My recent work. Progress or self-deception

Interested in selecting for environmental response
Wheat phenology and environmental responses have been affected by breeders selections since 1970. High-throughput field phenotyping methods reveal these developments, allowing to better adapt future varieties to climate change. Read more in the Journal of Experimental Botany

Very well done:

2023: A Year In Climate Change
by Simon Clark

"UK government facing legal action for failing to tackle climate change but it could backfire"

Natale a Mordor.
(Occhio di Sauron su Monte Fat.. ehm, Monviso, 19 gradi, 2023)

Almost Christmas and it was 25C in northern Italy yesterday!

From extremetemps on the birdsite.
25.2C yesterday at Cumiana (Turin Province) is the new official highest temperature in December in Northern Italy.
4 stations with 25C+ in Piedmont.
In Emilia 24.2C at Vignola.

have changed the way we holiday.

There's still family and friends, fun and love. But, there is also an increased need to plan and prepare for more extreme summers

Your $1,000 in the bank creates emissions equal to a flight from NYC to Seattle.

play a key role in determining organic carbon () balance under probably via modulating local waterenergy interactions, thereby carbon inputs and SOC decomposition and stabilization processes, which must be considered in Earth system models and related climate .

Inaction on Climate Change Is a Death Sentence for Emperor Penguin Chicks

Climate journalists photographs from Antarctica paint a grim picture for the species survival.

From 2001 to 2015, a third of Cambodia's primary forests some of the world's most biodiverse and a key carbon sink were cleared, with tree cover dropping faster than anywhere else in the world.

heading for a sixth year of drought -

I wonder how many people who consider themselves to be environmentally aware use without thinking of the consequences

this is a reminder that not only is denying climate change unscientific, but so is giving up and saying it's too late to do anything.

the science is very clear: it is NEVER too late to act against the climate disaster we are facing. every additional .1 of a degree is exponentially more disastrous, and thus every .1 of a degree warming we prevent matters immensely.

It's now cheaper to save the world than destroy it. That's the prevailing message in journalist Akshat Rathi's "Climate Capitalism" and we sat down with Rathi to discuss the themes of the book, climate journalism and Japan's role on the world stage.

It's just that "fighting them" is a ridiculous 'half-baked' idea that will only escalate violence & ultimately reduce the potential to mitigate and prepare for

Fighting "them" will cause more socio-polarisation and will only favour the fascists.

To mitigate climate change we need more democratic accountability, and that includes regulating the uber-rich lifestyles.

Sure, protest against "them", but fighting them is a crazy & violent idea.

This is possibly the dumbest article I've ever read in a mainstream media outlet, and it appears in two of them!

Killer hail. Climate Change is here to kill you!!

Killer hailstones will kill you!

(9 Years ago) Debate: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

"We've all proven that we can not be trusted in the future tense...We've been repeatedly asked 'don't you want to leave a better Earth for your Grandchildren'..& we've all collectively responded...erm Fuck em!"

If only we could have mitigated the by continuing to do all the activities that are causing it. Because, generally, that's the extent we have tried (not that much)

When the levee breaks...

Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do no good.

changes in the winter landscape over the years, emphasizing the impact of climate change

I know is serious and apocalyptic, and I definitely want to see change so things don't get worse, etc

But on a personal level, I actually *like* the idea of a weird springfall hybrid season in Southern California, it's actually *nice* to not need heat, to still get rain even if it's heavier from warm systems, to have an extra season for spring and fall plants

like it feels like one little bit of last reprieve before the worst

Something to think about over our holiday season feasts

Unearthing the origins of agriculture

.

> We are now in a real golden age for our understanding of the origin of agriculture

Z At the top of the hour it's Radio Ecoshock (repeat) Presented by Alex Smith. A weekly program about the Latest , authors, issues - from , oceans, forests, , solar storms, the , and .

"Under the veil of the heaviest smoke we've ever seen neither of Alberta's two political parties had the courage to even mention it just days later in the only election debate we'd get in 2023. Later on Alberta's big response was to investigate groundless mass arson conspiracy theories"

PODCAST

The British Museum has announced a new 50 million partnership with the oil company BP after an apparent break between the two institutions earlier this year.

The image of the video brought to mind a studio where the interviewer was submerged neck-deep in seawater, and the climate scientist was saying that " will cause sea levels to increase"

But the interviewer, who was from , replied "How can you be so sure it's not all a hoax - designed to force hard-working Americans to breathe in cleaner air!"

