Breaking Down: Collapse

Today we take a look at the bottom of the marine food chain, where new research indicates things aren't looking to great: Climate change may erase 25 million hectares of kelp forests by 2050 Seaweed carbon removal cannot keep up with climate-driven loss | PLOS Biology Projected declines in zooplankton energy supporting Northwest European Shelf ecosystems | Communications Earth & Environment s43247-026-03840-1_reference.pdf (PDF) Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wildlife is collapsing, and time is running low to make the changes we must in order to protect them. Gray whales are washing up dead on the West Coast. The reason is alarming | Scientific American France's wildlife suffers severe blow from intense heat: 'The entire food chain is disrupted' Bears, coyotes spotted in unexpected SoCal places during scorching heat wave - ABC7 Los Angeles One effect of climate change: More rats, ticks and mosquitoes — and more disease - Evanston RoundTable Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sources: Judge blocks Trump’s new USPS rules for mail-in ballots with just weeks before midterm elections | The Independent 2026 midterms: Trump is getting the mail-ballot chaos he wants. US House passes bill penalizing universities that participate in boycott of Israel | House of Representatives | The Guardian Jimmy Kimmel Says James Talarico Interview Won't Air After FCC Threats Meagan Morris Speaks From Jail After Being Sentenced to 50 Years by the Trump Administration for an Alleged Terrorist Attack [WATCH] ICE Arrests Soar as People With No Criminal Record Are Increasingly Targeted - The New York Times Trump Pushes to Rename New Mexico ‘New America,’ but He Can’t Do It by Executive Order | Law Commentary Donald Trump pledges $5K dividend if GOP wins Congress Judge reinforces order banning immediate work on Trump’s 250-foot arch Constitution Doesn’t Cover Right to Clean Water, Court Rules (1) Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Am I alone in imagining a better future? A whole bunch of data says no: Support for changing the current economic system | Pew Research Center Americans stand out internationally for their pessimism about the nation’s political system | Pew Research Center AP-NORC America 250 Poll - AP-NORC Harvard Youth Poll Finds a Generation Under Pressure — and Losing Faith in the System | The Institute of Politics at Harvard University 51st Edition - Fall 2025 | The Institute of Politics at Harvard University Americans End Year in Gloomy Mood New poll: Just 13% of youth feel America is headed in the right direction | Harvard Kennedy School Young Voters Have Growing Power, but Broken Politics Leave Them ‘Fatalistic,’ Studies Find | Research UC Berkeley The State of Public Trust in Government 2025 - Partnership for Public Service New Low in U.S. 'Very Satisfied' With Personal Life Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If collapse is inevitable, is there a point to trying? FYI the episode contains spoilers for the musical "Hadestown". Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Renewables have made massive strides in the 2020s. I answer the question that still comes up from time to time: Can a successful rollout of renewables save society from collapse? Tracking the energy transition: Where are we now? | McKinsey So, where exactly does the US energy transition stand? | Canary Media Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new UN report officially announced that limiting warming to +1.5C is no longer a viable goal: Global heating will hit at least 1.8C, UN warns, and there are ‘no good outcomes’ | Climate crisis | The Guardian Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sources: Judge Tells RFK Jr. to Stop Using Fake AI Studies on Teen Pregnancy | The New Republic Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Targeted Stanford Students Who Criticized Israel - The New York Times The U.S. Has Killed 227 Civilians in Boat Strikes During “A Year of Murders” IRS Softens on Businesses in Wake of Agency Worker Exodus Wyoming judge weighs transgender woman’s self-defense | Advocate.com The Trump Administration is Now Claiming That Being a Trans Ally Makes You More Violent. Yes, Really. James Talarico: "Nothing terrifies them more, than people who show up to vote. .. Wyoming Governor Objects to ‘Very Odd’ D.O.J. Election Monitoring - The New York Times ICE Plans to Pay $5 Million to Create National Voting Database | WIRED DHS chief says ICE could make arrests at polling places — ignoring federal ban on armed agents at voting sites - Democracy Docket