Henrik Bechmann (Toronto) 🇨🇦
@henrikbechmann.bsky.social
Retired software dev. I sometimes discuss City of Toronto budget design and support issues. IMO government is a collective enterprise, and should be fully transparent and forcefully managed for all, and for the health of the planet.
El Niño could push 50 million people into acute hunger before end of next year … on top of the roughly 225 million people already experiencing acute food insecurity in 45 countries. A reminder that the climate crisis is increasingly a food security crisis. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
El Niño could push 50m people into acute hunger before end of next year
UN forecasters warn of worsening conditions in 45 countries currently experiencing severe food insecurity
theguardian.com
For perspective here’s where the other recent Super El Nino’s were by now: * 1982: +0.80°C * 1997: +1.50°C * 2015: +1.44°C * 2023: +1.04°C * 2026: +2.55°C
Jeff Berardelli @weatherprof.bsky.social · 9h ago*2026 El Niño Ahead by a Mile* It’s remarkable for us scientists to witness El Niño’s evolution. If you had asked us if something like this was possible a year ago, it would have been a definitive no. But here we are… already more than 1C (& 3 months) ahead of the next strongest episode in 1997… 1/
Artificial intelligence is fueling more than half of cybercrime in Africa, enabling criminals to launch faster, more sophisticated attacks as financial losses continue to mount, a new study found
AI Now Fuels Over Half of Africa’s Cybercrime, Study Finds
Artificial intelligence is fueling more than half of cybercrime in Africa, enabling criminals to launch faster, more sophisticated attacks as financial losses continue to mount, a new study found.
bloom.bg
Time for Canada/provinces to make this possible here too. We should be allowed to have nice things that lower bills and emissions!
🇨🇦Joe Vipond🇨🇦@jvipondmd.bsky.social · 2d ago"new state laws and safety codes are reclassifying these plug-in kits as standard appliances — meaning renters can finally treat home solar like a simple toaster oven, plugging a personal power plant into any wall socket and cutting electricity bills by up to 25% with zero landlord approval."
Moderna begins first human trial of Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine reut.rs/4wIDPSe
Moderna begins first human trial of Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine
Moderna on Tuesday said it has begun its first human trial of an experimental vaccine to protect against Bundibugyo ebolavirus, a strain of Ebola that has killed more than 1,650 people so far and currently has no approved vaccine.
reut.rs
A new report says arcing from electrical equipment owned by the utility sparked the January 2025 fire that killed 19 people and destroyed thousands of homes (via LAist).
Edison equipment caused deadly Eaton Fire, LA County Fire investigators conclude
A new report says arcing from electrical equipment owned by the utility sparked the January 2025 fire that killed 19 people and destroyed thousands of homes.
n.pr
It would be really funny if in a year or two Costco starts selling Lego-like plug and play solar panels and batteries, and little tiny little grids start sprouting up across North America.
David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · yesterdayNot sure if everyone appreciates the difference. Rooftop solar hardwires into your main panel via a dedicated breaker, so it requires a permit, an installer, an electrician, and a utility agreement. Balcony solar just plugs into a wall outlet, sharing an existing circuit with no permits or rewiring.
Don't look now, but the world has now installed 3TW of solar. Took 10 years to get from 100GW to 1TW. Less than 3 years to get to 2TW. Less than 2 years to get to 3TW. Analysts expect *9TW* by 2036.
The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed
The next phase of the boom may reveal a shift in who is gaining access to the technology.
bloomberg.com
Mark Carney has: -scrapped consumer carbon tax -scrapped oil/gas emissions cap -cut $1.3B from environment Canada -weakened industrial carbon pricing -axed 2 billion trees program -approved 1M barrels/day pipeline -weakened greenwashing laws While this is happening:
One of the tragedies if global warming is that people have to see the damage themselves to believe it. By that time it's too late.
Canada's National Observer@nationalobserver.com · yesterdayOne of the clearest descriptions of climate dynamics for laypeople that you’ll ever hear: “It will inevitably get worse. It will get worse and worse and worse.”
