[scorched]
adjective
UK /skɔːtʃt/ US /skɔːrtʃt/
slightly burned, or damaged by fire or heat
While the ice caps are melting and the oceans and seas are warming and being robbed, polluted and poisoned, also on land the humans leave a trace of destruction. Or perhaps better to say, that's where the misery begins. Because that's where humans have settled and do most of their 'ingenuity'.
The Western world should really be called the 'world of never enough'.
There where overconsumption was born. At the same time as growth for growth's sake and the 'creation of shareholder value' were invented. In other words, profits that are never high enough.
Our addiction to money is so strong, that we are prepared to exhaust the earth for it. To destroy plants and animals and to make the world of the children and grandchildren of humanity dry. And flooded. And hot. In many places even unbearably hot.
Many people even think (still!) that the consequences of global warming will not be too bad. After all, most of the earth (read: Western World) is still a nice place to live. And we are smart, a technical solution will be found that will allow us to continue living the way we are used to...
Intelligence ?
Is it logical to think you can fight a crisis with the same tools that created it? No. Not logical. But typically human.
At an artificial intelligence conference in Washington DC recently, Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt claimed that ‘we're not going to meet the climate goals anyway because we're not organised to do it’. And that we should just get on with AI, which is such a huge energy guzzler that it has forced some tech companies to abandon their climate goals. Schmidt then threw out the far-fetched idea that we should bet entirely on AI because somehow, maybe, eventually, AI will know how to ‘solve’ the climate, saying he would rather bet on AI solving the problem than making an effort to mitigate the climate crisis.
[ Link ]
Meanwhile on the already scorched earth...
...larger and larger parts of the earth are being scorched. Scorching by the ever-increasing temperatures. By spraying poison to make the yield of intensive agriculture as high as possible. And by the emission of poison and pollution into the air, land and water as a by-product of our endless consumption. Scorched by the fires that rage around the world day in and day out as a result of increasing drought. And by fires started by humans to turn even more nature into monoculture with endless fields of genetically engineered crops on exhausted, diseased soil. Crops that can and will only reach maturity if they are generously sprayed with all kinds of pesticides.
" Drought, climate-related outbreaks of bark beetle, wildfire and tree mortality from extreme heat are ravaging Europe’s woodlands on top of pressure from forestry. Across the EU, the amount of carbon absorbed by its land each year fell by about a third between 2010 and 2022, according to the latest research, endangering the continent’s climate target. "
" .... the planet’s oceans, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks absorb about half of all human emissions.
But as the Earth heats up, scientists are increasingly concerned that those crucial processes are breaking down.
In 2023, the hottest year ever recorded, preliminary findings by an international team of researchers show the amount of carbon absorbed by land has temporarily collapsed. The final result was that forest, plants and soil – as a net category – absorbed almost no carbon.
Temporary breakdown?
The 2023 breakdown of the land carbon sink could be temporary: without the pressures of drought or wildfires, land would return to absorbing carbon again. But it demonstrates the fragility of these ecosystems, with massive implications for the climate crisis.
Reaching net zero is impossible without nature. In the absence of technology that can remove atmospheric carbon on a large scale, the Earth’s vast forests, grasslands, peat bogs and oceans are the only option for absorbing human carbon pollution, which reached a record 37.4bn tonnes in 2023.
At least 118 countries are relying on the land to meet national climate targets. But rising temperatures, increased extreme weather and droughts are pushing the ecosystems into uncharted territory.
The kind of rapid land sink collapse seen in 2023 has not been factored into most climate models. If it continues, it raises the prospect of rapid global heating beyond what those models have predicted.
.... "
Read the full article here (The Guardian)
So what happens to the world if forests stop absorbing carbon?
Ask Finland...
" Natural sinks of forests and peat were key to Finland’s ambitious target to be carbon neutral by 2035. But now, the land has started emitting more greenhouse gases than it stores
....The boreal forests here in the Sami homeland take so long to grow that even small, stunted trees are often hundreds of years old. It is part of the Taiga – meaning “land of the little sticks” in Russian – that stretches around the far northern hemisphere through Siberia, Scandinavia, Alaska and Canada.
It is these forests that helped underpin the credibility of the most ambitious carbon-neutrality target in the developed world: Finland’s commitment to be carbon neutral by 2035.
