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Title taken from the article version of this newsletter; linking the newsletter version because that has no paywall

"Human activities, mostly the burning of fossil fuels, are changing the climate faster than ever. As the world gets hotter, scientists and policymakers have agreed to try everything they can to limit warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels. But even 2C of warming will greatly impact life on Earth. Earth.Org looks at what will happen when we hit this warming milestone, what changes we can expect in extreme weather events, climate patterns, sea levels and temperatures, and what it means for ecosystems and human activities..."

Paywall removed: https://archive.is/V9pQ7

Archived copies of the article:

• archive.today
• ghostarchive.org
• web.archive.orghttps://web.archive.org/web/20240905161841/https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/05/1103654/greenhouse-gases-guide/

Archived copies of the article:

• archive.today
• ghostarchive.org
• web.archive.org

(Not exactly climate related but might explain some of how we got into our current climate mess.)

Also from goodreads... "When we avoid taking a decision, what happens to it? In The Unaccountability Machine, Dan Davies examines why markets, institutions and even governments systematically generate outcomes that everyone involved claims not to want. He casts new light on the writing of Stafford Beer, a legendary economist who argued in the 1950s that we should regard organisations as artificial intelligences, capable of taking decisions that are distinct from the intentions of their members."

Also a book excerpt from netinterest... "What do bad decision-making organizations have in common? Quite a few things, but one of the clearest signs is something you might call an “accountability sink”. This is something that might be familiar to anyone who has been bumped from an overbooked flight. There is no point getting angry at the gate attendant; they are just implementing a corporate policy which they have no power to change. But nor can you complain to the person who made the decision – that is also forbidden by the policy. The airline has created an arrangement whereby the gate attendant speaks to you with the voice of an amorphous algorithm, but you have to speak back as if to a human being like yourself. The communication between the decision-maker and the decided-upon has been broken – they have created a handy sink into which negative feedback can be poured without any danger of it affecting anything."

Archived copies of the article:

• ghostarchive.org
• archive.today
• web.archive.org

This post uses a gift link which may be limited in how many times it can be viewed. When it runs out, there is an archived copy

https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/10a2f1c7-2223-49f8-9705-7496f15b9961.avif

Archived copies of the article:

• archive.today
• ghostarchive.org

"Summers in Phoenix are notoriously hot. But after two punishing summers of record-breaking heat, the latest milestone, set Tuesday, may be the most ominous yet.

At 11 a.m. local time, temperatures in Phoenix hit 100 degrees for the 100th day in a row. The longest previous 100-degree streak was 76 days in 1993. In other words, this year has seen an uninterrupted stretch of 100-degrees days at least 3½ weeks longer than in any other year since records began in 1896..."