Hot Air News Roundup January 10, 2019

 

Something to keep in mind…

 

Third Way Technologies

Third way technologies recreate, enhance or restore the processes that created the balance of greenhouse gasses which existed prior to human interference…

How ‘Third Way’ Technologies Can Help Turn Tide on Climate
Yale Environment October 26, 2015: interview with Tim Flannery

Massive seaweed farms that suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and counteract ocean acidification. The widespread adoption of carbon fiber technology that extracts CO2 from the air and turns it into cars and other industrial products. Concrete manufacturing that is carbon-negative rather than the energy-guzzling Portland cement used today. And giant chiller boxes installed in Antarctica that super-freeze the already frigid air there, producing “CO2 snow” that can be sequestered in the continent’s massive ice sheet.

These and other ideas represent what Australian scientist Tim Flannery calls “third way technologies” — safe methods to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels that could be adopted in concert with large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

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Seaweed grows at 30 to 60 times the rate of land-based plants, so it can draw out lots of C02. One study suggests that if you cover 9 percent of the world’s oceans in seaweed farms, you could draw down the equivalent of all our current emissions — more than 40 gigatonnes a year — and grow enough protein to feed a population of 10 billion people. That’s a huge opportunity.

Seaweed farms can also reverse ocean acidification. Off the coast of China, there are about 500 square kilometers of seaweed farms that are used to produce edible seaweed for the food market.

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We’re in a really difficult position right now. Even if we stop all fossil fuel use today, the planet is going to warm by one-and-a-half degrees within decades. The reality is we are seeing significant damage at one degree, which is near where we are now. We’re committed [by inertia in the system] to 1.5 degrees.

Third way technologies recreate, enhance or restore the processes that created the balance of greenhouse gasses which existed prior to human interference…

How ‘Third Way’ Technologies Can Help Turn Tide on Climate
Yale Environment October 26, 2015: interview with Tim Flannery

Massive seaweed farms that suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and counteract ocean acidification. The widespread adoption of carbon fiber technology that extracts CO2 from the air and turns it into cars and other industrial products. Concrete manufacturing that is carbon-negative rather than the energy-guzzling Portland cement used today. And giant chiller boxes installed in Antarctica that super-freeze the already frigid air there, producing “CO2 snow” that can be sequestered in the continent’s massive ice sheet.

These and other ideas represent what Australian scientist Tim Flannery calls “third way technologies” — safe methods to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels that could be adopted in concert with large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

…

Seaweed grows at 30 to 60 times the rate of land-based plants, so it can draw out lots of C02. One study suggests that if you cover 9 percent of the world’s oceans in seaweed farms, you could draw down the equivalent of all our current emissions — more than 40 gigatonnes a year — and grow enough protein to feed a population of 10 billion people. That’s a huge opportunity. Seaweed farms can also reverse ocean acidification. Off the coast of China, there are about 500 square kilometers of seaweed farms that are used to produce edible seaweed for the food market.

…

We’re in a really difficult position right now. Even if we stop all fossil fuel use today, the planet is going to warm by one-and-a-half degrees within decades. The reality is we are seeing significant damage at one degree, which is near where we are now. We’re committed [by inertia in the system] to 1.5 degrees.

The amount of CO2 generated above preindustrial levels is simply staggering. Currently at 1,025 gigatonnes of atmospheric CO2 over preindustrial (1790) CO2 levels, we have our work cut out for us.

In 2018 we generated 37.1 gigatonnes of atmospheric CO2, the second-biggest yearly gain in over two decades.

We must reduce current CO2 emissions drastically. At the same time we also need to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Just how much carbon do we need to remove?

To return to preindustrial levels by 2030 we would need to remove approximately 100 gigatonnes a year for the next ten years.

Impossible. There is no existent technology which can remove that amount of atmospheric CO2.

