Is the world being destroyed?

The right wing is crazy, they are ignoring the clear science on climate change

no reputable scientific organization saying that the sea level rise will be 100 meters (they are all saying the real number is 5 meters).

The World Economy’s Supply Chain Problem Keeps Getting Worse

• Shipping shortages spark bidding wars by factory owners
• Rising costs push exporters to raise prices, stoking inflation

A supply chain crunch that was meant to be temporary now looks like it will last well into next year as the surging delta variant upends factory production in Asia and disrupts shipping, posing more shocks to the world economy.

Manufacturers reeling from shortages of key components and higher raw material and energy costs are being forced into bidding wars to get space on vessels, pushing freight rates to records and prompting some exporters to raise prices or simply cancel shipments altogether.

“We can’t get enough components, we can’t get containers, costs have been driven up tremendously,” said Christopher Tse, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based Musical Electronics Ltd., which makes consumer products from Bluetooth speakers to Rubik’s Cubes.

Tse said the cost of magnets used in the puzzle toy have risen by about 50% since March, increasing the production cost by about 7%. “I don’t know if we can make money from Rubik’s Cubes because prices keep changing.”

China’s determination to stamp out Covid has meant even a small number of cases can cause major disruptions to trade. This month the government temporarily closed part of the world’s third-busiest container port at Ningbo for two weeks after a single dockworker was found to have the delta variant. Earlier this year, wharves in Shenzhen were idled after the discovery of a handful of coronavirus cases.

“Port congestion and a shortage of container shipping capacity may last into the fourth quarter or even mid-2022,” said Hsieh Huey-chuan, president of Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corp., the world’s seventh-biggest container liner, at an investor briefing on Aug. 20. “If the pandemic cannot be effectively contained, port congestion may become a new normal.”

The cost of sending a container from Asia to Europe is about 10 times higher than in May 2020, while the cost from Shanghai to Los Angeles has grown more than sixfold, according to the Drewry World Container Index. The global supply chain has become so fragile that a single, small accident “could easily have its effects compounded,” HSBC Holdings Plc. said in a note.

Higher freight rates and semiconductor prices could feed into inflation, said Chua Hak Bin, senior economist at Maybank Kim Eng Research Pte. in Singapore. In addition, producers including Taiwan’s Giant Manufacturing Co., the world’s biggest bicycle maker, say they will raise prices to reflect the increased costs.

In the U.S., forecasters have lowered growth projections for this year and lifted inflation expectations into 2022, according to Bloomberg’s latest monthly survey of economists. Compared to a year earlier, the personal consumption expenditures price index is now expected to rise 4% in the third quarter and 4.1% in the fourth, double the Federal Reserve’s 2% goal.

Hong Kong-based coffee-machine maker Eric Chan doesn’t see the crunch easing for months as he juggles a supply line that involves hundreds of components to meet booming demand for kitchen appliances.

“We are storing up critical components for one year of usage because if we miss one component, we cannot manufacture the products,” said Chan, chief executive of Town Ray Holdings Ltd., which gets 90% of sales from household brand names in Europe.

The spread of the delta variant, especially in Southeast Asia, is making it difficult for many factories to operate at all. In Vietnam, the world’s second-largest producer of footwear and clothing, the government has ordered manufacturers to allow workers to sleep in their factories to try to keep exports moving.

Even mighty Toyota Motor Corp. is affected. The automaker warned this month it will suspend output at 14 plants across Japan and slash production by 40% due to supply disruptions including chip shortages.

On the other side of the planet, companies in the U.K. are grappling with record low levels of stock and retail selling prices are rising at the fastest pace since November 2017.

Germany’s recovery is also under threat. A key measure of business confidence in Europe’s largest economy, released on Wednesday by the Munich-based Ifo institute. fell by more than economists had predicted with the drop blamed in part on shortages for metals, plastic products and semiconductors, among other goods.

• What Bloomberg Economics Says...

