People outside the US, is this on the news? I feel ok in stating that the entirety of US media is compromised

Earth's ecosystems evolved from simple single-celled life to humans over billions of years. This wasn't because every extinction created a stronger top predator. It was because of a huge, tough middle layer of species. This layer survived asteroid impacts and extreme climate shifts. It had enough redundancy to fill gaps and keep the system stable, allowing complexity to build upward over time. Without this middle layer, humans probably never would have appeared.
What's happening now is different. We're systematically removing that middle layer. The species disappearing aren't just the flashy top predators; they're the medium-sized, moderately reproducing, specialized ones that kept energy and nutrients flowing. What's left is polarization: a few species still trying to go higher, and a flood of fast-reproducing, tough, generalist species taking over the bottom.
Once that middle layer is gone, the system loses its buffer and its stepping stones. If the top species collapse due to environmental stress, there's no gradual fallback. The whole thing could reset to a much more primitive state, like hundreds of millions of years ago. It's not just losing species; it's losing the capacity for complex life to re-emerge.

All comments in this thread MUST be greater than 150 characters.

Example - Location: New Zealand

This ONLY applies to top-level comments, not replies to comments. You're welcome to make regionless or general observations, but you still must include 'Location: Region' for your comment to be approved. This thread is also [in-depth], meaning all top-level comments must be at least 150-characters.

Users are asked to refrain from making more than one top-level comment a week. Additional top-level comments are subject to removal.

All previous observations threads and other stickies are viewable here.

While(news). Experimentation in live coding, video improv, post-truth, news saturation, drone footage. All in parallele with neural networks. A neural net crawls over the whole screen until you can't tell what's underneath anymore, framerate is hesitant as news confidence is. IA replacing major news outlets journalists.

Another week of shocking temperature records, lots of rivers & lakes at all-time lows, AI creates new viruses, food price inflation, Houthi escalation, and old Wars grind on.

Last Week in Collapse: August 2-8, 2026

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

This is the 241st weekly newsletter. The July 26-August 1, 2026 edition is available here if you missed it last week. These newsletters are also available (with images) every Sunday in your email inbox by signing up to the Substack version.

——————————

July 2026, according to weather data, was probably the hottest month on record worldwide; some countries, like France, are confirming that it was the hottest national month since records began. The Rhine is at its lowest levels on record. And the speed of global heating has some scientists confident that we will pass the 1.5 °C warming mark (averaged over the past 20 years) by 2030.

El Niño is gaining strength across the Pacific Ocean, fueled by rising subsurface ocean temperatures that will continue breaking records for a few more months. The predictions keep getting worse. Some experts say that even a weaker-than-expected El Nino could add another 50M people to the number of people (currently 225M) facing "acute food insecurity," largely through the Drought resulting from the climate pattern. Over 16M of those 50M will come from Latin America & the Caribbean, with another 24M+ from across Africa. Alongside preexisting inflation and complications from the Hormuz closure, food prices are likely to rise and price out tens of millions of people already scraping by.

Early in the week, South Korea set a new all-time record temperature at 42.5 °C (108.5 °F), canceling a week of sports events and slowing the economy. Japan also felt record temps across much of its south (where three lions died probably from heatstroke), part of eastern Indonesia broke its August temperature record, and Colombia also broke monthly heat records in a few places.

Sites in Morocco felt new record minimum temperatures ranging from 30 to 36 °C (86 to 97 °F). Locations across southern Poland broke all-time heat records with some temperatures exceeding 38 °C, with similar temperatures forecast for Belgium & the Netherlands. Britain may face its worst agricultural harvest on record if their Drought persists. Italy sounded a nationwide heat alert to warn of possible temperatures up to 40 °C. And several sites in the Arctic recorded temperatures exceeding 90 °F (32.2 °C) last week.

Last July saw record July sea surface temperatures for the ocean. Particularly in the eastern Pacific Ocean this is hotter than any summer before. And an unconfirmed report from a buoy in the Mediterranean recorded an all-time record sea surface temperature for the Med, at 33 °C (91.4 °F).

