity has been making me feel like a grimy sponge that's been used to wash out one too many pans and after dealing with some personal loss and also knowing a lot of people both online and IRL who are struggling a lot right now, I've got what feels like a Thanksgiving dinner for 57 people piled onto a flimsy ass store brand paper plate from Wal-Mart on my metaphorical plate, so to speak. If my sentence kind of wandered off of the straight and narrow path of logic there, don't worry about it, I blame the heat dome hovering over my part of the country like a nervous guy hover-handing over a girl he likes doing some wacky shit to my brain.

Anyways, in the interests of not clogging up anyone's browsers like a clogged pipe in a bathroom (or in other places) at Rainfurrest (here's a link that will explain what the incredible edible fuck Rainfurrest is/was to the morbidly curious-warning, it's not very safe for life, especially life under the age of 18 years old in human years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmULc5VANsw), I'll stop my post here for now.

Stay safe, stay healthy, you know the drill. And just to give you all a little palate cleanser for the road (because Lord knows we could all use it in these times, here's some soothing instrumental music that's perfectly safe for life for you all to enjoy): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0TX9l3oHls

With that, I'll leave you all to whatever it is you all are/were doing at the moment to go work on making the internet even weirder than it already is by adding some of my deranged fanfiction to a corner of it.

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See_You_Space_Coyote@reddit

Edit: For some reason, Reddit is telling me that I deleted my comment even though I never deleted it. The way this website functions (or, fails to function,) drives me insane.

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candleflame3@reddit

I appreciate your covid links. I'm CC, one of few maskers I see around. Mostly nobody says anything to me, but they may think I'm nuts (I am a little nuts and not the best fitter-inner).

Crazy thing is, my workplace has had a bit of a baby boom recently but none of the soon-to-be/new parents mask. The news about how covid affects fetuses is bad, and odds are all of these people have been infected over the course of the pregnancy. I just do not understand why people are rolling the dice with their children's health. I would have thought that was an uncrossable, better-safe-than-sorry line, but here we are.

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See_You_Space_Coyote@reddit

Thanks, I like to use these weekly posts as a way to keep track of certain things that I see happening either in my life or just in general and also to share information or news that I find important or relevant in some way, and given that covid is a vastly underestimated problem that's only going to get worse if people don't find a way to come together and make things better, I like to do what I can to share info about covid for anyone who might not have been paying attention to it lately for whatever reason(s.) I won't lie and pretend that a lot of people don't find it annoying but there's a lot of problem in society that people get pissed off at you if you bring them up so I'm not going to let that stop me.

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hikingvikingnz@reddit

Location: South Island New Zealand

Just had our entire home swept away in an unprecedented flood. We've lost absolutely everything. Feeling stupefied.

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Susanoos_Wife@reddit

Sorry to hear that, I hope life sends some happiness your way soon and that you find a way to replace the important things that you need.

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4BigData@reddit

a bit hilarious how the top 10% still feels New Zealand is a safe spot

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Meatrocket_Wargasm@reddit

Asheville North Carolina was (is?) touted as a climate haven, seemingly immune to global warming and wild weather shifts. They're still trying to put everything back together.

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4BigData@reddit

100% hilarious as well

along with the Great Lakes and the soon to be year-round toxic air from Canada's wildfires

the types whose brains go into "I can save myself by moving to X destination, my $ will protect me" deserve to go first anyway

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Conscious-Trifle-237@reddit

I'm so sorry you're going through this. I wish you strength and lots of support. 💜

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DisingenuousGuy@reddit

Oh that's not good. Is everyone (incl. any pets) alright first?

I hope for the best on rebuilding.

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Middle_Ad_9542@reddit

Location: WA, USA, south of Seattle.

For the last year or so, the sunlight generally seems "yellower" than usual, as if there were some kind of unshakeable haze in the atmosphere. Even on overcast days, the light is somehow warmer colored than it used to be. I remember growing up north of Seattle, there were many dark blue, overcast days with weeks-long periods of rain of varying degrees. Now, we're lucky if we get two consecutive days of rain. I moved into my current place, my late grandfather's house, six years ago, and immediately started a vegetable garden. I remember we had so many pollinators that year that the air seemed to shimmer as clouds of flowerflies and whathaveyous all competed for the flowering herbs. I am growing those same herbs now, five years later, and while the plants are very much larger than they were, the number of pollinators has definitely decreased. It's a very noticeable difference. We don't use any chemicals, and our neighbors are also organically-minded, so I'm not sure what the cause might be. I've noticed a lack of hummingbirds as well. When I do see hummingbirds, they are almost always around a feeder, not a flower. Recently, a wild bird was injured in my neighbor's yard, and I tried phoning around for help from wildlife rehabbers, and every single one turned me away because they were all full. I wonder how many animals are being euthanized because we don't have the capacity to rehab them all. My dad's got some health issues going on, and last year he wasn't able to maintain his compost pile, which was located in the trees, in a shady location. During the August heatwave, it caught fire, and that's the first time in all of his years farming that that's ever happened. It almost caused a massive forest fire and the destruction of multiple properties. As a caregiver by profession, I worry about the elderly farmers who may not be able to adapt to the changing climate, and the consequences of a simple, honest mistake in a rapidly changing environment. Also, it could just be my imagination, but it seems like the seagulls are moving further inland, as food is more abundant in the city rather than the ocean.

Besides the backyard, I'm constantly on-edge about an issue most people who live around me don't realize is looming: the fact that my city has outgrown its capacity to provide its own water, and water is having to be rerouted from a city nearby to compensate, while residential expansion continues in full force. My property is located on a designated "watershed" area, yet the creek that runs through the entire neighborhood, which provides groundwater refills to our city's dwindling supply and harbors the densest biodiversity in the area is no longer flowing and exists as a few spaced-out ponds that seasonally fill up. I've heard accounts from locals who've lived here going back fifty years and more, and they tell stories of how they fished salmon and crawdads out of the creek here when they were in school in the 70's and 80's. Now it's just puddles. I've only lived here for five years, but my family was here for forty years before me, and I care deeply about the future of this humble place. I want my kids to be able to fish out of this river like others have before them, but everything is becoming progressively hotter and drier every year, and I don't know if people are aware that fixing the creek will help fix the water cycle and maintain the microclimate of this fragile area. The local tribes can't help because the location of the creek falls right outside their jurisdictions. Those who have been advocating for the creek have called it "the orphaned creek" since no one wants to take stewardship of it, yet so many lives depend on it. The lakes my family used to fish at are now unfishable due to severe algal blooms for multiple years in a row, forcing us to travel further away for a chance at a healthy catch. Brown trout are no longer found in nearby lakes.

Further from home, my fiance's mom lives north on the shores of the Puget Sound, and though her beach house is beautiful and idealistic, the beach itself is quiet, and almost sterile of small lifeforms. She lives across from a military base, and the entire shoreline has been warned not to fish or consume anything from those waters. I don't know how long it's been like that, but it's heartbreaking to witness every time we visit. On those long drives up and down the peninsula, it is not unusual to see small fires that have erupted on the sides of the highways from June-September. That has been ongoing for at least eight years now. I see Mt. Rainier almost every day on my commutes, and the glaciers at the top have shrunk considerably.

This spring was surprisingly cool, and continues to be. We had a few scorching days toward beginning of May, which took the plants by surprise and forced some to flower a bit early, but overall we've been spared so far. I'm not anticipating that will hold. Last year's spring was very warm, so I'm expecting the heat to return in full force next year. That creek really couldn't be fixed soon enough.

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teamrocketing@reddit

Hi neighbor

For fishing, it’s usually limited to 1-2 a week or month, depending on the variety and zone. The warnings are usually for shellfish due to the toxic algae. It thrives in warm environments so that situation will only worsen for all of the PNW.

I have been very pleased with the fire prevention efforts for my area and haven’t seen anything like what you’ve described yet thankfully.

However, the animal crisis here is severe, for wild life and pets. My city garden attracts all sorts: bear, deer, raccoon, opossum, bird, squirrel, bunny, bat, dog, cat. The wildlife continue to be pushed out of the forests and pets are abandoned because shelters are overflowing and due to HCOL it’s impossible for many to afford to keep them or find housing that allows them. There’s usually a couple posts a week from people rehoming that cannot surrender their animals to a shelter because the shelter has rejected them.

Beyond homeless animals there has been another sharp increase in homeless people including very young children for my area. These are families working with support services, there just isn’t enough available and the wait is so long. Recently a 16 year old was murdered while he slept on a shared porch that had been his living situation. :(

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Middle_Ad_9542@reddit

Hi there neighbor, I'm referring to fishing in freshwater lakes (not the ocean), many of which are no longer healthy to fish from due to the year-round algal blooms. And yes definitely noticed the increase in homeless and crime as well. Highly recommend downloading the Watch Duty app to track local fires in real time.

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teamrocketing@reddit

I was referring to your comments for the peninsula for both fishing & fires - unless I misunderstood?That’s definitely the best app!

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Middle_Ad_9542@reddit

Yes, for the shoreline area I mentioned, the nearby naval base has issued a permanent ban on fishing in the area my MIL lives. Heartbreaking as it affects a lot of people who live along that shoreline.

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lazlounderhill@reddit

Location: USA (flyover country)

This kind of waste is unsustainable. A family member shipped a hat to a destination 45 minutes from its intended destination via USPS - it was a hat . . .a HAT. This is the route it took, according to the tracking information - no I'm not going to post a photo of that information as proof, but this is the actually timeline, including locations, which I took the time to map out, because it horrified me. People need jobs in these dying towns too - I do not understand the logic behind these logistics. This is 100% real.

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neuro_space_explorer@reddit

Yeah I recently ordered a vhs tape from a state away on eBay. It made it to the distribution center in my city and then all the way out to Arizona on the other side of the country before making its way back to me.

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

I think I know what happened. The USPS consolidated post offices. If you send something from your local post office to a local destination, it HAS to go to a main hub for processing. Then sent BACK to the local post office for delivery.

For instance, any mail I send from my local post office in Orange county NY, is sent to Albany for processing. Albany is 85 miles away, about an hour and a half drive up the NYS Thruway. Insane.

Waste is a good word for what you described.

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Makhnos_Ghost@reddit

Location: Southern California, USA

After today's Supreme Court Rulings, we're no different than Russia at this point honestly. I keep using them as an example due to people I know from there, personal knowledge, etc. and we're really on track or perhaps, we just became similar to Russia of the mid to late 2000s/Early 2010s. The part where the government (Putin and Medvedev) and the main political party (United Russia) consolidates power with changes to the executive branch/rulings, changes to the constitution to benefit them, a pointless/short lived war, etc. and society still moves "freely" as this happens and after it occurs, with opposition still allowed to speak...kind of...with lots of self-censorship, and with rights and freedom of expression against the regime being more unwelcome as the years go by.

Though unlike Russia then, where there was, arguably, better economic development throughout their consolidation of power (for some Russians) as time went on, the opposite is occurring the United States. Decay, decline of living standards, economic power, and a massive focus on racism and getting rid of the "other", in this case, Non-white immigrants, and building of detention centers...and everything is going at light speed compared to the "slow-burn" like in Russia. It's a mess and massive decline that everyone can see and the lies of the government are extremely obvious. Hypernormalization at its finest. In this case we are more like the late stages of USSR.

People are saying "this is it", and maybe, it is. It looks like people would be considered citizens in some states, whereas in others, they wouldn't be, effectively splitting the United States again, akin to Dred Scott before the Civil War. Likewise, anyone can have their citizenship/rights stripped of now (to my understanding), if Trump/Executive declares so. But, If daily videos of people being attacked by the gestapo and getting put into unmarked vans, disappeared and sent to other countries isn't causing mass daily riots, I don't know what will. I think as long as most (White) Americans have somewhat decent priced groceries, access to entertainment/sports, etc. many will still yell "This is horrible" while they can stay comfortably on the East Coast far away from the Latino majority areas where this is happening. For me? I just want to cry.

Over here in SoCal, god it is tense and dire. It's so unerving being out in public. I'm in a heavy Latino majority area and the Police/Feds are everywhere and there is a tension already between Local Police and ICE. Organizing is being done, and I'm gonna do my best to get some sort of Mutual Aid group going/joining one, but we know what's coming. Wouldn't surprise me to see Leftists, dissidents, community organizers, etc. starting to get put into the Vans. I used to exaggerate...but I'm not anymore. I have the privilege to be able to at least "hope" that I wouldn't be targeted. Everyone I know? Everyone is terrified. EVERYONE. I can still say "maybe they will come for me because of my political beliefs, etc" but not my friends. Not the vast majority of the people in my community. Because they have brown skin and speak Spanish. I'm terrified and I can't imagine the feeling they are having. I said it last week but Birth certificates are being carried around, passports, etc.

