Climate Change / Global Warming Discussion

[mspohr]

‘Stop setting things on fire’: nine great ideas to save the planet

‘Take the money out of politics

But now we need to stop setting things on fire, and rely instead on the fact that the good Lord put a large ball of burning gas 93m miles up in the sky, which we now have the wit to make full use of.

‘Rewild the planet

 

[mspohr]

Greta Thunberg on the climate delusion: ‘We’ve been greenwashed out of our senses. It’s time to stand our ground’

Perhaps that is partly why so many people still think of climate change as a slow, linear and even rather harmless process. But the climate is not just changing. It is destabilising. It is breaking down. The delicately balanced natural patterns and cycles that are a vital part of the systems that sustain life on Earth are being disrupted, and the consequences could be catastrophic. Because there are negative tipping points, points of no return. And we do not know exactly when we might cross them. What we do know, however, is that they are getting awfully close, even the really big ones. Transformation often starts slowly, but then it begins to accelerate.

The German oceanographer and climatologist Stefan Rahmstorf writes: “We have enough ice on Earth to raise sea levels by 65 metres – about the height of a 20-storey building – and, at the end of the last ice age, sea levels rose by 120 metres as a result of about 5C of warming.” Taken together, these figures give us a perspective on the powers we are dealing with. Sea-level rise will not remain a question of centimetres for very long.

 

[DrGriz]

Greta Thunberg on the climate delusion: ‘We’ve been greenwashed out of our senses. It’s time to stand our ground’

Perhaps that is partly why so many people still think of climate change as a slow, linear and even rather harmless process. But the climate is not just changing. It is destabilising. It is breaking down. The delicately balanced natural patterns and cycles that are a vital part of the systems that sustain life on Earth are being disrupted, and the consequences could be catastrophic. Because there are negative tipping points, points of no return. And we do not know exactly when we might cross them. What we do know, however, is that they are getting awfully close, even the really big ones. Transformation often starts slowly, but then it begins to accelerate.

The German oceanographer and climatologist Stefan Rahmstorf writes: “We have enough ice on Earth to raise sea levels by 65 metres – about the height of a 20-storey building – and, at the end of the last ice age, sea levels rose by 120 metres as a result of about 5C of warming.” Taken together, these figures give us a perspective on the powers we are dealing with. Sea-level rise will not remain a question of centimetres for very long.

Yeah. We've passed the tipping point and it's going to avalanche.

 

[mspohr]

Greta Thunberg on the climate delusion: ‘We’ve been greenwashed out of our senses. It’s time to stand our ground’

Governments may say they’re doing all they can to halt the climate crisis. Don’t fall for it – then we might still have time to turn things around

www.theguardian.com

It is not girls who run the world. It is run by politicians, corporations and financial interests – mainly represented by white, privileged, middle-aged, straight cis men. And it turns out most of them are terribly ill suited for the job. This may not come as a big surprise. After all, the purpose of a company is not to save the world – it is to make a profit. Or, rather, it is to make as much profit as it possibly can in order to keep shareholders and market interests happy.

They say we must be able to compromise. As if the Paris agreement were not already the world’s biggest compromise. A compromise that has already locked in unimaginable amounts of suffering for the most affected people and areas. I say: “No more.” I say: “Stand your ground.” Our so-called leaders still think they can bargain with physics and negotiate with the laws of nature. They speak to flowers and forests in the language of US dollars and short-term economics. They hold up their quarterly income reports to impress the wild animals. They read stock-market analysis to the waves of the ocean, like fools.

This is an edited extract from The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg and published on 27 October by Allen Lane

 

[DrLOAC]

Some small good news. A new commercial product - carbon negative concrete bricks.

McGill alumni create world’s first carbon-negative concrete - The Tribune

After water, concrete is the most commonly used resource in the world. From the buildings we live in to the roads we drive on, nearly everything in our built environment is made from concrete. Unfortunately, it’s also the most destructive material in the world, responsible for approximately...

www.mcgilltribune.com

The novel cement-free process will help remove 330 lbs (150 kgs) of Co2 for every ton of concrete produced.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Some small good news. A new commercial product - carbon negative concrete bricks.

