[✔️] February 8, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*February  8, 2022*/

/[ Examining global resources - clips from NYT ]/
*Water Supplies From Glaciers May Peak Sooner Than Anticipated*
New satellite mapping of the world’s mountain ice suggests Earth’s 
glaciers may contain less water than previously thought.
By Raymond Zhong
Feb. 7, 2022
The world’s glaciers may contain less water than previously believed, a 
new study has found, suggesting that freshwater supplies could peak 
sooner than anticipated for millions of people worldwide who depend on 
glacial melt for drinking water, crop irrigation and everyday use.

The latest findings are based on satellite images taken during 2017 and 
2018. They are a snapshot in time; scientists will need to do more work 
to connect them with long-term trends. But they imply that further 
global warming could cause today’s ice to vanish in many places on a 
shorter timeline than previously thought...
- -
In certain ways, scientists understand less about some of the glaciers 
draped over the world’s mountains than they do about the much larger ice 
sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, said Mathieu Morlighem, an earth 
scientist at Dartmouth College who worked on the new study.

Only a few thousand glaciers worldwide have been measured on-site. In 
places like North America, the balmier climate means more pockets of 
water in the glaciers, which can thwart radar measurements. Compared 
with the giant ice sheets, where fast-moving ice has smoothed the 
underlying bedrock over time, the terrain beneath mountain glaciers can 
be “just so complex,” Dr. Morlighem said, making it harder to gauge 
their dimensions.

“Just 10, 15 years ago, we barely knew the area of the glaciers,” said 
Regine Hock, a geoscientist at the University of Oslo in Norway who was 
not involved in the new research. Estimates of glacier volume were 
“very, very rough,” she said.

Today’s “data revolution” is helping scientists make better predictions 
about local and regional water resources, even if the big picture 
globally — that the glaciers will thin substantially during this century 
— is unlikely to change much, Dr. Hock said. “There is only so much 
ice,” she said, “and then it’s gone.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/climate/glaciers-water-global-warming.html



/[  GoodHouseKeeping looks at the internal emotions ]/
*Is the Fear of Climate Change Keeping You Up at Night? How to Cope With 
Eco-Anxiety*
Turn paralysis into motivation that’ll help your mental health — and the 
planet.

BY MERYL DAVIDS LANDAU
Feb 4, 2022

Perhaps you’ve had your share of middle-of-the-night wake-ups lately: 
Between the usual pressing work deadlines, kid drama and (oh, right!) a 
global pandemic that keeps surging, anxieties are running high. But on 
top of these day-to-day concerns, there’s another pot of worry 
simmering, and it’s moving off the back burner for many of us: anxiety 
about climate change.

Lately, the increase in climate-related catastrophes and ever-more-vocal 
calls for action (often by young people) are forcing the issue to the 
forefront. While this discourse will hopefully encourage individuals, 
communities and countries to mitigate climate change, it may be making 
your personal anxiety worsen, especially if you’re likely to be directly 
affected by climate change. After Hurricane Harvey struck Houston in 
2017, researchers estimated that nearly half the city’s population had 
symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an extreme form of 
anxiety. Being impacted more than once can push you even further over 
the edge. “If you experience two 100-year floods in a few years, your 
capacity to cope is going to be depleted,” says Christie Manning, Ph.D., 
Director of Sustainability at Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN.

And even if your community has been spared so far, knowing something bad 
is likely coming is a big stressor, especially for women and people who 
have been marginalized. In general, women are more likely to be the 
family caretaker, and so are responsible for helping elderly parents and 
children through any climate-caused weather events, and research is 
finding heightened climate worry in people of color. That’s because 
decades of discrimination by banks and governments have pushed 
marginalized people into neighborhoods at lower altitudes or close to 
highways and airports, and with fewer parks and trees, making these 
neighborhoods more vulnerable to flooding, pollution and heat.

Fortunately, there are ways to get a handle on it all.

