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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>May 25, 2021</b></font></i></p>
[follow the money]<br>
<b>ExxonMobil faces ‘winds of change’ as climate battle reaches
boardroom</b><br>
Activist shareholders will try to green a titan of the oil industry
in the most-watched proxy battle in years<br>
- -<br>
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.<br>
<br>
The agency said no new oil and gas projects would be necessary if
the world were to reduce emissions sufficiently to prevent global
overheating.<br>
<br>
“Long-term risk continues to grow, threatening the company’s
existing business model”, said Glass Lewis.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ft.com/content/1ce31524-3c21-4978-b6b8-2e6a13f50288">https://www.ft.com/content/1ce31524-3c21-4978-b6b8-2e6a13f50288</a><br>
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[yes]<br>
<b>Could America be Headed for Another Dust Bowl?</b><br>
Rising temperatures and worsening droughts raise the possibility,
scientists warn.<br>
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...<br>
- -<br>
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.”<br>
<br>
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...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/05/america-drought-climate-change-next-dust-bowl/">https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/05/america-drought-climate-change-next-dust-bowl/</a>
<p>- -</p>
[PNAS]<br>
<b>The extent of soil loss across the US Corn Belt</b><br>
View ORCID ProfileEvan A. Thaler, View ORCID ProfileIsaac J.
Larsen, and View ORCID ProfileQian Yu<br>
See all authors and affiliations<br>
<br>
PNAS February 23, 2021 118 (8) e1922375118;
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1922375118">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1922375118</a><br>
<b>Significance</b><br>
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.<br>
<br>
<b>Abstract</b><br>
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.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/8/e1922375118.short">https://www.pnas.org/content/118/8/e1922375118.short</a>
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[can it happen sooner with slave labor?]<br>
<b>China Carbon Neutral by 2060? Will their coal addiction kill the
plan?</b><br>
May 23, 2021<br>
Just Have a Think<br>
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?<br>
<br>
Video Transcripts available at our website<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.justhaveathink.com">http://www.justhaveathink.com</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Efc3_b0Mk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Efc3_b0Mk</a><br>
<br>
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[world traveling motorcyclist video talks fracking in South Africa]<br>
<b>Why did petroleum engineers come here?! [S5 - Eps. 32]</b><br>
May 24, 2021<br>
Itchy Boots<br>
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...<br>
<br>
Follow my journey on: <br>
INSTAGRAM: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.instagram.com/itchybootstravel/">https://www.instagram.com/itchybootstravel/</a><br>
FACEBOOK: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.facebook.com/itchyboots">https://www.facebook.com/itchyboots</a><br>
BLOG: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.itchyboots.com">https://www.itchyboots.com</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUClsZCLU9Y">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUClsZCLU9Y</a><br>
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<br>
[oh thank God for electrical engineers]<br>
<b>Pope Francis to get first electric popemobile from U.S. firm
Fisker</b><br>
Reuters<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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....<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/pope-francis-get-first-electric-popemobile-us-firm-fisker-2021-05-21/">https://www.reuters.com/technology/pope-francis-get-first-electric-popemobile-us-firm-fisker-2021-05-21/</a><br>
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</p>
[ice melts in warming airs]<br>
<b>Faster Greenland ice melt could be unstoppable</b><br>
May 24th, 2021, by Tim Radford<br>
<br>
A rapid thaw could destroy a whole ice sheet if the faster Greenland
ice melt scientists have found spreads across the island.<br>
<br>
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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
And what they saw was something alarming: evidence that surface
melting is beginning to accelerate. The conclusion, for now, is
tentative.<br>
<br>
“It’s high time we dramatically and substantially reduce greenhouse
gas emissions from burning fossil fuels”<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Extreme Arctic warming<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/faster-greenland-ice-melt-could-be-unstoppable/">https://climatenewsnetwork.net/faster-greenland-ice-melt-could-be-unstoppable/</a><br>
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</p>
<p>Yeah, well King Canute tried something similar over 1200 years
ago]<br>
<b>Bill Gates, Harvard University back solar geoengineering to
fight global warming. Aim: dim the Sun.</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/prime/environment/bill-gates-harvard-university-back-solar-geoengineering-to-fight-global-warming-aim-dim-the-sun-/primearticleshow/82842982.cms">https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/prime/environment/bill-gates-harvard-university-back-solar-geoengineering-to-fight-global-warming-aim-dim-the-sun-/primearticleshow/82842982.cms</a>
</p>
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[Propaganda]<br>
<b>Facebook fuels climate misinformation online, report finds</b><br>
Published on 21/05/2021<br>
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<br>
<br>
By Isabelle Gerretsen<br>
<br>
Facebook is fueling climate misinformation around the world,
allowing misleading claims and climate denial to circulate widely on
its platform, a new report claims. <br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
“Facebook is talking the talk but not walking the walk on climate
misinformation,” Sean Buchan, lead author of the report, told
Climate Home News. <br>
<br>
“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. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
“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. <br>
<br>
But Buchan said the centre does not do enough to prevent climate
misinformation slipping through.<br>
<br>
“It’s not sufficient right now. With Cop26 around the corner,
climate misinformation is going to be on the rise,” said Buchan...<br>
- -<br>
“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. <br>
<br>
“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. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/05/21/facebook-fuels-climate-misinformation-online-report-finds/">https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/05/21/facebook-fuels-climate-misinformation-online-report-finds/</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Information warfare]<br>
<b>The Dark World of Psychological Warfare | Secrets Of War |
Timeline</b>Nov 1, 2020<br>
Timeline - World History Documentaries<br>
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.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSqa3hE0z4g">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSqa3hE0z4g</a><br>
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<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming May
25, 2011 </b></font><br>
Former Delaware Republican Party official Michael Stafford, in a
column describing his growing recognition of the threat of climate
change, observes:<br>
<br>
"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.<br>
<br>
"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. <br>
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.<br>
<br>
"The rejection of proven science in favor of a form of ideologically
driven magical thinking by the GOP is extremely unfortunate, and
unnecessary."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://townsquaredelaware.com/2011/05/25/my-road-to-damascus-coming-to-terms-with-global-climate-change/">http://townsquaredelaware.com/2011/05/25/my-road-to-damascus-coming-to-terms-with-global-climate-change/</a><br>
<p>/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/</p>
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