Something to keep in mind…
90% of the Bull kelp forests
and
96% of the red abalone
…
along The West Coast of California and Oregon
…
have been
…
eaten by red sea urchins
…
.
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THE BULL KELP FORESTS ARE DISAPPEARING
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California’s crashing kelp forest
EurekAlert 10-21-19
First the sea stars wasted to nothing. Then the purple urchins took over, eating and eating until the bull kelp forests were gone. The red abalone starved. Their fishery closed. Red sea urchins starved. Their fishery collapsed. And the ocean kept warming.
…In what could be a glimmer of hope for bull kelp forests, UC Davis researchers are working with Bay Area shellfish company Urchinomics to explore the possibility of removing purple urchins from their sea floor barrens and fattening them up for market – in short, urchin ranching.
If the resulting product gives kelp beds a chance to recover, dining on purple urchin could go beyond “sustainable seafood” to become restorative. Rogers-Bennett and UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory Director Gary Cherr will begin trials this fall to see if urchin ranching could be a viable strategy.
Crashing kelp forests
PHYS ORG 10-21-19
Bull kelp are one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, capable of growing two feet in just a day. If cooler water temperatures return, kelp could likely regrow, the study said. But with ravenous purple sea urchin teeth constantly scraping the bottom of the sea floor, the kelp cannot catch a break.
Urchins are edible. Their fleshy insides—specifically, their gonads—turn up on sushi rolls as uni. So perhaps a purple sea urchin harvest is in order? Not so fast. With so much competition from their brethren, the insides of these urchins are nearly empty. They are starving.
Climate havoc wipes out coastal kelp as SF Bay’s native fish species die off
SF Chronicle 10-22-19
Only about 10% of the historic kelp population in a 217-mile-long swath along the entire North Coast of California into Oregon still exists, Rogers-Bennett said, and the problem is spreading. About 50% of the kelp south of San Francisco, including Monterey Bay, is also gone.
That, in turn, has caused the mass starvation of red abalone and other species dependent on kelp from Baja California to Alaska. The red abalone fishery was closed in 2018 because of the die-off.
“What we’re seeing now are millions and millions of purple sea urchins, and they’re eating absolutely everything,” Rogers-Bennett said. “They can eat through all the anemones, the sponge, all the kelp, the fleshy red algae. They’re even eating through calcified alga and sand.”
Kelp also helps reduce ocean acidification, another critical issue mentioned in today’s news…
How do kelp forests change water conditions and microbial communities?
Envirobites 10-21-19
In recent decades, there has been a rising concern over the effects of ocean acidification due to global climate change. Ocean acidification is the result of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, much of which is absorbed by the ocean, resulting in a decrease in ocean pH. Why is ocean acidification a problem? Well for organisms that contain shells, such as mussels, oysters, sea urchins, and corals, it becomes harder to form shells when the pH of the ocean decreases. So many researchers have turned to kelp and other photosynthetic organisms such as sea grass, which have the effect of increasing pH
… But how much can kelp change the pH of seawater and how long will potential changes last? A recent study by Cathy Pfister from the University of Chicago and her colleagues set out to determine how giant kelp and bull kelp alter the chemistry of seawater and impact microbial communities in the Pacific Northwest. You may be thinking, why would you want to examine the microbial communities in kelp forests? The importance of microbes to ecosystems, including the human body, has increased significantly in recent years. Microbes play important roles in a variety of functions, but one that is particularly important is nutrient cycling.
Ocean acidification can cause mass extinctions, fossils reveal
The Guardian 10-21-19
A key impact of today’s climate crisis is that seas are again getting more acidic, as they absorb carbon emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Scientists said the latest research is a warning that humanity is risking potential “ecological collapse” in the oceans, which produce half the oxygen we breathe. The researchers analysed small seashells in sediment laid down shortly after a giant meteorite hit the Earth, wiping out the dinosaurs and three-quarters of marine species. Chemical analysis of the shells showed a sharp drop in the pH of the ocean in the century to the millennium after the strike. … “We show ocean acidification can precipitate ecological collapse,”
HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP
This Week’s Highlights
‘This Is Big Oil’s Big Tobacco Moment’: Trial Over ExxonMobil’s Climate Crimes Begins in New York
Common Dreams 10-22-19
Although the case isn’t directly about ExxonMobil’s contributions to the human-caused climate crisis, the state’s investigation—launched by Underwood’s predecessor Eric Schneiderman—became public in 2015, shortly after the Los Angeles Times and InsideClimate News published explosive reports detailing the company’s decades of “manufacturing doubt about the scientific consensus that its own scientists had confirmed.” “Corporate deception regarding the impact of fossil fuels on the planet is a matter of life or death,”
Adelynne Dadivas, environmental coordinator for NYPIRG, said Tuesday. “Harm to investors is one small part of the gross harm being caused, which generations to come will have to pay for. We support Attorney General Letitia James and her efforts to hold Exxon accountable for decades of attacks on the science and deception peddled to the public.”
… ExxonMobil is also named in various climate liability cases filed by cities, counties, and the state of Rhode Island that aim to make polluters pay for the local consequences of the planetary crisis, such as more devastating natural disasters and rising sea levels.
If you read nothing else read this. The report mentioned in this article is in the Wildlife & Environment section below…
Amazon rainforest ‘close to irreversible tipping point’
The Guardian 10-24-19
The report sparked controversy among climate scientists. Some believe the tipping point is still 15 to 20 years away, while others say the warning accurately reflects the danger that Bolsonaro and global heating pose to the Amazon’s survival.
… “If Bolsonaro is serious about developing the Amazon without paying any attention to sustainability or maintaining the forest’s standing, these rates would happen within his mandate,” she said.
… But Lovejoy, a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, said that de Bolle’s projection could come true because global heating, soaring deforestation and an increase in Amazon fires have created a “negative synergy” that is accelerating its destruction – citing droughts in recent years as a warning sign. “We are seeing the first flickering of that tipping,” he said. “It’s sort of like a seal trying to balance a rubber ball on its nose … the only sensible thing to do is to do some reforestation and build back that margin of safety.” … “It’s a stock, so like any stock you run it down, run it down – then suddenly you don’t have any more of it,” said de Bolle, whose brief also recommended solutions to the current crisis.
