A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
The Trump administration said it would stop funding the Arctic Report Card, the longstanding effort to collect research on how the fastest-warming place on Earth is changing. It's the latest in a series of moves by the administration to curtail scientific research into the impacts of climate change. William Brangham discussed more with glaciologist Twila Moon, the Arctic Report Card's editor.
Markets to offset carbon emissions are now worth about $2 billion annually, and supporters say they're a key tool to address climate change. But carbon credits have also been criticized for being opaque and not reducing emissions nearly enough. Stephanie Sy reports on an effort to boost the integrity of carbon markets and open them up to small landowners. It’s part of our series, Tipping Point.
Carbon offset markets that actually are effective and include a major carbon reservoir — good news!
More than half of the continental U.S. is facing drought conditions. But other parts of the country are facing the opposite problem. Extreme weather conditions can have major impacts on farmers and their crops at a time when they're already facing high production costs. Paul Solman recently traveled to southern Georgia to hear from some of those farmers. It's for our series, Tipping Point.
And the "Godzilla" El Niño is likely to make the situation even worse, if it isn't already.
That's a wrap for today's brief educational entry. Stay tuned for more Emmy Awards coverage tomorrow.
The El Niño event that is developing over the Pacific Ocean is likely to be the strongest in living memory, the Met Office has warned.
The powerful natural climate phenomenon pushes up global temperatures and can increase the risks of extreme weather.
Added to the effects of human-induced climate change, the Met Office is warning that it is "very likely" to mean 2027 is the hottest year on record globally.
There is growing evidence that weather patterns around the world.
Hearing about all the effects El Niño is having on food supply and food prices reminds me of two of Commoner's Laws, "There is no free lunch" and "Everything is connected to everything else." I'll try to remember this when I teach Environmental Science one last time beginning next month.
Speaking of stories I tell my students, looking at the graph showing the effects of El Niño and La Niña on global temperature also reminds me of a question I ask in the worksheet for Chasing Ice, "How is increasing greenhouse gases like using performance-enhancing steroids?" They make extreme events more frequent and stronger. While climatechange doesn't make El Niño more frequent, it is making the naturaldisasters it causes more frequent. Also, climate change is making El Niño at least appear stronger and El Niño is definitely increasing temperatures.
The UK's Met Office says this year's El Nino could unleash extreme weather, the likes of which the world has not seen in a century. The results could be record-breaking global temperatures in 2027 and a raft of natural disasters. DW's Sarah Kelly talks about the weather phenomenon with Liz Bentley, Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society in the UK and President of the European Meteorological Society.
The graph shows that the Pacific sea surface temperatures are already 2oC above normal and could reach between 3 and 4oC higher than average by the end of the year. Will that be stronger than 1877? Maybe.
With El Niño officially here, and predicted to get stronger, let's see how it's going to affect our snow forecast for this winter! Weathered host Maiya May breaks it down.
The pattern predicts less snow here in Michigan and more snow in the mountains of California and the arid Southwest. That's good news for both places, so not everything about El Niño is bad.
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for another brief evergreen educational entry tomorrow.
PBS NewsHour has another segment on how scientists are fighting the effects of climatechange. Stay tuned to see if I feature it or return to Emmy Awards coverage tomorrow.
At a time when the impact of climate change is undeniable, some researchers suggest we need to start work on far more ambitious approaches for tackling these problems. These proposals are often referred to as geoengineering. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien looks at one such concept to deal with the melting of glaciers and sea ice. It's for our series, Tipping Point.
As for building an underwater barrier to keep out the warm water to slow the melting of Thwaites Glacier to melt it from below, that also strikes me as overly ambitious and impractical, although I think it would have less potential for unintended side effects than other geoengineeringprojects. I've been worried about those since Greenfinger, which I wrote on January 2, 2013. Coincidentally, that's World Science Fiction Day. Sometimes, I stumble over a holiday long before I know about it!
This year is becoming one of the worst for U.S. wildfires in at least a decade. There have been more fires and more acreage burned at this point in the year compared to any in the last ten. With fire seasons growing longer, early detection is critical. Special correspondent Ben Tracy of Climate Central reports on how AI is being used to spot fires faster. It's part of our series, Tipping Point.
Oh, good, a story about how technology in general and AI in particular are helping fight fires and other weather-related disasters! Not everything about AI is bad!
As the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, rising seas and coastal erosion are putting some of America’s most historic places at risk. For our ongoing series, Tipping Point, special correspondent Ben Tracy with Climate Central reports from Jamestown, Virginia, where archaeologists are racing to uncover America’s past before it’s washed away.
