Climate Crisis: Our Last Chance
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Under capitalism, nuclear power is no answer.
https://www.dw.com/en/nuclear-climate-mycle-schneider-renewables-fukushima/a-56712368
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/11/hawaii-flooding-evacuations-climate-crisis
Hawaii flooding, evacuation, the climate crisis
Climate change and farming by GRAIN
“…A valid questions may be whether agroecology and food sovereignty-based agricultural models are capable of producing enough to feed the growing population?… Not only do these offer credible solutions to climate change, but these alternatives are also quite impressive in offering the right solutions to assure our food security…”
A study analysis of tree rings dating as far back as the Roman empire to create the longest such record to date and the series of severe droughts and heatwaves in Europe since 2014 is the most extreme for more than 2,000 years, the research suggests, causing thousands of early deaths, destroying crops, igniting forest fires and low river levels. Climate scientists predict more extreme and more frequent heatwaves and droughts in future.
Ministers are weakening the UK’s environmental protections in the aftermath of leaving the EU, an assessment of the government’s performance has found, despite promises of a green Brexit. Legally binding commitments on key areas of pollution, nature restoration, waste and resource use have been put off to 2037, and the proposed new environmental watchdog will lack teeth, according to a report by Greener UK, a coalition of 12 campaigning groups.
Renewable electricity production needs to grow eight times faster than the current rate to help limit global heating, according to a report.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) said urgent action was needed to keep pace with rising demand for electricity, which could require a total investment of $131tn in renewables by 2050.
Francesco La Camera, the director general of Irena, said the “window of opportunity” to achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement was closing fast.“The recent trends show that the gap between where we are and where we should be is not decreasing but widening. We are heading in the wrong direction,” La Camera said.
Melting ice and rising sea levels
https://www.dw.com/en/melting-ice-whats-the-big-deal/a-56872079
if emissions aren’t sufficiently scaled back to mitigate climate change, some researchers reckon oceans will definitely rise by at least 2 meters by the end of the century. That’s still enough to swamp the several hundred million people living below 5 meters above sea level. Another 350 million or so living higher up would have to relocate to escape regular coastal flooding…The future remains uncertain. But it’s likely that if melting isn’t slowed real soon, disaster movie scenarios might not look so ridiculous to future generations.
The world’s biggest 60 banks have provided $3.8tn of financing for fossil fuel companies since the Paris climate deal in 2015. Financing for new reserves is therefore the “exact opposite” of what is required to tackle the climate crisis, the report’s authors said.
Bad news for the optimists
The storage potential of one of the Earth’s biggest carbon sinks – soils – may have been overestimated, research shows. This could mean ecosystems on land soaking up less of humanity’s emissions than expected, and more rapid global heating.
$100m (£73m) to $200m over five years to dim the sun to stop global warming
India, the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, needs to shed its dependence on coal…but not yet…
The government also sees private coal mining as a way to create jobs in an economy devastated by the pandemic. Mining projects will bring in new investments and boost socio-economic development in mining regions. The government began liberalization of the coal market last year.
And now for the good news – the scientists turning the desert green…
A passing mention of the Africa’s Great Green Wall. But, of course, certainly no mention of Gaddafi’s Great Man-made River irrigation scheme.
The impact of heatwaves and droughts on crop production in Europe has approximately tripled in the past 50 years, research suggests.
A study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters has found that, across 28 European countries, the average impact of a heatwave or drought disaster on crop production was three times greater in the period 1991-2015 compared with 1964-1990.
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/crops-heatwaves-droughts-europe-b1823155.html
China generated 53% of the world’s total coal-fired power in 2020, nine percentage points more that five years earlier, despite climate pledges and the building of hundreds of renewable energy plants. China has been unable to find enough clean energy to meet rapid increases in demand, with renewables meeting only half of China’s power consumption growth last year.
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