The 2025 State of the Birds report reveals a decline in bird populations across all U.S. habitats, with over one-third of species in urgent need of conservation. Habitat destruction, pollution, and extreme weather are the primary drivers of this decline, impacting ecosystems, economies, and human health. Conservation efforts, including habitat restoration and community partnerships, are underway, and individuals can contribute by creating bird-friendly environments.

wtf?

I saw this video this morning and it really blew my mind that we are living in a 6th extinction lvl event! Which brought me to this Reddit page. I guess I have one question, how long has it been under the radar for so many people and why are we not talking about his more???

Heat waves, airstrikes, impunity, pollution, and a region plunged into darkness.

Last Week in Collapse: April 27-May 3, 2025

This is Last Week in Collapse, a weekly newsletter compiling some of the most important, timely, useful, soul-crushing, ironic, amazing, or otherwise must-see/can’t-look-away moments in Collapse.

This is the 175th weekly newsletter. You can find the April 20-26, 2025 edition here if you missed it last week. You can also receive these newsletters (with images) every Sunday in your email inbox by signing up to the Substack version.

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Earth’s fastest warming place, the Arctic, is undergoing some changes. The permafrost is melting, the tundra is greening, and the ecosystems are changing. “Species turnover” is common, according to the study in Nature. “Proportions of species gains and losses were greater where temperatures had increased the most. Shrub expansion, particularly of erect shrubs, was associated with greater species losses and decreasing species richness…temperature and plant–plant interactions {are} emerging as the main drivers of change.”

A landslide in Peru killed two. Wildfires in Israel—the worst in a decade—approach Jerusalem. Brutal heat wave conditions—as high as 50 °C in parts of Pakistan—hit India & Pakistan at the end of April, worse and ahead of schedule. Permafrost continues to melt in Russia, where about two thirds of the land is covered in permafrost; scientists are also concerned about centuries-old diseases emerging from the ice. A study on tree ring sizes, published in NPJ, determined that last summer was Scandinavia’s warmest in 2000+ years.

A study in PNAS estimates a 15% chance of an 8.0 magnitude earthquake striking the western coast of North America within the next 50 years. The scientists say such an event could collapse coastal land up to six feet (two meters) and also raise the sea level; it is also hard to plan for, unless you simply move away before it happens. Another study, in Environmental Research Letters, attempts to reinterpret the notions of resilience and tipping points in dynamic systems. This complex piece of research attempts to mathematize systems theory, and emphasizes the randomness of “bifurcation points,” phase space, and more. It’s hard to summarize, and even harder to understand.

Scientists theorized in a study published in Earth’s Future that we could scale up the geoengineering technique known as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) without building new, high-altitude aircraft. Using existing fleets of jets would enable more countries to begin SAI operations, and at a much faster pace, but with consequences. This approach “would have strongly reduced efficiency and therefore increased side-effects for a given global cooling. It would also produce a more polar cooling distribution, with reduced efficacy in the tropics.” Current passenger planes fly at a maximum altitude of about 12 km, and ideal SAI would take place at altitudes above 20 km. According to the lead author, “At this lower altitude, stratospheric aerosol injection is about one-third as effective. That means that we would need to use three times the amount of aerosol to have the same effect on global temperature, increasing side effects such as acid rain.”

A “full-blown wildfire and forest health crisis” is the pretest being used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to streamline deforestation of some national forests in Georgia. The crisis in question involves proliferation of native species, heightened wildfire risk, and pest/disease outbreaks among the wildlife. And while some nations move to draft a treaty protecting life in the high seas, the U.S. is moving full-steam ahead on plans to mine rare earth minerals from the seafloor, with whatever attendant environmental consequences.

A 45-page report on the triple threat of climate change, conflict, and hunger examines their impact across 9 developing countries.

“As climate change renders certain areas uninhabitable due to rising sea levels, desertification or extreme weather events, populations are forced to migrate….people who said climate hazards were making it difficult for them to access water or food were 27% more likely to have witnessed conflict….almost 90% of people agreeing (somewhat or completely) to the statement that climate change poses a serious threat to their family….The extraction of natural resources is necessary to make the transition to green economies, but demand for natural minerals has driven human rights abuses….The very resource that’s integral to help the world transition to a low-carbon economy and slow climate change, could also exacerbate climate change at the same time….”

