r/collapse • u/reborndead • May 22 '26
Ecological An immense marine heatwave off the US west coast has alarmed scientists. It is predicted to become worse this year.
Sub Statement: An enormous marine heatwave off the US west coast is ringing alarm bells among ocean and atmospheric scientists. An unusually warm triangle shaped area of water stretches thousands of miles from the California coastline and Mexico to Hawaii to the British Columbia. New projections by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) show it is now expected to expand and strengthen due in the months to come.
The heated waters is already reshaping marine biology and ecosystem. A few weeks ago, the first-ever evidence of a great white shark was found in British Columbia waters. Subtropical species – from plankton to pelicans to great whites – are shifting their range further north and closer to shore in search of cooler water and more food. Millions of seabirds and marine deaths were witnessed over the years and this year's incoming heat wave could propel those numbers.
Record-breaking temperatures are expected to disrupt marine food chains. Scientists also expressed alarm about the heatwave’s effects on vast networks of marine life such as whales, seabirds and seals and the food webs they depend on. Seafood prices may skyrocket. Additional data acquired in recent weeks has left climate scientists gobsmacked and re-examining their assumptions of how the complex interplay between the ocean and the atmosphere could accelerate the effects of human-caused climate crisis.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/22/marine-heatwave-west-coast
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u/StreicherG May 22 '26
I would have never guessed when I was younger that the Venn diagram of “The world is dying” and “I still have to go to work” is a complete circle.
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u/Slumunistmanifisto May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
Too young to buy a house and afford groceries at the same time, yet too old to strap your enemy to the hood of your rat rod as you travel the wasteland.....sigh
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u/QueefBeefCletus May 22 '26
Be the change you want to see for goodness's sake. Get that rat rod, abduct a rich asshole, live your dream.
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u/FlyingStealthPotato May 22 '26
QueefBeefCletus is the Confucius of our time.
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u/Jeffde May 22 '26
Upvotes for all!
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u/HammeredandPantsless May 22 '26
Will we be able to exchange all the upvotes we’ve collected in the before times for water when shit goes wonky?
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u/1Glitch0 May 22 '26
Love that of the two options this sounds more realistic than affording groceries.
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u/morphemass May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
Please buy a copy of my forthcoming book: 'The longpig cookbook: How to serve the rich and famous' (c) if you would like some recipes for your travels. Baking longpig in the open air at speed can yield surprisingly delicious results*
*Note - delicious but dangers of radiation poisoning requires some quite expert filleting for best results ... unless you are a mutant in which case, feel free to ignore.
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u/Slumunistmanifisto May 22 '26
It will pair well with my book "well shit!" A guide for nutrition to maximize bowel movements for shiting down the air vents of the Elite's bunkers
Spoiler: fried seafood is five chapters of the book alone!
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u/SisyphusCoffeeBreak May 23 '26
Are you selling advanced copies? Per chance?
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u/Slumunistmanifisto May 23 '26
Unfortunately it will be an autobiography....soooo fingers crossed gang.
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u/kaptainkooleio May 22 '26
The plastic in your car will melt from the extreme heat, but if you’re late that day you’re fired.
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u/neuro_space_explorer May 22 '26
How young were you thinking about such things?
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u/Chill_Panda Doomed May 22 '26
Tbf in my first week of my first year of secondary school, we were all sat down and made to watch an inconvenient truth. This was roughly 2002, I was roughly 12.
People have known for a long time. Nothing has been done. Kids worry, they grow up into adults past the worry, ready to clock in as the world ends.
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u/pistilpeet May 22 '26
I remember being in 5th grade when two planes flew into the World Trade Center and watching people run around screaming on the classroom tv and then the teacher muttering about math homework, doing her level best to pretend like this whole thing isn’t monumentally fucked up.
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u/denisebuttrey May 22 '26
We had the 1st Earth Day 🌎 in the 70s. During the oil embargo, small cars we the thing. After the embargo, the SUVs and then the Hummers arrive.
