As Israel’s IDF pursues mass murder in Gaza, international pressure has forced agreement to daily four-hour ceasefires. ~ 2023 is at 1.32 C above the preindustrial baseline. Place your bet that 2024 passes the 1.5 C tipping point. ~ Yeast DNA has been made with a high percentage of human-made components.

Climate Disaster

There is no good news on our most serious disaster. That disaster is still being ignored despite the difficulty of maintaining widespread ignorance. The tragedy is declaring itself.

Nature: Earth just had its hottest year on record — climate change is to blame

James Hansen, who initially warned Congress of climate change, is back.

Global Warming is Accelerating. Why? Will We Fly Blind?

Our problem is an energy imbalance that will take decades to correct once we start. We haven’t started yet.

For additional information on the detailed threat assessment, November 1, 2023, was the annual launch of the Ecological Threat Report, produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP).

Highlights:

• 1 billion people are living in 42 countries that currently face severe food insecurity
• 1 in 4 people globally do not have regular access to safe drinking water
• By 2050, 2.8 billion people will reside in countries facing severe ecological threats, compared to 1.8 billion today

As I have described in Positioning for 2030, these numbers are becoming refugees. We have a few million on the move now, but billions will be there within seven years.

War in Gaza

We are watching insanity build. The Western/American Empire is committed to Israel. However, most of the planet sees Israel for what it is: the American military platform for permanent conflict in the fossil fuel centers of the Middle East.

Understanding a century of manipulation and conflict is needed to get beyond the propaganda and emotional violence being spread. Eygpt will be a significant player in what follows once the killing stops. The following link looks at Egypt’s role.

Egypt’s Singular Role in Gaza

Meanwhile, the war, despite limited media coverage beyond the mass destruction and human suffering, is expanding. Iran is struggling with demands to act but may lose control of its proxies. America has already developed the war on Yemen and Syria due to Yemeni drone attacks and American strikes on Syria.

Science/Technology

I must add a note of irony here, as the historic success of the modern world’s science and technology is giving us fantastic power. I hope this will help us define a new planetary culture of well-being. For now, it is giving us knowledge of how we have triggered a massive change to our planet, but no magic solutions can scale to planetary size quickly enough.

Air New Zealand and two others have placed orders for a new electric 5-seater plane that can fly up to 386 miles — Beta’s CX300

Some of the problems this technology faces:

eVTOL technology still has hurdles to clear. Flying at low levels in densely populated areas will require regulators to establish new traffic management systems.

Yeast created with a half-synthetic genome

Scientists have created a strain of brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) whose genome is more than half synthetic. Seven-and-a-half chromosomes were synthesized or stitched together in the laboratory. To make sure the genome was stable, biologists removed repetitive regions of DNA and sequestered all genes for transfer RNAs — essential for protein synthesis — in a single ‘neochromosome’. It’s a milestone for the Sc2.0 consortium, whose aim is to create yeast with a fully synthetic genome.

This is the most positive thing I could find this week. Hopefully, next week is better.

Originally published at rlandok.substack.com

Mike Meyer ~ Honolulu ~ November 10, 2023