[✔️] May 25, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*May 25, 2021*/

[follow the money]
*ExxonMobil faces ‘winds of change’ as climate battle reaches boardroom*
Activist shareholders will try to green a titan of the oil industry in 
the most-watched proxy battle in years
- -
     Meanwhile, the company’s faith that an increasingly prosperous 
global population would always need more Exxon oil was challenged this 
week by the International Energy Agency, a forecaster frequently cited 
by the supermajor.

The agency said no new oil and gas projects would be necessary if the 
world were to reduce emissions sufficiently to prevent global overheating.

“Long-term risk continues to grow, threatening the company’s existing 
business model”, said Glass Lewis.
https://www.ft.com/content/1ce31524-3c21-4978-b6b8-2e6a13f50288



[yes]
*Could America be Headed for Another Dust Bowl?*
Rising temperatures and worsening droughts raise the possibility, 
scientists warn.
Larsen, a 42-year-old geoscientist at the University of 
Massachusetts-Amherst, recently published a paper on soil loss in the US 
Corn Belt. Since farming began, Larsen and his coauthors estimate that 
more than one-third of the Corn Belt—nearly 30 million acres—has lost 
all of its nutrient- and carbon-rich topsoil. Similar processes also are 
taking place on the neighboring Great Plains, a sprawling region that 
includes Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, as well as parts of Texas, 
Oklahoma, Missouri, Montana, and Colorado...
- -
Heat and drought are intimately linked, meaning that worsening heatwaves 
mean more droughts and vice versa. That one-two punch has many 
scientists concerned. “Dry soils have this exacerbating effect,” says 
Wim Thiery, a climate scientist at the University of Brussels. “There is 
this positive feedback where dry soils lead to more warmth.”

When the soil contains a lot of moisture, incoming energy from the sun 
gets absorbed by the water as it turns from a liquid into a gas. But 
when the soil contains little water, that energy is converted directly 
into heat. The result is that droughts lead to more severe heatwaves, 
and those heatwaves in turn lead to drier conditions...
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/05/america-drought-climate-change-next-dust-bowl/ 


- -

[PNAS]
*The extent of soil loss across the US Corn Belt*
  View ORCID ProfileEvan A. Thaler,  View ORCID ProfileIsaac J. Larsen, 
and  View ORCID ProfileQian Yu
  See all authors and affiliations

PNAS February 23, 2021 118 (8) e1922375118; 
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1922375118
*Significance*
Conventional agricultural practices erode carbon-rich soils that are the 
foundation of agriculture. However, the magnitude of A-horizon soil loss 
across agricultural regions is poorly constrained, hindering the ability 
to assess soil degradation. Using a remote-sensing method for 
quantifying the absence of A-horizon soils and the relationship between 
soil loss and topography, we find that A-horizon soil has been eroded 
from roughly one-third of the midwestern US Corn Belt, whereas prior 
estimates indicated none of the Corn Belt region has lost A-horizon 
soils. The loss of A-horizon soil has removed 1.4 ± 0.5 Pg of carbon 
from hillslopes, reducing crop yields in the study area by ∼6% and 
resulting in $2.8 ± $0.9 billion in annual economic losses.

*Abstract*
Soil erosion in agricultural landscapes reduces crop yields, leads to 
loss of ecosystem services, and influences the global carbon cycle. 
Despite decades of soil erosion research, the magnitude of historical 
soil loss remains poorly quantified across large agricultural regions 
because preagricultural soil data are rare, and it is challenging to 
extrapolate local-scale erosion observations across time and space. Here 
we focus on the Corn Belt of the midwestern United States and use a 
remote-sensing method to map areas in agricultural fields that have no 
remaining organic carbon-rich A-horizon. We use satellite and LiDAR data 
to develop a relationship between A-horizon loss and topographic 
curvature and then use topographic data to scale-up soil loss 
predictions across 3.9 × 105 km2 of the Corn Belt. Our results indicate 
that 35 ± 11% of the cultivated area has lost A-horizon soil and that 
prior estimates of soil degradation from soil survey-based methods have 
significantly underestimated A-horizon soil loss. Convex hilltops 
throughout the region are often completely denuded of A-horizon soil. 
The association between soil loss and convex topography indicates that 
tillage-induced erosion is an important driver of soil loss, yet tillage 
erosion is not simulated in models used to assess nationwide soil loss 
trends in the United States. We estimate that A-horizon loss decreases 
crop yields by 6 ± 2%, causing $2.8 ± $0.9 billion in annual economic 
losses. Regionally, we estimate 1.4 ± 0.5 Pg of carbon have been removed 
from hillslopes by erosion of the A-horizon, much of which likely 
remains buried in depositional areas within the fields.
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/8/e1922375118.short



[can it happen sooner with slave labor?]
*China Carbon Neutral by 2060? Will their coal addiction kill the plan?*
May 23, 2021
Just Have a Think
China's President Xi Jinping recently announced that his country will be 
reach net zero carbon by  2060. China is installing more renewable 
energy than any other country in the world, but they also added the 
equivalent of one large coal power plant to their electricity grid every 
single week in 2020. So how can these apparently contradictory policies 
possibly square up?