How do government climate authorities and citizens interact through social media

Please publicise. Because always does this before a major holiday so people dont notice. So many NEW approvals

2 new Fossil fuel projects approved Friday: NOPSEMA approved Shell Crux gas Project, NW shelf, NSW Labor approved Boggabri coal extension in NSW.

> After nine years in cabinet, the new premier has accrued plenty of experience dealing with natural disasters. A fair bit of leading Queensland involves this type of thing, he says.

> Its my job to convince people that addressing climate change isnt a threat to jobs, its actually a way to protect jobs, Miles says.

UK plans carbon border tax.

Taxing carbon-heavy imports is long overdue, for every country.

The UK government says it will introduce a carbon tax in 2027, which will put a price on the carbon used to produce imported products. The levy is meant to protect domestic producers from cheap, carbon-heavy imports from outside the European Union that might pour into the United Kingdom after an EU carbon tax comes into force in 2026.

If you watch one documentary, watch Michael Moore's "Planet of the Humans"

I'm not overflowing with spare time relative to my duties, but I'm tempted to volunteer. City of Davis' Tree Commission meetings have been canceled more often than not this past year due to lack of a quorum.

This is not good as issues are at a fever pitch due to

Were now removing endangered species from their rapidly warming habitats, in an effort to save them.

Absolutely needed, but imagine how this scales over the coming years. The *intensivity* of our interventions, especially if they are going to make a difference.

Firenados. Awesome.

From:

Surge in extreme forest fires fuels global emissions

"Climate change and human activities have led to more frequent and intense forest blazes over the past two decades."

"The increased numbers of forest fires was partially driven by the frequent heatwaves and droughts caused by climate change...In turn, the CO2 emitted by forest fires contributes to global warming, creating a feedback loop between the two.

"Humans also played a part. Many forest fires were actually caused by humans when they were, for example, building fires to get warm at night, lighting fireworks or discarding cigarette butts."

"Given the scale of emissions that they generate, forest fires have become a source of CO2 emissions that cannot be ignored."
>>

Ma anche da voi il giorno del solstizio dinverno cerano temperature da equinozio di primavera
Chiedo per un amico negazionista del

When the levee breaks

The USA has 39,000 km of levees in 6825 systems around the country. These levees usually create more predictably navigable rivers and protect the surrounding areas from flooding.

These levees were built from 105 years ago with an average age of 59 years. There was no standardisation of construction techniques. Many were not engineered in the way that we would currently recognise.This has resulted in a variation of how well they have stood up to wear and tear.

Currently about 17 million people live in the potential flood plains of rivers within levees. Most of these are rural and urban poor people. Many urban areas developed after the levees were created taking advantage of land that was deemed to be safe from flooding. These areas are predominantly occupied by black communities.

The first Mississippi levees were created by the French 1717-27 when they raised the natural levees by 1m. These levees were maintained by the slaves of nearby land owners. They were not very successful at containing the Mississippi.

In 1859 the first major levee break near New Orleans flooded 200 city blocks.
In 1993 flooding of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers led to numerous levee breaks and extensive flooding.
In 2005 Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused the Mississippi to flood and the levee to break resulting in extensive flooding of the whole city of New Orleans. About 1390 lives were lost.

A recent report has analysed the state of the US levee systems. Professor Farshid Vahedifard who is a specialist in resilience and equitable infrastructure at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health helped to prepare the report.

Commenting on a levee break in March 2023 affecting Pajaro in California, a poor rural community where the per capita income is less than half the state and national average, the federal government had chosen not to take any action to reduce this risk. Why Because it wasnt worth it. Because only poor communities live there. .

The Biden administration has allocated US$1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law), allocating US$550 billion to rebuilding US infrastructure across the transportation, energy and water sectors.

While this is welcomed, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that, over the next ten years, around US$27 trillion would be needed to bring the nations infrastructure up to good condition.
This does not take into account any impacts from climate change. With the intensity and frequency of hurricanes affecting the southern states predicted to increase, even that spend will not be enough.

Authorities will need to prioritise how infrastructure spend is to be directed. Predictably, and similar to how these sorts of decisions get made in most countries, the economic value of the properties and land at risk of flooding will be a strong factor.

Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. This type of decision making brutally ignores the human element of disasters, leading to increased inequalities and injustice.. The economic impact is typically the main factor in decision making.

Marginalised rural poor and black communities in these areas are likely to be ignored. This is an example of how communities that are not economically or politically significant are set to bear the brunt of climate change impacts.