I've mentionedseveraltimes that "I worked as a Park Naturalist (the type of Ranger most visitors see) at Channel Islands National Park during the summer of 1986," now 40 years ago, so this story hits close to home. Here's to preserving or at least salvaging as much of our country's natural and historic heritage as we can before it sinks beneath the waves.
PBS NewsHour has more, but I'm stopping here to eat lunch and grade papers. It's final exam time, so stay tuned for more relatively brief entries until next Wednesday.
Mosquitoes impact public health on a global scale and are considered the deadliest creatures on earth due to their spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus, dengue, Zika, and malaria.
It doesn't have sharp teeth or claws, but the mosquito kills more people than any other animal on Earth. As the climate warms, mosquito season is lasting longer, giving them more time to spread dangerous diseases. Ben Tracy with Climate Central reports on why the insects are thriving, and the surprising way scientists are fighting back.
I'm recycling what I wrote last year for my reaction.
"Using one parasite that doesn't affect humans to reduce the ability of an insect to spread a parasite harmful to humans — clever! It's also not forever in the same way genetic modification is. Fine by me"...I think infecting them with Wolbachia is an example of a third law, "Nature knows best."
The technology has advanced so that it runs by mail order. Progress (and convenient, too).
That's a wrap for today's biodiversityholiday. PBS NewsHour has another segment on how scientists are fighting the effects of climatechange. Stay tuned to see if I feature it or return to Emmy Awards coverage tomorrow.
The 2026 El Niño could be the strongest we’ve ever seen. And to understand its potential impacts, we’ll take a trip back in time to 1877. That El Niño triggered one of the most devastating natural disasters in human history. What could this one do?
Yikes! This is the first I've learned about the famines of 1877 and 1878, so it shocks me that they were so deadly. That the British Empire made things worse was the least surprising part of the story; Infidel753 and I had the following exchange in the comments to SciShow warns 'The Potato Famine Could Happen Again'.
Infidel753: Obviously any threat to the world's third-largest food crop is a serious concern, but this video hugely understates how much the Irish potato famine was exacerbated by politics. "Unhelpful policies adopted by their neighbors in the UK" doesn't begin to cover it. At that time Ireland was completely under British rule (part of the British Empire), a colonial possession under the heel of a government the Irish had no say in. The conservative British government at the time refused to provide any help at all to the starving Irish, partly motivated by racism (Celtic people were thought of as a different race at the time) and partly by a pull-yourselves-up-by-your-bootstraps Ayn-Rand-like mentality which was common in the ruling class at the time (this was later applied during a famine in British-ruled India, with equally disastrous results).
If the colonial government had merely provided the normal level of food aid typical of what governments do in such situations, most of the deaths would have been prevented. If such potato crop failures were to occur today, presumably modern governments would do their job and provide help to the affected people.
Me: Thanks for adding the needed context to the video. Yes, the British/English made things much worse by continuing to use Ireland as a resource colony throughout the famine, including making the Irish pay their rent in wheat and Ireland being a net exporter of food. They also exported those policies to the rest of the British Empire, as you pointed out. What they did in India, they did it in Ireland first.
[P]rocesses that happened in the past are likely to repeat in the future, so understanding the past is essential for preparation. This is a key takeaway from uniformitarianism, the concept that everything we see in nature is the result of everyday processes occurring over sufficient time, which is boiled down to "the present is the key to the past." It also means that the past is the key to the future.
File all the above under "it's a always a good day when I learn something new."
On June 11, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued an El Niño advisory after temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean remained higher than average for several months. Declaring an El Niño isn’t out of the ordinary, as they happen in cycles every two to seven years. But this one could be extraordinary.
Some are calling it a “Super” or “Godzilla” El Niño, and the NOAA predicts an 81 percent chance that it could develop to a “very strong” level, rivaling the historic and devastating El Niños of 1982-1983 and 1997-1998. Experts are predicting it will likely reach its peak this winter and into 2027, bringing heat, rainfall, and other potential extreme weather events.
But even with that foresight and climate models that can confidently predict what might be in store, we still face a test of what could potentially be the strongest El Niño ever recorded and the wild weather that comes with it. We spoke with atmospheric scientists and meteorologists to find out how a Super El Niño forms, why it changes global climate, and what we should expect in the coming months.
Sean talks with journalist David Wallace-Wells about a looming climate event that could make 2027 one of the hottest years ever recorded. They discuss the return of El Niño, why some scientists are calling it a “Godzilla El Niño,” and what it could reveal about the future of global warming. They also explore climate adaptation, political complacency, extreme weather, technological progress, and whether humanity is prepared for the world it’s creating.