Northern peatlands may contain twice as much carbon as previously thought
EurekAlert 10-21-19
Peatlands are damp, mossy landscapes built on layers of partially decayed plants. Because the plant matter doesn’t fully break down, peat can end up storing large amounts of carbon for thousands of years — much longer than a typical forest. Yet global climate models, which scientists use to predict climate change and its impacts, rarely account for the carbon that peat and other soils absorb, store and release. “The carbon that’s underground is the least well understood pool of carbon,”
… “Before, it was just assumed that all peatlands have accumulated carbon at the same rate at the same time throughout the last few thousand years, which is a terrible assumption,” said Nichols. “The carbon accumulation rate can be wildly different from one place to another during the same point in time. Our own previous work has shown this, as well as the work of many others.”
… “The parts of the world with peat are also the parts that are warming faster than the rest of the world. What happens when you warm them up? Do they grow faster and sequester more carbon, or do they decay faster and release more?” Nichols asks.
… In general, he’s finding that peatlands are decaying faster and releasing more carbon as the planet’s thermostat climbs; climate change is disrupting natural rainfall patterns in peatlands, which can push out mosses in favor of plants such as sedges. Sedges grow and decay faster, and their roots bring oxygen deep into the layers of peat, allowing organic material to break down and release carbon that may have been stored there for millennia. In addition, humans often mine peatlands and burn the peat for fuel or use it in agriculture or horticulture. All these processes convert peatlands from absorbers of carbon to emitters,
What is the real cost of cheap Russian gas?
Climate Change News 10-22-19
One of the serious climatic problems in Yamal is gas flaring. It is barbaric and wasteful. Due to procedural imperfections, the gas is simply burned and released into the atmosphere, increasing greenhouse gas emissions. According to the World Bank, Russia is the world’s biggest gas flare emitter. In 2018, Russia accounted for nearly 21.3% of global gas flaring. In the Yamal Peninsula, there are about 1,500 such flares.
Gazprom systematically pollutes the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. In 2015, the local prosecutor’s office in Yamal increased methane emissions six-fold and carbon black emissions 37-fold. The Russian authorities are not fighting Gazprom’s environmental crimes.
The fines and warnings that Yamal prosecutors impose on Gazprom don’t have any impact on the company’s behaviour. Indigenous Finno-Ugric peoples saw their rights violated during the construction of Nord Stream 2. The gas pipeline destroyed the native Finno-Ugric lands and the Kurgalsky reserve, which is home to rare plants, mosses and bird species.
FOSSIL FUELS
The Darkest Side of Fossil-Fuel Extraction
Scientific American 10-14-19
There is growing evidence that the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) is directly linked to fossil fuel production. According to Seeding Sovereignty, “there is a direct correlation between increased rates of sexual abuse, trafficking and domestic violence against women and children in regions where fossil fuel extraction companies set up ‘man camps’ to house workers.”
The link between oil extraction and violence is there. The high rates of sex trafficking of Native women and girls is there. This connection is even understood at the level of the U.N., because the pattern has been repeated for ages all over the world, specifically in indigenous communities. The evidence exists because Native women are gathering it themselves when our institutions refuse. If you demand more data on this issue, it is there for the finding.
Banks worth $47 trillion adopt new U.N.-backed climate principles
Reuters 9-22-19
Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), Citigroup (C.N) and Barclays (BARC.L) were among 130 banks to join the new framework on the eve of a United Nations summit in New York aimed at pushing companies and governments to act quickly to avert catastrophic global warming. “These principles mean banks have to consider the impact of their loans on society – not just on their portfolio,” Simone Dettling, banking team lead for the Geneva-based United Nations Environment Finance Initiative, told Reuters.
Under pressure from investors, regulators and climate activists, some big banks have acknowledged the role lenders will need to play in a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy. Financing for oil, gas and coal projects has come under particular scrutiny as climate scientists step up calls to change the global economy’s deep reliance on fossil-fuels to avert disastrous warming.
Every one of these accidents releases methane. Methane is 100 times the strength of CO2 for the first 20 years…
After Second Deadly Crash, Regulators Say Trucks Leaking Fracked Gas Cargo Are Fine
Desmog 10-17-19
Last Friday, October 11, a “Virtual Pipeline” truck carrying compressed natural gas crashed on a highway in Orange, Massachusetts, killing the driver, leaking the potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere, and leading local authorities to evacuate nearby residents. “Let me put this in perspective, if one of these trucks blew up in the right conditions, it could destroy a neighborhood,”
… In May, DeSmog first reported the rise of these trucks, which haul gas between existing pipelines or to areas not connected to a natural gas distribution system, such as rural towns, and remote factories, universities, and hospitals.
…“There may be hundreds of these trucks crossing the country that we don’t know about, and more incidents where leakage from damage or rollover occurred that we don’t know about,”
… Two companies construct the unique carbon fiber compressed natural gas containers: California-based Quantum Fuel Systems LLC and Hexagon Lincoln LLC, out of Lincoln, Nebraska. Barton pointed out that carbon fiber is not authorized as a material for containers holding compressed natural gas under hazardous material regulations, but by obtaining the Special Permit from PHMSA these companies are able to legally manufacture these containers.
… Two of the most prominent Virtual Pipeline companies are Vermont-based NG Advantage and Xpress Natural Gas (XNG), based in Andover, Massachusetts. XNG, the energy company responsible for a late September crash near Binghamton, New York, has had 11 crashes in New York alone in just the past two years, according to data with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The same data system indicates that NG Advantage has had one crash, in Vermont, in December of 2017. The owner of the truck and trailer in the recent Massachusetts crash, according to local media, was NG Advantage. Neither XNG nor NG Advantage has responded to DeSmog’s questions about the crashes.