Monsoon rains in India killed another fifteen people at the start of the week, and one city felt over 30cm of rain fall within 24 hours. Landslides in Ethiopia killed 14, and left others missing. A particularly strong eruption of Guatemala's Fuego volcano forces the temproary evacuation of several hundred people. Reykjavik ended its wettest July on record, while many locations across Germany felt their warmest nighttime temps on record. Meanwhile Slovakia and Austria felt their all-time hottest day, at 41 °C (106 °F), breaking records set earlier in June 2026. Low water levels in Poland forced the closure of two coal plants. The Danube sank to new lows in Serbia/Romania and revealed an old Nazi shipwreck.

The much-neglected wildfires in Washington state have now displaced 60,000+ people, and continue to burn in and around Spokane, where 600+ buildings have been damaged or destroyed by the blazes. Lightning in India killed 14 people in a single day on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Canadian officials declared an emergency in B.C. and said that wildfires are going to become a part of everyday life now, and we're going to have to get used to them—and prepare accordingly. Just don't call out climate change when the disasters happen.

An interesting study out of Switzerland in Nature Sustainability examined the "psychological barriers to improving 'carbon competence'," the ability to assess the carbon footprint of a range of 32 activities, whether it's using public transportation, going vegetarian, buying local food, etc. Unsurprisingly, the highest GHG-producing lifestyle action is participation in air travel, though fewer than 20% of people (from the online survey of US-based adults) have committed to this change. Air travel also remains the most misjudged activity, since estimates of its GHG impact are about 25% of its actual impact on GHG emissions. "The mitigation potential of most low- to medium-impact climate actions such as waste recycling and saving paper from printing was on average overestimated. Conversely, the mitigation potential of higher impact climate actions such as limiting (red) meat consumption or reducing plane travels tended to be underestimated."

Soil moisture in France hit all-time record dryness last week, and the year may yet end as the driest in the country's recorded history. Lake Mead hit its lowest point in 90+ years; it began to be filled in 1935. British Columbia's Okanagan Lake is also at a record low, and falling. August 1st was also the warmest day in the Northern Hemisphere (for average daily surface air temperature) in recorded history, at 22.74 °C.

——————————

The record-fast outbreak of Ebola continued breaking records for yet another week. Cases have passed 4,000, and deaths raced past 1,800 in total. Officials caution that the viral hemorrhagic fever may also be mutating, and that much of its spread has not been traced effectively.

In the past three years, over 6M Afghans were sent back to Afghanistan out of Pakistan and Iran. Now the long-ailing country is buckling under record child malnutrition that continues to worsen by the day. One third of all Afghans are experiencing "acute food insecurity" andfood prices have risen about 25% in the past five months.

A white paper on microplastics in Australia estimates that "around 7 billion tonnes {of plastic} have already become waste" since the 1950s. "An estimated 11 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean annually. This figure could nearly triple by 2040….Primary microplastics are intentionally added to products and/or directly released in the environment as small particles and are estimated to account for 15- 31% of microplastics in the oceans….personal attitudes are the strongest driver of whether someone acts on microplastics. These personal attitudes are stronger than peer pressure, education level or prior experience." The paper urges businesses to make changes to their plastic management because "the window for proactive positioning is narrowing faster" and the current state of plastics is unsustainable.

A Nature study on COVID claims that "the prevalence of chronic viral reactivation during acute COVID-19 and long COVID" (such as Epstein-Barr virus and Herpesviridae) is not "primarily a consequence of immunosuppression." The scientists write that "emerging evidence suggests that their reactivation may contribute to autoimmune diseases, malignancies and chronic fatigue syndrome….viral reactivation may represent a broader phenomenon than previously appreciated and should be considered in a wider range of clinical contexts beyond immunosupression."

A study on a population in Catalonia found that "Compared to day workers, night shift workers had 88% higher risk of developing long-COVID….The risk further increased among night workers with obesity. Chronic insomnia in the general population was associated with 42% increased risk of long-COVID." This is because "circadian misalignment and sleep deprivation are associated with impaired immune responses, weaker vaccine immunogenicity and increased susceptibility to infections."