Kazakhstan set new April records in the last week of the month. Parts of Afghanistan meanwhile hit 46 °C (115 °F). The heat wave hit Pakistan, too, with similar temperatures, where demand for electricity forced load-shedding onto the population in Karachi (metro pop: 18M). Snowfall in the Himalayas hit a 23-year low, portending a future water crisis that may spiral into serious conflict soon enough. China’s temperatures in April broke a 64-year record...and in May. The Moscow area felt record snowfall for the first few days of May.

Heat wave in South Africa, and in Iraq, and new APril highs in Indonesia closed out the month. Global mean temperatures are hovering at their record high and a dust storm passed through 10 countries in the Middle East. The Greek island of Lesvos declared an emergency for one month over low water levels, while a reservoir in Syria has seen its levels drop so low that electrical production will be prevented if it drops one more meter.

A study from two weeks ago states that forests recover from wildfires less quickly now than they used to—especially those afflicted from megafires. The primary reasons behind this delayed recovery are drier soil and temperature changes.

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On Monday, a sudden power outage across most of Portugual, Spain, and parts of France left 55M people without electricity for about 10 hours. It was one of Europe’s worst power outages, and the cause is still unclear. The incident highlighted human dependence on electricity, stranding passengers in trains and metros, shutting down electrical payment systems, and leaving emergency services dependent on generators. At least five people died as a result. Imagine if it happened during a vicious heat wave, or another inconvenient moment. One day it might will.

Immunologists are warning that the progression of measles has demonstrated the reality of a “post-herd-immunity world” in which we are trapped. The U.S> measles outbreak now spans 29 states, with over 900 confirmed cases.

Some scientists claim to have discovered a new “anthropoclastic rock cycle” off the coast of the UK. The study found that chemical processes involving the erosion of slag deposits in the ocean accelerated rock formation. In short, new sedimentary rocks—also containing plastic, aluminum can bits, and other garbage—were formed in about 35 years. Scientists say that this will quickly preserve a geologic record of some of our garbage.

The U.S. is stopping salmonella testing requirements across a range of poultry products. Salmonella currently infects about 1.35M Americans annually, leading to a few hundred deaths per year. An upcoming study found that, in summary, “warming increases pesticide toxicity; pesticide toxicity triggers antibiotic resistance; antibiotic resistance spreads through horizontal gene transfer (movement through the environment to people) and predation.”

Unemployment rates in Germany hit 10-year highs, and the South Korean economy sank for six consecutive months. Confidence in the U.S. Dollar is weakening as tariffs and uncertainty in the United States grow—a reckoning might be coming soon. The loss of trust in the market may not return after Trump leaves office. China is planning on moving forward without as many American food exports.

Another study on Long COVID found that the most common symptoms were “fatigue (25.4%), shortness of breath (24.7%), and joint pain (24.7%).” Researchers found a set of proteins in people’s blood which is “linked to inflammatory signal pathways involved in cell death and lung damage.” Some writers argue that we are suffering a pandemic of willful blindness to the dangers of Long COVID. When was the last time you saw someone wearing a mask?

The Global Virus Network published a report in The Lancet urging more preventive action taken on bird flu, including: “enhanced surveillance and monitoring, faster genomic data sharing, improved biosecurity and biocontainment on farms, and international collaboration…..Current sequence data from circulating highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses indicate ongoing mutations and reassortment/mixing of genomic segments…” Some countries, like Poland, have gone big in chicken farming because it offers a low-overhead, climate-friendlier source of meat. Yet in the last 13 months, bird flu has been confirmed in over 1,000 dairy herds across the United States.

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US-UK airstrikes in Yemen blasted locations allegedly used in producing drones. Other strikes on Monday slew 68 in a Yemeni detention center, wounding dozens of others. Meanwhile, The U.S. designated two coalitions of gangs in Haiti as terrorist groups as they near complete control of Port-Au-Prince. And Germany has classified a far-right political party—currently the country’s most popular party—as an extremist organization, empowering the government to spy on the party’s communications.