LEGISLATION, ELECTIONS & POLICY
The world needs a massive carbon tax in just 10 years to limit climate change, IMF says
WaPo 10-10-19
A global agreement to make fossil fuel burning more expensive is urgent and the most efficient way of fighting climate change, an International Monetary Fund study found on Thursday. … In the United States, a $75 tax would cut emissions by nearly 30 percent but would cause on average a 53 percent increase in electricity costs and a 20 percent rise for gasoline at projected 2030 prices, the analysis in the IMF’s Fiscal Monitor found. But it would also generate revenue equivalent to 1 percent of gross domestic product, an enormous amount of money that could be redistributed and, if spread equally, would end up being a fiscally progressive policy, rather than one disproportionately targeting the poor.
Exxon and Oil Sands Go on Trial in New York Climate Fraud Case
Inside Climate News 10-17-19
For years, Exxon had been using something called a proxy cost of carbon to estimate what stricter climate policies might mean for its bottom line. But as pressure from shareholders grew, a problem came sharply into focus: An internal presentation warned top executives that the way the company had been applying this proxy cost was potentially misleading. That’s because Exxon didn’t have one projected cost of carbon. It had two.
… The energy Exxon produces today is more polluting, according to the attorney general’s complaint, because the company took the potential costs of climate change less seriously than it represented to investors.
… Applying a lower estimate for carbon costs made high-polluting projects look more financially attractive, and it undermined the investment case for any project that would reduce emissions. Nowhere is this clearer than in Exxon’s tremendous investments in Canada’s oil sands, a vast expanse of low-grade hydrocarbons that now make up about 30 percent of the company’s oil reserves.
Australia is the only country using carryover climate credits, officials admit
The Guardian 10-22-19
The federal environment department says it is not aware of any countries other than Australia planning to use controversial “carryover credits” to meet international climate commitments. The comment, at a Senate estimates hearing on Monday, comes as the Morrison government rebuffs calls from international leaders, analysts and activists for it to abandon the use the credits to meet its 2030 Paris emissions goal.
The government says it has earned the right to use the credits, which represent the amount of carbon dioxide by which Australia has “beaten” the targets set under the previous international climate agreement, the Kyoto protocol. Critics say the credits do not represent the emissions reductions needed to help meet the Paris goal of limiting global heating to as close to 1.5C as possible. Instead, they say, the credits are a fudge that cuts what Australia needs to do to meet its 2030 emissions target roughly in half and that Australia can claim access to them only because it set itself unchallenging targets under the Kyoto deal.
California making $450M available in TIRCP Cycle 4 grants for rail and bus projects
Green Car Congress 10-22-19
The state of California will make available $450 million in grants to help fund rail and bus investments made by public agencies under the California Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP). Procurement of electric buses, charging systems, and associated electric bus infrastructure are eligible projects under this program, as well as leasing electric buses and/or batteries.
Eligible applicants must be public agencies, including joint powers agencies, that operate or have planning responsibility for existing or planned regularly scheduled intercity or commuter passenger rail service (and associated feeder bus service to intercity rail services), urban rail transit service, or bus or ferry transit service (including commuter bus services and vanpool services).
Interesting Analysis…
Which policy can help EVs most?
Arctic News 10-20-19
In many countries, it has been proven hard to implement policies that help electric vehicle (EVs). In France, fuel taxes have triggered huge protests. In Ecuador, huge protests followed a steep rise in fuel prices, as a result of a decision to end gasoline and diesel subsidies. An analysis conducted by Arctic-news compares eight policies on two criteria, i.e. how effective they are from a policy perspective and how popular the policies will likely be. As the image below shows, many policies are little or no better at helping EVs than continuing with business as usual (BAU).
“Tightening fuel economy standards may aim to reduce fuel use,” says Sam Carana, editor of Arctic-news, “but the Jevons paradox shows that this may lead to people buying more powerful cars, drive longer distances, etc. Moreover, it does little to help EVs, in fact, it may make it cheaper for people to keep driving fossil fuel-powered cars.
Wisconsin launches taskforce to face ‘grave threat’ of climate crisis
The Guardian 10-17-19
The Democratic governor of Wisconsin is launching a taskforce to brainstorm ways to cut climate pollution, despite inevitable pushback from the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. Tony Evers has vowed Wisconsin will meet the goals of the international Paris climate agreement, even as Donald Trump aims to leave the pact and has discounted climate science, rescinded pollution efforts and promoted fossil fuels.
…Evers is one of two dozen governors in the Climate Alliance, whose members have pledged to reduce their states’ heat-trapping pollution at least 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. Wisconsin is also trying to use only carbon-free electricity by 2050.
As Beef Comes Under Fire for Climate Impacts, the Industry Fights Back
Inside Climate News 10-21-19
In California, a state legislator introduced a bill called the California Climate-Friendly Food Program, with the goal of promoting plant-based foods in schools and reducing greenhouse gas emissions linked to livestock. Within a few months, references to climate change were stripped out of the text and title.
The bill instead became the California School Plant-Based Food and Beverage Program. On the other coast, in Maryland, the state’s Green Purchasing Committee launched the Carbon-Intensive Foods Subcommittee to study which foods have the largest carbon footprints and to steer the state away from buying those foods. The administration of Gov. Larry Hogan disbanded the committee months later. In both cases, the states’ farm and beef lobbies got their way.
THE FIRES
Global Wildfires Are Raging, Leaving Long-Lasting Damage
Truthout 10-20-19
In Greenland and Alaska, record or near-record high temperatures have contributed to the upsurge in wildfires. Similar conditions may account for what may turn out to be a record year for wildfires in Siberia, where the smoke generated by the fires is covering a land area about the size of Europe. In Brazil, however, political extremism is the culprit, not nature.
A relaxation of environmental regulations by the pro-business Jair Bolsonaro government has given ranchers and farmers license to set wildfires for purposes of converting tropical forest to agricultural use. The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) reports that, as of August, wildfires in Europe this year are occurring at a rate three times higher than the average over the past decade.
The World Wildlife Fund recently looked at the sharp uptick of wildfires in Southern Europe and concluded that 96 percent of those fires are attributable to human activity; only 4 percent are caused by natural occurrences. Drought and scorching heat, however, are fanning the flames.
