Chris Hedges: Calling All Future-Eaters - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

Collapse this time around will be global. We will disintegrate together. And there is no way out. The 10,000-year experiment of settled life is about to come to a crashing halt... Bye-bye, Paris. Bye-bye, New York. Bye-bye, Tokyo. Welcome to the new experience of human existence, in which rooting around for grubs on islands in northern latitudes is the prerequisite for survival.
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The news is grim. The accelerating disintegration of Arctic Sea ice means that summer ice will probably disappear within the next decade. The open water will absorb more solar radiation, significantly increasing the rate of global warming. The Siberian permafrost will disappear, sending up plumes of methane gas from underground. The Greenland ice sheet and the Himalayan-Tibetan glaciers will melt. Jay Zwally, a NASA climate scientist, declared in December 2007: “The Arctic is often cited as the canary in the coal mine for climate warming. Now, as a sign of climate warming, the canary has died. It is time to start getting out of the coal mines.”

Two-Year Anniversary of Al Gore Climate Challenge Met with Local Clean Energy Activism | Earth Times News

Los Angeles (PRWEB) July 19, 2010 -- Two years ago, former VP Al Gore called for America to produce 100% of our electricity from energy sources with zero carbon emissions - and to do so within 10 years, declaring "this goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans -- in every walk of life: our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers and every citizen."

[South Africa: Unusual cold]

EAST London was hit by its second unusually cold snap in less than a month on Thursday, with snow and black frost in high areas inland.

There was a cold snap in mid-June accompanied by the heaviest snowfalls in 15 years in some surrounding areas.
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Mark Human, the East London weather office manager, agreed it had been a very cold winter so far. “We’ve had an average low of 6.2°C, while it is usually 10.4°C in July. This is below average, but not the lowest ever recorded, which was 1.8°C in 1954.”

Britain's swan count starts on River Thames

David Barber, the Queen's Swan Marker, said many swans died in the past year from the cold weather and attacks by youths.