Climate Change / Global Warming Discussion

[mspohr]

Tropical forests losing their ability to absorb carbon, study finds

Tropical forests losing their ability to absorb carbon, study finds

The Amazon could turn into a source of carbon in the atmosphere, instead of one of the biggest absorbers of the gas, as soon as the next decade, owing to the damage caused by loggers and farming interests and the impacts of the climate crisis, new research has found.

 

[ggies07]

Greta's speech yesterday at the EU.

Because nature doesn't bargain and you can not make deals with physics.

 

[ggies07]

Tropical forests losing their ability to absorb carbon, study finds

Tropical forests losing their ability to absorb carbon, study finds

The Amazon could turn into a source of carbon in the atmosphere, instead of one of the biggest absorbers of the gas, as soon as the next decade, owing to the damage caused by loggers and farming interests and the impacts of the climate crisis, new research has found.

Sobering results.....

 

[mspohr]

Sobering results.....

I think a lot of this is from destruction and this could be reversed if we stopped the destruction and allowed "re-wilding". The loss of capacity due to rising temperatures is more worrisome.

 

[Norbert]

The forests certainly need political attention and protection.

 

[Norbert]

Volkswagen strengthening its pro-EV position:

As Tesla rises, Volkswagen's largest shareholders back CEO's controversial EV push

Apart from openly supporting Diess’ efforts, the VW majority shareholders explained why the company had gone all-in on electric cars. For example, Diess has taken a strong stance against hydrogen, opting instead to focus solely on electric vehicles. According to Piëch, this is a decision that he and his cousin fully support. “The discussion about a decision for hydrogen or batteries alone is unfortunate. Hydrogen is too expensive for the foreseeable future and simply cannot be produced with sustainable energy,” he said.

 

[eevee-fan]

Because nature doesn't bargain and you can not make deals with physics.

Haha, very true. Had a powerpoint presentation that someone wanted done outdoors in full sunlight. The slides had black background and is dark in nature. Told them you cannot project black from a projector. No one listened. Then they did the dry run. Physics prevailed.

 

[mspohr]

More stupidity in Australia

Morrison government to stop funding international collaboration on shift to zero emissions

Morrison government to stop funding international collaboration on shift to zero emissions

The Morrison government has told researchers at two of Australia’s leading universities it will break a commitment to fund an international collaboration into what is required to shift to a zero emissions future.

The Australian-German Energy Transition Hub was announced in 2017 by then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and German chancellor Angela Merkel as a collaboration that would “help the technical, economic and social transition to new energy systems and a low emissions economy”.

 

[mspohr]

Climate action: the latest target of Europe's fossil fuel lobbyists

Climate action: the latest target of Europe's fossil fuel lobbyists

Billed as “Oil and Gas and the Green Deal” this dinner took place on 17 February, just a fortnight before the unveiling of the EU’s first ever climate law. The meal was sponsored by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), which represents 29 of Europe’s main fossil fuel operators, including Total, Shell, BP and ExxonMobil.

According to the EU transparency register the IOGP spent €350,160 in 2018 lobbying in Brussels, so it can afford to take a few MEPs out to dinner. The European Energy Forum (EEF) is the perfect organiser: it is headed by Jerzy Buzek, an MEP for the European People’s party (EPP), a former prime minister of Poland, a former president of the European parliament and currently chair of its industry research and energy committee. The forum boasts 82 associate members, firms that pay “at least” €7,000 a year in membership fees. Predictably they are all in the oil and gas sector.

 

[mspohr]

Another forest is killed

The race to save Polesia, Europe's secret Amazon

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/the-race-to-save-polesia-europes-secret-amazon-aoe?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Now another catastrophe could be about to befall its people: the construction of the E40 waterway, a 2,000km (1,240-mile) inland shipping route linking the Black Sea and the Baltic that would slice through the wilderness and involve dredging inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Experts say this will destroy vast ecosystems and stir up radioactive sludge that accumulated on the bottom of the river following the explosion, potentially contaminating the drinking water of millions of people.

 

[mspohr]

Still another forest gone
Mexico is illegally destroying protected mangrove trees to build an $8 billion oil refinery

Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex has defied a government order by cutting down protected mangrove trees on the site where president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has ordered the construction of an oil refinery, according to sources familiar with the project. Satellite images show a landscape razed presumably to accommodate the controversial $8 billion project.

The populist president has made the Dos Bocas refinery project, located in his home state of Tabasco, central to his bid (paywall) to revive Pemex from its current dysfunction. Now Latin America’s second-biggest company by revenue, Pemex drove the Mexican economy in the 1960s and 1970s but lost $35 billion last year. Critics say the refinery isn’t economically viable.

So far, the project has come at the cost of a forest of mangroves, a tree treasured by conservationists and important in combating climate change. The trees create complex ecosystems that provide almost 6% of Mexico’s GDP, according to the University of San Diego. Swaths of jungle, including a few dozen hectares of mangrove, were cut down by a third-party company shortly after then-president-elect Lopez Obrador announced the project in July 2018. The permit to begin work wasn’t issued until the next year. In January 2019, Mexico’s environmental regulator ASEA fined the third-party that caused the destruction $700,000. When ASEA finally gave Pemex a conditional building permit in August 2019, it barred the company from interfering with the remaining area of mangroves.

 

[mspohr]

One attempt to re-forest... in South Africa
This 'Miracle' Plant Is Supposed To Save The World | HuffPost

This succulent plant ― also called Portulacaria afra ― used to cover swaths of South Africa’s Eastern Cape before being nibbled to a fraction of its former glory by farmed goats and sheep. In recent months it has shot back to fame amid claims it is a carbon-busting miracle shrub with the potential to negate whole countries’ emissions.

Meanwhile, the government is working up plans to restore a million hectares (2.5 million acres) of spekboom thicket ― roughly 170 times the size of Manhattan ― potentially creating work for thousands of people in the process.

Spekboom is attractive, virtually pest free and very good at absorbing CO2 relative to the amount of water it uses, said Jan Vlok, a botanist and research associate with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Once established, it also drops leaves that turn into mulch and help retain water in the soil after a storm, making it particularly valuable for ecosystem restoration in the arid zones to which it is indigenous, he said.

Existing data suggests a hectare of restored spekboom in dry areas will absorb up to 15.4 metric tons (17 U.S. tons) of CO2 annually ― slightly more than the average American’s annual carbon footprint ― an impressive figure, said Vlok.

 

[JRP3]

The other side from the same article:

Vlok is also wary of claims that individuals will be able to slash their own carbon footprint by planting spekboom at home. “Even if you have 100 plants, it’s simply not going to make you carbon neutral,” he said. And while people from the U.S. to Denmark have shown interest in planting spekboom, Vlok cautions that it is unlikely to be the most suitable plant outside of its natural area ― it hates frost and brackish soil, for example. “I would rather advise them to look for something in their own country,” said Vlok.

Even in South Africa, a narrow focus on spekboom planting could also bring unintended consequences, warned Sally Archibald, an environmental scientist at the University of the Witwatersrand, by email. Planting spekboom across South Africa’s natural grasslands and savannas, for example, would lead to a lot of carbon being lost from the soil. “Digging up natural veld [open, uncultivated landscape] to plant spekboom or any other tree will always be a carbon-costly thing to do,” she said.

 

[mspohr]

The other side from the same article:

I guess it's human nature to look for one "magic bullet" to solve all problems and this comes up any time anyone proposes something that could help restore the climate.
So, no, this is not a complete solution.
It will not cure all climate ills.
It is useful in some climates/situations.

 

[Norbert]

Paper that claimed the Sun caused global warming gets retracted

Paper that claimed the Sun caused global warming gets retracted

It turns out the Earth is also subject to gravity, which was a problem.

A paper published last June was catnip for those who are desperate to explain climate change with anything but human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. It was also apparently wrong enough to be retracted this week by the journal that published it, even though its authors objected.

 

[eevee-fan]

Fiji Coastal Communities Forced To Move Inland | CleanTechnica

 

[mspohr]

Ecosystems the size of Amazon 'can collapse within decades'

Ecosystems the size of Amazon 'can collapse within decades'

Even large ecosystems the size of the Amazon rainforest can collapse in a few decades, according to a study that shows bigger biomes break up relatively faster than small ones.

The research reveals that once a tipping point has been passed, breakdowns do not occur gradually like an unravelling thread, but rapidly like a stack of Jenga bricks after a keystone piece has been dislodged.

 

[mspohr]

Climate emergency: global action is ‘way off track’ says UN head

Climate emergency: global action is ‘way off track’ says UN head

The world is “way off track” in dealing with the climate emergency and time is fast running out, the UN secretary general has said.

António Guterres sounded the alarm at the launch of the UN’s assessment of the global climate in 2019. The report concludes it was a record-breaking year for heat, and there was rising hunger, displacement and loss of life owing to extreme temperatures and floods around the world.

Scientists said the threat was greater than that from the coronavirus, and world leaders must not be diverted away from climate action.

 

[ggies07]

Ecosystems the size of Amazon 'can collapse within decades'

Ecosystems the size of Amazon 'can collapse within decades'

Even large ecosystems the size of the Amazon rainforest can collapse in a few decades, according to a study that shows bigger biomes break up relatively faster than small ones.

The research reveals that once a tipping point has been passed, breakdowns do not occur gradually like an unravelling thread, but rapidly like a stack of Jenga bricks after a keystone piece has been dislodged.

said the results should warn policymakers they had less time than they realised to deal with the multiple climate and biodiversity crises facing the world

Makes sense - those of us that keep up have seen that climate scientists are saying the models are too conservative and that things are changing quicker than what has been predicted.

Katharine Hayhoe just gave a speech in Ireland yesterday on this topic. She's is a great speaker and has awesome slides.

 

[mspohr]

UK's lost sea meadows to be resurrected in climate fight

UK's lost sea meadows to be resurrected in climate fight

Seagrass meadows were once common around the UK coast, but more than 90% have been lost as a result of algae-boosting pollution, anchor damage and port and marina building. The meadows, however, store carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests and harbour up to 40 times more marine life than seabeds without grass, facts that are driving the effort to bring them back.