<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p><i><font size="+1"><b>March 29, 2021</b></font></i> <br>
</p>
[DW news analysis - video 26 min]<br>
<b>Polar power play: Who will win the race for the Arctic's riches?
| To the Point</b><br>
Mar 19, 2021<br>
DW News<br>
Who does the Arctic belong to? The vast region was long seen as
little more than snow and ice.<br>
But now three world powers – Russia, China and the United States –
are leading the charge to take control of the immense natural
resources and new trade routes that are opening up, even as a
potential climate catastrophe takes hold. So, on To the Point, we
ask: "Who will win the race for the Arctic's riches?" <br>
Guests this week are Michael Paul (security expert), Stefan
Rahmstorf (climatologist), Irina Filatova (DW's Russian desk)<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvK6IstZs8M">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvK6IstZs8M</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Washington Post ]<br>
<b>Opinion: Global warming is endangering more than we think. We
must adjust.</b><br>
March 26, 2021<br>
<br>
THE WORLD’S climate depends on a global aquatic “conveyor belt”
system that snakes around the oceans, taking heat from some places
and redistributing it elsewhere. It is this system that keeps Europe
relatively warm despite its northern latitudes, underpins major
fisheries and drives key weather patterns across continents.<br>
<br>
Global warming may be endangering this crucial circulation.
Scientists are accumulating evidence that climate change is
disrupting a major section of the conveyor belt, running from the
tropics up to the North Atlantic and back south, slowing this piece
of the system to its weakest pace in more than 1,000 years,
according to a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. By
changing the atmosphere’s chemistry at a breakneck pace, humanity is
conducting a massive, unprecedented experiment on finely tuned
planetary systems, with consequences that range from predictable to
speculative, and what experts know about Earth history offers little
comfort for what awaits.<br>
<br>
A group of scientists from Britain, Germany and Ireland studying the
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation — that is, the
circulation pattern that warms the North Atlantic — have sought to
compare how it is behaving now with its recent past. Experts only
began directly measuring the pattern in 2004, so they looked for
clues in seafloor sediments and ocean temperature patterns, which
suggested how the currents behaved before. The clues present a
consistent picture: The circulation has weakened in a way that is
unprecedented in the past 1,000 years, said Niamh Cahill, a
statistician from Ireland’s Maynooth University.<br>
<br>
The scientists believe the ultimate cause is global warming. The
circulation occurs because warm tropical water cools and becomes
saltier as it travels north, which makes it denser. This dense water
eventually sinks to the bottom of the ocean, then travels south,
where it is once again heated in another part of the cycle. Higher
rainfall, lower amounts of sea ice and ice melting on the Greenland
ice sheet are adding far more fresh water than usual to the system,
making the water up north less salty and, thus, less dense and less
prone to sink, undermining the circulation. This may account for a
giant stretch of unusually cold water that has stubbornly persisted
near Greenland and for unusually high water temperatures on the U.S.
East Coast.<br>
<br>
The study’s authors warn that climate change may further destabilize
the Atlantic circulation over coming decades. The consequences are
hard to predict with precision, in part because warming air might
offset some of the cooling associated with slower circulation. But
previous research suggests that the last time the circulation was
severely destabilized, some 12,000 years ago, Europe was slammed
with bitter winters and, because of how the circulation interacts
with air, severe summer heat and droughts.<br>
<br>
Climate change is not some isolated change in the air temperature.
