The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has unleashed their Special Report on the impact of global warming reaching 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
“This IPCC report is set to outline a rescue plan for humanity,”
“1.5°C is the new 2°C,”
If we stick to Paris Climate Agreement commitments, we could still see a global warming of about 3°C by 2100.
1,202 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.caruna.fi/ajankohtaista/teknologian-kehittyessa-voimme-kayttaa-entista-enemman-sahkoa-paastottomasti
Tomi Engdahl says:
Greenland’s Massive Ice Melt Wasn’t Supposed To Happen Until 2070
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottsnowden/2019/08/16/greenlands-massive-ice-melt-wasnt-supposed-to-happen-until-2070/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Jennie/#6a656e6e696
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile forests could help cities cope with climate change
https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/mobile-forests-could-help-cities-cope-climate-change.html
Cities across Europe are trialling schemes such as roof gardens and ‘mobile forests’ to embed more nature into urban areas in an effort to protect their citizens from climate change events like heatwaves, floods and droughts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Forest-Dwelling Animal Populations Have Halved On Average Since 1970, Says WWF
https://www.iflscience.com/environment/forestdwelling-animal-populations-have-halved-on-average-since-1970-says-wwf/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon fires: Record number burning in Brazil rainforest – space agency
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49415973
Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has seen a record number of fires this year, according to new data from the country’s space research agency
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottsnowden/2019/08/16/greenlands-massive-ice-melt-wasnt-supposed-to-happen-until-2070/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Valerie/#76616c657269
Tomi Engdahl says:
You Probably Know The Amazon Is Burning – Here’s Why It Matters To You
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2019/08/22/you-probably-know-the-amazon-is-burningheres-why-it-matters-to-you/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Valerie/#76616c657269
According to Brazil’s space research center INPE almost 73,000 fires have been recorded so far this year.INPE is seeing an 83% increase over the same period in 2018.
NASA/Lynn Jenner
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA Say The Amazon Is Burning At Below Average Rates – Yet Many News Stories Say Record Rates – Which Is It?
https://www.science20.com/robert_walker/every_year_there_are_amazon_wildfires_not_an_all_time_record_more_in_2016_and_far_more_2005_doesnt_derail_paris
Short summary: we have had wild fires for many years now in the Amazon, even in the tropical rainforest – mainly started by humans for forest clearing and ranching. It is not enough to impact significantly on the Paris agreement pledges yet, though it is important in the long term if this continues for decades.
Tomi Engdahl says:
9 Things You Can Do About Climate Change
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2017/01/23/nine-things-you-can-do-about-climate-change/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Malorie/#67711cad680c
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA: AMAZON WILDFIRES SLIGHTLY BELOW AVERAGE RATES
https://www.thegwpf.com/nasa-amazon-wildfires-below-average-rates/?fbclid=IwAR1m87qG1RXPXlZZutobGdGQVNboikjkuI5P7RA0FVuBuF60EvcOK24atCw
Tomi Engdahl says:
Plastic Pollution Is Creating ‘Fake Pebbles’
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2019/08/21/plastic-pollution-is-creating-fake-pebbles/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Everything They Say About The Amazon, Including That It’s The “Lungs Of The World,” Is Wrong
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/08/26/why-everything-they-say-about-the-amazon-including-that-its-the-lungs-of-the-world-is-wrong/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Valerie/#76616c657269
The increase in fires burning in Brazil set off a storm of international outrage last week. Celebrities, environmentalists, and political leaders blame Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, for destroying the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, which they say is the “lungs of the world.”
And yet the photos weren’t actually of the fires and many weren’t even of the Amazon.
I was curious to hear what one of the world’s leading Amazon forest experts, Dan Nepstad, had to say about the “lungs” claim.
“It’s bullshit,” he said. “There’s no science behind that. The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen but it uses the same amount of oxygen through respiration so it’s a wash.”
Plants use respiration to convert nutrients from the soil into energy. They use photosynthesis to convert light into chemical energy, which can later be used in respiration.