However, reducing CO2 to preindustrial levels by 2100 is less staggering…

The 2015 American Academies report on CO2 removal state that ‘reducing CO2 concentration by 1ppm per year would require removing and sequestering CO2 at a rate of around 18 gigatonnes per year’. That’s around 4.8 gigatonnes of carbon annually. Tim Flannery, Atmosphere of Hope, p 153

Every possible remediation methodology must be harnessed. Reafforestation is a potential carbon sink, but alone it cannot absorb nearly enough CO2…

The scale of reafforestation required to draw down a gigatonne of carbon is staggering. Trees grow over a longtime and start out very small, so we must take a 50-year time horizon as we think about this option. Over half a century, we would require an estimated 3-7.5 million square kilometers of land to be reforested (roughly the size of Australia or the contiguous states of the US). Tim Flannery, Atmosphere of Hope, p 156

Therefore, we will need to use additional technologies. Some may not even exist yet. Carbon capture and sequestration technology (CCS) has great potential. As does direct air capture (DAC). There are a few companies that are currently doing this, but not yet at the scale needed.

Direct Air Carbon Capture and Sequestration
Climeworks

Our plants capture atmospheric carbon with a filter. Air is drawn into the plant and the CO2 within the air is chemically bound to the filter.

Once the filter is saturated with CO2 it is heated (using mainly low-grade heat as an energy source) to around 100 °C (212 °F). The CO2 is then released from the filter and collected as concentrated CO2 gas to supply to customers or for negative emissions technologies. CO2-free air is released back into the atmosphere. This continuous cycle is then ready to start again. The filter is reused many times and lasts for several thousand cycles.

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We are on a mission to capture 1% of global CO2 emissions by 2025, and today we can proudly announce that we are another step closer to achieving this goal.

We have successfully raised CHF 30.5 million (USD 30.8 million) in equity funding from a group of existing and new private investors, as well as from Zurich Cantonal Bank. These funds will be used to further industrialize our Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology, significantly reduce its costs and prepare for mass production.

We have to date built nine direct air capture plants in six countries, operating in three different market segments.

Climeworks [VIDEO] 

More about Climeworks…

Company that sucks CO2 from air announces a new methane-producing plant
Ars Technica November 4, 2018

This will be Climeworks’ third carbon-capture plant. The first captured carbon out of ambient air using a filter of base amines that would bind with more acidic CO2. The captured carbon was sent to a greenhouse to speed plant growth. The second was based in Iceland at a geothermal plant that released some volcanic CO2. Climeworks’ small plant captures that carbon and injects it back into the ground, where mineral reactions help the CO2 bind with basalt, essentially storing the gas as a rock.

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If the technology is possible, making it economically viable is still a long way off. Without strict prices on carbon dioxide, the buyers of this service are unlikely to be the people who created the carbon pollution in the first place. But given the urgency of our global CO2 situation, it’s not crazy. Gebald noted in his address this week that the world emits 30 to 40 gigatons of CO2 annually, and every day we’re seeing higher and higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in terms of parts per million.

This article addresses direct air capture (DAC). Click the link and watch the short video in the article…

This Technology Offers Some Hope for Net-Zero Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Fortune October 8, 2018

Direct Air Capture (DAC), the process of removing carbon dioxide (a large contributor to climate change) from the atmosphere. With DAC, air is filtered through a non-hazardous chemical absorbent that captures about 80% of the air’s carbon dioxide content. The chemical substance drops to the bottom, while the cleaner air is released.

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Critics of DAC argue that the number of facilities necessary to make a valuable impact is impossibly high; plus, the idea of CO2 removal gives policymakers an excuse not to purse emission reduction as fervently. Oldham, however, argues that there’s not enough time to be rejecting any aid to climate change prevention when that 1.5 degree-limit is so near.

Carbon Engineering, a company in Calgery is using DAC successfully…

At Carbon Engineering, we’re commercializing two clean energy technologies that can rapidly accelerate our shift to a net-zero world: our Direct Air Capture technology can deliver large-scale negative emissions by removing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere; and our AIR TO FUELS™ technology can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of transportation by creating clean synthetic fuels – made from air, water and renewable power.