*What exactly is eco-anxiety?*
First, it's important to understand how the climate crisis — caused by 
all the greenhouse gasses humans have pumped into the atmosphere since 
the nineteenth century — affects our emotional health. Scientists have 
long understood the physical side of things: Rising temperatures result 
in dehydration, heat stroke and heart disease, as well as warm-weather 
health conditions such as Lyme disease and allergies sticking around 
longer. Extreme weather, such as the California wildfires, Midwest 
floods and stronger hurricanes, can hamper access to medical care.

But the notion that climate change affects our psyches is a more recent 
phenomenon. “Even 10 years ago, the idea that climate change has mental 
health impacts was something most people didn’t think about — including 
me,” says Susan Clayton, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the College 
of Wooster in Ohio and coauthor of a comprehensive 2021 report on the 
topic by the American Psychological Association and the nonprofit 
EcoAmerica. These effects include everything from stress and anxiety to 
depression and PTSD.

*How to Talk Climate Change With Your Kids*
Your Ultimate Guide to Sustainable Living
Research is ongoing, but it’s clear that our angst is rising, says 
Clayton. More than three quarters of Americans understand that the 
planet is warming, according to the Yale Program on Climate Change 
Communication, with a majority believing it will harm their own 
communities. This may be why 70% of us are at least somewhat worried, 
with 35% “very worried.” Google searches for terms like climate anxiety 
or eco-anxiety have skyrocketed the past few years, according to a study 
by researcher Kelton Minor at the University of Copenhagen.

Parents are especially uneasy. “I hear from people a lot that they’re 
worried about the world they’re leaving their children,” Clayton says. 
And kids are worked up about climate change, too. While younger children 
haven’t yet been queried, a large international study Clayton coauthored 
in 2021 found that 45 % of teens and young adults say their climate 
stress affects their daily lives. “After we see a climate disaster on 
the news, my 8-year-old son peppers me with questions on what we will do 
if it happens here. I can see the anxiety on his face, and it is 
heartbreaking,” says Ricki Weisberg, a 42-year-old public relations 
executive in Ardmore, PA. Compounding Ricki’s own climate anxiety is 
that she can’t even tell him those disasters are unlikely — several 
previously rare tornadoes struck a nearby city last year.

*Is eco-anxiety a mental illness?*
In some respects, climate angst is like other anxieties, which involve 
feeling tense and fearful when we ponder something that might happen in 
the future. Anxiety can bring on insomnia, nightmares, dizziness, panic 
attacks and high blood pressure. In its worst form, it can derail a 
person’s work and family life.

But in other ways, climate anxiety is unique. Unlike a lot of what we 
typically focus on when we’re anxious (which may be overblown) there’s 
good evidence that what we are worried about may well come to pass. 
“Climate anxiety is not a mental illness, because it’s rational to be 
concerned,” Clayton says.

The things you might normally do to soothe exaggerated or irrational 
fears aren’t enough. If you’re anxious that your child’s poor grades at 
school will lead him to a life of failure, for instance, a friend or 
therapist might help you view the situation more rationally. But with 
Earth in the balance, it is rational to be concerned. “Anxiety is a 
sensible response to what we’re facing. Everyone, everything and every 
place you love is at stake,” says Katharine Hayhoe, Ph.D., chief 
scientist for the nonprofit Nature Conservancy and author of the book 
Saving Us. Plus, that worry about your kid’s grades should dissipate 
once his study habits improve or when summer comes. But shifts in our 
climate are here to stay, even if countries around the world start to 
curtail it.

In its healthiest form, climate anxiety can be a good thing: calling 
your attention to a problem you need to prepare for, psychologists say. 
Such preparation might include learning more about what’s coming from 
websites like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
(NOAA), creating a family emergency plan in case of wildfires or storms 
or even choosing to buy your next home away from a low-lying coast.