Congo Ebola response hit by worker protests over late pay reut.rs/4fGQGgc
Congo Ebola response hit by worker protests over late pay
Ebola response workers in eastern Congo have staged protests this week to call for the government to pay salaries and allowances that they say are nearly three months overdue, as security incidents continue to hamper efforts to contain the outbreak.
reut.rs
This is the video of my presentation at Civic Tech Toronto Feb 10, 2026: "What's a normalized municipal operating budget, and why is it better" About 15 minutes plus a couple of questions. I'm told it's pretty clear. Please pass it on! 🧵 has more resources. 👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDB4...
Meetup #529 w/Henrik Bechmann: What’s a normalized municipal operating budget, and why is it better?
YouTube video by Civic Tech Toronto
youtube.com
Why it's important that historically-accurate people argue back against the silly "a GM conspiracy killed all the streetcars, just like in that movie" story.
Christof Spieler@christofspieler.bsky.social · 2d agoI think the conspiracy is comforting to people -- "a few bad guys did this." The reality -- "electeds, planners, and most of the public believed that the car was the future and rail transit was outdated" is actually more unsettling since it raises the question of what we're getting wrong now.
I'm a full Professor of Immunology and fully vaccinated. I didn't get vaccinated out of obedience, but after decades of studying the immune system and evaluating all evidence. Calling that "lack of critical thinking" is not an argument. It's ideology masked as pretend intellect.
I worked for New York’s largest medical center at the start of the pandemic. There were morgue trucks on the streets. They set up emergency medical tents in Central Park. Healthcare worker colleagues died. It is horrific that RFK Jr is on national TV lying that ICUs were empty.
Prof Van Vuuren is the climate scientist most cited by the IPCC, according to an analysis of Carbon Brief’s Cosmos database. Explore the database here ⬇️ interactive.carbonbrief.org/cosmos/index...
Project Cosmos – the world’s largest database of climate change research
interactive.carbonbrief.org
Earth is now warming faster than at any point in recorded geological history - around 10 times faster than the extreme warming event 56 million years ago and 20 times faster than at the end of the last ice age. We are almost certainly in a new extinction event.
Massachusetts farm installs 832 solar panels above berry fields, and the berries grown underneath turned out sweeter and juicier and could change the future of American farming - The Economic Times share.google/GDGqQBgisqhG...
Massachusetts farm installs 832 solar panels above berry fields, and the berries grown underneath turned out sweeter and juicier and could change the future of American farming
A Massachusetts farm is integrating solar panels above berry fields. This agrivoltaics project generates electricity while shading the crops. The elevated panels create a cooler microclimate, retain...
share.google
It’s 49C in Basra, Iraq today. Coolest it will get overnight is 36C. Temperatures will top 50C next week. #Climate breakdown is already well underway. Furnace-like conditions like this will continue to spread, year after year.
I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.
I've always found Katie to be a credible source
Dale Smith@journodale.bsky.social · 3d agoKatie Simpson on Trump's MAGA base and their feelings about Canada.
EXTRAORDINARY HEAT IN MIDDLE EAST WORLD CLIMATIC HISTORY REWRITTEN 52 DEGREES AT DAY 38 AT NIGHT in Iran,Kuwait,Oman,... HUNDREDS OF RECORDS pulverized allover the area. MOST EXTREME HEAT WAVE IN WORLD HISTORY and will get worse and worse.
Yongsan broke in 3 days: Hottest July day in KOREAN HISTORY with 41.4C and that of AUGUST with 42.5C.
Extreme Temperatures Around the World@extremetemps.bsky.social · 3d agoHISTORIC HEAT IN KOREA 40C DAYTIME 30 AT NIGHT 50 HEAT INDEXES It s BY FAR the worst deadly heat wave in history. More all time records: 39.9 Jinju 39.4 Geochang 37.2 Yosu Record of hottest nights allover both Koreas. It will get worse and worse. Deadly heat 24/7.