It encompasses sea-level rise, heavy storms, heat waves, droughts,
wildfires, acidifying oceans and disruptions in the sensitive
planetary rhythms on which human society developed. Scientists know
some things for sure — the planet will warm because of greenhouse
gas emissions, with a variety of negative results. But they have not
catalogued all the consequences. Some are only just coming clearly
into view, and some remain obscure. The longer we humans fail to
adjust our behavior, the worse the consequences are likely to be.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-warming-is-endangering-more-than-we-think-we-must-adjust/2021/03/26/1a963fc0-77cc-11eb-8115-9ad5e9c02117_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-warming-is-endangering-more-than-we-think-we-must-adjust/2021/03/26/1a963fc0-77cc-11eb-8115-9ad5e9c02117_story.html</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[serious statement ]<br>
<b>What Is Climate Feminism?</b><br>
Natural Resources Defense Council - Mar. 27, 2021 <br>
By Nicole Greenfield<br>
<br>
The climate crisis disproportionately impacts women—and women of
color in particular. This is why women must lead on its solutions.<br>
<br>
Last fall, two powerful hurricanes, Eta and Iota, slammed into
Central America within two weeks of each other, causing massive
flooding and landslides and affecting millions of people, primarily
in Honduras and Nicaragua. Thousands were uprooted from their homes,
and women, many with children in tow, suffered the greatest. The
events followed a disturbing but familiar trend: The United Nations
estimates that 80 percent of people displaced by climate change are
women. And it's not just storms that affect them; researchers in
India have found that droughts, too, hit women the hardest,
rendering them more vulnerable than men to income loss, food
insecurity, water scarcity, and related health complications.<br>
<br>
"The climate crisis is not gender neutral," says Katharine K.
Wilkinson, coeditor of the anthology All We Can Save: Truth,
Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, a book of essays and
poems written entirely by women contributors. "It grows out of a
patriarchal system that is also entangled with racism and white
supremacy and extractive capitalism. And the unequal impacts of
climate change are making it harder to achieve a gender-equal
world."<br>
<br>
In the face of this reality, the world needs to embrace a feminist
approach to tackling the climate crisis, she adds. That includes a
collective mission to shift who is leading the way on solutions to
the crisis, and what the approach will be.<br>
<br>
<b>A Multiplier of Injustice</b><br>
"The intersections of climate and justice and feminism include the
disproportionate impact of climate change and the entire climate
continuum on women," says Jacqueline Patterson, director of the
NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program. "We also add the
race lens, of course, and the additional risks that are unique to
BIPOC women and, most specifically, Black women."<br>
<br>
Climate change developed in an unjust world, and now it's
exacerbating the vulnerabilities and inequalities experienced by
women, particularly those who live in rural areas or the Global
South and those who are Black, Indigenous, or other people of color.
Patterson reflects on this injustice in the essay "At the
Intersections," which appears in the All We Can Save collection. She
opens with an anecdote about the first time she saw racism,
misogyny, and poverty collide with environmental issues as a Peace
Corps volunteer in her father's homeland of Jamaica. Later in her
career, as a human rights activist working internationally to combat
HIV/AIDS and gender injustice, Patterson learned the story of a
woman who left her native Cameroon because the crops in her
community had dried up, only to become a victim of rape and then to
contract HIV at the country's border. "These stories drew my tears,"
she writes. "There is a pandemic of devastating impacts at the
intersection between violence against women and climate change."<br>
<br>
These days in her environmental justice work with the NAACP,
Patterson is committed to ensuring that communities in "grindingly
desperate circumstances, communities that aren't even thought
about," like those without running water or electricity, for
example, aren't left out of the climate conversation. And that means
not just including them, but deliberately prioritizing them and
ensuring their voices are heard on all levels. She asks, "How do we
make sure we don't continue with the ills of the past in terms of
assuming the rising tide will lift all boats?"<br>
<br>
<b>“A Feminist Climate Renaissance”</b><br>
According to Wilkinson, these injustices of the climate crisis also
highlight a leadership crisis. What we truly need, she and All We
Can Save coeditor Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist,
write, is a "feminist climate renaissance." Without this, a just and
liveable future becomes impossible. "Research shows that women's
leadership and equal participation result in better outcomes for
climate policy, reducing emissions, and protecting land," Wilkinson
adds.<br>
<br>
Indeed, many of today's most influential climate leaders are women.
On the international stage, Christiana Figueres, as the head of the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, was the
architect of the historic 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which in its
preamble called out the need to empower women in climate decision
making. Celebrities like Jane Fonda have brought attention to the
climate crisis through civil disobedience and Fire Drill
Fridays—inspired, of course, by the activism of Swedish teenager
Greta Thunberg and the powerful Fridays for Future movement she
began. Female government officials are likewise leading on climate.
