We're Toast 46

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.

Winter playground

• 2023 was Earth’s hottest year on record. "It was the warmest year on record for 29% of the global population, 77 countries, and 3 continents; 21 nations or territories set an all-time extreme heat record." This is the best summary article on the subject that I've seen to date.
• There's Been a Staggering Increase in People Killed by Fungi Every Year, Study Finds. "New research estimates that deaths from fungal infections have doubled since just a decade ago.
• Greenland’s Glaciers Are Melting Way Faster Than We Thought: Study. "A new study found that Greenland is losing 30 million metric tons of ice every hour." That's equivalent to one square kilometre covered to a depth of 30 metres. Per hour.
• "Nobody and nowhere will be safe": Experts say we can't hide from climate change. "In the movies, heroes can outrun the apocalypse. But in the real world there's no exit from the climate crisis."
• Climate change fueled a rise in rare disease outbreaks last year. "This year’s spate of rare illnesses may have come as a surprise to the uninitiated, but researchers who have been following the way climate change influences disease say 2023 represents the continuation of a trend they expect will become more pronounced over time: The geographic distribution of pathogens and the timing of their emergence are undergoing a shift."
• The New Space Race Is Causing New Pollution Problems (gift link). "Earth’s stratosphere has never seen the amounts of emissions and waste from rockets and satellites that a booming space economy will leave behind."
• Critical Infrastructure Is Sinking Along the US East Coast. "Up and down the Atlantic Coast, the land is steadily sinking, or subsiding. That’s destabilizing levees, roads, and airports, just as sea levels are rising."
• We could be 16 years into a methane-fueled 'termination' event significant enough to end an ice age. "Methane emissions from tropical wetlands have been soaring since 2006 and accelerating at the same breakneck speed as when Earth's climate has flipped from a glacial to an interglacial period."