THE ARCTIC
92% of Greenland’s residents believe climate change is happening
Yale Climate Connections 10-17-19
Greenland had quite the summer. It rose from peaceful obscurity to global headliner as ice melted so swiftly and massively that many were left grasping for adjectives.
… The Greenlandic way of life is close to nature. Most Greenlanders (76%) eat wild foods they hunt, fish, or gather. Nearly one-quarter went out on the sea ice in the past year. Many live within sight of a glacier. The Greenlandic Inuit have long relied on nature for their livelihoods. One resident explained, “It is really bad because my parents are fishermen. If the weather is not stable, their economy is unstable.”
… Greenlanders spoke about local impacts: “The fish factory closed down in 2012 because the sea ice from the fjord side stopped forming.” … In southern areas of Greenland, unpredictable weather and increasing storminess rank as the top concerns. “More frequent, very powerful storms are very worrisome,” said a West Sermersooq local. In the northern and eastern regions of the country, the loss and thinning of sea ice are the most vexing impacts of climate change.
A large majority (79%) of Greenland residents say they feel traveling on sea ice has become more dangerous in recent years: “Due to climate change, we get less sea ice in the winter, making it harder to make a living from [it].”
Alaska: Climate change threatens indigenous traditions
DW 10-19-19
Chuathbulak is a tiny village of less than 100 people that exists off the road system. The only way to get there is by boat or plane in the summer, and by plane or driving on frozen rivers and the tundra during the winter.
Like many rural Alaska Native communities, Chuathbulak doesn’t have a hospital, and its two grocery stores mostly stock food that doesn’t spoil because it has to be flown in. Fresh produce, like oranges or lettuce, is a rare treat. And food there typically costs four times as much as in the Lower 48 — which is what Alaskans call the rest of the US states except for Hawaii.
Though some in the local population have swapped the traditional sod houses and dog teams for frame homes, snowmobiles, motorboats and all-terrain vehicles in recent decades, most still fish, hunt and forage for their food. Just as their ancestors did. Hunter is among them, and says the traditional way of life also helps keep her grocery bills low. But she is starting to notice climate change impacting a well-practiced routine. Summers are hotter, and winters are getting warmer.
Antarctic ice cliffs may not contribute to sea-level rise as much as predicted: Study finds even the tallest ice cliffs should support their own weight rather than collapsing catastrophically.
MIT 10-21-19
“Ice shelves are about a kilometer thick, and some are the size of Texas,” says MIT graduate student Fiona Clerc. “To get into catastrophic failures of really tall ice cliffs, you would have to remove these ice shelves within hours, which seems unlikely no matter what the climate-change scenario.” If a supporting ice shelf were to melt away over a longer period of days or weeks, rather than hours, the researchers found that the remaining ice cliff wouldn’t suddenly crack and collapse under its own weight, but instead would slowly flow out, like a mountain of cold honey that’s been released from a dam.
WEATHER
Deadly typhoon forces Japan to face its vulnerability to increasingly powerful storms
Science Mag 10-22-19
Typhoon Hagibis, which pummeled Japan earlier this month and caused widespread flooding that killed at least 80, is leading the country to face some tough questions. The disaster has shown that the levees built up over decades along virtually all of Japan’s major rivers may not provide protection from the increasingly powerful storms expected to accompany climate change.
Even while construction crews are working to plug the numerous breeches in river embankments, experts and government officials are debating how to prepare for future storms. Last week, the land and infrastructure ministry announced it was forming a panel of experts to study the embankment failures and recommend remediation options. But experts are also calling for more attention to evacuation planning and long-term measures to encourage people to move off lowlands susceptible to flooding.
Sunday-Night EF3 Tornado Leaves Extensive Damage in Dallas
Category Six 10-21-19
An after-dark tornado cut a destructive path across the heart of densely populated North Dallas around 9 pm CDT Sunday night. A National Weather Service survey team found EF3 damage with the tornado, with estimated top winds of 140 mph. The City of Dallas reported in a Monday morning news release that there were no serious injuries—amazing, given the extent of damage—but the financial and emotional toll will be high. A separate EF1 tornado was confirmed in Rowlett, just east of Dallas.
September 2019: Earth’s Warmest September on Record
Scientific American 10-16-19
September 2019 was the planet’s warmest September since record keeping began in 1880, said NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) on October 16. NASA rated September 2019 as the second warmest September on record, just 0.1 degrees Centigrade behind September 2016.
Minor differences between the NOAA and NASA rankings can result because of differing techniques on how they handle data-sparse regions like the Arctic. Global ocean temperatures during September 2019 were tied for second warmest on record, according to NOAA, and global land temperatures were the warmest on record. Global satellite-measured temperatures in September 2019 for the lowest 8 km of the atmosphere were the warmest in the 42-year record, beating the previous record from 2017, according to the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) and RSS.
A Summary of U.S. State Historical Precipitation Extremes
Category Six 10-23-19
The 12-month period ending in June 2019 was the wettest year-long period on record for the contiguous United States. Contributing to this was the very wet calendar year of 2018. It was the third wettest on record (since 1895) for the contiguous U.S., surpassed only by 1973 and 1983. Eight states and the District of Columbia saw at least one site break the respective state record for most precipitation measured in a calendar year.
Tiny particles lead to brighter clouds in the tropics Global airborne mission finds a belt of particle formation is brightening clouds
Science Daily 10-16-19
When clouds loft tropical air masses higher in the atmosphere, that air can carry up gases that form into tiny particles, starting a process that may end up brightening lower-level clouds, according to a new study. Clouds alter Earth’s radiative balance, and ultimately climate, depending on how bright they are. The new paper describes a process that may occur over 40% of the Earth’s surface.
… The team observed this particle formation in the tropics over both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and their models suggest a global-scale band of new particle formation covering about 40 percent of the Earth’s surface.
… In places with cleaner air where fewer particles exist from other sources, the effect of aerosol particle formation on clouds is larger.”
… Exactly how aerosols and clouds affect radiation is a big source of uncertainty in climate models.
