Not the way to think about (much less deal with) the climate disaster:

Rishi Sunak has signalled the government could delay or even abandon green policies that impose a direct cost on consumers, as he comes under pressure from the Conservative right to create a dividing line with Labour at the next election.

Listen up. A “dividing line” between one political party and another is short term stuff. Climate disaster is long term – it’s your children and their children and their children, ffs. Making the climate disaster worse for the sake of dividing lines between political parties is like getting a manicure just before the Titanic breaks in half.

The prime minister said the drive to reach the

… Read the rest

There are some precautions we can take though. I would say a very easy one is: don’t go hiking in the desert when it’s hot. Just skip that.

Two women who had been hiking at a Nevada state park were found dead on Saturday, park rangers said, as record-breaking heat waves rippled through the region and sent temperatures rising through parts of the western and southwestern United States.

The coroner’s office in Clark County, Nev., identified the women as Jessica Rhodes, 34, and Diana Matienzo Rivera, 29. State park rangers said that they had been hiking the Prospect Trail together in the Valley of Fire State Park, a desert area known for its sandstone and limestone outcroppings and rock

… Read the rest

To the surprise of no one –

The deadly, protracted heat waves that have scorched parts of North America and Europe this month would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, according to a new study published Tuesday.

The analysis by the World Weather Attribution network, a coalition of scientists that conducts rapid analyses to determine how the warming atmosphere influences extreme weather events, examined weather data and computer model simulations to compare the climate as it is today, having experienced warming of about 1.2 Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s, with the climate of the past.

…

“They are not rare in today’s climate,” Friederike Otto, co-leader of the group and a climate scientist at Imperial College London,

… Read the rest

Gee, what could go wrong?

The BBC has apologised after one of its reporters asked an “inappropriate” question about homosexuality which critics claim endangered the safety of the first Arab team in the Women’s World Cup.

…

A correspondent, said to be from BBC World Service, asked: “In Morocco it is illegal to have a gay relationship. Do you have any gay players in your squad and what’s life like for them in Morocco?”

Brilliant. “X is illegal in your country. Are any of your players X? Please name them and tell us where they live.”

An official intervened saying: “Sorry this is a very political question so we will just stick to questions relating to football.”

The correspondent responded:

… Read the rest

But…how…

But how can there be a space that aligns best with someone’s gender and needs if all the spaces are open to all genders? If all the spaces are the same in the sense of being open to both sexes, how can it be possible to differentiate them in order to choose the one that best aligns with one’s gender and needs?

If everyone is entitled to dignity and privacy, why is everyone not allowed access to washrooms and change rooms that are for one sex to the exclusion of the other? How can people have dignity and privacy when they have to take their clothes off in front of strangers of the opposite sex? If everyone is entitled … Read the rest

As the northern hemisphere burns:

Guardian Australia asked seven leading climate scientists to describe how they felt as much of the northern hemisphere is engulfed by blistering heatwaves, and a number of global land and ocean climate records are broken.

Dr Joelle Gergis:

What is playing out all over the world right now is entirely consistent with what scientists expect. No one wants to be right about this. But if I’m honest, I am stunned by the ferocity of the impacts we are currently experiencing.

Bill Hare:

Driving all this is the fossil fuel industry. Enabling it are political leaders unwilling to bring this industry under control and who promote policies such as offsetting and massive gas expansion

… Read the rest

Whatever you want, all the time.

… Read the rest

This crap makes me so tired.

The GRR was one of the most scrutinised bills in our history. It had cross-party support.

All who support equality must stand up for what is right. Instead, Labour is threatening to U-turn on basic equality legislation already used around the world.https://t.co/fkabKYxqhb

— Maggie Chapman MSP (@MaggieChapman) July 24, 2023

What does any of this have to do with “equality”?? Nothing. Men pretending to be women has nothing to do with equality; men trying to force women to agree that the men are women has nothing to do with equality; men trying to take everything that belongs to women has nothing to do with equality; men assaulting women with impunity has nothing … Read the rest

The reception of this news is not altogether delighted.

Just a warning? Is that it?! While women are arrested and put through the ringer over speaking simple facts online? https://t.co/62YiSNPfSE

— Prof. DR TheFamousArtistBirdyRose (@TheFamousArtBR) July 24, 2023

https://twitter.com/wundt_vil/status/1683505953226850305

Sam Cowie’s friend isn’t best pleased either.

So the police have confirmed this to a newspaper? Yet I have not had the decency to contact me, not even to ask how I am today. To say there are no Injuries yet I'm sitting here with a swollen, painful arm, my neck is in agony. Thankfully, my eye isn't too bad. https://t.co/nyoWl6U5J2

— JFM ♀️ Agent 5000 (@DarcyWAHF) July 24, 2023

There’s a torrent of furious replies and quote tweets.

https://twitter.com/cyberfrontier/status/1683497516484947969… Read the rest

This is beyond belief. The police “issue a warning” to the guy who slammed a woman in the face and arm with a sign. The National frames the whole thing as the woman’s fault. The police announce there were no injuries when there were.

POLICE have issued a statement after an assault of a gender critical protester at a Women Won’t Wheesht event in Scotland. The incident took place on Sunday July 23 as campaigners from Women Won’t Wheesht (WWW) took to Speaker’s Corner in Aberdeen’s Duthie Park.

