Collapse Catch-Up: May 14–20, 2023

Welcome to the 14th edition of Collapse Catch-Up, a weekly newsletter that catches you up on the latest signs that we are living through the collapse of global industrial civilization.

This week we have news about catastrophic floods in Italy and Somalia, lakes drying up faster than expected, the planet approaching 1.5°C of warming, Biden breaking his climate promises, people struggling to afford food, signs that we’re in the worst mass extinction event in Earth’s history, and much more. Let’s dive in…

Extreme Weather

Catastrophic floods in Italy have left at least 14 people dead and forced 13,000 people to leave their homes. Heavy downpours caused rivers to overflow, leading to flooding in at least 36 towns. Some areas received as much as 20 inches of rain (half the average annual rainfall) in just 24 hours. Paride Antolini, president of the geologists’ guild of Emilia-Rom, called the rainfall “unprecedented”.

The flooding in Italy is relatively minor compared to the flash floods in Somalia, where 250,000 people were forced to flee their homes after heavy rain caused the Shabelle River to break its banks. Somalia is suffering from its worst drought in 4 decades, so most people were caught off guard by the flooding, but long droughts can actually make flooding worse.