Last Week in Collapse is a new weekly round-up, bringing together some of the most important, timely, useful, depressing, ironic, amazing, or otherwise must-see moments in Collapse. Get LWIC delivered directly to your email inbox for free.
Climate
This decade-old declassified file from 2013 is an 87-page document containing a prediction by the United States Navy that humans would achieve 4 °C warming by 2040. You already know many of the security threats of a hotter future: forcible migration, damage to global ports, changing ocean currents, drought/flooding, stronger storms.
There is only a “tiny window” of hope remaining to prevent climate Collapse, and experts say we are entering “a new age of devastation” as El Niño pushes already-record temperatures even higher. Parts of Texas hit record highs and Phoenix hit a record high temperature for August: 117 °F (47 °C). Other scientists admit there is no stopping this.
At least 20 people have died in wildfires in Greece, near the border of Bulgaria and Türkiye. The blazes still rage, and they have become the EU’s largest wildfire ever. Dozens of people were arrested for arson, but it remains unclear how the blaze really began. This visual guide is a quick summary of Greece’s wildfires. Scientists know that wildfires are becoming more intense and widespread.
The Lower Darling — Australia’s 3rd longest river — has practically run out of Murray cod, a native fish whose population crashed after a terrible drought several years ago. Efforts to repopulate the species failed.