Carbon Engineering [VIDEO] 

Sucking carbon out of the air won’t solve climate change – But it might fill in a few key pieces of the clean energy puzzle.
Vox July 16, 2018

The idea of pulling carbon dioxide directly out of the air has been bouncing around climate change policy circles for well over a decade, but it’s only been in the past few years that the technology itself — “direct air capture,” or DAC — has been tested in the real world.

In June, we got the first solid engineering and cost numbers on DAC, courtesy of a company called Carbon Engineering out of Calgary, Canada.

In a paper in the new energy journal Joule, the company (led by its founder, Harvard’s David Keith) reports its experience over the past three years running a DAC demonstration plant in Squamish, British Columbia. It’s the clearest look yet at how DAC might actually work, not just as a technology but as a business. “I’m impressed with the degree of transparency, detail, and clarity in the Joule paper,” Dr. Julio Friedmann, a former Obama appointee at the Department of Energy and a distinguished associate at the Energy Futures Initiative, told me. “It sets the standard for future players.”

Moniz group launches ‘substantial’ CO2 air capture project
Greenwire September 10, 2018

The Energy Futures Initiative’s air-capture project aims to bring new focus and dollars to an idea that proponents say is necessary to hit long-term climate targets. Supporters say carbon-removal strategies are an important step toward decarbonizing the energy sector by the end of the century.

The goal, EFI said, is development of a proposal “that is housed at the federal level and includes a research portfolio, organization and management arrangement and budget planning to implement a robust multi-agency technological CDR [carbon dioxide removal] initiative that can develop and demonstrate new technological options and lead to a significant reduction in atmosphere concentrations.”

A very informative paper on DAC – readable with good illustrations…

A Process for Capturing CO2 from the Atmosphere
Joule August 15, 2018

We describe a process for capturing CO2 from the atmosphere in an industrial plant. The design captures ∼1 Mt-CO2/year in a continuous process using an aqueous KOH sorbent coupled to a calcium caustic recovery loop. We describe the design rationale, summarize performance of the major unit operations, and provide a capital cost breakdown developed with an independent consulting engineering firm. We report results from a pilot plant that provides data on performance of the major unit operations. We summarize the energy and material balance computed using an Aspen process simulation. When CO2 is delivered at 15 MPa, the design requires either 8.81 GJ of natural gas, or 5.25 GJ of gas and 366 kWhr of electricity, per ton of CO2 captured. Depending on financial assumptions, energy costs, and the specific choice of inputs and outputs, the levelized cost per ton CO2 captured from the atmosphere ranges from 94 to 232 $/t-CO2.

Protests • Extinction Rebellion • Resistance 

Greta Thunberg

Six things that happened 2018 that gives me hope in 2019:


1. More and more leading scientists are speaking clearly about the emergency of the climate crisis. And people like the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, say that we are facing an existential threat.


2. The IPCC report. Even though it’s a huge compromise and a lot of economic interests have much to say, it shows clearly that we need to change everything. “Limiting warming to 1.5°C is possible within the laws of chemistry and physics but doing so would require unprecedented changes”.

3. Emissions are still increasing. Sounds weird…but if the emissions would have gone down by, like, 0,1% everyone would think what we’re doing right now is enough, and then go back to sleep.

4. More and more reports are showing that 10% of the worlds richest people emits 50% of the CO2. And a few companies are responsible for enormous proportions of the greenhouse gas emissions. In Sweden for instance 3 companies, @hm , @electrolux and @inside_ericsson together emits more than the whole of Sweden – which moves the debate from the individual level. So that the really big polluters can’t get away with what they are doing.


5. All the solutions are already out there. Even if they sometimes mean NOT doing things and simply giving up some of our habits. Like you do in a crisis.

