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.

 

[Cannuck]

Agree. World climate and nature won't be politicians priority until it's too late. The world won't really move until a very serious climate change will be already in place. They are already seeing climate changes, but still don't take it as serious as they should. But when the disaster happens and the hard climate change begins, it can really be difficult to come back, at least until next few hundred years.

It's a really a question of sustainable energy, current inefficiency and carbon reclamation. Once the real price of carbon is reflected by actual cost in the free-market, we may see a reversal. Carbon-tax, viewed as a government money grab, is not enough of a deterrent IMO. It will take a series of catastrophic events to shake the world view as is evidenced by the current wave of disbelief in the Climate Crisis ie. fake news (reference not required). I might even suggest that period of reclamation, when Earth's natural systems shut down and the rebound effect (mini-ice age) prolonged from a few hundred years to 1000 years.

 

[Cannuck]

Vision, compassion, guidance, understanding, values, leadership, responsibility...for the next 7 generations

 

[Cannuck]

Climate change: How 1.5C could change the world

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-45792362

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55276769

 

[Cannuck]

Report: AMERICA MISLED

How the fossil fuel industry deliberately misled Americans about climate change.

 

[Sutruk]

Elon Musk to offer $100 million prize for 'best' carbon capture tech

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/env...illion-prize-best-carbon-capture-tech-rcna234

"Tesla chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday took to Twitter to promise a $100 million prize for development of the “best” technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions."

--------------------

That's already invented, long time ago:

Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' to tackle climate crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...le-climate-crisis-scientists-canopy-emissions

"Planting billions of trees across the world is one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists, who have made the first calculation of how many more trees could be planted without encroaching on crop land or urban areas."

"As trees grow, they absorb and store the carbon dioxide emissions that are driving global heating. New research estimates that a worldwide planting programme could remove two-thirds of all the emissions from human activities that remain in the atmosphere today, a figure the scientists describe as “mind-blowing”.

 

[Cannuck]

Burning The Remaining Oil Reserves & Potential Impact On Global Warming

Sources indicate we will have to leave between 65 to 80 percent of current known reserves untouched if we are to stand a chance of keeping average global temperature rise below our two-degrees global target.

https://www.bettermeetsreality.com/how-much-oil-is-left-in-the-world-when-will-we-run-out/


Do we really only have 60 harvests left?

While often disputed or denied, one of the main problems humanity is currently facing is not only global warming and extinction of species etc., but the degradation of our soils. The world population continues to increase while we destroy more and more topsoil. If this is allowed to continue there won’t be enough fertile soil left to feed a growing world population in the future.

Some disturbing facts are:

• 24 billion tonnes of fertile or 12 million hectares topsoil are lost every year.
• 25% of the earth’s surface has already become degraded. This could feed 1.5 billion people.
• The UN FAO calculated that we have about 60 years of harvests left – and then?

http://www.fao.org/soils-2015/events/detail/en/c/338738/

 

[Cannuck]

10 grand challenges we'll face by 2050

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170713-what-will-the-challenges-of-2050-be

We're also turning the Earth into a huge garbage heap by contaminating it with our non-recyclables and societies' incessant need for the newest and trendiest consumer goods. Fortunately the Canadian government is banning the use single-use plastics in 2021...a step in the right direction IMO.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/canada-single-use-plastics-ban-2021/

Globally, 3/4 of food crops require pollination...

Disappearing Pollinators Hurt Biodiversity & Threaten Food Security

A sustained pollinator decline means lower yields from crops that depend on animals for pollination, and so prices would increase; or there would be less variety available as farmers switch from growing insect-pollinated crops to the restricted range of self-fertilizing ones that give reliable fruit or grain production.

https://blog.pachamama.org/disappea...cosystem-biodiversity-threatens-food-security

 

[Cannuck]

Burning The Remaining Oil Reserves & Potential Impact On Global Warming

"You can't drink oil, just as you can't eat money" - Cannuck

 

[Sutruk]

Climate change may have driven the emergence of SARS-CoV-2

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210205085718.htm

"Global greenhouse gas emissions over the last century have made southern China a hotspot for bat-borne coronaviruses, by driving growth of forest habitat favoured by bats."

"A new study published today in the journal Science of the Total Environment provides the first evidence of a mechanism by which climate change could have played a direct role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study has revealed large-scale changes in the type of vegetation in the southern Chinese Yunnan province, and adjacent regions in Myanmar and Laos, over the last century. Climatic changes including increases in temperature, sunlight, and atmospheric carbon dioxide -- which affect the growth of plants and trees -- have changed natural habitats from tropical shrubland to tropical savannah and deciduous woodland. This created a suitable environment for many bat species that predominantly live in forests.

