Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
I doubt that the Earth will be habitable or that humans can survive that increase – these 2 issues are essentially the same phrased in different ways. I suggest that 2300 should instead be regarded as the best estimate we have of our end date. It’s unfortunately a very rough and unreliable estimate and it might be better to rely on 30 or 40 years earlier.
12.45p.m. Researching this further, probably for a later article. There are projections for 2.6 to 3C rise by 2100.
10.50 p.m.GMT Apologies, did this post shock or startle some of you? Doesn’t it stand to reason? Global temperatures continue to rise due to the rich and powerful unopposed by any governments continuing use of fossil fuels, the climate is damaged and it will continue unless meaningful action is taken. I don’t intend to mislead you, my job is to inform my audience.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
The Trump administration took a major step in its efforts to unravel America’s climate policies on Feb. 12, 2026, when it moved to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding – a formal determination that six greenhouse gases that drive climate change, including carbon dioxide and methane from burning fossil fuels, endanger public health and welfare.
But the administration’s arguments in dismissing the health risks of climate change are not only factually wrong, they’re deeply dangerous to Americans’ health and safety.
As physicians, epidemiologists and environmental healthscientists, we’ve seen growing evidence of the connections between climate change and harm to people’s health. Here’s a look at the health risks everyone face from climate change.
Greenhouse gases from vehicles, power plants and other sources accumulate in the atmosphere, trapping heat and holding it close to Earth’s surface like a blanket. Too much of it causes global temperatures to rise, leaving more people exposed to dangerous heat more often.
Most people who get minor heat illnesses will recover, but more extreme exposure, especially without enough hydration and a way to cool off, can be fatal. People who work outside, are elderly or have underlying illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney diseases are often at the greatest risk.
Heat deaths have been rising globally, up 23% from the 1990s to the 2010s, when the average year saw more than half a million heat-related deaths. Here in the U.S., the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome killed hundreds of people.
Climate scientists predict that with advancing climate change, many areas of the world, including U.S. cities such as Miami, Houston, Phoenix and Las Vegas, will confront many more days each year hot enough to threaten human survival.
Increased flooding carries health risks, including drownings, injuries and water contamination from human pathogens and toxic chemicals. People cleaning out flooded homes also face risks from mold exposure, injuries and mental distress.
Flooding from hurricanes and other extreme storms can put people at risk of injuries during the cleanup while also triggering dangerous mold growth on wet wallboard, carpets and fabric. This home flooded up to its second flood during Hurricane Irma in 2017. Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Climate change also worsens droughts, disrupting food supplies and causing respiratory illness from dust. Rising temperatures and aridity dry out forests and grasslands, making them a setup for wildfires.
Air pollution
Wildfires, along with other climate effects, are worsening air quality around the country.
Because they are cold-blooded organisms, insects are directly influenced by temperature. So with rising temperatures, mosquito biting rates rise as well. Warming also accelerates the development of disease agents that mosquitoes transmit.
As global temperatures rise, regions are becoming more suitable for mosquitoes to transmit dengue virus. The map shows a suitability scale, with red areas already suitable for dengue transmissions and yellow areas becoming more suitable. Taishi Nakase, et al., 2022, CC BY
New York and many other cities now open cooling centers during heat waves to help residents, particularly older adults who might not have air conditioning at home, stay safe during the hottest parts of the day. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Young children, older adults, pregnant women and people with preexisting medical conditions are among the highest-risk groups. Lower-income people also face greater risk because of higher rates of chronic disease, higher exposures to climate hazards and fewer resources for protection, medical care and recovery from disasters.
The evidence is clear: Climate change endangers human health. But there’s a flip side to the story.
When governments work to reduce the causes of climate change, they help tackle some of the world’s biggest health challenges. Cleaner vehicles and cleaner electricity mean cleaner air – and less heart and lung disease. More walking and cycling on safe sidewalks and bike paths mean more physical activity and lower chronic disease risks. The list goes on. By confronting climate change, we promote good health.
To really make America healthy, in our view, the nation should acknowledge the facts behind the endangerment finding and double down on our transition from fossil fuels to a healthy, clean energy future.
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark RichardsNeo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, U.S. representative for New York’s 14th congressional district, speaks at a Townhall panel on populism at the 62nd Munich Security Conference on February 13, 2,026 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
“An unmistakable majority wants a party that will fight harder against the corporations and rich people they see as responsible for keeping them down,” wrote the New Republic’s editorial director.
