writeaboutwarming

December 22, 2019 Carbon lock-in: technological, economic, political and social forces that make use of fossil energy [seem] natural and taken for granted by households, cities, provinces and countries. The word "forces" might be replaced with the word "habits." Habits like driving half a mile to pick up a gallon of milk. Habits like setting the thermostat at 70 degrees, winter, summer, night and day. Habits like accepting the cost of gassing up your non-hybrid vehicle without a second thought. Habits like re-electing incumbent government officials who vote against environmentally beneficial legislation. Habits like forgetting to recycle your clothes, furniture, books and kitchen utensils. These habits eliminate the possibility of one day living decarbonized lives, i.e., lives that are not dependent upon fossil fuels. According to two University of Toronto researchers, seeking merely to reduce our carbon footprints will never get us a climate-change-free world. ...

December 12, 2019 It's important to remember that the European Union (EU) has the world's largest economy. It ranks third, behind China and the United States, in contributions to climate change. What the EU decides to do in order to combat climate change will affect every one of us, existentially and economically. Unveiled yesterday, the EU's Green Deal proposes a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Regulators will create standards for the manufacturing of goods that force recycling and the phasing out of plastic and other kinds of non-recyclable waste. Beginning in 2021, 40 percent of the agricultural budget will, assuming adoption of the plan, be devoted to mitigating climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, 30 percent of fisheries subsidies would be used in a similar manner. Air quality standards will be more stringent, an essential element of the plan, given that 400,000 premature deaths a year can be attributed to air pollution in...

October 8, 2019 The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming , by David Wallace-Wells, has a misleading title. Wallace-Wells is not at all sure that human life will continue post-warming. The point of his hard-to-read volume is that we need to act with the urgency a life-threatening situation demands. Action devoid of the mandatory intensity and intentionality will render us a footnote in history - a history no one will read. The author begins by telling us "It is worse, much worse, than you think," and goes on to list the ways in which we have chosen to delude ourselves. The bitter truth is that we are all in this together, though some will suffer more than others, with India and Pakistan leading the pack. Let us count the ways: heat death, hunger, drowning, wildfire, disasters no longer natural, freshwater drain, dying oceans, unbreathable air, plagues of warming, economic collapse, climate conflict, and "systems," or threat multipliers. Thus far we have incurr...

August 23, 2019 The Amazon is an enormous rainforest in South America. It covers forty percent of the South American continent, and can be found in eight countries. If it were laid over a map of the 48 contiguous states of the United States, it would encompass nearly two-thirds of it. Because trees breathe in carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, it is essential that we protect them, wherever they grow. In Brazil, where much of the Amazon is located, the president of that country has been encouraging farmers, ranchers, and loggers to exploit the riches that can be found there. That means clearing away the trees by incinerating them. So hellbent are farmers on enlarging their holdings and growing more food, they organized a "fire day" last week. In order to accommodate them, President Bolsonaro of Brazil has weakened regulations intended to protect forests and indigenous lands. His failure to halt deforestation, in keeping with the Paris Climate Accords, has caused Germany and...

August 16, 2019 The Trump Administration is proposing a freeze on federal fuel economy standards at 2020 levels. The state of California has reached an agreement with four automakers that would call for average fuel economy of 51 miles per gallon by 2026.  Automakers are siding with California, because they don't want to have to build two different cars to meet two different standards. In fact, 17 car companies informed Trump by letter in June that the weakening of fuel economy standards could destabilize the entire auto-making industry. The good news? More and more states support California's higher standards. States like New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, Vermont, New York, Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. The District of Columbia also backs California's clean air standards, and Colorado, an oil-producing state, has just joined this farsighted group. They are what is considered a "Section 177 state," in refe...

August 10, 2019 Did you know that, globally, farmers produce 1.5 times the amount of food consumers need? Because farmers must sink so much money into food production in the way of chemicals and seed, they have little choice but to overproduce, in order to recoup what they've overspent. As things stand, far too much of what farmers spend to grow food winds up in the hands of chemical and seed companies. Needless to say, farmers can't stay in business if they can't make money. Farmers in Iowa are grappling, not only with prices that are too low, but with flooded fields. In fact, farmers throughout the Plains and the South have dealt with the effects of spring floods and summer downpours this year. That's why the time is right for parity pricing. Did you know that the American agricultural economy contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than all forms of transportation combined? Stop overproduction of food and you limit production of these gases. Another ...

