So Here We Are

Ocean hot spots. Note situation off West coast of France   June has proven to be a hot month, in both hemispheres. An intense El Nino system is developing in the Eastern Pacific, and the surface sea temperatures are at an all time high. We are on the dark red line. The dark grey line had alarm bells ringing three years ago. In marked contrast to a couple of years ago, when temperatures suddenly rose by 12 standard deviations from the mean, nobody is commenting on these levels, possibly because NOAA scientists have been sacked. Perhaps they will start commenting again, now that it appears they've got a voice back .  Anyway, carry on reading.  Environment Under stress: rock fish and Monterey kelp (Fred Hsu via Wiki Commons)  The ugly One of the few decent things George W Bush did during his presidency was to create a marine reserve around the Hawa'iin archipelago. If you saw Attenborough's recent documentary on the Oceans (available on Disney+ btw), you would be ...

Welcome to another month in the life of a planet whose ecological limits continue to be breached in more ways than can be counted on a blog of this size. Never mind: we're still here to read about what's actually been happening. Lord Howe stag beetle is back (image: Steve Smith  CC BY-ND-NC via inaturalist ) And it's amazing what comes bouncing back once whatever is suppressing it has been removed, as our friend above can testify. It's something we may(?) be able to say of certain world affairs shortly. Getting through that 'shortly' part may prove interesting, however. In the meantime...  Environment This was once an inland sea. Surprisingly, it still is in parts. ( NASA )   The Ugly Since when did Victoria need new gas fields: especially near natural attractions? As with all departments under the reign of Trump, the Bureau of Land Management has morphed into a mechanism for extraction. Going so far as rescinding grazing permits for bison herds , and recommenc...