Democratic voters overwhelmingly want a leader who will fight the superrich and corporate America, and they believe Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the person to do it, according to a poll released this week.
While Democrats are often portrayed as squabbling and directionless, the poll conducted last month by the New Republic with Embold Research demonstrated a remarkable unity among the more than 2,400 Democratic voters it surveyed.
This was true with respect to policy: More than 9 in 10 want to raise taxes on corporations and on the wealthiest Americans, while more than three-quarters want to break up tech monopolies and believe the government should conduct stronger oversight of business.
But it was also reflected in sentiments that a more confrontational governing philosophy should prevail and general agreement that the party in its current form is not doing enough to take on its enemies.
Three-quarters said they wanted Democrats to “be more aggressive in calling out Republicans,” while nearly 7 in 10 said it was appropriate to describe their party as “weak.”
This appears to have translated to support for a more muscular view of government. Where the label once helped to sink Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) two runs for president, nearly three-quarters of Democrats now say they are either unconcerned with the label of “socialist” or view it as an asset.
Meanwhile, 46% said they want to see a “progressive” at the top of the Democratic ticket in 2028, higher than the number who said they wanted a “liberal” or a “moderate.”
It’s an environment that appears to be fertile ground for Ocasio-Cortez, who pitched her vision for a “working-class-centered politics” at this week’s Munich summit in what many suspected was a soft-launch of her presidential candidacy in 2028.
Congresswoman @AOC is currently one of the most popular figures among Democrats—maybe even the most popular.
With 85% favorability, Bronx congresswoman had the highest approval rating of any Democratic figure in the country among the voters surveyed.
It’s a higher mark than either of the figures who head-to-head polls have shown to be presumptive favorites for the nomination: Former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Early polls show AOC lagging considerably behind these top two. However, there are signs in the New Republic’s poll that may give her supporters cause for hope.
Embold Research poll | 1/7-1/16 (released 2/12)
(Democratic voters surveyed nationwide)
Do you think Kamala Harris should run for president again in 2028, or do you think she had her shot?
While Harris is also well-liked, 66% of Democrats surveyed said they believe she’s “had her shot” at the presidency and should not run again after losing to President Donald Trump in 2024.
Newsom does not have a similar electoral history holding him back and is riding high from the passage of Proposition 50, which will allow Democrats to add potentially five more US House seats this November.
But his policy approach may prove an ill fit at a time when Democrats overwhelmingly say their party is “too timid” about taxing the rich and corporations and taking on tech oligarchs.
As labor unions in California have pushed for a popular proposal to introduce a billionaire’s tax, Newsom has made himself the chiseled face of the resistance to this idea, joining with right-wing Silicon Valley barons in an aggressive campaign to kill it.
While polls can tell us little two years out about what voters will do in 2028, New Republic editorial director Emily Cooke said her magazine’s survey shows an unmistakable pattern.
“It’s impossible to come away from these results without concluding that economic populism is a winning message for loyal Democrats,” she wrote. “This was true across those who identify as liberals, moderates, or progressives: An unmistakable majority wants a party that will fight harder against the corporations and rich people they see as responsible for keeping them down.”
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Front Orca supports AOC, urges her to kick some ass.
Israel Defense Forces soldier Rom Kovtun looks away from the scope of his sniper rifle in this undated photo.(Photo by Hind Rajab Foundation)
The Hind Rajab Foundation filed the complaint, citing universal jurisdiction and Chile’s law against genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
A Brussels-based human rights group on Monday filed a criminal complaint in Chile seeking the prosecution of an Israel Defense Forces sniper accused of taking part in the deadly 2024 siege and destruction of Gaza’s largest hospital.
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF)—named after the young Palestinian girl who was killed in January 2024 along with six relatives and two rescue workers by IDF troops in Gaza City—said it filed the complaint in the 8th Guarantee Court in Santiago, the Chilean capital, requesting investigation and prosecution of Rom Kovtun, an Israeli Ukrainian sniper in the 424th “Shaked” Battalion of the Givati Brigade, under Chilean Law 20.357.
HRF’s complaint was formally submitted by Chilean lawyer Pablo Andrés Araya Zacarías, a partner at Silva-Riesco Abogados. The filing invokes universal jurisdiction—the legal principle empowering states to investigate and prosecute individuals for heinous crimes regardless of where they occurred—based on Kovtun’s presence in Chile and Israel’s refusal to prosecute him.
According to the complaint, Kovtun took part in the March-April 2024 siege and attack on al-Shifa Hospital in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. The World Health Organization said at least 21 patients were killed during attacks on the facility, while Gaza officials claimed the toll was much higher.