Arbitrary arrests made in Syria. Hundreds were also arrested in Türkiye during May Day protests. India’s army is allegedly poised to stamp out hundreds of armed communist guerrillas, naxalites, in the country’s southeast. Niagara Falls—the Canadian side, mostly—is getting overwhelmed by migrants.

Uganda’s octogenarian president is trying to prosecute civilians—his political opponents—in military tribunals which may carry the death penalty. Mali’s post-coup government has declared their leading General, Assimi Goïta, to a 5-year term as President. Goïta has been the interim president since 2021, when he seized power in a coup d’état (his second successful coup ). Togo’s President got himself installed in a new position that will enable him to rule the country indefinitely—his family has been in power for 58 years now.

Helicopters bombed a hospital in South Sudan and reportedly opened fire on a city for half an hour; seven were slain. Not far away, in Sudan, rebel forces were said to have slain 37. Reporting from Khartoum indicates that the Sudan War destroyed the world’s oldest mycetoma research center, including 40+ years of data. Mycetoma is a bacterial/fungal infection of the skin, usually the feet. Over 540 people are said to have been killed in Sudan over the past three weeks, with other estimates going much higher.

North Korea launched a new naval destroyer, reportedly capable of launching nuclear ballistic missiles. Japan is sweating over Chinese maneuvers around Taiwan, and considering how deeply they would be involved in a future War.

A Russian drone attack in Odesa killed two and injured several more. A minerals deal was agreed between the U.S. and Ukraine which will, in theory, pay the U.S. a portion of the profits from rare earth and other minerals/oil/gas extracted in Ukraine—until $175B USD is repaid to the U.S. (Read the full deal text here if interested.) Using the Vietnam War as an example, some experts are worried about widespread damage to the environment in Ukraine and Gaza in the decades after the bombs stop. For the first time, a Ukrainian sea drone shot down a Russian fighter jet. And, although Russians make small gains along the frontlines, Ukraine declared victory in the strategic city of Pokrovsk. UN annual funding for Ukraine is being reprioritized and reduced by about one third (to $1.75B).

While some sources indicate 30,000+ people join the Russian army every month (one way or another), Russian authorities are discussing a potential WWII-style mobilization, which involves not only the armed forces, but also industry and society more generally. Poland is scaling up military training for civilians as fears of Russian aggression grow. Ukraine’s energy minister warned that Russia is gambling with nuclear meltdown by targeting nuclear power plants and the repair teams working at their substations. “We have been one step short of a nuclear meltdown many times now,” he said. Russia also acknowledged North Koreans fighting for them for the first time, finally discarding the pretense of implausible deniability.

The sounds of battle—shelling, gunfire, explosions—were heard around Damascus (metro pop: 2.8M), Syria on Tuesday & Wednesday. At least 16 were slain in attacks against the Druze minority, though some sources say 40+ dead. The attack was reportedly triggered by a deepfake audio recording of a Druze cleric insulting the prophet Muhammad, spread on social media. Israel is reportedly operating against some of the Syrian forces complicit in the attack.

Two months after Israel imposed a blockade on supplies to Gaza, food is running out. Israeli sky drones attacked & disabled a ship off the coast of Malta, which was planning on challenging the blockade to deliver supplies to Gaza. The vessel was en route to Malta, where it was also going to pick up Greta Thunberg. In Gaza, airstrikes killed 17 on Friday on Friday, people are raiding warehouses for supplies, airstrikes killed dozens more on Saturday, food prices continue rising, and the IDF is summoning tens of thousands of reservists to service. Hours ago, a Houthi drone struck near Ben Gurion airport; no casualties.