New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, recently declared a
climate change emergency and committed her country to going
carbon-neutral by 2025. Meanwhile in the United States,
representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the visionary behind the
Green New Deal, a plan for the country to move away from fossil
fuels and toward a clean-energy future. And over the past few years,
groups like the Sunrise Movement, led by Varshini Prakash, have done
critical work inserting the climate crisis into American public
discourse.<br>
<br>
Wilkinson and Johnson see four main characteristics shared by
leaders like these. First and foremost, they prioritize making
change over being in charge. "We need to get over ego, competition,
and control—all that patriarchal, supremacist, hierarchical stuff
that gets in the way, burns a lot of energy, and keeps us from
collaborating," Wilkinson says.<br>
<br>
Feminist climate leaders also tend to have a deep commitment to
justice and equality. Having emotional intelligence is necessary,
too. "This is the biggest challenge humanity has ever grappled with,
and we're not going to solve it from our prefrontal cortex alone,"
Wilkinson declares. "We need to come to this as whole human beings.
And that means the grief, the uncertainty, the rage, the anxiety,
but also the really ferocious love."<br>
<br>
Last, feminist climate leaders recognize that building community is
a prerequisite for building a better world. Community holds
incredible wisdom, while "individualism comes up short on good
ideas, and certainly on a sense of purpose and joy," Wilkinson says.
Nurturing that sense of community in the broad climate movement is
often a first step, especially when uniting allies from disparate
groups. As Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy founder Colette
Pichon Battle advises, before diverse groups of women can stand on
the front lines together, they must heal the relationships and
reconcile the unjust social dynamics that exist between their
various communities.<br>
<br>
The good news is that women are uniquely prepared to take on this
social and environmental healing work. "Women have had to develop a
coping and a nurturing set of skills in order to see the survival of
our families," Patterson says, adding that caring for a family under
the most dire of circumstances has been bred into the DNA of Black
women, who carry the trauma of slavery. "Women have just had to,"
she says.<br>
<br>
For her part, Wilkinson says that she sees evidence of the growth
and power of the feminist climate ecosystem every time she turns
around. Leaders in the youth climate justice movement embody these
characteristics, and increasing numbers of women are getting a seat
at the national table (including former NRDC president Gina
McCarthy, another All We Can Save contributor, who is now steering
domestic climate policy from the White House). "There are lots of
signs that this galloping herd is getting bigger and faster and
stronger. And that gives me a lot of courage," Wilkinson says.<br>
<br>
<b>Power and Joy</b><br>
For their nonprofit All We Can Save Project, Wilkinson and Johnson
have developed a 2030 vision for women leading on climate to hold
the power to create transformational change and experience deep joy
in their work. Their community-minded approach to solving the
climate crisis prioritizes the collective lifting of one another's
spirits and helps build momentum—both of which serve as an antidote
to the gloom that can sometimes consume the lone climate warrior.
"We're really into this idea of power and joy," Wilkinson explains.
"Power is what you need to make change happen. And joy is frankly
what you need to keep showing up every day."<br>
<br>
With climate feminists at the helm, more resources and investments
could be procured for the transformational climate work that
cisgender and trans women and nonbinary leaders are already
doing—developing solutions, researching and writing, doing community
organizing—often at night or on the weekends. These leaders and
their teams can also serve as examples and mentors for emerging
climate feminists of all genders and ages.<br>
<br>
And of course, men can be climate feminists too. "There's a really
important role for men, and I think it starts with listening,"
Wilkinson says. "And when we consider core approaches to climate
leadership, things like compassion, connection, creativity,
collaboration, care, a commitment to justice, all of that is open to
people of any gender." She notes that men in positions of
power—whether they control funding or platforms or lead an
institution—can be more intentional in helping to change the face of
climate leadership. They can extend invitations to more women and to
others from diverse backgrounds to bring forth ideas and lead
projects, or they can step back and let others make decisions and
set the vision.<br>
<br>
Such collaborative work is increasingly urgent. "Even now, at the
11th hour for climate action, so many people in power are denying,
blocking, and delaying, or putting forward hollow promises about
what they're going to do," says Wilkinson. "It's absolutely
devastating. But I do think the tide is turning. I think we will
win."<br>
<br>
She adds that Ireland's former and first female president Mary
Robinson sums up the situation perfectly with the tagline to her
Mothers of Invention podcast: "Climate change is a man-made
problem—with a feminist solution!"<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-climate-feminism">https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-climate-feminism</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Uh oh... could that be so?]<br>
<b>Climate Anxiety Is an Overwhelmingly White Phenomenon</b><br>
Is it really just code for white people wishing to hold onto their
way of life or to get “back to normal?”<br>
By Sarah Jaquette Ray on March 21, 2021<br>
People of color are disproportionately harmed by climate change, but
whites disproportionately fret publicly about it...<br>
The climate movement is ascendant, and it has become common to see
climate change as a social justice issue. Climate change and its
effects—pandemics, pollution, natural disasters—are not universally
or uniformly felt: the people and communities suffering most are
disproportionately Black, Indigenous and people of color. It is no
surprise then that U.S. surveys show that these are the communities
most concerned about climate change.<br>
<br>
One year ago, I published a book called A Field Guide to Climate
Anxiety. Since its publication, I have been struck by the fact that
those responding to the concept of climate anxiety are
overwhelmingly white. Indeed, these climate anxiety circles are even
whiter than the environmental circles I’ve been in for decades.