It's getting hot in here… can we survive it?
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I pushed my body to the edge in a climate & sports research lab to discover what extreme heat really does to us. Why humidity, not just temperature, can make heat deadly, and how climate change and city design are making dangerous heat more common.
I guessed...that the dark secret was the heat...[My] guess was dead on. That's no surprise, as I blogged about Phoenix being the hottest city in the U.S. in 2021 and mentioned its record heat in 2023twice. What is surprising is that heat waves don't count as federal natural disasters covered by FEMA. The commenters found the reason dismaying: "You don't get disaster declarations for mortality. You only do it for economics." Ecurewitz responded "That’s the most American statement ever." RandomAngle9 commented "The fact that heat doesn't 'qualify' as a disaster because it doesn't destroy buildings, only people, says everything about how we value human life in policy."
This part is something I can show to my environmental science students. The other part is the physiology of disposing of excess heat. That would be useful to Human Structure and Function students. Unfortunately, I don't plan on teaching that class ever again. So much for blogging as professional development, just personal development. Just the same, I hope my readers find it as interesting as I did.
That's a wrap for today's brief educational entry I can share in August. Stay tuned for another post I can share next month tomorrow.
When you look at Federally declared disasters across the U.S., there’s a surprising blank spot in the Southwest region. What’s up with that? Is the Southwest really a safe haven from natural disasters? Or is there a more sinister explanation for this giant hole in the map? On this episode of Weathered, we talk to the folks who made this map, and some of the world’s leading experts on climate risk to find out what’s really going on.
My wife and I watched this video together on the big-screen TV in our bedroom. I guessed the lack of natural disasters in the American Southwest was because there aren't a lot of people there and that the dark secret was the heat. The first guess wasn't true; the Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler, AZ MSA has an estimated population of 5,228,938 while the Las Vegas–Henderson–North Las Vegas, NV MSA has an estimated population of 2,407,226.
The second guess was dead on. That's no surprise, as I blogged about Phoenix being the hottest city in the U.S. in 2021 and mentioned its record heat in 2023twice. What is surprising is that heat waves don't count as federal natural disasters covered by FEMA. The commenters found the reason dismaying: "You don't get disaster declarations for mortality. You only do it for economics." Ecurewitz responded "That’s the most American statement ever." RandomAngle9 commented "The fact that heat doesn't 'qualify' as a disaster because it doesn't destroy buildings, only people, says everything about how we value human life in policy." Speaking of policy, Florida banning municipalities from protecting workers from heat shows that DeSantis wasn't only bad on COVID-19. He and the rest of the Republicans on Florida are bad on climate and weather, too.
While most of the planet warms, a patch of ocean south of Greenland—often called the “cold blob” or “North Atlantic warming hole”—is not warming. In fact, depending on which years you look at, it has actually cooled since industrialization. In this video we investigate this odd phenomenon which has implications for the future of our climate and the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The AMOC is a system of currents that transports heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic, regulating weather patterns across Northwestern Europe and beyond. However, recent evidence suggests this vital system may be weakening. Could human-induced climate change, specifically the warming of the ocean and the influx of freshwater from melting ice, be pushing this circulation toward a tipping point? We take a journey through centuries of oceanographic discovery to understand the overturning circulation, the urgency of research on the AMOC, and what the potential collapse of this system could mean for the stable world we built our civilizations on.
Yes, this exercise in explaining how we know what we know is about the AMOC, which I covered most recently in USA Today warns 'The Atlantic current is weakening and possibly headed for collapse'. Howtown's video now makes two entries where an outlet other than PBS Terra covered the AMOC. The potential catastrophe is once again penetrating beyond the outlet that specializes in Climatechange and other naturaldisasters. I suppose that's good news. It also includes Camp Century, the subject of The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice. If I had heard of Camp Century before that documentary, it hadn't stuck, at least under that name. Now I've blogged about it twice in a week!
I haven't changed my plan for the second half of today's post, a retrospective of top shares about holidays on Bluesky and Twitter/X during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News. Follow over the jump.
Watching this trailer reminds me that I showed Chasing Ice to my students last week and this is week is Earth Week, making this a good movie to recommend to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development. It also makes me think that it's the strongest competitor to Sally. Last year, I thought that the "Hunt for the Oldest DNA" episode of NOVA on PBS had the strongest science of all the nominees, but didn't have the best chance of winning. Surprise, it won! That could happen here.
I’m so happy to report that The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice was awarded the a National Emmy for Outstanding Science and Technology documentary!! Our science and film team is beyond ecstatic!! It was a tremendous honor to be amongst so many great documentary filmmakers last night. This award elevates not just the film, but also the voices of the scientists and the documentary’s funder, the National Science Foundation.