Survivors and witnesses said IDF troops executed civilians during the raid on al-Shifa, including 13 children. The IDF denied the allegations. Doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers were also abducted and allegedly tortured by their IDF captors. Israeli claims that Hamas fighters were using al-Shifa as a command center were subsequently debunked as lies.
Hundreds of Palestinian bodies—some with bound limbs and signs of torture and execution—were found outside the hospital after IDF troops withdrew from the area, although it is not known if they were all killed there.
“The targeting and destruction of a functioning hospital during a military siege strike at the core of international humanitarian law,” HRF general director Dyab Abou Jahjah said on Monday. “When evidence indicates that a sniper participated in such an operation, domestic courts cannot look away. Universal jurisdiction exists to ensure that the most serious crimes do not go unexamined simply because they were committed abroad.”
The @hindrajabfoundation.be has filed a complaint in 🇨🇱 #Chile, seeking investigation and prosecution of sniper Rom Kovtun for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The filing details his alleged participation in the siege and destruction of Al-Shifa Hospital.→ https://bit.ly/4tF1EJt
HRF head of litigation Natacha Bracq said that “international humanitarian law grants special protection to hospitals, medical personnel, and the wounded.”
“The encirclement and destruction of a functioning medical complex, combined with the deprivation of food, water, and medical care, are not collateral damage—they constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide,” she added.
Israel is facing a genocide case filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has issued multiple provisional orders for Israel to avoid genocidal acts in Gaza. Critics say Israel has ignored the orders.
Chile embraced universal jurisdiction in the decades following the fall of the US-backed military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, whose 1998 arrest in London for crimes against humanity stemmed from an international warrant issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón based on universal jurisdiction.
HRF, which was founded in the Belgian capital in September 2024, has filed numerous legal complaints targeting alleged IDF war criminals. In one case, Israel helped an IDF soldier targeted by the group while vacationing in Brazil to flee the country in order to avoid arrest.
In October 2024, HRF filed what it called an “unprecedented” complaint at the ICC—which, like the ICJ, is located in The Hague, Netherlands—against 1,000 IDF troops accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza. One year later, HRF filed another ICC complaint against 24 IDF members allegedly involved in the killing of Hind Rajab, her relatives, and two paramedics.
While there have been no known prosecutions of any individuals targeted by HRF, last May Peruformally opened a probe into “an Israeli national accused of participating in the genocide in Gaza.”
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.UK Labour Party Foreign Secretary David Lammy repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
Hundreds of flowers and pieces of unique artwork are on display at the memorial site for Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota on February 14, 2026. (Photo by Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)
“Minnesota needs impartial investigations into the shootings of American citizens on our streets,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. “Trump’s left hand cannot investigate his right hand.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has officially denied law enforcement officials in Minnesota access to evidence related to the fatal shooting of Minneapolis intensive care nurse Alex Pretti last month.
In a Monday announcement, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) revealed that the FBI on Friday delivered a formal notification informing the agency that will not receive “access to any information or evidence that it has collected” related to Pretti’s shooting at the hands of federal immigration enforcement officials.
BCA described the refusal to share evidence as “concerning and unprecedented,” but it vowed to conduct a “thorough, independent, and transparent” investigation into the Pretti shooting “even if hampered by a lack of access to key information and evidence.”
In addition to requesting evidence gathered in the Pretti shooting, the BCA reiterated its call for federal law enforcement to share whatever evidence it has collected in relation to last month’s fatal shooting of Minneapolis mother Renee Good and the shooting of Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
“BCA investigations of these incidents continue,” the agency vowed. “The BCA will present its findings without recommendation to the appropriate prosecutorial authorities for review.”
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz slammed the Trump administration for denying his state’s officials access to evidence, and he demanded a real investigation into Pretti’s killing.
“Minnesota needs impartial investigations into the shootings of American citizens on our streets,” he wrote in a social media post. “Trump’s left hand cannot investigate his right hand. The families of the deceased deserve better.”
In a Sunday interview with CBS News Minnesota, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty revealed that her office was not getting any help from the federal government in its investigation into the Pretti shooting, though she said her team was continuing to gather evidence and interview witnesses.
Moriarty emphasized that her office, which is currently working with the Minnesota BCA in its investigation, can bring criminal charges against federal immigration officers if they have enough evidence to do so, even without the cooperation of the Trump administration.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Orcas discuss rotting brain. Front Orca says “Wish someone would lock him up”.