Mail voting live updates: Judge weighs fate of Trump’s anti-voting executive order - Democracy Docket ICE owes millions to hospitals and detainees can't get treatment ICE holds man with stage 4 cancer in detention despite permanent US residency | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) | The Guardian 'Who is Profiting from ICE?' Texas mom's site sparks secret DHS note Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The US military is simultaneously contributing to collapse, as it also says it's working to fight against it (climate change and resulting instability). Meanwhile, it's also tying up its resources, firing all its best people, and opening the world to destabilization. Sources: West Point’s only climate scientist fired after insisting on human causes of climate change | US news | The Guardian DOD Preparing for Climate Change Impacts, Official Says > U.S. Department of War > Defense Department News | U.S. Department of War The US military’s fatal stance on climate change - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Mission impossible? Quantifying military emissions - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Experts raise concerns of Army readiness amid Pentagon changes under Hegseth Dan Driscoll’s Parting Shot - The Atlantic Military leaders warn Hegseth against extending Iran war operations - The Washington Post Pentagon furious over Washington Post’s Iran war scoop Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A collection of articles highlighting the current mess that is the US. And we're just getting started: Gary, Indiana’s Suffering in a Blackout Brings a Global Crisis Home - Bloomberg US kindergarten vaccination rates dip as exemptions hit record high | Vaccines and immunisation | The Guardian Baby goats had rabies at NC petting zoo, attendees urged to contact health officials | CNN New Mexico’s largest reservoir shrinks to its lowest level in 55 years The US has a plan to save the Colorado River. Experts say it won’t be enough to stop the crisis | Colorado river crisis | The Guardian ICE purchasing Boston Dynamics robots to support operations - Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News Nearly 300K California students are homeless, enough to fill 5 Dodger Stadiums: UCLA | KTLA Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A look at stories across the world related to climate change, including the story of a landslide/flash flood along the Tibet/Nepal boarder that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds, and likely thousands. It's all gone. Flash Flood in Nepal sweeps away cities after cities. : r/collapse Panama Canal to cut daily ship traffic as drought worsens from El Nino - France 24 Japan's farmers go nocturnal as deadly heat intensifies ‘Like smoking a cigarette’: Indonesia chokes on haze as blazes intensify amid super ‘El Niño’ | Indonesia | The Guardian Brazil's President Lula hails oil discovery near Amazon river A melting glacier contributed to the deadly Nepal floods. We can expect more like this : NPR Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A look at several articles highlighting this summer of climate chaos in Europe: Lake Zurich sees water level hit record low amid drought European farmers face ‘unprecedented crisis’ after successive heatwaves | Farming | The Guardian France faces lowest potato yield in over 30 years as drought hits crops Heat wave-hit Europe logs over 30,000 excess summer deaths: First figures Europe: Wildfire affected area could triple due to climate change | PreventionWeb UK to warn citizens to stock up on food amid threat from climate crisis and hostile states | Defence policy | The Guardian Last year’s output from Norway’s fossil-fuel giant ‘will kill up to 58,000 people’ – EUobserver Fotograf dokumenterer hvordan norske breer forsvinner – NRK Innlandet – Lokale nyheter, TV og radio Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sources: Supreme Court Sides With Trump for Now on Mail Ballot Curbs - Bloomberg Half the Country Sues to Stop Trump’s Dangerous USPS Mail Ballot Rule | The New Republic Trump Pardons of Fraudsters Cost Victims Nearly $2 Billion | The New Republic Trump Administration Ends Corporate Ownership Reporting Rule, Orders U.S. Records Deleted Texas Secretly Started Torturing Trans Prisoners By Forcibly Detransitioning Them ‘a Few Weeks Ago’ Federal judge strikes down Rubio's immigrant visa freeze on 75 nations | Fox News 20260814175803632_TRUMP_Petition for a Writ of Certiorari.pdf (PDF) Trump admin says Kennedy Center 'cannot be saved' without his name Trump administration is