"It is hard to see supply chain bottlenecks being resolved any time soon, with some major exporters including Indonesia and Vietnam still struggling to contain the delta outbreak. It could continue to drag on the global recovery by slowing production and pushing up costs, although not derailing it."

Chang Shu, chief Asia economist

At the heart of the price pressures is the transportation bottleneck.

Big retailers tend to have long-term contracts with container lines, but Asian production relies on networks of tens of thousands of small and medium-sized producers who often arrange shipping through logistics firms and freight forwarders. They in turn have been struggling to secure space for clients as vessel owners sell to the highest bidders.

Some 60% to 70% of shipping deals on the Asia-America route are done through spot or short-term deals, according to Michael Wang, an analyst at President Capital Management Corp. He said auction-style pricing may continue until Chinese New Year in February 2022.

Buyers agree. In Germany, more than half of the 3,000 firms polled by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce expected widespread supply-chain problems to persist into next year.

• ‘No Choice’

“Now container liners don’t sign long-term agreements, and most deals are done by spot prices,” said Jason Lo, CEO of Taiwanese gym equipment maker Johnson Health Tech Co. He said it was becoming impossible to estimate shipping costs and do financial planning, but “we have no choice.”

Colin Sung, general manager of Dongguan-based World-Beater International Logistics Co., said one client had more than 70 containers of goods sitting at a warehouse in Shenzhen because his American buyer didn’t want to pay the shipping cost. Sung said 60% to 70% of his clients have cut shipments due to rising costs.

• Choke on the Water

For Asian factories outside China, the problem is even worse. Many Chinese companies are willing to pay above-market rates to load their cargo, said a spokesman at HMM Co., South Korea’s biggest container line. So when the ships call at ports outside China, they’re already almost full.

Chinese companies that spent decades shifting production of lower-value components to cheaper labor markets in South and Southeast Asia now face the headache of trying to get those parts to factories where they can be assembled into finished products.

“We are talking about a lot of money just to move things around,” said Sunny Tan, executive vice president of Luen Thai International Group Ltd., which makes clothing and leather handbags for global brands.

As factories succumb to lock-downs, manufacturers are forced into a game of whac-a-mole, switching raw materials from one country to another. Some have resorted to air-freighting materials such as leather to factories to keep production lines rolling.

Meanwhile, Luen Thai’s Tan, who is also Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, is trying to figure out how he’ll fill festive display windows in time for Christmas. “I wish when shoppers see our product they give it a kiss when they realize how difficult it was just to get it to the shelf.”

CNN)Seventeen years ago, when Adriana Nichols moved from New York City to Los Angeles, she had a simple wish list: natural light (her New York studio apartment was dark), a yard and quiet neighbors. She managed to check everything off that list -- and has spent nearly two decades living in the canyons of LA.

But today, as she looks to move again with her husband, her requirements have changed.

"It is profoundly a different wish list. A place where we have [running] water, where we are not... having bags packed in case fires evacuate us," said Nichols.

In the last few years, Nichols says the California wildfires and poor air quality make living there unappealing -- and downright scary.

But she says nearly everyplace she looks to move to is experiencing some element of climate risk. And a new analysis by Redfin, a real estate brokerage, reveals more Americans are moving into areas that face the highest climate risks than ever before.

Redfin analyzed data from ClimateCheck, a real estate climate risk assessment provider, and the US Census, which showed that of the top 50 US counties facing climate risks in heat, storms, drought, flood and fire -- the majority saw an increase in population over the last five years.

Counties with homes facing the highest heat risk saw populations increase by an average of 4.7% over the last five years. Counties with homes facing high drought risk saw population growth of 3.5%, fire risk counties grew by 3%, flood 1.9%, and storm 0.4% over the last five years.

Meanwhile, places with relatively low climate risks have experienced population declines. The 50 counties with the lowest number of homes facing heat risk, for example, saw a population loss of 1.4% in the last five years, according to Redfin.

Counties around New York City and Chicago -- both in states that were already leading the US in population decline -- only lost more people during the pandemic when homebuyers left metro areas in exodus, according to Redfin.

