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The original was posted on /r/collapse by /u/LastWeekInCollapse on 2025-08-10 10:00:09+00:00.

Faster, Larger, Longer, Worse, and More Expensive than Expected. “Are we not engineering our own disasters?”

Last Week in Collapse: August 3-9, 2025

This is Last Week in Collapse, a weekly newsletter compiling some of the most important, timely, soul-crushing, ironic, amazing, or otherwise must-see/can’t-look-away moments in Collapse.

This is the 189th weekly newsletter. You can find the July 27-August 2, 2025 edition here if you missed it last week. You can also receive these newsletters (with images) every Sunday in your email inbox by signing up to the Substack version.

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The oil giant BP made its largest oil & gas discovery in 25 years last week. The site, off the coast of Brazil, is said to allow Brazil BP to extract up to 2.5M barrels of oil, per day, once extraction has begun full tilt. Compare that to Poland’s recent oil discovery, reportedly “the largest petroleum discovery in Northern Europe in more than a decade,” which will extract ‘only’ 40,000 barrels/day when fully operational. How exactly can a petroleum company plan to go net-zero anyway?

Japan broke heat records across 17 cities on Monday. Beijing-area authorities declared the highest-level warning for flooding on Monday night. Wildfires in central Canada—sparked by lightning deep in the forest—have created serious air pollution hazards farther than New York City (metro pop: 19M) and Kansas City. A torrential flash flood in India swept away buildings, and scores of people; several are confirmed dead, with 100+ missing. The flood was reportedly caused by a melting glacier.

Scientists are warning of another “red flag for the Arctic.” This one, according to a study in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, concerns Arctic rivers in Russia, the U.S., and Canada, and their worsening imbalance of organic vs inorganic nitrogen quantities from 2003-2023. Permafrost runoff into the river watersheds is the primary reason for this. The researchers say that coastal food webs will be most impacted by the seemingly irreversible change in river chemistry.

A study in The Cryosphere concluded that the glaciers of Australia’s Heard Island, far off the coast of Antarctica, are melting faster than expected—and still accelerating. “Heard Island glacier area reduced from 289.4 ± 6.1 km2 in 1947 to 260.3 ± 6.3 km2 in 1988, further decreasing to 225.7 ± 4.2 km2 in 2019. The rate of annual glacier area loss between the two observation periods (1947–1988 and 1988–2019) almost doubled from −0.25 % to −0.43 % yr−1.”

An upcoming study in Ecological Informatics examined the ‘Cambrian Limestone Aquifer’ in Australia’s Northern Territory, an underground reserve of fresh water. The researchers concluded that “the CLA started to significantly decline after 2014” (one year after a license was granted to drill the aquifer for irrigation water) before hitting its nadir in 2021, the final year of the study’s data. They also believe that recent fracking in the region is aggravating the aquifer’s depletion. In short, “Unsustainable water management practices and the impact of drought are likely to disrupt the ecosystem services provided by interconnected water systems in much of northern Australia.”

A 2024 California dieoff of monarch butterflies was confirmed to have been caused by pesticides. Phoenix, Arizona (metro pop: 4.8M) experienced a record-hot August day, at 118 °F (47.8 °C). France’s largest wildfire in 75+ years continues to burn, although officials say it has been brought under control; the wildfire has burnt over 170 sq km of land—equivlent to a little larger than Staten Island in NYC.

California’s ‘Canyon Fire’ burning just outside LA County has grown dramatically in the past 72 hours, from 30 acres to over 5,000—equivalent to the size of 10 Disneylands, or 3 Gibraltars. Over 15,000 people have been told to evacuate. The wildfire is 0% contained as of now. Experts say that California’s wildfire season now starts more than one month earlier than it did 30 years ago—in California’s northern mountains, wildfire season begins 10 weeks sooner. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is reportedly planning on rewriting old editions of the National Climate Assessment (already taken offline) to lighten the stated risk of carbon emissions and climate change more generally.

In eastern Russia, several volcanoes have erupted, having been triggered by the 8.8 earthquake two weeks ago. Several more eruptions may follow. A new mine in Arizona exploring for critical minerals is greatly reducing well water for surrounding communities—and polluting them with chemicals like lead, iron, and sulfate.

The Australian Instittue of Marine Science released a 15-page report on Wednesday on the state of the Great Barrier Reef off the eastern coast, from August 2024 to May 2025. In a word: bad. Parts of the Reef endured the worst annual decline in coral coverage since tracking began about 40 years ago. Heat stress continues to endanger coral species, especially during prolonged periods.

“The 2024 mass coral bleaching event was the fifth mass coral bleaching event on the GBR since 2016….summer of 2024 brought multiple stressors to the GBR including cyclones, flooding and crown-of-thorns starfish, but the mass coral bleaching event was the primary source of coral mortality….In 2025, hard coral cover declined substantially across the GBR, although considerable coral cover remains in all three regions……In 2025, 48% of surveyed reefs underwent a decline in percentage coral cover, 42% showed no net change, and only 10% had an increase….Above-average water temperatures (i.e. sea-surface temperature anomalies of +1°C to +2.5°C) occurred again on the GBR during the austral summer of 2025, peaking in March….mass coral bleaching events are now occurring with increasing frequency, while recovery periods are decreasing….” -selections from the executive summary

In a moment of optimism, a study in Sustainability Science introduces the concept of “positive tipping points to accelerate low-carbon transitions.” Examples include positive social contagion, “information cascades,” and network effects (like when enough EV chargers are installed to encourage more EV purchases). More specific examples could include when solar power installation reaches a particularly cheap price point for mass adoption, or when certain regulations (like approval for installing solar panels) are simplified.

A study found that Argentina’s Perito Moreno Glacier—which remained stable for longer than many of its surrounding glaciers—“may well be on the verge of collapse.” The 30km-long glacier’s terminus has retreated 800m since 2020 in some places.

Unsurprising news of people’s growing disconnection with nature blames urbanization, the removal of wildlife in neighborhoods, and …

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