Climate Crisis: Our Last Chance
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There does seem to be a slight shift in stance from Attenborough. At least he’s now pointing at capitalism instead of just saying it’s “we humans” causing the problems. But if only he’d say that capitalism needs abolishing not curbing. And if only he’d see that he doesn’t have to be an economist to say that.
“The sea-ice is dying,”
“The region is at risk. We were able to witness how the ice disappears and in areas where there should have been ice that was many metres thick, and even at the North Pole – that ice was gone,” the Alfred Wegener Institute scientist told a media conference in Bremerhaven on Monday.
It seems it is beginning to happen — renewal energies becoming cheaper than fossil fuels— which is the only thing that is going to make capitalism switchover to them. So, it might not all be doom and gloom. However, to make full use of them there’s going to be a need for a larger and more efficient grid for distributing electricity which will be quite costly.
Re-Wilding
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/14/re-wild-to-mitigate-the-climate-crisis-urge-leading-scientists
<p class=”css-38z03z”>Restoring natural landscapes damaged by human exploitation can be one of the most effective and cheapest ways to combat the climate crisis while also boosting dwindling wildlife populations, a scientific study finds.</p>
<p class=”css-38z03z”>If a third of the planet’s most degraded areas were restored, and protection was thrown around areas still in good condition, that would store carbon equating to half of all human caused greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial revolution.</p>
“If restoration is not properly planned it could lead to a risk to agriculture and the food sector, but if done properly it can increase agricultural productivity. We can produce enough food for the world and restore 55% of our current farmland, with sustainable intensification of farming.”The Market has spoken
BP’s share price has tumbled to a 25-year-low as investor jitters over the company’s ambitious transformation plans collide with fears for the future of the global oil market. The company is now worth less than half its £5-a-share value at the start of the year
More non doom and gloom news. The sort of thing that can happen in socialism. I remember an article in the old “World Socialist” magazine we used to produce suggesting this sort of thing (array of solar panels connected to a worldwide electricity grid) using the Sahara desert. Now we have confirmation that it’s not just technologically feasible but practicable too.
https://www.energydigital.com/renewable-energy/australia-power-singapore-worlds-biggest-solar-farm
Yes. The additional point about the Singapore project is that the electrical energy goes to an international grid, as outlined by Pieter Lawrence in the article “Energy supply: a world issue” that appeared in the Winter 1986 issue of the World Socialist (unfortunately none of the seven issues are yet available online).
He quoted from a 1983 book Energy, a guidebook by Janet Ramage:
”How about a world-wide electric grid? It could use underground and ocean floor super conducting cables, and the power would come from solar farms in the world’s major deserts.”
Which is what the Australia to Singapore project is planning.
A tipping point?
evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean – known as the “sleeping giants of the carbon cycle” – have started to be released over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast, prompting concern among researchers that a new climate feedback loop may have been triggered that could accelerate the pace of global heating.
the study showed clearly that all of the world’s increasing population could be fed a healthy diet while meeting the Paris goals, as long as concerted action was taken to reform the global food production system.
People would not have to adopt vegan diets, as some have called for, but reduce their consumption of high-carbon foods that are unhealthy in large quantities, such as meat and dairy.
If that was achieved, poor nations could feed their populations better, and could increase their consumption of animal products without exhausting the global carbon budget.
This looks promising for future energy storage form renewable sources.
UK energy plant to use liquid air.
Work is beginning on what is thought to be the world’s first major plant to store energy in the form of liquid air.
It will use surplus electricity from wind farms at night to compress air so hard that it becomes a liquid at -196 Celcius.
Then when there is a peak in demand in a day or a month, the liquid air will be warmed so it expands.
More positive news. Ok it’s nuclear fusion again:
She may not be a professional expert but i think we can take her to be the bellwether of the feelings of the environment activists
As long as we don’t treat the climate crisis like a crisis, we can have as many conferences as we want, but it will just be negotiations, empty words, loopholes and greenwash.”She is also unimpressed with pledges by nations including the UK, China and Japan to reach net zero by 2050 or 2060. “They mean something symbolically, but if you look at what they actually include, or more importantly exclude, there are so many loopholes. We shouldn’t be focusing on dates 10, 20 or even 30 years in the future. If we don’t reduce our emissions now, then those distant targets won’t mean anything because our carbon budgets will be long gone.”
Justice is at the heart of her campaigning, Thunberg said. “That is the root of all this,” she said. “That’s why we are fighting for climate justice, social justice. They are so interlinked, you can’t have one without the other.”
“The climate crisis is just one symptom of a much larger crisis, [including] the loss of biodiversity, the loss of fertile soil but also including inequality and threats to democracy,” she said. “These are symptoms that we are not living sustainably: we have reached the end of the road.”And there we have it encapsulated … her understanding does not go economics of capitalism…that one word is always missing from her opinions
Rolls-Royce has announced plans to build up to 16 mini-nuclear plants in the UK.
The government says new nuclear is essential if the UK is to meet its target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 – where any carbon released is balanced out by an equivalent amount absorbed from the atmosphere.
The Dalai Lama has appealed to world leaders to take urgent action against climate change, warning of ecological destruction affecting the lives of billions and ruining the planet, including his birth country, Tibet.
As a call to action he has brought out a new book declaring that if Buddha returned to this world, “Buddha would be green”.
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