preparing to revoke visas of up to 200,000 foreigners | AP News Judge strikes down Texas ban on drag shows, tells people offended by them ‘just don’t go’ Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Substack breaks down the troubles that Europe may experience this winter due to the effects of catabolic collapse: Blackout Europe: The Coming Winter Energy Crisis Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two new pieces of research highlight the earth is potentially warming much faster than previously thought, and that the models are wrong (imagine that): World may warm by 25 per cent more than current projections suggest | New Scientist Hothouse Earth: arriving sooner than you think… planetary-solvency.pdf (PDF) Global warming acceleration in satellite observed lower-tropospheric temperature | Research Square The world inches closer to catastrophic climate events | AP News Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An episode to focus on various aspects of collapse showing up in the UK in recent days: Network Rail says heat poses ‘exceptional challenges’ after two trains derail in 24 hours | Rail transport | The Guardian Water companies in England and Wales explore ‘surge pricing’ during drought | Water industry | The Guardian England’s ancient oak trees dying in extreme hot and dry weather | Trees and forests | The Guardian ‘Our new normal’: how marine heatwaves affect life in British seas | Marine life | The Guardian Just received UK, people still think this is normal? : r/collapse Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New research suggests that the global population will peak much earlier than expected, and that's without considering major collapse forces: Economists Say World Population May Have Already Crossed into Below Replacement Fertility, Faster Than U.N. Estimates New mathematical model suggests global population crash by 2064 Opinion | The Population Bust Is Coming Sooner Than Anyone Is Prepared For - The New York Times Demographics.pdf (PDF FILE) Which countries have already passed peak population, and when will the rest do so? | Our World in Data Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sources: New evidence suggests White House took steps to punish Colorado over Tina Peters case Former DOJ Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer breaks down Todd Blanche’s 21-page memo expanding executive privilege . Blanche declines to pledge independence from the White House | CNN Politics Court allows Trump administration to access trans patients' records - LGBTQ Nation A Journalist Approaches 300 Days in ICE Detention With a Gunshot Wound ICE Refused to Give Detainees Medical Treatment After Gas Leak | The New Republic GEO ICE detention officials call inmate complaints about a gas leak was a 'hoax' after complaints of illness - Sentinel Colorado ICE is releasing people who are dying in order to avoid reporting their death Justice Department deploys tactic to strip naturalized Americans of citizenship | PBS News Hour : r/law Idaho must allow abortions to preserve women’s health, US judge rules | 1470 & 100.3 WMBD Trump Seeks Immediate Halt to Judge’s Penalties in IRS Case Trump’s DOJ could be held in contempt over unredacted Epstein files, judge says: ‘It’s not a threat. It’s a promise’ | The Independent Trump won't necessarily avoid financial discovery in lawsuit South Carolina Vote-by-Mail Restrictions Deemed Unconstitutional Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Billionaires are making their plans for safe haven during the perils of our current and future world. Will they sleep well in those beds, knowing they're largely to blame for the situation? (the answer is probably yes) The Argentine ranch where tech CEOs plan to ride out the apocalypse Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A look at various articles highlighting the ways in which we have doomed our waterways: Fears of ‘catastrophic’ decline of giant Australian cuttlefish after only 44 counted in dive survey | Marine life | The Guardian Romania shuts down nuclear reactor as Danube hits record lows – POLITICO Gulf oil spill fast becoming one of world’s worst in years, agencies warn | The Straits Times 'Environmental disaster' as one billion plastic pellets enter River Tyne - Geographical El Niño may peak at the worst time for the Amazon – and it should worry us all | Amazon rainforest | The Guardian Rate of climate change affects stability of the AMOC | EurekAlert! Please join us on Patreon for weekly bonus content and to join our Discord community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.