From ArsTechnica:

As the US struggles to recover from a dire infant formula shortage, the Abbott formula plant at the center of the crisis has again shut down—this time due to flooding from heavy rain on Monday.

The plant in Sturgis, Michigan, is the largest formula factory in the US and is operated by Abbott, one of the largest formula manufacturers in the county. The facility had previously shut down in February, driving a nationwide shortage of infant and specialty formulas to a critical point, but had managed to reopen on June 4.
…
In a Congressional hearing last month, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf testified that the conditions at the plant were “egregiously unsanitary” and told lawmakers that “frankly, the inspection results were shocking.”

Link: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/06/as-us-crawls-out-of-baby-formula-crisis-troubled-plant-floods-shuts-down-again/

Whether the flooding was due in part to global warming is interesting to consider. The greater issue is how moneyed interests (i.e. greed) has motivated the aggregation of critical infrastructure into larger and, as a consequence, fragile structures. Thus when it floods for whatever reason these large, critical, and fragile structures and services are easily knocked off line, adversely affecting the most vulnerable among us. Incidents like this will only increase in frequency and intensity before it (if ever) gets better.

On a personal note when my youngest daughter was a newborn she was in the hospital for a week due to salmonella poisoning. They never did discover the source, with one of the doctors attempting to blame it on us. My daughter was in intensive care for a week before she finally came home for good. Now she’s all grown up in her mid-thirties, but for those first few weeks of her newborn life it was frightening for us. We always suspected the formula she was put on as a newborn, and I always will.

And then there’s this article of global warming mayhem down in Miami via The Drive:

In the clip posted by Instagram user Florida_Corvette_Owners, 10 or more cars with six-figure price tags are presumably stranded in an underground parking garage after rainstorm flooding. The Drive staff spotted two Rolls-Royce Cullinans (one potentially a Mansory), a C7 Corvette, a Ferrari 488, a Ferrari SF90, a Ferrari Roma, a Plymouth Prowler, a McLaren SLR, and a Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series in the mix, all covered in post-flood muck. It’s painful to see it.

Link: https://www.thedrive.com/news/miami-flooding-drowned-this-entire-garage-of-supercars

Oh, those poor rich people living down in Miami! All those expensive toys that helped contribute to the very problem that just ruined them with flooding due to global warming!

Ask me if I’m feeling sorry for those poor rich people in Miami. Go ahead, just ask…

Today’s weather:

• Morning low at 6:00 am was 77° F
• Today’s high at 5:00 pm was 99° F
• Humidity was 44%
• No rain
• Mostly hazy conditions

We’ve gotten another heat advisory for Saturday 18 June from 2 pm to 8 pm. Why we didn’t get one today I don’t know.

From The Guardian:

The rapidly shrinking window of opportunity for the US to pass significant climate legislation will have mortal, as well as political, stakes. Millions of lives around the world will be saved, or lost, depending on whether America manages to propel itself towards a future without planet-heating emissions.

For the first time, researchers have calculated exactly how many people the US could save by acting on the climate crisis. A total of 7.4 million lives around the world will be saved over this century if the US manages to cut its emissions to net zero by 2050, according to the analysis.

The financial savings would be enormous, too, with a net zero America able to save the world $3.7tn in costs to adapt to the rising heat. As the world’s second largest polluter of greenhouse gases, the US and its political vagaries will in large part decide how many people in faraway countries will be subjected to deadly heat, as well as endure punishing storms, floods, drought and other consequences of the climate emergency.
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/16/us-climate-crisis-millions-lives-saved

Today’s weather:

• Morning low at 6:00 am was 77° F
• Today’s high at 5:00 pm was 96° F
• Humidity was 50%
• No rain
• Mostly clear conditions