Video Transcripts available at our website
http://www.justhaveathink.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Efc3_b0Mk


[world traveling motorcyclist video talks fracking in South Africa]
*Why did petroleum engineers come here?! [S5 - Eps. 32]*
May 24, 2021
Itchy Boots
In this episode I am riding from Sutherland back into the direction of 
Namibia, but not before I ride through the Tankwa Karoo National Park, 
over the Gannaga Pass. Time for a little bit of geology and learning 
more about the impact that potential fracking activities could have in 
the South African Karoo...

Follow my journey on:
INSTAGRAM:   https://www.instagram.com/itchybootstravel/
FACEBOOK:     https://www.facebook.com/itchyboots
BLOG:              https://www.itchyboots.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUClsZCLU9Y



[oh thank God for electrical engineers]
*Pope Francis to get first electric popemobile from U.S. firm Fisker*
Reuters
Los Angeles-based Fisker Inc (FSR.N) plans to supply the first pure 
electric vehicle for Pope Francis next year, it said on Friday, with 
features such as a solar roof and carpets made of recycled plastic 
bottles from the ocean.

Fisker will covert its all-electric Ocean sport utility vehicle for use 
by the pope, providing a retractable glass cupola and sustainable 
interior materials, such as the carpets....
https://www.reuters.com/technology/pope-francis-get-first-electric-popemobile-us-firm-fisker-2021-05-21/



[ice melts in warming airs]
*Faster Greenland ice melt could be unstoppable*
May 24th, 2021, by Tim Radford

A rapid thaw could destroy a whole ice sheet if the faster Greenland ice 
melt scientists have found spreads across the island.

LONDON, 24 May, 2021 − Researchers say the faster Greenland ice melt 
affecting part of the island could mean a large area is on the verge of 
irreversible loss. Their new study shows that the central western region 
of the ice sheet is near what climate scientists call “a tipping point.”

That is, once the ice starts to slide away, most of it will tip into the 
sea, to raise global sea levels and potentially to trigger the collapse 
of the great Atlantic Ocean current that enhances the climate of 
north-west Europe.

“We have found evidence that the central western part of the Greenland 
ice sheet has been destabilising and is now close to a critical 
transition,” said Niklas Boers, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate 
Impact Research. “Our results suggest there will be substantially 
enhanced melting in the future − which is quite worrying.”

Dr Boers and his colleague Martin Rypdal of the Arctic University of 
Norway report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 
that they looked at data since 1880 of melt rates and ice-sheet altitude 
shifts of a region called the Jakobshavn basin in the central western 
region of the northern hemisphere’s biggest single block of ice − a 
block big enough to raise global sea levels by seven metres, were it all 
to melt.

And what they saw was something alarming: evidence that surface melting 
is beginning to accelerate. The conclusion, for now, is tentative.

“It’s high time we dramatically and substantially reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions from burning fossil fuels”

“We might be seeing the beginning of a large scale destabilisation, but 
at the moment we cannot tell, unfortunately,” Dr Boers said. “So far the 
signals we see are only regional, but that might simply be due to the 
scarcity of accurate and long-term data for other parts of the ice sheet.”

The region is home to the Jakobshavn glacier, which began to accelerate 
its flow to the sea this century, but the alarm is consistent with other 
studies of the mass of ice piled up on Greenland.

For most of the last 10,000 years or so, the summer loss of ice through 
melt and glacial flow has been replaced by winter snow. But in recent 
years, other research teams have warned, repeatedly, that the rate of  
melting of Greenland’s surface ice has increased, in ways that really 
could threaten the stability of the entire sheet. Last year, ice loss 
reached a new record.

Greenland’s ice sheet is high: colder, therefore, at altitude. As the 
surface melts, the elevation becomes lower, and therefore increasingly 
warmer. So once the high ground surface begins to melt away, it could 
reach a level below which there is no obvious reason why the process 
should stop.

Climate computer simulations predict a threshold of global average 
temperature change that could, in effect, start a process in which the 
loss of the entire ice sheet would become inevitable. The loss would 
happen over hundreds of years, or perhaps thousands, but once begun it 
would continue inexorably.

Extreme Arctic warming
Global sea levels would rise at ever faster rates, and the arrival of so 
much fresh water in the north Atlantic would be enough to interfere with 
the ocean circulation.

For years oceanographers have been warning that the existing current, 
which takes warm tropical water as far north as the Arctic, could 
weaken, or fail, with unpredictable and uncomfortable consequences for 
north European nations.

The only way to stop Greenland’s accelerated melt, once it reaches a 
critical point, would be to lower the temperature of the whole planet 
back to that which was normal more than 200 years ago. That is unlikely 
to happen. Instead, for the moment, the evidence is that average 
temperatures worldwide could rise by 3°C or more by 2100. The Arctic, 
however, is likely to become much, much warmer.