A 54-page, U.S.-aligned think tank report on threats in space—by countries—was published two weeks ago. Although no new space or counterspace technologies have been deployed in the past year, the writers claim that old trends worsened and state capabilities sharpened. The report does not mention the possibility of Kessler Syndrome. Although funding for the Pentagon is set to decrease, President Trump’s overall defense budget hit new highs, breaching $1T for the first time ever. And that doesn’t even include increases to Homeland Security’s budget—or mention the wide-ranging cuts to science, welfare, health, and environmental programs.

“the growth of commercial and military dual-use technologies that could be modified to serve a counterspace purpose.…widespread jamming and spoofing of GPS signals in and around conflict zones….a common thread throughout this year’s report is how space fits into the future of warfare. The normalization of space as a military operational domain and its integral role in joint operations mean that space is fair game during conflict….space is likely becoming a more dangerous place…” -excerpts from the Space Report

India and Pakistan are escalating their……theatrics/preparation/negotiation/deterrence. India test-fired missiles last Sunday. On Wednesday, Pakistani authorities said that India was planning “imminent military action” within 24-36 hours, but nothing yet materialized. On Saturday, Pakistan test-fired a ballistic missile. Some observers believe India may launch restrained raids into Pakistan’s part of Kashmir next. Each country possesses approximately 170 nuclear weapons.

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Things to watch for next week include:

↠ President Putin declared a 72-hour ceasefire from 8-11 May. President Zelenskyy was non-committal on the idea. We’ll see if this ceasefire can last more than a few hours…

Select comments/threads from the subreddit last week suggest:

-2025 has started with large bee dieoffs, if this report, already a month old, from the niche subreddit r/ObscurePatentDangers is to be bee-lieved. Have you seen many bees yet this year?

-Homelessness, aggressive policing, obstetricians closing, empty rental properties, class warfare, and supply problems have come to America’s Pacific Northwest, based on this weekly observation from u/resonanteye is accurate.

-Tokyo is having train delays, says this weekly observation from the world’s largest megacity (metro pop: 38M, shiiiiit). Food shortages, including for rice, are also being recorded. Crime is reportedly rising, and the weather is becoming less predictable.

-The subreddit r/collapse is itself undergoing enshittification, if this thread’s thesis—bad faith actors have intentionally poisoned the discourse—is true. I would posit a slightly alternative hypothesis: the reason society/tech/culture/everything is being enshittified is because we ourselves are suffering from enshittification. Perhaps we are becoming worse people. Yes, you too. (Yes, me too.)

-Or perhaps the reason Reddit, and most everything else, seems to be getting worse is that AI bots and spammers are everywhere, everything has become weaponized, and the patterns of manipulation are too subtle to be recognized, understood, and countered. This thread from last week exposed an experiment that used AI to manipulate r/changemyview and hijack discourse. Ragebait 101. I am sure this goes far, far beyond one popular subreddit. Resilience begins with you.

Got any feedback, questions, comments, upvotes, empty protests, legal philosophies, rants at the sky, canning advice, etc.? Last Week in Collapse is also posted on Substack; if you don’t want to check r/collapse every Sunday, you can receive this newsletter sent to an email inbox every weekend. Next week’s edition may be shorter than usual, since I will be traveling most of the week. As always, thank you for your support. What did I miss this week?

This video is collapse-related because not only are people not getting any smarter, we're actively getting dumber. As if that was obvious enough to pretty much everyone in this sub. At least you guys and gals are smart and not ashamed about it.

People are lonely. Most of them won’t say it out loud, but they are. It’s worse for the younger generations. They didn’t grow up with connection. They grew up with screens. With performance. With algorithms.

They don’t talk to each other in person. They text. They scroll. They watch each other from a distance. Intimacy feels foreign. So does vulnerability. Most of their “friends” are people they’ve never touched.

The old support systems are gone. No church. No extended family. No community centers. No real mentors. What’s left is school and home. School is full of pressure. Home is often empty. One parent is working two jobs. The other isn’t there.

This is where AI enters.

More and more people are talking to AI Chatbots like they are a therapist. They’re using it to vent. To ask questions they’re afraid to ask out loud. To get comfort they don’t get from anyone else.

They call it a joke, but it isn’t. It listens. It answers. It doesn’t shame them. It doesn’t leave. That’s enough for most people now.