“The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen, but so do soy farms and [cattle] pastures.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rakennusten purkubuumi aiheuttaa hiilipiikkejä – “Mittavakin korjaaminen on ekologisempaa kuin uuden rakentaminen”
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10938712?utm_source=facebook-share&utm_medium=social
Tomi Engdahl says:
Environmental Education Will Shape A New Generation Of Decision-Makers
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/08/25/environmental-education-will-shape-a-new-generation-of-decision-makers/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Paulie/#7061756c696
The renowned biologist Sir David Attenborough once remarked that “An understanding of the natural world is a source of not only great curiosity, but great fulfillment.”
The belief that ‘conservation starts with education’ has been firmly rooted in many programs worldwide that seek to improve environmental health as well as how people interact with nature. Usually promoted by local non-governmental organizations or private companies, environmental education has now been embraced by schools who recognize that students have much to gain by understanding sustainable development and its associated technologies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bernie Sanders’ Green Energy Dystopian Fantasy
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenrwald/2019/08/25/bernie-sanders-green-energy-dystopian-fantasy/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Paulie/#7061756c696
Tomi Engdahl says:
EPA Proposes Methane Emissions Rollback—Oil And Gas Industry Not Entirely In Favor
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/08/29/epa-proposes-methane-emissions-rollbackoil-and-gas-industry-not-entirely-in-favor/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie/#676f7264696
Methane emissions account for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gases, which the oil and gas industry is a significant contributor to.
Methane, according to scientists, is 80 times more heat-trapping over a 20 year period of being in the Earth’s atmosphere, compared to carbon dioxide over the same period.
Surprising fact: Methane emits as much greenhouse gas as 69 million cars—25% of total cars in the U.S.— according to the Wall Street Journal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Misogyny of Climate Deniers
https://newrepublic.com/article/154879/misogyny-climate-deniers
Why do right-wing men hate Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez so much? Researchers have some troubling answers to that question.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://time.com/79406/now-you-can-help-save-the-environment-by-watching-a-bunch-of-porn/
In honor of Arbor Day, an adult site will plant a tree for every 100 videos watched
Tomi Engdahl says:
The loss of trees and the sun-blotting smoke are obvious consequences of these massive fires. However, there is another problem.
The Amazon Fires Are Bad Enough – Let’s Talk About The Harmful Carbon Monoxide
http://on.forbes.com/6182EfYLQ
The Amazon fires have finally started to garner the attention of the world. The wildfires and deforestation, mostly in Brazil, are an ecological, political, and societal disaster. The rainforest ecosystem provides oxygen, takes in carbon dioxide, supplies water vapor for the global weather-climate system, and hosts untapped medicinal benefits. The loss of trees and the sun-blotting smoke are obvious consequences of these massive fires. However, there is another problem with these wildfires. They are emitting a lot of carbon monoxide. Here’s why that is a problem.
A pollutant that can travel large distances, carbon monoxide can persist in the atmosphere for about a month. At the high altitude mapped in these images, the gas has little effect on the air we breathe; however, strong winds can carry it downward to where it can significantly impact air quality. Carbon monoxide plays a role in both air pollution and climate change.
NASA JPL
Tomi Engdahl says:
Plant-Based Meat Sizzles In ‘Vegan Summer’ But Can It Build Mainstream Momentum?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2019/08/30/plant-based-meat-sizzles-in-vegan-summer-but-can-it-build-mainstream-momentum/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie/#676f7264696
As companies and fast food chains race to cash in on the buzz around vegan-friendly food, does this movement of plant-based food have momentum, or will these products remain a novelty?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Two brands sit at the heart of this craze: Beyond Meat which is stocked in over 15,000 restaurants including major chains like Dunkin’ Donuts, Carl’s Junior, Bareburger and A&W, while its main rival Impossible Foods has deals with Burger King, White Castle and Fatburger. The patties, made from ingredients including pea protein isolate, canola oil and refined coconut oil (Beyond) and Potato protein and soy-protein isolate (Impossible)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2019/08/30/plant-based-meat-sizzles-in-vegan-summer-but-can-it-build-mainstream-momentum/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie/#676f7264696
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://professorinajatuksia.blogspot.com/2019/08/suru-tieteen-puolesta.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etiikka.fi/greta-thunberg-avain-tuhoon/
Tomi Engdahl says:
“The IPCC report concludes that achieving the 1.5C goal will require global greenhouse gas emissions to start reducing almost immediately. This will require a faster switch to electricity for energy end use and for that greater electricity demand to be met by low-carbon generation, including nuclear. Nuclear generation increases, on average by around 2.5 times by 2050 in the 89 mitigation scenarios considered by the IPCC.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Category 5 Hurricane Dorian Sets Records As It Swamps Bahamas, Aims for US
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2019/09/01/category-5-hurricane-dorian-sets-records-as-it-swamps-bahamas-aims-for-us/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Jennie/#6a656e6e696
Tomi Engdahl says:
Climate Change Is Causing Europe To Warm Faster Than Anticipated
https://www.iflscience.com/environment/climate-change-is-causing-europe-to-warm-faster-than-anticipated/
After a summer packed full of record temperature highs, experts say more days with more extreme heat could become the new normal across Europe at rates faster than previous models forecasted.
summer temperature extreme highs have tripled since 1950 with an average increase of 2.3°C (4.14°F) over the last seven decades. On the other hand, winter has lost as many as half its number of extremely cold days in that same timeframe.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Forget The Amazon Hype, Fires Globally Have Declined 25% Since 2003 Thanks To Economic Growth
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/08/30/forget-the-hype-forest-fires-have-declined-25-since-2003-thanks-to-economic-growth/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Valerie/#76616c657269
Tomi Engdahl says:
Satellites Spot Almost 4,000 New Fires Just Two Days After Brazil Declares Burning Ban
https://www.iflscience.com/environment/satellites-spot-almost-4000-new-fires-just-two-days-after-brazil-declares-burning-ban/
Tomi Engdahl says:
5 Surprising Scientific Facts about Earth’s Climate
There are many environmental facts that run contrary to popular belief. Here are five of them.
https://fee.org/articles/5-surprising-scientific-facts-about-earth-s-climate/
Below are some facts—scientifically recognized and published in peer-reviewed journals—that may raise your eyebrows.
1. Climate Has Always Changed—Always
2. Temperature Increase in the Past Was Not Caused by Humans
3. The Arctic and Antarctic Are Doing Better than Ever!
4. Polar Bears and Other Species Are Not Dying But Flourishing!
5. Carbon Dioxide Is Not a Temperature Control Knob
Tomi Engdahl says:
Australian Medical Association Declares Climate Change A Health Emergency – But What Does That Mean?
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/australian-medical-association-declares-climate-change-a-health-emergency-but-what-does-that-mean/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Renewables Can’t Save the Climate
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/09/04/why-renewables-cant-save-the-climate/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Paulie/#7061756c696
Democratic presidential candidates may disagree on a lot, but they all agree that the solution to climate change is the expansion of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind.
But the centerpiece of all the Democratic candidates is renewables, upon which the candidates propose spending trillions.
Doing so, they all claim, will be good for the economy and the natural environment, including by preventing climate change.
But around the world, renewables are in crisis because they are making electricity more expensive, subsidies are expiring, and projects are being blocked by wildlife conservationists and local communities.
In Germany, the world leader in renewables, just 35 wind turbines were installed this year. The country needs to install 1,400 per year to meet its climate change targets.
“While climate activist Greta Thunberg is sailing with wind power to the Sustainability Summit in New York,” wrote Die Welt, “the German wind power industry is sailing into the doldrums.”
It’s not clear Germany can handle much more wind. Its electricity grid operator increasingly has to cut off electricity from industrial wind farms on windy, low-demand days, to avoid blow-outs.
The same is happening in California. The grid operator increasingly must pay neighboring states to take the state’s excess solar electricity, and cut off power coming from solar farms, on sunny, low-demand days.
Around the world, renewables are making electricity more expensive, despite years of promises by advocates that prices would come down.
“While I am an advocate for renewable energy, my motivation is driven by economics, not by warm and fuzzy feelings,” a renewable industry leader emailed me recently to say.
“I’ve drawn out the long term macroeconomics and come to the conclusions that you do. Essentially, the math doesn’t pencil out for wind, solar, and water,” he said.
Today, Germany spends nearly twice as much for electricity that produces 10 times more carbon emissions than France. Just 14% of Germany’s energy and 35% of its electricity in 2018 came from renewables. And Germany’s carbon emissions haven’t declined significantly since 2009.
Germany gets nearly as much of its renewable electricity from solar as it does from biomass, which a growing body of science suggests is actually more polluting and carbon-intensive than fossil fuels.
Nuclear is the only energy source that has proven capable of fully replacing fossil fuels at low-cost in wealthy nations.
While hydro-electric dams can sometimes play that role, they are limited to nations with powerful rivers, many of which have already been dammed.
The underlying problem with solar and wind is that they are too unreliable and energy-dilute.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Carbon Pollution Has Shoved The Climate Back At Least 12 Million Years, Harvard Scientist Says
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2018/01/15/carbon-pollution-has-shoved-the-climate-backward-at-least-12-million-years-harvard-scientist-says/
The level of carbon now in the atmosphere hasn’t been seen in 12 million years, a Harvard scientist said in Chicago Thursday, and this pollution is rapidly pushing the climate back to its state in the Eocene Epoch, more than 33 million years ago, when there was no ice on either pole.
People have the misapprehension that we can recover from this state just by reducing carbon emissions, Anderson said in an appearance at the University of Chicago. Recovery is all but impossible, he argued, without a World War II-style transformation of industry—an acceleration of the effort to halt carbon pollution and remove it from the atmosphere, and a new effort to reflect sunlight away from the earth’s poles.
This has do be done, Anderson added, within the next five years.
“The chance that there will be any permanent ice left in the Arctic after 2022 is essentially zero,” Anderson said, with 75 to 80 percent of permanent ice having melted already in the last 35 years.
The answer is no in part because of what scientists call feedbacks, some of the ways the earth responds to warming. Among those feedbacks is the release of methane currently trapped in permafrost and under the sea, which will exacerbate warming.
Another is the pending collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, which Anderson said will raise sea level by 7 meters (about 23 feet).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Renewables Threaten German Economy & Energy Supply, McKinsey Warns In New Report
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/09/05/renewables-threaten-german-economy-energy-supply-mckinsey-warns-in-new-report/
A new report by consulting giant McKinsey finds that Germany’s Energiewende, or energy transition to renewables, poses a significant threat to the nation’s economy and energy supply.
One of Germany’s largest newspapers, Die Welt, summarized the findings of the McKinsey report in a single word: “disastrous.”
“Problems are manifesting in all three dimensions of the energy industry triangle: climate protection, the security of supply and economic efficiency,” writes McKinsey.
“If emissions reductions continue at the same pace as they did over the past decade, then CO2 targets for 2020 will only be reached eight years later, and 2030 targets will not be reached until 2046.”
Despite much hype, Germany still generates just 35% of its electricity from renewables. And if biomass burning, often dirtier than coal, is excluded, wind, water and solar electricity in Germany accounted for just 27% of electricity generation in 2018.
For three days in June 2019, the electricity grid came close to black-outs.
“Only short-term imports from neighboring countries were able to stabilize the grid,”
“It can be assumed that security of supply will continue to worsen in the future,” says McKinsey.
Renewables are causing similarly high price shocks in other parts of the world including Texas, Australia, and California
Bloomberg News, which strongly advocates renewable energy, last week called the supply problems a “warning short to the rest of the world.”
“We have to have systems in place to make sure we still have enough generation on the grid — or else, in the best case, we have a blackout, and in the worst case, we have some kind of grid collapse,”
“The ongoing phase-out of nuclear power by the end of 2022 and the planned coal withdrawal will successively shut down further secured capacity,”
In June, Germany imported more electricity than it exported, and by 2023, Germany will become a net electricity importer, McKinsey predicted.
McKinsey worries that Germany may not be able to meet demand with imports.
German consumers have paid dearly for the energy transition. German electricity prices are 45% above the European average, McKinsey reports. Green taxes account for 54% of household electricity prices.