Officers said they had been in attendance at the organised protest and were forced to step in after reports of an assault. They said that a woman, aged 54, was

… Read the rest

“What does she expect?”

https://twitter.com/ThePosieParker/status/1683389069378699266… Read the rest

https://twitter.com/GraceBrodie/status/1683386726339821569… Read the rest

More reactions to Esme Houston’s joy at attacks on women.

Yet another Green Party male celebrating violent threats against women and girls@PSOSAberdeen are you investigating this violent threat to women? https://t.co/iOYrcdQEo6 pic.twitter.com/9loBD5lPKU

— Le_Sorelle_Arduino KPSS (@Sorelle_Arduino) July 23, 2023

Strange this…the only hate on display today was the TRA who assaulted my friend, punching her in the arm and face. Her crime was to gather together with other women to talk about issues that affect them. https://t.co/U4Fu1Fhkfo

— Alison Weir- Deliberately defiant (@WeirAlison) July 23, 2023

https://twitter.com/Gillian_Philip/status/1683182007373766657

Adding a couple more

A member of the Scottish Greens celebrates one of his gang punching a woman in the face, as suggested by someone at Trans Pride London. https://t.co/e4YIOBgc9K

— Progressive

… Read the rest

This guy part two:

https://twitter.com/AnneICoombes/status/1683090529637023745

Our “silly games” he calls it. He’s the one who’s going around demanding to be allowed to get naked in the women’s changing room and he accuses us of “silly games.”

I read a long long string of comments and didn’t see one that agreed with him, let alone cheering him on or crying with him or shouting at women for him.

Could the ship be slowly slowly slowly turning around?… Read the rest

This happened today:

Esme organised the "counter protest" against women who gathered to talk about sex-based rights in Aberdeen today. One of those women @DarcyWAHF was attacked, badly bruised arm & a black eye. Is this what Esme means by coming out in "force"? Is this how @scottishgreens campaign? https://t.co/4da3HRHgFK

— Susan Dalgety (@DalgetySusan) July 23, 2023

And smashed me in the face, my glasses were knocked clean off my face with such force. I was then punched in the arm. I had arrived with the others just 5 mins beforehand, and we completely ignored them. Yet this person thinks that theft and violence are acceptable. Shameful.

— JFM ♀️ Agent 5000 (@DarcyWAHF) July 23, 2023

Was anyone around to … Read the rest

Entitled man in a skirt rages about the servants.

https://twitter.com/AnneICoombes/status/1683090524641566721 https://twitter.com/AnneICoombes/status/1683090529637023745

There is no “rule of self identity.” There is no rule that says everybody has to take everybody else’s word for their magic “identity.” We don’t have to do that. Angry men don’t get to force us to do that.

And we feminist women who say a skirt doesn’t turn a man into a woman aren’t playing silly games, we’re risking jobs and friendships and mental tranquility on defending our rights against the encroachments of entitled men in skirts.

https://twitter.com/AnneICoombes/status/1683114970165260290

He wants to send a hotel worker for re-education because she knows a man when she sees one. Also, being sent on a DIE (better known as EID for … Read the rest

Rhodes is burning.

A large wildfire tearing through the Greek island of Rhodes forced thousands of tourists to flee their hotels in what Greek officials said was the largest evacuation effort in the country’s history.

Those caught up in the blaze described chaotic and frightening scenes, with some having to leave on foot or find their own transport after being told to leave.

The wildfire in the central and south part of Rhodes – a hugely popular island for holidaymakers – has been burning since Tuesday. It is the largest of a number of blazes in Greece, which is sweltering due to a heat wave that experts say is likely to become the country’s longest on record.

The hotter … Read the rest

It’s shocking to see MPs (or Senators and Representatives) ranting about the wickedness of colleagues who know and say that people can’t change sex. It’s like theocracy without the theo part.

The Home Sec suggesting MPs read this book is a disgrace, it shows a lack of respect for equality laws in this country & is yet more evidence of this Govt desire to attack the trans community in a divisive culture war. pic.twitter.com/jC1rGlk94Z

— Kate Osborne MP (@KateOsborneMP) July 21, 2023

Of course parents who “support their kids through transition” are irrevocably harming them. The idea that people can change sex is a mistake, and physically acting on it is of course harmful.

Osborne is the one using … Read the rest

We’ve been hearing lately that house insurance is difficult to get, and very expensive if you can get it, in Florida. Fortune looks at it from the profit or no profit point of view:

Given that Farmers is not the first home insurer to stop offering coverage in Florida over the past year or so, things are looking challenging for its housing market, and particularly, its homeowners that are already paying the highest insurance premiums in the nation, with an average premium of $6,000 per year versus the U.S. average of $1,700 per year, according to Mark Friedlander, Florida-based director of corporate communications for the Insurance Information Institute. That’s 42% higher than the year prior, Frielander added. 

And why … Read the rest

We’re getting closer and closer to the buzzsaw.

A series of climate records on temperature, ocean heat, and Antarctic sea ice have alarmed some scientists who say their speed and timing is unprecedented. Dangerous heatwaves in Europe could break further records, the UN says.

It is hard to immediately link these events to climate change because weather – and oceans – are so complex. Studies are under way, but scientists already fear some worst-case scenarios are unfolding. “I’m not aware of a similar period when all parts of the climate system were in record-breaking or abnormal territory,” Thomas Smith, an environmental geographer at London School of Economics, says.

Scary enough yet?

The average global ocean temperature has smashed records

… Read the rest