The superfungus Candida auris is on track for a near-record year in the United States. 27 states have recorded at least one case of C. auris as of late July, about 3,400 cases so far. A paywalled study published in Science on Thursday warns that "the fungus can colonize skin asymptomatically….C. auris preferentially persisted in hair follicles…" But 2024 and 2025 are likely, at the current pace, to narrowly edge out 2026 for total cases of the antifungal-resistant fungus.

Scientists tinkering with AI developed 16 viable viruses not found in nature, a first in scientific history. The capability is a double-edged sword, and the blades are razor-sharp: custom viruses may be able to go where no medicine has gone before, and destroy antibiotic resistant bacteria and other nasty phages. But the flipside is that bad actors may be able to build complex contagions for evil and engineer another pandemic. If previous actions around AI are indicative, humanity will race headlong into this possibility without much concern for guardrails or safety.

Where are the ultra-rich seeking to ride out a potential breakdown of society? An article profiled a group of rich libertarian entrepreneurs who have turned their eye to the lesser-considered Argentina, where tens of thousands of rural acres have been bought to convert into some kind of doomsday ranch that the super wealthy expect will help them outlast the devastation from a possibly-nuclear WWIII. The comments at the bottom of the Financial Times article generally poke holes in the scheme.

Economists are trying to warn about a catastrophic AI bubble popping, but there's very little the audience can do about it. Countless billions of dollars continually pumped into AI firms, mostly by the U.S. government, are keeping the stock market strong, but are not yielding much profit for the AI companies themselves. The advancements made in tech are certain, but the investment is uncertain. Systemic risks in the U.S. financial system, and the interconnectedness of the (global) economy means that when the big thing holding up the market goes Pop, it won't fall down alone. But for the time being, the bubble is getting bigger, and the U.S. stock market hit a new record high.

Food prices hit three-year highs, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Wheat and sugar each rose by over 5% in July alone, though global meat & dairy prices decreased a bit. A survey of England's lakes and waterways found that about 15% of the constituent country's rivers are in good ecological condition—and they all failed a test for chemical pollution.

Though Iran's ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz may continue for months more, experts suggest that the value of this waterway is decreasing over time, as Middle Eastern states build pipelines, truck oil long distances, reduce their dependence on Iranian oil, and make other adaptations. Nevertheless, there will always be an impact of the Persian Gulf's closure, varying state by state; Qatar has no pipelines and no plan B to export its LNG, which supports about two thirds of the country's economy. A deal is allegedly close at hand to reopen the Strait, but we've seen how easily a promise can be forgotten in the face of realpolitik. In the meantime, Big Oil is cashing in on high oil prices and pushing their refineries to maximum production.

——————————

The week in Gaza began with IDF strikes that left at least 18 dead across the territory. Hardly the basis for a ceasefire to start on; complications around the disarmament of Hamas, and the withdrawal of IDF forces, are surfacing quickly. Operations later in the week led to the demolition of a school in Gaza and the creeping inwards of the IDF yellow line. But the Board of Peace is going to begin building in Gaza—starting with a military fortress to house some 150 peacekeepers from Morocco. Strikes continue against reportedly Hezbollah sites Lebanon; retaliations against Israeli forces continue, too.

Since the Iran War began, the UN has clocked an increase in capital punishment in Iran, with over 56 executions relating to national security claims, some resulting from protests. The use of torture is also up inside the country. Iran has been named as the perpetrator of various cyber-attacks that targeted water infrastructure across 12 U.S. states, though it appears that no damage was done. American strikes against Iran have been so copious that the military is running down its stock of its precision long-range ATACMS missiles—so say the reports, anyway.

The Houthi rebel forces, backed by Iran, launched attacks against their Yemen-based rivals, leaving an undisclosed number slain—some say 30 dead, 50+ wounded. Another Houthi attack in southern Saudi Arabia was alleged (by the Houthis) to have killed "hundreds of Saudi enemy mercenaries." And the Houthi forces in Yemen claim they are extending their targeting of Saudi vessels to hit those in the northern Red Sea, not just those trying to transit the Bab-El-Mandeb.