Today, a year into the pandemic, after the murder of George Floyd
and the protests that followed, and the attack on the U.S. Capitol,
I am deeply concerned about the racial implications of climate
anxiety. If people of color are more concerned about climate change
than white people, why is the interest in climate anxiety so white?
Is climate anxiety a form of white fragility or even racial anxiety?
Put another way, is climate anxiety just code for white people
wishing to hold onto their way of life or get “back to normal,” to
the comforts of their privilege?<br>
<br>
The white response to climate change is literally suffocating to
people of color. Climate anxiety can operate like white fragility,
sucking up all the oxygen in the room and devoting resources toward
appeasing the dominant group. As climate refugees are framed as a
climate security threat, will the climate-anxious recognize their
role in displacing people from around the globe? Will they be able
to see their own fates tied to the fates of the dispossessed? Or
will they hoard resources, limit the rights of the most affected and
seek to save only their own, deluded that this xenophobic strategy
will save them? How can we make sure that climate anxiety is
harnessed for climate justice?<br>
My book has connected me to a growing community focused on the
emotional dimensions of climate change. As writer Britt Wray puts
it, emotions like mourning, anger, dread and anxiety are “merely a
sign of our attachment to the world.” Paradoxically, though, anxiety
about environmental crisis can create apathy, inaction and burnout.
Anxiety may be a rational response to the world that climate models
predict, but it is unsustainable. <br>
And climate panic can be as dangerous as it is galvanizing. Dealing
with feelings of climate anxiety will require the existential tools
I provided in A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, but it will also
require careful attention to extremism and climate zealotry. We
can’t fight climate change with more racism. Climate anxiety must be
directed toward addressing the ways that racism manifests as
environmental trauma and vice versa—how environmentalism manifests
as racialized violence. We need to channel grief toward collective
liberation.<br>
<br>
The prospect of an unlivable future has always shaped the emotional
terrain for Black and brown people, whether that terrain is racism
or climate change. Climate change compounds existing structures of
injustice, and those structures exacerbate climate change.
Exhaustion, anger, hope—the effects of oppression and resistance are
not unique to this climate moment. What is unique is that people who
had been insulated from oppression are now waking up to the prospect
of their own unlivable future.<br>
<br>
It is a surprisingly short step from “chronic fear of environmental
doom,” as the American Psychological Association defines ecoanxiety,
to xenophobia and fascism. Racism is not an accidental byproduct of
environmentalism; it has been a constant reference point. As I wrote
about in my first book, The Ecological Other, early
environmentalists in the U.S. were anti-immigrant eugenicists whose
ideas were later adopted by Nazis to implement their “blood and
soil” ideology. In a recent, dramatic example, the gunman of the
2019 El Paso shooting was motivated by despair about the ecological
fate of the planet: “My whole life I have been preparing for a
future that currently doesn’t exist.” Intense emotions mobilize
people, but not always for the good of all life on this planet.<br>
<br>
<p>Today’s progressives espouse climate change as the “greatest
existential threat of our time,” a claim that ignores people who
have been experiencing existential threats for much longer.