6. Movements of resistance are starting and growing everywhere. Like Extinction Rebellion, The Sunrise Movement and many, many others. May 2019 be the year when we start to change everything. Happy new year!

With Nationwide Tour Targeting Untapped Youth Power, Sunrise Movement Aims to ‘Make Green New Deal an Inevitability’
Common Dreams January 7, 2018

The millennial-led Sunrise Movement has succeeded in convincing 45 House Democrats and several senators to support the Green New Deal, and now the grassroots group is planning to focus on young voters across the country to gather as much support as possible for the bold climate action and jobs proposal.

According to the Huffington Post, the two-year-old group is planning a 14-stop nationwide tour in March and April, visiting cities and towns in coal-producing states like Kentucky and Pennsylvania as well as California, New York, Michigan, and others to engage directly with young adults who may not be familiar with all the details of the Green New Deal

—but who are likely among the 67 percent of millennials who believe the federal government should make environmental protection a top priority.

Extinction Rebellion continues its peaceful nonviolent demonstrations…

Extinction Rebellion activists in court after Manchester protest
The Guardian January 3, 2019

A group of environmental activists have appeared in court after they were arrested at a Extinction Rebellion protest in Manchester last year.

The eight environmental activists were charged with wilful obstruction of the highway after they blocked traffic for 80 minutes by sitting down at the junction of Oxford Road in the city centre on 24 November 2018.

During the protest, the defendants briefly stood up to allow an ambulance to pass through the road. They pleaded not guilty at Manchester magistrates court on Thursday morning.

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The district judge, Sam Goozée, said the defendants were unlikely to face prison. A magistrates trial will take place on 30 April, 1 May and 2 May, and all eight protesters have been bailed.

A venue has yet to be confirmed as Goozée said a room with a larger capacity was likely to be needed to accommodate the defendants.

JOIN EX USA: on their website

Canterbury: Extinction Rebellion protest in St Peter’s Place has ended
Kent Online January 5, 2019

Organisers of a climate change protest which caused “traffic mayhem” in Canterbury city centre have hailed the demonstration a success.

Around 100 protestors from the group Extinction Rebellion campaigned in the city – blocking St Peter’s Place and stopping traffic around the Westgate Towers in a bid to raise awareness of global warming. Campaigners stopped traffic by standing in the road for seven minutes at a time with banners and giving speeches to motorists about climate change.

Climate Activists To Hold Demonstration In Scarborough

Yorkshire Coast Radio December January 6, 2019

Extinction Rebellion Scarborough, a group of climate activists, will be holding a demonstration outside the Town Hall.

We told you earlier this week that the authority’s two Green Party councillors, Cllr Mark Vesey and Cllr Dilys Cluer, will bring a motion at the full council meeting tomorrow (Monday 7th January) asking their fellow members to help the borough achieve carbon neutrality.

The group is calling on the public to sacrifice half an hour of their lunch break to join them on the steps of the Town Hall at 1.30pm tomorrow, or email their councillors to urge them to back this motion.

HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP

This is a great article with lots of graphs…

2018: A Year of Climate Extremes
World Resource Institute December 27, 2018

In June, Oman saw its highest minimum temperature at 108.7°F, a new Asian record. A new record was likely also set for the hottest temperature in Africa, at 124°F in Ouargla, Algeria.

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In July, Japan experienced record-high rainfall and extensive flooding and mudslides, with thousands of houses damaged and at least 122 lives lost; the government instructed 5 million people to evacuate. In India, drought and resultant crop failures in India’s Madhya Pradesh state led to significant migration; the region has seen roughly half of its usual rainfall in the last few years. And in August, Kerala, India experienced heavy rainfall and one of the worst floods on record, leading to hundreds of deaths.

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The Global Carbon Project projected that carbon dioxide emissions will climb to a record 37.1 gigatonnes in 2018. Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel sources grew by 2.7 percent over the past year, after a 1.6 percent increase in 2017. Emissions growth in 2017 and 2018 followed a three-year plateau.

