“You tell your boss you’re late for work because of a tomato spill on the highway. Do they believe you?”

“What’s happening in these cases is that both agricultural commodities and oil are essentially traded on world markets, which for better or worse allows a lot of flexibility.”

“Places that are accustomed to crazy heat, like Spain, well, they have a lifestyle that accommodates that — they have a siesta, they have canvas awnings over the walkways so people can have shade while they walk around, they have restaurants that are designed to let people eat in breezy spots.”

“We’re already seeing that summer really extends through the end of September, even until mid-October.”

“In the long list of factors that we all go through when we’re deciding where to go, when to go, whether to go,” Dr. Carter said, “the weather and climate change should be part of the calculus.”

“If you were in the center of town, you could look out and see the Acropolis, and in the distance you could see the red haze.”

“Even with this summer’s high tourist numbers, there are already subtle signs that the heat is driving changes that could become the future norm. Europe’s summer travel calendar has begun to stretch into the quieter (and cooler) months of April, May, September and October, while many travelers are starting to shift their itineraries northward and toward the coasts.”

It’s a doozy: European natural gas: Unlike the markets for oil and wheat, the market for gas isn’t fully global. The cheapest way to ship gas is normally via pipelines, which breaks the world into separate regional markets defined by where the pipelines run. The main alternative is to ship gas in liquefied form, which is how it gets to markets not served by pipelines, but this requires specially designed shipping and terminals, which can’t be added rapidly in a crisis.”

“If you want a historical comparison, the roughly tenfold recent surge in European gas prices dwarfs the oil price shocks of 1973-4 and 1979-80, which played a big role in the stagflation of the 1970s.”

Europe is making up for the shortfall in part by importing liquefied natural gas, especially from the United States, which produces a lot of natural gas from shale. But the capacity for L.N.G. shipments is limited, which is why U.S. natural gas prices, while up, haven’t surged nearly as much as European prices.”

https://cop27.eg/#/

“That said, macroeconomic considerations are probably secondary to the question of how Europe will cope with the extreme hardship many families will face from soaring energy bills. Governments will have to find ways of alleviating that burden — a tricky problem when they also want to preserve incentives to conserve energy. The politics of gas prices are likely to be extremely turbulent over the next few months.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/opinion/russia-ukraine-oil-gas-prices...

“Once they hit the asphalt, it’s like walking on ice.”

“Maintenance crews used a “scooper like a backhoe” to clear the roads and then tossed absorbent powder on the lanes. Mr. Jacala described the powder as “kitty litter but not as grainy.” Crews then used street sweepers, he guessed that tomatoes posed a particular hazard because they are soft, squishy and slippery.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itRFjzQICJU

“Greece is experiencing what the rest of Europe has — a record number of tourists.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-the-tomato-was-feared-in...

Stranger than fiction ;-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txfdGlxEsG8