July 3, 2019 Last Friday, the temperature reached 115 degrees Fahrenheit in Gallargues-le-Montueux, France, a record for the entire country. France was not the only country in Europe suffering from record-setting heat: Germany, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy, and others were sweltering. Why? Scientists have their eyes on the polar jet stream, the fast-moving flow of high-altitude air currents at the top of the world. When the jet stream wanders, cold Arctic air can spill southward, or hotter air from the middle latitudes can move north. These scientists theorize that the melting of Arctic ice, along with the decreased temperature difference between the Arctic and lower latitudes, is causing the jet stream to weaken, leading to its wobbly flow. Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State, says a "meandering, slowed jet stream . . . favors stalled extreme weather regimes like the ones we are seeing right now." The hotter the Arctic, the weaker the jet stream. ...

June 20, 2019 Scientists from the University of Edinburgh found a new way of studying permafrost in the Arctic: they flew drone-mounted cameras over the Canadian Arctic. What they found reveals one aspect of the damage global warming is doing in that part of the world. During a 40-day period in the summer of 2017, the Canadian permafrost coastline retreated 47 feet, with daily rates of erosion sometimes exceeding 3 feet. This rate of erosion is six times higher than the historical average of the past half century. Why is this important? First of all, permafrost is soil that remains frozen for at least 2 years. When permafrost thaws, it releases twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as when its temperature stays below freezing . More CO2, more global warming. More global warming, more permafrost that thaws, more CO2. Melting permafrost releases both carbon dioxide and methane into the air and water. Perhaps most disturbing, a 2017 study found that a major portion of the Arctic ha...

May 12, 2019 What do wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydro power all have in common? You're right - they're all forms of renewable energy. Better than that, taken together they all put the kibosh on coal-produced energy this past April. Expectations are that they'll do the same thing in May. Best of all, this is the first time that's ever happened, and it won't be the last. According to Dennis Wamsted, of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), "Five years ago this never would have been close to happening. The transition that's going on in the electric sector in the United States has been phenomenal." Renewable forms of energy are expected to enjoy sporadic dominance over coal during the rest of 2019 and 2020.The IEEFA is a non-profit organization that supports the transition to renewable energy.  Their analysis indicates that renewables will surpass the roughly 2000 to 2200 thousand megawatt hours per day generated ...

April 25, 2019 I thought I knew about recycling plastics, and I guess I know enough to get by. Still, there are some big no-noes, so pay attention. Before we get to the yeses and noes, however, let's make sure we're all on board when it comes to the simple stuff. You know about little numbers inside a triangle on the bottom of your plastic recyclables, right? We all know that. But did you know that number is called a resin identification code? I didn't. If you want to know what should go straight into the recycling bin, look for the numbers 1, 2 and 5. Why? " . . . because we have great markets for them in the U.S.," according to Brent Bell of Waste Management. Items such as water and soda bottles, milk jugs, laundry detergent bottles, yogurt cups and butter tubs can be recycled without a second thought. If you're feeling ambitious, help out by rinsing them and removing labels. On the other hand, items like squeezable bottles, plastic bags, meat trays, s...

April 14, 2019 I'd never heard of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) before, but the 160 countries and regional intergovernmental agencies that comprise its membership have released a report entitled Global Energy Transformation: A Roadmap to 2050. I ran across a summary of the report at Think Progress, and I thought I'd share parts of it with you. This is an important report. The members of IRENA base their research on the premise that renewable energy sources, as the most accessible energy on earth, can accelerate conversion to electricity on a global scale while meeting agreed-upon climate objectives. (I should mention that member countries must also belong to the United Nations.) Their report maintains that because prices of key clean energy technologies are dropping, as much as 85% of the world's energy could come from renewable energy sources, primarily solar and wind. Keeping the global temperature increase below two degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees...