Energy Transfer Uses Workaround to Open Mariner East 2 Pipeline Amid Hazard Worries, Criminal Investigation
Desmog January 3, 2019

Energy Transfer has begun shipping natural gas liquids through one of the most troubled pipeline projects in Pennsylvania, sparking calls for additional investigations as residents say safety concerns remain unresolved.

Natural gas liquids (NGLs) are fossil fuels found in large volumes in “wet” shale gas wells. They include the highly flammable fuels propane and butane, plus ethane, which is used extensively in the petrochemicals and plastics industy.

A year ago today, Pennsylvania temporarily suspended permits for Mariner East 2 pipeline construction, citing the builder’s “egregious and willful violations” of state laws.

Portions of Mariner East 2 construction remain under a separate injunction, this one issued by a state administrative law judge in May, after sinkholes opened up in West Whiteland Township in the densely populated suburbs of Philadelphia.

The Mariner East projects are the subject of a criminal probe by the Chester County district attorney’s office, which announced in December that it was investigating potential charges including risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief, and environmental crimes.

Pelosi’s Actions on Climate Fall Woefully and Inexcusably Short of What We Need
Truthout January 7, 2018 [VIDEO] 

The Gathering Climate Storm and the Media Cover-up
Arctic News January 5, 2019

With the exception of the few who comprehend the nature of a Faustian Bargain[1], some billionaires, captains of industry and their political and media mouthpieces are driving humanity toward self-destruction through the two biggest enterprises on Earth, the fossil fuel industry, which is devastating the Earth atmosphere, and the industrial-military machine leading toward nuclear war. The rest of the world is dragged subconsciously, induced by bread and circuses.

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Whereas news items channeled by international news agencies regarding extreme weather events are generally reported, at least by national broadcasters, the plethora of discussion and debate programs on TV and radio stations mostly overlook the enhanced toxic effects of carbon gases.

If this article were published anywhere else, I would ignore it. Worth reading and thinking about…

GLOBAL EXTINCTION WITHIN 18 – 34 MONTHS Arctic News January 7, 2019

Recent data from the Arctic confirm an exponential rise in the temperature anomaly of the Arctic stratospheric methane which is now 65 degrees C above the normal, while it was only 20 degrees C above the normal, 6 to 8 years ago.

Using this data and the recent Piomass (2017) estimates of the minimum Arctic ice shelf volume it is now possible to estimate the timing of the Arctic – Permian style methane blowout firestorm more accurately and the events are tabled below.

Good graphs…

Climate Triage: Swift Action Is Required To Save Humanity from Dangerous Global Warming
Forbes January 7, 2019

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports we have 12 years to dramatically cut emissions to avoid locking in dangerous global warming, but the World Meteorological Organization announced atmospheric emissions are higher than at any point in the past 3-5 million years and emissions grew again in 2018 after several years of zero growth.

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Climate triage can tackle climate change by decarbonizing the power, industry, transportation, and buildings sectors. Fortunately, decades of global experience with climate and energy policy has proven which policies drive down emissions fastest and cheapest. A small set of well-designed, stringently set policies can put the world on a path to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

50-million-year cooling trend is reversed
Climate News Network December 31, 2018

Scientists conclude that the profligate combustion of fossil fuels could within three decades take planet Earth back to conditions that existed in the Pliocene three million years ago, an era almost ice-free and at least 1.8°C and possibly 3.6°C warmer than today.

But there is a much earlier warming precedent. The Eocene planet at its warmest 50 million years ago was perhaps 13°C warmer than it has been for almost all human history. Its continents were differently configured, the Arctic was characterised by swampy forests that might have looked a little like the Louisiana bayous of the US, and the first mammals had begun to colonise the globe.

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If, on the other hand, nations go on burning fossil fuels under the business-as-usual scenario, then by 2150 the world will be very like the early Eocene, 50 million years ago. And if that is the case, at least 9% of the globe – including northern Australia, east and south-east Asia, and the coastal Americas – will experience what the scientists call “geologically novel climates”: that is, conditions for which the past can offer no match at all.

It is a tenet of geology that the present is key to the past. If so, the past can also illuminate the future: what has happened before can happen again.

Adaption and Resilience

Bamboo: Malawi’s Unexpected Tool for Climate Change Resilience
World Resources Institute January 8, 2019

Hundreds of rows of giant bamboo grow about an hour outside of Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. It’s an unexpected sight—Malawi has lost nearly 10 percent of its forests since 2001, and bamboo isn’t even native to the country. But that’s exactly the reason Grant Blumrick knew he had to start the AfriBam giant bamboo farm.

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Malawi is one of 27 nations throughout Africa that have committed to restore more than 100 million hectares (247 million acres) of degraded and deforested landscapes as part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100).

Swedes top climate change resisters’ league
Climate News Network January 8, 2019

Annually over the past 14 years a group of 350 energy and climate experts from around the globe has drawn up a table reflecting the performance of more than 70 countries in tackling climate change.

Together this group of nations is responsible for more than 90% of total climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

In the just published index looking at developments in 2018, Sweden, Morocco and Lithuania are the top performers in combatting global warming. At the other end of the scale are Iran, the US and – worst performer by a significant margin – Saudi Arabia.

14 New Massachusetts State Reps Support 100% Renewable Energy by 2050
Desmog January 8, 2019

With the swearing in of new members last week, the Massachusetts legislature, not unlike the U.S. Congress, is receiving an infusion of brand-new state representatives who already are pushing an aggressive agenda focused on addressing climate change and transitioning to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2050.

Supreme Court Blocks ExxonMobil’s Effort to Conceal Decades of Documents in Probe of Oil Giant’s Climate Deception
Common Dreams January 7, 2019

In a win for climate campaigners and Massachusetts’ Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected ExxonMobil’s attempt to block Healey’s demand for documents related to her state’s ongoing investigation into allegations that one of the world’s largest oil and gas corporations deceived the public and investors for decades about how fossil fuels drive global warming.

Wildlife & the Environment

Chile issues 2019 wildfire warning amid heat forecasts
Climate Home News January 8, 2019

Chile’s government expects the area burned by wildfires to double this year, the country’s agriculture minister said on Tuesday morning, as flames continued to rage through the heart of the country amid a heat wave.

“We are expecting 70,000 hectares to burn [from 1 July 2018 until 1 July 2019] on the basis of high temperatures, quite strong winds and comparatively low humidity,” Efe Verde reported agriculture minister Antonio Walker said. “There are also many combustibles, many pastures.”

Satellites can be sustainable monitors
Climate News Network January 8, 2019

High tech answers using satellites and sound recorders could contribute to solving the global information crisis. To check on progress towards world development and conservation goals, researchers could exploit the highest technology of all.

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Subtle listening devices planted in primal rainforest and near human settlements could provide a low-cost, high-speed check on biodiversity loss and conservation efforts in the developing world.

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researchers argue in two entirely separate studies, the look-and-listen approach could deliver effective levels of information at relatively low expense, and keep nations and international monitoring organisations informed on issues ultimately inseparable from climate change driven by human appropriation of the planet’s resources.

Algae thrive under Greenland sea ice
Science Daily January 8, 2019

Microscopic marine plants flourish beneath the ice that covers the Greenland Sea, according to a new study. These phytoplankton create the energy that fuels ocean ecosystems, and the study found that half of this energy is produced under the sea ice in late winter and early spring, and the other half at the edge of the ice in spring.

Interesting article…

Soil and water carbon stores puzzle science
Climate News Network January 7, 2018

Two new studies have highlighted yet more unexpected findings in the epic story of the Earth’s carbon stores: how the world’s waters and soils accumulate and discharge them.