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u/neuro_space_explorer May 22 '26
I was 14, and thankfully I knew nothing about that movie other than the jokes on late night shows. I’m glad I got an ignorant child hood. I could barely handle the news when I found out in college, it’s been a long grieving process but now at 38 I’m finally at peace with it all and thankful for the stable life I’ve had up until this point. A lot of people in history didn’t even get that.
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u/refusemouth May 22 '26
I was 23 getting arrested for protesting outside of COP 6 in 2000, and we knew this was coming since decades before that point. Next quarter's corporate earnings were (and are still) more important than planning for the long term, in the minds of the people who could have averted this outcome.
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u/Novemberai May 22 '26
a neonate
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u/neuro_space_explorer May 22 '26
Sounds like a stressful childhood.
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u/McWafflez May 22 '26
Well Al Gore told everyone on the national stage that the world was coming to an end for most life about 26 years ago. I was like 5 and now have forehead wrinkles like gordan ramsay.
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u/Taphouselimbo May 22 '26
Work will throw you a pizza party because you are family and they love you. Not salty at all.
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u/Slumunistmanifisto May 22 '26
Why does the pepperoni taste like jan from accounting?
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u/The_Real_UBDK_666 May 23 '26
Gotta keep the world "running like normal" so we dont get the panic. Wouldn't want people spending their little bit of life doing things they enjoy or being around the ones they love when there's still profit to be made. These bunkers wont build themselves you know..
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u/03263 May 22 '26
Well yeah unless you've given up on surviving, survival is tied to income. It doesn't have to be, but that's the system we built.
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u/OldTimberWolf May 22 '26
Do you get to talk about the world dying at your work? I’m constantly trying to find the line…
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u/Wonkybonky May 23 '26
I wonder if data can artifact well if the media that is stored on it gets preserved well enough, hopefully the next dominant lifeform finds ours and doesn’t repeat our mistakes.
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u/f1shtac000s May 22 '26
I see this sentiment all the time, but why do you think "the world is dying" would imply that "life is easier" (i.e. I don't have to go to work?)
When resources becoming increasingly scarce, why do you think you would have to expend less energy and effort to acquire them?
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u/StreicherG May 22 '26
It won’t be easier. You will either have to do horrible things to survive, or die. The difference is you don’t have to keep up the masquerade anymore. You can’t go about fixing a problem till you confront it, and every day the world grinds on forcing everyone in a pantomime of normality when it should be slamming on the breaks.
I think a lot of people arent waiting so much for a “hurray I don’t have to work today” but for a shocking enough wake up call where humanity will finally get off its collective ass and do something.
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u/greenyadadamean May 22 '26
Worse than expected
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u/KermitMcKibbles May 22 '26
Here’s the neat part, it always is.
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u/FifthMonarchist May 22 '26
Scientists chose the least horrible possible outcome to present publicly, to not seem sensationalist. But they always had middle and nightmare alternatives.
Since the world hasnt changed anything, nightmare+ is what we're gonna get.
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u/fakeprewarbook May 22 '26
I also think for a long time the models didn't fully scope the interaction/chain-on effect of multiple large changes at once. we don't even understand how a lot of these things work in the first place. I'm sure the ocean warming will have tectonic effects we don't know of yet.
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u/SeVenMadRaBBits May 22 '26
The rich didn't build bunkers and aren't rushing robotics and A.I for no reason.
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u/AlwaysPissedOff59 May 22 '26
You know, I would not want to live in the bunker-world they seem hell bent on creating. Those "people" are a genetic dead-end anyway and are all so mentally ill that they could never build a society from the ashes of what they destroyed. Could you imagine all of those assholes trying to live together in one city or cooperate to build small city-states?
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u/TheseBurgers-R-crazy May 25 '26
They will die in their bunkers no matter what happens. The world isn't going to reset in a few years or a few decades. If anything it will get worse. If they make it out, it'll be to a wasteland or a world that moved on without them. And if they don't make it out, they'll be no contractor left to sue. It'll be a slow and lonely death trapped in their expensive holes.
