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Thank god the billionaires have the climate crisis well in hand. (COP28 is the UN Climate Change Conference going on now) A new repository for low- and intermediate-level short-lived radioactive waste (NSPOP) will be built in Poland, according to announcements by the Ministry of Climate and Environment. A call for municipalities interested in participating in the process of selecting a site for a new landfill has now been issued. The Earth Summit of 1992 (31 years ago) In 1992, 154 countries signed the United Nations Framework Convention on
(UNFCCC) at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The treaty aimed to limit global temperature increases and cope with the inevitable impacts of climate change. Article 2 of the convention commited countries to stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." Ni! Worth reading the full text. I only disagree about pointing exclusively to energy transition as the path to peace, because we also desperately need new norms and laws to reduce consumption and production of energy hungry goods and services. However, I find that the "war on the planet" is real. We are, indeed, living World War III in slow motion. And it's none other than that WW III whose consequences we've always talked about, but now even if it doesn't go nuclear which it might go anyway as a result.
From Tom Engelhardt, we get this disturbing (but apt) comparison of the Gaza crisis to our planetary climate/ecology crisis...
Humanity in its time on Earth has already come up with two distinct ways of destroying this planet and everything on it. The first is, of course, nuclear weapons, which once again surfaced in the ongoing nightmare in the Middle East. (An Israeli minister recently threatened to nuke Gaza.) The second is what weve come to call climate change or global warming the burning, that is, of fossil fuels to desperately overheat our already flaming world. In its own fashion, that could be considered a slow-motion version of the nuking of the planet.
Put another way, in some grim sense, all of us now live in Gaza. Most of us just dont know it yet.
If you actually do live in Gaza, your life is now officially hell on Earth. Your home has been destroyed, your family members wounded or killed, the hospital you fled to decimated. And that story, sadly enough, has been leading the news day after day for weeks now. But in the process, in some sense even more sadly, the deepest hell of our time has largely disappeared from sight.
Im thinking about the urge to turn our whole planet into a long-term, slow-motion version of Gaza, to almost literally set it ablaze and destroy it as a habitable place for humanity and so many other species.
In the midst of the ongoing Middle Eastern catastrophe, the latest study by James Hanson, the scientist who first sounded the climate alarm to Congress back in the 1980s, appeared. The study suggested that our planet is heating even more rapidly than expected. The key temperature danger mark, set only eight years ago at the Paris climate agreement, 1.5 degrees Centigrade above the pre-industrial level, could easily be reached not in 2050 or 2040, but by 2030.
Meanwhile, another recent study suggests that humanitys carbon budget that is, the amount of carbon we can put into the atmosphere while keeping global temperature rise at or under that 1.5-degree mark is now officially going to hell in a handbasket.
FULL ESSAY --
Environment Climate ClimateChange ClimateCrisis ClimateEmergency COP28: Five reasons for optimism on climate via BBC Systems Change not Climate Change Climate and biodiversity crises stem from a growth-centric economic system, fostering inequalities, injustice, and exploitation, especially in the global majority. But what do we mean when we say, change the system, not the climate In her ECR Spotlight, Danielle Blumstein discusses her research journey beginning with fishes before moving to cactus mice, why collecting long-term data is critical when studying responses to & how her hobbies change with the seasons. Climate Change Crucial fossil fuel decisions expected as COP28 talks enter final stretch COP28 Special: How To Make Agriculture Sustainable And Water Positive Amid Climate Change
Dezeen : Stella McCartney presents Sustainable Market of material innovations at COP28 As Cop28 enters its final days, Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, is among the officials calling for more concerted efforts to protect the environment. She also stressed the really positive work done by the UAE's Presidency of Cop28 so far.
Manobo yerli halk, her yl dzinelerce frtna ve sel ile mcadele etmesine ramen, Filipinler'deki geni bir sulak alanda yayor ve geliiyor.Onlardan ne renebiliriz
The Manobo indigenous people live and thrive on a vast wetland in the Philippines despite dealing with dozens of storms and floods per year. What can we learn from them
Winter months are pretty rough for renewables in Germany. Looking at the electricity data for the last month you'd forgiven for thinking Germany wasn't really in the process of energy transition. Coal is still king. Source of the chart: A HOPE FOR THE PLANET AISEG, a breakthrough innovation for zero-fuel, zero-emission power generation, unveiled at COP28 South Korea-based SEMP Group and Abu Dhabi-based Global Solutions for Project Management launched a smart generator called AISEG that will accelerate the worlds journey to Net Zero.
#News But GHG emissions are rising. The fact that had 2456 fossil fuel lobbyists present at the event is yet another blow to the credibility of the otherwise necessary conference. Happy ! Check out this video that highlights rulings in the field of , affecting the quality of the air we breathe, our water supplies and : The
UNFCCC
urges world leaders at to recognise the pivotal role of in addressing . Its time for a Approach to ! If you need a quick and accessible summary of the Carbon Budget 2023, this is it.
African Stream post on Threads: It often feels like, to the West, African lives are totally expendable. A new article in The Atlantic loudly proclaims that war in Congo has kept the planet cooler - i.e., has been good for Mother Nature as if the devastation inflicted on the Congolese were a price worth paying for a healthier environment. To be fair, the subheading is: the grim ironies of climate change.
Having slaughtered or subjected & subdued all other species, we use our one trick, fire, against ourselves, while environmental conditions change. Too much fire everywhere, in engins, in power plants, in forests. We trigger a new age, an age of insects and reptiles. Those are fit to live in a hot environment, we aren't. Hear Alexander Bent from Undivided Ventures explain why investing in climate adaptation is more important than climate mitigation across the Asia Pacific. Main Site:
Full Youtube Video:
Newsletter Signup: Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda is warmer and more acidic than ever, 40 years of observation show New reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 history:
The Miocene (16 Ma) marks the last time that CO2 concentrations were consistently higher (480 ppm) than now Greenland was not yet glaciated at that time, and sea level was some 50 m higher than today.
More than 100 countries support a phase out of fossil fuels, but they face stiff opposition from some countries, including Saudi Arabia, China and India. High-stakes negotiations on fossil fuels mark the intense final phase of Cop28 Cop28 live: negotiations resume as countries try to break fossil fuel deadlock November as well as being the hottest recorded month was also, reported by Ben Noll, as the moistest recorded month. Global temperature nears critical 1.5C threshold, Met Office forecasts Trump repeatedly denies climate science and says we shouldnt be worried about global warming
Extremely mild day yesterday in US Central Plains with widespread temperatures in the 60s, with the warmth poised to move East.
The East coast will enjoy a very mild weekend, with no trace of winter. Jet stream will get faster as climate change continues, study finds NASA Climate Change: Are Earth's carbon sinks changing
This oligarchy sucks. A GRIM PICTURE! The last time carbon dioxide in the atmosphere consistently matched today's human-driven levels was 14 million years ago, according to a large new study Thursday that paints a grim picture of where Earth's climate is headed.
activist sets up camp outside parliament to protest By Gwladys Fouche September 11, 2023 OSLO, Sept 11 (Reuters) - An Indigenous Sami activist set up camp outside the Norwegian parliament on Monday to protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by Sami herders, saying he will stay there as long as the turbines remain in place. Norway's supreme court in October 2021 ruled that two wind farms built at Fosen in central Norway, part of Europe's largest onshore wind farm, violated Sami rights under international conventions. But the turbines remain in operation today. The Fosen case is one of many conflicts that Norway has yet to resolve, with and technology enabling , and while also threatening of life. The government has said that the supreme court, while ruling that the licenses of the two farms were illegal, did not give instructions on what to do next and that the conflict should be resolved through talks. It has been 700 days of human rights abuse and the Norwegian state has not done anything to stop it. So I have chosen to come here and set up camp until the human rights abuse stops,' Sami activist , 22, told Reuters, dressed in a traditional gakti outfit worn inside out as a sign of protest. I believe that there is only one solution and that is to tear down the wind turbines at Fosen.' In February including Haetta occupied the lobby of the and energy ministry before police removed them. They later occupied the entrances of 10 ministries and were joined by Thunberg, who said had to go hand-in-hand with and . Since the protests, the government and the reindeer-herding families affected by the have been involved in mediation to resolve the conflict but no concrete measures have been announced yet. The reindeer herders have said the only solution to the conflict is that the turbines be torn down. 'We still hope that the mediation process will be able to lead to an amicable solution to the matter. It would be the best for all parties,' Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland told Reuters in an emailed statement. It is too early to say anything concrete about when a solution might be in place, but I am focused that the mediation track can be followed as long as there is hope for a solution.' About Monday's protest, Aasland said 'the right to free expression is a founding democratic right I have great respect for. "Right now, the Greenland ice sheet is on average currently losing about 9000 tonnes of ice per second, day in and day out, throughout the year. Greenlands ice alone is responsible for 17 percent of all global sea-level rise since 2006." "there are about 1,500 communities above the Arctic Circle, where people live off-grid." "Ose said while fuel is still needed in the total darkness of winter, the hotel has been able to cut diesel consumption by 70%."
Diesel generators emit black carbon, which deposits on ice and makes it melt faster - a critical tipping point.
Canada has a renewables program, CERRC. If Tesla was serious about solving climate change, they would offer a car share option. You shouldn't have to own an expensive hunk of embedded carbon that spends 95% of its life in a car park in a city with great public transport. Toyota made tentative steps in this direction a few years ago when they bought Cityhop. I enjoy my Hyundai EV subscription with Zilch but it's still not quite what I'm looking for. The world is in danger of hitting several tipping points moments when Earth has warmed so much that certain side effects become irreversible for five of the planets natural systems. AP reports:
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