One team of researchers has found, to their surprise, that the meltwaters of Greenland are washing measurable quantities of carbon into the atmosphere in the form of the potent greenhouse gas methane.

And another has looked more closely at the way carbon is stored in the world’s soils, and come to the conclusion that even the minerals in the bedrock play a role: with help from rainwater, they can capture and hold potentially vast quantities of carbon in the soils of planet Earth.

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Iron- and aluminium-bearing minerals in the soils cling to a lot of carbon. How much varies according to rainfall and evaporation, but it could be that between 3% and 72% of organic carbon found in soils is retained by reactive minerals. And, the researchers think, in all, this could add up to 600 billion metric tons worldwide, most of it in the rainforests.

‘Spineless’—What Jellyfish Can Teach Us About the Oceans’ Future
EcoWatch January 9, 2019

Jellyfish have adaptations that allow them to do well in today’s damaged seas. They are both eaten by fish and compete for food with fish. So overfishing decreases their predators and increases their prey. They have a very important sessile stage called a polyp that lives on the underside of hard surfaces. Construction of docks, jetties and oil rigs provide a lot more coastal habitat for those polyps.

Because of their jelly insides, they can withstand low-oxygen environments better than more cellular animals with higher metabolism. Those dead zones are expanding because of pollution. And shipping and the proliferation of larger canals provides pathways for jellyfish to become invasive species. Jellyfish populations do ebb and flow naturally. But in places where jellyfish are chronic, it’s often a signal of a compromised ecosystem.

Climate Studies

Future of planet-cooling tech: Study creates roadmap for geoengineering research
PHYS ORG January 8, 2019

Simply reducing greenhouse gas emissions probably is not going to be sufficient for the planet to escape catastrophic damage from climate change, scientists say.

Additional actions will be required, and one option is solar geoengineering, which could lower temperatures by methods such as reflecting sunlight away from the Earth through the deployment of aerosols in the stratosphere. However, the prospect of experimenting with the Earth’s atmosphere has left some people skeptical of the process.

A new study, “Mission-Driven Research for Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering,” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sets out to establish a roadmap for responsible exploration of geoengineering.

“Part of the genesis of this paper is that a long time ago I got tired of going to meetings and not being able to say much more than, ‘If you do geoengineering, it will get colder,'” said lead author Douglas MacMartin, senior research associate and senior lecturer in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University.

“We actually need to do the research to understand what the impacts are and understand the uncertainties,” MacMartin said.

This study finds that geoengineering requires a mission-driven approach with a clear goal: informing policy.

Methane beneath Greenland’s ice sheet is being released
Nature January 9,2019

Sediments beneath glaciers and ice sheets harbour carbon reserves that, under certain conditions, can be converted to methane, a potent greenhouse gas. However, the formation and release of such methane is an unquantified component of the Arctic methane budget. Writing in Nature, Lamarche-Gagnon et al. present direct measurements of dissolved methane in water discharged from a land-terminating glacier of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the summer. This water, which is known as proglacial discharge, was supersaturated with methane, and the amount of methane released to the atmosphere from this discharge rivals that from other terrestrial rivers. The findings suggest that the form and evolution of subglacial hydrological systems contribute to the control of the Arctic methane cycle.

Atmospheric methane concentrations varied substantially in the past, and it has been hypothesized that large reserves of methane can form and be trapped under ice sheets and glaciers when there is a favourable combination of carbon-rich sediments, high subglacial pressures, oxygen-poor conditions and low temperatures. Rapid release of this methane during glacial retreat might trigger rapid warming, but whether large-scale release of such glacial methane could occur in the future is disputed.

Should we say farewell to the Arctic’s unique nature?
PHYS ORG January 8, 2019

Temperatures are rising faster in the Arctic than any other place on Earth. If these changes continue, it is likely that the unique and diverse Arctic tundra will change into a more uniform vegetation dominated by shrubs.