“So practically, the current and near-future mass loss will be 
irreversible,” said Dr Boers, “That’s why it’s high time we dramatically 
and substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil 
fuels and restabilise the ice sheet and our climate.” − Climate News Network
https://climatenewsnetwork.net/faster-greenland-ice-melt-could-be-unstoppable/



Yeah, well King Canute tried something similar over 1200 years ago]
*Bill Gates, Harvard University back solar geoengineering to fight 
global warming. Aim: dim the Sun.*
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/prime/environment/bill-gates-harvard-university-back-solar-geoengineering-to-fight-global-warming-aim-dim-the-sun-/primearticleshow/82842982.cms 




[Propaganda]
*Facebook fuels climate misinformation online, report finds*
Published on 21/05/2021
Facebook says it is tackling misinformation with a global network of 
independent fact checking partners but campaigners say it is not enough 
to contain misleading posts

By Isabelle Gerretsen

Facebook is fueling climate misinformation around the world, allowing 
misleading claims and climate denial to circulate widely on its 
platform, a new report claims.

The social media giant does not mention tackling climate misinformation 
in any of its advertising policies or community standards, according to 
a Stop Funding the Heat campaign report.

Examples of misinformation widely distributed on Facebook include false 
claims that frozen wind turbines were the main cause of Texas power 
outages and inaccurate reports that arson was the cause of bushfires in 
Australia.

“Facebook is talking the talk but not walking the walk on climate 
misinformation,” Sean Buchan, lead author of the report, told Climate 
Home News.

“They say they are doing a lot about it, but we haven’t seen any 
evidence that they are fighting climate misinformation with the vigour 
they are implying,” said Buchan.

Facebook told Climate Home News that the platform directly connects over 
100,000 people every day with reliable information through its Climate 
Science Information Centre, which was set up in September. The centre 
compiles data and expert information from the Intergovernmental Panel on 
Climate Change (IPCC), the national oceanic and atmospheric 
administration and the UN environment programme.
“We combat climate change misinformation by working with a global 
network of independent fact checking partners to review and rate 
content,” a Facebook spokesperson said.

But Buchan said the centre does not do enough to prevent climate 
misinformation slipping through.

“It’s not sufficient right now. With Cop26 around the corner, climate 
misinformation is going to be on the rise,” said Buchan...
- -
“Facebook does not allow groups like End Climate Silence to promote 
posts that contain climate-science research. They flag and disallow 
these posts as ‘political content’,” Guenther told Climate Home News.

“But they do allow climate-denial groups to promote posts containing 
disinformation, circumventing their fact-checking process, by labelling 
such posts as ‘opinion’,” she added.

In its report, Stop Funding the Heat calls on Facebook to update its 
community and advertising standards to include climate disinformation 
and stop taking money from climate denial groups.

Buchan said brands and investors play an important role in driving 
Facebook to crack down on misinformation. “A brand could cease 
advertising because it does not want to be associated with a specific 
piece of misinformation. Brands can threaten Facebook’s bottom line,” he 
said.
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/05/21/facebook-fuels-climate-misinformation-online-report-finds/


[Information warfare]
*The Dark World of Psychological Warfare | Secrets Of War | Timeline*Nov 
1, 2020
Timeline - World History Documentaries
Psychological warfare has taken many forms since its initial widespread 
usage in WW1. In this episode, we look at how the tactical use of truth 
and misinformation has swayed the tide of battle over the years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSqa3hE0z4g



[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming  May 25, 2011 *
Former Delaware Republican Party official Michael Stafford, in a column 
describing his growing recognition of the threat of climate change, 
observes:

"Regrettably, while the scientific evidence supporting [climate action] 
has become increasingly more persuasive over the past several years, and 
the need for immediate action ever more apparent, public opinion, at 
least in the United States, has been trending in the opposite direction.

"I think there are several reasons for this.  First, few of us...possess 
the technical expertise or knowledge required to independently assess 
and analyze scientific research, reports, or peer reviewed literature.  
As a result, we fall back on pop-culture works, like the thoroughly 
debunked [Bjorn Lomborg] book 'Cool It,' and reports in the mainstream 
media.  The climate denial industry has exploited this by endeavoring to 
create 'doubt' in the minds of Americans, despite the fact that no 
reasonable grounds for doubt remain.
Meanwhile, the scientific community has not been particularly effective 
at communicating the case for [climate action] in a way that is 
accessible and understandable to most Americans.  At the same time, the 
radicalization of the political Right, and the rise to prominence of an 
extreme form of libertarianism within its ranks, has made opposition to 
[climate action] a required tenant of its political orthodoxy.  In other 
words, our political ideology demands that it cannot be true--therefore, 
it is not.

"The rejection of proven science in favor of a form of ideologically 
driven magical thinking by the GOP is extremely unfortunate, and 
unnecessary."

http://townsquaredelaware.com/2011/05/25/my-road-to-damascus-coming-to-terms-with-global-climate-change/

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