And now I know these type of comments I am posting online might spell bad news for me in the future too. A part of me doesn't care anymore. If they come for "undesirable" Americans, I just hope I don't get sent to El Salvador and maybe I can get the choice to just get dumped off in Mexico and join the American diaspora there. What a tragedy to say that I'm not even joking anymore about that. American Concentration camps are here and will continue to grow. Tension will continue to grow. Perhaps a national breakup in a few years. An American diaspora is coming.

I don't know what it looks like elsewhere in the United States, but here in SoCal. It's so tense, unnerving, and disillusioning right now. And I know for the majority, it's a hundred-fold. How are you all feeling?

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Ghostwoods@reddit

My wife is American, and every day I'm more and more grateful that she came to Europe rather than me going to the US. It's absolutely terrifying from here in Spain. I can't imagine how bad it is in SoCal.

All of Europe is tipping the same way as the US, because the same hyper-elites are pouring the same avalanche of money into making sure that's what happens. The billionaire class are fully transnational, and they cannot tolerate dissent.

My current comparative safety is wafer-thin. A few more years, that's all. Then I'm just another foreigner to round up, a neuro-spicy one at that, with an expensive medical bill to keep me from being completely crippled -- if a heat-dome doesn't get me first.

They used to say that when Washington sneezes, London catches a cold.

It's getting very, very fucking cold.

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Physical_Ad5702@reddit

Feeling hopeless. I see our trajectory in a very similar way to what you described. Only thing I think will be different is that they won't deport natural born citizens. But you can bet you backside they'll have political dissidents rotting in prisons in the U.S. before too much longer. There are private penitentiaries springing up all over the country as we speak. I'm not going to self-censor though. Let them revoke the 1st Amendment if they want to, and I can see that happening or a really bastardized interpretation of it to suit their agenda, especially given the current state of SCOTUS. The only constant lately has been drastic change, and it's speeding in the wrong direction. There isn't a whole lot to say anymore. Everyone who has a shred of empathy is struggling or already broken. Need more plumbers.

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WernerHerzogWasRight@reddit

Agree, P🅰️L🅰️ŇȚℹ️®️ is compiling data on every American. Every traffic infraction, every mistake on a tax return. If they want you, they’ll just ask the system to spit out charges to destroy your life with. Grey man time. Blend in.

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ThisMattressIsTooBig@reddit

"This is horrible," I yell, comfortably sitting on the east coast in my pasty white skin. Survivor's guilt for days. They'll come for me eventually if the tide doesn't turn.

It's fucked up that we have to, y'know... keep it together, stay productive. Pretend nothing is wrong. Small talk. Yes, mr. Employer, I too enjoy hobbies and desire improved metrics. That is surely an appropriate priority.

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UniqueYogurt4316@reddit

Location: Northwestern India (University) / Northeastern India (Home)

Extreme heat waves in North India. While this year it has been somewhat tame in comparison, the previous summer was the hottest ever recorded. Temperature touching 50°C / 122°F. The majority of Indians do not have access to Air conditioning. In the face of increasing energy demands, power cuts aren't rare.

Diminished agricultural output. Reduced crop yields. Expected to decrease even further in the future. Financially disastrous for the farmers. India has too big of a population to mitigate the issue through imports.

Erratic rainfall patterns in North-Eastern India. This year my state recorded 9 cm of rainfall within 2 days. The figure is even higher in the neighbouring states. Periodic floods. And few years before, the government blamed the floods on Muslims, and called it a man-made disaster. They hadn't reinforced the embankments since 1960.

Rising communal tensions, stroked primarily by the current government. Economic collapse would in all likelihood be followed by a social one.

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WernerHerzogWasRight@reddit

Please keep positing your observations from India are very welcome here 💙

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Ok_Main3273@reddit

Sorry to hear about what you and your country are facing. However, very nice to read a perspective from India on this sub. Keep it coming: we need more diversity in this news feed.

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

I agree. We NEED to hear from folks in India and every where.

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DungeonsAndDradis@reddit

Location: Ohio

This is probably silly, but my wife and I eat out a lot. I get fast food almost every day for lunch. (I know, it's horrible for me, that's not the point.) Nearly every restaurant I go to has been missing some critical food or item within the past couple of weeks.

Growing up, no one would believe me if I said that Taco Bell didn't have any soda. Or that Wendy's didn't have any large cups or french fries.

They've gotten back in stock the next day or so, but running out of freaking french fries? That's wild to me.

It's just a little symptom of an overall larger supply issue. And it's affecting a bunch of different places.

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pe_de_cabra@reddit

San Jose, CA. I’m bad too but for shopping at Whole Foods. It’s right next to my place and sometimes I’m feeling lazy and end up there. Last week there were a LOT of empty shelves and it reminded me a lot of the pandemic. I had not seen it like this since 2022.

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bipolarearthovershot@reddit

It’s the only place I can get good organic produce so I keep going to pay Jeff Bezos

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pe_de_cabra@reddit

Sucks. Farmers markets around me are only during the week and I can never make it

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PromotionStill45@reddit

Their main supplier, UNFI, had a system hack. It actually started on June 13 and it wasn't widely shared.

See the megathread on the Whole Foods sub, just to see how it happened.

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Ebella2323@reddit

This also effected our tiny shop n save grocery store too. There was no ice cream and no cat food to be found due to the hack.

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candleflame3@reddit

Yep, I've noticed since covid that many items are out of stock at some point. I used to be pretty sure of picking up everything on my shopping list, but now it's iffy. And I stock up when something I like is available.

It's not a great hardship, just something I notice. I can imagine it getting worse.

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ctilvolover23@reddit

Burger King was out of burgers. And Texas Roadhouse was out of half of their items. Including steak.

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bossm0aner@reddit

Location: Eastern Half of USA

Been in the heat wave… It’s like living on a hot inhospitable planet, not earth. Somewhere humans aren’t supposed to be. When it gets this hot things start to be hot to the touch that you’d never think of. Drinks don’t stay cool for as long in your house.

Anywhere that isn’t directly AC’d is pretty awful. My gym only has good AC on one floor so even that I had to plan for the morning.

I dealt with it in California in the summers, but it was a little more diurnal and less humid. Only had a shitty out of date AC and had to sleep near it on hot nights. It felt more comfortable at least overnight/ early mornings though. Even mornings here I would not run outside in this.

I did do OK outside for some light exercise in the shade before 9 AM and was drenched. And I mean light exercise. The sun was unbearable.

In my living space there is AC but only about half is cooled well. Upstairs is unbearable. I was quoted $23,000 through Home Depot for a mini split and many including myself can’t afford that. The mitsubushi was $27.5k (4 splits included!)

Have only needed the AC during this heatwave and it does break overnight tomorrow, at least for a few days.

I do know that dehumidification is one of the aspects of AC and the eastern US is just more humid in general. It’s a tradeoff because obviously water is good for many things. If we didn’t have global warming none of this would matter. AC out west should be less energy intensive due to lack of humidity.

Instead we’re fucked no matter what with global warming. These dumb maps saying certain areas will better weather climate change? Fuck off. Everywhere is having problems.

The news says unprecedented heat, but it’s not a surprise to anyone, is it? This is reality. It’s not 130 F. It’s in line with climate modelling expectations. MLB players were throwing up. Summer outdoor activities are already hitting the limits.

I’m supposed to do something “fun” tomorrow during this and it just makes me sad.

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bipolarearthovershot@reddit

“These dumb maps saying certain areas will better weather climate change? Fuck off. Everywhere is having problems“. Yes, preach. There will be no safe zones or climate havens, everyone is going to get heat domed hard

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Physical_Ad5702@reddit

Maybe the cancellation of sportsball events due to the players getting heat illness will wake up a few more people. Doubt it. Probably just start to build domes over the ballparks and run massive AC units.

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bossm0aner@reddit

1) They haven’t had to cancel yet.

2) They’ll just adapt. Wayyy too much money. Night games, adjust schedule, and yea more domes. Definitely is not gonna change.

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neu8ball@reddit

Just look at the World Cup in Qatar. Dozens of massive stadiums with insane air conditioning built using slaves from the Philippines, all for a one-month soccer tournament. Now, the stadiums sit abandoned, a monument to mankind's greed.

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Clear_Bedroom_4266@reddit

That applies to the Olympic/World Cup facilities in Brazil, too. Nearly all were abandoned after spending BILLIONS.

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PrairieFire_withwind@reddit

Well now, if i weren't already mauseous from the heat i am nauseous from that info.

Not a sportsball follower so i miss much of the news related to it.

[-]

Clear_Bedroom_4266@reddit

All that, and it's not even July. Seeing temperature records fall this week by +5-+7 degrees (f) is shocking.

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ThisMattressIsTooBig@reddit

It feels like this level of heat should be tolerable, on paper? But maybe that's my childhood memories saying so and my old ass body now has a different opinion. Or I'm just saying that out of repressed guilt, seeing lawn guys and road guys on the job.

We're getting weirdly wrecked. Traffic is down, attendance is down. The power company has multiple pickup points for water, ice, and dry ice. The fire department in town ran their ladder up, threw down a bouncy castle and is just endlessly spraying their parking lot. Sushi is hard to find. (So what? Turns out everyone wants sushi as a cool meal. We're doing salads, pasta salads, lentil salads...)

Power is still out for chunks of the population - I was one of the lucky ones. Turns out that thunderstorm I got was an outrider of a tornado, and that tornado killed a few people. So, y'know. Very lucky.

[-]

bossm0aner@reddit

I’m not sure of the tolerability of the average human… The humidity/ wet bulb temp has been pretty fucking nasty. That said people aren’t dropping dead; however, outdoor work places are mitigating significantly and it is all over the news. It’s not great. I don’t think a marathon running event would go well.

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322241837@reddit

Location: GTA, Canada

People have been getting more and more aggressive these days, mostly on the road. The speed limit is now the suggested minimum. I pretty much have to yield to any car making a turn even if I have right of way and there's no oncoming traffic.

I hardly go outside anymore unless absolutely necessary because of how hostile drivers are to pedestrians, and even bus drivers seem to be increasingly careless. I don't blame them, since it's probably one of the hardest essential service jobs there is.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

I wonder that too, the amount of newer model ram trucks in my area is crazy, along with newer jeeps, how do they afford 50k+ vehicles, I can barely afford a 8 year old car with two jobs.

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eric_ts@reddit

Stellantis (RAM and Jeep, among others) has stupid lease deals right now. I have seen under $400 for a $60K Jeep Gladiator at my local dealer. The reason why they are stupid (I was in auto sales and finance) is that they are low-mileage leases with breathtakingly high over-mileage charges, and they require a hefty down payment--not something you want to do on a lease. Leasing is a great option for a very tiny percentage of consumers--people who trade in their cars every three years, people using vehicles for work--tax deductions for leasing are better and simpler than for financing or cash ownership, people who put a lot of miles on their cars--100K+/year (counterintuitive, but building the in depriciation taking excess miles into the transaction is usually less expensive overall than taking the depriciation hit on trade in), and there are some subvented (subsidised) leases that are genuinely a better deal than financing or paying cash--this is very rare presently. Lowering your payment is a lousy reason to lease. Full stop. The kind of leases Stellantis is offering will cost most consumers a LOT more over the life of the vehicle than paying the higher payment and financing. Generally, if you can't afford the payments on a five-year loan with a ten percent down payment, then you really should be looking at a less expensive option--on a 60-month note at typical interest rates that would be $1,100-$1,200/month. Extending the term beyond 60 months is also a horrible idea--it doesn't lower the payment all that much, and you end up paying a lot more in interest. Sorry for the novel.

TL-DR--lots of new Jeep and Ram vehicles are around because of leasing. Don't fall into that trap.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

Not a trap I’m going too either, if I get a truck, a 03’ suburban would be ideal, cheaper to insure, much cheaper to buy, easier to repair, lots of parts available, 5.3s don’t like to die either, no annoying cylinder deactivation too in that year.