The number of coronaviruses in an area is closely linked to the number of different bat species present. The study found that an additional 40 bat species have moved into the southern Chinese Yunnan province in the past century, harbouring around 100 more types of bat-borne coronavirus. This 'global hotspot' is the region where genetic data suggests SARS-CoV-2 may have arisen."

 

[Cannuck]

Is it too late to prevent climate change?

There is a time lag between what we do and when we feel it. But it may not be too late to avoid or limit some of the worst effects of climate change.

Responding to climate change will involve a two-tier approach:

1) “mitigation” – reducing the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; and
2) “adaptation” – learning to live with, and adapt to, the climate change that has already been set in motion.

Because climate change is a truly global, complex problem with economic, social, political and moral ramifications, the solution will require both a globally-coordinated response (such as international policies and agreements between countries, a push to cleaner forms of energy) and local efforts on the city- and regional-level (for example, public transport upgrades, energy efficiency improvements, sustainable city planning, etc.).

The key question is: what will our emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants be in the years to come? It’s up to us what happens next.


https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/16/is-it-too-late-to-prevent-climate-change/

 

[Cannuck]

Is it too late to prevent climate change?
There is a time lag between what we do and when we feel it. But it may not be too late to avoid or limit some of the worst effects of climate change.

The key question is: what will our emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants be in the years to come? It’s up to us what happens next.

When we begin to understand that our debt is to the future of the planet, and not to the past, perhaps human beings can learn to change our way of doing things in the present.

 

[Cal2]

Terrifying UN Draft Climate Report Urges Total Transformation of Our Way of Life

If the data and conclusions in this IPCC report are accurate, what immediately awaits us is staggering:

https://truthout.org/articles/terri...rges-total-transformation-of-our-way-of-life/

 

[Cannuck]

Food choices diminish finite resources for monetary gain.

The Catch 22 is that the more rare the animal, the higher price it will fetch of the market. For example, a 489-pound (222 kg) tuna fetched US$1.76 million at a Japanese auction (for sushi). These fish take 15 years to mature in order to reproduce. Higher limits propsed by Japan would threaten recovery and be a failure of ocean fisheries management.

According to a stock assessment by researchers, populations of bluefin tuna in the western Pacific Ocean are down by nearly 97 percent from pre-fishing levels, yet...

Higher Fishing Limits Proposed for Pacific Bluefin Tuna Would Threaten Fragile Population

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2021/07/22/higher-fishing-limits-proposed-for-pacific-bluefin-tuna-would-threaten-fragile-population

 

[.X.]

I feel the earth .. move .. under my feet .. I feel the sky tumblin down .. tumblin down .. fix it @Cannuck … while I am battling Tyrants about the covid - 19 mandate

 

[Cannuck]

I feel the earth .. move .. under my feet .. I feel the sky tumblin down .. tumblin down .. fix it @Cannuck … while I am battling Tyrants about the covid - 19 mandate

We've only had climate stability during the last interglacial (Holocene). Now it's the Anthropocene (age of humans), and humankind's impact on the planet during the last 50 years has changed the planet more than in the last 10,000 years! There are limits of climate pressure, issues that include, but dwarf any politic. It's a complex system, and the threshold (tipping point) may already be passed - and accelerating toward an irreversible state unable to support life as we know it. The lingering effects will last hundreds if not thousands of years.

 

[dna]

As it turns out, the California fires were not caused by climate change as the California Governor claimed. They were set by an environmentalist.

"Palo Alto woman Alexandra Souverneva is suspected of lighting a fire near where the Fawn Fire started, Cal Fire announced on Thursday.

On Friday, she was charged Friday with felony arson to wildland with an enhancement due to the declared state of emergency California is under, said Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett.

Souverneva is also being investigated for starting other fires in Shasta County and throughout the state, Bridgett said.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Souverneva was enrolled as a Ph.D. student in the environmental chemistry program at State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry.

The number of people affected by evacuation orders was not immediately known. People living in other areas were warned to be prepared to leave. About 2,000 structures were threatened.

The fire scorched more than 5,850 acres of heavy timber on steep, rugged terrain amid hot, dry, and gusty conditions. It was just 10% contained."

 

[Cannuck]

As it turns out, the California fires were not caused by climate change as the California Governor claimed. They were set by an environmentalist.

"Palo Alto woman Alexandra Souverneva is suspected of lighting a fire near where the Fawn Fire started, Cal Fire announced on Thursday.