As a scientist and filmmaker, my work aims to unify scientific research and share it with the public. This is especially important when the science we urgently need to hear is being attacked. So thank you to the @emmysnatas for this timely and beautiful award!!
We investigated one of the world’s largest AI data centers, using thermal drone footage to reveal the hidden pollution powering the AI boom. As companies race to build the future of artificial intelligence, residents and experts warn that fossil fuels, secrecy, and weak regulation may be putting communities at risk.
This award is as much about technology as it is about economics. May it mean that AI be a net benefit for the economy. Right now, it looks like it's doing more destruction than creation.
If the projections are correct, it will be doing both, with 20% of people losing their current jobs while quintupling GDP. Yikes! That's an outcome the residents of Richistan would approve of. As for the rest of us, I'll repeat what I wrote a dozen years ago in Robots are coming for our jobs, "the loss of jobs to robots will be the major effect of the Singularity, not everyone becoming cyborgs or the machines enslaving or killing off humanity." It's not like we weren't warned.
That would be an end result. Joe Hanson is showing that getting there is already a risk in terms of increased consumption of land, water, materials to make the data centers and the power plants to run them, and natural gas, as well as increased production of waste in the form of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. It reminds me of an equation I teach my environmental science students to describe environmental impact: "I=P*A*T, where I is impact, P is population, A is affluence, and T is technology." A.I., or at least the data centers to support it, are becoming an example of a technology that supports affluence but increases the impact of the population on the environment. I prefer technology that decreases the impact of an affluent population by being more efficient. Data centers aren't that, not until they use sustainable energy.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, is fueling its data centers with unpermitted gas turbines, according to a Floodlight visual investigation. Thermal drone footage captured in late January 2026 shows xAI running the unpermitted turbines at its custom-built power plant in Southaven, Miss., nearly two weeks after the Environmental Protection Agency reiterated that doing so requires a state permit in advance. The ad hoc gas plant's sole task is to power the data center behind Grok and an example of AI's growing reliance on fossil fuels. Investigative Producer Evan Simon breaks down the investigation and what the findings could mean for the AI buildout occurring across the country.
**UPDATE** Mississippi regulators approved xAI's permit application to run 41 gas powered turbines at its Southaven gas plant on 3/10/26. The decision comes despite heavy pushback from local community members and will result in the creation of one of Mississippi's largest fossil fuel power plants.
This got me to subscribe to the Floodlight News YouTube channel, "The only U.S. newsroom with the specific mission to investigate climate polluters." Expect to see more from them.
Another lesson I teach my students is about the principles for environmental policy. Two of them are human rights, in this case the right to clean air and an environment not permeated by harmful noise, and public participation. The United States is supposed to be a democracy within a republic, where the people decide and the government represents the people. The Floodlight News video shows that the way data centers are being installed and operated respects neither. That's also the point of yesterday's MS NOW video, Erin Brockovich on AI data centers: 'People aren't being heard'.
Americans on both sides of the aisle have found common ground opposing construction of AI data centers in their communities. In Texas, one lifelong conservative voter told MSNOW reporter Josh Einiger that the issue could flip the Senate. And longtime consumer advocate Erin Brockovich joins to lay out what she's learned since she started tracking the issue.
I'm surprised I've never mentioned Erin Brockovich in 15+ years of blogging. It's about time I did.
That's a wrap for today. I'm sure I'll have more to say on the matter. In the meantime, stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment feature.
"The Strike" is a feature documentary that tells the story of a generation of California men who endured decades of solitary confinement and, against all odds, launched the largest hunger strike in U.S. history.
Directed and produced by JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey.
This is my pick to win this category, as it has the most nominations. The rest of the field has only this one nomination. I'm not embedding their trailers, as I am covering the remaining categories instead.
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Over 15 years, Chasing Time follows James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey, capturing glaciers vanishing and providing visual evidence of climate change. Reuniting with the Emmy-winning Chasing Ice team, it concludes their epic work, reflecting on time, mortality, and intergenerational hope.
I would pick this sequel to Chasing Ice to win just because I'm a fan of the original and would recommend it to my students. So is the first documentary I'm featuring for the next category.
The nominee for Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary I'm recommending to my students is Made in Ethiopia.
When a massive Chinese industrial park transforms rural Ethiopia, three women, a director, a farmer, and a factory worker, find their lives entwined in the promises and costs of progress. Filmed over four years, Made in Ethiopia reveals China’s complex impact on Africa and a nation’s struggle between tradition, modernity, and survival.