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eric_ts@reddit

Great choice. I sold Chevrolet when that generation of Suburban came out. The overall build quality and driving dynamics were almost an order of magnitude better than the model it replaced—the 2001 Suburban had a tighter turning radius than the Blazer—the S-10 model—and got about the same gas mileage. I didn’t have long term data at that point but it doesn’t surprise me at all. GM temporarily had management that decided that fixing the initial quality of the vehicle by spending a tiny amount of money on higher grade materials was much cheaper than paying for warranty repairs. It didn’t stick. It never does at GM. It was nice while it lasted.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

My cousin had a 03’ Yukon xl, he drove that thing all over the country, I think it’s got 5-600k miles on it and it still drives, the gmt 800 platform in general seems much more reliable

[-]

perrino96@reddit

Sounds like Australia, the worst part is Ute drivers complaining about the thefts but not realizing their car is more than most Australians yearly salary.

[-]

DenTwann@reddit

Location: Belgium

Last 2 years we drowned. Like way to much rain. This year however is really dry. We only had 70mm rain since the beginning of the year. From tomorrow on we head towards 30degrees. But on Tuesday and Wednesday hitting almost 40degrees. Which is insane for here.. not looking forward to it.

[-]

_rihter@reddit

Western Europeans got a false sense of security over the last two years that climate change would somehow benefit them. The reality of the situation is rapidly kicking in.

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inflatabledinoteeth@reddit

Location: London, UK. There are no insects in my garden. None. To be clear, we do not use chemicals of any kind and every summer up until now it’s buzzing and I’m proud of our mini ecosystem here. But this year there are no butterflies. There are barely any moths. There are no wasps, no hoverflies, few bumblebees. At this time of year there are usually insects coming to drink at the pond, they queue up on the surrounding vegetation, waiting their turn. This year there are none and it’s genuinely creepy. I mean we are in drought so I should be seeing a lot of thirsty insects. Earlier in the spring there was a boom in aphid numbers but right now I can’t find any in my garden. There are no predators to eat them, so where are they? I’ve seen one ladybird. We usually have a small group of swifts flying around our neighbourhood - this year there are two. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I cycle everywhere and I always used to joke that you knew it was summer by the amount of bugs you got caught in your teeth on a ride, but that jokes falling kinda flat right now.

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farmingjapan@reddit

Here in Japanese countryside we’re also seeing an eerie absence of many once-abundant species. I suspect it’s largely due to late season heat waves last autumn. Temperatures above a certain threshold greatly reduce the rate of larval hatching. That’s the only significant change that I can attribute the loss to. Pesticide use hasn’t increased enough in the short term to be the primary cause, I’d guess. Hope that helps a little to make sense of the issue, though no less tragic! I’ve had to hand pollinate zucchini’s for the first time this year, as there aren’t enough native bees around anymore.

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thrope@reddit

Same in rural south-west Scotland. Usually cursing the bugs this time of year and looking up door and window screens like they have in other countries. This year have only had one fly in the house so far and don't see any insects even out and about in the countryside.

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bramblez@reddit

We’ve declared chemical war of insects and we’re winning. I believe what’s clearly toxic in large amounts on crops becomes antagonistic to the lifecycle of insects in small diffuse amounts over their lifetime. Those few survivors you see will likely breed back with a vengeance till genetic resistance develops in a few species, and in 10 years we’ll have 10x the bugs with 1/100 the diversity.

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Round_Medium_814@reddit

So you are saying there will be something to eat in 10 years? 2 things on the menu, cockroach hoagies and rat burritos?

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Apprehensive-Dog8641@reddit

Location: Appalachian foothills U.S

This month has been a particular type of hellscape. I run a summer school/camp program during the month of June. Staff morale is bottomed out, everyone is sick and stressed. Our funding comes entirely from the Federal DoE - The proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2026 would eleminate 100% of funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, the only federal funding stream dedicated to afterschool and summer programs. On a large scale this impacts 1.4 million kids, their families. On a micro scale, this impacts 100 students and their families at the school I work at - the poverty rate for the area we serve is 65.69%, the community is in a food desert, and is in a rural area. Our program (and the majority 21stCCLC) provide free after school and summer programs and breakfast, lunch, and/or snacks. Our community will be in shambles if we lose this funding.

Walking pneumonia, Strep, and some vengeance seeking stomach bug seem to be the top culprits, for the life of me I cannot remember a summer prior to this with this many people sick.

There has been a drastic increase in folks using little free pantries and other food safety nets as well, which isn't atypical in the summer, especially since most schools have had to reduce or cut summer feeding programs, but I'm struggling to meet the needs of the community with stocking the pantries. The surge of need appears worse than it was during the winter.

I'm not sure if it is my own burnout or reality, but people overall seem more selfish and flippant towards their fellow man lately, to the extent that I believe the social contract has dissolved. From road rage and rude behavior in public to general apathy and discontent across the board it is hard to see it improving. I think it will get worse.

On the environmental front, I've been lucky enough to see fireflies this summer. I'm praying the garden makes it through the heat dome we are stuck under. (At least it isn't raining for 4 weeks straight I suppose?) We are lacking so many pollinators though, I count myself lucky to see a carpenter bee, I've seen very few butterflies or other bees this year.

I'm unsure where to go in life, everything feels futile, even building community. It seems like investing time and energy into something that will just prolong the inevitable end, but nevertheless I'm pushing forward.

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Physical_Ad5702@reddit

Are you willing to guess what percentage of the children's parents you serve voted for TACO and subsequently for the elimination of the funding they rely on?

I'll conservatively put it at 80%

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

Or, did those children's parents vote at all?

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Clear_Bedroom_4266@reddit

Rural areas in the US voted almost exclusively for him the past 3 elections. Fox News is a major player in why this country - and planet - are so fucked up. They've waged a 30-year psychological war on this country and no one dared stop them before it was too late. Now, it's too late. How to you de-program 70M people?

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Physical_Ad5702@reddit

What Fox does is teach people to be racist / bigoted / sexist. It's a learned behavior; if people can be taught to be cruel, they can also be taught empathy and compassion. But I strongly believe there needs to be someone at the top espousing these values and leading by example and you'd have to get rid of these toxic media and social media platforms where hatred blooms. Additionally, these people need to be shown compassion in the form of an increased National minimum wage to a living wage, better healthcare, education etc. There not, none of us are, getting these things. It's been austerity for the past 40+ years.

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

How it could be done - it's all down to "free will" for one person to get de-programmed. For 70 million people? That is beyond what can be done.

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Ghostwoods@reddit

Purity-checking hungry kids for their parents' opinions is not a good look.

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Physical_Ad5702@reddit

I think you've taken this out of context. I'm not condoning anything here. Just making an observation. I do not want the kids to suffer or this person to lose their job.

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CowSightings@reddit

Thanks for the update from another appalachian resident. Hope you ignore the ‘oh but the south votes red so they should all burn’ fools.

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Parking_Chance_1905@reddit

Location: Ontario Canada

5 years ago driving near any large body of water here in the spring and early summer would result in your car getting covered in 1000s of midge larvae and it would smell like fish. Last few years absolutely 0 larvae...

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meanderingdecline@reddit

Location: New Jersey US

Finally the heatwave of 3 consecutive days over 99 F (37 C) has broken.

On the hottest day there was an emergency evacuation of my workplace. Around 400 of us evacuated out into the hottest part of the day to await the fire department’s assessment of the emergency. Luckily there were a few shade trees for all 400 people to stand under. After about 10 minutes we were given the all clear and could return inside. Well except for the 3 people who got heat stroke in that 10 minute period outside who were awaiting emergency medical assistance.

Really eye opening to me how dangerous high heat is especially for at risk people (elderly, overweight etc). Insane that in 10 minutes of high heat almost 1% of a group were physical distressed to the point of requiring medical attention.

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antikythera_mekanism@reddit

People don’t seem to register the danger of extreme heat the same way as danger of freezing cold. I hope your colleagues will recover well. What a nightmare situation!

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

Hello to you in New Jersey from Orange county NY.

Geez. The three people who got heat stroke - are they okay? Did they come back to work? I am not surprised that it happened, but sad to read about them.

You are right about the weather. Tuesday and Wednesday were really bad. I usually work out at my local gym. On Tuesday I DID NOT go. I literally could not even think of doing ONE rep of the scheduled workout. It got near to 97/36.1 degrees on Tuesday. Even with AC, hell no to working out.

This morning? According to my computer weather app, it is 61/16.1 degrees. And raining.

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SweatyPut2875@reddit

Location: Southern Ontario, Canada

--We've just emerged from 4 days of absolutely brutal heat and humidity, at least for now, but it's coming back. I didn't leave my home till 8 pm for 3 days. I don't have AC, but I am thankfully well shaded by trees and use a dehumidifier and fan that are really helpful. We didn't lose power, so I also used ice cubes on my skin to cool down. If we get to a point in the future where this type of heat and humidity lasts for weeks, many will die. The smoke in the air has been awful from wildfires in Northern Ontario and neighbouring provinces, too, so I added a good air filter to my appliances. I live in a tiny place, so I don't have to run all these appliances all day -- usually even 2 hours makes a big difference.

--The reduction in birds and insects around me is horrifying, and I'm always aware of it. I leave out water in my yard for critters trying to survive the heat.

--There is a new shelter for homeless people at the end of my street -- the poverty is utterly shocking. The poverty and homelessness rates in my city are getting out of control. ***AND ALSO*** there are 4 $2,000,000+ dollar homes for sale on my street and around the corner that have been for sale for months and two of them for years. Just a few years ago, those homes would have been half the price. Rents and house prices have doubled in under a decade. End stage capitalism is well engaged on my street.

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322241837@reddit

Greetings from the GTA. I invested in a dehumidifier a while back because the humidity was getting absolutely brutal.

I have chronic illnesses that are deeply impacted by air quality, temperature, & barometric pressure instability, and I don't know how much more of it I can take. More and more of the street trees in my area are either visibly struggling or already dead.

I live in social housing, so most of the residents in my building are also disabled, and at much higher risk of heat stroke than the average population.

My building's policy is that the heat gets switched to AC and vice versa in June and October. Obviously this doesn't make much sense anymore considering how we're getting more heat much earlier in the year for much longer, but policy is policy.

We've been getting more blackouts too, but I'm not sure if it's energy demands exceeding grid capacity or something else.

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springcypripedium@reddit

Location: Upper Midwest u.s.

In addition to witnessing the fast paced collapse of bird populations and insect population (this spring/summer I've seen 2 fireflies, 3 monarchs in areas that should be filled with them), I'm witnessing the potential (or definitive?) collapse of the mental health field. I was in the field many years ago and it was a mess then (such that I had to change careers). It has only gotten worse.

With how quickly political, societal, environmental collapse is unfolding and how my sleep is going from bad to worse, along with some major life decisions I need to make soon, I decided to try to find a therapist. 😱

What a shit show! It's been years (pre-covid) since I was in therapy for situational related anxiety, trauma and grief.

I've contacted many therapists, left messages and have only connected with one who seemed desperate to find clients for her new practice. Every therapist I contacted only does virtual sessions. And I contacted a lot. There are so many things wrong with "virtual" therapy, I don't have time or space to delve into that except to say that "in-person therapy for the treatment of many mental health conditions is backed by decades of empirical evidence". https://reachbh.org/the-pros-and-cons-of-virtual-therapy-vs-in-person-therapy/

In looking for articles about the state of psychotherapy today, I came across one of the best I've seen which describes the deterioration and limitations of the mental health system in the u.s. It even includes the Krishnamurti quote that is often cited on r collapse!!! “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

https://time.com/6308096/therapy-mental-health-worse-us/

And finally, in addition to the above collapse related issues, I am seeing the zoning out of just about everybody, as has been mentioned here by many.

People are getting so strange, closed off, on edge etc. I follow someone on YouTube who is documenting leaving the u.s. to live abroad and her latest video was focused on the bizarre shifts in people's behaviors and affect . . . she was wondering why this is. She thought perhaps Europe would be different than in the u.s.----i.e. more "normal" people! She put the question out to her viewers: "what is going on with people and the world that is so off?"

Disturbingly, out of 100's of comments, only one person mentioned environmental collapse for why people are "off". Most people mentioned AI, political turbulence or covid as the main factors in the recent uptick in human weirdness.

The fact that so many people can't or won't see that humans (we are animals) need biodiversity to survive , is one of the reasons why I have zero optimism for humans collectively changing for the better.

Humans have never lived with such high levels of CO2, broken jet stream/weather patterns, climate chaos, plastics in everything, seasons changing, night sky obliterated etc. yet most people don't see how that could be connected to our distress.

[-]

Milkbagistani@reddit

Yes we are animals and people often forget that. I attribute a lot of the behaviours now to a human form of zoochosis, because even a gilded cage is still a cage.