McGill alumni create world’s first carbon-negative concrete - The Tribune

After water, concrete is the most commonly used resource in the world. From the buildings we live in to the roads we drive on, nearly everything in our built environment is made from concrete. Unfortunately, it’s also the most destructive material in the world, responsible for approximately...

www.mcgilltribune.com

The novel cement-free process will help remove 330 lbs (150 kgs) of Co2 for every ton of concrete produced.

There’s this and I thought I saw someone making coconut based briquettes to use as heating fuel for cooking.

 

[mspohr]

Animal populations experience average decline of almost 70% since 1970, report reveals

Earth’s wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% in just under 50 years, according to a leading scientific assessment, as humans continue to clear forests, consume beyond the limits of the planet and pollute on an industrial scale. From the open ocean to tropical rainforests, the abundance of birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles is in freefall, declining on average by more than two-thirds between 1970 and 2018, according to the WWF and Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) biennial Living Planet Report.

Many scientists believe we are living through the sixth mass extinction – the largest loss of life on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs – and that it is being driven by humans. The report’s 89 authors are urging world leaders to reach an ambitious agreement at the Cop15 biodiversity summit in Canada this December and to slash carbon emissions to limit global heating to below 1.5C this decade to halt the rampant destruction of nature.

 

[DrGriz]

Many scientists believe we are living through the sixth mass extinction – the largest loss of life on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs – and that it is being driven by humans.

Of course we are.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Of course we are.

So what caused the last five?

 

[DrGriz]

So what caused the last five?

Good question. Not always known, but not humans.

The 5 (or 6) Major Mass Extinctions

A look at the 5 major mass extinction events throughout the history of life on Earth, and possibly a sixth event.

www.thoughtco.com

Continental drift, low ocean oxygen tension, meteor strikes, asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions, microbes, all mostly resulting in climate change.

 

[eevee-fan]

Good question. Not always known, but not humans.

The 5 (or 6) Major Mass Extinctions

A look at the 5 major mass extinction events throughout the history of life on Earth, and possibly a sixth event.

www.thoughtco.com

Continental drift, low ocean oxygen tension, meteor strikes, asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions, microbes, all mostly resulting in climate change.

Humanoids?

 

[ElectricIAC]

Humanoids?

This guy?

 

[eevee-fan]

This guy?

View attachment 863502

Or their wives. LOL

 

[DrGriz]

Humanoids?

Silicon-based life forms

 

[mspohr]

East Antarctic glacier melting at 70.8bn tonnes a year due to warm sea water

Melting of the floating part of the glacier does not add to sea level rise. But Stephen Rintoul, a CSIRO fellow and one of the paper’s authors, said as the ice shelf became thinner or weaker it provided less resistance to the flow of ice from Antarctica into the ocean. “It’s the ice that flows from Antarctica to the ocean that raises sea level,” he said. Rintoul said the retrograde slope beneath the Denman made it potentially unstable and at risk of irreversible retreat. He said the data – the first using measurements taken from the ocean – contributed to a growing body of scientific work suggesting east Antarctica “is likely to contribute more to sea level rise than we thought”.

 

[mspohr]

The New York Times: 20 Nations at High Risk From Global Warming Might Halt Debt Payments. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/climate/climate-disasters-poor-nations-iimf.html

WASHINGTON — Twenty countries most vulnerable to climate change are considering halting their repayment of $685 billion in collective debt, loans that they say are an “injustice,” Mohamad Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, said on Friday. When the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund conclude their annual meetings in Washington on Sunday, Mr. Nasheed said he would tell officials that the nations were weighing whether to stop payments on their debts. The finance ministers are calling instead for a debt-for-nature swap, in which part of a nation’s debt is forgiven and invested in conservation.