But the anxiety so many of us feel about the planet we love can be 
paralyzing, says Renée Lertzman, Ph.D., a consultant on the environment, 
psychology and culture whose 2019 TED Talk on the topic has millions of 
views. “There’s a myth that people don’t care about the climate. But 
many feel conflicted about how to respond, so they numb out,” she says. 
Let’s say that you understand the ways that flying, driving and even 
eating meat contribute to the problem, but you like having those things 
in your life — this may cause you to freeze instead of taking individual 
actions, she explains.
And because the problem feels so huge — and because we know we need 
widespread change to systems — we can feel overwhelmed to the point of 
being debilitated, says Manning. “Not many of us feel we have the 
training, skills, influence or time to know how to get elected officials 
and corporations to listen and make changes,” she adds. In fact, more 
than half of us don’t know where to start in turning things around, the 
American Psychological Association found in 2020.

This is why conquering climate anxiety is so important: Optimism helps. 
When 5,000 people were asked how they felt when they thought about 
taking a climate action, those who felt most hopeful were more likely to 
want to act, while anxious people were not as motivated, a study 
published in August in the Journal of Environmental Psychology found.

*How to cope with climate anxiety*
Anxiety feels terrible, and it will not help the planet, so take these 
steps instead:

List what you love about your life. It may not seem directly related, 
but you need to calm your brain before ideas about how to make a 
difference can come to you, Manning says. This involves developing what 
psychologists call “meaning-focused coping,” which can include 
everything from thinking about what you appreciate in your career or 
family or the natural world around you, to enjoying weekly sunset walks 
with a friend.

Recognize we can all affect change. Think about how women got the vote, 
gay marriage became legal and South African apartheid ended, suggests 
Hayhoe. “Those didn’t happen because some influential person or a 
president decided it was time, but because ordinary people decided the 
world had to be different and they used their voices to start the 
change,” she says. For example, a hospital technician started a petition 
to divest their institution’s retirement funds out of fossil fuels, 
Hayhoe says. “We often picture climate action as a giant boulder at the 
bottom of a hill with a few hands on it, but when we look at what so 
many people and groups are already doing, we realize the giant boulder 
is at the top and already rolling down, and it has millions of hands on 
it that we can join,” she says.

Find your people. “If you have deep concerns about the climate, it’s 
really important that you have people who take those concerns seriously 
and don’t gaslight you,” Manning says. Plus, joining forces amplifies 
solutions. There are national environmental organizations like the 
Sierra Club and niche groups like the nonpartisan Protect our Winters 
for those who enjoy snow sports. Finding groups in your own community is 
especially valuable, because the practical solutions that can arise — 
more green spaces to help with cooling, say, or bike lanes to reduce 
driving — will help your locality. Besides, being part of a group is in 
and of itself a stress reducer.

Push the powerful. The biggest impacts will be made by those whose 
decisions affect us all, so voice your concerns to companies you do 
business with and campaign and vote for politicians who understand the 
urgency.

Know small actions matter. Every step you take (using a colder wash 
cycle, or driving an electric car) has merit, so don’t worry about being 
perfect. Lertzman and Hayhoe have both cut down, but not cut out, 
airplane travel (a huge contributor of heat-trapping carbon) by bundling 
multiple speaking engagements at each location. Last fall, Katy Romita, 
a 45-year-old meditation instructor in Mamaroneck, NY, started a 
website, One Small Stone, offering online meditations to others seeking 
to calm their climate anxiety.

Ease your kids’ angst. Involve your children in climate solutions in a 
fun way, such as by volunteering to plant trees during your city’s 
annual drive or joining the NASA-sponsored Globe Program, where parents 
and kids monitor temperatures of sunny and shady spots to contribute to 
climate data, suggests Sandi Schwartz, author of Finding EcoHappiness. 
Actions like these are beneficial for making children feel better, but 
“it’s important not to make the child feel like it’s his problem to 
fix,” Clayton says.

Spread the word. When you make any climate-friendly shift in your life, 
tell friends and relatives so they might follow. Almost everyone can be 
influenced if you help them connect the dots by using language 
reflecting their values. “It’s not about telling them they should care 
for the same reasons you care. It’s about listening for what they’re 
passionate about,” Hayhoe says. When climate-skeptical Republicans in 
two congressional districts were shown ads featuring people and terms 
they related to — an Air Force general describing national security 
implications and an evangelical Christian (Dr. Hayhoe) emphasizing her 
faith’s teachings about caring for the planet — they became more open to 
the climate’s harms, a recent study published in Nature Climate Change 
found. Other researchers have documented how a dismissive audience 
becomes more keen to act when local impacts of the crisis are emphasized.