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herpderption@reddit

If the captive environment does not fully cater for the species-specific needs of an animal, or if it imposes unnatural stress or frustration, there can be a deterioration in the animal’s physical and mental health. This may manifest in the development of physical disease or abnormal behaviour.

Oh shit...it me.

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Ghostwoods@reddit

It all of us, friend.

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springcypripedium@reddit

Speaking of cages (mentioned above) that we are all in----I found this entry in my cyber journal the other day---- from about 20 years ago. I forgot about this. It shows that I knew we were in dire straights, yet I still had a child. I guess at that time, I was still hoping we would choose a different path. 😥

In Denial: With my daughter on a summer day:

Making macaroni and cheese like everything is OK

Like the arctic ice isn’t melting

Alaska is not burning

and hoping the packet of yellow powder that I stir in the pot with butter and milk

does not contain carcinogens

Remembering when you were in your “Sassy Seat”

A little seat with clamps that attached to the counter

suspending you high above the floor

macaroni falling, dog catching pieces in midair

dog who is now in an urn in the basement(safe from tornadoes!)

We had ‘cathedral’ ceilings

I had big hair

and shoulder pads

and an all terrain baby stroller for jogging

I never jogged

instead we slowly traversed the woodland

and prairie paths

we saw orchids and monarchs

and a dead coyote in a conibair trap

set illegally on “our property” by a stranger

Little did I know then -----or maybe I did?

That we were in the trap with the coyote

our deaths more prolonged

from the manmade traps

killing us all

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Collapse_is_underway@reddit

You and me, and meee, and youuuuu ! :]

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SushiAndKetamine@reddit

Yes, link please to the YouTube

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springcypripedium@reddit

So sorry! I can't find it!!! My computer crashed after updating to damn "Sequoia" My job is radio and I need my (massive) music library----lost at least 50% of it, among other things.

Anyone reading this: beware of updating Apple products----especially Sequoia!!

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antichain@reddit

Don't discount COVID as a plausible explanation of increased behavioral weirdness. It's a neuroinflammatory virus that everyone is getting repeatedly infected by, over and over again.

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springcypripedium@reddit

Definitely, thanks for pointing that out!

Not only behavioral weirdness but countless physical problems. I have 2 friends that were relatively young, in excellent shape but after covid had cardiac ablation surgery due to arrhythmia.

Their doctors did not even ask them about having covid!

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Clear_Bedroom_4266@reddit

Many things about COVID created a mental health bomb. What made it SO much worse is that we had that orange bunghole in office when it happened here in the US. The level of incompetence, ignorance and just petty, psychotic behavior from his entire administration made everything exponentially worse. There's simply no acceptable explanation why over 1M Americans died and how we far surpassed all other nations in deaths. It was a lot to deal with and we still don't truly understand all of the effects the pandemic had on us all.

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antikythera_mekanism@reddit

Virtual therapy can be excellent for some people. I have therapy for anxiety. I get very cold and bad chills when talking through it so I love to be at home, under a warm blanket while talking, and then as soon as we are done the session I can soothe my nervous system with a warm bath. This can prevent anxiety that arises just from talking about the anxiety, which sadly happens.

Honestly, doing a therapy session and then immediately driving home was very bad for me, and I’m sure others with anxiety relate.

But I’m really sorry you can’t find what you need. I just wanted to say that for SOME conditions, virtual therapy is beneficial so I don’t want everyone to rule it out if they haven’t tried it yet, especially is it’s the only thing to be found right now. Because yes this world is insanely upsetting and we all need therapy at this point!!!!

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springcypripedium@reddit

Thanks for those excellent points!! Some of them are highlighted in the article I linked in the pros and cons of virtual therapy.

Every therapist I contacted only offered only virtual sessions. I wish I had a choice! I prefer face to face, real life connections that includes body language and even the feel of a therapist's office 😥

But I completely get where others, like you, do not! And I will probably try it. Take care 🤗

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Intros9@reddit

In speaking with a lot of therapists since Covid, they are all turning away business with the rush of people to see them. And almost every single one will mention in passing at some point, "I actually had to leave the house today to see a client, what a drag!"

I wish I knew what to say, but I don't see it changing anytime soon.

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JagBak73@reddit

What youtuber is leaving the U.S.? I'm curious what she has to say about the shift in attitudes and demeanor here.

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ChoosingIsConfusinG@reddit

Location Spain a few kms inland from the medterranean at an altitude of 700m

The heat this year especially the night time minumums are anything from 4 to 8C above the norm, hottest June I can remember and worried for the rest of the summer as it doesnt look like its going to get any better. Usually up here the night time temperatures are cool with the exception of an occational once in a season hot spell that can last a few days, this summer feels far warmer than any previous year.

Less swallows this year too.

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Ghostwoods@reddit

Same in Andalucía.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

Location: North Central Indiana, todays photo “Blight”

The old rotting laundromat has sat there for decades, windows broken, machines long gone, lights that will never turn on again, its parking lot is even cut off from the main roads. My town which has a population of approx. 28k, used to have 39.6k people living in it in 1970, a not insignificant drop in population. Theres lots of abandoned houses, though our current mayor has done a decent job of getting those tore down, there is still signs it was a larger city, some ruins of the old RCA-Thompson plant, old factories and warehouses that are either abandoned, or turned into another business, a once decent sized industrial city that has shrunk a lot over the past 50 years. On the bright side there is still a few factories and warehouses, though they do not employ the number of people they did in the past, leading to a higher poverty level.

The heat is stifling, with heat indexes into the low 100s(40c) with a dew point of 73 (22c), its not pleasant, actually is dangerous, driving with your window rolled down feels like a hair dryer, if anyone still has power out due to the derecho last week, I feel sorry for them, especially if they are more susceptible to the heat, its not much better for me as my house is older and has no central air, but does have a window mounted AC unit. I guess the one silver lining I’ve found so far to this heat is that my sourdough bread dough has been proofing really good, and saving me a little money, cost about a dollar a loaf for me to bake it vs 1.50 for cheap wheat bread, and $4 for a proper sourdough from the store, and theres nothing more satisfying than to make a sandwich with bread you made yourself, guess its worth sweating your ass off for. The other silver lining I can find is that people are acting a little bit less crazy, probably cause it’s too hot to do anything. But yeah, as the earth warms wet bulb events will become more common, and in the Midwest those high temperatures and humidity are great fuel for strong squall lines, and derechos (these can be as strong as hurricanes, though they are not as long lived), yep this is not good at all, there will be more heat events this season.

On the bright side I did see a bunch of fireflies, like millions of them when I was driving through the countryside last night.

Collapse rating for my area 4.1/10 environment is starting to show its teeth

For the internet: 9.2/10, its just about had it.

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RichieLT@reddit

“This whole place seems like someone’s memory of a town … and that memory is fading”

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rmannyconda78@reddit

Pretty much what it is

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

Time for some URBEX rmannyconda78! :)

Derechos are no joke. Your sourdough bread sounds like a great idea. Keep a-bakin' and the photos coming.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

My last batch of bread while underproofed a bit tasted incredible, and was very filling

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

I drool in the heat in my un-AC'ed house thinking of your very good sourdough bread. :)

No - don't URBEX in that abandoned Laundromat. I was thinking, in the cooler weather (!!) some of the other places you described in your post.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

The temp reading in my car took on my way to the dollar store to get some mousetraps, the temps are no joke right now. the abandoned factory is collapsed now, mostly demolished, and fenced off. It’s really best to not mess with those buildings, and it’s a good way to get in trouble for trespassing. I just made a baguette

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WernerHerzogWasRight@reddit

I knew I liked you, I am a fellow sourdough baker. I am gluten intolerant so the doughs I make need a little help from xanthak gum and psyllium husk and the scoop or two of whey protein, but it’s brought me so much joy (and cheap food!).

Any other gluten free bakers, I highly recommend you google “Kim” and “[insert baked food that you want to make gluten free]”

She is a literal genius. Her recipes are fantastic and result in a product that looks and tastes exactly like gluten-full recipes. Her french bread recipe was life changing.

Anyway, stay cool my friend.

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ThisMattressIsTooBig@reddit

Oh shit can we get a sourdough support group going?

My housemate is allergic to yeast and we constantly have to run down sources of sourdough that didn't have yeast added in the baking process. I've tried rolling my own but we keep getting dwarf bread results. :/

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WernerHerzogWasRight@reddit

You gotta let the sourdough starter develop on on its own time. Make sure to use it in baking when it’s in full bloom, not when it has become “discard”.

When developing a starter you have to discard half and add more flour and water as you go or it’ll just turn into alcoholic smelly badness.

(There are recipes so you don’t waste the discard?)

Try using Dutch oven baking or a pan of water underneath your bake if you mean you’re getting no lift from the bread when it goes in the oven. Another method is to cook it in a cast iron skillet with another cast iron skillet placed on top (an impromptu Dutch oven)

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rmannyconda78@reddit

Sourdough is just so much better for you, taste better too. My starter is around 30 years old, and it’s very lively. I’ll have to look up her recipes sometime

[-]

EnfoldingFabrics@reddit

Location: The Netherlands / global

Global: Everything is coming together.

Wars are kicking off. With the collapsing international law and order meaning collaboration getting more fragile when might is right. However it may seem fragile on the side of Russia for example in which the economic consequences are starting to pile up. It could collapse as the Soviet Union did in 1989 however it will have dealt enough delay to the global climate action programs.

I want to point out that even if there will be lull again in the waging wars it will have caused enough environment damage (especially in terms of delaying actions and curbing CO2 emissions) as NATO countries are ramping up their armies and war production.

Look at the latest data concerning heat acceleration per decade and the significant jump in temperature of the last years compared to what scientists were expecting according to their models.

The Netherlands: Energy transition is getting more and more delays. Everyone in Europe wants to go electric so the demand for high voltage transformers has sky rocketed. Meaning it has troubles with upscaling the capacity for it.

Besides that where are you going to build in Netherlands? In some areas you will have to go through someones backyard or nature areas and the NIMBY's don't want anything like that so everyone is objecting to such decisions. Meaning more delays. Or finding space for such stations is also getting more complicated because of other issues such as nitrous oxide emissions or just physical space. So much actually that important nodes are delayed years or are still not finished that the smaller stations and nodes are also getting delayed since it is interlinked in some cases. In one province this is an issue meaning delays in other areas.

Which also means that new companies can't get an electrical connection. They are put on a waiting list. For housing it less of an issue since they are higher on priority list. However a regional electrical infrastructure company issued warning that coming summer and winter it could be possible that a couple of hours there will be not enough electricity for everyone in that province because of overload so they have to switch off areas to protect the electrical infrastructure. At first companies and then housing as one of the latest. Crucial structures of course as last but what the actual f. It is mind-blowing since our electrical infrastructure has one of the highest percentage uptime in the world.

The latest government decision has backtracked on CO2 emissions for companies / industry as they had to endure high energy costs and couldn't or wouldn't find right solutions. So yea great job politics by kicking the can further down the road.

We had the time to change accordingly but now for certain we won't have enough time to change course impactful. It is all coming together by spending more money on defense (NATO upscaling their armies and USA protection faltering because of an orange maniac) and spending the money on the wrong stuff. Thinking we can just outgrow our problems in a 'green' way which for sure is better than fossil but it has many different problems of itself.

The train is accelerating and the brakes are falling off.

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Wandee19@reddit

The problems are not the tech broths some comments on this site here suggest, but everybody of us having a vote in our country. Governments are not going to make decisions which might cause a competitive disadvantage with other countries. The priority for them is to stay in power and this means not telling the truth. They have invented the magic roundabout, telling us that with our current technology we can have unlimited economic growth, but also avoiding damage to the world climate. All steps taken by individual governments are only a micromanagement and also not coordinated with other governments, is a recipe for disaster.

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Collapse_is_underway@reddit

There is no transition, only accumulation (jean-baptiste fressoz, French historian of energy).

It's also pretty self-explanatory when you look at worldwide energy usage.

Good luck and please don't promote the comforting and silly lie that we're in a transition. It's the same kind of bullshit we had with dematerialization in early 2000.

