MandyMay

wdlindsy , 3 months ago to random

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

jalefkowit , 4 months ago to random

If you read letters or memoirs from the Southern side of the American Civil War, there's one aspect of living through that era that people bring up over and over again: the lack of coffee.

Coffee had established the hold over American taste buds that it still enjoys today by the mid-1800s. But when the Civil War broke out, the North imposed a naval blockade on the South that lasted the duration of the war, blocking imports of all kinds. Coffee, which doesn't grow anywhere in North America, quickly became scarce. Every bean that came in had to be smuggled past the frowning cannons of Union ships.

As you might imagine, coffee-addicted Southerners began to come off the hinges. They roasted and ground pretty much anything that didn't move, looking for a filler ingredient they could use to stretch out their extremely limited coffee supplies. While many fillers were tried -- acorns, okra, chickpeas -- most settled on the root of the chicory plant.

It's important to note here that I have never seen a contemporary account of drinking chicory coffee where the person reported enjoying it. It's always recounted as a disappointment -- a sacrifice the person is making because, hey, there's a war on. Once the war was over and real coffee could be imported again, Southerners dropped their chicory and never looked back.

Except, it turns out, in New Orleans, where they kept right on drinking it for the next 160 years. They still drink it today.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/chicory-coffee-mix-new-orleans-made-own-comes-180949950/

breadandcircuses , 5 months ago to random

Because Earth's oceans are so big and so deep, it takes an immense amount of heat to warm them even a few degrees. But that's what we have accomplished.

And — because the oceans are so big and so deep, the changes we are causing in them are essentially irreversible. We'll have to live, or die, with the consequences of our foolish behaviors.

---

“Astounding” ocean temperatures in 2023 supercharged “freak” weather around the world as the climate crisis continued to intensify, new data has revealed.

The oceans absorb 90% of the heat trapped by the carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, making it the clearest indicator of global heating. Record levels of heat were taken up by the oceans in 2023, scientists said, and the data showed that for the past decade the oceans have been hotter every year than the year before.

The heat also led to record levels of stratification in the oceans, where warm water ponding on the surface reduces the mixing with deeper waters. This cuts the amount of oxygen in the oceans, threatening marine life, and also reduces the amount of carbon dioxide and heat the seas can take up in the future.

---

FULL STORY -- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/11/ocean-warming-temperatures-2023-extreme-weather-data

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency