discuss The Environmental Thread - Earth Matters, so what's holding us back?

[Cannuck]

I believe everyone would agree on at least one point - planet Earth matters! For years, scholars and environmentalists have touted the idea - that the boundaries of life on our planet have been stretched to a breaking point by human activity. From a scientific perspective, the notion of climate change is no longer up for debate. Our species and life as it exists on planet Earth now depends on the choices we humans make. Each individual with a brain possesses the ability to contribute solutions to our common current dilemma, so what's holding us back?

Is it our lack of knowledge; a conflict of interest; the lack of will, and/or other priorities that define the human race? Do we possess the courage to take an initiative, to act upon our convictions and choose to help preserve the Blue planet? Have our environmental problems become too big for individuals to tackle that we must leave it for governments to handle?

Are we limited by our own self-interests, by the confines of our own box or bubble? Have we merely been caught up in our daily mundane existence, distracted by the media and current affairs, that we fail to consider the future? Is Climate Change simply a hoax? Is the human species destined to evolve or are we doomed to extinction?

Here is place to discuss any pertinent thoughts or ideas you may have on the subject. Every thought counts. Please be respectful.

 

[dna]

Matt Ridley is a science writer. I have 3 of his books myself....Genome, Viral and Francis Crick.
I thought I would look up his view on climate change. In this video he speaks about Carbon Dioxide.

 

[Cannuck]

Matt Ridley is a science writer. I have 3 of his books myself....Genome, Viral and Francis Crick.
I thought I would look up his view on climate change. In this video he speaks about Carbon Dioxide.

The same Matt Ridley, who as chairman, collapsed the Northern Rock Bank driving UK into financial distress and costing British taxpayers over 37 Billion pounds? Not surprising he has tried to reboot his career as a science denialist...another aristocrat who talks alot but says nothing - zero plus zero is still zero. I would wager he's never even seen a polar bear in the wild, yet he's the science guy? Gimme a break, lol.

 

[dna]

Ad Hominem​

(Attacking the person): This fallacy occurs when, instead of addressing someone's argument or position, you irrelevantly attack the person or some aspect of the person who is making the argument. The fallacious attack can also be direct to membership in a group or institution.
Examples:

1. Student: Hey, Professor Moore, we shouldn't have to read this book by Freud. Everyone knows he used cocaine.

 

[JB Lions]

Ad Hominem​

(Attacking the person): This fallacy occurs when, instead of addressing someone's argument or position, you irrelevantly attack the person or some aspect of the person who is making the argument. The fallacious attack can also be direct to membership in a group or institution.
Examples:

1. Student: Hey, Professor Moore, we shouldn't have to read this book by Freud. Everyone knows he used cocaine.

There are plenty of people out there taking apart his position, couple of examples below. It seems you tend to favor the opinion of those getting paid off by fossil fuel companies

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/denial-across-pond

https://www.desmog.com/debunked-matt-ridley-on-nature-and-climate-change/

 

[Cannuck]

There are plenty of people out there taking apart his position, couple of examples below. It seems you tend to favor the opinion of those getting paid off by fossil fuel companies.

He's just one of many serial misinformers with their pro-fossil fuel agenda. Matt Ridley is on the Wall of Shame.

Here is a database collection of other individuals and organizations referenced to have helped delay and distract the public and from taking action to counter Climate Change...

https://www.desmog.com/climate-disinformation-database/

 

[Cannuck]

Big Oil’s Real Agenda on Climate Change​

In the three years following the Paris Agreement, the five largest publicly-traded oil and gas majors (ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total) invested over $1Bn of shareholder funds on misleading climate-related branding and lobbying. These efforts are in conflict with the goals of the global climate accord and designed to maintain the social and legal license to operate and expand fossil fuel operations.

https://influencemap.org/report/Big-Oil-s-Agenda-on-Climate-Change-2022

However, many companies have embraced change and have exerted their influence to counter the misinformation and deep pockets of the petrolem industry. Rankings for the 500 companies and 250 industry associations covered in the LobbyMap database

 

[NameInbox]

India's New Delhi blanketed by toxic haze, world's most polluted city again​

India's capital New Delhi was wrapped in a thick layer of toxic haze on Friday and some schools were ordered closed as the air quality index (AQI) plummeted to the "severe" category.