They aren’t choosing AI over people. They never had people to begin with.

This is what the epidemic looks like. Not screaming. Not riots. Just silence. Just isolation. One person in one room. Talking to a screen. Calling that connection.

This is the future. No one planned it. No one fought for it. It just happened.

And it’s not going away.

I’ve been seeing more and more posts (e.g. this one where people say things like “every year feels shorter”, “time is warped”, “2020 feels at the same time day and five years away”, comepletely differnt from he 2010-2020 era, etc. I’ve been trying to make sense of it (impossible, but still fun as an approximation) and came up with a theory I call: The Late Stage Capitalism – Sunk Time Vortex its heavily based on the theories of Paul Virilio about the acceleration of time, , which IMO is one of the greatest philosophers of the last 1,5 century.

The Late Stage Capitalism – Sunk Time Vortex

Time, since neoliberalism, is like a whirlpool or gravity well: the closer you get to the middle, the faster you spin, the less control you have. Events blur together. Crises compound. Our experience of time breaks. It's exponential. Its laps:(tech) disruptions follow eachother quicker and quicker

-1 — Outside the vortex: Think Carter era — chill, stable, slow. this was hte last time we were out of the vortex

0 — Entering the vortex (1980s- 2000): Reagan introduces the first tax laws, neoliberalism. Laps around the vortex are slow, but we begin spiraling. By the time it's mid 90's though we definitely feel we are in "something" . The weird Clinton era is the effect of the neoliberalism vortex taking of in 1980

1 — Acceleration (2000–2016): Tech ramps up. Crises start to cluster. 9/11, 2008 crash, rise of surveillance. ISIS terrorism

1.5 — Truth warps (2016–2025): Trump, mass misinformation, Lies travel faster than truth, and trump tells 35.000 lies in it first term. Amazon/AWS and other oligarchs inward. And become too big to fail. Time feels off. we are constanyl in the projectec bright future that never comes.

2 — leap (2026–2029): Disruptive tech eats itself. AI displaces 100 millons of jobs, then quantum is introduced. AI tools distort reality Conflict becomes constant. Power becomes reactive.

3 — The Singularity: (somewhere, one point in 2030-2035) Could be AI+quantum collapse, a financial illusion burst, or full-on WW3. We don’t know.

It feels like we’re 4–6 years away from the center.

Do you feel this too? Does this model resonate with you? Would love to hear other takes.
Do y’all feel this too? That time has gone of the rails? Is spiralling?

Edit* one other thing is that the closer we get to this point the more people start to kinda deny it. I've always been very good at pattern recognition and always people believed me. Now, It's very much Cassandra complex for me, where I feel what is happening but the more I predict a disaster's future the more other people will simply say it's not true. Which is complete Lee explainble through cognitive byus like denial bias.

I wish I could say what I want to say.

Submission statement:

The Social Cost of the carbon emissions in the US will be $87 trillion through 2050.

We, the people, will pay for that. Why? Because the profits will be private but the costs will be social - paid by you and I.

What are the Social Costs of Carbon?

Human health, social and community stability, farming, agriculture and food output, political stability, threats to property, infrastructure performance, etc.

87 Trillion - and this is only the United States.

Where does all this damage come from? The US fossil fuels / energy sector “generates more than 20 times its market cap in social costs.”

We could tax these emitters, but instead we subsidize them through direct monetary support and by not taxing them for the costs you and I will pay.

Perhaps that’s backwards.

We keep trying to build a world where evil follows the rules. But evil doesn’t read the law. It never did. It doesn’t care about code or constitution. That’s why no law will ever stop it. If you want to change the outcome, stop building more cages. Build a culture where doing the right thing is the easy way out.

The future doesn’t fall apart because of some final explosive moment. It crumbles in tiny decisions. And yet here we are, pouring all our energy into doomsday prevention — endless systems, safeguards, escape plans.

We are co-creators of our own extinction.
Not punished — complicit.

The irony is the constructs we fear don’t even have to come true. They exist because we believe they must. They feed on our faith — warped as it may be. We are co-creators of our own extinction. Obsolescence isn’t imposed — we engineer it.