Don’t argue with deniers. Fortunately, 7 % of the population feels 
strongly that global warming isn't happening. “If that’s your family 
member, say ‘I love you but you’re wrong,’ and move on. Don’t try to 
have a productive conversation,” Hayhoe advises.

Get help if you need. Reach out to a therapist if climate anxiety starts 
overwhelming you. You can also talk to others in online climate cafes or 
at the 10-step climate support group Good Grief Network. And remind 
yourself that even if your own community is directly impacted, you will 
bounce back. “Resilience is the ability to function and thrive in the 
face of negative events,” and humans have this resource in spades, 
Clayton says. As we tackle climate change, that’s something to feel good 
about.
MERYL DAVIDS LANDAU
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/a38760123/eco-climate-anxiety/

- -

/[ the highly respected Renee Lertzman with a the classic YouTube video 
https://youtu.be/f52LJJFBCLc ]/
*How to turn climate anxiety into action | Renée Lertzman*
TED - 13 minutes
Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, 
transcripts, translations, personalized Talk recommendations and more.

It's normal to feel anxious or overwhelmed by climate change, says 
psychologist Renée Lertzman. Can we turn those feelings into something 
productive? In an affirming talk, Lertzman discusses the emotional 
effects of climate change and offers insights on how psychology can help 
us discover both the creativity and resilience needed to act on 
environmental issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f52LJJFBCLc



/[ so,  spending corporate money on disinformation is just a cost of 
doing business   ]/
*‘Big Oil’ board members face hot seat over climate ‘deception’*
Oil industry insiders to appear before US Congress as some of the most 
powerful companies in the world face a reckoning for the climate crisis.

By Jack Losh
Published On 7 Feb 2022
7 Feb 2022
In 1977, an internal memo at Exxon, the United States oil giant, made 
clear that carbon emissions from its product were causing climate 
change. But not only that – time was running out to act.

“CO2 release most likely source of inadvertent climate modification,” 
said the shorthand document. “5-10 yr time window to get necessary 
information.”

But over the coming years, rather than dropping fossil fuels to avert 
the dangers outlined in its own research, Exxon and other oil 
corporations chose a different path. The industry orchestrated a 
systematic campaign of disinformation to dupe the public, impede 
political action, and protect profits.

“Emphasize the uncertainty in scientific conclusions regarding the 
potential enhanced Greenhouse effect,” said an Exxon paper in 1988, one 
of many published in the America Misled report on the fossil fuel industry.

“Stress environmentally sound adaptive efforts,” said another internal 
memo the following year. “Victory will be achieved when average citizens 
‘understand’ (recognize) uncertainties in climate science,” added one 
more in 1998.

Two years later, Exxon – styled by then as ExxonMobil after a 
multibillion-dollar merger – secured an advertorial in The New York 
Times as part of a media blitz to bolster climate denial. Under the 
headline “Unsettled Science”, it argued that scientists faced 
“fundamental gaps in knowledge”, despite the overwhelming and 
ever-increasing consensus that fossil fuels were causing the planet to heat.

*Humanity’s worst threat*
Against this decades-long backdrop of deception and denial, oil industry 
insiders will appear before the US Congress as some of the most powerful 
energy companies in the world face a reckoning for their role in 
creating – and attempting to cover up – the climate crisis.

Board members at BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell will be questioned 
under oath by a House panel on Tuesday. The aim is to illuminate the 
industry’s contribution to humanity’s worst existential threat – and 
how, at the same time, it spread disinformation to cast doubt over the 
catastrophic impact of burning its products.

Although the hearings cannot bring criminal prosecutions, experts see 
them as a crucial means of shifting public opinion. And that could spur 
consumers to shun carbon-based fuels and encourage investors to strip 
big polluters of capital, while empowering environmental activists and 
lawyers to take on powerful industrial interests.