The law, which came into force two years ago, means the country is aiming to reach the target 15 years earlier than many of its EU counterparts.
In a country of 5.6 million people with nearly 70% covered by forests and peatlands, many assumed the plan would not be a problem.
Carbon sink
For decades, the country’s forests and peatlands had reliably removed more carbon from the atmosphere than they released. But from about 2010, the amount the land absorbed started to decline, slowly at first, then rapidly. By 2018, Finland’s land sink – the phrase scientists use to describe something that absorbs more carbon than it releases – had vanished.
Its forest sink has declined about 90% from 2009 to 2022, with the rest of the decline fuelled by increased emissions from soil and peat. In 2021-22, Finland’s land sector was a net contributor to global heating.
The impact on Finland’s overall climate progress is dramatic: despite cutting emissions by 43% across all other sectors, its net emissions are at about the same level as the early 1990s. It is as if nothing has happened for 30 years.
We need carbon sinks
The collapse has enormous implications, not only for Finland but internationally. At least 118 countries are relying on natural carbon sinks to meet climate targets. Now, through a combination of human destruction and the climate crisis itself, some are teetering and beginning to see declines in the amount of carbon that they take in.
“We cannot achieve carbon neutrality if the land sector is a source of emissions. They have to be sinks because all emissions can’t be decreased to zero in other sectors,” says Juha Mikola...
The number of dying trees also increased in recent years as forests are stressed by drought and high temperatures. In south-east Finland, the number of dying trees has risen rapidly, increasing 788% in just six years between 2017 and 2023, and the amount of standing deadwood – decaying trees – is up by about 900%. "
Read the full article here (The Guardian)
Disclaimer
What I try to achieve with my climate and earth crisis inspired art and blog posts, is to paint a realistic picture of the state of the earth. Based on scientific publications, measurements and observations and common sense. Not colored by political considerations, profit, greed, excessive unfounded positivism or doomsday thinking, or conspiracy theories….

'A Scorched Earth' is an artwork in my collection 'Secret Places'.
Sometimes you just have to go outside, look up at the sky and scream really loud...
A cry for climate action...
Real climate action, not by accounting to zero, not by supposedly “green” facilitating that we continue to consume more and more. Real climate action is ensuring that humanity lives within the limits set by the Earth's resources and her capacity to support everything that lives.
General info on this artwork
The artwork 'A Scorched Earth' is a digital transformation of a photograph. Printed on order with high-quality ink on museum-quality, acid-free cotton/rag paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308gsm). The work comes in a limited edition of 10, signed and with a certificate of authenticity. But of course, it is also available as Open Edition print, without signature and not numbered. Available in any size you desire !
Maximum size is 150Wx150H cm / 60Wx60H inches, any size available up to that maximum. So please let me know the size you would prefer.
I start with one or more photographs made by myself to create these artworks. Then I use digital painting, color adjusting and adding and transforming multiple artistic textures and effects. I do this until there is a surreal atmosphere that touches me and tells the story I want to tell you.
Prints of are available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page. But of course I can upload any other size. Or contact me for a quote, prices starting at €55 / US$60.
Prints are also available in my Fine Art America portfolio at the artwork page.
And of course available in any size you desire !
And here are some more artworks in the Secret Places collection you might like:



ALL WE NEED IS LESS CONSUMING
Through my artworks I ask you to reflect for a moment on the nature around you, on the beautiful feeling that nature can evoke. Thus to think about your actions to support the wellbeing of the earth and everything that lives on it. And on what humanity loses when many of us continue on the destructive path of ever more greed and consuming. And please, reflect on how you can survive in this rapidly changing world…
So do you want to know your ecological footprint?
Then visit this website: https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en
And do you want to reduce your ecological footprint?
Then ask me, I will help you. For free. Or simply visit my website and choose in the menu for Your Footprint.
And if you appreciate my writings and art and want to support me, you can buy me a piece of fruit here: https://ko-fi.com/jacobberghoef, thank you 🍏 !