Slavery, colonialism, ongoing police brutality—we can’t neglect
history to save the future.</p>
<b>RESILIENCE AND RELATION AS RESISTANCE</b><br>
I recently gave a college lecture about climate anxiety. One of the
students e-mailed me to say she was so distressed that she’d be
willing to submit to a green dictator if they would address climate
change. Young people know the stakes, but they are not learning how
to cope with the intensity of their dread. It would be tragic and
dangerous if this generation of climate advocates becomes willing to
sacrifice democracy and human rights in the name of climate change.<br>
<br>
Oppressed and marginalized people have developed traditions of
resilience out of necessity. Black, feminist and Indigenous leaders
have painstakingly cultivated resilience over the long arc of the
fight for justice. They know that protecting joy and hope is the
ultimate resistance to domination. Persistence is nonnegotiable when
your mental, physical and reproductive health are on the line.<br>
Instead of asking “What can I do to stop feeling so anxious?”, “What
can I do to save the planet?” and “What hope is there?”, people with
privilege can be asking “Who am I?” and “How am I connected to all
of this?” The answers reveal that we are deeply interconnected with
the well-being of others on this planet, and that there are
traditions of environmental stewardship that can be guides for where
we need to go from here.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-climate-anxiety/">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-climate-anxiety/</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
[the book]<br>
<b>A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a
Warming Planet </b><br>
by Sarah Jaquette Ray (Author) published April 21, 2020<br>
<blockquote>Gen Z's first "existential toolkit" for combating
eco-guilt and burnout while advocating for climate justice.<br>
A youth movement is reenergizing global environmental activism.
The “climate generation”—late millennials and iGen, or Generation
Z—is demanding that policy makers and government leaders take
immediate action to address the dire outcomes predicted by climate
science. Those inheriting our planet’s environmental problems
expect to encounter challenges, but they may not have the skills
to grapple with the feelings of powerlessness and despair that may
arise when they confront this seemingly intractable situation.<br>
<br>
Drawing on a decade of experience leading and teaching in college
environmental studies programs, Sarah Jaquette Ray has created an
“existential tool kit” for the climate generation. Combining
insights from psychology, sociology, social movements,
mindfulness, and the environmental humanities, Ray explains why
and how we need to let go of eco-guilt, resist burnout, and
cultivate resilience while advocating for climate justice. A Field
Guide to Climate Anxiety is the essential guidebook for the
climate generation—and perhaps the rest of us—as we confront the
greatest environmental threat of our time.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Climate-Anxiety-Warming/dp/0520343301/ref=sr_1_1_sspa">https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Climate-Anxiety-Warming/dp/0520343301/ref=sr_1_1_sspa</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Arctic travelers watch out]<br>
<b>As the Arctic warms, lightning strikes are more frequent -- even
near the North Pole</b><br>
By Allison Chinchar and Haley Brink, CNN Meteorologists<br>
March 28, 2021<br>
(CNN)The Arctic is not usually a hotbed for lightning -- the air is
simply not warm enough for thunderstorms to usually occur. But as
the Arctic warms at an alarming rate, that lightning frequency is
changing as well.<br>
<br>
In fact, Arctic lightning has tripled in just the last decade,
according to a new study, published this week in the Geophysical
Research Letters.<br>
The University of Washington study used data collected by its
network of lightning sensors, called the World Wide Lightning
Location Network (WWLLN), which has been tracking lightning strokes
globally since 2004. The data showed that above 65 degrees latitude
the number of lightning strikes has increased significantly from
2010 to 2020...<br>
While the study focused on areas inside the Arctic Circle --
northern portions of Canada, Alaska, Russia, Greenland and the
central Arctic Ocean -- not all of those areas had equal results.<br>
Lightning induced wildfires<br>
In the Arctic Circle there was an even greater increase in lightning
strikes in the Eastern Hemisphere, specifically over Siberia.<br>
This is likely because lightning is more likely to occur over
ice-free land than over oceans or over large ice sheets such as
Greenland or even Antarctica, explains Robert H. Holzworth, one of
the authors of the research letter and a professor of Earth and
Space Sciences at the University of Washington.<br>