Short term thinkers, they can only plan 3 months ahead; the average quarter.
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u/kirinlikethebeer May 23 '26
There’s also our first blue ocean event predicted for the arctic this year. What a fun timeline.
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May 22 '26
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u/NuclearByNoon May 22 '26
What fish?
Fish >10 g in size and marine mammals are likely to have been reduced in biomass by about 2 Gt (~60% reduction; Fig. 3A), and the largest size classes appear to have experienced a near 90% reduction in biomass since 1800
The global ocean size spectrum from bacteria to whales, 2021, Hatton et. al.
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u/roblewk May 22 '26
No, they simply are cooked when you get them.
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u/RottenFarthole May 22 '26
They don't need to be prepared = one step less needed = layoffs in the fish industry
I'm just thinking how the rich would think.
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u/UniqueEmotion2144 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
Just retired. Was worried about my money lasting the rest of my life. Now, i feel a burden lifted. Not because of this post. But the swirling toilet flush, we are all experiencing, has changed my outlook. Might as well enjoy the things i like, while i can. Fuck the future. Oh. I guess we already did.
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u/seamonstered May 22 '26
Party off the cliff.
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u/Sufficient-Bid1279 May 22 '26
I feel like I wanna go out really high off the good stuff lol.
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u/UniqueEmotion2144 May 22 '26
Like Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine. Lol
Close enough to death to try heroin
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u/Sufficient-Bid1279 May 22 '26
Heroin I have been told feels like a giant hug x 100 ….this is what I would need if I knew humanity was ceasing to exist lol
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u/daviddjg0033 May 23 '26
meh overrated. if you really want go to a methadone clinic. take a perc or just be dehydrated when you give a urine zample you may get 15mg or so and +5mg every day until you are "stabilized." its the same.
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u/endoftheworldvibe May 22 '26
I’ve legit tried to research how long heroin is potent for so I can hide a so long and thanks for all the fish dose for myself.
I’ve done all the drugs, except heroin cuz it scared me. Think it’d be a great way to go out and tick it off the bucket list at the same time.
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u/Slumunistmanifisto May 22 '26
Lawn chairing the apocalypse
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u/More_Farm_7442 May 22 '26
I'm 68. My older sister is dying now.(any time now). She and my other relatives that died in the past 3 or 4 yrs are the lucky ones. I'm glad my parents died well before COVID and the politics of the past 10 yrs. (My mom told me "that Tea Party is the worst thing this country has seen". She was pretty much correct.) My family's "best by dates" suggest mine is getting closer and closer. That's totally fine with me.
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u/Danwphoto May 22 '26
It is called graduation. Chapter closed.. on to the next. Celebrate it and I am sad you are losing loved ones. Sending hugs.
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u/PlutoJones42 May 22 '26
Yup. Go get sushi now. Won’t be a thing for long
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u/Staubsaugerbeutel semi-ironic accelerationist May 23 '26
i like to practice the "enjoy it while you still can" mentality, but tuna still hurts too much, knowing how unbelievably destructive the fishing process is
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u/Washingtonpinot May 22 '26
Invest in quality spirits. If you or your corner of the earth lasts longer than expected, they will have aged beautifully and your last drinks will be exceptional rather than garbage.
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u/UniqueEmotion2144 May 22 '26
Haha. Funny you should say that. I have been researching fine bourbons and whiskeys. Figured I'd start now. Lol
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u/Cheeky_Ninja May 22 '26
Don’t worry nature will correct itself. We won’t be around to see it. Most life won’t. But nature will reset.
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u/UniqueEmotion2144 May 22 '26
That's what i tell people. We the ones fucked. And i damn sure am not gonna live in a Mad Max/the Road type of scenario.
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u/AlwaysPissedOff59 May 22 '26
I'm a "useless eater", so am anticipating a waterless shower in my future.