Armed men on motorcycles rode into a village in northwest Nigeria and kidnapped about 100 people, before releasing several dozen; 52 remain captive. Protests and unrest in Pakistan's part of Kashmir have crushed its local economy, shut off their internet for weeks, and triggered nationwide skepticism of journalists, who have also been ordered to leave Kashmir.

The U.S. government has removed temporary protected status from people fleeing South Sudan and Haiti, in preparation for the deportation of people to the wartorn states. The CIA has allegedly begun a task force to "influence" Cuba's regime and conduct espionage. And a mass shooting at a school near Bangkok (metro pop: 16M) left 7 dead, plus the attacker, whose motives remain unclear.

An updated count on the storming of Ceuta now estimated about 80,000 people entered the country starting on July 30—of which some 100 perished, by drowning or being trampled underfoot by the horde. The Friday inauguration of a right-wing President in Colombia who has promised to combat gangs and insurgents across the country may have boosted recruitment to his left-wing opponents and re-sparked fighting in their long-simmering asymmetric War. Tensions rose between India and Bangladesh after India invited Bangladesh's disgraced & unpopular ex-PM to speak to journalists in New Delhi (metro pop: 35M).

Tuesday strikes between Russia and Ukraine killed 16 Russians and 11 Ukrainians across the two countries. Ukrainian attacks on Russia's logistics warehouses continue for another week, in an attempt to pressure the Russian supply chain. Wednesday morning strikes against Ukraine killed 14 people in Kyiv, wounding more. According to Ukrainian media, Russia has created a new unit composed of Ukrainian POWs sent to attack their own countrymen—though some reports of the practice were alleged since 2022. Ukraine hit two Russian refineries on Thursday. The Black Sea, in which 35 merchant vessels were hit (and 23 seamen slain) in July, has become the most dangerous shipping route on earth.

Skirmishing between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopia's military looks to presage another Civil War within the country, which saw a similar bloody War from 2020-2022 which resulted in the deaths of 100,000+ people (by some estimates, over 600,000), plus millions of displaced persons. Hundreds of locals fled into Sudan, where the situation is safer. But Sudan is hardly at peace; their Civil War is almost 40 months old. The week in Sudan began with a drone strike, allegedly by Sudan's government army, that left 35 dead in North Darfur. Saudi's interest in the conflict, because of the Red Sea and the Saudi rivalry with the UAE, risks drawing in these powers into an expanding complex conflict, the dynamics of which may soon include Iran, Israel, and all of the Horn of Africa.

——————————

Select comments/threads from the subreddit last week suggest:

-The American Southwest is drying up, according to this weekly observation from across New Mexico. When the rivers become wadis; and the reservoirs are almost empty dry pits; and the old forests turn brown from Drought; and the farmers pump depleting supplies of water from deeper and deeper in the earth, it might be the signal to move out before the state shrivels up.

-Another article on American Southwest says that the region, and much of the Great Plains, are going to experience cascading weather effects from the decrease in California irrigation, if this thread's cause-and-effects come to pass. The idea is that decreasing water feeding California's crops will reduce rainfall across Arizona through Nebraska & even Indiana, and also incidentally reduce cloud cover, reduce Mississippi River levels, and dry/heat up the center of the country.

-You might have missed a few preps, if this thread from r/preppers on unlikely prepping materials listed a few must-haves that never occurred to you. Another similar thread on qualities missing in common prepper discussions emphasizes the role of physical fitness in emergencies.

Got any feedback, questions, comments, upvotes, reports, rat races, crypto speculation, disrecommended products, 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. As always, thank you for your support. What did I miss this week?

We just passed the 2nd quarter of 2026. We are regularly having days with record heat. We are constantly divided, be it by mainstream media for more of the older folks, or social media for the younger generations. We are all aware that there is a huge gap in the information we receive, isolated in bubbles, determined by algorithms. Sure, you generally get entertained by things you actually like, but there is more than enough content that aggravates you. On purpose, don't forget that. And why is that?