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thirdeyevalhalla@reddit

Location: New Mexico, USA

I have watched this state experience drought and dry conditions for many years but this last winter is the least snowfall I have ever seen. I live at approximately 7500 ft. elevation in an extremely remote expanse of the state. We typically receive some moisture during monsoon but extensive moisture in the winter in the form of snow/snowpack. For winter to now we're below our yearly drought low of 9" of precipitation. Now, this presents a problem as many people are moving here from around the US to find some sort of sanctuary - many of these properties either use water catchment permanently or dig a well. Well depths are increasing, we're running out of ground water. Gallup is preparing for municipal water to basically stop in the near future. To add to this, my garden bugs have gradually been replaced by black flies, mosquitos, ticks and blister beetles. Even this spring I had a nice collection of bees and moths - all gone now. Thankfully, birds still inhabit my property in droves having found respite in the water pools of my garden but I fear for them as well. Perhaps the toads will return if we get a giant rain but for now, without monsoon, only a stagnant dryness persists. The wildfires will come and they will be devastating, however, this place also needs to burn. The land is dying. It needs water and fire and a lack of human meddling. This landscape is no stranger to extreme hardship, but there's a difference to what has been occurring over the last few years. The changes seem aggressive, irrefutable and like the tip of an extinction which I may bear witness to.

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lunchbox_tragedy@reddit

The tone of your observations is stark and comprehensive, understated but affecting. I trust the accuracy of what you're saying and I extend my sympathies for what you have to witness.

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candleflame3@reddit

Location: Toronto, Canada

Day 2 of a 3-day heat dome event. Saturday was quite hot and humid as well so this is day 3 of hunkering down for me.

I have AC, food, drinks, etc. I can work from home. But I know this is bad. Though the world was already warming by my 1970s childhood, summers then were still pretty normal, i.e. in line with the previous 1000 years at least. It's not supposed to be this hot in this part of the world.

One thing that really worries me is all the species that cannot survive these temperatures, particularly the ones that need nighttime cooler temps for obtaining food, reproducing, etc. They'll go extinct fast at this rate.

We have really, really fucked up. I don't really look forward to the future.

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Hour-Stable2050@reddit

Yeah, I’m in Toronto and worrying about the poor wildlife too. Some just won’t be equipped to deal with this. I saw a squirrel splayed out on a tree branch and panting yesterday. So weird. I’ve seen online arguments about whether kids should go to schools with no a/c. Some say we all used to do it but that is just not true, not in this kind of heat we didn’t. It was at least ten degrees cooler when I felt like I was barely surviving the heat at school. I would keep my kid at home if I had one. This used to be utterly impossible anywhere in Canada. You can really see climate change in the possible extremes.

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danby999@reddit

Not only has the climate changed from the 70's and 80's it has changed since 2000.

Anecdotally, I have lived on my farm 100km north of Toronto for 25 years and I always let our neighbours hay our fields.

When we moved here they would get 3 cuts every year, then 2, now for the past few years it's been 1 cut. Literally 1/3 the yield

My grass that I keep cut has already gone dormant and it's not even July.

We need to be educating on the new future not on the past.

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antikythera_mekanism@reddit

If you can put little dishes of water around, if you have a yard, it can help some of the smaller animals and insects. During horrible heat waves when I lived in NJ, I would fill little water dishes with water and ice, morning and evening. Lots of bees would visit and some birds. But there’s not much we can really do… it just helps to do something in your own back yard sometimes.

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candleflame3@reddit

I do have a little dish of water on my balcony. I know sometimes bees find it. Which reminds me I need to make them a little ramp to get in and out...

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Sinistar7510@reddit

Location: Central Alabama.

Like everywhere else, it's hot as eff right now. Heat index up to 108 in some areas. May to mid-June was fairly wet late June to July looks like it will be dryer. I don't have a garden this year but I have some volunteer tomatillos that came up from last year's compost. They will hopefully bear fruit late summer.

We went camping before the heat got so bad. Caught three small fish in a lake. Enough for one person. We aren't exactly expert fishermen so this is probably as our fault as much as the environment's.

I am ten years away from retirement. I keep wanting to quit work and take it easy even if it means living in poverty and would if I were single and didn't have kids. I have no doubt that by the time I might actually be able to consider retirement, everything will be going to hell in a hand basket. No win situation.

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CannyGardener@reddit

Your last paragraph hits me right in the feels. I'm right there with you.

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Sinistar7510@reddit

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emerioAarke@reddit

Location: The volume of the Arctic sea ice (not the same as area)

Since 2005 there is about 10 000km³ which is a third less ice during the winter season.

That might not sound that much but if we put in a perspective how much 10 000km³ is.

Imagine a 500 meter/547 yards wide and high iceberg around the equator or like if the lower 48 (The Contiguous US) would've been under 4 feet of ice, that's how much sea ice that have been melting for the last 20 years only in the Arctic.

The most scary part is as you clearly can see in the graph: https://polarportal.dk/en/sea-ice-and-icebergs/sea-ice-thickness-and-volume/ is that this year is exceptional. This year stands out massively from all other years. This year is about 10-15% less ice than last year which of curse also was record breaking low year.

Here its more about area:

If we compare how much thick ice (4 meters or more) there's now compared to 20 years ago it looks very concerning. At June 21 2025 there was about 50 000 km² with at least 4m thick ice but in June 21 2005 there was about 4 000 000² according to the graph. That's almost a 99% decrease.

Last year when the ice is at its weakest point (mid September) about 70% of the ice was very weak and thin (less than a meter) wich of course is very vulnerable if a warm period or heavy rain/wind would occur.

This late summer/early autumn could see some record lows that it never will recover from.

There's so many more things to talk about but I will leave it at this.

All data is from polarportal.dk

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profanite@reddit

this is the most terrifying statistic I’ve seen in a while, those sea level rises are gonna be faster than expected

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ThirdFloorNorth@reddit

Just wait until Thwaites finally lets go. That's one of the Big 3 that will wake people up, too little too late but at least we won't be able to ignore it any more.

Thwaites Ice Shelf collapsing, the AMOC shutting down, or a wet-bulb event coupled with a power grid failure in a well-populated area. Those are the big 3 for me.

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holistivist@reddit

I wouldn’t count on wet bulb deaths on waking anybody.

In 2021, the PNW heat wave killed 1,400 people. At least 112 died in Washington and 116 Oregon (most were in Canada).

Barely registered.

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ThirdFloorNorth@reddit

I'm talking a days-long power-outage wet bulb event somewhere like India or the US Southeast.

Tens or hundreds of thousands will die. You don't get to ignore that.

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Clear_Bedroom_4266@reddit

That's an incredibly naive statement. 10k? Pfft. No one will bat an eyelash over that, especially in places like India. Hell, half the world doesn't give a shit about Gaza right now and they've got 50k dead, if not double that. How many died in India during COVID? Did the world even notice? Nope. Our species has quickly become dangerously apathetic.

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Ghostwoods@reddit

Wanna bet?

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emerioAarke@reddit

You're right that the level rise will most likely gonna be faster than expected but that's from when ice on land melts. This is ice that already is in the ocean so it luckily won't have a big inpact of sea level rise.

The thing that's worrying is that when the sea ice is melting and there's a dark ocean instead of ice it will now absorb 90% of the sun's energy instead of only 10%. If the trend continue we will have a blue ocean event in the next 10 years maybe even in the next 3 years.

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Meowweredoomed@reddit

Location West Virginia

It's strange and disconcerting how quiet it is at night now at my house. When I first moved out here 15 years ago, it was loud with the sound of insects from sun down up until early morning. Its a lot like that book, silent spring. I can hear the insect apocalypse. I also see a lot less lightning bugs at twilight.

The weather continues to get more chaotic and bizarre. I've been watching the summers become more and more unbearable since around 2017, when I would stare off into the May heat lightning with confusion, and each consecutive summer becomes more extremely hot. Instead of just having normal storms this spring, every time there was rain, it was accompanied by the threat of extreme wind, tornados, or large hail. The last two summers, in particular, I've felt the extreme moisture which makes summer unbearable.

To wit, I've also been following Max Velocity on YouTube- his coverage, and moreover, his reactions to the severity and frequency of the extreme anomalous weather this year has been a phenomenal eye opener. It doesn't help with how bombastic he is - at one point during this April, he was following 30 simultaneous tornado warnings at once.

All of this fills me with extreme, unbearable anxiety.

The recycling job I've been working these past six months really hammers home for me not only the mammoth scale all the garbage we produce, but the sheer vanity and idiocy of the single-use plastic. Every day, I wade through the mountains of garbage humans produce, try to make something useful out of it, realize the futility of it all, and become more and more misanthropic and disillusioned.

Everyone is glued to screens now. This is collapse related because it's shortening our attention spans, reducing our appreciation of the reality around us, allowing us to escape into our digital selves, and finally, making us lazy thinkers, or more so than we already are. Furthermore the disinformation and propaganda is rampant on the internet.

Final collapse related observation - the war in Iran and the closing of the straight of hormuz. I sarcastically commented "he who controls the spice, controls the universe" But it is interesting how frank herberts cautionary tale about oil aka spice is reflecting in reality. Spice, just like oil, is addictive, limited, and dangerous, and we shouldn't base our entire economy around it. We should've listened, Frank!

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Clear_Bedroom_4266@reddit

Have you seen the documentary on Netflix called "Buy Now?" It will make you want to puke. There's a lot in it dedicated to exposing how much of a scam recycling really is.

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antikythera_mekanism@reddit

Great post, thanks. My husband and I have been referring to the spice lately too. Yes we should have listened!

As far as the screens, it’s horrendous. Everyone feels free to just be on the phone no matter the situation. We had to ask my mother in law to please put the phone down recently while we were out at a restaurant and she was holding it OVER HER SOUP, so blocking the middle of the table for everyone, watching some shitty videos at top volume in the middle of the meal. She laughed like a child and put it away when he asked her to… for literally two minutes and she was back at it.

I find it so embarrassing, it’s like watching someone with zero self control indulge in their drug or something. It’s constant. Just yesterday I saved a cousin’s kid out of the pool because, despite my cousin sitting right beside the pool, he was so involved in his phone he did not notice that his four year old was struggling in the deep end. When I jumped in suddenly and grabbed the kid my cousin laughed it off. What?! Good thing I was looking from across the whole yard because he wasnt looking right in front of his face! Made me wonder how many tragic incidents like this are happening every day because a caretaker is completely distracted in phone-land.

I hate phones. It’s bad enough we don’t see any kids out without a screen anymore. I even saw a kid dancing to the live music in the town square WITH a phone in hand. The kid was like five years old but he couldn’t fully just dance in the moment, had to be dancing while watching what looked like kids YouTube or something. It just disturbs me on a deep level, seeing these screen addicts one by one all day every day. The world is crashing down but they won’t even notice. Maybe I’m jealous, actually…

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Classic-Today-4367@reddit

We were at a friend's dinner the other night with three other families. The four teenagers were glued to their phones and barely spoke a word to anyone all night. What's worse was that one of the 3-year olds is addicted to a Peppa Pig AI chatbox. If his parents don't let him talk to it for more than about 15 minutes, he has a massive tantrum and demands to see the phone. I was actually happy to see him running around the restaurant being a nuisance late in the evening, as it was the only time he was happy to play with the other kid rather than on the phone.

I can't say I don't waste time on my phone too, but at least its usualky reading something (Reddit hah) than just watching mindless videos.

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BitchfulThinking@reddit

Your MIL and her phone is exactly like my folks. I haven't had a real conversation with them since Facebook ate their brains.

Years ago at a club, I remember seeing a group of young ladies in the classic circle formation, but everyone was just staring at their phone. No one was dancing or interacting with others unless someone was filming. It made me feel like I'm thousands of years old... but the tablet toddlers, and seeing addiction like that in kids and babies is awful 😔

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mobileagnes@reddit

Very interesting that you mention this about the storms as I live in a different state and notice that either warnings are becoming more cautious these days or storms really are getting more violent. We never have just straight rain or thunderstorm anymore; it always comes with hail, high winds, and/or tornado risk (or even actual tornadoes). I don't remember every other thunderstorm warning in Greater Philadelphia coming with a tornado watch/warning, hail, or 100+ km/h (62 mi/h) winds back in the 1990s.

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Ghostwoods@reddit

The Middle East definitely needs moar sandworm.

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neu8ball@reddit

Location: Southern MA, New England

So. Boston hit 102 degrees today, which broke the record for the hottest it has EVER been in June since record-keeping began...in the 1800s. By the way, the former 101-year old June high record was JUST BROKEN LAST JUNE!!! Faster than expected, but holy moly!

But that doesn't tell the whole story, of course. Humidity is hovering in the 33-35 percent range, which gives a real-feel of around 108-110 degrees F. Temperatures are also not dropping below 80 degrees tonight, which I find absolutely terrifying. Imagine, just imagine, what would happen if humidity was just a tad higher. 102 degrees F with 50% humidity equals 124F/51C.

What's more, many weather experts are saying this is just a preview of the summer to come, which will likely feature long, intense heat waves like this one.