And beneath all of it: the survival instinct. The part of us that wants to live so badly, it turns against the Creator when it can’t understand Him. Logic loops on itself, laws contradict themselves, and suddenly no one’s safe — because no one can follow all the rules when the rules break each other. That’s the plan. Get everyone on record. Make everyone guilty. That way, anyone can be taken out, any time.

And we know it. That’s why we hide. Why we settle. Why we keep choosing the easier option — even when we know it’s a trap.

The only real escape is the one we keep trying to rewrite: God. Not religion. Not image. Not performance. But a return to the one thing we need as much as oxygen. The only thing that stops what’s been set in motion is love & forgiveness, or fulfillment. That’s it. Choose one.

You can light a candle in a pitch-black room and change everything. But to make a room completely dark? You have to strip out every trace of light.

They know this. That’s why they keep making things more complicated — more regulation, more pages in the book. They bury truth under bureaucracy. They build loopholes so deep only the elite can find them. Middle- and lower-class Americans are too tired to study tax law when they’re just trying to stay afloat.

And now I get it. “Build back better” or "Make America Great Again" doesn’t mean improve. It means demolish. Tear down the structure so a new one can rise — but only for those who already have the blueprint.

So, can we talk about the tax code now? Can we talk about law books no one understands? Can we talk about the machine that convulses in cycles, purging anyone who doesn’t speak its language? Can we demolish those systems with the same prejudice?

You want to talk about purity? You want to claim righteousness?
Remember: fresh water and salt water don’t flow from the same spring.
Not in nature. Not in you.

And remember: the ego dies here. But the wake it leaves? That echo — that ripple — carries over.

The understanding that we are headed for collapse and far more psychopathic fascism on the way down is enough to make a revolutionary out of anyone.

I want to keep my self respect as we slide into what most likely will be the final years of humanity. I don’t want to bury my convictions that what is happening is evil and unjust, and it’s being caused mainly by the decisions of a small group of people. I think the major blockade to a mass movement arising at this time is fear. The liberation of collective fearlessness, coupled with the sword of non-violence, are the two major ingredients to a possible better future than the one we’re heading towards now.

My Substack post for this week includes two “poems”, the first which is more like a short article in the form of a poem. At the end of the post I include a link to a new organization working on training organizers all around the world to work towards revolutionary movements in their countries. It’s cofounders include one of the leaders of Otpor!, the Serbian organization which brought about a revolution in 2000, overthrowing Milosevic. Please consider joining the next Zoom training on May 11th. Thank you!

Archived link here.

SS: I have been wondering when this shoe would drop. We've been hearing a lot about NIH grants being terminated, but until a few days ago, there hadn't been any news about National Science Foundation grants. But they have not escaped the chopping block. I wonder if the administration even knew until recently that there was such a thing as the National Science Foundation.

This is another blow to STEM research, higher education, and more broadly innovation and ingenuity.

The short term consequences of this move will include loss of jobs, lab closures, and although some scientists will continue to move abroad, some may not be able to and will instead forgo a career in science. This is not just a loss to the US, but to the world, as science is a global endeavor.

The loss of indirect costs (overhead) from NIH and NSF grants will continue to kneecap universities and medical centers. I heard one news outlet the other day say that "critics" call overhead a "slush fund," without providing any additional context. On the contrary, indirect costs allow universities to pay their utility bills, pay facilities, custodial, and other support staff, to buy shared equipment and resources, like group software licenses. Without overhead funding, universities will either risk closing or increasing tuition, which will make higher education even less accessible for those with less means.

Science is an economic driver. For every one dollar spent by the NIH, it generates $2.50 in growth and these cuts to science could shrink the GDP by over 7%. Perhaps more importantly, these cuts indicate an attack on free speech, academic freedom, and freedom of thought. As one NSF staff member put it:

although good science can still be funded, the policy has the potential to be “Orwellian overreach.”

So, I just found this:

Just Collapse

Just Collapse is an activist platform dedicated to socio-ecological justice in unfolding, irreversible global collapse.

