We're Toast 35

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.

Falling apart

• The Big Rp-Off and the Failed Coup. "How fundraising contributed to violence."
• Brazil’s New President Faces ‘Scorched Earth Scenario’ Left Behind by Bolsonaro. "For environmental protections in Brazil, a long rebuilding process lies ahead."
• Exxon’s 1970s Climate Projections Were Scarily Accurate. "The oil giant's internal climate models correctly forecast the climate change we're seeing now—all while the company pushed denial in public."
• Predicting Future Weather Disasters. "Dr. Jeff Masters, Dr. Peter Sousounis and Prof. Perry Samson discussing the possibilities for majow weather disasters over the coming five years." YouTube video, recorded December 3, 2021,  but still worth watching.
• With stroke of his pen, Gov. Mike DeWine defines natural gas as green energy. Well, he can sit outside my house and breath the exhaust from my gas furnace and see how green that is.
• Humans plunder the periodic table while turning blind eye to the risks of doing so, say researchers. "Mineral element consumption/extraction is rising at a rate of around 3% a year, and that will continue up to 2050," states Josep Peñuelas, CREAF and CSIC researcher and the other co-author of the study. "In that scenario, it is possible that we will have used up all our reserves of some of those elements (gold and antimony) by 2050, and of others (molybdenum and zinc) within a hundred years."
• Twitter’s staff spent years trying to protect the platform against impulsive ranting billionaires — then one made himself the CEO. Another example of extreme economic inequality in action.
• New report shows alarming changes in the entire global water cycle. "Earth's water cycle is clearly changing. Globally, the air is getting hotter and drier, which means droughts and risky fire conditions are developing faster and more frequently."