(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Who had icy rivers flowing through the streets of heat-ravaged Italy on their climate Bingo Card? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-07-22
A punishing hail storm injured 110 people in Seregno just outside Milan, Italy, after stones the size of tennis balls fell after searing heat plagued the southern Europe region.
The storm was ushered in with wind speeds up to 87 miles per hour which snapped trees and tore roofs off buildings. The same supercell formed a tornado that struck the City of Milan.
The temperature reported on social media videos reported 83 F, a welcome but temporary cool down from brutal heat temperatures before the storm's arrival.
x Massive hail flow at street in Seregno, Italy đźđč (21.07.2023)
TELEGRAM JOIN đ
https://t.co/9cTkji5aZq pic.twitter.com/edQSMn8TE4 â Disaster News (@Top_Disaster) July 21, 2023
From CNN:
âThe wave of bad weather, after having impacted our mountain regions, has now also hit the plains, causing injury to some people,â Zaia said, adding that most injuries were caused by broken glass and people slipping on the hailstones. A 53-year-old man riding his bicycle died during the storm when his wife, who was following him with their car, ran over him, CNN affiliate Sky24 reported. Europe has seen dramatic shifts in weather this year. Italy, Spain and Greece have faced unrelenting heat for days. The Italian capital Rome hit a new record temperature of 41 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. The Italian Meteorological Society named the latest heat wave Cerberus after the three-headed monster that features in Danteâs Inferno as a guard to the gates of hell. âThe earth has a high fever and Italy is feeling it firsthand,â Luca Mercalli, head of the Italian Meteorological Society, told CNN. In May, parts of the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna suffered under âonce in a centuryâ deadly flooding, with over 20 rivers in the region bursting their banks and prompting a wave of landslides. As the human-caused climate crisis accelerates, scientists are clear that extreme weather events will only become more frequent and more intense.
x Italy is being hammered by severe weather. This was yesterday in Padova.
Dangerous hail. Video via @mimanda_piconepic.twitter.com/OYI93XfoSp â Scott Duncan (@ScottDuncanWX) July 21, 2023
x BREAKING: A Tornado has been spotted in Milan, Italy.Several people were feared dead after a tornado hit two areas in Milan, an Italian weather site said.
The storm, accompanied by wind and hail, drenched the city's north-east, flooding parts of the city. pic.twitter.com/iltSCapY7r â TheTWAAUPDATEđ (@TheTWAAPR) July 21, 2023
x When youâre out and one of these hail stones that fell in Italy today hits you or your child on the head then youâll wish youâd paid attention and realized that recycling just isnât enough. No one can say they werenât warned:
https://t.co/EulkKRKJ9H #JustStopOil pic.twitter.com/mAVuiZscyo â Matthew Todd đđ„ (@MrMatthewTodd) July 21, 2023
Twenty-three major Italian cities have been under code red emergency heat warnings, including the densely populated city of Rome. Those heatwaves continue and only add to the problem of desertification.
From Drilled News on holding the fossil fuel industry account for climate change.
Accountability Must Be The First Climate Solution
Like a lot of people in the climate space, my mind has been spinning this week as I've watched images of the entire world reeling from intense heat, flash floods, wildfires and other climate-change-intensified extreme weather events, interspersed with a sudden deluge of denialism, new and old. At the same time, I happen to be researching both the fossil fuel industry's role in expanding legal protections for "corporate free speech," which it's now trying to extend to fraud, and its role in criminalizing and otherwise suppressing actual free speech around the world. It has me thinking about something I've been on my damn soapbox about for years: accountability isn't just "a" climate solution, it actually has to be the first one. How in the world do people expect any of the other solutions to work without that one coming first? If fossil fuel companies and other polluting industries are allowed to continue to mislead the public, extract from the public, and impose their costs on the public, how will any proposed solution actually manage to solve anything? What's happening with the IRA is a really good example. It's moving the needle in a big way on the electrification of transportation and the shift toward renewable energy. But it's also sparked an absolutely enormous wave of disinformation and obstructionism, from fake activist groups battling wind farms (supposedly on behalf of whales but actually on behalf of fossil fuel companies) to old-guard climate denialists like Steve Milloy making the rounds on all the conservative talk shows to tell people that everything from wildfire smoke to extreme heat is perfectly normal...healthy even! Their efforts include a very effective re-labeling of gas as "clean energy" and the positioning of various fossil-fuel-friendly non-solutions, from waste incineration to bogus carbon capture tech as part of the transition. They seem to be pushing for a future in which for every dollar that actually moves us away from fossil fuel dependence there's one (or more!) that keeps us from moving on at all. snip Those of us who see accountability as a critical climate solution are often accused of being a hammer that sees all oil companies as nails, righteous zealots seeking only to blame and punish. That's not it at all. We are, above all, pragmatists who know that bad behavior, especially if it's profitable, never changes absent consequences. Any parent could tell you that, and frankly so could any human. When have you ever seen someone who consistently benefits from and gets away with treating others poorly have a sudden, voluntary change of heart and course correct? That goes double for companies, which are not, despite their loud protest to the contrary, people.
The Fascists have no intention of implementing the one and only GQP climate plan, which is not a plan at all, just a talking point.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/22/2182733/-Who-had-icy-rivers-flowing-through-the-streets-of-heat-ravaged-Italy-on-their-climate-Bingo-Card
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