The first mass-casualty event due to a heat wave is going to happen any day now. Could be in India, could be in my backyard in Massachusetts. A grid or electricity failure on a day like today could kill dozens. A grid or electricity failure with just ~15% more humidity could kill hundreds of thousands.

The only thing I've found joy in today is filling up a little watering hole the robins bathe in, and filling up a container with water for whatever wildlife may be around. Stay cool out there.

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Clear_Bedroom_4266@reddit

Just one correction for you. Humidity of 30-35% is VERY dry and that simply wasn't the case this week. If it was, this heat would have been much more tolerable.

Humidity levels in New England, however, were in the 80-90% range across the region.

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cosmic_sparkle@reddit

I can't agree with you more about the risk of a mass casualty event. I'm visiting Boston rn for work and today it got up to base 105 (so higher with humidity). I was trying to get to an important work site, so I walked about 10 minutes to a bus, boarded and walked about 10 minutes from the bus. From walking the way there in the heat, I was so exhausted I couldn't focus all day. On the way back something terrifying started happening to my body because, in part I spent a little more time outside to pick up sunscreen from CVS. I became violently nauseous, dizzy, and lost 80% of my vision to blurring. Mind you, I had spent all day in an air conditioned space, hydrated, went from AC to AC. And all things considered only totalled about 5k steps. Now I have no appetite and keep falling asleep. It felt apocalyptic.

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Classic-Today-4367@reddit

This is heatstroke.

Despite growing up in a part of Australia that gets very hot in summer, the humidity is low and I never had heatstroke. The place I live in Asia however has both year-round high humidity and high temps in summer.

I've had heatstroke twice in the past few years, with the first much like what you described. Basically going from a cool workplace, on an air-conditioned bus but then walk around 1,500 steps to the supermarket. Felt very hot by the time I got to the store but stayed inside for longer than normal and felt better. Walking the next 4k steps or so home withe the groceries took twice as long as normal though, basically sweating like crazy and then nauseous and dizzy. Ended up getting home and cooling off under a long lukewarm shower and eating a couple of ice-creams. I felt really tired but kept myself awake until my family came home, and told them what happened. An hour's nap with the AC blasting made e feel a bit better, but it was really scary seeing what teh heat could do.

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cosmic_sparkle@reddit

I was shocked! I underestimated the heat having grown up in the US West. I'm used to dry 100+ temps. This is different and it really hits home how dangerous heat can be. Despite kind of knowing intellectually how dangerous wet bulb temps can be, internally I think I thought "I've handled this before!". WRONG.

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Classic-Today-4367@reddit

Yep. I was shocked the first time I had it, precisely because I thought I knew about how to deal with heat. Was also shocked the second time I had it, because it happened much later in the day (around 7PM) after the sun was down and wasn't as hot as before. But I guess the physical energy used, this time to ride 2 miles home from work, pushed me over the edge that time. At least I recognised what was happening the second time and had family come get me in the car though.

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saltytac0@reddit

Location: southern NJ, USA.

I feel like everyone rushes to comment during a heatwave, but here I am. The last few days have been miserable. “Feels like” temp was 113F on Tuesday. My AC broke last year, and I had planned to fix it in the winter, the off-season quote was $7-8k, but that did not happen and the summertime cost is more like $10k. So I spent $600 on window units. One out of 3 was broken from the store.

I guess I mention this not only for the insane hot weather but also the increasing trend of poor quality from the box stores. Incidentally on the Philadelphia news they stated that we were breaking the previous high temp record by something like 20pts.

In our garden, wildflowers are blooming nicely. I figured I would see more pollinators but I am hoping it is just early. Aphids are not suffering, nor ants, ticks or chiggers. Only a handful of butterflies. I saw one firefly last night, maybe the first one I’ve seen this year. English peas and greens beans are coming in, and it looks like we’ll have a ton of tomatoes.

On the national level, I feel like everyone is on edge while trudging around trying to get by. Massive nationwide protests fall on deaf ears. Masked law enforcement hauling off whomever they want with no due process. The oligarchy trying to squash any dissent by calling in the military to our cities and arresting senators and judges.

Worldwide, America has shown that we’re not a deterrent anymore, and the bad actors are just going through with the plans they’ve always had. Russia trying to take Ukraine, Israel exterminating Palestinians, Israel (with US) toppling Iran. I expect we will see China make a move on Taiwan in the near future.

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Otherwise-Product-60@reddit

I try to remind myself that many of the French resisted in WWII when things must have seemed quite hopeless.

Britain came very close to collapse, while the US had not yet entered the war and the Whermact seemed likely to topple Moscow. Yet the British did not give up.

Mussolini's regime in Italy collapsed after holding power for 21 years. Hopefully it will not takes us that long to sort out our current predicament.

You are not alone in feeling like the bad actors of the world are running rampant everywhere. I think these things run in cycles. Oppressive regimes always undo themselves because they cannot exist without continually ratcheting up the oppression, and eventually they eat themselves.

America may yet wake up. I do find it troubling and depressing that so many care so much about the next episode of Love Island or the start of the NFL preseason while a proto-fascist regime tightens it's grip and builds it's paramilitary branch.

It is important to resist.

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Clear_Bedroom_4266@reddit

"America may yet wake up. I do find it troubling and depressing that so many care so much about the next episode of Love Island or the start of the NFL preseason while a proto-fascist regime tightens it's grip and builds it's paramilitary branch."

US "culture" is embarrassing, for lack of a better term. Our culture is basically big-box stores, chains, SUVs and strip malls. There's nothing redeeming about any of it. We're just overwhelmingly ignorant and selfish.

I've maintained exactly what you said, basically. More people care about what's going on with the Kardashians than care about, well, anything remotely important to the greater good. I don't see how we change that in a population of over 330 million people.

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Clear_Bedroom_4266@reddit

Location: SW CT, USA

I've lamented several declines I've witnessed around here for well over 20 years. I used to go fishing all the time in Long Island Sound, where fishing for bluefish used to be a blast. Schools could be seen a MILE long. Sadly, commercial fishing boats were allowed to essentially r*pe the Sound and Atlantic Coast all the way from Va to RI. They went after Bunker (Menhaden) to produce fish oil. Well, when you remove the primary FOOD of top-level predators like blues and striped bass, the whole system slowly dies.

More recently, though, what's been truly distressing is the very drastic change in wildlife and insects. Simply put, they're disappearing everywhere. Bird populations are almost nowhere to be found in decent numbers. Bees, butterflies and other flying insects seem to be around 10% of what it was 20 years ago. I rarely see skunks anymore. I never see or hear pheasants anymore. But animal populations of all kinds seem drastically lower. Fireflies used to be EVERYWHERE. Now, I'll see a handful at night, at best. It's almost like everything died half the time. I do what I can, planting the right flowers and such, try to use pesticide a little less (the flip side to that is the population and ranges of ticks have grown tremendously, so it's a lose-lose situation there). We're now also dealing with the spotted lantern fly invasion and in the midst of a blight that is wiping out nearly all Beech trees in the US (Beech Leaf disease, caused by a nemitode). BILLIONS of these trees will be gone in 20 years. We just had to take down a huge one in our front yard a few months ago. Our property has dozens of massive Beeches and they're all showing signs of disease now.

Really, the only things I see thriving outside across New England and New York are invasive plants, especially vines. Droughts have become more frequent in the summers, as well, which is a perfect breeding ground for weeds and invasives.

I see zero hope things will ever improve. As long as humanity exists, we're going to destroy this planet.

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JHandey2021@reddit

Location: USA (& the Internet)

First, USA: No personal details, but pretty much all of my in-laws are experiencing severe stress related to their own employment, whether from pressure from their higher-ups, a decline in company revenue and having to lay people off, or watching their sources of work dry up. Trump is great for the Outrage of the Minute, but the longer-term, trickle-down impacts of turning off the money spigot (or more insiduously, of reducing confidence in it) seem to be just starting to hit now - and will likely only keep growing. One office I worked in 10 years ago - the most soul-crushing one I have ever been in - has lost over 60 percent of its staff. And its job is to manage $1 billion+ funding streams. One of its former major functions that involved hardcore engineers has no engineers in those roles left. At all. If you like driving over bridges that don't randomly collapse while you are on them, this isn't good news.

Second, the Internet: Monster (the big job board) is officially circling the drain. I know, I know, some will cry crocodile tears, but it's instructive as to what a radical shift has taken place in job hunting over the past 10 years. For a long while, job hunting on the Internet was largely a digital version of the old-fashioned want ads, with the added benefit of white-collar recruiters reaching out to candidates. But as the Internet becomes more algorithmicized, the emphasis is shifting toward social networks such as LinkedIn, which as of last year shifted its algorithm to favor pushing more personal and emotional posts to its users - and incentivizes a kind of weird positive performativity, the kind you may have seen within companies before but now is being pushed beyond. Combined with the explosion in AI and the increasing frequency of "ghost jobs" (a position I had 4 years ago has been continually advertised by that company ever since I left), it's getting harder and harder to find real, actual jobs and get a real, actual resume to a real, actual human being.

TL;DR: Everything's conspiring to make it harder to get a job or even get a sense as to what is actually out there. Coming at a very suboptimal time for the newest waves of tech layoffs.

The US Senator Bernie Sanders did make an excellent point recently - if AI is so great, why can't we all have a 30-hour work week? I mean, it's saving labor, right? We all know the answers, but it's nice to see such an obvious question stated so plainly.

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daimyo505@reddit

Location: Upstate NY

My region just left the heat wave. Sadly, I had to work at my factory through most of it. On the first day of the heat wave during BAU factory life, a fire sprinkler set for 150 F (66 C) opened. That section of the factory was trapping heat better than other areas. The humidity only made it worse. It probably had to be 90% humidity or greater because of all the vented stream condensate around the factory.

Everyone was dripping with sweat. Everyone was grumpy from the heat. Hot attitudes were numerous. No one collapsed or got heat stroke, but we had to be supper vigilant. We had frozen electrolyte Popsicles, electrolyte drinks, lots of water, and made sure people got breaks in A/C. It was quite the effort.

If this is a taste of the future, yuck.

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That_Surly_One@reddit

Location: Vicinity of the geographic center of the conterminous USA

Let me start with a PSA about heat stroke and heat exhaustion: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/heat-exhaustion-vs-heat-stroke .

Thanks to not being afflicted with an HOA, I'm able keep the back part of my little piece of suburbia as a sort of refugium for critters. Food, water, habitat.

The pollinator numbers dropped noticeably the summer of 2013, and have been dwindling since. This year, I've barely seen any bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, hoverflies. I had no snails or slugs last year (need those to feed baby lightning bugs), but this year, I have tiny slugs and a whole different type of snail, so yay! Plenty of small ants, flies. A few of those tiger mosquitos. Too bad my bats are gone, I guess. Rolly-pollies and plump earthworms, I have. No crickets so far. A multitude of birds, and thus far, no sign of bird flu having struck. I try to keep things sanitized, and spread out the feeding areas, but I'm thinking it's more dumb luck than anything else.

It's starting to read like I'm bragging, but I'm not. Fifteen years ago, I had more, so much more, going in this yard, even in the hot droughty years, and my only input then was letting things bloom and putting out clean water. I haven't seen ladybugs, thrips, aphids, june bugs, mantises, or even stinkbugs in years.

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_rihter@reddit

Location: Central Europe (Pannonian Basin)

My town will experience a temperature of 38 °C tomorrow, which will be a record for June. Drought and heat waves will continue in July.

Wildfires will start, and there won't be enough water to extinguish them.

Nobody cares, as usual. Cities with no AC won't be spared, either. The temperature in Vienna, Austria, will be 36 °C tomorrow.

I'm not sure at what point anyone will start to care. It feels like COVID 2.0. Those who can survive don't care about those who can't. Governments only care about continuing 'business as usual'. Pretend nothing unusual is happening.

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cosmic_sparkle@reddit

COVID was an opportunity to desensitize all of us to mass death and government negligence. It worked :(

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_rihter@reddit

Life in Europe will be brutal due to a lack of regulation regarding high temperatures. Landlords don't care whether or not their tenants can cool down their apartments. In most cases, it's impossible to install AC due to regulations.

Businesses also don't care about their employees or their customers. They won't adjust their hours during the summer.

Also, the government doesn't care about hospitals, schools and retirement homes.

People are screwed and they don't even realize it yet.

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PorcelinaMagpie@reddit

Location: Indiana

Obvious heatwave, obvious WW3 looming...

If anyone needs a good laugh...

