We're Toast 39

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.

A budding tree

• We found long-banned pollutants in the very deepest part of the ocean. "I was part of a team that recently discovered human-made pollutants in one of the deepest and most remote places on Earth – the Atacama Trench, which goes down to a depth of 8,000 meters in the Pacific Ocean. The presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in such a remote location emphasises a crucial fact: no place on Earth is free from pollution."
• World Economic Forum Predicts Global Cyber Catastrophe. "93 percent of cyber leaders, and 86 percent of cyber business leaders, believe that the geopolitical instability makes a catastrophic cyber event likely in the next two years. This far exceeds anything that we’ve see in previous surveys."
• An ominous heating event is unfolding in the oceans. "Average sea surface temperatures have soared to record highs—and stayed there."
• Accelerating melt of ice sheets now 'unmistakable'. "An international group of scientists who work with satellite data say the acceleration in the melting of Earth's ice sheets is now unmistakable. They calculate the planet's frozen poles lost 7,560 billion tonnes in mass between 1992 and 2022. Seven of the worst melting years have occurred in the past decade."
• An Unexpected Reason It'll Be Harder to Breathe as Earth Warms. "A recent study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment found that a warming planet means more particles in the atmosphere, including dust and organic aerosols from plants. While we usually think of plants for their benefits to the environment, in certain circumstances they can actually release compounds that aren’t great for our respiratory systems."
• Why the World’s Most Deadly Viruses Are Becoming More Dangerous. "For the first time ever there are simultaneous outbreaks of the deadly Marburg virus. Scientists fear it’s just a matter of time before we get a viral hemorrhagic pandemic." And then see the next article to get really worried.
• As the pandemic winds down, anti-vaccine activists are building a legal network. "The fights include everything from suing educators who enforced mask mandates, to demanding vaccination status be made a protected class, like race or sexual orientation. Thousands of lawsuits pushing back against public health measures have been filed since the pandemic."
• Legally binding global treaty needed to tackle space debris, say experts. "Scientists call for collective effort to protect Earth’s orbit from dangers posed by space junk." I very much doubt the Russians or Chinese will agree to such a treaty.