Is the ocean broken?

Coral reef biodiversity predicted to shift as climate changes

• Most of coral reef biodiversity consists of tiny organisms, known as the cryptobiota, living deep within the three-dimensional reef matrix
• They play essential roles in reef processes such as nutrient cycling, cementation and food web dynamics
  
• Many have worried that climate change will lead to dramatic loss of this diversity
  
• New research of experimental coral reef communities suggests that species which dominate coral reef communities will shift due to climate change, but the total biodiversity will not decline

The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

 

Especially if our theories of evolution hold true. There may be a temporary loss, but biodiversity is a mechanism that increases biodensity. If there's a niche, there's a potential adaptation that will eventually come along and exploit it.

Nice to get some good news once in a while.

-Will

 

Research reveals potential of an overlooked climate change solution

• The relative concentration of methane has grown more than twice as fast as that of carbon dioxide since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution
• Removing methane from the atmosphere could reduce temperatures even faster than carbon dioxide removal alone because methane is 81 times more potent in terms of warming the climate over the first 20 years after its release, and about 27 times more potent over a century
• Methane removal also improves air quality by decreasing the concentration of tropospheric ozone
• 60% of methane emissions are human-driven, including livestock, rice fields, waste disposal and fossil fuel extraction
• Natural sources of methane include thawing permafrost, which is projected to increase as the planet warms
• Under a high emissions scenario, the analysis showed that a 40 percent reduction in global methane emissions by 2050 would lead to a temperature reduction of approximately 0.4 degrees Celsius by 2050
• Under a low emissions scenario where temperature peaks during the 21st century, methane removal of the same magnitude could reduce the peak temperature by up to 1 degree Celsius.

The two papers were published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2020.0454
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2021.0104

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/26/how-to-discuss-climate-change-productively.html
Climate psychologist says neither gloom-and-doom "nor extreme solution-obsessed optimism is the best way to discuss climate change productively"
For me, the funniest part of this headline is "Climate Psychologist"

However, it is an interesting article about the social struggle of Climate Change.

She misses, in the differentiation between "me" and "we" the, "you" position, but perhaps that's what she means by "me".

-Will

 

This Fjord Shows Even Small Populations Create Giant Microfiber Pollution

• Longyearbyen is an arctic village of 2,400 residents on the island of Svalbard, north of Norway
  
• A study showed that the village emits roughly as many microfibers as emitted by a wastewater treatment plant near Vancouver that serves 1.3 million people.
  
• The main cause is that Longyearbyen discharges raw sewerage into its fjord rather than first processing it at a wastewater treatment plant
  
• Further studies will be needed to determine how local creatures are interacting with the microfibers
• Those communities that cannot afford to treat sewerage could consider basic filtration, promote wool alternatives to synthetics and eke out more wears between washes

The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science

 

What's the difference?

Not being contentious, I just don't know how natural fibers behave differently in the world. Wool is very tough and, I think, lasts longer than most synthetics.

 

I'm guessing because wool is bio-degradable while synthetics aren't.

 

Eating sustainably is one of the easiest ways to combat climate change, experts say

• The easiest thing individuals can do in their daily lives to make an impact in the climate fight is simple switches to their diets
• Specifically, eat less meat and more organic, plant-based foods -- the closer they were grown, the better
• 56% of the carbon footprint in all diets in the U.S. comes from meat, and 45% of that comes from beef
• The country could get 10% closer to its climate goals of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius if the top 20% of the population that ate the highest carbon footprint diets ate meals that were average in carbon footprint instead
• Reducing consumption of all animal-based foods by 50% would save 224 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent to emissions from 47.5 million cars annually, or 24% of the reduction in emissions necessary to meet climate goals
• A family of four switching to eight vegan meals a week would be the equivalent of switching from a regular car to a hybrid

 

I sustain bananas as food crop. It's a great carbon sink. Fibers can make rope. Leaves absorb heat and convert it into more vegetation. They make shade, which makes the house cooler. Where the plants grow thick they cut down the need to mow. Bees absolutely love them, which is good for the bees and humanity. Wool is itchy and some are allergic to wool and lanolin. It is superior in some ways. In other ways it is not.
Humans are not responsible for climate change.
Humans are not designed to be vegetarian. Lack of meat results in malnutrition.

 

Three cheers for your bananas. Keep on keeping on.

I've been a vegetarian most of my life. I'm definitely not malnourished. Neither are my 91-year-old vegetarian parents.

 

9 Lies Vegans Love Telling
https://legionathletics.com/9-lies-vegans-love-telling/

Article about the anti-animal agriculture agenda. Some interesting points.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/02/01/whats-really-behind-the-plant-based-diet-agenda/

It's not hard to find propaganda on any side of an issue.

Eat more banana. Unless, you're working with bees because bananas smell like the pheromones bees excrete to signal a mass attack.

-Will

 

True, and you certainly excel at scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Just to be clear, the article I posted on eating sustainably didn't necessarily promote either strict vegetarianism or veganism.

The title is definitely click-baitish. Some of their points are reasonable --
Lie - Our Primate Ancestors Are Vegan So We Should Be Too
Correct -- our primate ancestors were not vegan, though they probably ate a far higher percentage of vegetation than many humans now do.

Other points are not reasonable --
Lie - Vegans Easily Get Enough (Healthy) Fat
False, in developed countries it is easy to get enough "healthy" fat from nuts, avocados, seed oils, etc.

As with much of what come out of Watts Up With That, much of this article is pure BS.

 

Today’s kids will live through three times as many climate disasters as their grandparents, study says

• This is the first research to study the impacts of climate change across generations
• If the planet continues to warm on its current trajectory, the average 6-year-old will live through --

roughly three times as many climate disasters as their grandparents
see twice as many wildfires
1.7 times as many tropical cyclones
3.4 times more river floods
2.5 times more crop failures
2.3 times as many droughts​

• Today’s children will be exposed to an average of five times more disasters than if they lived 150 years ago
  
• Infants in sub-Saharan Africa are projected to live through 50 to 54 times as many heat waves as someone born in the preindustrial era
• 
  
• If people manage to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels --

newborns’ risk of extreme heat exposure will fall almost by half
they could see 11 percent fewer crop failures
27 percent fewer droughts
and almost a third as many river floods than if emissions continue unabated​

The study was published in Science

 

China's Xi pledges to end funding for overseas coal power plants

• More than 70 percent of global coal-fired power plants rely on Chinese funding
• Public Chinese finance has put more than 53 gigawatts of coal power online across the world, more than double Japan's 21 gigawatts
• On September 21 Chinese President Xi Jinping said China would end support for building new coal-fired power plants abroad
• Japan and South Korea made similar pledges earlier this year

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

China Is Planning to Build 43 New Coal-Fired Power Plants. Can
It Still Keep Its Promises to Cut Emissions?

• China is planning to build 43 new coal-fired power plants and 18 new blast furnaces — equivalent to adding about 1.5% to its current annual emissions
• Still, world’s largest polluter is pledging to bring its emissions to a peak before 2030, and to make the country carbon neutral by 2060

 

Who cares?