"Thunderstorms occur when there is differential surface heating, so
an updraft-downdraft convection can occur," Holzworth says. "You
need a warm moist updraft to get a thunderstorm started, and that is
more likely to occur over ice free land than land covered with ice."<br>
This is concerning because an area in northern Russia has also seen
an uptick in wildfires in recent years. However, just because the
lightning count has increased doesn't mean it will always trigger
lightning induced wildfires.<br>
Both northern Siberia and Canada are covered in a thick forest of
trees, which are highly flammable. So the ingredients are already in
place to induce lightning-triggered wildfires. However just because
the lightning in the area has increased threefold does not mean that
wildfires have increased at this same rate.<br>
Conversely, there are also indirect impacts from the wildfires to
consider. Wildfires emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
that warm the planet.<br>
"In Arctic and boreal forest ecosystems, fires burn organic carbon
stored in the soils and hasten the melting of permafrost, which
release methane, another greenhouse gas, when thawed," according to
NASA.<br>
Additionally, wildfire smoke can travel hundreds of miles in the
atmosphere. It contains a number of pollutants including carbon
monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and solid
aerosol particles. So the potential for hazardous conditions is not
just for local populations but also for those further away.<br>
A warming climate likely to blame<br>
The Arctic has been warming more than twice as fast as the rest of
the planet. This warming in the Arctic tundra has led to more
thunderstorm development which has produced more electrical
discharge -- lightning.<br>
- -<br>
data displays -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210325181740-arctic-lightning-increase-bar-chart-uw-exlarge-169.jpg">https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210325181740-arctic-lightning-increase-bar-chart-uw-exlarge-169.jpg</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://ix.cnn.io/dailygraphics/graphics/20210326-arctic-lightning/static/media/ai2html-graphic-desktop.4339d65a.jpg">https://ix.cnn.io/dailygraphics/graphics/20210326-arctic-lightning/static/media/ai2html-graphic-desktop.4339d65a.jpg</a><br>
- -<br>
"The tundra in Siberia is melting, with mastodon tusks appearing,
etc., and this is indicative of the warming ground, giving new
opportunities for differential heating to show up, and thunderstorms
to grow over the Eastern Hemisphere Arctic more so than the Western
Arctic," Holzworth said.<br>
In August 2019, there was one particularly unique event in which
nearly 30 strikes were registered less than about 60 miles from the
North Pole. This was a "major convective event" and it was unique to
have lightning that close to the North Pole, according to the study.<br>
The image above shows that the fraction of global lightning has
increased by more than a factor of three during the summer. It
demonstrates the strong similarity between the fraction of strikes
and the three month average global summer temperature anomaly. So
while global temperatures may not be the entire cause for the
increased lightning strike count, there is certainly a connection.<br>
It is important to note that during the 11-year period studied there
was also an increase in the number of WWLLN data stations. While
this would naturally cause an increase in the number of strikes
observed, this alone could not fully explain the substantial
increase in lightning strikes across the Arctic.<br>
Zamira Rahim contributed to this story<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/28/weather/weather-lightning-arctic-climate/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/28/weather/weather-lightning-arctic-climate/index.html</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Beckwith video lecture]<br>
<b>Climate System Tipping Point Sequence: Amazon Rainforest Collapse
a Decent First Place Bet: 3 of 3</b><br>
Mar 28, 2021<br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
Please donate to <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://paulbeckwith.net">http://paulbeckwith.net</a> to support my research and
videos as I join the scientific dots on abrupt climate system
change.<br>
<br>
In my last few videos I chatted about how our terrestrial biosphere
sink is failing. Presently, land vegetation absorbs about 30% of
anthropogenic carbon emissions, but with BAU (Business-as-Usual)
this number is expected to halve by 2040. The terrestrial biosphere
will tip over from a net carbon sink to a net carbon source. CO2
concentrations in the atmosphere will skyrocket as we head there
within a mere two decades. The reason is that further warming
increases plant respiration while decreasing plant photosynthesis.
