4% of Oregon has burned this year so far. Also, Trump is evil.

In making a comment here I did a little calculation: 2.3 million acres of Oregon have burned so far this year, as of about a week ago. 

That's 3.4% of the state!

It's one-third the area of Belgium.

It's already a record here, beating the last record in 2024. 

At the end of last month the Trump administration denied funding to fight two large wildfires in Oregon. (They did approve three others.) Why? Speculation is because he didn't win Oregon's electoral votes. How sociopathic is that? 

They/he also did it in California for last year's Los Angeles fires. 

There's heavy speculation it's because we didn't vote for him. 

"Trump denies disaster aid to four blue states, after approving aid to six red states."

For foreigners: blue states are states that did not vote for Trump in the 2024 election; red states did. (Reminder: in the US we vote by state. Whoever gets the most votes in a state gets all their electoral votes; votes are distributed by the electoral college and are proportional to population. 

They even admitted it in a legal brief:

White House admits it scrapped grants to blue states because they didn’t vote for Trump

Think about how sick this is. Literally, sociopathic, playing with people's lives and property.

It's utterly exhausting having a mentally ill president. 

Miscellaneous

 Chinese robot runs 100m sprint quicker than Usain Bolt’s world record | Sport | The Guardian. It also set a record in the men's half-marathon. Other humanoid robots in China set records in the standing high jump and running high jump.

Phoenix Arizona is forecasted to have the next several days with a high temperature of  +115°F (46°C). The US government just mandated they take a 21% cut in water from the Colorado River, along with Nevada and Colorado. There just isn't enough water in the river these days. 

Trump made 1,051 trades in his stock & bond portfolio in just June alone. Supposedly someone is managing his portfolio while he's in office. Supposedly.

"Paramedics Now Rolling Up to Medical Emergencies in Flying Hovercraft." Northern California. With applications like this and especially the delivery drones from Amazon, Walmart etc it's going to add to noise pollution nearly everywhere. Ugg. 

7.6 billion people will be able to see the asteroid Apophis when it passes by Earth at an altitude of only 20,000 miles (32,000 km). April 13, 2029. (A Friday, believe it or not. Friday the 13th.) It's 340 m long (1,120 ft). NASA now says there is zero chance it hits Earth. Will be viewable "across Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and eastern South America" for up to seven hours. Sorry North America. ESA: 

“Scientists believe that an asteroid as large as Apophis only comes this close to Earth once every 5,000 to 10,000 years,” the ESA added in a Twitter/X post.

Climate Denial Killing Still More People

New York Times, today: "In One Week During Europe’s Record Heat Wave, Deaths Increased by 16,000." (Should be a free article, or you might need to first get a free NY Times account.)

There are all excess deaths, not just those from heat. So the spikes in excess deaths in November to January are due to respiratory illnesses such as the flu. There were 25,000 heat deaths earlier there this summer, so this makes 41,000 at least. Over 30,000 in India. (I wrote a recent Phys.org article about India.) 

NYT: "Most of the deaths were in northern countries — France, Belgium and Germany — that are not accustomed to such high temperatures and struggled to respond."

France is debating ("bickering") air conditioning. It doesn't help that they love their old buildings built in the Little Ice Age. 

Of course, A/C doesn't stop wildfires. Future people may be stuck in air-conditioned houses and apartments wearing masks because of all the wildfire smoke, unable to buy home insurance since the insurance companies have left that market (as they are in Florida, partly due to rising hurricane costs).

It's too bad no one foresaw all these problems several decades ago--we might have taken actions to stall the problem. 

It's now clear that climate denial -- and climate deniers -- kill people. Lots of people. Where are the prosecutors?

Only 2 in 5 Americans Give a Sh!t about Climate Change

From CNN's chief data analyst Harry Enten:

I mean, just look at these numbers. Okay, top issue in a midterm vote — you can list up to three issues. The economy, not surprisingly, comes in at number one at 54%. Immigration, 28%. Look at climate change — it’s tied for 14th, tied for 14th, all the way down here at 3%. Johnny, I’m not the greatest mathematician in the world, but I sure as heck know that 54% is a whole heck of a lot higher than 3%. So despite the climate being so warm in the month of July, the hottest month on record here in the United States of America, the voters, simply put, do not say that climate change is going to be an issue on which they vote in the midterm election.

