Environment

With the greenland ice melt in the news, what can we do to adapt to a rising sea level, and how much will it actually be? First, the melting this summer was nothing unexpected. Last year Greenland had so much snow in 2017–8 that it actually gained ice rather than lost ice. So, now we have a warmer summer and it loses more than usual - not a big deal. This of course is the northern hemisphere summer which is why this news is about Greenland rather than Western Antarctica. Mark Serreze, Director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, interviewed by Discovery blog put it like this: If you…

Short summary. The 0.5 mm sea level rise due to ice melting in July is dramatic but you need to compare it with the rest of the year. July is usually the top month for ice loss. In the winter the Greenland ice sheet gains ice through snowfall, so you need to look at the balance between losses and gains. Also you need to compare it with previous years. It’s actually not quite enough of a melt so far to beat the 2012 record. The Arctic sea ice minimum this year is also not expected to be as low as the 2012 minimum. . This is nothing to be scared of. Just an unsurprising increased melt, after…

As France has drifted away from agricultural progress, it has become more reliant on imported food. What was once Europe's greatest ag engine has become the sick old man of of the continent. A new paper says it needs to get even worse if the EU is going to honor its other commitments to environmentalists. Agricultural areas cover 174 million hectares, 40 percent of the EU, yet despite what may be the world's most fertile land, Europe still accounts for 85 percent of the world's agricultural subsidies. Their products are too expensive to sell elsewhere without them. Because they won't use…

Short summary - the Arctic is always on fire in summer, and it’s a natural part of the ecosystem, to the extent that moose, bears, bison, voles, foxes, owls, birds of prey, …, they are all dependent on the fires directly or indirectly. It would be a very different ecosystem without them. Part of the Arctic burns every year but other areas recently burned grow new growth such as birches, berries, herbs, willow, grassland, others then are turning into mature forests of spruce, which burn when they become very dry, others are peat banks that again burn when they are very dry and it cycles round…

Tillage. mixing and churning soil and crop residues like corn stalks, has been around for thousands of years. Even the earliest farmers knew that soil could become depleted and tillage could make the next crop more likely to be successful so we eventually developed a chisel plow for field cultivation, to turn over soil at the end of the growing season. But not everyone could afford a plow and some just let old stalks break down naturally, a kind of top level composting. Then in the spring they planted new seeds. Some didn't till at all. As agriculture became arguably the world's most advanced…

Ethiopia has just planted 353 million trees in 12 hours. It is part of the national “green legacy” initiative to encourage all its citizens to plant 40 seedlings each for a total of 4 billion trees over this summer. Here is one of the photos Amir Aman, MD tweeted during the day: And another: Dr Getahun Mekuria, their minister of technology and innovation tweeted estimates through the day: BREAKING NEWS!! ETHIOPIA PLANTED 353,633,660 TREE SEEDLINGS IN 12Hours#GreenLegacyEthiopia#PMOEthiopia pic.twitter.com/TewfqNzXMN — Dr.-Ing. Getahun Mekuria (@DrGetahun) July 29, 2019 As…

China is currently targeting a 20% non fossil share by 2030, and there were reports that it is expected to target 35% of electricity from renewables by 2030 according to drafts for its next plan, the “Renewable Portfolio Standard”. More recently on 29th June 2019, China together with France also made a series of significant climate pledges They agreed to on the importance of zero emissions, to update their pledges in 2020 as a progression beyond the current pledges, the importance of maintaining biodiversity, and the need to fully fund and support the $100 billion Green Climate change fund…

This is a new study that makes the dramatic claim that as the ice melts in summer in the Arctic, then because ice reflects away more sunlight than water, this will have a dramatic warming effect on the whole planet, equivalent to 25 years of anthropogenic emissions. It's been scaring many people but there is nothing here to worry about. Short summary: The study did not take account of the way the melting ice causes cloud to increase (because of all the extra water vapour it puts into the atmosphere). They assumed constant cover. But the paper they cite for that only found constant cloud cover…

The most popular organic fertilizer is feces while the most popular pesticide is copper sulfate. Both of those don't sound great to ingest but a new study says that extra dung leads to more bacteria - and that may be a good thing, if you believe a lot more bacteria is beneficial to gut health. Yogurt marketing and supplement claims aside, there is no evidence that your body is impacted by probiotics unless you suffered a legitimate medical issue (as in you need an actual fecal transplant), yet like gluten-free diets probiotic foods have become a trend among people with extra money to spend.…

Yes there is much we need to do and can do. As we ramp up on pledges quickly we reduce future impacts of droughts, wild fires, hurricanes and other climate related local disasters. We will reduce the effects of sea level rise, and avert warming levels likely to lead to millions of climate migrants (chapter 3, section 3.4. 12 and Figure 3.4 page 246). These actions are also good for our economy and better for biodiversity. By staying within 1.5°C, we can save coral reefs from near extinction, and reduce the amount of adaptation needed for many ecosystems. But the IPCC never said we…