According to the World Bank, 58 percent of the world’s poorest countries are at risk or are in “debt distress.” At the same time, the loss and damage needs for vulnerable countries are projected in one study at $290 billion to $580 billion annually by 2030.

 

[ggies07]

The New York Times: 20 Nations at High Risk From Global Warming Might Halt Debt Payments. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/climate/climate-disasters-poor-nations-iimf.html

WASHINGTON — Twenty countries most vulnerable to climate change are considering halting their repayment of $685 billion in collective debt, loans that they say are an “injustice,” Mohamad Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, said on Friday. When the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund conclude their annual meetings in Washington on Sunday, Mr. Nasheed said he would tell officials that the nations were weighing whether to stop payments on their debts. The finance ministers are calling instead for a debt-for-nature swap, in which part of a nation’s debt is forgiven and invested in conservation.

According to the World Bank, 58 percent of the world’s poorest countries are at risk or are in “debt distress.” At the same time, the loss and damage needs for vulnerable countries are projected in one study at $290 billion to $580 billion annually by 2030.

Imagine you are paying off your house debt (mortgage) and at the same time something is slowly destroying the outside of it due to forces others are creating. Would you (you in general here) want to continue paying off the debt knowing your house will eventually be torn down?

Makes sense to me....money grabs people attention.

 

[mspohr]

US Atlantic coast now a breeding ground for supercharged hurricanes – study

The US Atlantic coast has become a breeding ground for super-charged hurricanes which are likely to batter coastal communities even harder if the world remains hooked on fossil fuels, a new study found. Global heating caused by greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil, gas and coal is the main factor contributing to increasingly severe storms and flooding affecting the American east coast over the past four decades. Rapid intensification has led to storms gathering strength so quickly it has become increasingly difficult to provide timely warnings and evacuation orders to residents.

For a storm to explode in strength or undergo rapid intensification it requires near-perfect environmental conditions that do not happen often. But the ingredients needed for this perfect storm recipe – warm ocean surface, high humidity, low wind shear and the spinning motion of air (vorticity) – have become increasingly common as greenhouse gas emissions have built up, researchers found.

Projections using several climate models suggest that the destructive trend looks set to continue unless fossil fuels are phased out. Balaguru said: “What we have seen is likely related to climate change. Natural variability does play a role, but to a lesser degree.”

 

[mspohr]

The cost to capture carbon? More water and electricity

Operating enough carbon capture to keep the climate crisis in check would double humanity’s water use, according to University of California, Berkeley researchers. Regardless of the method being used – on a power plant or capturing carbon directly from the air – more power and more water will be needed. The Cleco proposal provides an object lesson in how one solution can exacerbate another problem.

Adding the technology to power plants is expensive. Wyoming, which produces 40% of the nation’s coal, passed a law requiring electric utilities to produce some of their power from coal-burning power plants with carbon capture. So far, that’s proved unfeasible as power companies have warned the technology would probably increase water use and could increase residential electricity bills by as much as $100 a month. A study by Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology found coal plants retrofitted with carbon capture technology were three times more expensive than wind power and twice as expensive as solar.

 

[DrLOAC]

Of course we are.

So what caused the last five?

Good question. Not always known, but not humans.

The 5 (or 6) Major Mass Extinctions

A look at the 5 major mass extinction events throughout the history of life on Earth, and possibly a sixth event.

www.thoughtco.com

Continental drift, low ocean oxygen tension, meteor strikes, asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions, microbes, all mostly resulting in climate change.

It’s interesting about the Permian extinction event which was potentially started by vulcanism.

In an area known as the Siberian Traps a massive amount of magma erupted for several 100,000s years. It seems it burned through huge amounts of sediment a coal releasing massive amounts of greenhouse gases resulting in the worst extinction event.

Siberian Traps likely culprit for end-Permian extinction

MIT researchers have determined that the Siberian Traps, a massive era of volcanic activity on Earth, erupted at the right time, and for the right duration, to have been a likely trigger for the end-Permian mass extinction.

news.mit.edu

Good thing there’s no vulcanism releasing Gigatons of carbon into air today……