A weekend in the Anthropocene-Labor Day Weekend 2020
Channel: Sean Anderson
Date: 07/09/2020

A quick rundown of some of the unfolding stories on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend 2020. This is a good representative snapshot of life in a rapidly changing, rapidly degrading ,human-dominated world.

Setting aside the issues of our global Covid-19 pandemic, associated economic implosion, and growing demands for police reform and a more inclusive society, the environment has surged into the front of everyone's minds as the thermometer exploded across most of the west. Southern California in particular has been in the grip of intense heat waves of late. This Labor Day weekend has seen multiple all-time highs across dozens of cities, including the highest temperatures ever recorded in Los Angeles (121 F = 49 C) and San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly's weather station in San Luis Obispo county; 120 F = 49 C) Counties.

Fire and heat can get caught in a feedback loop where one magnifies or further complicates the other. Our pumping of insane amounts of carbon and associated greenhouse gasses into our planetary atmosphere merged with the destruction of the natural ameliorating effects provided by an intact biosphere are clearly driving these extreme conditions and growing scale and frequently of natural disasters and stressors.

Stories here come from PBS NewsHour, KTLA 5, KPIX 5, KABC 7, and the office of California Governor Newsom, mostly recorded on Sunday, August 6, 2020 (with a few stories from the previous two weeks for context).