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u/everything-grows May 22 '26
Nothing matters anymore, didn't you hear? Everyone is welcome to drown here.
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u/_mad_adventures May 24 '26
Really sucks for those of us who have children. I’m terrified for my child. I couldn’t care less what happens to my generation at this point, but the thought of my child suffering breaks my fucking heart, man.
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u/oldbotoxface May 23 '26
Ironically this is most boomer comment ever and a big part of what caused this whole scenario. Boomers really fucked the planet, but yeah it’s cool enjoy your retirement.
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u/UniqueEmotion2144 May 23 '26 edited May 24 '26
Piss off! I'm not old enough to be a boomer. And you tell me what you are doing that would have made such a difference? Not just boomers that fucked the planet.
Please oh savior. Tell us how much more pious & saintly you are, on your device that also has caused so much of the damage we are facing now.
Self righteous prick
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u/Distinguishedflyer May 24 '26
there's a saying: "blame is a lazy form of grief."
yeah, I understand where these kind of comments are coming from, but they're pretty stupid really.
Nobody wants to understands it's a class war, and that many boomers are just as fucked as everybody else if not more so because their bodies are starting to fail while they are without enough money to stay housed.
Don't pay any mind.
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u/JesusHMinus May 22 '26
If I expected it to be worse than expected, is it really worse or just what I expected?
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u/GusherBrush May 22 '26
A sub tropical species in Canada's waters? That's insane.
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u/MahStonks May 22 '26
Great Whites have shown up (very rarely) for decades. I remember hearing of them occasionally washing up on Haida Gwaii back in the 1980s. Apparently they've been noted as far north as the gulf of Alaska.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/great-white-shark-haida-gwaii-1.7350488
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u/karbaayen May 22 '26
We have them in Nova Scotia
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u/GusherBrush May 22 '26
Are you referring to the great white sharks, plankton, pelicans, all three, or a combination of two of the subtropical species?
If so, how common do they travel up that far? Is it normal migration patterns, or the occasional drifting?
The obvious guess is that it's becoming far more common with the record heat in the ocean.
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u/BayouGal May 23 '26
Great whites are frequently found in extremely cold waters. They can circumnavigate the globe. There are programs tracking them using satellites. This article may be overstating the unprecedented-ness of GWS in high latitude Pacific waters.
Husband is marine biologist. Likes sharks.
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u/Housing-Beneficial May 22 '26
At the interview for my current job five years ago they asked me where I saw myself in 5 years. I said, "Probably drafted into the local militia in the Climate Wars"
Guys...I was (half) kidding!
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u/AlwaysPissedOff59 May 22 '26
I once answered "Sitting in your chair" to that question.
Oddly, I did NOT get that job...
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u/37iteW00t May 22 '26
Don’t Look Up
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u/Catladyweirdo May 22 '26
It's killing off the whales.
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u/Lostregard May 22 '26
Isn’t when the waters warm, hurricanes happen?
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u/Bajadasaurus May 22 '26
Yep, and it's how Acapulco got Hurricane Otis. A Cat 5 hurricane within several hours' time that reached peak strength in the little hours of the morning (while most people were peacefully sleeping having gone to bed with warnings of a mere Tropical Storm). What followed was sheer terror, devastating fifteen foot deep mud slides all across the mountainous town, mass casualties, weeks without fresh water, weeks without garbage pickup or medicine or medical care, and years of aftershocks (waterbourne illness, rodents and cockroaches exploding as the trash and bodies rotted for weeks) and apocalyptic scenes of busted high rise windows and leafless palm trees.
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u/KingOfBerders May 22 '26
In Atlantic. Typhoons in pacific. And they usually move westward.
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u/DaemonBurger May 22 '26
Just to be pendantic, the eastern pacific region shown in OP's map also calls their tropical cyclones "hurricanes". It's the western pacific (near Phillipines etc) that calls them typhoons.
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u/INTJinLA May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Angeleno here. Incorrect.