This video may not be explicitly environmental, but it is very much about sustainable development, a topic my environmental science course examines. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
BRIBE, INC. is a true story exposing the shady underpinnings that fuel global commerce: corruption and lots of money.
In the shadows of the global oil industry the Ahsani family ran Unaoil with jet-set style and total impunity. Until journalist Nick McKenzie encountered a whistleblower with enough insider intel to take the whole gang down.
In a manhunt spanning the globe Nick untangles the Ahsanis’ web of deceit and corruption exposing them as the grubby crime family they are. As the plot twists and turns will justice be served?
First, it's about oil, so it's also germane to my environmental science and geology students. Second, it looks like fun. Third, this could just as easily have been an investigative or crime nominee. The same is true of the other nominee that caught my eye, CAN'T LOOK AWAY (2025) - Official Trailer | JOLT.
Can't Look Away is a gripping documentary that exposes the dark side of social media and its devastating impact on young users. Directors Matthew O'Neill and Perri Peltz take viewers inside the high-stakes legal battle to hold tech companies accountable for the harm caused by their negligence and dangerous algorithms. Based on investigative reporting by Bloomberg News' Olivia Carville, the film follows the Social Media Victims Law Center fighting for justice for families whose children suffered tragic consequences linked to social media use. As families seek justice, Can't Look Away underscores the urgent need for industry reform and serves as both a wake-up call about the dangers of social media—and a call to action to protect future generations.
I don't have to look at the other two trailers; I think this is the winner.
Slight change of plans from yesterday, when I wrote, "I'll probably examine Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time tomorrow." I decided to highlight the other nominee about Hurricane Katrina, Katrina: Come Hell and High Water, which leads the nominees for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary with three nominations, including Outstanding Direction: Documentary and Outstanding Editing: Documentary in addition to Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. It's followed by The Ride Ahead with two nominations, then Born Poor, Enigma, and Searching for Amani with just this one category nomination. I'm sharing the trailers in that order, beginning with Katrina: Come Hell and High Water | Official Trailer | Netflix.
This is the story of a brutal coastal hurricane turned cataclysmic through human error and neglect. Over the course of a gripping and emotional three episodes, the people of New Orleans recount their past, extoll their present and lean into the future of what they and their beloved city survived and have become 20 years later. The series sets the stage for a tragedy - whose man-made elements expose the systemic governmental neglect that led to the city being defenseless in the face of the storm - and Katrina’s devastating impact that changed New Orleans irreparably. Detailed, harrowing and triumphant first-person accounts and never before seen archive illustrate the magnitude of Katrina, the aftermath of the levees breaking and the bungled recovery.
Katrina was a foreseeable disaster. I remember listening to an NPR story a year or more before Katrina hit explaining how New Orleans' levees were only built to withstand a category three hurricane, so they would fail under a category four or five storm, and describing what would likely happen if — when — one struck. It did. It also mentioned in passing that, while being poor is hard, New Orleans was probably the easiest city to be poor in. Katrina took that away. I've been recommending Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time to my students. Now I can recommend Katrina: Come Hell and High Water to them, too. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
What does adulthood look like when the world isn’t built for your body?
In THE RIDE AHEAD, Samuel Habib is ready for independence as he turns 21—but every rite of passage is complicated by ableist systems and physical barriers. Facing seizures, inaccessible housing, and degrading encounters, he sets out to find community and answers.
With humor, honesty, and a deep commitment to disability justice, Samuel travels across the U.S. to meet activists and role models who help him reimagine what freedom, adulthood, and love can look like.
A coming-of-age story rooted in interdependence, dignity, and the power of community.
As soon as I read the video description, I thought of Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution. Sure enough, the trailer advertises that the co-director of Crip Camp is involved, as is Judith Heumann, who won Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. The trailer also features some of the animation in the movie, which shows me it deserves its second nomination for Outstanding Graphic Design: Documentary.
Meet Brittany, Johnny and Kaylie, whose journeys — filmed across 14 years — are at the heart of the new documentary "Born Poor." Watch the prologue now.
This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station here: https://www.pbs.org/donate
The 90-minute documentary "Born Poor" premieres Tues., Oct. 7, 2025 on @frontline's YouTube channel, in the PBS App, at pbs.org/frontline and on PBS stations. The film follows these three kids from three families across three chapters of their lives — from childhood through the teen years to young adulthood — and offers a powerful, personal and longitudinal look at the realities of growing up in poverty in the U.S.
“Born Poor” is a FRONTLINE production with True Vision Productions. The director is Jezza Neumann. The producers are Jezza Neumann and Lauren Mucciolo. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
This looked familiar, but I probably am misremembering FRONTLINE's "Two American Families: 1991-2024," nominated in this category last year. FRONTLINE does good work examining poverty and society.