Can Hurricanes Trigger Earthquakes? Young Turks, Save The World Interview
Paul Beckwith 10-21-19
When Typhoon Hagibis hit Tokyo, Japan October 12th, 2019 there was a 5.7 earthquake the same day. A new paper discusses “stormquakes”, as a new discovery connecting small magnitude 3.5 earthquakes to tropical storms or nor’easters crossing “ocean banks” on continental shelves, exciting vibrations in the rock that can then propagate across entire continents.
[VIDEO] https://youtu.be/fdz6mShmh8U
. Climate warming promises more frequent extreme El Niño events
Science Daily 10-21-19
New research, based on 33 historical El Niño events from 1901 to 2017, show climate change effects have shifted the El Niño onset location from the eastern Pacific to the western Pacific and caused more frequent extreme El Niño events since the 1970’s. Continued warming over the western Pacific warm pool, driven by anthropogenic climate change, promises conditions that will trigger more extreme events in the future.
HEALTH
Stressed about climate change? Eight tips for managing eco-anxiety
New Scientist 10-20-19
Hickman also spoke of the distress experienced by school-strikers for the climate. “Some of these young people are really struggling when they go back to school and they’re met with a kind of antipathy or shaming by the school.” But the conference, which also included talks from climate scientists and environmental activists, wasn’t short of tips for managing eco-anxiety. Many stressed the benefits of agency – feeling capable of actively doing something – although there is no doubt that significant action from governments is necessary if we want to limit warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees. If you are feeling anxious about the environment, here are eight approaches for managing your eco-anxiety and feeling less hopeless. …
ADAPTION AND RESILIENCE
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard talks about the sustainability myth, the problem with Amazon—and why it’s not too late to save the planet
Fast Company 10-16-19
Patagonia has embraced and promoted the B Corporation movement, while Chouinard led such efforts as 1% for the Planet, a collective of companies that pledged to donate 1% of sales to environmental groups and has raised more than $225 million since 2002. Meanwhile, over the past 46 years, Patagonia has become a billion-dollar global brand, making it the ultimate do-good-and-do-well company. But Chouinard remains unsatisfied. The 81-year-old is more focused than ever on demonstrating, by Patagonia’s example, the lengths a company can go to protect the planet.
… We’ve made a commitment to be fossil-fuel-free by 2025. We’re invested in companies that are working on growing synthetic fibers, stuff made from plants rather than petroleum. We’re not just cleaning up our act in our own buildings and stuff; we’re going around to our suppliers and convincing them to use cleaner energy. Then we’re continuing to work on saving large areas of the planet that capture a lot of carbon. I’m personally working on a new state park down at the tip of South America, about 800,000 acres of peat bogs and swamps and 200,000 acres of sea, that sequesters more carbon than almost anywhere in the world.
Replacing coal with gas or renewables saves billions of gallons of water
Science Daily 10-21-19
The transition from coal to natural gas in the US electricity sector is reducing the industry’s water use, research finds. For every megawatt of electricity produced using natural gas instead of coal, the water withdrawn from rivers and groundwater drops by 10,500 gallons, and water consumed for cooling and other plant operations and not returned to the environment drops by 260 gallons. Switching to solar or wind power could boost these savings even more.
The Limits of Clean Energy
Foreign Policy 9-6-19
We need a rapid transition to renewables, yes—but scientists warn that we can’t keep growing energy use at existing rates. No energy is innocent. The only truly clean energy is less energy. In 2017, the World Bank released a little-noticed report that offered the first comprehensive look at this question.
It models the increase in material extraction that would be required to build enough solar and wind utilities to produce an annual output of about 7 terawatts of electricity by 2050. That’s enough to power roughly half of the global economy. By doubling the World Bank figures, we can estimate what it will take to get all the way to zero emissions—and the results are staggering: 34 million metric tons of copper, 40 million tons of lead, 50 million tons of zinc, 162 million tons of aluminum, and no less than 4.8 billion tons of iron.
In some cases, the transition to renewables will require a massive increase over existing levels of extraction. For neodymium—an essential element in wind turbines—extraction will need to rise by nearly 35 percent over current levels. Higher-end estimates reported by the World Bank suggest it could double.
… The problem here is not that we’re going to run out of key minerals—although that may indeed become a concern. The real issue is that this will exacerbate an already existing crisis of overextraction. Mining has become one of the biggest single drivers of deforestation, ecosystem collapse, and biodiversity loss around the world.
This is the report refered to in the article above…
The Growing Role of Minerals and Metals for a Low Carbon Future
World Bank June 2017
It is clear that meeting the Paris climate target of not exceeding 2 degrees Celsius (2°C) (and making best efforts to reach 1.5°C) global warming over this century will require a radical (that is, to the root) restructuring of energy supply and transmission systems globally.
Furthermore, the technologies assumed to populate the clean energy shift (wind, solar, hydrogen and electricity systems) are in fact significantly MORE material intensive in their composition than current traditional fossil-fuel-based energy supply systems. Our analysis in Chapter 2 indicates a rapid rise in demand for relevant technologies and corollary metals between reaching a 4DS and 2DS climate objective.
Relevant metals demand roughly doubles for wind and solar technologies, but the most significant upsurge occurs with energy battery storage technologies—more than a 1000 percent rise for metals required for that particular clean energy option.Key base metals including copper, silver, aluminum (bauxite), nickel, zinc, and possibly platinum, among others, are expected to benefit from a low carbon energy shift over the century.
Key rare earth metals (at least for the three technologies analyzed in depth in this study) are neodymium and indium, among others. However, the actual metals that will experience dramatic increases is unclear and extremely difficult to predict.
Industrial heating: A pollution source that deserves more attention
Yale Climate Connections 10-19-19
To warm buildings, companies may be able to transition to renewable electricity. But transforming higher-heat industrial processes is more challenging. There are clean options such as advanced solar collectors for some processes, but these technologies are often expensive, so the large energy buyers in the collaborative aim to drive down costs by coordinating their investments. Spitzer says the work is urgent because it will take time to transform the markets and scale up new solutions.