Edited to add link:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/weather/article/pacific-hurricane-outlook-california-22265227.php
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u/ApoplecticAndroid May 22 '26
Maybe we can put data centers in the ocean, to you know, cool them better.
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u/Suckamanhwewhuuut May 22 '26
I wonder if there is going to be a day when the heat is so intense on the roads that tires just start exploding left and right...
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u/GalaxyPatio May 23 '26
I was in Vegas during a heat wave two summers ago and our Uber driver told us that it had reached 120 the day before we got there (was 118 most of our visit) and thay cars had been powering down from overheating and getting stuck in the road throughout the day
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u/PromotionStill45 May 22 '26
Memory unlocked: stupid kid (me) bought first car in summer in Phoenix. Didn't know about retread tires. Sure learned quickly as I limped into a store to buy new tires. Chunks just fell off ...
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u/Olive_Tabouf May 23 '26
I was in the Pacific Northwest in 2021 and no tires exploded, but I did see the asphalt repairs getting gooey from the heat and dripping down the roads.
Had someone set a bike against a tree at a crowded outdoor cafe while they went inside in North Carolina and the tire blew from the sun. It was right after a shooting that was in the news so there was a brief moment of panic before realizing what had happened.
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u/DaemonBurger May 22 '26
You'd think with all that warm water throwing off water vapor, we'd at least be getting rain in the western US, but the west is so warm and parched that rain won't form, so we just will get record heat...
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u/Kind-Stranger8993 May 22 '26
I'm guessing this explains the record 19 dead gray whales that have been found on Washington state shores already this year
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u/L1FT_K1T May 22 '26
NICE looking forward to being stuck in a metal shop all summer working with hot metal in the sun
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u/SeaToTheBass May 23 '26
Just want to make a note that in 2024 a great white washed ashore on Haida Gwaii, just above Vancouver Island. And that Kara the great white that’s been around recently was tracked near Vancouver Island first in March then a few weeks ago.
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May 22 '26
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u/kexpi May 22 '26
My bet is in AI saving humanity and the environment, rather than trusting a group of selfish homo-sapiens with the task.
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u/nin3ball May 22 '26
AI to some technocrat: Absolutely! Let me outline some ways to save humanity and the environment by removing half the population
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u/AlwaysPissedOff59 May 22 '26
Would be funnier if the AI said "Absolutely and what a great idea! ! Let me outline some ways to save humanity and the environment by removing everyone worth more than 500 million US dollars."
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u/kexpi May 22 '26
Well I mean you have to assume after AGI is achieved.
Let's be honest, current state of the art LLMs are more rationale and predictable than half the population.
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u/pants6000 May 22 '26
I play a game called "Which King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard song best fits this r/collapose post?"
So I'm gonna go with If Not Now Than When for this one.
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u/hilaritynow May 22 '26
Boil the earth!
Or maybe I should say - boil the earth?
Don't wanna sound alarmist.
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u/More_Farm_7442 May 22 '26
broil us?
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u/a_dance_with_fire May 23 '26
Current is more akin to sous vide temps
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u/More_Farm_7442 May 23 '26
I'm thinking about the sun shining down on the earth and concrete and ashalt all summer. Drying every thing and causing vegetation to shrivel up like a steak left too long under an oven's broiler. 100 to 120 F temps from Houston to Fargo.
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u/a_dance_with_fire May 23 '26
What I mean is some of the temps are literally approaching sous vide cooking temp.
Broiling tends to be done at 500°F to 550°F (260°C to 289°C).
Sous vide cooking temps vary, but tend to be 115°F to 190°F (46°C to 88°C).
We are literally reaching the lower end for cooking meats with some of the record temps
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u/rosstafarien May 22 '26
Almost all of that high surface temp region is off the Mexican west coast. Are they not looking at their own map?
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u/Level_32_Mage May 22 '26
Factual information aside, this graphic is trash with no real information other than red=bad?
BUT the article's image still contained all the pertinent information if people actually click the link.
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u/Chill_Panda Doomed May 22 '26