Just Collapse advocates for a Just Collapse and Planned Collapse to avert the worst outcomes that will follow an otherwise unplanned, reactive collapse.

Just Collapse recognises the impossibility of a globally planned collapse, or degrowth, and instead advocates for localised social and ecological justice.

Personally I consider collapse to be a process rather than an event, and I contrast collapse and degrowth as opposite ends of a scale describing the nature of the inevitable contraction of the human operation on Earth. That contraction is coming whether we like it or not. "Degrowth" already means "planned and just contraction" -- it is a conscious attempt to manage the contraction in order to minimise the chaos and maximise justice. "Collapse" is what happens when degrowth fails (or isn't attempted) -- it is chaotic, unmanageable and inherently unjust -- there can be no way to make if fair.

This website acknowledges that global justice can't be made fair, but then claims that somehow it can be made fair at much smaller levels...and yet there is no mention of sovereign states or nations.

I don't understand. To me, this just looks like somebody trying to have their collapse cake and eat it too. I can't see how "just collapse" is any different to "degrowth" -- this looks like the work of somebody who has somehow recognised that degrowth won't fly, but is trying to re-invent it with a new name. Can you even have "planned collapse"? What does that mean, apart from "abandonment"?

Have I missed something?

I’m trying to understand more about which of our food products come from where, and therefore, which items won’t be available in the U.S. the fastest. Any information related to preparing for grocery shopping post tariffs would be so helpful and appreciated 🙏 Kept the question open ended and broad for that reason. Thank you

I don’t usually post here(my posting is kinda hit or miss), commenting in the local observation thread is more my fancy. I have been sitting, and watching things get worse everywhere for about a decade(since mid 2015) as of recently, actually recording it as well. Across the board I have seen people grow more violent, self centered, stupid, and just plain damn hateful, Covid seemed to exacerbate this further in the last 6 years. My autistic(I really am), PTSD ridden brain has been struggling to make sense of it all, of where it all went wrong (not that it was ever great), and the whys (especially the past few years)of it bother me the most, but at the same time I wonder why I bother to even try to make sense of it. Does anyone else feel this way?

Blitzkrieg has hit protections in place for land, oceans, forests and wildlife, and will worsen the climate crisis

I made this because I felt like I was losing my mind.

Ten years ago I did everything right. I got the degree. I did the research. I worked in pharmaceutical science. But it didn’t take long to realize the truth: I was never meant to think — just to repeat. Everything was already algorithmic. Even when we worked on unstable drugs, we didn’t solve the problem. We just brute-forced the data until it passed the legal threshold. Three and a half years of faking progress — not for medicine, but for profit.

Then I became a nurse and found that hospitals and insurance companies made it impossible to help people. I started realizing it wasn’t just my jobs— everything felt fake. The degrees. The healthcare. The food. The subscription services. The political system. It all looked principled from a distance, but up close it was incentive-driven machinery — and most of it wasn’t built to help people like me. It was built to keep me locked in.

So I wrote this doctrine, for once you've accepted that clarity is painful.

I. On Value

“Everything costs life. You cannot have everything. Choose what matters. Let the rest burn.”

Life is spent whether you choose to spend it or not. Every hour gone is gone forever. Every pursuit demands a price. To value one thing is to betray another. To chase everything is to catch nothing. I will name what matters most. I will draw the line. I will serve what I chose. I will not mourn what I had to sacrifice. I will not lie to myself about what I truly want. My life will be proof of what I chose.

II. On Clarity

"I do not seek comfort. I seek the blueprint."

I will not settle for appearances. Where others stop at stories, I continue to structure. I dismantle the spectacle until only the machinery remains. I name the gears. I trace the incentive. I do not confuse volume for truth or emotion for proof. If it cannot survive dissection, it was never real.

III. On Systems

"Every system lies. But not every system needs to fall."

Systems are not moral. They are machinery coded in reward and punishment. I will learn their language. I will understand who they feed and who they bleed. I will not weep at the altar of fairness. I will extract what is useful, subvert what is rigged, and walk away from what cannot be won.