A thirteen-year-old aspiring journalist investigates his father’s mysterious murder within the boundaries of one of Kenya’s largest wildlife conservancies. As a ravaging drought encroaches, his quest to find the killer shifts and an activist is born as the collateral damage of a warming world is revealed.
Looks like I found another movie I can recommend to my students. Again, welcome to blogging as professional development, even if I'm only planning on teaching one more semester, which begins Monday.
Now to examine the other nominations for Katrina: Come Hell and High Water and The Ride Ahead.
Outstanding Editing: Documentary
Cover-Up Netflix [Plan B | Netflix | Praxis Films] Folktales Loki Films [Fifth Season | Impact Partners | Topic Studios] Katrina: Come Hell and High Water Netflix [Netflix | Message Pictures] Life After Multitude Films | PBS [ITVS] Love + War Little Monster Films [National Geographic] 2000 Meters to Andriivka FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Associated Press] Thoughts & Prayers HBO Documentary Films [Tony Tina] The White House Effect Actual Films | Netflix [Netflix | The Department of Motion Pictures]
I think 2000 Meters to Andriivka is the favorite, if only because it's the only nominee also nominated for Best Editing at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards and I suspect 2000 Meters to Andriivka might sweep its categories.
Sally should just be happy to be nominated in this category. 2000 Meters to Andriivka has six nominations, including Best Documentary. Life After has four, also including Best Documentary, as does The Stringer. Katrina: Come Hell and High Water and Vietnam: The War That Changed America both tied Sally with three. Apocalypse in the Tropics and Music Box: It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley have just this one. Out of this field, 2000 Meters to Andriivka is my provisional favorite.
Outstanding Graphic Design: Documentary
Antidote/Kill List
FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Passion Pictures | Bellingcat] The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets
Texas Crew Productions [Peacock Original | New York Post Entertainment | G Unit Film & Television, Inc.] The Ride Ahead
LikeRightNow Films Titanic: The Digital Resurrection
Atlantic Productions [National Geographic] Underdogs
Wildstar Films [Maximum Effort | National Geographic] In Waves and War
Studio AKA [Netflix | Actual Films]
This is likely to be Underdogs' best shot to win, but it faces a tough competitor in Titanic: The Digital Resurrection. Either way, National Geographic would win.
The Ride Ahead's animation looks impressive and fun and it advances the narrative well, so I wouldn't count it out.
I found an entry about Hurricane Katrina among the most read during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, so I'm featuring it and another from the back catalog at the intersection of entertainment, climatechange and extremeweather over the jump.
A large-scale and delicate system of ocean currents that has been active for millions of years and that’s responsible for our warm climate is in danger of collapse due to climate change. This is according to a new study published in April in the journal Science Advances. Shane Elipot, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami and one of the authors of the study, joins The Excerpt to share his findings.
It turns out that's not as new as I first thought. It's that the YouTube algorithm finally began presenting me with USA Today's videos on the topic. Actually looking for the climate change on USA Today's channel retrieved Climate change: How US cities are already feeling the effects | JUST THE FAQS from 2022.
Wildfires, hurricanes and floods: Climate change already hitting US, according to new UN study...
A new United Nations study shows climate change is no longer a hypothetical of the future. Here's how it's already affecting regions across the country and what you can do to prepare.
I'm lecturing on climate change today, and I might just replace one of my videos with this one. If so, welcome to blogging as professional development.
That's a wrap for today's entry. I have some music planned for Tuneful Tuesday, so stay tuned to see if I follow through.
Something unexpected and potentially irreversible is changing Antarctica and scientists finally know why.
Over the past few decades, researchers have tracked the mysterious growth and sharp decline in sea ice in Antarctica. But a few years ago a troubling discovery was made that could upend global ocean circulation, push one species of penguin to extinction, and change our planet’s climate forever.
In this episode of Weathered, Maiya May looks into the role sea ice plays in our global climate, and the threat that its disappearance poses to our natural world.
From emperor penguins, to sea level rise, to the slowing of the AMOC, these seemingly inconsequential chunks of floating ice could hold the key to our survival. And their loss could be a sign that we’ve crossed a tipping point in an already delicate region of our planet.
Climate scientists and oceanographers have been so concerned about the AMOCweakening and collapsing because of the Greenland ice sheet melting that we've ignored the threat to the Global Conveyor Belt current from melting in Antarctica. We can't do that anymore, not once the Antarctic sea ice began to shrink the same way that Arctic sea ice had been for decades. At least Antarctic sea ice growing will no longer be a viable climate change denial talking point. Small favors.