On Friday, she was charged Friday with felony arson to wildland with an enhancement due to the declared state of emergency California is under, said Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett.

Another man-made disaster.

Add this to this list...

Pacific Gas & Electric was charged Friday with manslaughter and other crimes after its equipment sparked a Northern California wildfire that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes last year. PG&E last year pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of unlawfully starting the Camp Fire, which wiped out the town of Paradise - the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century.

Shasta County Prosecutor Charges PG&E with Manslaughter in 2020 Zogg Fire

https://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2021/09/25/shasta-county-prosecutor-charges-pge-with-manslaughter-in-2020-zogg-fire/

California Utility PG&E Corp. prepared for bankruptcy in 2019 amid pressure from potentially crushing liabilities linked to California's catastrophic wildfires in 2017 and 2018.

 

[Cannuck]

Iconic Sequoia Trees Wrapped as Fire Approaches Giant Forest

The General Sherman Tree was one of numerous giant sequoias wrapped in a protective aluminum material as a lightning-caused wildfire burned upslope toward Giant Forest in mid-September. While giant sequoias are fire-dependent and able to withstand the heat of moderate fires with their thick, insulating bark, more severe fires have damaged or killed many large sequoias in the past six years. Thus, additional precautions were taken to prevent fire from burning into tree bases and igniting vulnerable fire scars – signs of the many previous fires these trees have survived.

As Giant Forest has had many prescribed burns in recent decades, firefighters observed that the wildfire behavior (flame length and rate of spread) was reduced as it hit previously burned areas. This moderate fire behavior allowed firefighters to work close to the fire, digging fireline to prevent the fire's spread further into Giant Forest. The General Sherman Tree is the world's largest tree, measured by volume. It stands 275 feet (83 m) tall, and is over 36 feet (11 m) in diameter at the base. Sequoia trunks remain wide high up. Sixty feet above the base, the Sherman Tree is 17.5 feet (5.3 m) in diameter.

https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/nature/sherman.htm

 

[.X.]

GREED … that is what is holding us back IMO

 

[Cannuck]

A considerable portion of the population will never do anything to help the environment unless it's legislated by the government and people are forced.

 

[Cannuck]

Jordan Peterson says, "We're not going to do a damn thing about it, so it doesn't really matter."

 

[Cannuck]

Jordan Peterson says, "We're not going to do a damn thing about it, so it doesn't really matter."

At 6:17, Peterson says "there are more trees in the northern hemisphere than there were 100 years ago."

Does he account for the Global net loss from other areas of the planet (ie. tropical and subtropical areas)? What about 200 years ago (during a major deforestation of USA) or even 35 years ago as the following data demonstrates...

https://psmag.com/environment/the-planet-now-has-more-trees-than-it-did-35-years-ago

However, an important distinction needs to be made between tree cover and forest cover.

The study points out that industrial timber plantations, mature oil palm estates and other specifically planted forests add to global tree cover. On paper these areas compensate for the primary forest that has been cut down; 100-hectare loss of primary forest is perfectly offset by a 100-hectare gain on a man-made plantation, for example.

But while they may be equal in area, they are not equal in biodiversity. Primary tropical forests and savannas harbour a wealth of flora and fauna which is lost when these areas are cleared.

And man-made forests do not compensate for the damage and degradation done to ecosystems through land clearance.

The research attributes 60% of all land-use change throughout the study period directly to human activity, with the remaining 40% caused by indirect factors like climate change.

As the Earth turns increasingly green it could be masking the true extent of environmental harm caused by human activity.


https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/08/planet-earth-has-more-trees-than-it-did-35-years-ago/

 

[Sutruk]

Trio wins physics Nobel for work on understanding climate change

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/s...risi-win-2021-nobel-prize-physics-2021-10-05/

"STOCKHOLM, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Japanese-born American Syukuro Manabe, German Klaus Hasselmann and Italian Giorgio Parisi won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physics on Tuesday for work that helps understand complex physical systems such as Earth's changing climate.

In a decision hailed by the U.N. weather agency as a sign of a consensus forming around man-made global warming.

"Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann laid the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences it," the Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement. "Giorgio Parisi is rewarded for his revolutionary contributions to the theory of disordered materials and random processes."

 

[Cannuck]

Does Earth Matter?

Q: What is apathy?

A: Doing nothing when the ecosystem around you is collapsing.

 

[Cal2]

Does Earth Matter?

Q: What is apathy?

A: Doing nothing when the ecosystem around you is collapsing.

I see you did a bit more building out of your blue planet website. Thinking to do something with it over the winter?