March 17, 2019 You don't want glyphosate (RoundUp) on your food, so this article will tell you how to avoid this and other pesticides that have been sprayed on crops, or have drifted onto organic crops. A lot of the information I'm passing along is common sense; some of this might be new to you. Wash all grocery store and supermarket purchases, even organic foods. You can use plain water to do this: rinse for a few seconds and wash away all visible dirt. Don't use any kind of soap. Dry and wipe down your produce with a clean dish cloth or paper towel. Peel off outer layers of produce. Again, this includes organically grown foods. Fat and skin in meats are the places where toxins are stored, so remove them before cooking. If the animal you are consuming was fed on non-organic grains or vegetables, you need to pay attention to this. Remember, the idea is to avoid having to grapple with cancer, so every step you take to keep your distance from poisons will make a dif...

March 9, 2019 We've just read about the worst of the worst: Monsanto. Monsanto is huge and powerful; nevertheless, there are corporations that want you to know that their standing with workers, the community, and as stewards of the environment, matters to them.  They've come together to brand themselves as B corporations. The B stands for benefit, and for a better way of doing business. What exactly makes a B corporation better? It must have a legally binding commitment to sustainability, and to treating workers fairly. Generally, this means their commitment is spelled out in their charter. B corporations must report on their social and environmental impacts every two years, thereby qualifying them for certification as a B corp (certification provided by non-profit B Lab). The ultimate goals of certified companies are lower levels of poverty and inequality, a healthier environment, stronger communities, and high-quality jobs that support human dignity. You will find a list ...

March 8, 2019 The information in this summary is taken from an article, written by E. Hanzai, that first appeared in the Waking Times  in June of 2014. Monsanto was founded in 1901 by John Queeny, for the purpose of making saccharin for Coca-Cola. He named the company for his wife, Olga Mendez Monsanto. Astonishingly, the government sued Monsanto, since saccharin was a known poison, to make them stop production. It lost! It's been downhill ever since. In the 1920s, Monsanto began production of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a long-lasting toxin and carcinogen. PCBs were banned after fifty years for causing environmental holocaust, but are still present in animal and human blood samples and tissue cells around the world. Court documents plainly showed Monsanto's awareness of PCBs' deadly effects. The pattern of behavior established nearly a hundred years ago continues to this day: hiding the facts from the public, and denial, denial, denial. Monsanto failed to disc...

February 14, 2019 Since the introduction of legislation, the purpose of which is to mitigate climate change and its effects, is almost literally earthshaking, I feel compelled to write about it. Suffice it to say, that's a tall order, because the authors of the resolution "recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal," have taken into account any and all matters caused by or related to climate change. Those authors are Sen. Ed Markey(D-MA), long-time environmental advocate, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), much-vaunted and newly-arrived member of the House of Representatives. Let's start at the beginning: if you'd like to read the 14-page resolution, you will find it at https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5729033-Green-New-Deal-FINAL . While the innumerable "Whereas's" as well as the outline format can be disconcerting, there's also a lot of real substance to wrap your mind around. For my m...

February 7, 2019 Today is a "first-timer." For the first time, I saw a full page of newspaper articles (in the Vancouver, Wa. Columbian  ) about climate change. They're in a section of the paper called "In the Know." Here's some of what they have to say: - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tells us that between the years 1980 and 2013 - 33 years, for all you math whizzes - our country averaged six disasters a year that cost us at least $1 billion in repairs. In the last five years, since 2019 has just begun, we've averaged more than a dozen such disasters a year. Last year, we endured 14 billion-dollar disasters (remember, $1 billion is the minimum) at a total cost of $91 billion. There were 3 "main events": Hurricane Michael, Hurricane Florence, and the wildfires out here in the West. Sadly, 2017 was far worse. Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma, as well as massive wildfires in the West, cost a total of $306 billi...

A major study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, found a significant reduction in cancer risk in those individuals who eat lots of organic food. If you want to be one of those individuals, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) suggests you refrain from eating oat-based cereals made by General Mills or Quaker. Here's why: The EWG hired Anresco Laboratories to test samples of 28 different breakfast products made by Quaker and General Mills. In all but 2 of the products tested, the amount of Monsanto's weed killer Roundup was found at levels that endanger the lives of children, i.e., higher than 160 parts per billion (ppb)*. As you no doubt recall, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) deems the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, "probably carcinogenic to humans." This decision was reached after the review, in 2015, of U.S., Canadian, and Swedish epidemiological studies of glyphosate. Real-world exposures and g...