And you can see this 3% here, and you can see in these slides right here: “Say climate change is a very big problem.” In 2016, it was 40%. It was 40%. Look where we are in 2026 — it’s 39%, it’s 39%. Now, Johnny B, you’re talking about change. Where the change we have seen is partisanship, right?<

And what we can see is Republicans, more so than anybody else, have been shifting away from the idea that climate change is a top issue for them. Take a look at this — the least important issue for Republicans, it’s just at 14% in terms of saying that climate change is a very big problem. So we’re seeing a large partisan split, but when it comes together, Democrats are going in one direction, Republicans are going in another direction. But when you put those two together, the bottom line is we’re only talking about two in five Americans, both now and 10 years ago, saying that climate change is a very big problem.

Maybe a few more towns burning down will convince them. Higher home insurance rates in Florida (if homeowners can get it at all). A few more records (this July was the warmest month ever recorded in the continental US). Or more thousands of deaths.

Relative to a 1951-1980 baseline, July's USA48 temperature anomaly is 1.81°C. Relative to 1901-2000 the anomaly is 2.34°C. [NOAA's USA48 data starts in 1895.]

This decade-to-date is 0.53°C warmer than the last decade-to-date. The 30-year linear trend is 0.31°C/decade (0.55°F/decade). The total (linear) warming since 1895 is 1.33°C (2.39°F).

Two El Niño Graphs

El Niño is early and strong, already with a Niño3.4 SST anomaly above 2.0°C. It's like on of those 6 ft 6 in (198 cm) kids in seventh grade--the high schol basketball coaches are keeping a very close eye on him as he casually scores 48 points a game in youth basketball.

University of Maine Climate Reanalyzer, Niño 3.4 region:

From the Copernicus Marine Service.

The Nino 3.4 region coordinates are: 5N-5S, 120W-170W.

Book Review about Howard Zinn

I found this video from an interesting book review in the NY Times about Howard Zinn, the famed historian and author of A People's History of the United States. Zinn dared to write that, actually, America's history is actually pretty fucked up, with a huge amount of oppression. In this messed up country that kind of inflammation will get you both prosecuted and respected. I read it many years ago but lately, as I'm now > 65 yo and supposedly on the US health program for seniors, Medicare, but still find it very difficult to get affordable health care. Trump plans to make medication for seniors even more expensive, despite his hypocritical lying saying he would always protect Medicare.  So I'm listening more than ever and am angry more than ever.

Just wish most people speaking in this vid weren't all actors and celebrities.

Yikes

Whispering Pines Golf Course, Texas, hole 15, par 3. May be the scariest par 3 I've ever seen.

Your worst fears about cultural collapse might be true

https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2026/jul/29/sarah-wilson-book-interview

“In Sarah Wilson’s new book, one page is mostly blank. It’s intended as a reprieve, a neutral space “for you to stare at for a minute while your feelings catch up”.

“You will need it. In I Eat the Stars, Wilson argues that the world as we know it is in collapse – and that we are too late to avoid the worst.

“This is not just about the climate, but civilisation buckling under the weight of its own complexity. Given worsening inequality, political polarisation, falling fertility, resource shortages and global conflicts, Wilson argues that we are hurtling towards the same end as ancient Rome, the Mayan civilisation and every other sophisticated society before us.”

No Pause in Global Temperature

Trying to diagnose a "pause" using a graph of rates of temperature change really isn't useful, I realize now. Duh!! Here's a better chart of just global temperature, from GISS. Doesn't show much of a pause. 

June Temperatures

For June, GISS has the globe at 2nd-warmest, same for land-only and Northern Hemisphere, and 4th-warmest (but tightly packed) for the Southern- hemisphere.

Relative to the first 30-year interval possible, 1880-1909, June's global anomaly was 1.44°C. The total change is approximately 1.23°C (2.21°F). Land-only is 1.56°C. The respective 30-year trends are +0.25°C/decade for the globe, and +0.30°C/decade for land-only.