So are you interested in more? Then read what I wrote about System Change, Man's impact on the earth, Organic Change, Regenerative Agriculture, Regeneration
Thanks a lot Jacob for this so complete article. I personnaly don’t think we will find a solution thanks to AI, even it could worse the situation because it’s not really managed correctly and already in the hands of lobbies. Maybe it’s through personnal actions of the population we’ll improve a little this state but we already suffer from climate change with hot temperatures, unusual and violent rains… many difficulties in the future for the next generations, sad conclusion
I completely agree with you Laurence, both in terms of AI (That which makes a bucket overflow can never be the solution to an overfull bucket…) and in terms of the state of the earth. The ecological balance is already so disturbed that no one can say for sure where it will end up. We still know so little about the complex systems that any prediction borders on arrogance.
What has struck me in recent months is that calamities seem to follow at an ever-increasing rate. That this is due to more attention, we can no longer claim by now.
Thank you for your response and for sharing yor thoughts on this.
I really should publish ‘Bake and Burn’ – pretty much the same subject, Jacob.
I’ve been absent for a while due to nearly a month of family staying with us – a 90th birthday and family reunion. Of course it’s great but it does come with a cost – especially to habitual time for creativity! I’ve got a few of your posts to catch up on.
I’m glad to see you here again Anthony, and glad your absence had a positive reason. I hope you enjoyed the company. And, of course, Let us only say that the creative expressions were not lost, they were merely postponed. At least that is how I have experienced them after visits to the Netherlands…. And of course, I’m curious about the publication of that poem….
A preview, Jacob – not a positive poem when written in response to the global scorched Earth policy…
First you bake
And then you burn
Cleanse with fire
That pesky biodiversity
Get rid of wildlife in the billions
Now that’s human efficiency
That’s Anthropocenity
.
Siberia and the Tundra
Is never meant to burn
Unflared CH4 will intensify
And speed up the flames
Pine forests in northern climes
Not fire adapted, Canada and Alaska
Forests blacked and turned to smoke
Untold numbers of animals lost
Add to the megafires in Australia
In the tropics, eucalypts expected to flare
Not the rainforests of water starving
Add to the fires in Greece and Spain
Oh, and then there’s Hawaii
A whole town burns down
(becoming quite ho hum really)
No mention of the countryside
And its pesky biodiversity
That’s efficiency for you
That’s Anthropocenity…
Thank you very much for sharing Anthony. I think it is a poignant writing and, considered as a poem, a beautiful poem. It is almost impossible to write anything more positive about the earth, about nature. But that is not necessary, being realistic is much more important than being (unfounded) positive or negative.
It doesn’t look like a poem when it loses format in this reply field – but you get where it is going. It gets more specific and deliberately incendiary for obvious reasons.
I did some editing… Thanks again Anthony !
Herzlichen Dank lieber Jacob, nicht nur für Deine so ausdrucksstarke Kreation, sondern vor allem auch für Deine Schlußfolgerungen über die globale Ausbeutung der Erde durch zunehmende Gier, weltweit meines Erachtens und nicht nur durch die westliche Welt,
Lobbyisten von Gesellschaften und natürlich Politikern. Auch ich stehe KI äußerst skeptisch gegenüber, bezweifle ob Kontrolle über Mißbrauch je möglich ist, bin sogar entsetzt, wie versucht wird, deren Nutzung aufzudrängen. Meines Erachtens ist der Einsatz nur in der
Medizin et al. nutzbringend.
Weiterhin bin ich entsetzt, wieviele Menschen Vogel Strauss Politik betreiben angesichts
der seit Jahrzehnten offensichtlichen zunehmenden Häufigkeiten und Schwere der verschiedensten Katastrophen weltweit . Was also muß noch passieren, daß mehr Menschen aufwachen und mit sinnlosen Konsum und Gier aufhören !?
In der Tat, liebe Ute, ist die Gier ein Wesenszug, eine Krankheit aller Menschen, zugleich das Schwert des Henkers, das wir also selbst sind.
KI hat sicherlich gute Anwendungen, aber nicht einmal in der Medizin ohne eine Kontrolle der Ergebnisse durch Ärzte.
Am schlimmsten ist vielleicht, dass die Machthaber und Politiker die Kollateralschäden als selbstverständlich hinnehmen und die Anwendung weiterhin einführen und zwangsweise durchsetzen.
Neid und Gier werden nie aufhören, glaube ich. Sie sind zu tief in unseren Genen verankert. Die Strafe, der Fluch, der mit der einzigartigen menschlichen Fähigkeit zur Vernunft einhergeht.