Because we are complacent. Every year we are letting these things happen. This has nothing to do with a single individual that is aware of these things, there is not much we can do really. But this is where the government should work for you. Find proper solutions to economic and ecological problem. Have we seen any of this actually happen? No. Every year we hear from new analytics that everything is getting worse. And mind you, at least most of them have sources. Not some bullshit analysis made by someone that is trying to push an agenda, miss representing actual numbers or taking them out of context. While this is to be expected of companies, trying to gouge out higher profits, I can even understand it. But this should not be the case for people in power, people that we gave our trust to build a future not only for them, but the average person as well. The only thing I see is people in power enriching themselves with no regard for any of us.

I've had enough of that. I do not want to wait for some older generations to die off, simply because they think elections are a Teamsport. It's not even only older generations, but what can you expect when they were raised by the same kinds of people. And don't get me wrong. I want every single human to live their lifes to the best of their abilities, be involved in their community, even be rewarded for being part of the society. Instead we can see that homelessness and poverty are only increasing. While some of the wealthiest people not only live their life to the fullest extend, but often while making our normal person's life extremely difficult, some are even responsible for the loss of life. These people are murderers in my eyes. If they would at least show some remorse in any way, I would have the slightest amount of empathy for them. They will continue to do so, if we cannot stop them.

Before I write the next part I want to say this. I am a pacifist. I think the only acceptable form of violence is in sports, where there is consent. There are other forms of violence that are understandable, but should always be the last resort, to defend.

We need something like a french revolution. We can do this not as brutally as they did, but I do not think these people that destroyed or are destroying our collective world will show any remorse. Putting them in jail is not correct as well. Prison is supposed to help you get rehabilitated, to be part of society again (this isn't really the case in most countries, but this is what they should do). I do not want these people to be part of society again.

I do not want to wait for this anymore. We've seen it in Nepal and now recently with India and Iran. Sure only Nepal was kind of successful and there were tragic deaths. But it shows how connected we are, even though large companies make it seem like we are not. I do not want to wait until our future is rapidly getting destroyed even more, by extremely wealthy people, some revere them even. Those that think these mega wealthy people are helping society, are stupid, and that's ok. If you are willfully ignorant that's something different, but the normal working person is not ignorant, they are uninformed or don't trust this information, because they are so deep in the bubble and don't listen to reason anymore. What happened to "facts don't care about your feelings"

I do not know if any of this even makes sense anymore. I just wanna say this at the end.

If your are in a life threatening situation, you don't call out for race, gender, sexuality or any other forms of bigotry.

You call out for help, and that's what I'm doing here. I want your help in finding a solution. I want your help in sharing this, not necessarily this post, but this feeling of not wanting to stand by idly. I want your help in finally making this world ours and not theirs.

I want your help.

Edit: how about a call to action. Help me write a script, make something coherent and something that actually at least makes an effort to present a solution. I am not expecting much and it will probably not amount to much, but I am willing to try, I need a reason to try. I will try to sleep now, like I should for a while now instead of responding to every comment, but this is serious for me.

Anyone feeling the temperature of the pot rising?

The last vestiges of true American wilderness are on the line at this point. Educate yourself and contact your representatives to stop this, or we lose what little untouched places we have left.

It's in french (unfortunately no english subtitles) but there's an auto english dub available. It's not great but at least you get the gist of it.

It's a conference on near future climate and its consequences (food production, conflicts etc..) where he adresses military personnel at the Ecole de Guerre (training institution for senior officers). See video description for more details.
Link to the original video of the conference in description, dating from 2023. This is a summarized reupload.

Thoughts?

Submission Statement:

Analysts at Rabobank have pointed to an increasing correlation between coffee and cocoa prices despite their "vastly different underlying fundamentals", suggesting investors are applying an "El Niño risk premium" across soft commodities.

The ECB has calculated that strong El Niño events typically raise global food commodity prices by 9 per cent.

Fertiliser shortages risk forcing farmers to reduce applications just as crops face drought, heat or excessive rain, leaving plants less able to withstand adverse weather.