“This could be a watershed moment,” said Richard J Rogers, executive 
director of Climate Counsel, a non-profit law firm specialising in 
environmental destruction and crimes against humanity. “This whole story 
is about the greed of a tiny number of men who were prepared to threaten 
the stability of their own, and our own, civilisation in order to get 
very rich.”

The stakes could not be higher. In the wake of the disappointing United 
Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), where crucial new targets 
were stymied by oil and coal-producing countries, current commitments to 
cut emissions put the world on track for a disastrous 2.4C increase in 
global temperatures by the end of this century.

That ruinous rise will cause major sea-level rise from melting ice 
sheets, devastating coastal cities and island nations. Ecosystems will 
collapse while storms, droughts, floods and wildfires increase in number 
and intensity, fueling famine, fighting, and the displacement of 
millions as equatorial regions become unliveable and unprecedented 
heatwaves lacerate northern latitudes.

And that’s if current pledges are even met. Every degree higher scales 
up the level of cataclysm. “We need an avalanche of action,” said UN 
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month.

ExxonMobil spokesperson Casey Norton told Al Jazeera the company has 
long acknowledged that climate change is real and poses serious risks.

“In addition to our substantial investments in next-generation 
technologies, ExxonMobil also advocates for responsible climate-related 
policies. Our public statements about climate change are, and have been, 
truthful, fact-based, transparent, and consistent with the views of the 
broader, mainstream scientific community at the time,” said Norton.

“ExxonMobil has contributed to the development of climate science for 
decades and has made its work publicly available. And as the scientific 
community’s understanding of climate change developed, ExxonMobil 
responded accordingly.”Interactive_ClimateChangeMay42021-01

*‘Setting the future on fire’*
This week’s high-profile hearings in Washington, DC will target board 
members who were elected to galvanise change at oil companies. It is the 
second part of an ongoing investigation by the House Committee on 
Oversight and Reform, the first of which saw leaders of the four major 
oil and gas corporations grilled by lawmakers last October.

“Some of us actually have to live the future that you are all setting on 
fire for us,” Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told them.

The congressional panel has issued subpoenas for company documents to 
expose what oil firms have known about the harm caused by fossil fuels – 
and how they failed to act.

The next appearances are scheduled amid an unprecedented wave of court 
cases across the US as communities nationwide sue oil companies, not 
only for causing but also exacerbating environmental destruction by 
suppressing warnings from their own scientists.

In an audacious bid to hold the industry to account, cities and states 
threatened by extreme weather and rising sea levels are demanding these 
powerful conglomerates overhaul their destructive operations and pay 
compensation to cover the cost of building defences or repairing the damage.

However, because much of environmental law is underdeveloped and rarely 
carries a criminal penalty, claimants have had to get creative.

 From Hawaii to California to Rhode Island, some have accused oil 
companies of creating a “public nuisance”. Deploying that legal term has 
proven successful elsewhere, for example in lawsuits against 
pharmaceutical companies that fuelled the US’s opioid epidemic with 
powerful prescription painkillers.

Others have sued on the basis of fraud. Blighted by blistering 
temperatures and devastating floods, Minnesota’s attorney general has 
accused ExxonMobil and others of breaching state law through false 
advertising and deceptive trade practices as part of a campaign to deny 
climate change.

The legacy of these lawsuits may depend less on the final rulings and 
more on damaging information that emerges in the process.

“If the plaintiffs are successful in forcing the secrets and conduct of 
the oil companies into the public eye, they will potentially create a 
tide of negative publicity that could permanently weaken these 
companies, similar to what happened with the tobacco industry,” said 
Daniel Farber, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

While oil giants enjoy vast resources to fund these legal battles, the 
tide of lawsuits poses a grave threat to the industry.

“Unless the oil companies can get these cases dismissed quickly, they 
will have the sword of Damocles hanging over them for years,” added 
Farber. “[They] cannot afford to lose.”