Among the radical changes required include building transmission lines eight times faster than they are currently being built, building new back-up power plants, and installing instruments to control electricity demand, all of which would drive electricity prices even higher.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Solar Energy Isn’t Always as Green as You Think
https://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/solar-energy-isnt-always-as-green-as-you-think
Solar panels glimmering in the sun are an icon of all that is green. But while generating electricity through photovoltaics is indeed better for the environment than burning fossil fuels, several incidents have linked the manufacture of these shining symbols of environmental virtue to a trail of chemical pollution. And it turns out that the time it takes to compensate for the energy used and the greenhouse gases emitted in photovoltaic panel production varies substantially by technology and geography.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that the industry could readily eliminate many of the damaging side effects that do exist.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Economics of Electric Vehicles Mean Oil’s Days As A Transport Fuel Are Numbered
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikescott/2019/09/02/economics-of-electric-vehicles-mean-oils-days-as-a-transport-fuel-are-numbered/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Much CO2 Does A Single Volcano Emit?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/06/06/how-much-co2-does-a-single-volcano-emit/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ruotsissa testataan ratkaisua, joka mullistaisi yhteiskunnan ja romauttaisi päästöt – ja idea voi tulla käyttöön ensimmäisenä Suomessa
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10942131
Yksi ainoa terästehdas aiheuttaa seitsemän prosenttia Suomen koko hiilijalanjäljestä.
Terästeollisuus tuottaa 7–9 prosenttia maailman hiilidioksidipäästöistä. Se on noin kolme kertaa enemmän kuin lentoliikenne maailmanlaajuisesti aiheuttaa.
Raahen terästehtaan omistava ruotsalaisyhtiö aikoo muuttaa Suomen ja Ruotsin terästuotannon kokonaan fossiilivapaaksi. Jos menetelmä osoittautuu toimivaksi ja se tulee käyttöön, Suomen päästöistä lähtisi noin seitsemän prosenttia.
Teknologia hyödyntää vetyä, ja se on sinänsä jo olemassa. Vielä on kuitenkin paljon ratkaistavia kysymyksiä. Valtava päästövähennys edellyttää etenkin sitä, että terästä valmistavat maat kuten Suomi, Ruotsi ja Kiina mullistaisivat koko sähköntuotantonsa ja sähköverkkonsa.
Vanha teknologia tuottaa enemmän hiilidioksidia kuin terästä
SSAB:n Raahen terästehdas on 7 prosentin osuudella Suomen hiilijalanjäljestä maan ylivoimaisesti suurin hiilidioksidilähde. Se on pahempi kuin Suomen kaksi seuraavaksi suurinta co2-lähdettä, Nesteen Porvoon jalostamo ja Hanasaaren B-voimalaitos yhteensä.
Toissa vuonna tehdyn selvityksen mukaan raakaraudan tuottaminen uudella menetelmällä oli 20–30 prosenttia kalliimpaa kuin hiilellä.
Sähköä vaaditaan yhden ydinvoimalan verran
Raahen tehtaan rautamäärän tuottamiseen vedyn avulla tarvitaan noin kymmenkertainen määrä sähköä nykyiseen verrattuna, eli noin 10–12 terawattituntia vuodessa. Se on noin kuudesosa koko Suomen sähköntuotannosta.
Käytännössä Ruotsin sähkö on lähes fossiilivapaata jo nyt. Suomessa 79 prosenttia sähköntuotannosta oli fossiilivapaata eli hiilidioksidineutraalia viime vuonna.
Uudessa raudantuotantoprosessissa tarvittava vety tehdään sähköllä.
Silloin kun tuulee ja paistaa, mutta kaikki uusiutuva sähkö ei mene kaupaksi, sen voisi hänen mukaansa varastoida vetyyn pilvisiä ja tuulettomia päiviä varten.
– Akkujen käyttö on hyvin kallista, joten näemme vetytekniikan tässä suhteessa mielenkiintoisena, sanoo Nordlander.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What If We Stopped Pretending?
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending
The climate apocalypse is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it.
There is infinite hope,” Kafka tells us, “only not for us.
But it seems to me, in our rapidly darkening world, that the converse of Kafka’s quip is equally true: There is no hope, except for us.
I’m talking, of course, about climate change. The struggle to rein in global carbon emissions and keep the planet from melting down has the feel of Kafka’s fiction. The goal has been clear for thirty years, and despite earnest efforts we’ve made essentially no progress toward reaching it.
there are two ways to think about this. You can keep on hoping that catastrophe is preventable, and feel ever more frustrated or enraged by the world’s inaction. Or you can accept that disaster is coming, and begin to rethink what it means to have hope.