Right now, my concern is durum wheat and rice," said Máximo Torero, chief economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, adding that a combination of El Niño and lower fertiliser usage in Australia, a major wheat grower, and India, the world's biggest rice producer, was threatening to hit yields.

El Niño could push at least 49mn more people into acute food insecurity by the end of 2027

The first physical supply shock from El Niño is already visible in Peru, where anchovy fishing was suspended

The risk is that the reservoirs go completely empty during the dry season and then there's no water to support next season's crop," said Carlos Mera, head of agri commodities markets at Rabobank.

New Delhi has already banned sugar exports until the end of September.

This is relevant to collapse because having enough affordable food is pretty important to humanity.

We are being conditioned to accept extrajudicial executions.

We are on a path where this leads to mass murder. Perhaps a horde of migrants flooding across the border. Or maybe a group of protesters labeled domestic terrorists.

People wonder how the Germans allowed or even embraced the rise of nazi Germany. Well, its happening right now.

This is being fueled by resource scarcity and civilizational collapse.

SS:
This sub has had some pretty excellent Casual Friday memes. Have you noticed that they've kinda vanished in the past few weeks?

Is it because now that the world is on fire, we just can't make light of it anymore?

Have we lost our ability to laugh into the void? Is it just too real now?

You ain't seen nothing yet.

So, the plan right now is that California, Arizona and Nevada will be required to slash their water use from the drought-stricken Colorado River by 16 to 20% through 2028. This will devastate agriculture in Arizona.

But here's the thing I've noticed that everyone seems to be missing.

It's not just climate change that's going to lead to a reduction in water availability for Arizona.

It's the fact that humans started generating their own rain.

Irrigation by farmers in the Californian central valley, doubles the amount of moisture pumped into the atmosphere. That water these farmers pump into the atmosphere travels downwards over the continental United States, eventually falling down as rain again. All that irrigation by the farmers in California, increases the runoff of the Colorado river by 28%.

And there's the problem you run into: The irrigation by farmers in California's central valley, uses groundwater from an aquifer that is severely depleted. The government is now starting to intervene and forcing farmers to use less groundwater.

So you can see what's going to happen: Farmers in California will have to stop using groundwater, which means the Colorado river will be fed with less rainwater. This in turn, will force the farmers in Arizona to start using less water.

If you think the dust storms that Phoenix, Arizona is getting are bad right now, wait until the farmers in Arizona start letting their fields go fallow. It takes decades, before nature manages to restabilize those arid soils on its own.

It's the same with the Ogallala aquifer by the way. This aquifer directly supports 30% of US food production, but it's fossil water, because of the geology it's basically not possible for this aquifer to recharge in any timeline relevant to human civilization.

So, those farmers will have to stop using it eventually. Well, those farmers, by irrigating their crops with fossil water from the aquifer, are responsible for an estimated 15-30% increase in rain in July for farmers in a broad region downwind of the Ogallala Aquifer, stretching from eastern Kansas through Indiana.

We already began screwing up the climate in the 20th century, but we managed to mask a lot of the consequences, through use of fossil groundwater: We more or less accidentally began generating our own rain.

All that rain that farmers on top of the Ogallala aquifer are generating also feeds the Mississippi river basin. If you think the situation was bad in 2022, when the farmers could not get their product out through the river because the river ran so low, wait until the farmers in the Western United States stop feeding the Mississippi with fossil groundwater from the Ogallala aquifer.

You think this is bad? Well, this is still just half the story. The evaporated water from the irrigated farms results in an increase in cloud formation, that coincides of course with the peak in water use, which is the peak of summer. Those clouds block sunlight and thereby reduce temperatures on the ground.

Those reduced temperatures on the ground reduce evaporation, so your crops end up needing less water.

Agriculture continues to function mostly normally right now, at 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial, because we're masking what we've done to the climate. We're masking it, through use of fossil water that we will have to stop using soon.

August 1, 2026 was the warmest day of any given day in the Northern Hemisphere ever recorded.