*Disregarding their own scientists*
A mounting body of evidence shows that scientists working for the fossil 
fuel industry knew about CO2’s warming effects as early as the 1950s. 
For example, a Shell executive called Charles Jones wrote a paper in 
1958 showing the industry was already concerned about levels of carbon 
emissions in car exhaust amid worries “the oil industry would continue 
to be blamed for the bulk of air pollution”.

In 1979, an Exxon study described the “dramatic environmental effects” 
caused by burning fossil fuels. Another study the following decade 
accurately predicted the trajectory of rising temperatures alongside 
increasing levels of atmospheric CO2, before that report was also buried.

Despite these clear warnings year after year, oil executives chose to 
disregard their own scientists, instead spinning a dangerous 
counternarrative. The disingenuous ploy of “greenwashing” also helped 
them create a false aura of environmental credibility that distracts 
from the dirty reality of burning and drilling for oil.

Whether cherry-picking facts or relying on fake experts, the techniques 
used by fossil fuel interests came straight out of the tobacco 
industry’s playbook for impeding controls on cigarettes, mimicking 
similar tactics of the asbestos and lead industries, too.

Billions of dollars have poured into political lobbying, whether to 
derail stricter legislation or to fund aggressive front organisations. 
Last July, damning footage emerged of a senior ExxonMobil lobbyist 
saying the energy giant had fought climate science through “shadow 
groups” and had targeted senators to weaken President Joe Biden’s 
climate agenda, all to maximise shareholder profit.

“There’s nothing illegal about that,” said Keith McCoy, the lobbyist. 
“We were looking out for our investments.”

*‘Flawed academic reports’*
Back on Capitol Hill, those due to appear at Tuesday’s hearing include 
two figures on ExxonMobil’s board: Alexander Karsner, a renewable energy 
proponent and a strategist at Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc who 
won a seat at the Texan crude colossus for an activist hedge fund; and 
Susan Avery, an atmospheric scientist and former president of the Woods 
Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Other board members scheduled to testify include Shell’s Jane Holl Lute, 
a UN special envoy; BP’s Melody Meyer, an oil industry veteran; and 
Chevron’s Enrique Hernandez, a lawyer and business executive who also 
runs a multinational security company.

Exxon’s spokesperson Norton said the company had handed over more than 
200,000 pages of documents, “including board materials and internal 
communications”.

ExxonMobil claims it is the victim of “a coordinated campaign 
perpetuated by activist groups”, and accuses their backers of releasing 
“flawed academic reports” and coordinating with public officials to 
launch investigations and litigation, creating “the false appearance 
that ExxonMobil has misrepresented its company research and investor 
disclosures on climate change to the public”.

BP, Chevron, and Shell did not reply to requests for comment.

Whatever testimony is given this week, one fact is certain – Big Oil’s 
cover-up of the climate crisis has brought Earth to the brink.

“With their power and resources, these companies could have changed the 
trajectory of our planet’s health,” said Rogers. “They simply needed to 
be honest.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/7/big-oil-board-members-face-hot-seat-over-climate-information

- -

/[ see the Exxon papers from 1977 - from ClimateFiles ]/
*1977 Exxon Memo About DOE Environmental Advisory Committee Subgroup 
Studying CO2 Effects*
https://www.climatefiles.com/exxonmobil/1977-exxon-memo-about-doe-environmental-advisory-committee-subgroup-studying-co2-effects/



[ soil examination  ]
*Understanding the nexus between soil degradation and Climate Change*
SIXDEGREES on 02/06/2022
DR. SANJEEV NARRAINEN
THE UN INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE 2019 REPORT REVEALED 
THAT OUR SOIL IS DEGRADING AT AN ALARMING RATE, WITH A SIGNIFICANT LOSS 
OF MACRO AND MICRO NUTRIENTS.
Contemporary societies live on a cultivated planet where agriculture 
covers approximately 38% of the land surface (Borrelli et al., 2020). 
Humans strongly depend on the capacity of soils to sustain agricultural 
production and livestock, which contributes more than 95% of global food 
production (FAO, 2015). Soil is the biggest terrestrial carbon sink 
(IUCN, 2015).
The world’s soils store more carbon that the planet’s biomass and 
atmosphere combined.