This is the coalition referred to in the above article…
RENEWABLE THERMAL COLLABORATIVE
Renewable Thermal
Energy used for heating and cooling comprises approximately 50 percent of total global final energy demand and 39 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. In the United States, heating and cooling account for more than 25 percent of total energy use across residential, commercial, and industrial sectors at a cost of $270 billion annually. Despite its large energy and carbon footprint and its significant potential to reduce carbon emissions, the use of renewable energy for heating and cooling applications, including biomass, biogas, geothermal, landfill gas, renewable electrification, renewable hydrogen, and solar thermal, has received relatively little attention compared with renewable electricity.
The US Recycling System Is Garbage
Sierra Club 6-26-19
FOR NEARLY THREE DECADES your recycling bin contained a dirty secret: Half the plastic and much of the paper you put into it did not go to your local recycling center. Instead, it was stuffed onto giant container ships and sold to China. Around 1992, US cities and trash companies started offshoring their most contaminated, least valuable “recyclables” to a China that was desperate for raw materials.
There, the dirty bales of mixed paper and plastic were processed under the laxest of environmental controls. Much of it was simply dumped, washing down rivers to feed the crisis of ocean plastic pollution. Meanwhile, America’s once-robust capability to sort, clean, and recycle its own waste deteriorated. Why invest in expensive technology and labor when the mess could easily be bundled off to China? Then in 2018, as part of a domestic crackdown on pollution, China banned imports of dirty foreign garbage.
Climate Change is a Generational Justice Issue ~ Break the silence. Empower your school to speak up for climate action.
SFCA
We are a non-partisan, grassroots, youth-adult campaign with a mission to empower schools to speak up for climate action. We advocate for elected officials to to combat the climate crisis in order to protect current and future generations. We help school boards, student councils, school environmental clubs, PTA’s, teachers’ unions, and school support organizations to pass resolutions that do 3 things:
• Drive a paradigm shift so people recognize climate change as a generational justice and equity issue.
• Clearly articulate the political will for all elected leaders, especially Members of Congress, to support or enact common-sense climate policies (such as carbon pricing, 100% clean energy policies, green infrastructure investments, and just transition plans).
• Celebrate and expand school district responses to climate change.
‘Artificial leaf’ successfully produces clean gas
Science Daily 10-21-19
A widely-used gas that is currently produced from fossil fuels can instead be made by an ‘artificial leaf’ that uses only sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, and which could eventually be used to develop a sustainable liquid fuel alternative to petrol. The carbon-neutral device sets a new benchmark in the field of solar fuels, after researchers at the University of Cambridge demonstrated that it can directly produce the gas — called syngas — in a sustainable and simple way. Rather than running on fossil fuels, the artificial leaf is powered by sunlight, although it still works efficiently on cloudy and overcast days. And unlike the current industrial processes for producing syngas, the leaf does not release any additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.
Bill McKibben on How Climate Crises and New Technologies Will Change What It Means to Be Human
Intercept 10-19-19
We have already made efforts at divestment and halting the construction of pipelines, but the next crucial area is finance: focusing on the banks and asset managers that give them the money to do what they do. It has become very clear that the only goal of the fossil fuel industry is to protect their business model at all costs, even at the cost of the planet. Major oil companies like Exxon knew about the connection between carbon emissions and climate change in the 1980s.
They knew and believed in what was coming. Instead of rationally adjusting their behavior to avoid it, they invested millions in lobbying and disinformation to ensure that the world wouldn’t do anything to make them change or stop their activities. To the extent that any fossil fuel company thinks about the long run at all — and it’s not clear that any still do — they know that their days are numbered. Renewable energy costs are plummeting, and what the industry is fighting for now is to just keep themselves going for a few more decades. Their goal is to ensure that we’re still burning a lot of oil and gas in 10 or 20 years, rather than trying to get off the stuff as fast as possible.
WILDLIFE & THE ENVIRONMENT
From: The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
”For every square yard of forest, 27 square yards of leaves and needles blanket the crowns. In addition, each summer, trees use up to 8,500 cubic yards of water per square mile, which they release into the air through transpiration. This water vapor creates new clouds that travel farther inland to release their rain. This water pump works so well that the downpours in some large areas of the world, such as the Amazon Basin, are almost as heavy thousands of miles inland as they are on the coast. The whole [transpiration] process breaks down if the coastal forests are cleared.
And, of course if, say, a large patch of rainforest was destroyed by fire, then that would also interrupt the path of transpiration and the result would be that the trees ‘upstream’ would not receive precipitation…
This is the report mentioned in the article in the This Week’s News Highlights above…
The Amazon Is a Carbon Bomb: How Can Brazil and the World Work Together to Avoid Setting It Off?
Peterson Institute for International Economics October 2019
De Bolle calculates that if the current rate of deforestation is maintained over the next few years, the Amazon would be dangerously close to the estimated “tipping point” as soon as 2021, beyond which the rainforest can no longer generate enough rain to sustain itself. The tragic fires have demonstrated that protecting the Amazon rainforest is a global cause.
The international attention provides an opportunity for the governments of Brazil and the United States to stop denying climate change and cooperate on strategies to preserve the rainforest and develop ways to sustainably use its natural resources. The international community should revive and expand the Amazon Fund to invest in ways to reduce deforestation through the possible use of payments for environmental services. Brazil should adopt and enforce regulations on land use in the Amazon region while cracking down on illegal uses, such as logging and mining, and should restore conditional rural credit policies to fight deforestation.
Farm shows the benefits of growing trees alongside livestock
Yale Climate Connections 10-16-19
Jenn Halpin is director of the Dickinson College farm in Pennsylvania, which serves as a demonstration site for silvopasture. Halpin says red oak, crabapple, and locust trees grow in the farm’s pastures. She says the team chose native species that would not only provide shade but also food for the cows. “The locusts shed pods,” she says. “The pods are a source of protein for the cattle.” But protecting young trees from the livestock has been a challenge. The students and staff put electric netting around the trees, but it collapsed under the weight of heavy snow. They had to replace it with posts and wire.
