“nearly half the Amazon may reach a “tipping point” by 2050, when it will cease being a forest at all and transition into savannah and grassland. […] The whole system might collapse—the whole system in terms of hydrology, which is probably the most important role of the Amazon globally, its role in cooling the climate” 1/2
#ClimateDiary South Sudan closes schools in preparation for 45C heatwave
Authorities advise parents to keep children indoors during extreme heatwave, expected to last two weeks
Of course in countries like South Sudan hardly anyone has air conditioning. Remembering that article about cool school architecture in Burkina Faso - all this needed so much now.
Every day for the last 12 months, the world’s sea surface temperatures have broken records. Ocean scientists are growing increasingly concerned.
Anyone else finding the fact that 2023-24 ocean surface temperatures are so much higher than predicted by models (or explained by El Niño) a bit, well, worrying? It may be something completely different; or it may be climate change kicking in much harder and in ways not even understood yet.
#ClimateDiary It occurs to me that some of you might be interested in #RepeatPhotography and how it can be combined with #Ethnography and other research methods, and how this combination helps interrogate narratives of environmental change, including our own. If so, you might find this 2020 article by me interesting: “Partial Stories. Repeat Photography, Narratives and Environmental Change in Tanzania”
(thinking about methods myself today, hence post!) @academicchatter
#ClimateDiary Interesting and necessary to read about specific impacts of relentless rain on #UK farming in Farmers’ Weekly.
“Farmers who were unable to plant winter crops in the autumn had been banking on a decent dry spring to be able to plant those same fields with springs crops.
But the prospects of establishing spring crops are looking increasingly slim as fields are waterlogged and the soil structure is severely damaged by continuous wet weather.”
“In a drastic attempt to protect their beachfront homes, residents in Salisbury, Massachusetts, invested $500,000 in a sand dune to defend against encroaching tides. After being completed last week, the barrier made from 14,000 tons of sand lasted just 72 hours before it was completely washed away”
Opulence comes to Saint Petersburg. Every year we have a Grand Prix. City blocks get cordoned off by heavy concrete blocks to create a race track between high rise condominiums and lovely marinas. Super fast cars fill the air with a buzz (and a mix of CO2 and unburnt fuel)
But it also brings wealth to town. Obscene wealth. Take this yacht, for instance, docked right outside my office. It belongs to Roger (Richard? I don't know his first name) Penske. He probably boards it a few times each year; he almost certainly doesn't sail with it here. He probably comes by private jet, joining the crew of the ship with his obscenely rich and/or famous friends for the weekend.
The whole scene probably emits more Earth-warming emissions for this one weekend than you do in a year. But you probably pay more taxes, as a proportion of your income, to maintain our civilization despite Herculean efforts like Penske's to destroy it.
"Once a booming trade, Rockywold Deephaven Camps is one of the few places left in New England that harvests ice each winter. The camp was founded in 1897, and has since trained generations of workers on how to cut, haul, and store lake ice.
But as climate change warms New Hampshire’s winters, the harvest is facing new threats. "
@CelloMomOnCars Great article. There is a sign along the bike path that runs next to Lake Congamond in Southwick, MA. The sign marks the place where a thriving ice harvesting business once was. Reading that sign today, next to a lake that often doesn’t freeze enough to safely skate on, much less harvest ice, is like reading about life that existed on a different planet. #ClimateDiary
“In a bigger view [than the destruction of forest and pollution of water], this is a protest against the framing of ‘green’ capitalist growth systems. We are saying ‘Clean cars are a dirty lie’ – it’s not true that they will solve the problems of the climate crisis.”
"Kenner documented dozens of examples of the oil industry pressuring governments to hold back support for renewable energy, restrict funding for the development of clean technologies and weaken environmental rules that favoured their uptake."
#ClimateDiary “The UK spends less on low-carbon energy policy than any other major European economy, analysis has shown, despite evidence that such spending could lower household bills and increase economic growth more than the tax cuts the government has planned.”
Don’t forget we have the worst insulation in Euope = most room for improvement. But no.
Watching the #AmbaniWedding makes me so proud of our last month
On one hand, you have billionaires burning 1000 tons of carbon to fly into an airport granted "international status" to accommodate so many private jets, for a multi-day bash that will release even more CO2 into our atmosphere
On the other hand, Risham & I went up against centuries of tradition to have a one day #ClimateChange themed #ClimateWedding, winning friends&fam over to the cause
🥰 #ClimateDiary
“I cannot express how eerie it is to be collecting maple sap in early March and there not being any snow covering the forest floor. I’ve NEVER seen this before” (Ryan Katz-Rosene)
Reminded of Kimmerer on maple syrup in #BraidingSweetgrass. That “forever”practices are having to change is something to process in itself; but maybe change and adaptation are part of their foreverness. At any rate: people doing them are everywhere the most astute observers of #ClimateChange
#ClimateDiary Hope you enjoy these beautiful buildings and their stories in Burkina Faso as much as I did. These are the kinds of positive, healing stories I crave, I think we all crave so much at the moment amongst all the cruelty: beauty, simplicity, sustainability, justice, from the Global South. #FrugalAbundance
A power company that has received £6bn in UK green subsidies has kept burning wood from some of the world's most precious forests, the BBC has found.
The way #Drax and others can keep on burning wood because it counts as #RenewableaEnergy is just scandalous. We really must drop the language of #Renewable (a hangover from peak oil worries anyway) and go for #ZeroCarbon energy instead.
We got married in our home town of #Lahore last Sunday & decided to use the opportunity of our friends & family gathered under one smog-filled sky to raise awareness about the #ClimateCrisis & platform local climate activists.
Its going to take time to get our own snaps sorted, but heres a thread of the highlights with links to sites/socials:
1/3 Daughter sent me this photo today - a massive lake in Gildredge Park in #Eastbourne where there is normally just grass. I remembered that about a year ago the same happened and I did my very first #ClimateDiary post (before official launch). And then felt bad as I had been planning to write a #ClimateDiary blog to mark our one year anniversary, but assumed I had missed it by now; another one of my many unfinished, undone projects. BUT, i just checked:
What deep held flaw is built into the human psyche that we would prefer to consider the monstrous technologies of #geoengineering rather than cut any fossil fuel use?
#ClimateDiary thinking back to Rio’92 and the huge concern about #Amazon deforestation then. We need to recognise that here, along with most environmentalism since the 1990s, we have basically completely failed. By all measures, on all fronts, things are significantly worse now.
Seems like we are now rapidly approaching #TippingPoints on so many of these fronts at once - maybe we should call our time the #TippingPointCene? (Not serious. Terrible neologism).
"""
The European Commission is shelving plans to cut pesticide use and is taking the pressure off agriculture in its latest emissions recommendations, as farmers around Europe continue protests demanding higher prices for their products and an easing of EU environment rules.
Individual member states have also taken steps to appease angry farmers, with Germany watering down plans to cut diesel subsidies. Meanwhile, Paris is scrapping a planned diesel tax increase.
"""