Follow over the jump for the most read and active posts about climate change and extreme weather during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
What happens when a planet crosses a climate tipping point it can’t recover from? Venus may hold the answer.
Scientists think Venus once had oceans, water, and a climate that may have resembled early Earth. But something pushed the planet past a threshold. Water evaporated, greenhouse warming spiraled, and Venus became the hottest planet in our solar system.
So what was that tipping point? And could anything like it happen on Earth?
In this episode of Weathered, Maiya May explores the science behind runaway greenhouse effects, ancient volcanic carbon releases, and one of the most surprising climate wildcards scientists have discovered: the potential collapse of stratocumulus clouds.
From crocodiles in the Arctic during past hothouse climates to cutting-edge models of cloud loss under extreme CO2 levels, this episode investigates what keeps Earth’s climate stable and what could push it toward irreversible change.
Earth isn’t turning into Venus anytime soon. But Venus reveals something more important: what happens when a planet loses its brakes.
That was something I learned back in November. The new fact I learned today was about how stratocumulus clouds, which form at the top of the marine layer, work and what the model predicts would happen when carbon dioxide levels go about 1200 ppm. That makes today a good day, as any day I learn something new is a good day.
This wraps up today's evergreen educational entry. Stay tuned for an entertainment entry I will share next month. Randy Rainbow just uploaded a new song!
Is this how civilizations end? As climate disasters intensify, some cities survive — and others collapse. So what makes the difference?
In this episode of Weathered, host Maiya May investigates what history reveals about system collapse, failed cities, and civilizations that didn’t survive climate shocks. Were they doomed? Or did they miss warning signs we’re seeing today?
With climate disasters and global warming accelerating, researchers Luke Kemp and strategic climate risk expert Laurie Laybourn break down the common patterns behind civilization collapse — and the 5 strategies that can help modern societies avoid the same fate.
If you’ve ever wondered:
Is it the end of the world?
When do systems collapse?
Can cities survive climate change?
How do we prevent total societal collapse?
This episode explores what history teaches us — and why it’s not too late to change course.
Because collapse isn’t inevitable. But survival isn’t automatic either.
When I created this blog, I called it "A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it." I've shifted away from that, making this more "A blog about sustainability with a science fiction slant and a Detroit perspective," as it says on the Crazy Eddie's Motie News Facebook page (if you're still on Facebook, please follow), but I've never changed the description here after 15 years. That's because, deep down, I still believe in the mission I set for myself in March 2011.
On that note, here are the five strategies Maiya May and her guests propose to avoid collapse: situational awareness, adaptation, speed, democracy, and storytelling. On this blog, I'm sharing and telling stories to make people more aware of the situation, get prepared for the future, and encourage speedy responses and democracy. The last two seem like contradictions, as democracy is not known for rapid decisions, but I agree with May and her guests that both are necessary, if not easy. I hope my readers and I are up for the task.
On the third Monday in February, the United States celebrates the federal holiday known as Presidents Day. The day takes place during the birth month of the country's two most prominent presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. While the day once only honored President George Washington on his birthday, February 22nd, the day now never lands on a single president's birthday.
Across the country, most Americans know the day as Presidents Day. More and more of the population celebrates the day to honor all of the past United States Presidents who have served the country. Throughout the country, organizations and communities celebrate the day with public ceremonies.
Marlo Anderson celebrated all the Presidents' pets, which reminded me that Hoover Harding Cleveland is in fairly sparse company. As Wikipedia notes, "Only James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, and Donald Trump did not have any presidential pets while in office" — something else Hoover Harding Cleveland has in common with Andrew Johnson besides having a majority of Senators vote to convict him after being impeached!
Atomic scientists set their 'Doomsday Clock' closer than ever to midnight, citing aggressive behavior by nuclear powers Russia, China and the US, fraying nuclear arms control, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and AI worries among factors driving risks for global disaster.
Since 2012, the Doomsday Clock time has either shifted closer to midnight or stayed the same.
In 2012, the Clock was moved to 5 minutes to midnight.
In 2015, it was moved to 3 minutes.
In 2017, it was moved to 2 ½ minutes.
In 2018, it was moved to 2 minutes.
In 2020, it was moved to 100 seconds.
In 2023, it was moved to 90 seconds.
Last year, it was moved to 89 seconds.
Today, it was moved to 85 seconds to midnight.
Leading experts who study existential risks believe humanity is the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe.
In the Doomsday Clock statement, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board (SASB) releases side bars on each of the threats the Clock reflects—nuclear risk, climate change, disruptive technologies, and biological threats.