"Counterintuitively, people are moving to places with higher climate risk," said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. "And it seems like climate, although it's something that people care about, is at the bottom of the list or it's not the top priority."

For example, migration to Wasatch County, Utah, just outside Salt Lake City, is up almost 15% in the last five years. But Wasatch County has the third-highest fire risk in the US, with 96% of the homes there at risk, according to Redfin. The area became even more popular in the last year amid the pandemic, with people looking for affordability, more space and proximity to the outdoors.

"2020 saw some of the worst wildfires we've ever seen in Utah," said Ryan Aycock, agent and market manager for Redfin in Salt Lake City. "I don't necessarily believe that it's going to slow down the people moving into the area. It's still extremely affordable. It's still a very desirable place to live compared to a lot of places."

Affordability appears to be a big factor. Of the 50 counties with the largest share of homes facing high heat and storm risk, more than half had a median sale price below the national average of $315,000, Redfin found.

'Nothing will deter them'

Williamson County, Texas -- part of the Austin metro area -- has the highest heat risk in the US, yet it's the county with the biggest growth in population, at 16.3% since 2016, according to Redfin.

"People live in San Francisco or New York for the most part because it's where they are able to advance their careers the most, but now Austin is starting to rise as a tech hub and Austin has climate risk," said Fairweather.
It's also where people are buying their second homes -- followed by Florida, where homebuyers are taking advantage of lower taxes, said Scott Durkin, CEO of Douglas Elliman.

"I think people continue to put [climate risk] in the back of their minds. I think there are people that will do anything to be on the ocean and the coast of Florida and nothing, nothing will deter them," said Durkin.

That's despite a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season last year. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting a 60% chance of an above-normal hurricane season again this year, with Florida often a target.

Still, home sales in Palm Beach and Miami, are up 270% and 133%, respectively, since last year, according to Douglas Elliman.

During the pandemic-fueled red-hot housing market, many buyers waived home inspections to beat out other buyers, according to Durkin. However, in climate temperate areas, Durkin advises against that.

"If you've got something that has the elements of the strong weather or... subject to heavy winds and waves breaking and beach erosion, you have to really think twice. You may want to get the inspection on the way in before you even negotiate, just so you know for yourself," said Durkin.

As for Nichols, she wants to be out of her Los Angeles home in a matter of months.

"It's no longer a question of, 'Where do we want to live?' The question has become, 'Where can we live in relationship to what's happening there climate wise?'" said Nichols.

You are being silly Hightor.

Did you even read this story?

If you think about it, these stories (as well the other type of porn) are real in the physical sense. The things being portrayed in porn are actually happening... but the meaning is somehow fake and if we think about it we know that the story being painted isn't quite real

You are putting this in a thread about the world being destroyed.

I promise you that in a couple of years, the covid pandemic will have played itself out, the economy will go on...

By the way, I put up an article on the Coronavirus thread which suggests that corona virus will eventually turn into something like the common cold or the flu, which we will learn to accept.

We aren't policymakers, we're not consultants, we're not public figures with wide influence. We're the same few people, identified by our avatars and (for the most part) pseudonyms, interacting via computer monitors, on a somewhat obscure message board. We can bat around ideas that would never even be presented before a legislature, let alone adopted by lawmakers and accepted by the public, maybe simply to provoke discussion or test out an idea. Seriously, I don't think this is the sort of place where pressing global issues are expected to be solved and settled.

It doesn't mean that life on Earth is ending

This doesn't mean that pollinators are going to disappear from the face of Earth ending agriculture.

This doesn't mean the end of marine life as we know it

It hurts public discourse because if everything is a world ending crisis, then nothing can be worked out calmly and nothing can be compromised.

This is discussion needs to happen publicly, and maybe here I am just practicing for a bigger stage someday.

I have never suggested that you shouldn't be allowed to post anything here.

I haven't even thumbed down any of your posts.

Do you support mine?

If you want to counter these views on a public stage you should be made aware of them. Political change is a dialectical process, after all.