Collapse-related because we push the boundaries to unknown territories the current system never experienced before.

https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/t2\_daily/?dm\_id=world

The past several years, particularly the last two, everything has sort of felt like a ghost town. The world feels dead. Nobody does anything, nobody goes anywhere, just nothing. You know how you have that one friend in high school that falls off the face of the Earth after graduation and no one ever sees him again? Like 80% of people have become that friend. All my friends are basically employed hikikomoris, only ever leaving the house for work and the grocery store. You never see people out walking on the street. Businesses and stores are always weirdly empty. It occurred to me the other day that when I used to go to bars, every place would have a line to get in. I can't remember the last time I had to wait in line to get in anywhere. I did the thing everyone tells you to do too. I joined clubs. I went to church. Invariably, the only people there were a bunch of old retirees and one or two clearly autistic guys. At a certain point the world became one giant liminal space.

Okay, so these are just the times we live in right? It's the digital age and everything is online now. But the internet feels abandoned too. The normie social media sites seem to be nothing but professionally made "content". I can scroll for hours without seeing a post from anyone I actually follow. Reddit and 4chan are dead. The sites are slower than they've ever been with WAY less OC than was posted even ten years ago. I saw a subreddit with 2 million subscribers the other day with ZERO users "currently browsing". The internet is dead. No one uses this thing anymore. Everywhere, both online and off, just feels like a ghost town.

Where is everybody?

This sub only tracks a fraction of what's really going on the world. I haven't seen China mentioned much, but it's about the same size as the US with a billion more people in it. Just some headlines from the summer:

China's Power Demand Hits Records as Heatwave Grips Key Regions

China warns of crop risks as heatwave sweeps agricultural regions

China Heat Wave Threatens Corn, Rice and Cotton: Why It Matters for Global Agriculture

Heat triggers health alerts across China

Record-breaking heatwave to hit several areas of China

China Hit by "Deadly Weather Events"

Torrential rain and floods batter China, killing at least 12 and forcing mass evacuations

Storm Causes Mass Evacuations, Floods and Flight Disruptions in China

Torrential rains bring devastating floods to a Chinese city - and a snake invasion

I recommend signing up for Carbon Brief's China email newsletter. All their emails are good round-up summaries of global climate-related news and events: https://www.carbonbrief.org/

Submission statement: Shits not tight y'all. Back in the day shit was dope, but as time passes shit has become much less dope. Some of you science guys keep telling me that we're about to get wrecked. You use a lot of funny numbers and charts and it infuriates me and makes my head hurt. Thankfully, the science communication department has created this PSA so that regular people can understand the science in a way that doesn't suck so much. Enjoy!

Gifted Read:

https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/08/shortage-weapons-shaping-war-iran/688201/?gift=9raHaW-OKg2bN8oaIFlCoqFny3RfN3D6aJA2m_zuDq0&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Excerpts:

The U.S. raced to develop cheaper ways to tackle the Iranian-supplied drones that Russia deployed, and has made some progress. But the stores of interceptors such as Patriots and THAADs were rapidly expended. "There are no good alternatives for stopping ballistic missiles," .... "Without these defensive missiles, attacking missiles will land unopposed. That is what is happening in Ukraine."

Before Russia's invasion, the U.S. produced roughly 300 Patriot missiles a year, half of which went to allies. Production has since doubled, but badly trails wartime demand.

Had the Iran war been over in a matter of several weeks, as the administration initially predicted, the U.S. munitions problem would not be so dire. "The real problem is that there is no long-term strategy—and we can't plan around that."

I've been reading about the 1783-84 Laki eruption in Iceland, and what fascinates—and honestly unsettles—me is how far its effects traveled. The eruption produced poisonous haze and atmospheric pollution across much of the Northern Hemisphere, affected crops and health well beyond Iceland, and was followed by major climatic disruption.
We tend to picture volcanic danger as lava, ash, and evacuations near the volcano. But Laki suggests that the greater danger from certain eruptions may be worldwide: air pollution, colder weather, crop failures, disrupted travel, and economic consequences thousands of miles away.
Do you think a Laki-scale eruption today would be treated primarily as a natural disaster, a climate emergency, a public-health crisis, or all three? And are volcanoes one of the major global risks that modern society seriously underestimates?