Across the board, excerpts from the SASB’s statement reflect a world that is failing to combat the most consequential threats humanity faces.
From the acceleration of a renewed nuclear arms race to the rise of nationalistic autocracies around the world, 2025 was an exceedingly dangerous year.
But what many don’t realize is that the Doomsday Clock can turn—and has turned—backwards. Eight times, to be exact.
Whether it does so again is up to humanity’s ability to learn from the past and to dedicate our time, effort, and resources to building a future where people can live free from the danger of existential threats.
In the Clock statement, the SASB notes that “national leaders–particularly those in the United States, Russia, and China–must take the lead in finding a path away from the brink” and that “citizens must insist they do so.”
Until that happens…
IT IS 85 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT.
Those are all the time changes since I began writing this blog in 2011. On the one hand, yay, we've survived this long! On the other, the steady movement of the hands of the clock to midnight since 2012 is depressing and alarming. It's certainly not scaring the people now in power into behaving better.
That's a wrap for today's post. Stay tuned for another brief entry worth sharing next month, which begins Sunday.
There’s an 18% chance that global warming exceeds four degrees by 2100 and that’s not a small risk when the stakes are civilization-ending.
In this episode of Weathered, host Maiya May talks with civilization collapse researcher Luke Kemp and strategic climate risk expert Laurie Laybourn about why high-end warming scenarios are often dismissed as “doomerism,” even though worst-case planning is standard in most fields. We break down how uncertainty in climate sensitivity and political derailment could push warming higher than expected and how climate shocks can trigger cascading failures across food systems, financial markets, and geopolitics. Understanding the climate endgame isn’t pessimism. It’s risk management.
Before I address the science, I'm making a meta comment about what I've seen on PBS YouTube channels and PBS and NPR websites since the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was defunded; public media has become more opposed, even antagnostic, to Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump's policies since. If the authors of Project 2025 thought public media was biting the hand that fed them, they might be surprised at how much their hands are being bitten now that they're not feeding public media!
The Arctic was ice free and warm enough to host permanent forest cover across much of its extent. Iceland had a humid and subtropical climate...Dense, humid rainforests covered much of France, Switzerland, and northern Germany, while southern and central Spain were arid and contained open environments.
That's a very different world from today.
Speaking of today's world, the L.A.fires serve as an example where climate change is already causing disasters, which the current administration denies. Looking forward to the future, a possible collapse of the AMOC would be catastrophic and magnified by our economic system. Yikes!
The Trump administration released new dietary guidelines that will shape everything from school lunches to medical advice. The guidance puts a bigger emphasis on eating more protein and dairy, something Health Secretary Kennedy has long sought. William Brangham discussed the recommendations with Lindsey Smith Taillie, a nutrition epidemiologist and co-director of the Global Food Research Program.
16. What in ultraprocessed foods drives appetites/overeating?
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19. How much of U.S. calorie intake comes from ultraprocessed food? France? Brazil? Italy?
I haven't shown Food, Inc. 2 either enough times or that recently to have the answers to both questions memorized in detail, but generally the response to the first involves additives to make ultraprocessed food more appetizing while that for the second is that Americans get the majority of our calories from ultrprocessed food while citizens of the other countries eat much less, generally around a quarter. Americans should eat less ultraprocessed food and more whole foods. Yes, I'm agreeing with RFK Jr. on this issue. File that under a stuck clock being right twice a day, and RFK Jr. is definitely a stuck clock.
That's the good news about the food guidelines. The bad news is the recommendation to eat more meat and dairy. That's not good for either health or the environment. Here are the questions I ask my students about the effects of meat and dairy on the environment.
9. Why are dairy farms moving from Wisconsin to California and Arizona and what are the environmental costs, especially on water? Answer both parts of the question.
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24. Which food contributes most to climate change?
Dairy production requires a lot of water, which is in short supply in California and Arizona, where dairy farmers are moving to because those states have lower non-water costs. As Smith Taillie mentioned, beef has very high environmental costs, including being the food that contributes most to climate change.
The Secretary of State says America's goal is not to invade Greenland but to purchase it from Denmark, President Trump said he will sell 50 million barrels of Venezuela's oil and that he will determine where the profits go, and the FDA removed its own guidance on how much alcohol is safe to drink on a daily basis.
Ultraprocessed food, meat, and dairy may be more important, but booze is funnier. Why do my readers think I post so many cocktail recipes? Because they're fun; I actually drink very little, as I lost interest in alcohol once I developed diabetes. Priorities.
Speaking of priorities, I have to do some maintainence then go to work to prepare for the new semester. See you all tomorrow!