And such a change in vegetation could cause additional changes to local and perhaps even the global climate.

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This whole ecosystem is in danger of change when the temperature rises. But climate change does not only affect the temperature. The amounts of snow and rain also change and the permafrost becomes less stable.

These conditions cause the water content of the soil to change. Temperature, soil moisture, and the amount of snow are all vital for the survival of the tundra plants. Each and every one has adapted to grow under certain temperatures, snow, and water levels.

When these conditions change, it could lead to species that are adapted to the Arctic climate no longer able to survive, while other Arctic species can expand their range northwards.

Reliable tropical weather pattern to change in a warming climate
Science Daily December 28, 2018

As human activities cause the Earth’s temperature to increase, reliable, well-studied weather patterns like the Madden-Julian Oscillation will change too, say researchers at Colorado State University.

Eric Maloney, professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science, has led a new study published in Nature Climate Change that attributes future changes in the behavior of the Madden-Julian Oscillation to anthropogenic global warming. Maloney and co-authors used data from six existing climate models to synthesize current views of such changes projected for the years 2080-2100.

Their analysis reveals that while the Madden-Julian Oscillation’s precipitation variations are likely to increase in intensity under a warmer climate, wind variations are likely to increase at a slower rate, or even decrease. That’s in contrast to the conventional wisdom of a warming climate producing a more intense Madden-Julian Oscillation, and thus an across-the-board increase in extreme weather.

Climate model uncertainties ripe to be squeezed
EurekAlert! January 7, 2019

The latest climate models and observations offer unprecedented opportunities to reduce the remaining uncertainties in future climate change, according to a paper published in Nature Climate Change by a team of 29 international authors.

Although the human impact of recent climate change is now clear, future climate change depends on how much additional greenhouse gas is emitted by humanity and also how sensitive the Earth System is to those emissions. Reducing uncertainty in the sensitivity of the climate to carbon dioxide emissions is necessary to work-out how much needs to be done to reduce the risk of dangerous climate change, and to meet international climate targets.

Melting ice sheets release tons of methane into the atmosphere, study finds
Nature January 3, 2019

As reported in Nature, using novel sensors to measure methane in meltwater runoff in real time, they observed that methane was continuously exported from beneath the ice. They calculated that at least six tons of methane was transported to their measuring site from this portion of the Ice Sheet alone, roughly the equivalent of the methane released by up to 100 cows.

A century and half of reconstructed ocean warming offers clues for the future
Science Daily January 7, 2019

Due to a scarcity of data, most global estimates of ocean warming start only in the 1950s. However, a team of scientists has now succeeded in reconstructing ocean temperature change from 1871 to 2017.

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The new estimate suggests that in the last 60 years up to half the observed warming and associated sea level rise in low- and mid- latitudes of the Atlantic Ocean is due to changes in ocean circulation. During this period, more heat has accumulated at lower latitudes than would have if circulation were not changing. While a change in ocean circulation is identified, the researchers cannot attribute it solely to human-induced changes.

FYI:
• 1 gigatonne of carbon equals 3.67 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide.
• 1 part per million of atmospheric CO2 is equivalent to 7.81 Gigatonnes of Carbon Dioxide.
• 1 part per million of atmospheric C is equivalent to 2.13 Gigatonnes of Carbon.

Global Warnings

Paul Beckwith: “I declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face to attempt to regain system stability, or face an untenable calamity of biblical proportions.”
Kevin Hester: “There is no past analogue for the rapidity of what we are baring witness to. There has been a flood of articles … 2C is no longer attainable and that we are heading for dangerous climate change”
Guy McPherson: “The recent and near-future rises in temperature are occurring and will occur at least an order of magnitude faster than the worst of all prior Mass Extinctions. Habitat for human animals is disappearing throughout the world, and abrupt climate change has barely begun.”
Magi Amma: We need to turn on a dime at mach nine!