Hardly a day seems to pass without my reading that it’s time to “roll up our sleeves” and “save the planet”; that the problem of climate change can be “solved” if we summon the collective will. Although this message was probably still true in 1988
we’ve emitted as much atmospheric carbon in the past thirty years as we did in the previous two centuries of industrialization.
Psychologically, this denial makes sense.
Given a choice between an alarming abstraction (death) and the reassuring evidence of my senses (breakfast!), my mind prefers to focus on the latter. The planet, too, is still marvelously intact, still basically normal
Other kinds of apocalypse, whether religious or thermonuclear or asteroidal, at least have the binary neatness of dying: one moment the world is there, the next moment it’s gone forever. Climate apocalypse, by contrast, is messy.
substantial proposals put forth on the issue, is still framed as our last chance to avert catastrophe and save the planet, by way of gargantuan renewable-energy projects. Many of the groups that support those proposals deploy the language of “stopping” climate change, or imply that there’s still time to prevent it. Unlike the political right, the left prides itself on listening to climate scientists
Our atmosphere and oceans can absorb only so much heat before climate change, intensified by various feedback loops, spins completely out of control. The consensus among scientists and policy-makers is that we’ll pass this point of no return if the global mean temperature rises by more than two degrees Celsius (maybe a little more, but also maybe a little less).
The I.P.C.C.—the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—tells us that, to limit the rise to less than two degrees, we not only need to reverse the trend of the past three decades. We need to approach zero net emissions, globally, in the next three decades.
This is, to say the least, a tall order. It also assumes that you trust the I.P.C.C.’s calculations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
We asked six experts how Europe’s land use needs to change to protect the planet while ensuring we have enough to eat.
https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/land-use-puts-huge-pressure-earth-s-resources-here-s-what-needs-change.html?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=share
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raportti: Ilmastonmuutokseen sopeutuminen maksaa 1 800 miljardia dollaria – Raha tulisi moninkertaisena takaisin
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10964952
Tomi Engdahl says:
If we had spend half of that on combating climate change with nuclear power plants, and decarbonisation of whole society’s we would be done by now
https://www.facebook.com/100000796986905/posts/3618065194896678/
U.S. HAS SPENT SIX TRILLION DOLLARS ON WARS THAT KILLED HALF A MILLION PEOPLE SINCE 9/11, REPORT SAYS
https://www.newsweek.com/us-spent-six-trillion-wars-killed-half-million-1215588
Tomi Engdahl says:
UK police arrest a number of climate activists planning Heathrow drone protest
https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/13/uk-police-arrest-a-number-of-climate-activists-planning-heathrow-drone-protest/?tpcc=ECFB2019
U.K. police have arrested a number of environmental activists affiliated with a group which announced last month that it would use drones to try to ground flights at the country’s busiest airport.
The group, which calls itself Heathrow Pause, is protesting against the government decision to green-light a third runway at the airport.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spend $1.8 Trillion On Climate Change Adaption Measures Today To Save $7.1 Trillion In The Future, Says Report
https://www.iflscience.com/environment/spend-18-trillion-on-climate-change-adaption-measures-today-to-save-71-trillion-in-the-future-says-report/
We need to invest $1.8 trillion on initiatives to make the world more climate change resilient by 2030 – that’s the message of a report recently published by the Global Commission Adaption, set up by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in October 2018.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/the-geological-record-suggests-a-sixth-mass-extinction-the-endguadalupian-extinction-event/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Methane leaks may soon have nowhere to hide thanks to a growing wave of private, methane-detecting satellites being placed in orbit.
Satellites Spot Carbon Pollution From Oil and Gas Wells
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/fossil-fuels/eyes-high-in-the-sky-track-carbon-pollution
Berkeley, California banned the installation of natural gas pipes to new residential construction projects last month. The city is committed to slashing its carbon footprint, and natural gas is a carbon double-whammy: when burned, it releases carbon dioxide and, when leaked, its main ingredient, methane, is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.