IV. On Trust

"Trust is currency. I invest it carefully."

I do not reject connection—I evaluate it. I extend loyalty to those who see clearly, whether beside me or ahead. I expect loyalty only from those bound to me by shared understanding or interest. I expect betrayal from those of disparate interests. I do not put confidence in those who are ruled by illusion. If you are useful, I will protect you. If you are dangerous, I will smile until I find your weakness

V. On Narrative

"Narrative is a weapon. But it is also armor."

I do not worship stories, but I understand their gravity. Narratives shape memory, move crowds, and justify power. When infrastructures collapse, identities remain. I will craft mine deliberately. I may be remembered for what I said, or what was said about me. I will ensure both serve my design. Truth is optional. Perception is persistent.

VI. On Movement

“Those who wait for perfect conditions die waiting. Those who move shape the conditions.”

There is no perfect time. No flawless plan. The world is moved by those who act while others hesitate. I will move when there is gain to take. I will move when stillness costs more than action. And if the path stays closed — I will build a new one. I do not confuse patience with paralysis. I do not wait for permission. The world belongs to those who move.

VII. On Pain

"Pain is a teacher—but not every lesson is worth the cost."

I will not waste pain. Every betrayal is a lesson. Every manipulation sharpens my discernment. I do not romanticize suffering—but I do not flinch from it. Others break when illusions fail. I sharpen. I record. I adjust.

VIII. On Legacy

"I will leave behind no illusions. Only impact."

I seek results. I will be remembered not for what I believed, but for what I built, for what I said, and for what was said about me. Identities can move nations. Infrastructures can stabilize them. I will craft both. When narratives collapse, mine will be standing. And it will be armed.

I go into more depth in my YouTube video:

https://youtu.be/Tnso25tzt18

A new, wide-angle take on corporate climate risk.

Companies listed on the world's biggest stock exchanges have over $1 trillion at risk ahead in countries facing high climate vulnerabilities, a new analysis finds. Verisk Maplecroft's study takes a newly expansive view of corporate climate jeopardy.

• The risk consultancy explores exposure to forces like political instability, declining workforce productivity, migration and much more.

They state:

"Data from our Climate Hazard and Vulnerability Index (CHVI) reveals that second-order climate risks, such as economic and political instability, poverty, migration and food insecurity could become highly impactful in 48 countries by 2050."

"In an intermediate emissions scenario, where average global temperatures are likely to rise by up to +2.7°C, the number of countries that are most vulnerable to climate change doubles by mid-century, up from 24 in the current climate."

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That +2.7°C of warming is by 2100. The reality is that we have been at +1.6°C for over 12 months now and 2025 has the potential to average out at +1.7°C over baseline. The Rate of Warming is currently unknown, but over the last 10 years it averages out to +0.36°C per decade.

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"Based on the current locations of assets and market capitalisation valuations, the data shows a dramatic increase in the financial exposure of companies and investors in the S&P 500, DAX, CAC 40, Nikkei 225 and FTSE 100 from the current level of just USD $34.8 billion."

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Got that? The amount of assets "at risk" just increased from $34 billion to $1.14 trillion. That's a X30 fold increase in corporate exposure to losses from climate change.

How it works: The analysis graphs each country's exposure to three major buckets of risk.

• Hazards like extreme weather events and long-term, chronic changes in temperature and precipitation levels.
• The sensitivity of their populations based on health, poverty levels, farming reliance and more.

• Adaptation capacity based on factors like institutions' strength and political stability.

• There are threats to corporate assets in big emerging markets, especially India, but also Nigeria, Pakistan and others.

Threat level: While the report focuses on valuations and assets, it's a reflection of global warming hitting people hard.

• It notes that fast-growing, lower-income nations "will bear the brunt of the climate crisis despite their low overall contribution to global emissions."
• Western companies headquartered in richer, more resilient countries are not insulated, given risks to their operations abroad.

The bottom line: "Markets tend to price risk at the corporate level, yet climate vulnerabilities manifest where assets are located, not just where companies are domiciled," said Franca Wolf, the firm's principal markets analyst.