New Delhi again topped a real-time list of the world's most polluted cities compiled by Swiss group IQAir, which put the Indian capital's AQI at 640 in the "hazardous" category on Friday, followed by 335 in the Pakistani city of Lahore.
https://www.reuters.com/world/india...hi-turns-severe-some-schools-shut-2023-11-03/

 

[JB Lions]

Global Fossil Production Set to Blow Through 1.5°C Climate Limit, New Report Warns​

https://www.theenergymix.com/2023/1...-through-1-5c-climate-limit-new-report-warns/

Red hot October almost guarantees 2023 will be the hottest year on record​

This October was the hottest on record globally, 1.7 degrees Celsius (3.1 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the pre-industrial average for the month — and the fifth straight month with such a mark in what will now almost certainly be the warmest year ever recorded.
https://apnews.com/article/extreme-...-year-record-4c5b496420620a02f9c295604cf8d2b3

UN climate report: It’s now or never to limit global warming to 1.5°​

A new IPCC report – written by hundreds of leading scientists and agreed by 195 countries - noted that immediate and deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are needed across all sectors if we are to preserve a livable climate.

https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/un-climate-report-it’s-now-or-never-limit-global-warming-15°

 

[Cal2]

Going to the thread's topic of "earth matters, so what's holding us back": 'If nature literally had a voice, would we treat her better?'


Talking to the Amazon thanks to AI: 'In six months we will have a conversation with an ecosystem'

What if nature literally has a voice, would we treat her better? With that in mind, Milan Meyberg founded Emissary of GAIA. Because what initially sounds abstract can quickly become reality thanks to the rapid developments in the field of AI. “I expect that in six months we will be able to have a conversation with an ecosystem.”

“Imagine if nature could represent itself in conversations about nature, how would that work?”, Meyberg begins. “That thought may be abstract. But the rise of AI language programs like ChatGPT makes this very possible. If you train a language program on data about an ecosystem, an AI can use that data to create a character with which we can have a conversation.”

https://www.change.inc/ict/praten-m...oeren-we-een-gesprek-met-een-ecosysteem-40531

 

[JB Lions]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1723135101213479340

https://twitter.com/x/status/1723143628095152338

 

[dncafe]

It's not about the environment, it's about power, profit and control.

"They" want to control every commodity possible, whether it is energy, water, food or power.

One way to do that is by creating many environmental taxes and restrictions, pushing out all the competition.

 

[Cannuck]

It's not about the environment, it's about power, profit and control.

"They" want to control every commodity possible, whether it is energy, water, food or power.

One way to do that is by creating many environmental taxes and restrictions, pushing out all the competition.

I see your point, it's kinda like when Canada legalized marijuana, the government reaped the tax and essentially eliminated the black market. It's not a direct comparison however, since they are trying to phase out fossil fuels by implementing carbon taxes. I'm not a big fan of the the program as it is not fully transparent nor has it reduced the demand for fossil fuel as planned. Interestingly though, the price of gas has not jumped, but the cost of home heating oil has.

IMO it would be better to offer more direct incentives such as tax breaks to consumers who adapt green technologies into their daily lives. Although there are problems with that scenario too. For instance, older heat pumps did not function in colder climated as efficiently as claimed. Manufacturers say that new heat pumps will deliver better results.

@JB Lions, Icelanders heat their homes geothermally, yet there are definitely associated risks living in an active earthquake zone...nothing is free.

 

[Cannuck]

Politicians and their policies have much to do with the maintenance and sustainability of the environment vs championing destruction for profit by large corporations, whilst ignoring the indigenous people who live there.

Take Brazil, and the Amazon for instance, following the defeat of right wing nationalist Jair Bolsonarro...

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon dropped by 22.3% in the 12 months through July, government data showed on Thursday, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made good on a pledge to rein in the destruction that happened under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

Some 9,001 square kilometers (3,475.31 square miles) of Amazon jungle were destroyed in the 12 months through July, according to data from Brazilian space research agency Inpe, down from the 11,568 square kilometers cleared a year earlier.

It was the smallest area cleared since 2018, the year before Bolsonaro took office. The Amazon jungle is the world's largest rainforest and its protection is seen as vital to curbing climate change.

"It's an impressive result and seals Brazil's return to the climate agenda," said Marcio Astrini, head of advocacy group Climate Observatory.

Still, this year's deforestation rate remains nearly twice that of the all-time low in forest destruction in 2012 and far from Lula's pledge to reach zero deforestation by 2030.

https://news.yahoo.com/deforestation-brazils-amazon-falls-lowest

 

[Cannuck]

Corporate greed and power infiltrates the government in most countries, with lobbyists and in some cases, mercenaries. Peace and Unity Summit highlights darker truths behind violence and intimidation against Indigenous land defenders resisting resource extraction...

Playbook for RCMP’s Wet’suwet’en raids provided by former U.S. commander in Iraq and Afghanistan​

In 2019, the global investment firm Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) purchased a 65 per cent equity interest in the Coastal GasLink Pipeline project from TC Energy Corporation through a separately managed infrastructure account in partnership with the National Pension Service of Korea.

CGL represents a $6.6 billion dollar investment, and will move 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas from Dawson Creek to the LNG Canada processing plant at Kitimat. KKR isn’t taking any chances when it comes to protecting its investment.

The RCMP’s chief superintendent John Brewer is the C-IRG's gold commander. In 2010, he served as NATO’s senior police advisor to Afghanistan under Petreaus. It was under his leadership that C-IRG raided Gidimt’en territory in 2021.

The strategy has been to divide and conquer, he said. In many ways that’s the history of Canada — pitting elected chiefs against hereditary chiefs, those who side with industry against those who refuse to be forcibly removed from their land.

The blueprint for the tactics can be traced back to Standing Rock in 2016, in which the RCMP used the anti-pipeline resistance to justify creating the force’s C-IRG

https://ricochet.media/en/3980/trai...y-former-us-commander-in-iraq-and-afghanistan

​

 

[Cal2]

Want to fight climate change effectively? Here’s where to donate your money.​

These are 11 of the most high-impact, cost-effective, evidence-based organizations. You may not have heard of them.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/...-change-best-charities-effective-philanthropy

Could also be considered by someone if they'd want to set up their own initiative.

 

[dna]

"The Great Galveston Hurricane decimated the island city on the Gulf Coast of Texas on Sept. 8, 1900.
This hurricane is known as the deadliest weather disaster in United States history, killing at least 8,000 people, with some estimates as high as 12,000 people."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-10-deadliest-hurricanes-in-us-history-katrina-maria-galveston/

And from Google

"The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season had a remarkably low death toll. Unofficially, three storms caused a total loss of life of 12: Hurricane Franklin: two direct deaths in the Dominican Republic. Hurricane Lee: three direct deaths in the U.S."

OMG! IF THE CLIMATE GETS ANY WORSE THERE SOON WON'T BE ANY HURRICANES AT ALL!

 

[Cannuck]

IF THE CLIMATE GETS ANY WORSE THERE SOON WON'T BE ANY HURRICANES AT ALL!

You do undertand the difference between weather and climate don't you?

The North Atlantic experienced a peak summer temperature higher than any other year, but the impact of an El Niño (sinking air) inhibits the formation of storms because they're fueled by moisture rising from the ocean.

The 2023 storm season (20) is tied with 1933 for the 4th most on record, trailing only 2020 (30), 2005 (28) and 2021 (21). Most of the category 4 & 5 hurricanes were over open water, only three making landfall.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...antic-hurricane-season-2023-ends/71731429007/

 

[Cal2]

A couple interesting new solution ideas/idea directions for addressing environment issues:

Coal-to-protein livestock feed uses 1/1000th as much land as farming

"the team set about research into processes that could use fossil fuels to produce proteins, building on oil-to-protein biotechnology pioneered by BP as far back as the 1960s.

The CAS team's process works something like this: firstly, coal is transformed into methanol via gasification – a technique that can now be executed with near-zero carbon emissions. That methanol is then fed to a special strain of Pichia pastoris yeast, which ferments the methanol to produce a single-cell protein complete with a range of amino acids, vitamins, inorganic salts, fats and carbohydrates. The resulting organism is much richer in protein than plants are, and it can be used to partially replace fish, soybeans, meat and skimmed milk in a range of animal feeds."

https://newatlas.com/science/coal-protein-feed/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=e7f85d1fcb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_01_10_09_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-e7f85d1fcb-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]

-------

China’s Solar Dominance Faces New Rival: An Ultrathin Film (msn.com)

"Developers of perovskite cells say their versatility sets them apart because they are light and flexible. The layer of crystalline perovskite is only one micron thick, resulting in a cell that is one-tenth the weight and one-twentieth the thickness of current solar cells. They can be installed on walls or curved surfaces and generate electricity under weak sunlight, even indoors. ........

“We want to start off by aiming for places where silicon panels can’t be used. We think that there’s a bigger market there,” said Tamotsu Horiuchi, EneCoat’s chief technology officer."

 

[Cannuck]

Emissions Gap Report 2023

Executive summary​

The fourteenth Emissions Gap Report is published ahead of the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (COP 28). It provides an annual, independent science-based assessment of the gap between the pledged greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions and the reductions required to align with the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, as well as opportunities to bridge this gap.

This report shows, not only temperature records continue to be broken – global GHG emissions and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) also set new records in 2022. Due to the failure to stringently reduce emissions in high-income and high-emitting countries (which bear the greatest responsibility for past emissions) and to limit emissions growth in low- and middle-income countries (which account for the majority of current emissions), unprecedented action is now needed by all countries.

For high-income countries, this implies further accelerating domestic emissions reductions, committing to reaching net zero as soon as possible, and at the same time, providing financial and technical support to low- and middle-income countries.

For low- and middle-income countries, it means that pressing development needs must be met alongside a transition away from fossil fuels.

Furthermore, the delay in stringent mitigation action will likely increase future dependence on carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere, but availability of large-scale CDR options in the future cannot be taken for granted.

https://www.unep.org/interactives/emissions-gap-report/2023/#section_-1

 

[Cannuck]

Greenland is losing so much ice that it's losing it's gravity, study discovers

Calving is ice breaking off from the shelf, now at a rate of 30 million tonnes of floating ice on average per hour....

Ubiquitous acceleration in Greenland Ice Sheet calving from 1985 to 2022

Nearly every glacier in Greenland has thinned or retreated over the past few decades, leading to glacier acceleration, increased rates of sea-level rise and climate impacts around the globe. To understand how calving-front retreat has affected the ice-mass balance of Greenland, we combine 236,328 manually derived and AI-derived observations of glacier terminus positions collected from 1985 to 2022 and generate a 120-m-resolution mask defining the ice-sheet extent every month for nearly four decades. Here we show that, since 1985, the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has lost 5,091 ± 72 km2 of area, corresponding to 1,034 ± 120 Gt of ice lost to retreat. Our results indicate that, by neglecting calving-front retreat, current consensus estimates of ice-sheet mass balance have underestimated recent mass loss from Greenland by as much as 20%.

The mass loss we report has had minimal direct impact on global sea level but is sufficient to affect ocean circulation and the distribution of heat energy around the globe. On seasonal timescales, Greenland loses 193 ± 25 km2 (63 ± 6 Gt) of ice to retreat each year from a maximum extent in May to a minimum between September and October. We find that multidecadal retreat is highly correlated with the magnitude of seasonal advance and retreat of each glacier, meaning that terminusposition variability on seasonal timescales can serve as an indicator of glacier sensitivity to longer-term climate change.

https://www.nature.com/articles