Sources dominate sinks. <br>
<br>
Of course the Amazon Rainforest is the largest swath of tropical
rainforest on the planet. This forest drives a partially
self-sustaining regional climate and hydrological system, whereby
falling rainwater is taken up by rainforest, a lot of the water is
put back into the atmosphere by evapotranspiration, and the cycle
repeats over and over again. Thus, water is distributed over the
entire rainforest, but if the cycle is cut off at the start then the
entire rainforest can suffer severe drought. Thus, with slightly
more warming from climate system change, we are at great risk of the
sudden complete collapse of the entire rainforest. <br>
<br>
In this video series (3 parts) I focus on the Amazon Rainforest. I
chat about a new scientific review paper called “Carbon and Beyond:
The Biogeochemistry of Climate in a Rapidly Changing Amazon”. Most
discussions of the Amazon Rainforest focus solely on carbon cycles
and storage. This is incomplete; they need to consider the overall
Amazon system, and also examine CH4, N2O, black carbon, biogenic
volatile organic compounds, aerosols, evapotranspiration, and albedo
changes. The dynamic responses of all of the above to localized
stresses (fires, land-use changes, extreme weather events) and to
global stresses (warming, drying, El Niño Southern Oscillation) must
be examined to get a more complete understanding of the Amazon
System. <br>
<br>
When the overall system is studied, it becomes quite clear that the
CH4 and N2O changes are large enough to offset, and even actually
exceed the carbon sink of the Amazon Rainforest. This is actually
terrible news for the vitality of our planetary ecosystems and human
societies.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyZZnrEdTdI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyZZnrEdTdI</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
March 29, 2009 </b></font><br>
<br>
December 29, 2009: Washington Post writer Ezra Klein excoriates
members of the US Senate who have developed cold feet about
addressing global warming:<br>
<blockquote>"Amidst all this, conservative Senate Democrats are
waving off the idea of serious action in 2010. But not because
they're opposed. Oh, heavens no! It's because of abstract concerns
over the political difficulties the problem presents. Sen. Kent
Conrad (D-N.D.), for instance, avers that 'climate change in an
election year has very poor prospects.' That's undoubtedly true,
though it is odd to say that the American system of governance can
only solve problems every other year. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) says
that 'we need to deal with the phenomena of global warming,' but
wants to wait until the economy is fixed.<br>
<br>
"Rather than commenting abstractly on the difficulty of doing
this, Conrad and Bayh and others could make it easier by saying
things like 'we simply have to do this, it's our moral obligation
as legislators,' and trying to persuade reporters to write stories
about how even moderates such as Conrad and Byah are determined to
do this. They could schedule meetings with other senators begging
them to take this seriously, leveraging the credibility and
goodwill built over decades in the Senate. They could spend money
on TV ads in their state, talking directly into the camera,
explaining to their constituents that they don't like having to
face this problem, but see no choice. That effort might fail --
probably will, in fact -- but it's got a better chance of success
than not trying. And this is, well, pretty important."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/climate_change_is_bad_but_the.html">http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/climate_change_is_bad_but_the.html</a>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/<br>
<br>
/Archive of Daily Global Warming News <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html"><https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html></a>
/<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote">https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote</a><br>
<br>
/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:subscribe@theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request"><mailto:subscribe@theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request></a>
to news digest./<br>
<br>
*** Privacy and Security:*This mailing is text-only. It does not
carry images or attachments which may originate from remote
servers. A text-only message can provide greater privacy to the
receiver and sender.<br>
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain must be used for
democratic and election purposes and cannot be used for commercial
purposes. Messages have no tracking software.<br>
To subscribe, email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:contact@theclimate.vote">contact@theclimate.vote</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:contact@theclimate.vote"><mailto:contact@theclimate.vote></a>
with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe, subject: unsubscribe<br>
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote">https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote</a><br>
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://TheClimate.Vote">http://TheClimate.Vote</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://TheClimate.Vote/"><http://TheClimate.Vote/></a>
delivering succinct information for citizens and responsible
governments of all levels. List membership is confidential and
records are scrupulously restricted to this mailing list.<br>
<br>
<br>
</body>
</html>