I have a neighbor in my apartment building that refuses to turn his a/c on regardless of how hot it it outside. He proudly told me over the weekend that last summer his apartment reached 105 degrees (always has his windows open). When I asked him why he does that he said to me, I shit you not, "using a/c is woke..."

HOLY SHIT 😬

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CalligrapherSharp@reddit

At that point, it usually makes more sense to keep the windows closed. Modern buildings aren't designed to vent heat, and apartments are the worst. In places like Paris where noone has a/c, city government is trying to educate people to close up before the heat comes for this exact reason.

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hypersmell@reddit

I grew up in Southern California, near the coast, and none of the older homes had a/c. I was taught to open the windows at night and close them early in the morning, before it started to get warm. Then, you use thick curtains to prevent the sun from shining in and heating up the house. I just realized that this isn't common knowledge anymore.

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BitchfulThinking@reddit

It was even rare to need actual a/c and those 1950s-70s suburban homes in LA were pleasant with just a ceiling fan! I remember a lot more foggy mornings and summers comprising of mostly "June gloom" ☹

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KingofGrapes7@reddit

I have a similar frustration with my parents in that when they are not using AC they have every window open even if its the most humid day possible. I understand it isn't possible but closed windows, pulled shades, and some fans are way better than letting all that humidity in. But 'its hot must open windows' is too built into their minds.

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KingofGrapes7@reddit

Try telling him that not using AC helps the environment and environmental awareness is 'woke'. See if his toxic masculinity or is brainwashed politics breaks first.

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DisingenuousGuy@reddit

I love this idea. 😂 If it is safe for /u/PorcelinaMagpie to do so, they should do it and report back what happens.

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

OUCH! Well, now that I think of it - that is an idea for Mr. 105 In My Apartment Guy. Gee whiz! Maybe he just doesn't want to admit he hates paying higher bills when the AC is on.

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freeman_joe@reddit

If everyone would did that evolutionary some of us will have resistance to new levels of heat maybe he is trying that lol.

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vegaling@reddit

Evolution is woke too though.

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WildFlemima@reddit

I looked around my street last night. The only fireflies were in my yard. And the city is dead set on clear cutting my property. So they won't even have my yard.

Kansas

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bristlybits@reddit

film it. send to local news as a sad story about fireflies

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

:(

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catminxi@reddit

Location: Central Valley, below Sacramento, California

I've been here almost five years, and although temperature-wise, it's pretty normal for us to hover around 95-100 degrees in the summer, there have been no wasps or bees that I can see. That is not normal. Usually, once the heat gets to 90, the wasps immediately build nests all around our house and you can see hundreds of wasps everywhere. When we first moved in, we had to watch ourselves going in and out of the home, since the wasps would swoop down from the eaves. For the past two months, I haven't seen anything. We have a lot of flowers and they are all in full bloom, but I postponed our pest control until next month. I'm lucky that I see some tomatoes on our plants and a pepper or two. Also, almost all of the other animals that we used to see walking around the neighborhood a few years ago: squirrels, possums, raccoons, rabbits and deer, have all stopped coming around. We'll see what happens, but it's bleak.

People are mostly BAU here, and the local news coverage of bird flu, COVID, layoffs, inflation, ICE and protests has all but disappeared in the wake of our participation in our new war. Things are really moving at a clip. Enjoy your day!

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solidartiteh@reddit

What exactly is your "pest control"?

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catminxi@reddit

Spray on the eves every few months. It never did much before, so I don’t think it caused a total eradication of the local population.

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DisingenuousGuy@reddit

I'm just curious, what's in the "spray?"

I spray my flowers with soapy water and I don't think it harmed the bees, only kept the crawlies away from of the leaves.

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bumblebuttzzz@reddit

East TN here. We are in the midst of a MASSIVE heatwave. The heat index was reported at 107 today in Knoxville. I feel a great sense of despair.

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ShyElf@reddit

You live that far south and people expect that. You need to move north to the upper Midwest to be safe from excessive heat, everyone says. We only had, let me check, 110 heat index Saturday, 93F with 79F dew point. The we're at 100+ heat index currently, for the 4th day in a row, 105 at 11 AM.

Well, OK, that happens about once a decade here. What's more rare is the way it seems to be just not moving. The forecast has slightly cooler for a few days, but with dew points in the 70s hanging out in Iowa until July, so about 12 days in a row there. The only comparable year I can remember was 1993. Two years ago was higher, but didn't hang around quite as long.

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candleflame3@reddit

I mean, Canada has an image of being snow/ice bound 12 months year, and we are cooking right now. Nowhere is safe.

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antikythera_mekanism@reddit

I feel that despair with you, my friend. I hope you and your loved ones can stay healthy through this one.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

Just up north in Indiana heat index is just as bad here.

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neuro_space_explorer@reddit

Hello my neighbor to the north, Chattanoogan here, it has been rough, I was actually up in Knoxville for a family reunion this weekend and I felt light headed after like 5 minutes of soccer with the nephew.

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Apprehensive-Dog8641@reddit

Hello fellow heat dome pal. That's what they're forecasting for us tomorrow in North Alabama. We're under a heat advisory from 12pm Tuesday until 7pm Wednesday. I can't recommend an AC cover and blackout curtains enough. It helps with the atrocious utility bills.

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BrookieCookie199@reddit

Location: Chicago I’m almost done with the book, “The Death and Life of the Great Lakes” by Dan Eagan, and it’s really opened my eyes into how crucial and fragile that ecosystem is. The amount of invasive species we’ve brought into the lakes that could have easily been avoided if not for the greedy shipping industry complaining really speaks volumes into how our quest for short term gain overshadows the wellbeing of our environment. It also discusses the role global warming plays in less ice during the winter -> increase in evaporation -> lowering lake levels. The Great Lakes region is so special and important but a lot more vulnerable than I would’ve guessed.

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wetbulbsarecoming@reddit

This book made me depressed. System is also fragile. We have a prez who removed all guardrails to protect it.

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Valeriejoyow@reddit

Did the book take about Alewives fish? I lived on the lake in the late 80s and there were huge dieoffs in the summer. I believe they got in from the Atlantic and couldn't handle the summer heat.

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candleflame3@reddit

I read an 1980s book about the Great Lakes and the news was pretty bad even then. Acid rain was a big focus. It also sucks that all of the pollution put into the lakes is still there.

Oh, there was a bit about whitefish, how rare it is now, and how abundant it was as Europeans started to show up. It's delicious, apparently. Lived in the Great Lakes region for most of my nearly 60 years and I'm not sure I've ever had it.

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BrookieCookie199@reddit

Yup whitefish were frequently mentioned throughout the book. A really cool detail is how whitefish have evolved due to their food source being gobbled up by invasive mussels. They can’t eat the mussels but evolved to eating alewives and gobies that eat the mussels themselves.

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ThisMattressIsTooBig@reddit

Location: central NY, US

We had a mother of a thunderstorm come through as a prologue to the heat wave. We lost power - NBD really, it was back on in half a day.

The real kicker is that it's gone out three times since then. It comes back within five minutes, so again, not exactly collapsed. But, man, we are seeing grid issues in real time stacked up against an obvious surge in A/C demand. It's having trouble.

Then I think about all these reports of how much energy is being consumed by our fealty to AI, and how much water (cooling for the centers as well as the power generation itself), and I wonder if I'm on the timeline where electricity itself becomes a luxury for us poors. Because AI makes more money. It doesn't spend it, of course - it just makes it for the rich - so all that money, all that power, all that water is being removed from the real world at an accelerating rate. Just as inflation, and climate change, is driving humanity to need more at an accelerating rate.

Can those UFOs come back? I want to believe.

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BigJobsBigJobs@reddit

How much does your region depend on electricity from Canada?

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ThisMattressIsTooBig@reddit

I have no idea. We're certainly close enough to the border, big-picture-wise, for it to be possible.

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ShaneE11183386@reddit

I used to take pride in my states power grid

Our power would almost NEVER go out

Now its been randomly going out once a month atleast

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Gator_farmer@reddit

Location: United States.

I am not happy with the strike on Iran. I’m not worried about the states or myself. But we have tens of thousands of service members and civilians in the Middle East and there’s very likely going to be some amount of reprisals. And then how do we NOT respond to it?

Then we get dragged back into the Middle East for another decade plus of stupidity.

The only silver lining to this is seeing how absolutely unquestioningly our government takes Israel. Our own intelligence doesn’t agree with Israeli intelligence on the timeline for an Iranian nuke but we took them at their word for this.

I encourage everyone to listen to the Tucker and Cruz interview. No matter what your opinion is Cruz says something’s that are jaw dropping. Specifically that his priority when first seeking election was defending Israel. And Tucker gives his trademark “what did you say look,” and it’s warranted.

People seem to really be turning on opinion and I think Israel has irreversibly damaged its standing with the general public. Which is fine.

People keep comparing this to Iraq, but at least with Iraq, the Bush administration spent months manufacturing consent through the media and press conferences. This admin is just saying “well we’re doing it. Deal with it” no Republican will go against Trump and Schumer has always been a massive Israel supporter.

I also think more countries are going to push for nuke development. Even our allies. Look at North Korea. Sure they’ve got China as a big backer, but even if China disappeared over night, they would have the deterrence of nukes.

Finally, I truly don’t see this turning into WW3. A regional slog maybe. Iran is a massive country with millions of citizens. This won’t be the Gulf War or Iraq in 2003.

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BigJobsBigJobs@reddit

Mike Huckabee's hand is in this...

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Maj0r-DeCoverley@reddit

As always, historical knowledge matters. Regarding your last paragraph. Back in 1914, nobody expected a great war either. "Yet another regional issue that will be solved diplomatically eventually". And people had good reasons to believe that.

Everytime some madman pulls a stunt like that, there's a definite risk of WW3. Even more if one side feels they're running out of time (Israel / or back then Austria) and their big brother gives them a blank check (America / or back then, Germany). I'd say we've been in an odd situation for a couple of years, where China's patience and restraint is the only thing keeping us from WW3. But China's interests are expanding (Silk roads etc) and sooner or later they may be dragged into the next "regional" issue

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boneyfingers@reddit

Regarding China, I said to a friend the other day that Taiwan is safe until the USA is sufficient mired down in some other major conflict. I'm unsure whether China has any real intentions oft taking Taiwan, but if they do, it will wait until the States are busy with some other crisis. Just a thought.

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Gator_farmer@reddit

Very true. I won’t discount the possibility. I just lean no at present. Certainly there could be some inciting incident.

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Maj0r-DeCoverley@reddit

Indeed. I mean towards "no" too, just like you ! But black swans are always unexpected things...

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

I hope you are right Re: "I truly don’t see this turning into WW3. A regional slog maybe. Iran is a massive country with millions of citizens. This won’t be the Gulf War or Iraq in 2003."

FWIW I listened to the Cruz/Carlson interview. Unbelievable.

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Gator_farmer@reddit

I base that primarily on I don’t see who’s gonna get involved in this that turns into a world war.

Russia is probably stretched far too thin to meaningly contribute. And any attempt to move a Russian nuke into Iran is rightfully gonna be met with international condemnation.

China, I think is more interesting. They do have a relationship with Iran and get a lot of their oil from them. But China seems to be stepping into the international roles that we are pulling back from, and pragmatically. It’s probably better for them to stay in those positions and gain international sway without having a fire a single bullet. They’re not gonna see whatever happens to Iran and worry it’s actually gonna happen to them because they have hundreds of nukes and a massive army and just in general are more competent.

I’m sure both countries will provide some amount of military support, but Russian or Chinese boots on the ground, I just don’t think it’s worth it to either of those countries frankly

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

Good argument. Ideas and thoughts I agree with. Thank you for the well articulated response.

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Gator_farmer@reddit

Of course. That political science degree and internal affairs focus still, shockingly, is useful in life.

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

An education you are able to draw from and use. :)

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Ree_on_ice@reddit

It occurs to me that Trump would literally bomb another country just to seem manly.

The 'TACO' stuff attacked his masculinity, even if the acronym was about the tariffs.

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WernerHerzogWasRight@reddit

Agree, the TACO taunt definitely backfired on world history. I hope it comes back to bite him in his senile arse.

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Rossdxvx@reddit

The legacy of Iraq was such a massive failure and epic debacle that even some of MAGA are apprehensive about becoming involved in Iran. In general, I agree with you. I don't think that it will be the same kind of conflict. However, who knows what the aftereffects of our actions will be? There has always been blowback, and a big mistake we have always made in the Middle East is thinking that it was an easy nut to crack when it is an incredibly complex and incendiary situation.