Galapagos study highlights importance of biodiversity in the face of climate change
Sciende Daily 10-17-19
As the world’s climate continues to change, biologically diverse communities may be most capable of adapting to environmental challenges.
… “Lately, there has been a lot of support in the news for maintaining biodiversity,” said study author Robert Lamb, a recent Ph.D. graduate from Brown who conducted the study as a biology graduate student. “But rarely do people explain why that is so important. This research helps show why diversity really matters: A more diverse community is more resistant to rapidly changing environmental conditions.”
Climate change throws beetles into a reproductive frenzy…
‘Hundreds of hectares of moonscape’: B.C. spruce beetle infestation used to accelerate clear cuts
Narwhal 10-16-19
The largest spruce beetle epidemic in decades is attacking B.C.’s rain-rich interior, intensifying logging in forests that provide habitat for imperilled species like mountain caribou. But scientists and ecologists say resilient trees will survive and the forest will recover if we only give it a chance.
… “Harvest operations in the region are strategically targeting stands to reduce beetle populations and still recover the economic value of the timber over the long-term,” the ministry said in an emailed statement in response to questions from The Narwhal. But scientists say you can’t log your way out of a spruce beetle eruption.
… And the science-based group Conservation North is concerned that the spruce beetle outbreak is giving logging companies license to accelerate clear-cutting in increasingly rare old-growth spruce forests like those found in the Anzac, Hominka and Table watersheds.
Climate Change Sends Beetles Into Overdrive
Science Mag 3-16-12
Call it the beetle baby boom. Climate change could be throwing common tree killers called mountain pine beetles into a reproductive frenzy. A new study suggests that some beetles living in Colorado, which normally reproduce just once annually, now churn out an extra generation of new bugs each year. And that could further devastate the region’s forests.
Large-scale afforestation of African savannas will destroy valuable ecosystems: African scientists speak out about global plans to plant trees on their continent in order to fight climate change
Science Daily 10-21-19
Using remote sensing and machine learning to estimate the amount of atmospheric carbon that could be sequestered by global tree restoration, the Bastin study highlighted large tracts of land in southern Africa — and the tropics in general — as potential sites for large scale afforestation in efforts to fight against climate change. Because the estimate of 205 gigatons of carbon was so large, in July of 2019, headlines around the world declared tree planting to be the best solution to climate change. “Firstly, their numbers are wrong,” said Professor Sally Archibald, co-author of the critique and ecologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. “It is irresponsible to give people false hope that our global change problems can be fixed in this way. Secondly, the impacts on our natural ecosystems in Africa would be devastating.”
PROTESTS • EXTINCTION REBELLION • RESISTANCE
Young Climate Activists In Africa Struggle To Be Heard
IB Times 10-20-19
“No continent will be struck as severely by the impacts of climate change as Africa,” the United Nations Environment Programme said as it warned of increased flooding, widespread food insecurity and major economic losses. But awareness remains low and a study from research institute Afrobarometer in August said that four in 10 Africans have never heard of climate change. At the Climate Chance conference in Ghana’s capital Accra this week hundreds of campaigners, local government officials and business people from across the continent sought a way forward. Togolese activist Kevin Ossah, 22, led a mock United Nations debate that pitched participants playing the role of major polluters like the United States against those set to bear the biggest burden of the crisis. He said he admires the huge crowds taking to the streets from Sydney to Stockholm, but in his West African homeland — ruled by an authoritarian regime that has cracked down on protests — that wasn’t really an option.
Fridays for Future .
Fridays for Future stages second Gulley Hall sit-in
Daily Campus 10-19-19
About 40-50 members of the University of Connecticut’s chapter of Fridays for Future held their second sit-in at Albert Gurdon Gulley Hall Friday afternoon. The sit-in was held in a conference room near UConn President Thomas Katsouleas’ office. Students sat in the room using their laptops, reading books and chatting. Harry Zehner, a fifth-semester political science major and Daily Campus opinion editor, said the sit-ins are used as a time to plan for the future. “We are using the sit-ins as a way to think about how we can move forward,” Zehner said. “We’re reading good books, educating ourselves.”
Fridays for Future march held in Kolhapur [India]
Times of India 10-18-19
He created a Fridays for Future WhatsApp Group, where he added environmentally conscious individuals to find out solutions to save the environment and what be done to curb climate change. He started created posters, short informative articles explaining what the solutions are and shared them with people. Social media tools like WhatsApp group, Facebook page helped him reach to a lot of people. After visiting different schools in the city-district and conveying the message about environmental issues through audio-visual information to institutions, including schools, colleges, companies, residential societies. A human chain was made in the city to highlight environmental issues and climate change. Many school children along with their parents created posters giving information about environmentally friendly life. The goal of this event was to raise awareness.
Greta Thunberg
Thunberg rally in Canada’s energy heartland runs into oil and gas counter-protest
Reuters 10-18-19
A crowd of several thousand led by indigenous drummers with students, young people and families marched slowly from a downtown intersection toward the Alberta legislature building. Many held banners and signs with slogans including “be a better ancestor”. Police rode on bicycles at the front and back of the throng. At the same time, the honking horns of big rig trucks blared from a nearby thoroughfare, where vehicles emblazoned with “We love Canada energy” signs were driving up and down. “I came out to show support for Greta and everyone fighting against the climate crisis,” said protester Bridget Gutteridge-Hingston, 13, who marched with her father. “It’s something I’m definitely scared of,” she said. The truck convoy organized by pro-oil group United We Roll drove from the city of Red Deer to Edmonton Friday morning to protest against what the group called foreign activists campaigning against Canada’s oil and gas industry.
Extinction Rebellion
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“CALLING ALL CONCERNED CITIZENS: TELL THE WORLD WHAT YOU KNOW”
Humanity has the know-how to avert catastrophic climate and ecological breakdown. Yet we’re failing to heed the scientific warnings and put them in place. Why aren’t we adopting emergency measures the world over? And what are the near-term consequences of inaction? Do you know something that would help reveal what’s really going on?
