We're Toast 22

This post is a collection of links that support my increasingly strong feeling that the human race (or at least our technological civilization) is doomed. It is part of an ongoing series of posts.

Climate Change and Environment

• The New Frontiers of Farming Come With Huge Climate Risks. Opening new territory for farms may have unintended consequences.
• Antarctic temperature rises above 20C for first time on record. "Scientists describe 20.75C logged at Seymour Island as ‘incredible and abnormal’"
• Coronavirus: Go Forth and Multiply. A sobering and worrisome article.
• The Climate Crisis Is Causing 'Dramatic' Changes In the Pacific Arctic. "Nowhere is safe from the climate crisis, but some regions are suffering more than others. The Pacific edge of the Arctic Ocean is one of those regions, and it’s changing in big, scary ways."
• Preindustrial 14CH4 indicates greater anthropogenic fossil CH4 emissions. This result indicates that anthropogenic fossil CH4 emissions are underestimated by about 38 to 58 teragrams CH4 per year, or about 25 to 40 per cent of recent estimates. 

Politics 

• Trump's war on truth takes a dangerous turn as he attacks the media's coronavirus coverage. Nature doesn't care what Trump thinks or says. People will die because of his lies and budget cuts to health and science.
• Covid-19 Will Mark the End of Affluence Politics. The possibility of a global pandemic will reveal our inability to make and distribute the things people need—just in time for a presidential election.
• Qanon Deploys 'Information Warfare' to Influence the 2020 Election. "The conspiracy movement lost its online home when 8chan was shut down. Followers migrated to other sites—and have set their sights on the presidential race."

Technology

• Hackers Could Shut Down Satellites—or Turn Them into Weapons. "The use of off-the-shelf components means bad actors can easily look for vulnerabilities."