A degree Celsius of global warming every four decades, at this rate. That's astonishing. That means we'd hit 1.5°C of total global warming in 2.4 more years, relative to the first interval available. (Remember, trends are independent of the choice of baseline.) Less if you use a trend of just the last 10 years. Probably less because the warming rate is accelerating:

The error bars are the 95% confidence limit.

Unless an asteroid hits us (*or a comet, or the sun falters, or aliens put up a sunscreen to get rid of us, or there's global nuclear war, you know what I mean), we're hitting 1.5°C of warming in just a few years. 

There should be a global funeral, organized by someone at the right time.

So linear regression is probably losing some of its efficacy. You could also say that the 30-yr trend from the period ~1969 to ~1992 is larger than that from ~1992-today, so the global warming trend is slowing down. "The pause" still makes it difficult to reach decadal changes. 

The 30-yr warming rate from ~1992 to ~2016 was (according to the graph above) about constant which does not say that warming paused, it just didn't accelerate. Since then the linear trend has increased, which is an acceleration of warming. The linear trend of global temperatures since Jan 2016 is +0.32°C/decade, but since the beginning of 2017 it's +0.43°C/decade. Error bars on each are 0.10°C/decade.

Foster and Rahmstorf wrote a paper earlier this year saying global warming has accelerated. (It's open access.) They are much more careful about how they do fits (lowess instead of regression) and obtain this:

PLF=piecewise linear function. You can read the paper if you're ambitious. (Today is a Friday so you're probably not. Me neither, and in any case I have other work to do.) 

Cheers.

 

Warren Zevon When Younger

Late last year I posted about Warren Zevon's last appearance on the David Letterman show, on October 30, 2002. He died 11 months later at the age of 56. On that video he looks rather tired and resigned, but I just found a performance of his from 1982. He's 20 years younger and, of course, much more animated and vivacious. I never saw anything like this before. He was about 36 yrs old.

World Cup & Football/Soccer in the US

I watched three of the last few World Cups games: England vs Norway, Spain vs France and England vs Argentina, and was going to write about them and why I think soccer/football is unlikely to ever catch on in the US. Then I realized I know very little about this sport and, moreover, I don't care what the average American thinks of the game, or of anything really, I mean, they re-elected Trump. So I decided to just shut the f up.

The Last Ever Climate Science Report

Short But Moving

NYT: "In April, the energy think tank Ember found that all of the new electricity demand around the world in 2025 was met with green power." 

The whole interview ("The Very Good and Very Bad News on Climate," with Bill McKibben) is worth reading. Free link.

-=-

China's population peaked in 2021 and has declined every year since. In 2025 it was 5.8 million lower than the peak year, or -0.4%.

On the other hand (assuming I have two hands, which I do), India's population has increased every year, by 0.9% each of the last three years. India's population was 1.464 B in 2025, compared to China's 1.407 B that year. The difference is 57 M.  

-=-

In the US, coal mining jobs in June 26 were 39.3 K. That's a change of -1.2 K since Trump2 took office. During Trump1 the change was -12.6 K, and during Biden the change was +2.3 K. 

I feel kind of bad for coal miners, who all three times supported Trump. I guess for them it's jobs but also guns & Jesus. I guess that explains why they voted for a guy again even though jobs were down 25% during his first term. It wasn't entirely the pandemic; coal mining jobs were down 5.9 K in March 2021, -12% from when Trump's first term began.

Someone should be designing & implementing a huge job training program for coal miners because these jobs are going, boys, and they ain't coming back. You know, like what Hillary proposed. But she got slammed in her 2016 presidential campaign for wording it wrong, saying "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business," during a March 2016 CNN town hall in Columbus, Ohio. It might have cost her the election. 

Short but moving:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Football • Soccer (@instatroll_futbol)

Various Bullet Points

I was wrong on this post from 2 days ago: the El Niño is already here. NOAA called it on June 11.

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Capitalism at its most rapacious: a women was kicked off a plane for someone who paid more for her seat. Happened in the US, of course.