Good read…
Why Extinction Rebellion Might Succeed — and in Many Ways, Already Has
Truthout 10-19-19
XR co-founder Roger Hallam argues that it was an utter catastrophe that climate change was cast as a liberal or left-wing issue, because it is a universal issue of survival. XR attempts to reclaim the universality of the climate and biodiversity crises. They emphasize that both crises represent existential threats. Before launching their first actions, XR founders traveled across the U.K. giving a talk titled, “Heading for Extinction,” which lays out the scientific realities of these crises and the possibilities for using civil disobedience to avoid a catastrophic future. Their talk is designed to be universal so that youth, parents, grandparents, businessmen, hippies, liberals and conservatives are all motivated to act.
Extinction Rebellion protesters to spray paint Westminster during ‘red handed’ march
Independent 10-18-19
Extinction Rebellion is planning a “red handed” protest for the penultimate day of its latest campaign that will see it spray-paint hand prints around Westminster. The group, which launched its latest campaign 10 days ago, says it will use washable chalk spray to mark the path of its march from Whitehall Gardens to six government departments. It plans to deliver a set of specific demands to each department, decided by a series of assemblies during the “Autumn Uprising”, the organisers said. “We will raise our red hands, taking responsibility for our actions – we all have blood on our hands,” Extinction Rebellion said, adding: “We march in admission and recognition of the part we play in the injustice of this emergency, and the ongoing suffering of thousands of people around the world due to the climate and ecological breakdown.”
More amazing pictures…
London Newsletter: Days 10, 11 + 12
XR 10-17-19
We took our fearlessness from the streets to the courts, where XR lawyers applied for a judicial review of the disproportionate ban. It was accepted, which means we will now have a platform to prove the ban’s illegality. The ban has sparked a number of high profile arrests, including that of journalist George Monbiot and Green Party Councillor Jonathan Bartley.
Our sweat and tears have stretched the Overton window so wide that even elected officials are now breaking the law! We are making great strides at phenomenal speed. We should feel immensely proud. Wednesday also saw 100 celebrities – Sienna Miller, Jude Law and Mel-B among them – published an open letter, acknowledging their own hypocrisy, and imploring the media to tell the truth about the Climate and Ecological Emergency. “Thousands of ordinary people are risking their freedom by taking part in non-violent civil disobedience” it read. “We’ve been inspired by their courage to speak out and join them.
…we beg you to do the same.” To all those who have a voice, we beg you to speak out!
Celebrity Protesters and Extinction Rebellion
WSWS 10-20-19
What matters is the broad church of hypocrisy. “Like you – and everyone else – we are stuck in this fossil-fuel economy and without systemic change, our lifestyles will keep on causing climate and ecological harm.” Those behind the letter stressed the speed of change as their concern. “Climate change is happening faster and more furiously than was predicted. Millions of people are suffering, leaving their homes and arriving on our border as refugees.” Children, through the voice of Greta Thunberg, had also called upon “the people with power and influence, to stand up and fight for their already devastated future.” (Rather cocksure are these celebrities, they, who wield such, as yet unmeasured influence.)
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CLIMATE STUDIES
Climate change: Steep warming curve for Europe
PHYS ORG 10-21-19
Climate is changing: Droughts, floods, and extreme weather events influence agriculture, economies, and society. Improved adaptability of industry and society to the future climate, however, requires reliable statements on medium-term climate development, in particular for certain regions. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and partners in the MiKlip project have now developed such a model that can be used to make more precise regional climate prognoses for Europe for a period of up to ten years.
… For example, the atmosphere stores heat for a few days only, whereas sea ice stores heat for one to two years, and the ocean for up to 100 years. … According to prognoses based on current data, mean temperature in Europe may be expected to exceed the mean of the years from 1980 to 2010 by more than 1°C in the next ten years.
New study pinpoints the places most at risk on a warming planet
Grist 10-17-19
As many as five billion people will face hunger and a lack of clean water by 2050 as the warming climate disrupts pollination, freshwater, and coastal habitats, according to new research published last week in Science. People living in South Asia and Africa will bear the worst of it.
… The model looks at three specific natural systems that humans benefit from: pollination (which enables crops to grow), freshwater systems (which provide drinking water), and coastal ecosystems (which provide a buffer from storm surges and prevent erosion). Using fine-scale satellite imagery, the team of scientists mapped predicted losses to these natural systems onto human population maps. The resulting map allows you to see how many people could be impacted by environmental changes, and where.
Stanford researchers create new catalyst that can turn carbon dioxide into fuels
EurekAlert 10-20-19
Imagine grabbing carbon dioxide from car exhaust pipes and other sources and turning this main greenhouse gas into fuels like natural gas or propane: a sustainability dream come true. Several recent studies have shown some success in this conversion, but a novel approach from Stanford University engineers yields four times more ethane, propane and butane than existing methods that use similar processes. While not a climate cure-all, the advance could significantly reduce the near-term impact on global warming. “One can imagine a carbon-neutral cycle that produces fuel from carbon dioxide and then burns it, creating new carbon dioxide that then gets turned back into fuel,”
Satellite data used to calculate snow depth in mountain ranges
Science Daily 10-21-19
Bioscience engineers have developed a method to measure the snow depth in all mountain ranges in the Northern Hemisphere using satellites. This technique makes it possible to study areas that cannot be accessed for local measurements, such as the Himalayas.
Global Warnings
Paul Beckwith: “I declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face to attempt to regain system stability, or face an untenable calamity of biblical proportions.”
Kevin Hester: “There is no past analogue for the rapidity of what we are baring witness to. There has been a flood of articles … 2C is no longer attainable and that we are heading for dangerous climate change”
Magi Amma: We need to turn on a dime at mach nine!
…
Equivalencies:
• 1 gigatonne = 1 billion tons
• 1 gigatonne Carbon = 3.67 gigatonnes CO2
• 1 part per million (ppm) of atmospheric CO2 = 7.81 gigatonnes CO2
• 1 part per million of atmospheric carbon = 2.13 gigatonnes of carbon