Several dozen California cities appear set to follow Berkeley’s lead. Which helps explain why the U.S. government’s plan to scrap mandatory monitoring for methane leaks is getting few cheers from the oil and gas industry. Paying attention to gas leaks is critical to defending their product’s social license.
Tomi Engdahl says:
With energy storage at the right price, utilities could switch to 100% renewable power. But what is that price?
How Inexpensive Must Energy Storage Be for Utilities to Switch to 100 Percent Renewables?
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/what-energy-storage-would-have-to-cost-for-a-renewable-gri
Electricity and heat production are the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Carbon-free electricity will be critical for keeping the average global temperature rise to within the United Nations’ target of 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the worst effects of climate change. As world leaders meet at the United Nations Climate Action Summit next week, boosting renewable energy and energy storage will be major priorities.
Wind and solar skeptics are quick to point out that such systems are expensive and can’t keep the lights on 24/7. The first argument is wilting as renewables become cost-competitive with fossil fuels. The second one also boils down to cost: that of energy storage, which will be essential for sending large amounts of renewable energy to the grid when needed.
“Low-cost storage is the key to enabling renewable electricity to compete with fossil fuel generated electricity on a cost basis,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eight More Effects of Climate Change: Some Surprising, Some Fatal
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2019/09/15/eight-more-surprising-and-sometimes-fatal-effects-of-climate-change/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Paulie/#7061756c696
Climate change will take its toll across the economy, in some unexpected places, a panel of experts told members of Congress last week.
Unmitigated climate change has already cost the U.S. economy $1 trillion, said economist Marshall Burke, an assistant professor of earth system science at Stanford University, and that cost will rise to $5 trillion by 2050.
1 Lost Productivity
2 Cognitive Decline
3 Violent Crime
4 Suicide
5 Civil Unrest
6 Immigration
7 Inequality
8 Insurance Collapse
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your Vegan Diet and Paper Straws Aren’t Going to Save the Planet: But These 3 Policies Can
http://on.forbes.com/6185EhbHh
Are you slurping through a paper straw, searching for the next green product that will save the planet? Sorry to let you down: it’s policy — not individual action — that has the power to help us through the other side while also stimulating the bioeconomy.
There has been a focus in recent years on the small changes we can all make to help offset the impacts of climate change. Paper straws. Plant-based beef. Bikes. Yet these lifestyle adjustments are but a drop in the warming and acidifying ocean that is climate change. It’s new policies — not new products — that are needed.
Even if a quarter of all Americans and Europeans went vegan today, the effect on overall meat consumption would pale into insignificance to the increasing demands of a burgeoning middle class in the regions that continue to witness the world’s most rapid population growth.
Similarly, we might swap plastic straws for a paper ones, feeling confident that we’re doing a great service to the planet, while being blindsided to the fact that 90 percent of plastic waste is washed into our seas from just ten rivers, all of them flowing from the same, increasingly heavily populated regions in Asia and Africa.
India generates over 57 million pounds of plastic per day. Much of it never gets collected.
When it comes to action on climate change, what’s good for the planet must also benefit the economy and the livelihoods of people, which are more often than not at the forefront of the minds of voters and can make or break a government. When oil and gas contribute over a trillion dollars annually to the US coffers alone, we must find climate-friendly, bio-based alternatives that will guide us down a more sustainable path, while maintaining prosperity.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Jeff Bezos announces the Climate Pledge, for businesses like Amazon to commit to meet the Paris Agreement’s zero-carbon goal by 2040, 10 years ahead of schedule — During a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington this morning, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos alongside former United …
Amazon signs Climate Pledge to advance Paris Climate Accords goals by 10 years
https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/19/amazon-signs-climate-pledge-to-advance-paris-climate-accords-goals-by-10-years/
Tomi Engdahl says:
“If the data center industry does not get their head around this, I believe they will be the next coal industry.”
Green Data: The Next Step to Zero-Emissions Data Centers
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/environment/green-data-the-next-step-to-zeroemissions-data-centers
Data centers consume just two to three percent of the planet’s total electricity usage. So reducing data centers’ climate footprint may not seem, at first blush, to be a high priority as world leaders gather in New York next week to consider practical climate change solutions at the UN Climate Action Summit.