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thecathugger@reddit

Location: East coast US.

The Windy app shows the wet bulb at 81 in parts of NJ and PA. It’s closer to 75 wet bulb where I am and it’s soupy and unpleasant at 96 degrees. I can’t imagine how it feels there. We’re going to have to adjust to these extremes. Stay safe, everyone!

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someonesdatabase@reddit

high of 105 in Brooklyn

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Repulsive-Business85@reddit

It wasnt fun. I usually can hang out in my garden all day in the shade even when it's 95, but i had to stay inside. zero energy to tolerate the heat. Weirdly hot

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

Orange county NY - my location is on that Windy App. RN it's 95/35 @ 4:40PM 6/23/25.

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profanite@reddit

Location: East England, United Kingdom

We’ve been experiencing a heatwave for the past week or so, and this is coming after the driest spring on record for the UK. But we’re not in drought yet because the heatwave brought with it thunderstorms and rain, a kind of hot humid rain and thunder that I remember thinking was rare when I was a kid, like a tropical storm. But now they seem to happen every few weeks, hot humid rain and wind that just batters everything. I love gardening but my schedules been a bit off this year so I was meant to plant out my seedlings about a month ago, but the heat and wind have been too intense each time I’ve tried. I finally decided to bite the bullet yesterday and plant out even though the wind was up. But at least it’s warm enough in England now that I might actually succeed in growing watermelons this year 🙃

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TheLonesomeCheese@reddit

Location: South-East England.

After one of the driest and sunniest springs on record for the UK, we had finally been getting some much needed rain over the last few weeks. But now the taps seem to have been turned off again. Last week saw a heatwave reaching 32C that sucked all recent moisture back out of the environment and we now seem to be back into a prolonged period of dry weather. Forecasts are suggesting the chance a of a few brief, light showers over the next week, but nothing resembling substantial rain.

Soils are hard as concrete with growing cracks, grasses are brown, some other plants are clearly struggling, and ponds are drying up. This is all feeling rather reminiscent of the summer of 2022, when the UK hit 40C for the first time and persistent drought caused the usually lush and green British landscape to turn brown. I'm not looking forward to the rest of the summer.

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DirewaysParnuStCroix@reddit

There are a concerning number of factors that are highly reminiscent of 2022. The seasonal forecasts released in May were practically a carbon copy of the seasonals for 2022. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there have already been numerous model ensembles which have already suggested >40°c as a possibility this summer. That's pretty astonishing for June.

I had my own ominous experience on Saturday when a brief shower interrupted the heat. Immediately afterwards the heat and humidity combination was like something you'd expect in a tropical country, not northwestern Europe. It was an experience comparable to a sauna. I've always made the point that present atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are analogous to periods when Europe was hot and tropical, but that experience was my "oh shit, it actually can happen" moment.

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TheLonesomeCheese@reddit

Another thing that's familiar from 2022 is the pattern of disappearing rain. Forecasts will regularly predict rain about a week to ten days away, but it is constantly pushed back and downgraded and rarely actually arrives. If it does actually rain, it's always less than predicted. I feel like I could count on one hand the number of times that I've seen actual rain since February, most of the time it's just been light showers that have lasted no more than a few minutes. After the last couple of years that were wetter than normal, it's a bizarre contrast. Normal weather no longer exists.

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ClimateMessiah@reddit

Location: Earth

I'm not sure if this an example of collapse or not. We humans seem to not have the ability to think and engage with each other beyond the contours of tribal affiliation. In that we way, we are almost all cultists who live within our respective bubbles.

Take this subreddit community for example.

We are regularly entertained with the stories of the villainy of greenhouse gases and how they are going to kill so much life on Earth.

But does anyone tell the story of what happens without the addition of greenhouse gases ? Do they tell you that most of us die off anyway in the natural course of order as the planet regularly shifts between glacial maxima and interglacial cycles ? Do they tell you that without additional greenhouse forcing that New York and Boston are destined to be covered under a mountain of ice ? I don't see that conversation happening.

We are wired by nature for tribal affiliation. Belonging to a tribe has always been a survival asset vs being a long wolf. But we seem to assimilate into tribes naturally and unconsciously and fail to see the contours of our tribes .... where they begin and end.

The title of the movie "Don't Look Up" seems to be an apt description of the contours of this tribe here at r/collapse. The entire relationship to collapse here is from a perspective of descension. Here .. collapse is something we are sinking into.

There seems to be no curiosity about what replaces the current paradigm. There is no curiosity about adaptation.

We all like different drugs. Sex. Weed. Alcohol. Pain killers. Is this subreddit just here to engage in doom porn ? What is the point of this tribe / community beyond that ?

I think the moderators of this sub should be more specific in describing it to both visitors and regulars alike. They should write that "discussions of adaptation or alternatives to collapse are not welcome". That would provide a more accurate depiction of the tribal way of life here on the sub.

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collapse-ModTeam@reddit

Hi, ClimateMessiah. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/collapse for:

Rule 4: Keep information quality high.

Information quality must be kept high. More detailed information regarding our approaches to specific claims can be found on the Misinformation & False Claims page.

Please refer to our subreddit rules for more information.

You can message the mods if you feel this was in error, please include a link to the comment or post in question.

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neuro_space_explorer@reddit

The only paradigm coming is chaos.

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ClimateMessiah@reddit

How is that different from what has always been ?

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neuro_space_explorer@reddit

I have to explain to you how organized chaos is different from complete chaos?

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foco_runner@reddit

Location: Eastern South Dakota USA This weekends heat dome caused numerous highways and sidewalks to buckle from the heat. There’s a viral video out of Missouri showing a car going a buckled road and it can definitely damage your car. Seems like this now happens every summer now. Roads north are built with expansion joints due to cold winters so that could be making things worse as I don’t see this happen in hotter places down south.

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Oldebookworm@reddit

I’m in Az and they recently “painted” our usually black asphalt streets a lighter blue grey to see if that helps. Hasn’t so far, as far as I can tell

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PrairieFire_withwind@reddit

Yup. We absolutely have different road contruction up north. We use more concrete than blacktop (atleast that was the info i got from the engineers in a different lifetime when i worked construction.). Concrete has expansion joints, just not sized for THIS amount of heat.

Rail lines have similar problems.

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yslmtl@reddit

Location: Québec, Canada

Degradation of the ecosystem

Just moved into the woods and ive been going there since i was a kid so im used to it, but...

There is so much more mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies than a few decades ago. I need a net to move around at the worst hours of the day or they get into my eyes and ears.

Add to that theres is almost no frogs. I use to see them jumping on my path by the dozens. Now i counted ONLY 3 today after a 1h walk. My pond is also low frog wise. Havent seen one in the first weeks since i moved here. I know there are some because they sing at night.

And one less obvious are the bats. Talking a stroll at sunset i would see bat flying over my head constantly. Now ive set 2 bats shelters on my propriety so i hope its gonna improve but im pessimistic.

I dont know if its the "getting old=everything sucks" effect or i am actually living through the collapse of the food chain.

Oh and it snowed in British Colombia and its 43 degree celcius here.

Tabarnak de calisse

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a_dance_with_fire@reddit

It’s not unheard of for it to snow in BC in summer at higher elevations. However, it is rarer and typically not widespread

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yslmtl@reddit

I have to admit that i heard about that from someone. It just felt surreal to think of snow when im sweating profusely. But yeah, snow at high altitude makes way more sense.

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HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit

You are 100% correct about the lack of frogs and toads. Bats too. You are NOT imagining things.

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Maj0r-DeCoverley@reddit

Location: Aquitaine, France

r/collapse, 23 Juin 2025

Collapsometer 3/10. The beavers are back from the dead, and now twenty thousand of them are gnawing at trees in the french countryside. The french far-right is back from the 1930's, and passed a law amendment to block all new wind and solar energy projects. Curse those immigrant winds and the lazy wokist sun, I guess. I mean, I'm a stauch pro-nuclear person, but that amendment? Come on. It's like ripping off one's left leg so they walk faster.

Weather bulletin - hot, with peaks at 38°C (100°TU) with serious humidity, I'm glad I worked hard on those shade clothes and other tricks to cool down the house, they work very well. What worries me is agricultural yields.

Who controls the spice... - It may sound like I found yet another way to criticize AC (spoiler: yes), but I keep reading people saying "what if there's a power outage? What will happen to us?". And it occured to me: even if the people started to actually fight back, started a general strike or something bigger... All the elites would have to do is to cut the power, cut the gas, and all the car-addicted AC-dependant folks would quietly fall in line. They weren't acting lively so far anyway. So perhaps the elites only need to keep Netflix and Onlyfans up and running.

Fauna and flora adaptation - according to my girlfriend, I routinely kill mosquitoes in my sleep with deadly accuracy. The evolutionary arms race between homo sapiens and aedes albopictus continues.

I hope you're doing okay. See you next week. Or someday. Things are going relatively well here

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UncleBaguette@reddit

Why the hell they want to stop wind and solar?

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Maj0r-DeCoverley@reddit

Because coherence has never been the far-right's specialty !

Electoral reasons. Workers in the renewables sector vote green or macronist, I would guess. On the other hand, old fortunes ranting about "noisy wind farms destroying landscape" or "solar farms killing our fields" are right-wing. That's a NIMBY issue pushed to the absurd limit, a bit like in their role model: Florida

That, and also a little climatoskepticism. Cherry on top of the idiot cake

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ElephantContent8835@reddit

I’ve always said that Americans will never revolt as long as they have an x-box and Monday night football.

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Maj0r-DeCoverley@reddit

Same goes for everyone I guess ! Revolutions used to be strictly correlated to the price of bread, and now in developed countries I suspect oil replaced bread. It is literally everywhere, from cheap plastics consumer products to our food (requiring lots of oil), chemicals, etc...

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GenProtection@reddit

Monday night football is the circus. Budweiser and McDs are the panem

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taki-noboru-desu@reddit

Location: Virginia

Virginia Beach had a power outage in the midst of a heat dome over the northeast US, leaving 2784 people without power at the peak of the outage. The cause is still under investigation.

If we continue to have heat events like this, AC usage will overload power grids, and then nobody will have AC and people who are unprepared this kind of weather will die in waves.

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KingofGrapes7@reddit

Location Massachusetts

Weather: Damn. I know there are worse places in terms of heat and humidity but damn. Even at 7:30 pm walking my dog is a slog. We finally put the ACs in this weekend, suppose it's good we held off this long. I personally only run my AC to a certain temp before bed and turn it off for the night, usually holds me over. But other houses have them running all the time. This was our first dry weekend in months, and it looks like this weekend will see more rain.

World Politics: Sorry guys this was my bad. Despite the heat I had a good hike on Saturday, got a roast beef sandwich, and took a nap. All in all a relaxing day. Should have seen the Iran bombing coming. It doesnt surprise me but it does depress and disgust how easily it is to manipulate Trump and how completely spineless most of Congress is. I dont know what it will lead to but if its not impeachment no one is going to benefit from it.

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Middle_Manager_Karen@reddit

Location: Saint Paul, MN

First heat dome of the year is soupy humidity. Not a dry heat and my fear is the crops. The plants were just getting about to a growing sprint maturity. Out of the ground but not full height and strength yet. So I think the timing is concerning for 7-10 days of this heat. They could recover from 1-2 days maybe. But farmers cannot move watering equipment around fast enough to cover the whole field with water. Besides it evaporates too fast in this.

This heat has winners and losers but the losers are predators, livestock, and plants. What's left to be "winning". (Bacteria and pests)

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WhyDoIEvenBotheridk@reddit

York County, Maine

Tomorrow it will be hotter here (96f) than in Miami Florida (89f) or Orlando (92f). It will most certainly be close to the all time records for June.

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whereisskywalker@reddit

Yes this heat dome is miserable, anyone without ac up north is suffering.

Thankfully it's only a couple of days this time but dang. Still getting used to potential tornados which were extremely rare before the last decade or so.

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rmannyconda78@reddit

I have no central air in my house, it sucks, on the bright side proofing bread dough is easier

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Anthonio_@reddit

Location: Portugal

Grid instability. Increasing number of power outages (10+ hours recently accros spain and portugal) and flickers (short term, like minutes or seconds).
Water shortages. Due to increasingly longer droughts emptied reservoirs in and near cities need to be refilled from rural areas. Souther Portugal reservoirs went below 10% last year.
Lack of Policing Little to no control on firechecks (were in a wildfire riskzone). Left to the people. Increasingly longer responsetimes suggesting shortages in staff.

You MUST include Location: Region when sharing observations.