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The January 2025 fires in Los Angeles burned an area equivalent to a square 9.5 miles on a side. 51 deaths, 18,000 homes and other structures destroyed. Journalists could start calling these events "heat bombs," the deaths from very extreme heat. 

###

The Athletic:

The city of Buenos Aires, it found, had a disproportionately high number of therapists; 222 of them per 100,000 people. The United States, in comparison, had 30.

When you watch Argentina play, you can understand why. After every game, you need to talk to someone. You have to share what you’ve been through. “Am I losing my mind? Is this normal? How do I cope?”

One minute, you’re on the floor. Down and depressed. The next, you’re in heaven. Euphoric. The adrenaline. The dopamine. It’s a natural psychedelic. It’s no surprise Argentinians follow their national team everywhere. This is more than patriotism. It’s an addiction. Everyone tells you it’s not healthy. You know you should stop. But nothing has made you feel this way before, and you crave that feeling again and again and again.

The feeling hit hard in Atlanta on Tuesday.

The European Heat Bomb

CarbonBrief says the recent European heat bomb killed 2,700 people in France. 

Maybe that's what these extreme events need to be called: "heat bombs."

They write, "Recent analysis by World Weather Attribution has already shown that human-caused climate change increased the frequency and intensity of the June heat wave across Europe."

France needs to start thinking about air conditioning units, at least for its older people. Yes, I know A/C makes climate change worse, a little. But there's no sign global warming is slowing down, in fact it's accelerating right now, so people gotta do what they gotta do. 

No, I do not have air conditioning. I really don't like it. Had to use it when I lived in Arizona, but I don't like the feeling of being cloistered in the house. It's the same as cabin fever in the winter. Here in Oregon there are only a few days when it would be nice to have, but at those times I get by with a fan and a few showers a day. But if I were in an apartment building or a French house built in, maybe, 1582, I'd probably use it.

-=-=-

The recent heat wave in Europe also killed an estimated 2.5 to 3 million chickens (New York Times).

“It broke my heart,” said Ms. Renaudier, who had been raising the birds at her family farm in northwestern France for supermarkets, butchers and rotisseries.

The birds were 19 days away from slaughter. But apparently that doesn't break her heart. 

I kind of get it, though. Watching any animal die of excessive heat must be difficult But I kind of don't get it. Yes, I eat chicken, so a few of these deaths are on me.  

The US Men's Soccer Team Deserved to Lose to Belgium

Belgium 4, USA 1. FT. 

Plain and simple, the US Men's National Team deserved to lose this game. Trump ruins everything he touches, and I don't see how this doesn't lower FIFA's reputation, if they had any left. I know they have a long history of corruption, but this seems so overt, so obsequious, so subservient, so direct, they look like nothing but toads kissing Trump's ass.

The US player who got the red card last game, Folarin Balogun (who said after that game that he accepted it was fair), should have sat out against Belgium. The coach should have ordered it. The team captain should have encouraged it. If the US had won today it would only have gotten worse. 

Kudos to Belgium for bringing it in the face of this moral outrage. That has to feel fantastic. 

Trump is a such a global embarrassment. Perhaps he actually is the anti-Christ. Can you think of a better candidate?

The Coming El Niño Keeps Getting Warmer

3.9°C! That would be utterly amazing. If I recall correctly, past El Niños have had a NINO3.4 anomaly of 2-2.5°C.

July ECMWF runs are in and forecast an even more extreme El Niño event than the prior June runs. ENSO3.4 region temperatures reach 3.9C in December, and forecasts are around 0.3C warmer than they were in June.

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— Zeke Hausfather (@zekehausfather.com) July 6, 2026 at 8:24 AM

12 Groups, Nearly Identical Temperature Records

From Zeke Hausfather on Bluesky:

The global surface temperature record is one of the most iconic figures in climate science. We now have 12 different groups of researchers from the US, UK, EU, Japan, and China (among others) that have calculated it and found nearly identical results:

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— Zeke Hausfather (@zekehausfather.com) July 6, 2026 at 3:08 PM

More of "Not" by Big Thief

Here's another version of "Not" by Big Thief, sung in a studio. Even more desperate than the first. She's missing a tooth and something seems to propel her even farther. How many people are looking to be an artist & rock star despite a missing tooth, which in America is supposed to be humiliating? Don't think I could do that.