This includes soil organic carbon, which is essentially biodiversity, 
microbes, fungi, and invertebrates, as well as root matter and 
decomposing vegetation. Organic matter is one of the significant 
constituents of soils. It frames soil structure and stability, water and 
oxygen holding capacity, and nutrient storage, hence it furnishes a home 
ground for numerous soil micro fauna and flora. The microbes, insects 
and other organisms in soils are essential for soil health. 
Unfortunately, with changing climate, our soil conditions are changing. 
The combined effect of climate change and land mismanagement has 
resulted in an increasingly degraded soil. This leaves the soil with a 
reduced ability to support crops, livestock, and wildlife.

Soil degradation is essentially a reduction/ loss of the biological or 
economic productivity and complexity of land. Soil degradation 
encompasses change in the chemical, physical and biological properties 
of the soil. Such a change in soil properties alter and reduce the soil 
ability to sustain a peculiar quality and quantity of plant growth. Soil 
degradation manifests itself in many ways: land abandonment, extinction 
of species, loss of soil and soil health, reduction of rangelands and 
fresh water, and deforestation. The health of our soil is crucial to 
storing carbon. Soil condition facilitates many of the processes that 
affect climate from plant growth to carbon dioxide intake.

*Key facts and figures about Soil degradation*

Soil degradation through human activities is undermining the well-being 
of at least 3.2 billion people.
It encourages species extinction
By 2050, soil degradation and climate change will reduce crop yields by 
an average of 10% globally, and up to 50% in certain regions.
Soil degradation increases the number of people exposed to hazardous 
air, water and land pollution, particularly in developing countries.
Developing national strategies for soil conservation.
Sustainable land management can be accelerated through policy and 
financial instruments..
- -
In order to restore the soil quality, the following strategies would be 
helpful in halting and reversing the soil degradation: –

·      Encouraging Green Infrastructure development, reducing soil loss, 
remediation of contaminated land, and conservative agriculture.

·      Mainstreaming sustainable land management practices in national 
development and conservation planning.

·      Facilitating sustainable land management through policy and 
financial instruments

·      Promoting Awareness of importance of preserving soil’s health

·      Developing strategies to prevent biodiversity loss and help 
climate change mitigation and adaptation.
This is a wake-up call to avoid, reduce and reverse soil degradation 
while mitigation and adapting to climate change and halting biodiversity 
loss.
https://www.sixdegreesnews.org/archives/30931/understanding-the-nexus-between-soil-degradation-and-climate-change



/[ engaging commentator - zoning --  YouTube video 20 min ]/
*The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry | Climate Town (feat. Not Just Bikes)*
Feb 7, 2022
Climate Town (Rolly Williams)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfsCniN7Nsc



/[  data collection ] /
//*CoCoRaHS is an acronym for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and 
Snow Network*.  CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based 
network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to 
measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow).   By using low-cost 
measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an 
interactive Web-site, our aim is to provide the highest quality data for 
natural resource, education and research applications. We are now in all 
fifty states.
//
*CoCoRaHS's 20th Anniversary *
This year cocorahs celebrates its 20 year anniversary. This link is 
about the very beginning of the concept  and a question from a young 
High School student. Of course the growth of the interweb made it 
possible. CoCoRaHS has grown to become a critical component of the 
National weather service and ground proofing precipitation data to 
satellite data and about this history in this short inspiring article. I 
have been reporting for ~5 years. Wherever you live in the Nation you 
can/do benefit from this effort of ~20,000 daily reports.
Check out CoCorahs

https://cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=20years
https://cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=aboutus



/[The news archive - looking back]/

*On this day in the history of global warming February  8, 2011*

February 8, 2011: Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) releases a January 31, 2008 
letter from then-EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to President George 
W. Bush, urging Bush to finally take action on carbon pollution.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/bush-epa-recognized-global-warming-threat/ 


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