Kurt Vonnegut on Kurt Vonnegut

link.

Big Thief: Not

So desperate


Lyrics--most of them.

RIP Judith Curry's Climate Etc.

Judith Curry has ended her blog, Climate Etc. 

Kudos to her commitment to sharing her views widely and allowing a broad and vigorous debate in her comments sections.

Weird MAGA politicians

What's below is similar to Sarah Palin making fun of fruit fly research, giving it as an example of projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good, saying "Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not." Completely unaware of the importance of fruit fly research to genetics. She should have dropped out as a candidate for VP for the shame alone. But in America isn't OK to say stupid things to the entire nation. Trump2 is, of course, a prime example, the BEST example. But he has competition. Here's a South Carolina representation in the US House going on about something she didn't research or even appear to be interested in except for trying to score a political point. Instead it was an own goal. She already lost her bid for reelection this fall, so she'll be out of Congress. But, probably, unfortunately, not out of the public eye. That's how it goes here now.

Animals should not be used for radical transgender experiments.

This is not science. This is ideological cruelty paid for by the American taxpayers.

Our TRANS MICE Act ends it. No federal funds may be used to conduct, support, or fund research aimed at altering an animal's… pic.twitter.com/ef3tSuhO78

— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) June 18, 2026

The 21st Century is Getting Wild

Oliver in Summer

My cat Oliver has relocated to his summer lair. He spends most days out there, or laying in the yard. Maybe you can see him peaking at the camera.

Solar > Coal in May in USA

 In May in the US solar contributed more electric power than coal:

New York, 10 June 2026 – Solar overtook coal generation in the US electricity mix for the first month on record in May 2026, according to official monthly and preliminary hourly generation data analysed by global energy think tank Ember. Solar supplied a record 12.8% of US electricity, while coal fell to 12.2%, its fourth-lowest monthly share ever.

Source: https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/solar-overtakes-coal-in-us-electricity-for-the-first-month-on-record/

I keep track of the weekly coal production (in the US). Here's how it's gone in recent years (sorry for not making a pretty graph):

US coal production peaked in 2007-2009. It's been downhill since and is now lower than 1980. I feel sorry for coal miners, and a decent administration would be very active in training these men & women for other jobs, or retiring those older than about (?) 45. 

Trump2 recently gave the coal mining industry $700 million to restore coal power plants and such; meanwhile this idiot has spent $2.5 billion to shut down wind power. 

This article says he will lose his fight against renewable energy, with the subhead:

"Market forces are stronger than MAGA." 

Greta Says Happy Birthday to Trump

From a Guardian article soliciting birthday greetings for Trump's 80th birthday:

Ouch.

Warming Up To 2025: 1.37°C

These latest numbers imply 1.5°C of total global warming in just four years. 2.0°C of warming in 2049. It's coming on fast now. Here's the paper.

Our 2026 Indicators of Global Climate Change paper is out! We find that the human-induced warming was 1.37C in 2025, and the current rate of warming is 0.27C per year, on track to firmly pass 1.5C in about four years: essd.copernicus.org/...

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— Zeke Hausfather (@hausfath.bsky.social) June 11, 2026 at 4:42 PM

El Niño is Coming on Strong

 Sea surface temperatures for the Nino 3.4 region:

and for the global average sea surface temperature:

Both graphs via Tropical TidBits.

Blue Origin Rocket Blows Up on Launchpad

9 pm Eastern Standard Time, tonight. Everything exploded during a test for a launch soon, liquid oxygen + liquefied natural gas.

I think this is the biggest rocket explosion I've ever seen. It was going to carry 48 satellites to space. Bezos says trying again "is worth it." Probably a write off on all the taxes he doesn't pay (0%).

Amazing TED Talk - Steven Hayes

This is the most unique TED talk I have ever seen. Maybe you too will find it interesting.